reprints – Page 69 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Adobe almost does something amazing by accident

It seemed like an intriguing deal. An old version of Adobe Creative Suite—the 2005 vintage CS2, to be precise—became freely downloadable from Adobe, with nothing more than a free-to-create Adobe ID required from users. Although basically useless for Mac users, as CS2 is only available for PowerPC, for Windows users this is a powerful, if not quite cutting edge, suite of graphics apps. This looked like a clever move from Adobe. Photoshop is widely held to be one of the most routinely pirated applications there is. In making an old but still servicable version of the software it appeared that Adobe was offering a good alternative to piracy: instead of using a knock-off copy of CS6, just use CS2. A free CS2 would also go some way toward starving alternative applications of oxygen. Given the choice between a free copy of CS2 and downloading, say, the GIMP, one imagines that many users would plump for the commercial application. It’s more of a known quantity, with a more polished user interface. And Photoshop is, frankly, the gold standard of bitmap image editing. Even an older version has a prestige that GIMP doesn’t. This is not to say that CS2 is necessarily superior to the GIMP; it may or may not be. It doesn’t really matter; Photoshop has a reputation and respect that the GIMP doesn’t have, and even if some might argue that it was undeserved, it influences the decisions users make. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Adobe almost does something amazing by accident

Satellite Internet: 15Mbps, no matter where you live in the US

billrdio America is a land of haves and have-nots when it comes to broadband Internet. While many of us enjoy downloads speeds of 50 or even 100 Mbps, 119 million Americans lack broadband access (defined as 4Mbps down and 1Mbps up). Out of those 119 million, 19 million live in areas where there is no option to buy a wired broadband connection, according to government data. Wouldn’t it be great if we could provide broadband speed to nearly every American, without costly construction projects to bring cables to the home? Apparently, we already can . At least that’s what providers of satellite broadband Internet services said today in a panel at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Latest-generation satellites operated by HughesNet and ViaSat offer 10 to 15 Mbps down and 1 to 3 Mbps up to nearly any home in the US, representatives of those companies said. They believe the industry simply suffers from an awareness problem. Previous-generation satellite products offered only a fraction of that speed, and even people who realize satellite is available to them may not know that the latest products are as fast as they are. Read 20 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Satellite Internet: 15Mbps, no matter where you live in the US

Lenovo talks up new 27-inch “table PC” at CES

Lenovo’s IdeaCentre Horizon 27 Lenovo Lenovo is just one of the many PC makers bringing new designs to CES this week. Many of these will simply be refreshed or refined versions of the first round of Windows 8 computers—either convertible laptops or more traditional desktops and laptops with integrated touchscreens—but a few particularly interesting designs may yet rise above that fray. One of these PCs is Lenovo’s IdeaCentre Horizon 27, a 27-inch all-in-one desktop PC with an integrated battery and 1080p ten-point touchscreen. Lenovo is marketing the device as a “table PC.” Sure, a kickstand can be unfolded to allow the computer to sit on a desk as would any all-in-one. But this PC can also be laid flat on a table for use by multiple people, or mounted on the pictured roller table for use while standing. (We’ve previously stated a touchscreen all-in-one makes the most sense ergonomically while positioned at about waist height on a standing person.) Enlarge / A roller table will change the Horizon into a standing workstation, when needed. Lenovo In concept the Horizon is quite similar to Sony’s Tap 20 , a smaller all-in-one that also included an integrated battery and foldable kickstand allowing it to be laid flat on a table. The Horizon’s larger size will mean more people can gather around it at once (and the roller table may make it more useful for people who prefer to stand at their desks), but the two machines are definitely cut from the same cloth. Like the Tap 20, multiplayer touch-enabled games figure heavily into Lenovo’s promotional material for the device. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Apple says Do Not Disturb scheduling is broken until January 8

After reports that iOS 6’s new Do Not Disturb feature stopped resetting according to schedule on New Year’s Day, Apple says scheduling won’t work until next Tuesday, January 8. The Do Not Disturb feature was added to iOS 6 in order to silence what might otherwise be distracting notifications, like those during a meeting or while sleeping. Users can manually turn Do Not Disturb on or off, or can set a scheduled time for Do Not Disturb to kick in automatically and then reset later. For instance, many users set Do Not Disturb to turn on around bedtime and reset the following day. However, users discovered on January 1 that Do Not Disturb did not automatically reset as scheduled. Furthermore, after manually resetting, it wouldn’t engage as scheduled that evening. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple says Do Not Disturb scheduling is broken until January 8

Earthworm guts become factory for nanoparticles

Enlarge / Meet the latest quantum dot assembly factory. Colorado State Quantum dots are nanoscale-sized pieces of semiconductor. Their small size ensures that quantum effects, like the Pauli exclusion principle, influence the behavior of electrons within them. This gives the dots properties that a bulk material with the same composition lacks, and it makes them appealing candidates for things like tiny lasers, photovoltaic materials, and LEDs. Another area where they’ve shown promise is medical imaging. In terms of absorbing and emitting light, quantum dots behave much like the fluorescent molecules we can use to label cells of interest. But, since their fluorescent properties depend on the shape of the particles rather than the chemical structure of a molecule, they are much less prone to undergoing reactions that destroy their fluorescence. The problem is that most semiconductors aren’t especially biocompatible, meaning additional chemical reactions need to be performed before the dots can attach to or enter cells. Some researchers have started to look towards making the dots in biological systems, figuring that the output would necessarily be biocompatible. After some successes with bacteria and yeast, they’ve moved on to a larger target: the earthworm. And it appears to work very well. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Earthworm guts become factory for nanoparticles

