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Archive for the ‘Cloud Computing’ Category
Emerging Trends In Technology
Next-Generation Batteries
The newest developments show that using sodium, zinc, and aluminum constructed batteries make the mini-grid a solid possibility for providing 24-7, reliable and clean energy to entire small rural towns.
2-D Materials
New materials such as Graphene are emerging and are going to change the world forever. Think about the Bronze Age…the Iron Age—these newest materials each contain a single layer of atoms and are two-dimensional. The potential positive impacts of evolving materials are limitless and bound only to the reach of scientists and how far they choose to push.
Autonomous Transportation
Self-driving cars are already in the here-and-now, but just how soon will be helping to improve the lives of handicapped and elderly will change the quality of life for millions.
Personal AI
From your own personal robot assistant that can anticipate your every need and perform tasks at your whim, to entire AI environments—this could be affordable to everyone with the emerging availability of Open AI ecosystems.
Afrotech 17
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1000 Black techies, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs in 1 room for 2 days on the water in San Francisco? AfroTech, the largest black tech conference in Silicon Valley!
With two full days of the latest technologies and hottest startups, you will have a chance to learn from some of the best, and connect with fellow innovators.
FBI Alerts Parents On Toys With Cloud Backed Features
The FBI say, many toys sporting cloud-backed features such as speech recognition or online content hosting “could put the privacy and safety of children at risk due to the large amount of personal information that may be unwittingly disclosed.
“Security safeguards for these toys can be overlooked in the rush to market them and to make them easy to use,” the FBI warns. “Consumers should perform online research of these products for any known issues that have been identified by security researchers or in consumer reports.”
This comes after a number of kids’ toys were found to be indirectly spying on kids by collecting and storing data, including audio conversations and personal information, without parents’ knowledge.
Germany’s Federal Network Agency, or Bundesnetzagentur, has banned Genesis Toys’ Cayla doll as an illegal surveillance device.
Hackers @IOT Def Con Event Focus On Connected Devices
A new hacking event called DEF CON aims to drive improvement in so-called Internet of Things (IoT) devices, generally defined as traditionally analog devices that are now connected to the internet, by hacking them to discover security vulnerabilities. One of their goals is to solve the massive privacy and security issues that are introduced by connected devices. IoT Village runs August 6-9, 2015 at DEF CON 23, co-located between Paris and Bally’s casinos in Las Vegas. The village will be comprised of hacking contests, including capture the flag, zero-day discovery and sudden death. Organizers will also host multiple talk tracks, as well as workshops and other tutorials.The village organizers are a group of security researchers and consultants who also ran the first-ever router hacking contest at DEF CON, which delivered 15 new, previously unknown, critical vulnerabilities to the research community. The researchers plan to expand the scope to include not just routers, but all connected devices, ranging from thermostats to TVs, printers to video surveillance equipment, implanted medical devices to drug refrigeration equipment, and everything in between.
ISE was founded in 2005 out of the PhD program at the Johns Hopkins’ Information Security Institute, is a security consulting firm comprised of hackers, computer scientists, reverse engineers, and cryptographers who help companies defend against sophisticated adversaries by utilizing a perspective typically perpetrated by the adversary. ISE is widely recognized for being the first company to hack the iPhone, and more recently for the discovery of the vulnerability epidemic in wireless routers.
DEF CON started in 1993 and is one of the largest and oldest annual hacker conferences. The conference has a wide range of activities, including speeches, capture the flag, contests, lock picking, and official music events. Unique to DEF CON, are their research topics ranging from cryptography to lockpicking. There are currently only seven Villages, including the newest venue, IoT Village.
World’s Largest Electronics Show To Debut January 6-9 2015
The 2015 International CES, one of the world’s biggest electronics fairs will be held in Las Vegas January 6-9. The ‘Internet of Things’ is the hottest topic in tech right now. On view will be the newest and biggest television displays featuring “ultra high definition” that is catching on with consumers.So-called 4K television sets are coming down in price and becoming mainstream, and some reports suggest the show may feature newer, even more realistic “8K” displays.
Celebrity Phone Hacker “Original Guy” In Hiding
It appears that this happened back in 2012 Read here
Apple says it is investigating the violation of its iCloud accounts. Security experts said the hacking and theft of revealing pictures from the Apple iCloud accounts of a few celebrities might have been prevented if those affected had enabled two-factor authentication on their accounts. The two-factor authentication requires users to enter a numerical code that is sent to their phone or another device, in addition to using their regular password. Since the number constantly changes, it makes it much more difficult for attackers to gain access the account, even if they know the password. The attack might be linked to software on GitHub called iBrute that is capable of carrying out automated brute-force attacks against iCloud accounts. An attacker can simply guess a password again and again until they succeed. While tedious and time-consuming for a person, it’s a simple and infinitely faster process for a computer.
Paris Hilton was the target of a hacking attack back in 2005. Pictures and text messages from her smartphone were hacked from a cloud storage account. A group of young men were prosecuted over that incident and another attack against the database giant LexisNexis, and most of them served time in federal prison or juvenile detention. This is bad timing for Apple there having an event Set 9.
iCloud two step verification– not so simple
China expected have a new homegrown operating system by October to take on imported rivals such as Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Apple Inc, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.
Computer technology became an area of tension between China and the United States after a number of run-ins over cyber security. China is now looking to help its domestic industry catch up with imported systems such as Microsoft’s Windows and Google’s mobile operating system Android.
The operating system would first appear on desktop devices and later on to smartphone and other mobile devices, Xinhua said, citing Ni Guangnan who heads an official OS development alliance established in March.
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Ni’s comments were originally reported by the People’s Post and Telecommunications News, an official trade paper run by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
“We hope to launch a Chinese-made desktop operating system by October supporting app stores,” Ni told the trade paper. Some Chinese OS already existed, but there was a large gap between China’s technology and that of developed countries, he added.
