6402011
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
A LIGHT has been shone on one of the great mysteries of the internet. What is the point of the two forward slashes that sit directly infront of the "www" in every internet website address?
The answer, according to the British scientist who created the world wide web, is that there isn’t one.
740737
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
Researchers are predicting that one quarter of the world's population will be connected to the internet within the next four years. According to the report by Jupiter Research, the total number of people online will climb to 1.8 billion by 2012, encompassing roughly 25 percent of the planet. The company sees the highest growth rates in areas such as China, Russia, India and Brazil. Overall, the number of users online is predicted to grow by 44 percent in the time period between 2007 and 2012.
729501
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
The US Department of Energy's (DoE) high performance computing system is now the fastest supercomputer in the world for open science, according to the Top 500 list of the world's fastest computers.
The list was announced this week during the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany.
IBM's Blue Gene/P, known as 'Intrepid', is located at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility and is also ranked third fastest overall.
The supercomputer has a peak performance of 557 teraflops and achieved a speed of 450.3 teraflops on the Linpack application used to measure speed for the Top 500 rankings. According to the list, 74.8 percent of the world's supercomputers (some 374 systems) use Intel processors, a rise of 4 percent in six months. This represents the biggest slice of the supercomputer cake for the firm ever.
726927
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
Web traffic volumes will almost double every two years from 2007 to 2012, driven by video and web 2.0 applications, according to a report from Cisco Systems. Cisco's Visual Networking Index (PDF) predicts that visual networking will account for 90 per cent of the traffic coursing through the world's IP networks by 2012. The upward trend is not only driven by consumer demand for YouTube clips and IPTV, according to the report, as business use of video conferencing will grow at 35 per cent CAGR over the same period.
719031
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
US computer scientists have created a way to design polymorphic integrated circuits that can rapidly reconfigure themselves with multiple functions. Researchers at Rice University said that the "n-variant" chips can assume one identify or a subset of identities at a time depending on the user's needs. The engineers claim that building multiple "personalities" into integrated circuits can offer better security, circuit optimisation and customisation without sacrificing the related power, delay and area metrics. With 'n-variant' integrated circuits it is possible to design portable media players that are inherently unique. New methods of digital rights management can be built upon such devices. For example, media files can be made such that they only run on a certain variant and cannot be played by another.
717493
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
Microsoft has filed 21 lawsuits in US Federal courts as part of an effort to stop those who continually pirate its software. The suits span 14 states and target people and businesses that have allegedly sold pirated copies of Microsoft software. Eight of the suits target companies that Microsoft refers to as "repeat offender software pirates". The eight firms had already been sued by Microsoft for selling counterfeit software.
705763
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
Acer has stated that it will be pushing Linux aggressively on its laptops and netbooks. The company is already heavily promoting Linux for its low cost ultra-portable netbook range out later this year, but senior staff have said that Acer will also push Linux on its laptops
701063
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
Quantum cryptography, the most secure method of transmitting data, has taken a step closer to mainstream viability with a technique that simplifies the distribution of keys. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology claim that the new "quantum key distribution" method minimises the required number of detectors, the most costly components in quantum cryptography. Quantum cryptography usually requires four single photon-detectors (which cost $20,000 to $50,0000 each) to send and decode cryptography keys. In the new method, the researchers designed an optical component that reduces the required number of detectors to a single pair. The boffins concede that their minimum-detector arrangement cuts transmission rates by half, but point out that the system still works at broadband speeds.
685262
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
Apple is poised to become the hub of the digital home by 2013, according to a new study from Forrester Research. The analyst firm's 'Future of Apple' report examines how Apple's product strategy will evolve over the next five years. Forrester predicts that Apple will offer eight key products and services to connect PCs and digital content to the TV-stereo infrastructure in consumers' homes. Apple's predicted dominance will also affect service providers that deliver broadcast content and broadband, retailers that provide in-home installation services and consumer electronics device makers like Sony and LG. To back up its claims, Forrester highlights a "mishmash" of audio-visual and IT technologies and products, including TVs, stereos, set-top boxes, DVD players, PCs, home networks and game consoles, which remain isolated products in most homes.
684898
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
A security researcher involved in defending against last year's Web attacks on Estonia has shared his account of the crisis, and is offering advice on how to prevent similar assaults in the future. Gadi Evron has published an article in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs detailing his experiences in helping Estonia's government defend against a "cyber-riot" from Russian nationalist hackers. "While the exact source of the attacks remains unknown, evidence suggests a highly organised assault," wrote Evron. He claims that the Estonian government went so far as to lobby the EU to pressure the Russian government to step in, a move which was ultimately blocked for diplomatic reasons
681876
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
Certain carbon nanotubes may be as hazardous to humans as asbestos, according to a new report.
A paper to be published in Nature Nanotechnology suggests that inhaling certain types of nanotubes can lead to the formation of mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer commonly caused by exposure to asbestos.
"This is a wakeup call for nanotechnology in general and carbon nanotubes in particular," said Andrew Maynard, co-author of the report and chief science advisor to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.
673082
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
Security experts have warned that new developments in malware are allowing criminals to stay one step ahead of security software. Marc Henauer, head of the cyber-crime division at the Swiss Justice and Police Department, said in an interview last week that viruses and other malware now have the capability to change their signature every few hours. This means that the attackers are often one step ahead of protection software. Geoff Sweeney, chief technology officer at Tier-3, a behavioural analysis IT security firm, echoed the remarks. "It automatically adapts to the anti-spam and anti-malware engines that it encounters," he said.
671124
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
IBM has announced an initiative to offer smaller versions of its high-performance computers to enterprise customers. The first new machine is a QS22 BladeCenter server powered by a Cell processor. Developed to power gaming systems, the Cell chip has also garnered interest from the supercomputing community owing to its ability to handle large amounts of floating point calculations. IBM hopes that the chips, which currently power climate modelling and other traditional supercomputing tasks, will also appeal to customers ranging from financial analysis firms to animation studios.
669226
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
IT staff are "overwhelmingly" happy to recommend their profession to their children, a survey has found. Three-quarters of nearly 1,000 IT professionals surveyed said that they would 'definitely recommend' a career in the business to their offspring. Around 70 percent also felt that their jobs are secure, and that they are expecting a salary increase next year. The survey also found that 86 per cent of respondents expect to move jobs voluntarily in the next three years.
665322
submission
Stony Stevenson writes:
The long-awaited and much-delayed update to Windows XP, Service Pack 3, is giving owners of machines with AMD hardware headaches aplenty it seems. The problems, which first arose just one day after the push, have been causing lots of noise on Microsoft support sites and angry user blogs. Angry have reported that, after the installation, it is not even possible to boot in safe mode, usually the last resort before setting up a repeated forehead/screen interface. It appears to affect only AMD-equipped PCs sold by Hewlett-Packard. "The problem is that HP, apparently along with other OEMs, deploys the same image to Intel-based computers that they do to AMD-based computers," said Jesper Johansson, a former program manager for security policy at Microsoft.
