NASA Beams “Hello, World!” Video from Space via Laser

Optical communication tools like OPALS use focused laser energy to reach data rates between 10 and 1,000 times higher than current space communications, which rely on radio portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Because the space station orbits Earth at 17,500 mph, transmitting data from the space station to Earth requires extremely precise targeting. The process can be equated to a person aiming a laser pointer at the end of a human hair 30 feet away and keeping it there while walking.

via NASA Beams “Hello, World!” Video from Space via Laser | NASA.

How MIT and Caltech’s coding breakthrough could accelerate mobile network speeds

An RLNC transmission can recover from errors with neither sender nor receiver retaining and updating transmission-state information and requesting lost packets to be retransmitted. This is because RLNC can recreate any packet lost on the receiving side from a later sequenced packet. In over-simplified terms, each RLNC encoded packet sent is encoded using the immediately earlier sequenced packet and randomly generated coefficients, using a linear algebra function. The combined packet length is no longer than either of the two packets from which it is composed. When a packet is lost, the missing packet can be mathematically derived from a later-sequenced packet that includes earlier-sequenced packets and the coefficients used to encode the packet.

Since the RLNC encoding sender doesn’t need to listen for acknowledgements of successful transmission and perhaps retransmit, the sender can continuously transmit at near-wire speed optimized for latency and network throughput.

via How MIT and Caltech’s coding breakthrough could accelerate mobile network speeds.

Update:  After posting this I remembered I had read about an algorithm recreating earlier lost packets from future packets.  So I clicked on the mit tag and on 10/25/2012 I posted this blurb:  A Bandwidth Breakthrough

… The technology transforms the way packets of data are sent. Instead of sending packets, it sends algebraic equations that describe series of packets. So if a packet goes missing, instead of asking the network to resend it, the receiving device can solve for the missing one itself. …

That must mean they’re still working on it.

Wi-Fi networks are wasting a gigabit—but multi-user beamforming will save the day

It’s hard to imagine a single smartphone or tablet needing to receive more than 433Mbps of data. But the fact that MU-MIMO-powered Wi-Fi will be able to serve more users simultaneously could bring huge benefits to large-scale wireless networks, like those in airports, convention centers, and sports stadiums. Real-world throughput will end up being something lower than 433Mbps to each user because of networking overhead and other limitations, but given that a high-definition Netflix stream is just 5Mbps, there isn’t much reason to worry about that yet.

via Wi-Fi networks are wasting a gigabit—but multi-user beamforming will save the day | Ars Technica.

The first 11ac products implemented single-user beamforming, sending one transmission to a single receiver. Multi-user beamforming, coming in the next wave of 11ac products this year and next year, enables MU-MIMO and its simultaneous transmission to multiple devices.

Glenn Greenwald: how the NSA tampers with US-made internet routers

But while American companies were being warned away from supposedly untrustworthy Chinese routers, foreign organisations would have been well advised to beware of American-made ones. A June 2010 report from the head of the NSA‘s Access and Target Development department is shockingly explicit. The NSA routinely receives – or intercepts – routers, servers, and other computer network devices being exported from the US before they are delivered to the international customers.

via Glenn Greenwald: how the NSA tampers with US-made internet routers | World news | The Guardian.

The oRouter Is A Tor-Powered Linux Box That Secures Your Internet Connection

As an end user, the process of using the oRouter is designed to be exceedingly simple. It’s zero configuration, meaning that you plug it in and then connect to the Wi-Fi network it provides. Unlike the Tor download, it requires no additional software in order to work. Once connected, as you browse the web and use online services, you’re actually using Tor (via Wi-Fi), thereby securing your communications from eavesdropping. In addition, for an extra layer of security, the oRouter’s MAC address (hardware address) changes every 10 minutes.

via The oRouter Is A Tor-Powered Linux Box That Secures Your Internet Connection | TechCrunch.

The beginners guide to breaking website security with nothing more than a Pineapple

What you’re looking at in the image above is a little device about the size of a cigarette packet running a piece of firmware known as “Jasager” (which over in Germany means “The Yes Man”) based on OpenWrt (think of it as Linux for embedded devices). Selling for only $100, it packs Wi-Fi capabilities, a USB jack, a couple of RJ45 Ethernet connectors and implements a kernal mode wireless feature known as “Karma”.

via Troy Hunt: The beginners guide to breaking website security with nothing more than a Pineapple.

But why on earth would a victim connect to the Pineapple in the first place?! Well firstly, we’ve become alarmingly accustomed to connecting to random wireless access points whilst we’re out and about. When the average person is at the airport waiting for a flight and sees an SSID named “Free Airport Wi-Fi”, what are they going to do? Assume it’s an attacker’s honeypot and stay away from it or believe that it’s free airport Wi-Fi and dive right in? Exactly.

An Adaptation From ‘Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt,’

The trouble with the stock market — with all of the public and private exchanges — was that they were fantastically gameable, and had been gamed: first by clever guys in small shops, and then by prop traders who moved inside the big Wall Street banks. That was the problem, Puz thought. From the point of view of the most sophisticated traders, the stock market wasn’t a mechanism for channeling capital to productive enterprise but a puzzle to be solved. “Investing shouldn’t be about gaming a system,” he says. “It should be about something else.”

via An Adaptation From ‘Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt,’ by Michael Lewis – NYTimes.com.

The same system that once gave us subprime-mortgage collateralized debt obligations no investor could possibly truly understand now gave us stock-market trades involving fractions of a penny that occurred at unsafe speeds using order types that no investor could possibly truly understand. That is why Brad Katsuyama’s desire to explain things so that others would understand was so seditious. He attacked the newly automated financial system at its core, where the money was made from its incomprehensibility.

Update:  For some highly technical information on High Frequency Trading I was pointed to this set of articles from ACM, Association of Computing Machinery.