He said he hoped domestically built software would be able to replace desktop operating systems within one to two years and mobile operating systems within three to five years.
In May, China banned government use of Windows 8, Microsoft’s latest operating system, a blow to the U.S. technology firm’s business which raised fears China was moving to protect domestic firms. Microsoft is also under investigation for anti-trust violations.
In March last year, China said that Google had too much control over China’s smartphone industry via its Android mobile operating system and has discriminated against some local firms.
Mutual suspicions between China and the United States over hacking have escalated over the past year following revelations by Edward Snowden that U.S. intelligence planted “backdoor” surveillance tools on U.S.-made hardware.
The U.S. Justice Department, meanwhile, indicted five Chinese military officers in May on counts of extensive industrial espionage.
Ni said the ban on Windows 8 was a big opportunity for the Chinese sector to push forward its own systems, but that the industry needed further development and investment
Hackers Steal Four & A Half Million Patient Records
A group of hackers stole records from a large American hospital. “The attacker was an ‘Advanced Persistent Threat’ who used highly sophisticated malware and technology to attack the company’s systems. The network, operates 206 hospitals across the United States. A forensic firm part of security company FireEye, believe that the attack stemmed from China. Patients who got their data stolen will be notified by Community Health Systems. However, it’s unclear who will be notified. There’s no federal data breach law that mandates notifications, just a patchwork of different state regulations The FBI confirmed to Reuters that it’s investigating the case
The New Rage GPS Tracking Of Employees
Wearable tech has been the rage this year, with a lot of companies emerging as players in the wearable space. Everything from activity monitors to wearable cameras to smart watches have popped into the Internet of Things (IoT) market, some making more impact than others.
Wearables in the workplace consist of employee monitoring, health and safety monitoring, and access control. Hitachi, for example, has already introduced what looks like an elaborate employee ID badge embedded with sensors that track who employees talk to — as well as where and how actively. “A manager can monitor who speaks up at meetings and who spends more time at the coffee machine than their desk,reported by Forbes. As more devices in the workplace become connected and have embedded sensors, then the work environment will become increasingly data rich.
The reason the devices around us will need to have embedded sensors is simple. We just don’t have the real estate on our body to wear a sensor to tell us everything we might want to know. Imagine going to a meeting with people who you not know. As you walk into the room, your smart watch triggers a sensor in the doorway, which now lets everyone in the room know you have arrived. As a portfolio about you flashes in front of their eyes, a quick introduction to each person in the room simultaneously scrolls inside your specially enabled eyeglasses.
Are Robots Taking The Jobs ?
They’re coming to your house, to your doctor’s office, to your car, and to your favorite eatery. By 2025, technologists believe artificial intelligence will permeate day-to-day life. obviously. Robots are going to take some human jobs. Machines have been displacing humans this way for centuries. What’s less clear is whether the overall economic and employment picture for humans will be bleaker or brighter as a result. On one hand, giving robots some human jobs will free up humans to focus on things that only we can do. Then again, while some highly-skilled workers will thrive in this robot-filled future, many, many others are likely to be forced into lower-paying jobs at best—”or permanent unemployment at worst. Experts are evenly split on what this will mean for society. About 48 percent of them said they believe robots will have displaced “significant” number of blue-collar and white-collar workers in the next 10 years, which will widen the income gap, exacerbate unemployment, and make life generally worse for a lot of people. But 52 percent of those surveyed predict that robots won’t displace more jobs than they create by 2025. While many existing jobs will be turned over to the machines, this cohort says, “human ingenuity will create new jobs, industries, and ways to make a living, just as it has been doing since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.”
HP’s IOT State Of The Union Study
It appears that two thirds of Internet of Things can be hacked. HP when using IOT devices found 70% of the most commonly used of these gadgets contain serious vulnerabilities.
Companies Are Displaying Their Data Through Art
As companies hired Data Scientists, large tech companies such as Microsoft and Google are bringing in the data artists from museums and galleries and putting them to work with developing new visualizations that can help explain their message, promote company awareness, and help out with the marketing efforts.
Tech Summer Camps Booming In Popularity
Tech summer camps are growing in popularity particularly around the Pacific Northwest.
iD Tech Camp is holding several summer tech camps at the University of Washington.Video games are very popular. At iD Tech Camps, kids ages 7-to-17 are learning how to code, program, and develop video games and apps. They also get hands-on training in Photoshop, web design and popular robotics classes.
Camp counselors are trying to get young people trained in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. iD Tech Camp points says more than one million jobs in STEM fields are expected to go unfilled by 2020. Yet, 9-out-of-10 high schools don’t offer computer science classes. Computer Science is a field where the females are outnumbered by males. Still at the tech camps there are more boys than girls.
Major tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn released their workforce diversity figures this week after much pressure. According to USA TODAY, males outnumbered female staff by an average of 70% to 30%. The majority of workers were white followed by Asian.
Twitter’s Figures & Stats
Twitter’s diversity figures, by ethnicity. Graphic via Twitter.
Healthcare Technology & Privacy Issues
Fitness devices , health monitoring applications and advancements in social media and mobile device technology provide new opportunities for health care providers, but also raise some pertinent privacy issues. According to a report from the California HealthCare Foundation by health economist and consultant Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, proliferation of extremely large databases of health information challenge regulators’ and society’s ability to ensure individuals’ data rights and privacy. For example, while personal health information held by health care providers and insurers is protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), many other sources of consumer data are not covered and can be disclosed to third parties. The report notes user-generated data that could be used in health profiling are held by gyms, Websites, banks, credit card companies, cosmetic medicine groups, fitness clubs, home testing labs, massage therapists, nutrition counselors, alternative medicine practitioners, disease advocacy groups, and marketers of non-prescription health products and foods. – The report warns data shared on a social networking site can become a “digital tattoo” for a consumer, which is impossible to remove.
