What Megaupload’s demise teaches about cloud storage

By
21 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Politics, Rights, Technology
991 views

Megaupload users are crying foul after their personal files, not necessarily copyright-infringing material, stored with the file-sharing service was seized on Thursday along with a trove of illegally distributed copyrighted works.

Some of those users took to Twitter complaining about the loss of their files, as first reported by TorrentFreak. I had files up there…gone forever..and they were personal recordings! No copyright infringement! said Twitter user J. Amir. Another user complained that her work files were now gone, and others used more colorful language to describe their predicament — via redwolf.newsvine.com

World’s longest lab experiment a lesson in persistence

By
20 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Science
694 views

No less than twice a week, Professor John Mainstone fields an inquiry from someone around the world about his pet project.

Provocatively, you could say that he has gained worldwide interest over an experiment that in some respects resembles watching grass grow.

But that would be selling the University of Queensland’s Pitch Drop Experiment very short.

The experiment, which features tar pitch slowly dripping through a funnel, began in 1930 as a way for the late Professor Thomas Parnell to prove the liquid nature of the material at room temperature.

Having dripped just nine drops in 81 years, it is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running experiment in the world.

Having won Professors Mainstone and Parnell a Ig Nobel Prize in 2005, it currently sits proudly in the lobby of the Physics Department, needing no special attention apart from being kept at room temperature — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Quantum computing could head to ‘the cloud’, study says

By
20 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Technology
601 views

A novel high-speed, high-security computing technology will be compatible with the cloud computing approach popular on the web, a study suggests.

Quantum computing will use the inherent uncertainties in quantum physics to carry out fast, complex computations.

A report in Science shows the trick can extend to cloud services such as Google Docs without loss of security.

This blind quantum computing can be carried out without a cloud computer ever knowing what the data is.

Quantum computing has been heralded as the most powerful potential successor to traditional, electronics-based computing — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Spam-squirting hole found in McAfee antivirus kit

By
20 January 2012
43 second read
Leave a comment
In Technology
837 views

McAfee is promising to patch a vulnerability in its hosted anti-malware service after it found a flaw that allowed systems where the product was installed to be turned into potential spam-relay nodes.

SaaS for Total Protection, the vulnerable software, will be patched on January 18 or 19, as soon as we have finished testing, McAfee promised in a blog post published on Wednesday — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Holographic storage’s corpse twitches

By
20 January 2012
49 second read
Leave a comment
In Technology
587 views

Failed holographic storage start-up InPhase is selling off its patents as Eugen Pavel’s Storex has developed 2nm optical lithography which could lead to a 100 exabyte optical disk.

At one end of the holographic storage spectrum we see a crumbling corpse, while at the other holographic gee-whizzery is talking about a disk with almost unimaginable capacity. It could store the data held in 25 million 4TB hard disk drives, they say — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Denmark’s Navy Dogsled Team Is Serious

By
19 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Wildlife, World
875 views

Sirius is an elite navy unit — perhaps comparable to our Navy SEALs — the only military dogsled unit of its kind in the world. It’s been around since World War II, and to this day remains one of the most competitive military positions: For each rotation, there are only six two-man units, with about a dozen dogs to each unit. And it really is just men. According to National Geographic, no women have applied yet.

Over the phone, Hoffmann explains that he was interested in the relationship between man and animal — how they seem to have a rhythm and understanding with survival at the core. But capturing that is no easy feat — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Dangerous abortions on the rise, says WHO

By
19 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Health, Rights
689 views

A rising proportion of abortions worldwide are putting women’s health at risk, researchers say.

The World Health Organisation study suggests global abortion rates are steady, at 28 per 1,000 women a year.

However, the proportion of the total carried out without trained clinical help rose from 44% in 1995 to 49% in 2008.

The Lancet, which carried the report, said the figures were deeply disturbing.

Unsafe abortion is one of the main contributors to maternal death worldwide, and refers to procedures outside hospitals, clinics and surgeries, or without qualified medical supervision.

Women are more vulnerable to dangerous infection or bleeding in these environment — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Swiss contract children speak out

By
19 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In History, Rights
806 views

A dark chapter of Swiss history is getting increased attention, with the release of a feature film about Verdingkinder or contract children and an exhibition about them which is touring the country.

A common feature of Swiss life until the mid-1950s, Verdingkinder were primarily children from poor families in the cities, forcibly removed from their parents by the authorities and sent to work on farms.

There, many of them were regularly beaten and even sexually abused. They had little education and consequently, as adults, little chance of making careers for themselves.

Many also found that the abuse experienced in their childhood made it difficult to establish relationships as adults — former Verdingkinder have high rates of divorce and many now live alone — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Cockroach Cyborgs Get Their Own Power Source

By
19 January 2012
49 second read
Leave a comment
In Science, Technology, Wildlife
631 views

Equipped with tiny sensors, insects could scout out buildings filled with noxious chemicals, check under rubble after an earthquake and go places no human spy ever could. In a first step toward making these technologically enhanced insects a reality, scientists have devised a way to power bug-robot hybrids by tapping into their own metabolism.

