Encrypted calls for Android
RedPhone provides end-to-end encryption for your calls, securing your conversations so that nobody can listen in.
Computer memory can be read with a flash of light
In 2009, researchers at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, demonstrated2 that the material has a photovoltaic response to visible light — meaning that when it is hit by light, a voltage is created. The size of the voltage depends on which polarization state the material is in, and can be read out using electrodes or transistors. Crucially, shining light on the material doesn’t change its polarization, and so does not erase the data stored in it.
via Computer memory can be read with a flash of light : Nature News & Comment.
It takes less than 10 nanoseconds to write to and read the cells, and recording the data requires about 3 volts. The leading nonvolatile RAM technology, flash, takes about 10,000 times longer to read and write, and needs 15 volts to record.
Data Center Owners Doubt SDN
While touring the facility, Tony Hiller, VP of engineering and operations at Peerless, admitted he was skeptical about the hype surrounding SDN and noted that, while Peerless was testing it, no operator was doing it yet at scale.
via Light Reading – Data Center Owners Doubt SDN.
The title might be a bit melodramatic.
VCs Get Their Pick Of Hungry Start-ups
But there is a dark side because VC’s often only make safe bets, backing companies which can show they have enough valuable intellectual property (IP) to reassure the funders that they can salvage a large part of their money through IP asset-stripping, if the business doesn’t thrive.
Perhaps the slogan for the session should have been: “No IP, no VC”.
University of Michigan study links social media and narcissism
The gist of the study: Narcissists “like” Facebook and Twitter. A lot. And social media in general both “reflect and amplify” our culture’s deepening narcissism.
The study, by University of Michigan researchers Elliot Panek, Yioryos Nardis and Sara Konrath, was published online in Computers in Human Behavior.
via University of Michigan study links social media and narcissism – chicagotribune.com.
Linux Group Tests
The original objective in starting the compilation was to dispel the FUD that Linux does not have the necessary software to compete with Windows. Over time, the aim of the compilation was to enable Linux users, whatever their level of computing experience, to identify software of all types that is worth exploring. With the huge range of open source software available, there is simply not enough time for users to evaluate every application even within a single category of software.
The compilation is being frequently updated and new articles added on a regular basis.
via Linux Group Tests – Part 1 – Linux Links – The Linux Portal Site.
Facebook’s first data center DRENCHED by ACTUAL CLOUD
Facebook’s first data center ran into problems of a distinctly ironic nature when a literal cloud formed in the IT room and started to rain on servers.
via Facebook’s first data center DRENCHED by ACTUAL CLOUD • The Register.
ZTE Boasts 400G Breakthrough
The Chinese vendor says it has “completed data signaling at speeds of 400 Gbit/s over a distance of more than 5,000 kilometers” using a WDM system with 100GHz channel spacing and a “unique frequency algorithm to overcome the issue of signal degradation,” which is significant in long-distance transmissions.
NSA Data-Scooping: A Coming Backlash in Europe?
Most European nations have long had stronger privacy laws than those in the United States. As a result U.S. Internet companies doing business there–incluiding Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and AOL–have signed on to so-called “safe harbor” principles, promising a European level of privacy protection. Now, of course, it appears they’ve also been providing gobs of data about some overseas customers to the U.S. National Security Agency (see “NSA Surveillance Reflects a Broader Interpretation of the Patriot Act”).
Among other fallout, it’s reasonable now to expect E.U. regulators and customers to go nuclear–and U.S. companies to face tough sledding ahead.
via NSA Data-Scooping: A Coming Backlash in Europe? | MIT Technology Review.
The birth of MMOs: World of Warcraft’s debt to MUD
Before there were the current generations of MMOs there were MUDs – multi-user dungeons or ‘dimensions’. And before there were MUDs there was MUD: A multi-player, text-based game running off a mainframe at Essex University.
MUD (known as MUD1 since the release of its successor, MUD2) used an interface similar to that of single player text adventure games and transplanted it to a multi-player realm where players could live virtual lives, solving puzzles, collecting treasure and killing fantastic creatures (and/or each other). The game launched in 1978, developed by Essex students Roy Trubshaw and, later, Richard Bartle.
via The birth of MMOs: World of Warcraft’s debt to MUD – games – Software – Techworld.