Tools are being developed such as the Personal Data Locker for consumers to control their user-generated data. Former chief medical officer of Practice Fusion, Dr. Robert Rowley, is developing FlowHealth, a communication platform for care teams and patients, facilitating transitions of care, and aggregating patient-centered data from the sources where it is found. –
A report earlier this year from Accenture revealed that the vast majority of U.S. patients want to control their health data; however,(55 percent) believe they do not have very much—or any—control over their medical information. –
Robotics & Healthcare
Last year, scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore developed a creepy-crawly device inspired by the maggot that zaps tumours with electricity and sucks up the debris.
The finger-like prototype has multiple joints allowing it to move in several directions. The project was funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.
Scientists in Singapore created a tiny robot which can access a person’s stomach via the throat to cut up tumors using miniature claws.One robotic arm holds the tumour while the other slices away.
Engineers across the globe are racing to design the lightest, most autonomous robotic exoskeleton, not only to restore movement to disabled people but also to boost the strength and endurance of those who carry heavy cargo or walk very far, like soldiers or rescue workers.
Strapped to the lower body, such devices are powered by motors that take some of the strain off the muscles — similar to the brain-controlled suit that helped a paraplegic kick a football at the World Cup opening ceremony.
Several prototypes have been developed, but many battle to meet the key challenge of compact, long-lasting, carry-on power supply.
The Internet Of Things: A New & Upcoming Trend
According to industry research firm IDC, the IoT market is expected to hit $7.1 trillion by 2020,” said John Maddison, vice president of marketing at Fortinet.
Completed in June 2014, the survey asked 1,801 tech-savvy homeowners questions relating to the Internet of Things as it pertains to the connected home. These were the top findings:
The Connected Home is a reality – A majority (61 percent) of all respondents believe that the connected home (a home in which household appliances and home electronics are seamlessly connected to the Internet) is “extremely likely” to become a reality in the next five years. China led the world in this category with more than 84 percent affirming support.
- In the U.S., 61 percent said that the connected home is extremely likely to happen in the next five years.
Homeowners are concerned about data breaches – A majority of all respondents voiced their concern that a connected appliance could result in a data breach or exposure of sensitive, personal information. Globally, 69 percent said that they were either “extremely concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about this issue.
- Sixty-eight percent of U.S. respondents said that they were “extremely concerned” or “somewhat concerned.”
Privacy and trust are concerns – When asked about the privacy of collected data, a majority of global respondents stated, “privacy is important to me, and I do not trust how this type of data may be used.” India led the world with this response at 63 percent.
- Fifty-seven percent in the U.S. agreed with this statement.
- Data privacy is an extremely sensitive issue – Respondents were also asked how they would feel if a connected home device was secretly or anonymously collecting information about them and sharing it with others. Most (62 percent) answered “completely violated and extremely angry to the point where I would take action.” The strongest responses came from South Africa, Malaysia and the United States.
Silicon Valley Startups Flocking To Dublin
Silicon Valley companies are flocking to Dublin, as their gateway to European and global success. Business writer Heather Somerville on the website http://www.contracostatimes.com reports; the start-ups don’t qualify for the tax breaks available to multi-nationals simply because they only apply to profits.
Start-ups are following Apple, Intel, Google and Facebook to Europe because it makes good business sense. Somerville reports that these startups are setting up their first overseas offices in the hope that the booming tech city of Dublin will become their launchpad to global success. San Francisco data software start-up New Relic have just made the commitment to Ireland. Chief marketing officer Patrick Moran says “It feels a little bit like a mini-San Francisco. All of our startup friends are there.”
New Relic opened a Dublin office in February and plans to hire about 50 employees at their first office outside the US.Chris Cook, president and chief operating officer at New Relic, added: “Dublin is the launching point for our European strategy and an essential part of our global expansion plans.”
Fellow San Francisco-based companies like Airbnb, cloud software company Zendesk and file storage and sharing startup Dropbox are also new to Dublin.
Yelp and Survey Money have announced plans to open a 100-person Dublin office.
Mark Harris is chief financial officer of Malwarebytes, an anti-virus software company in San Jose is expected to open in Ireland next year.
The Giant Techs Fight Against Global Search Warrants
Microsoft, Google, Apple and other tech companies in the US have been fighting a battle against internet surveillance. Earlier this year, Microsoft was forced to comply with a search warrant for a user’s email account stored in Ireland. The Manhattan magistrate judge ruled that the government could obtain data stored in the cloud in servers outside the US. In that case, This despite the fact that the US courts have no jurisdiction over data stored in Ireland or indeed any other country. The government maintains that in Microsoft’s case the warrant served as a way for the company to search within its database and reveal the relevant results. This could allow US law enforcement access to all cloud data stored anywhere in the world.
Tech companies, especially those banking heavily on cloud-based infrastructure have seen cause for alarm. Sharing of user data to the US law enforcement may not be in line with the local law where the server is located. So companies are wary of having to break the law, to help maintain the law. This puts them in a precarious position, in terms of the public opinion and in the eyes of the law too. The United States is setting a precedent for other nations. They could legitimately obtain user data stored in US cloud servers by forcing companies to do the same for them. And that would be in conflicting to US law. Google has rolled out End-to-End an encryption tool that would act as a Chrome add-on to make sure your browsing session within G0ogle’s servers is not even accessible by the company, and outside eyes.
Library of The Year
Edmonton Public Library (EPL) of Alberta, Canada has been chosen, the 2014 Library of the Year by Library Journal magazine and Gale, part of Cengage Learning. Each year, this prestigious recognition goes to a public library that most profoundly demonstrates service to community, creativity, leadership and innovation in developing community programs. EPL serves one of Canada’s fastest growing cities through its 17 branches operated by more than 600 employees who last year answered nearly 2.5 million questions and facilitated 5.2 million library visits (with another 4.7 million visits via their website). Every three seconds someone is borrowing from EPL. Their social media popularity – with 20,000 Twitter followers and 9,000 Facebook fans – leads almost all North American urban libraries.
