Researchers can slip an undetectable trojan into Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs

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The attack against the Ivy Bridge processors sabotages random number generator (RNG) instructions Intel engineers added to the processor. The exploit works by severely reducing the amount of entropy the RNG normally uses, from 128 bits to 32 bits. The hack is similar to stacking a deck of cards during a game of Bridge. Keys generated with an altered chip would be so predictable an adversary could guess them with little time or effort required. The severely weakened RNG isn’t detected by any of the “Built-In Self-Tests” required for the P800-90 and FIPS 140-2 compliance certifications mandated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

via Researchers can slip an undetectable trojan into Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs | Ars Technica.

Brazil Looks to Break from U.S.-Centric Internet

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Most of Brazil’s global Internet traffic passes through the United States, so Rousseff’s government plans to lay underwater fiber optic cable directly to Europe and also link to all South American nations to create what it hopes will be a network free of U.S. eavesdropping.

via Brazil Looks to Break from U.S.-Centric Internet | TIME.com.

It cited a “common understanding” between Brazil and the European Union on data privacy, and said “negotiations are underway in South America for the deployment of land connections between all nations.” It said Brazil plans to boost investment in home-grown technology and buy only software and hardware that meet government data privacy specifications.

The Best of Open Source Software Awards

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via Bossies 2013: The Best of Open Source Software Awards | Open Source Software – InfoWorld.

Orbital Sciences Launch News

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Solar array deployment is complete for Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Cygnus spacecraft, now traveling 17,500 mph in Earth’s orbit to rendezvous with the International Space Station on Sunday, Sept. 22, for a demonstration resupply mission. The spacecraft will deliver about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including food and clothing, to the space station’s Expedition 37 crew, who will grapple and attach the capsule using the orbiting laboratory’s robotic arm.

via NASA – Orbital Sciences Launch News.

OSv, a new open-source operating system for virtual machines

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These days, most applications running on virtual machines in the cloud run on top of Linux. We all love Linux, but as an all-encompassing operating system for everything from phones to supercomputers, Linux was never really designed for virtual machines; It is big and complex, and it offers features (such as multi-user and multi-process) which are  today made redundant by the hypervisor and slow it down. Linux’s APIs are many times set in stone by decades of legacy code.  All these cost in application performance, and make it harder to innovate.

This is why we developed OSv, a new operating system designed to run a single application on a virtual machine. As it runs a single application there is no need for kernel-userspace isolation, reducing context switch costs and unnecessary copying. A design from scratch allowed us to experiment with new ideas like lock-free mutexes (solving the Lock-Holder Preemption problem that plagues operating systems on virtual machines), extremely fast context switches, Van Jacobson’s network channels (see http://www.lemis.com/grog/Documentation/vj/lca06vj.pdf), and more.   Also, OSv is released under the more permissive BSD license (not GPL like Linux), is tiny compared to Linux, and takes less than one second to boot and start the user’s application.

via Announce: OSv, a new open-source operating system for virtual machines.

Presentation slides can be seen here.

Most Innovative Carrier WiFi Deployment

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The WiFi deployment plays a dual role for Virgin Media Business, however. The company uses fiber backhaul connections to ensure the network’s performance, but also to lease to mobile operators that can use it to bolster their 3G and 4G networks. It’s a win-win for everyone: Residents get free WiFi, Virgin gets access to prime real estate for small cells, and the city gets a cut of the revenue it earns from the wireless operators.

via 2013 Leading Lights Finalists: Most Innovative Carrier WiFi Deployment | Light Reading.

UAV Provides Colorado Flooding Assistance Until FEMA Freaks Out

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Falcon UAV is a Colorado company that makes a fixed-wing UAV called a Falcon that uses GPS and cameras to autonomously generate among other things highly accurate maps of the ground. The UAV is hand-launched, with an endurance of about an hour, and generally operates between 300 and 1,500 feet above the ground. It has public safety flight approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration FAA to fly in some parts of Colorado. Basically, the point here is that we’re not talking about some random dude with a quadrotor flying around taking pictures: the Falcons are designed for and governmentally approved for mapping missions in public airspace.

via UAV Provides Colorado Flooding Assistance Until FEMA Freaks Out – IEEE Spectrum.

Why Your City Should Compete With Google’s Super-Speed Internet

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One of the biggest obstacles organizers are likely to face are laws discouraging or preventing governments from competing with private broadband providers. So far 19 states have passed such laws.

“It strikes me as crazy that some states are banning communities from building or expanding existing networks, even as we’re subsidizing private companies,” Mitchell said.

He says these laws actually end up preventing incumbent providers from expanding higher speed internet services in many areas, because they know their existing legacy services won’t face competition.

via Why Your City Should Compete With Google’s Super-Speed Internet | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com.

The Post-Lecture Classroom: How Will Students Fare?

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A three-year study examining student performance in a “flipped classroom” — a class in which students watch short lecture videos at home and work on activities during class time — has found statistically significant gains in student performance in “flipped” settings and significant student preference for “flipped” methods.

via The Post-Lecture Classroom: How Will Students Fare? – Robinson Meyer – The Atlantic.

“And with this,” she said, “you actually have to do reading or watch the [lecture modules], you actually have to prepare for the class.”