Running certain Android apps on your desktop is nothing new with Bluestacks , but now you can get the whole dang OS running on your PC as a native application thanks to a little program called WindowsAndroid . More »
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You Can Run Android 4.0 in Its Entirety Right on Your PC
Last year, astronomers using the Russian International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) spied something intriguing just beyond the orbit of Jupiter: a cometary body so large, and with a trajectory that will bring it so close to the Sun, that it could potentially be visible from Earth in the middle of the day (not unlike Comet McNaught, pictured above, was in 2007), and outshine the Moon at night. More »
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“Once-in-a-century” ISON comet could be visible from Earth during the daytime
L3sPau1 writes “For five years, it hid in the weeds of networks used by Eastern European diplomats, government employees and scientific research organizations, stealing data and infecting more machines in an espionage campaign rivaling Flame and others of its ilk. The campaign, called Rocra or Red October by researchers at Kaspersky Lab, focused not only on workstations, but mobile devices and networking gear to gain a foothold inside strategic organizations. Once inside, attackers pivoted internally and stole everything from files on desktops, smartphones and FTP servers, to email databases using exploits developed in Chinese and Russian malware, Kaspersky researchers said.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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“Red October” Espionage Malware Campaign Uncovered
Books, who needs ’em? Libraries? Not anymore they don’t. The first public, bookless library is coming to San Antonio soon and, possibly, to a (dystopic?) future near you. More »
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San Antonio’s Launching the First Completely Bookless Public Library
On his blog, Bunnie Huang — legendary hardware hacker turned entrepreneur — has begun a four-part series explaining how to have electronics manufactured in south China. This post focuses on the BOM — the Bill of Materials — where “Every single assumption, down to the color of the soldermask, has to be spelled out unambiguously for a third party to faithfully reproduce a design.” Designers often think using abbreviated part numbers. A great example of this is the 7404. The venerable 7404 is a hex inverter, and has been in service for decades. Because of its ubiquity, the term “7404” can be used as a generic term for an inverter. However, when going to production, things like the package type, manufacturer and logic family must be specified. A complete part number might be 74VHCT04AMTC, which specifies an inverter made by Fairchild Semiconductor, from the “VHCT” series, in a TSSOP package, shipped in tubes. The extra characters are very important, because small variations can lead to big problems, such as quoting and ordering the wrong packaged device (and subsequently being stuck with a reel of unusable parts), or subtle reliability problems. In fact, I encountered a problem once due to a mistaken substitution of a “VHC” for the “VHCT” logic family part. This switched the input thresholds of the inverter from TTL to CMOS logic-compatible, and resulted in some units having an asymmetric response to input signals. Fortunately, I caught this problem before production ramped, avoiding a whole lot of potential rework or worse yet, returns. Here’s another example of how missing a couple of characters can cost thousands of dollars. A fully specified part number for the LM3670 switching regulator might be LM3670MFX-3.3/NOPB. Significantly, if the /NOPB is omitted, the part number is still valid and orderable – but for a version that uses leaded solder. This could be disastrous for products exporting to a region, such as the EU, that requires RoHS compliance (meaning lead-free, among other things). A more subtle issue is the “X” in the part number. Part numbers with an “X” come with 3,000 pieces to a reel, and ones lacking an “X” come in 1,000 pieces to a reel. While many factories will question the /NOPB omission (since factories typically assemble RoHS documentation as they purchase parts), they will rarely flag the reel quantity as an issue. However, you care about the reel quantity because if you only wanted 1,000 pieces, including the X in the part number means you’ll be paying for 2,000 extra pieces you don’t need. Or, if you’re doing a much larger production run and you omit the X, you could be paying a premium for shipping three times the volume of reels for the same purchase quantity. Either way, the factory will quote the part exactly as specified, and you could be missing out on a cost savings if you’re not paying attention to the reel quantities. The series comes out of Bunnie’s prep for a China tour he’s giving to some MIT Media Lab students later this month. The Factory Floor, Part 1 of 4: The Quotation (or, How to Make a BOM)
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HOWTO get stuff made in China
paysonwelch points out John McAfee’s latest blog post, which “details the complex spy network that he used to tap information from the highest echelons of the Belizean government. He might consider a new career as a movie producer — this blog post is enthralling. Here is an excerpt: ‘I purchased 75 cheap laptop computers and, with trusted help, intalled invisible keystroke logging software on all of them — the kind that calls home (to me) and disgorges the text files. I began giving these away as presents to select people — government employees, police officers, Cabinet Minister’s assistants, girlfriends of powerful men, boyfriends of powerful women.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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John McAfee Explains How He Milked Information From Belize’s Elite
This long-read from Bloomberg about China’s “Princelings” — the generation of hyper-rich oligarchs’ children, descended from Mao’s generals — is endlessly fascinating. Wealth in China is even more concentrated than Russia, Brazil or the USA, and the Chinese looter-class use complex screens that take advantage of different ways of representing their names in English, Cantonese and Mandarin to obscure the ownership of former state assets, flogged at pennies on the dollar in sweetheart deals for the hyper-privileged. The Princelings are western-educated, mostly in the USA, and flaunt expensive luxury-brand accessories on their social media profiles. The accompanying interactive graphic lets you explore the intertwining relationships between the families of the “eight immortals.” Opportunities for the princelings surged in the 1990s after Deng kick-started another wave of economic changes. They jumped into booming industries including commodities and real estate as new factories and expanding cities transformed China’s landscape. Two of Deng’s children — Deng Rong, 62, and her brother, Deng Zhifang — were among the first to enter real estate, even before new rules in 1998 commercialized the mainland’s mass housing market. Two years after Deng Rong accompanied her father on his famous 1992 tour of southern China to showcase the success of emerging export center Shenzhen, she was in Hong Kong to promote a new development she headed in Shenzhen. Some apartments in the 32-story complex were priced at about $240,000 each, according to a front-page story in the South China Morning Post. Corporate records show that by the late 1990s half of the company was owned by two people with the same names as Deng Rong’s sister-in-law, Liu Xiaoyuan, and the granddaughter of Wang Zhen, Wang Jingjing. Deng Rong and Deng Zhifang didn’t respond to questions sent by fax to their respective offices in Beijing. Liu couldn’t be reached for comment through one of the companies with which she’s associated. Wang Jingjing didn’t respond to questions couriered to her office in the Chinese capital and a reporter who visited on two occasions was told she wasn’t there. Heirs of Mao’s Comrades Rise as New Capitalist Nobility [Bloomberg News]
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China’s Princelings: descendants of Mao’s generals who control the country’s wealth
On its peak day this holiday shopping season, Amazon sold an astonishing 26.5 million items at a rate of 306 items per second. And the honor of being the “#1 best-selling, most gifted, and most wished for product” goes to Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD. The release is chock full of wins for Amazon but take a look at the below image: More »
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Amazon Sets Holiday Shopping Records Despite Making Half Of What It Made Last Year
The Taiwanese tech manufacturing giant, Foxconn Electronics, is rumored to be starting up manufacturing plants in the US next year, moving away from its long time “home” base of mainland China. More »
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Rumor: Hey Americans! Foxconn Is Apparently Building Factories In LA And Detroit
In August, mobile giants GLU Mobile bought Gamespy, which you may know as a gaming news site but which has mostly served lately as a multiplayer gaming hub for older titles. More »
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Tons of Classic PC Games Have Had Their Multiplayer Modes Silently Killed Off