EPL lacks the stereotypical image of library as a book repository and serves as a center of civic engagement. Community librarians at each branch integrate deeply with local institutions such as school districts, health centers and outreach groups in order to understand needs, eliminate barriers, and inform services and policies. their makerspace – is a location dedicated to creating with technology such as 3D printers, game development software, a sound and recording studio and more. New branches have been designed or redesigned to focus on open space, collaboration, and sustainability, and a focus on lifelong learning, including online learning, helps ensure the success of individuals as well as the community.
Cengage Learning is a leading educational content, technology and services company, that empowers educators and driving learner engagement through personalized services and course-driven digital solutions that bridge from the library to the classroom. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world’s information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet.
Library Journal was founded in 1876, Library Journal is one of the oldest and most respected publications covering the library field. Over 75,000 library directors, administrators, and staff in public, academic, and special libraries read LJ. Library Journal reviews over 8000 books, audiobooks, videos, databases, and web sites annually, and provides coverage of technology, management, policy, and other professional concerns.
The Legislative Explorer Data & Visualization
Legislative Explorer is an interactive visualization site, where you can explore actual patterns of lawmaking in Congress, compare bills and resolutions introduced by Senators and Representatives. Follow their progress from the beginning to the end of a two year Congress. You can filter by topic, type of legislation, chamber, party, member, or even search for a specific bill.
Wearable Technology & Cyber Risks
Wearable technology is gaining prominence in this. however, when connecting to the internet we should be careful with the risk and implications wearing these devices.
Fitness bands that monitor and capture information about our movement using GPS can provide a malicious user with details about our daily routines and patterns as well as our current location.
Moreover, there’s the question of what the security implications of connecting these kinds of devices to the corporate infrastructure will be. For the IT team that is already defending their organisations from ever more sophisticated cyber criminals, wearable technology is just another attack vector that needs addressing. As an extension of BYOD, businesses should already have information and network-security policies in place, to cover many of the concerns applicable to wearable technology. Although most IT departments already have guidelines that address such issues as workplace social networking, safe computing and BYOD usage, wearable technology raises several questions for the further development of these standards.
The Word Through The Grapevine
The word in the grapevine- Google product strategist Scott Jenson stormed out of a conference in San Francisco Tuesday, 30 minutes before he was scheduled to deliver a keynote address—a week after inviting himself onto the program via Twitter.
“He told a woman working at the registration desk of the IoT Expo. “I am Google, I do not speak to small groups.” He then walked out. The IoT Expo was an event devoted to the concept of the Internet of Things. Analysts believe that the Internet of Things will grow to become a multi-trillion-dollar market in the future. Google recently entered the Internet of Things market in grand style by acquiring Nest, the maker of networked thermostats and smoke alarms, for $3.2 billion in January.
Trends & Revolutionizing Healthcare
Smartphones-Smartphones will continue to improve data access for the medical staff, which will improve healthcare. Today, information can be obtained anytime and anywhere, resulting in quicker medical decisions. New medical apps are transforming the smartphone into a medical device with the ability to send relevant patient data to the electronic medical record (EMR).
Wi-Fi
At many hospitals the wireless LAN (WLAN) now connects more devices than the wired LAN. It started with workstations on wheels (WoWs) and now encompasses medical devices, phones, video units, realtime locating systems (RTLS), and guest Internet access. Wi-Fi availability is the norm as we geer towards a digital space with mobile adoption.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
Smartphones + hospital Wi-Fi = the need for a BYOD policy and mobile device management. BYOD has greatly influenced how technology solutions are evaluated and implemented by hospital IT. The consumer market is now driving corporate adoption. The days of the rigid corporate standard for hardware are gone, as a result of cloud infrastructure that is capable of supporting a range of devices dictated by the consumer. Thanks to BYOD, the medical staff can choose a device that they are familiar with, reducing costs and training requirements.
Government Mandates
Mandates like HITECH, HIPAA, and ICD 10 have forced healthcare institutions to invest heavily in IT infrastructure, talent, and application systems. These regulatory changes are moving us towards transparency and integration. The goal is to drive the widespread adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) to improve heathcare quality, safety, and efficiency; and reduce health disparities and costs.
Voice over IP (VoIP)
The emergence of VOIP has allowed healthcare institutions to leverage a single IT infrastructure backbone for both data and voice traffic. More importantly, it has created a unified communication flexibility that started with mobility and has now evolved into applications. Anyone can be contacted anywhere at any time from any device. This means that the medical staffs are available 24×7.
Social
Social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, provides a platform that is transforming healthcare. Hospitals can now reach out to staff, patients, younger audiences, and the general public in new ways. Not only does it improve patient engagement, but it provides a means to manage population health.
Mobile Health (mHealth)
With the increasing focus on decreasing healthcare costs, mHealth provides a spectrum of ways to leverage mobility to improve clinical work flows and outcomes. These range from video remote interpretation, to telemedicine and remote care use cases. The next step will be adoption of wearable technologies.
We are in a mobile world and with mHealth, medical professionals have the ability to make clinical decisions based on telemedicine technology and wearables. mHealth allows access to medical care from anywhere anytime. Rural areas can be provided with the same quality of care as the metropolitan population. With wearable devices and sensors individuals will be able to monitor their health the same way we monitor our cars, to stay on schedule with regular maintenance. This is a big step that offers individuals the benefits of personal big data.
Big Data
Data is everywhere and the challenge is to use that data to make meaningful decisions and provide better care. Imagine using wearables to track fitness, vitals, sleep patterns, etc. Personal big data helps individuals understand their health to make lifestyle improvements and live healthier lives.
