Electric Rockets Are Set to Transform Space Flight

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Charged Up: Electric Rockets Are Set to Transform Space Flight | Txchnologist.

NASA’s Dawn space probe, which is now exploring the asteroid Vesta, was among the first interplanetary craft to employ solar electric propulsion (SEP) for primary propulsion. But Dawn’s three electric engines are rated at only 2.3 kW each (3 horsepower), about the power of a small lawnmower engine, which means which means they had to produce their low thrust for years to build up the high velocity needed to travel to the distant asteroid in a reasonable time.

This tech is so cool.

Why corporate cloud storage doesn’t add up

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As IT continues in a zigzag path of figuring out what to do with this “cloud” stuff, it seems that some companies are getting ahead of themselves. In particular, the concept of outsourcing storage to a cloud provider puzzles me. I can see some benefits in other cloud services (though I still find the trust aspect difficult to reconcile), but full-on cloud storage offerings don’t make sense outside of some rare circumstances.

via Why corporate cloud storage doesn’t add up | Data Center – InfoWorld.

there’s already storage in the data center running the servers. That means there’s already a backup solution in place, and adding local file storage is trivial.

And one more interesting tidbit from the author of the linked to article.

Don’t forget that fast, reliable storage is very cheap these days. You can pick up 24TB of raw storage for less than $7,000, and even though they’re SATA drives, they’ll be more than sufficient for most general business purposes.

I kind of agree.  My worry is the reliability of the cloud provider.

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”

3GPP – About 3GPP

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3GPP – About 3GPP.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites [Six] telecommunications standards bodies, known as “Organizational Partners” and provides their members with a stable environment to produce the highly successful Reports and Specifications that define 3GPP technologies.

These technologies are constantly evolving through – what have become known as – Generations of commercial cellular / mobile systems. 3GPP was originally the standards partnership evolving GSM systems towards the 3rd Generation. However, since the completion of the first LTE and the Evolved Packet Core specifications, 3GPP has become the focal point for mobile systems beyond 3G.

OsmocomBB

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OsmocomBB.

OsmocomBB is an Free Software / Open Source GSM Baseband software implementation.

It intends to completely replace the need for a proprietary GSM baseband software, such as

  • drivers for the GSM analog and digital baseband (integrated and external) peripherals
  • the GSM phone-side protocol stack, from layer 1 up to layer 3

In short: By using OsmocomBB on a compatible phone, you are able to make and receive phone calls, send and receive SMS, etc. based on Free Software only.

Attackers have all they need from leaky cellphone networks to track you down

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The researchers demonstrated how easy it was to track down a cellular device within a 10-block area in Minneapolis using a T-Mobile G1 smartphone and open source technology. They never contacted the service provider to conduct the test.

via Attackers have all they need from leaky cellphone networks to track you down.

PDF can be had here.

Malicious backdoor in open-source messaging apps not spotted for 3 months

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For almost three months, versions of three widely distributed open-source applications from Horde.org contained a backdoor that allowed attackers to remotely execute malicious PHP code on systems that ran the programs.

via Malicious backdoor in open-source messaging apps not spotted for 3 months.

This is interesting…

“The impact through Linux distribution should be not so important,” Wednesday’s post went on to say. “Only users who have download the source code from FTP are mainly affected.”

Horde’s advisory said the releases were altered after unidentified hackers breached an FTP server used to distribute the installation packages.

Trend Micro Migrates Security Tool HijackThis to Open Source

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Trend Micro today announced that is has open sourced the code to its popular free security tool, HijackThis. The tool scans systems to find settings that may have been modified by spyware, malware or other programs that have wiggled their way onto a system and caused problems.

via Trend Micro Migrates Security Tool HijackThis to Open Source | SecurityWeek.Com.

“As new malicious code is released faster than ever before, the need for analyzing log data to identify new malicious code is more important than ever,” the company said in a statement. “Through this offer to the open source community, the product has the opportunity to develop and become an even better solution to quickly identify new malicious code.”

Download HijackThis.exe here. (sourceforge)

Official website here.