February 19, 2007, 8:31 PM CT

How Malware Targets And Dupes Internet Users

In the good old days, computer-savvy rogues used malware mainly to wreak havoc with others' computers. But cyber crooks now are stealing users' personal and financial information and defrauding businesses with more sophisticated attacks.

Malware is increasingly targeting consumers. Markus Jakobsson, associate professor at the Indiana University School of Informatics, said that malware relies on social vulnerabilities to spread and infect. This makes it harder to detect and block malware because users bypass detection systems when they agree to use the software.

"Looking at the way in which online crime has flourished, phishing stands out and is perhaps the most visible type of crime," said Jakobsson. "Phishing clearly is a crime that relies on deceit, and an understanding of how it's used may help us to better predict what is going to happen in the arena of malware."

Phishing is tricking someone into giving up private data by masquerading as an authority. This is mostly accomplished using e-mail or instant messages, directing the recipient to a fraudulent Web site that appears legitimate.

"It's only recently that scientists and security practitioners have recognized the human factor of Internet security, and criminals already have established an advantage," said Jakobsson, who also serves as associate director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at IU......... Posted by: Ethan      Read more         Source

February 13, 2007, 9:33 PM CT

The second humanoid robot in France

The HOAP3 humanoid robot has just arrived at the Laboratory for Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics of Montpellier (LIRMM CNRS University of Montpellier 2). This platform supplements the one that was installed at the LAAS in Toulouse last June. They were both made in Japan and represent a strong robotics research potential for France.

Research activities in the field of human robotics are expanding rapidly. The establishment of the JRL (Joint Japanese-French Robotics Laboratory) based in both Japan (Tsukuba) and France (Toulouse-LAAS and Montpellier-LIRMM) contributed strongly to the realization, reinforcement and dynamization of the robotics research community in this field. The two humanoid robots are at the core of JRL's research.

The acquisition of HOAP3 by LIRMM, 50% co-financed by the CNRS, is part of this process. Within the framework of JRL-France, the LIRMM will thus offer the national community an open experimental platform for the validation of models or control methods contributing to ambulation and the handling of objects while maintaining balance.

This 8.8 kg, 60 cm tall robot has 28 motorized articulations. It has a large number of sensors including accelerometers, rate gyros, an infra-red range finder, pressure sensors and two cameras. This unit is based around a completely open software platform (RTLinux) allowing all of the scientists interested to freely evaluate and test their new theoretical developments concerning the modeling, control, vision or learning of these......... Posted by: Ryan      Read more         Source

February 1, 2007, 8:48 PM CT

Slimmest PC with Core 2 Duo

TG has unveiled its latest ultra-slim PC which carries an Intel Core 2 Duo in the super slim 4.4-cm chassis dubbed 'Little LLUON'.

The PC is Vista Certified and was unveiled at MS Windows Vista Experience Center in Seoul Korea and is one of the slimmest PCs in the market.

The pricing and availability is still a mystery.........

Posted by: Ethan      Read more         Source

February 1, 2007, 8:39 PM CT

A PC for Your Car

All you not satisfied with the distraction that is caused by the iPods and the cell phones while driving.....? Then try this one.

VoomPC-2 is a PC that is specially designed for your car and can also run operating systems like Windows and Linux.

The PC uses a mini-ITX board can runs on the ATX power supplies from the car itself.

For even better enjoyment you can even coordinate the timings of the PCs startup and shutdown with the car's ignition. For viewing some videos you can attach the PC to the motorized touch screen monitor that ITuner sells.

There is still no news on the price and the availability of the device.........

Posted by: Ethan      Read more         Source

February 1, 2007, 7:48 PM CT

Hand Warming Mouse

Winters are passing by but it's very difficult to work in this season. No matter how a number of woolen clothes you wear in order to keep yourself warm but your hands have to suffer most in winters.

While working on your computer you always take out your bare hand to click on anything. It will be best alternative for you to have a heater fixed near your hand than on the floor.

Thus, Thanko is here to provide you with the best option for warming your hands from driver-less USB mouse, which can give you warmth with maximum 45C/113F and 800dpi resolution. Its not a very expensive deal to own Hand Warming Mouse. Price: $23.........

Posted by: Ryan      Read more         Source

January 24, 2007, 6:22 PM CT

Novel Computed Imaging Technique

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a novel computational image-forming technique for optical microscopy that can produce crisp, three-dimensional images from blurry, out-of-focus data.

Called Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Microscopy, ISAM can do for optical microscopy what magnetic resonance imaging did for nuclear magnetic resonance, and what computed tomography did for X-ray imaging, the researchers say.

"ISAM can perform high-speed, micron-scale, cross-sectional imaging without the need for time-consuming processing, sectioning and staining of resected tissue," said Stephen Boppart, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, of bioengineering, and of medicine at the U. of I., and corresponding author of a paper accepted for publication in the journal Nature Physics, and posted on its Web site.

Developed by postdoctoral research associate and lead author Tyler Ralston, research scientist Daniel Marks, electrical and computer engineering professor P. Scott Carney, and Boppart, the imaging technique utilizes a broad-spectrum light source and a spectral interferometer to obtain high-resolution, reconstructed images from the optical signals based on an understanding of the physics of light-scattering within the sample.........