Operation Clandestine Fox
Over the weekend, Microsoft admitted to a huge vulnerability in Internet Explorer that allows hackers to set up malicious websites in order to gain complete access to visitors’ PC, provided they visited the page with a IE (version 6 and up). There on, hackers can install apps, break into other accounts and generally use the computer as their own.
The flaw has been dubbed “Operation Clandestine Fox” by security firm FireEye — the best thing to do at this time is to stop using Internet Explorer until Microsoft patches it. Other browsers, such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, don’t have the problem, and you can export your bookmarks and other settings to those browsers very easily.
Europe’s Online Games For The Unemployed
NEW YORK — Amsterdam wants to create an online game to get unemployed young people engaged in finding jobs across Europe. The cities are among 21 finalists vying for millions of euros in a new government-innovation contest was devised by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, his foundation announced Wednesday. The finalists come from 11 European countries and include sprawling capitals and modest-sized cities, their climates and cultures as different as those of Stockholm, Sweden, and Barcelona, Spain.
Asked for projects that could solve major social or economic problems or make government more effective, the cities “stepped up with bold and creative ideas,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
After the finalists hone their proposals, winners of a 5 million euro — nearly $7 million — grand prize and four 1 million euro awards will be announced in the fall.
Modeled on a competition that Bloomberg Philanthropies held for U.S. cities last year, the European contest was open to cities of 100,000 or more residents and drew 155 entries.
Several European finalists looked to improve residents’ lives with technology: auditory alerts to help blind people get around Warsaw, Poland; new systems for Londoners to monitor their health; and methods for making energy out of the heat thrown off by Madrid’s underground infrastructure, for example.
Other proposals are more interpersonal. Barcelona aims to make aging less lonely through social networking the old-fashioned way: identifying a team of relatives, friends, social workers and volunteers for each elderly person. Sofia, Bulgaria, suggests dispatching “mobile art units” where local residents could lend a hand to rejuvenating underused public spaces. Kirklees, in England, imagines getting citizens to pool resources ranging from cars to unused space to untapped expertise.
The Welsh city of Cardiff intends to help residents take small steps to be more productive, the Dutch capital of the Hague is proposing to let citizens choose how part of their taxes will be spent, and Stockholm wants to get people producing biochar, an organic, charcoal-like material that can improve soil quality and purify water, among other environmental benefits.
Google Technology & Captcha
Different CAPTCHA services will differentiate humans and bots in different ways. For example, distorting and skewing a series of letters making them too difficult for automated programmes to decipher, but not so difficult for humans to figure them out. Researchers have found that Google’s Street View technology can decipher them with 99 percent accuracy. A company that Google bought in 2009, reCAPTCHA, takes a different approach that not only provides the security of a CAPTCHA form, but actually serves another purpose. reCAPTCHA is used to digitize old printed materials such as books. It presents the user with two words that could not initially be read by computers – one that has previously been verified by a number of users and one that has not. It can simultaneously determine if a user is human and partially verify a new word.
With CAPTCHAs, it’s understandable that individuals with malicious intent may want to crack them. Google does its own research into this so that it can improve the security of the reCAPTCHA service. As part of its research, it has applied the technology it uses for identifying house numbers in Street View to identifying CAPTCHA words.
The research found that the technology could “decipher the hardest distorted text puzzles from reCAPTCHA with over 99 percent accuracy.”As a result, Google suggests that answering a distorted image puzzle should not be the only factor used to distinguish a human from a machine.
Broadcasters Sue Over Infringement of Copyright
Broadcasters that own U.S. television networks are in a a legal fight, against a startup business that uses Internet-based technology to give subscribers the ability to watch programs anywhere they can take portable devices. Broadcasters including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS have sued Aereo for copyright infringement, saying Aereo should pay for redistributing the programming the same way cable and satellite systems do. Aereo Inc., which takes free television signals from the airwaves and sends them over the Internet to paying subscribers in 11 cities. Aereo, backed by billionaire Barry Diller, has plans to more than double that total.
Aereo has a data center in Brooklyn, NY with thousands of dime-size antennas. When a subscriber wants to watch a show live or record it, the company temporarily assigns him an antenna and transmits the program over the Internet to the subscriber’s laptop, tablet, smartphone or other device.
The antenna is only used by one subscriber at a time, and Aereo says that’s much like the situation at home, where a viewer uses a personal antenna to watch over-the-air broadcasts for free. The broadcasters and their backers argue that Aereo’s competitive advantage lies not in its product, but in avoiding paying for it.
The Heartbleed Bug
Several websites running SSL encryption, such as Airbnb, Pinterest, USMagazine.com, NASA, and Creative Commons, among others, were exposed to a major security bug called Heartbleed on Monday. A member of Google’s security team and a software security firm called Codenomicon discovered the bug. A list on GitHub, exposed sites vulnerable to the bug as well.
The bug affects web servers running Apache and Nginx software, and it has the potential to expose private information users enter into websites, applications, web email and even instant messages.
The Heartbleed bug has the ability to allow malicious operators to defeat this security layer and capture passwords as well as forge authentication cookies and obtain other private information.
The bug has affected many popular websites and services such as Gmail and Facebook .
A security patch for the bug was announced on Monday, but many websites are still playing catch up.
Dropbox & Microsoft Office: Project Harmony
Users of select Microsoft Office applications will soon be able to work simultaneously on the same documents with Dropbox.
Dropbox unveiled ‘Project Harmony’, a feature which mimicks the collaboration abilities of Google Docs, and brings Dropbox-powered editing and collaboration tools to software applications, starting with three Microsoft Office products.
Project Harmony will allow Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word users to work at the same time on the same documents, converse with the other document editors, and keep copies in sync.
Within Harmony, once Dropbox files sync, the company’s trademark green tick appears within the application (PowerPoint etc) to notify the user a document has been uploaded.