“Neuristor”: Memristors used to create a neuron-like behavior

A cartoon showing spikes of activity traveling among neurons. UC Berkeley Computing hardware is composed of a series of binary switches; they’re either on or off. The other piece of computational hardware we’re familiar with, the brain, doesn’t work anything like that. Rather than being on or off, individual neurons exhibit brief spikes of activity, and encode information in the pattern and timing of these spikes. The differences between the two have made it difficult to model neurons using computer hardware. In fact, the recent, successful generation of a flexible neural system required that each neuron be modeled separately in software in order to get the sort of spiking behavior real neurons display. But researchers may have figured out a way to create a chip that spikes. The people at HP labs who have been working on memristors have figured out a combination of memristors and capacitors that can create a spiking output pattern. Although these spikes appear to be more regular than the ones produced by actual neurons, it might be possible to create versions that are a bit more variable than this one. And, more significantly, it should be possible to fabricate them in large numbers, possibly right on a silicon chip. The key to making the devices is something called a Mott insulator. These are materials that would normally be able to conduct electricity, but are unable to because of interactions among their electrons. Critically, these interactions weaken with elevated temperatures. So, by heating a Mott insulator, it’s possible to turn it into a conductor. In the case of the material used here, NbO 2 , the heat is supplied by resistance itself. By applying a voltage to the NbO 2 in the device, it becomes a resistor, heats up, and, when it reaches a critical temperature, turns into a conductor, allowing current to flow through. But, given the chance to cool off, the device will return to its resistive state. Formally, this behavior is described as a memristor. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Anonymous sets sights on an old enemy—the Westboro Baptist Church

That link? It leads to a survey entitled, “Interactive Butthurt Report v. 2.0.” Nothing is beneath the Westboro Baptist Church, as evidenced by the group’s announcement to picket outside Sandy Hook Elementary School in wake of the recent tragedy. The group’s most recent, perhaps most deplorable decision has apparently irked one of its oldest enemies : infamous hacker collective Anonymous. In response to the WBC’s plans early today, Anonymous tweeted , “It’s so nice of #WBC to provide the internet with a list of their twitter handles…” Roughly one hour later, they revealed their plans for the WBC : “#WBC GodHatesFags Site Admin gets #DOX’d via: Anonymous.” DOX, of course, refers to the work Anonymous did to find and publish a list of WBC members complete with e-mails, phone numbers, and even home addresses—all for the adoring public to access. In addition to the DOXing, Anonymous has repeatedly promoted a whitehouse.org petition to have the WBC recognized legally as a hate-group . The petition was created on Friday and it has already doubled the required 25,000 signatures. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Using Windows 8’s “hidden” backup to clone and recover your whole PC

The blue screen of bringing your PC back to life. When it comes to backing up and restoring your PC, Windows 8 took a few steps forward and a few steps back. Your settings and apps in the new tablet-y interface (yeah, we’re still calling it Metro ) are automatically backed up if you use a Microsoft account. That means when you restore your PC, all of the Metro stuff comes back exactly the way you remember it. This has limitations—your desktop applications, anything that wasn’t downloaded from the Windows Store, are wiped when performing the most easily accessible type of restore in Windows 8. Beyond Metro, all you get is a file on your desktop listing the applications you’ve lost. There’s also a new backup tool on the desktop side of things, but this has its limits too. Called File History, it lets you automatically back up files to a network drive or cable-connected external hard drive every 10 minutes. As Peter Bright explained in an article last summer, File History’s arrival was paired with the exit of Shadow Copies. This was a useful tool that let users revert to previous versions of files without needing to connect an external drive, and now it’s gone. Read 20 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Using Windows 8’s “hidden” backup to clone and recover your whole PC

How to bring down mission-critical GPS networks with $2,500

Enlarge / The phase-coherent signal synthesizer with its top cover removed. The $2,500 device can be used to severely disrupt mission-critical GPS equipment used by the military and private industry. Nighswander et al. Scientists have devised a series of novel and inexpensive attacks that can severely disrupt mission-critical global positioning systems relied on by the military and a variety of industrial players, including airlines, mining companies, and operators of hydroelectric plants and other critical infrastructure. Unlike previous GPS attacks, the one developed by a team of scientists from Carnegie Mellon University and a private navigation company exploits software bugs in the underlying receivers. That allows the attacks to be stealthier and more persistent than earlier exploits, which primarily relied on signal jamming and spoofing. Prototype hardware that cost only $2,500 to build is able to cause a wide variety of GPS devices within a 30 mile radius to malfunction. Because many of those devices are nodes on special networks that make GPS signals more precise, the attacks have the effect of disrupting larger systems used in aviation, military, and critical infrastructure. The PCSS, or phase-coherent signal synthesizer, that they developed simultaneously receives and transmits civil GPS signals. It carries out many of the same things done by spoofers used in earlier GPS attacks. But instead of merely providing false information designed to compromise the accuracy of the GPS readings, it includes data that exploits weaknesses in the firmware of nearby receivers, many of which use the Internet to share their readings with other machines. The success of the PCSS is the result of an almost complete lack of authentication in the devices that send and receive GPS signals. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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How to bring down mission-critical GPS networks with $2,500

Seattle announces its own gigabit Internet service

This map only shows some parts of the city that Seattle Gigabit aims to serve. Gigabit Seattle One day after Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, proclaimed Google Fiber was ” not an experiment ,” the Emerald City decided that it too wants in on some of that sweet gigabit speed . On Thursday, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the city reached an agreement with Gigabit Squared and the University of Washington to bring 1 Gbps connections, taking advantage of the city’s own underused fiber. Seattle abandoned its plan for a municipal network last summer. A connected city wireless network, which would obviously be slower, is also in the works. “The plan will begin with a demonstration fiber project in twelve Seattle neighborhoods and includes wireless methods to deploy services more quickly to other areas,” the city wrote in an online statement . Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Seattle announces its own gigabit Internet service