The secret: an implantable biofuel cell powered by a sugar the cockroaches make from their food — via redwolf.newsvine.com

SOPA: copyright industry threat to internet in Australia

By
19 January 2012
3 min read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment, Politics, Rights, Technology
693 views

What initially sounded like a somewhat gormless idea — blacking out websites to draw users’ attention to the Stop Online Piracy and Protect IP acts before US Congress — has turned out to be dramatic intervention in the battle against SOPA and PIPA.

In particular, Wikipedia blacking out (easily circumvented by turning off javascript, but that’s beyond a lot of users) appears to have acted as a mass distribution mechanism for information on the draconian bills. Plainly it’s not just journalists who rely on the crowd-sourced banalities of Wikipedia; tens of thousands of people took to Twitter to alternately complain, bitch and cheer the removal of what is evidently a key resource for most of the Anglophone world’s students.

Timing is everything, however: the blackout coincided with a tipping point against the bills, with the DNS provisions crashing and burning, the Obama administration rejecting the bill and even Congressional supporters sniffing the wind and backing away from them. Doubtless they’ll try again — they receive too much in the way of bribes donations from movie and music companies not too — but SOPA has suffered a remarkable turnaround in fortunes over the holiday break.

This has plainly made the copyright industry deeply unhappy. And the unhappiness has rippled all the way to Australia, with Dan Rosen, of one of the local branches of the copyright industry, ARIA, writing for The Australian today to attack piracy. Rosen was clever enough not to outright back SOPA, but he backed Rupert Murdoch’s bizarre, straight-out-wrong attack on Google last week, and lamented Google’s lax attitude to intellectual property rights and the need for a properly functioning market for content rather than chaos — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Silver Ink Solution For Cheaper, Faster Flexible Circuits

By
19 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Science, Technology
719 views

A silver ink for printing high-performance electrical circuits on flexible substrates has been developed by a team at the University of Illinois. Electronics printed on flexible substrates are gaining popularity with the rising desire for thinner electronic gadgets, wearable devices, and the nascent market for flexible screens.

The team was led by Jennifer Lewis, Hans Thurnauer professor of materials science and engineering, and Jennifer Bernhard, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. Lewis and graduate team member Brett Walker have published the work in the Journal of the American Chemical Society — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Deep Sea Vintage Chronograph / Jaeger-LeCoultre

By
19 January 2012
42 second read
Leave a comment
In Design
790 views

The new Jaeger-LeCoultre Deep Sea Chronograph, a vintage looking dive watch, follows in the footsteps of last year’s Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox Tribute to Deep Sea. A fixed bezel surrounds a classic black dial face, protected by a Plexiglas watch glass. The water resistance is only 100 meters, so this watch is more about the vintage style than dive watch performance — via Perpetuelle Watch Blog

Germany backs neo-Nazi database after far-right murders

By
19 January 2012
48 second read
Leave a comment
In Politics, Rights, Technology
785 views

German ministers have approved plans to establish a national register of far-right extremists, after revelations of 10 neo-Nazi murders since 2000.

It is thought there are almost 10,000 neo-Nazis in Germany and the database would include information held by all federal and state authorities.

Police and intelligence have been criticised for failing to detect the gang allegedly behind the murders.

The database proposal still has to be backed by the German parliament — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Another trans-Tasman link underway

By
19 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Technology
589 views

The ditch between Australia and New Zealand is getting a lot more hectic with moves for another trans-Tasman cable link underway.

Axin Limited and Huawei Marine have signed a survey agreement for the trans-Tasman Optikor Network.

This fresh trans-Tasman link, a rival to Southern Cross Cable Networks, is set to be completed by the end of 2013.

Another competitive cable cabal, Pacific Fibre, backed by Trade Me entrepreneur Sam Morgan, is also planning to enter the cable market and build a $US400 million between Auckland, Sydney and Los Angeles.

The Optikor 3,000 Km link is designed to provide a capacity of 120 Gbps with one fibre pair and will eventually provide 6.4 Tbit/s with two fibre pairs — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Housing Building in Carabanchel / Amann-Canovas-Maruri

By
19 January 2012
50 second read
Leave a comment
In Design
843 views

The proposal [Amann-Canovas-Maruri] is not built from the review of the traditional housing block but from the attributes of the slab of minimum width perforated with through holes.

This situation of minimum bandwidth allows an inner space of considerable size, a public space in the heart of the project, a space that is half open and connected to the whole sprawl, boldly assuming an ambiguous condition, exterior and interior at the same time — via ArchDaily

Previous 339 340 341342 343 Next