Google, Apple Wage Fixing Trial Slated For may 27, 2014
United States District Judge Lucy Koh has denied the final attempt by Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe to have the class action lawsuit involving the “Techtopus” hiring collusion scandal tossed out. Each of the defendants in the landmark class-action wage-theft lawsuit — Apple, Adobe, Google, and Intel — had their own team of lawyers in attendance. The three defendants who had already settled — Pixar, Intuit and LucasFilm — also brought their legal team to the hearing. The lawyers representing each firm acted both independently and jointly.Before wrapping up the hearing, Judge Koh asked a handful of questions to the attorneys. The first question,Why did the plaintiffs choose to sue only the seven firms—Apple, Adobe, Google, Intel, Intuit, LucasFilm and Pixar— when internal Google and Apple documents show that the wage-theft cartel included dozens more companies?
Hackers Forcing ATMs To Spew Out Cash
Just By Texting
There is a calling for businesses and home users to upgrade their Windows XP systems. there is a new technique surfacing in Mexico whereby hackers are able to tap into ATMs by texting.
ATMs are computers that control access to cash, and about 95 percent of them run on versions of Windows XP. Windows XP is slated end April 8, 2014 and the banking industry is facing a serious risk of cyberattacks aimed at their ATM fleet. Hackers are targeting ATMs with increasingly sophisticated techniques.
ATM malware in Mexico, allowed hackers at ATMs to spew cash on demand using an external keyboard. That threat was named Backdoor.Ploutus. Some weeks later, it was discovered that a new variant which showed that the malware had evolved into a modular architecture. The new variant was also localized into the English language, suggesting that the malware author was expanding their franchise to other countries. The new variant was identified as Backdoor.Ploutus.B. The variant of Ploutus allowed hackers to send an SMS to the compromised ATM, then walk up and collect the dispensed cash. This technique is being used in a number of places across the world at this time.
Modern ATMs have enhanced security features, such as encrypted hard-drives, which can prevent these types of installation techniques. However, for older ATMs still running on Windows XP, protecting against these types of attacks is more challenging, especially when the ATMs are already deployed in all sorts of remote locations. Another difficulty that needs to be addressed is the physical security of the computer inside the ATMs. While the ATM’s money is locked inside a safe, the computer generally is not. Without adequate physical security for these older ATMs, the attacker has the upper hand.
Ways to make it difficult for hackers include
- Upgrading to a supported operating system such as Windows 7 or 8
- Providing adequate physical protection and considering CCTV monitoring for the ATM
- Locking down the BIOS to prevent booting from unauthorized media, such as CD ROMs or USB sticks
- Using full disk encryption to help prevent disk tampering
- Using a system lock down solution such as Symantec Data Center Security: Server Advanced (previously known as Critical System Protection)
ER Doctors,Clinicians, Google Glass, QR Codes , & BYOD
A tech-savvy hospital in Boston developed a custom information-retrieval system for Google Glass, allowing ER Doctors to scan a QR code on the wall of each room to call up information about patients. When a clinician walks into an emergency department room, he or she looks at a bar code (a QR or Quick Response code) placed on the wall. Google Glass quickly recognizes the room and then the ED Dashboard sends information about the patient in that room to the glasses, appearing in the clinician’s field of vision. The clinician can speak with the patient, examine the patient, and perform procedures while seeing problems, vital signs, lab results and other data.
BYOD medicine
Physicians aren’t waiting for their central IT departments, they’re finding their own ways to get access to the information they need, when they need it. One of the most visible signs of change is the adoption of the iPad and other mobile devices by physicians. The iPad has become an essential tool for clinicians. Last October, the Department of Veterans Affairs moved to open up its network so that doctors could use their own mobile devices. While other health systems have been slow to officially adopt the iPad and other devices, John Kornak, Director of Telehealth at the University of Maryland Medical Center says, “A BYOD (bring your own device) mentality is starting to take shape among physicians, and more mobile apps are starting to find their way into use.”
There is a strong push from doctors to find mobile apps that make it easier and more seamless for them to connect to health data such as charts and radiology images.
One of the most obvious applications for the high-resolution screen of the latest iPad is displaying medical imagery. By pulling up images from CT scans and MRI scans on their iPads, Hopkins’ Dr. Fishman says surgeons now use the iPad to explain procedures to patients more effectively. “Doctors can look at their cases in real-time. Now clinicians can look at the information generated as it’s created. They can pull down CT slices in 2 seconds. It’s very fast and interactive. They can bring the image to the bedside or in the office.
Ex-Microsoft Employee Arested
A former Microsoft employee was arrested this week stealing trade secrets after he allegedly leaked early copies of Windows 8 to a French blogger. Alex Kibkalo was employed by Microsoft – first in Russia and then in Lebanon – for seven years. He provided the documents to the blogger in 2012, just prior to the launch of Windows 8. According to a complaint filed on Monday in a Washington district court, Kibkalo received a poor performance rating in 2012 and was asked to resign shortly thereafter. The information in question included Windows 8 RT software updates, which were distributed only to manufacturing partners, as well as the Activation Server software development kit (SDK).
It seems that Kibkalo uploaded the documents to his SkyDrive (now OneDrive) account in August 2012, and provided the French blogger with links to these documents.
Research Reveals That Half Of U.S. Jobs Can Be Completed By Computers
The study, based upon 702 detailed job listings, revealed that computers could now replace many workers in transportation and logistics, production labor and administrative support. But computers, armed with the ability to find patterns in big data sets, are also increasingly qualified to perform non-routine cognitive tasks.
Historically computerization has been confined to routine tasks involving explicit rule-based activities. Algorithms for big data are now rapidly entering domains reliant upon pattern recognition and can readily substitute for labor in a wide range of non-routine cognitive tasks,” says study authors Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne. Software already provides medical diagnoses and does legal research, as example.
However, the study doesn’t predict, based on economics, whether more jobs will be automated, but rather, whether they could. And it suggests that, jobs most vulnerable to being given to a computer in the near future will be the lowest paying. Authors argue that 47 percent of U.S. employees are in occupations that are at risk as a result of computerization. Authors, Benedikt and Osborne say automation will return to eating the lowest-paying, rather than middle-income, jobs because computers continue to lack social intelligence.
Obama Administation Cedes Control Of The Internet
The Obama Administration announced plans to cede control of the Internet to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an international body and non-profit group based out of California, that seeks larger control, over the Internet.
ICANN’s primary role is over the registration of domain names. The ability to allow or delete a domain name effectively allows ICANN to choose who can, and cannot, maintain an Internet site. Who can, and cannot, publish content online.
This change lets the contract between the Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to expire.
Newt Gingrich has tweeted about this announcement:
International groups have been pressuring the United States for years to cede control of the Internet to an “International” body. Everyone can understand why these groups want that. It erodes American power and it degrades liberty online.
We’ll wait and see what happens next
Austin Texas To Host SXSW Interactive Festival-Assange/Snowden Virtual Live
This year, NSA leaker Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder and secret spiller Julian Assange will hold a live video conference March 8, 2014 11:00 a.m. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Anne Wojcicki, CEO of genetics testing company 23andMe.
Snowden and Assange will be appearing appear on live video since both are living as fugitives, in Moscow and the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
A Virtual Conversation With Julian Assange video conference -March 8, 2014 11:00 a.m. Texas time
A Virtual Conversation With Edward Snowden video conference-March 10,2014 11:00 a.m. Texas time
The South by Southwest Conferences & Festivals offers original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW is the premier destination for discovery of emerging trends.
Facebook Purchases WhatsAPP
The world’s largest social networking conglomerate said Wednesday that it is paying $12 billion in Facebook stock and $4 billion in cash for WhatsApp. In addition, the app’s founders and employees — 55 in all — will be granted restricted stock worth $3 billion that will vest over four years after the deal closes. It was mentioned that Facebook likely prizes WhatsApp for its audience of teenagers and young adults who are increasingly using the service to engage in online conversations outside of Facebook, which has evolved into a more mainstream hangout inhabited by their parents, grandparents and even their bosses at work. Facebook said it is keeping WhatsApp as a separate service, just as it did with Instagram, which it bought for about $715.3 million nearly two years ago. The app is currently adding a million new users a day
Keep Track Of Your Laptop, Phone or Tablet With PREY
Prey lets you keep track of your laptop, phone and tablet whenever missing, whether you’re in town or abroad.
New Mexico Has The First Bitcoin Vending machine
Albuquerque, New Mexico has the first bitcoin vending machine located in a cigar shop. The vending machine allows people to insert cash for a digital stash of the increasingly popular cryptocurrency. A Bitcoin may soon be in the making. Robocoin, a Las Vegas-based company that installed its first Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver last year, has said it intends to install the first U.S. Bitcoin ATMs later this month. The Robocoin machines allow for both cash-to-Bitcoin and Bitcoin-to-cash transactions. Prospective Bitcoin vending machine operators have been trying to bring the devices to New York and San Francisco, for some time, but they’ve faced regulatory hurdles.
Aside from Bitcoin’s reputation for use in illicit transactions, users of the new Albuquerque machine should also beware because the price of Bitcoin has been extremely volatile during the past four months. It climbed to all-time highs in January before falling due to a system-wide glitches last week.
The STEM Crisis & Recruiting From Overseas
STEM -Science Technology Engineering Math
The rest of the world is soaring ahead while United States lag behind. Our knowledge capital, which fuels innovation and economic growth, is at risk.
The National Math + Science Initiative list hard facts on why STEM education matters and why our country’s student performance must improve in order for America to remain globally competitive.
Decline in Education in America’s Elementary and Secondary Schools
- 44 percent of 2013 U.S. high school graduates are ready for college-level math.
- 36 percent of 2013 U.S. high school students are ready for college-level science.
- 26 percent of 2009 U.S. students took Algebra I before high school. (Up from 20 percent in 2005.)
- Only 12 percent of black students and 17 percent of Hispanic students took Algebra I before high school in 2009. But, 48 percent of Asian students took Algebra I before high school in 2009.
- In 2013, 42 percent of American fourth grade students and 35 percent of eighth grade students, performed at or above the proficient level in mathematics.
- In 2011, 32 percent of eighth grade students performed at or above the proficient level in science.
- In 2009, 34 percent of American fourth grade students and 21 percent of twelfth grade students performed at or above the proficient level in science.
- 9 percent of Hispanic and 10 percent of black U.S. students took advanced Algebra or calculus in 2008, compared to 22 percent of white students and 43 percent of Asian students.
- 19.5 percent of AP test takers in the class of 2012 earned a qualifying score on an AP exam.
- 27 percent of 2011 test takers took an AP science exam and 26 percent took an AP math exam.
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Decline in Higher Education in America
- Students who progress through at least Algebra II in high school are twice as likely as those who do not to complete a four-year degree.
- 38 percent of students who start with a STEM major do not graduate with one.
- In 2009, men age 25 and older held 87 percent of bachelor’s degrees in engineering fields.
- In 2009, of the 56 million people age 25 and over with a bachelor’s degree, nearly 20 million of them held a degree in a science and engineering field
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Teachers
- In 2007, about a third of public middle school science teachers either did not major in the subject in college and/or are not certified to teach it.
- 36 percent of public middle school math teachers in 2007 either did not major in the subject in college and/or are not certified to teach it.
- Teacher turnover is costing America $7.3 billion annually.
- In 2007, the average cost of teacher turnover was over $17,000.
- Replacing a poor teacher with an average one would raise a single classroom’s lifetime earnings by about $266,000.
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International Comparisons
- 29 nations: The number of industrialized nations whose high school students performed better than U.S. students in math in 2012.
- 22 nations: The number of industrialized nations whose high school students performed better than U.S. students in science in 2012.
- In 2008, 4 percent of U.S. bachelor’s degrees were awarded in engineering.Compared to 31 percent in China.
- In 2008, 31 percent of U.S. bachelor’s degrees were awarded in science and engineering fields. Compared to 61 percent in Japan and 51 percent in China.
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Workforce
- As of February 2012, more than half of the 30 fastest growing occupations require some level of post-secondary education.
- “All of the increase in employment over the past two decades has been among workers who have taken at least some college classes or who have associate or bachelor’s degrees – and mostly among workers with bachelor’s degrees.”
- The number of science and engineering (S&E) bachelor’s degree completions has grown by 19% from 2009 to 2013, compared to9% growth for non-S&E disciplines.
- Of the 15 Major categories, Engineering has the highest median earnings, yet less than 20% of students choose a STEM path.
- In 2008, 59 percent of all jobs in the U.S. economy required post-secondary education. (Up from 28 percent in 1973.)
- By 2018, it is projected that 63 percent of all jobs in the U.S. economy will require post-secondary education.
- By 2018, 92 percent of traditional STEM jobs will be for those with at least some post-secondary education and training.
- 23 percent of STEM workers are women, however women make up 48 percent of workers in all occupations.
- In 2009, 12 percent of STEM workers were non-Hispanic black and Hispanic. But,non-Hispanic black and Hispanic individuals accounted for 25 percent of overall employment.
- Women received 29.6 percent of computer science B.A.’s in 1991, compared to 18.2 percent in 2010.
- 23 percent of STEM workers are women, however women make up 48 percent of workers in all occupations.
- Jobs in computer systems design and related services, a field dependent on high-level math and problem-solving skills, are projected to grow 45 percent between 2008 and 2018.
- The U.S. may be short as many as three million high-skills workers by 2018.
Russian Biometric Passports To Begin 2015
Russians applying for biometric passports for foreign travel will be fingerprinted beginning in 2015. The fingerprints will be added to a digital record. The biometric data is to include prints of two fingers of the passport holder’s hands, the order published Wednesday said. Diplomatic missions abroad, which also process passport applications, will have until Jan. 1, 2016 to implement the new rules, depending on how soon they receive the necessary equipment and software.
Russia began a trial run of fingerprinting for biometric passports in Moscow and St. Petersburg last year, and the Federal Migration Service said that the practice would be implemented on a mass scale in 2015. The service currently issues two kinds of passports for foreign travel — the 10-year biometric passport and a simpler and less expensive five-year passport, which does not include biometric data.
Technology Trends For 2014
Major companies are working on data encryption to detour NSA from snooping
Smartphones will be able to connect with our homes
No-Touch interfaces
3D printing
Wearable technology
Cloud services
Microsoft’s New Chief- Satya Nadella
Mr Nadella, who has been at Microsoft for 22 years, is now the new chief. Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder, has stepped aside as chairman. However, he will be doing more rather than less. At Mr Nadella’s request Mr Gates will become “technology adviser”. Mr Gates plans to spend a third of his time at the firm. Recently he has devoted almost all his energy to the philanthropic foundation that bears the names of himself and his wife, Melinda. Like Mr Gates, Mr Ballmer will stay on the board.
Microsoft is still a reigning company with revenues of $43 billion, 15% more than the year before. Its net income was $11.8 billion, up by 8.8%. It has a cash pile of $84 billion and a market capitalisation of $300 billion. However it has struggled to find its way in a world where the personal computer no longer reigns supreme. Mr Nadella’s job is to set a course through what he calls a “cloud-first, mobile-first world”. When it comes to mobile, Microsofts places third. Its operating system, Windows Phone, is far behind Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
Microsoft is expected to start selling its widely used Office suite of programs (which includes Word, a word-processor, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slide shows) on iPads and Android tablets.
When you consider the tough challenges Bill & Melinda Gates takes on with their philanthropic foundation its quite amazing.
Funding To Prevent Spying On Spies-Big Brother Is Still Listening
Research is being funded to prevent phone company employees or eavesdroppers from seeing whom the U.S. is spying on. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has paid a minimal of at least five research teams across the country to develop a system for high-volume, encrypted searches of electronic records kept outside the government’s possession. The project is among several ideas that would allow the government to discontinue storing Americans’ phone records, but still search them as needed. U.S. data mining would be protected by secret coding that could conceal identifying details from outsiders and even the owners of the targeted databases. The Justice Department and leading Internet companies agreed to a compromise with the government that would allow the firms to reveal how often they are ordered to turn over information about their customers in national security investigations. The deal with Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Facebook Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. would provide public information in general terms. Other technology companies were also expected to participate.
New documents leaked by former NSA contactor Edward Snowden suggest that popular mapping, gaming and social networking apps on smartphones can feed the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping agency with personal data, including location information and details such as political affiliation or sexual orientation. The reports, published by The New York Times, the Guardian and ProPublica, said the intelligence agencies get routine access to data generated by apps such as the Angry Birds game franchise or the Google Maps navigation service
U.S.Credit Cards Soon To Have Memory Chips
Companies are moving from magnetic strips, seen on nearly all credit cards in the United States to cards with memory chips like those used elsewhere in the world. It seems that the memory chips will not prevent All fraud. One vulnerability is at the point of sale. If the card terminal or register is hacked, thieves could acquire data embedded in the memory chip that is stored when customers pay. In addition, because it will take retailers time to acquire equipment to read the memory chip, cards will include both chip and strip for some time. Security experts say the dual-embedded data will still present a risk. U.S. cards with EMV will not be required to include PINs, which further upsets critics who contend that PINs on credit and debit cards make transactions more secure.
Ongoing Information & Trends: A Weblog 
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