Posted by: Ethan      Read more         Source

January 24, 2007, 5:29 PM CT

Step Toward Building Molecular Computers

A team of UCLA and California Institute of Technology chemists reports in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal Nature the successful demonstration of a large-scale, "ultra-dense" memory device that stores information using reconfigurable molecular switches. This research represents an important step toward the creation of molecular computers that are much smaller and could be more powerful than today's silicon-based computers.

The 160-kilobit memory device uses interlocked molecules manufactured in the UCLA laboratory of J. Fraser Stoddart, director of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), who holds UCLA's Fred Kavli Chair in Nanosystems Sciences and who was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II less than a month ago.

A bit, or binary digit, is the basic unit of information storage and communication in digital computing. A kilobit is equal to 1,000 bits and is usually used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in one second between two telecommunication points.

The research published in Nature describes the fabrication and operation of a memory device. The memory is based on a series of perpendicular, crossing nanowires, similar to a tic-tac-toe board, with 400 bottom wires and another 400 crossing top wires. Sitting at each crossing of the tic-tac-toe structure and serving as the storage element are approximately 300 bistable rotaxane molecules. These molecules may be switched between two different states, and each junction of a crossbar can be addressed individually by controlling the voltages applied to the appropriate top and bottom crossing wires, forming a bit at each nanowire crossing.........

Posted by: Ethan      Read more         Source

January 9, 2007, 8:19 PM CT

Finding Patterns Of Importance

Dartmouth engineers George Cybenko and Vincent Berk believe that PQS, or process query systems, are the way to go to make sense of the huge volume of data we collect each day from computer network monitors, video surveillance cameras, financial transaction records, databases of email exchanges, etc. The duo present their case in a paper published in this month's IEEE Computer, the flagship magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Computer Society.

"PQS closes the gap between gathering a tremendous amount of valuable data and figuring out what the data means," says Cybenko, the Dorothy and Walter Gramm Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering.

PQS has been an evolving algorithmic and software framework for the past few years. Cybenko and Berk say that PQS is a useful and incredibly powerful tool to quickly analyze credit reports for ID theft, discover attacks on computer networks, and measure activity at, say, national borders, mall parking lots, or wildlife refuge areas. As per Cybenko, "PQS can do for discrete, categorical data analysis problems what classical times series analysis did for finance and control systems where the data are numerical".

It is based on the premise that sensed environments, be they computer networks, email traffic, or high-security buildings, all consist of processes with distinct states, dynamics, and observables. PQS works to detect and understand the changes or irregularities in these processes. The PQS software is easily installed with the sensor equipment to collect, monitor, and sort out a great deal of data.........

Posted by: Ethan      Read more         Source

December 22, 2006, 5:23 AM CT

Chicago-indiana Massive Data Flow Computer Network

Massive quantities of data will soon begin flowing from the largest scientific instrument ever built into an international network of computer centers, including one operated jointly by the University of Chicago and Indiana University. The first phase of the Chicago-Indiana center, formally known as the MidWest Tier 2 Center, is now up and running, crunching test data in preparation for the real thing.

The Chicago-Indiana system is one of five Tier-2 (regional) centers in the United States that will receive data from one of four massive detectors at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. When the new instrument begins operating late next year, beams of protons will collide 40 million times a second. When each of those proton beams reaches full intensity, each collision will produce approximately 23 interactions between protons that will create various types of subatomic particles.

"Understanding what's interesting and useful to record from those interactions is quite a challenge, because there is far more information than one is able to record for leisurely analysis," said James Pilcher, a Professor in Physics at the University of Chicago.

Frederick Luehring, a Senior Research Scientist at Indiana University, adds, "Even once the data is recorded, it will take years of careful sifting and sorting, which will require massive amounts of computing power to extract the final scientific results".........

Posted by: Ethan      Permalink         Source

December 20, 2006, 4:58 AM CT

EBay to Shut China Website

eBay Inc.'s expansion dream seems to be shattered as it contemplating to close it operations in China. And the San Jose based auction site is forging a deal with a Chinese company in the face of tough market where it was loosing its users constantly to its rivals. As per reports, eBay is teaming up with Tom Online, a Beijing based wireless phone and online portal company.

Under the arrangements of the deal Tom will invest around $20 million and will keep majority of shares to the tune of 51 percent stake in the joint venture, which will manage and operate eBay's new Chinese auction endeavor. Conversely, eBay will invest around $40 million and will keep rest of the shares amounting to 49 percent.

The clear shift in strategy is brought into action amidst the widely spread speculation that the company will withdraw from the Chinese market due to its deteriorating business in China. The company was on the top of the auction sites list however, in recent time the company was pushed to second place by miles by Taobao.com operated by Yahoo's partner Alibaba.com.

The companies, Tom Online and eBay have preferred to remain tight lipped about the newly forged alliance by declining to comment on this. However, the sources have said that the decision was strategic one aimed at strengthening its position in China and certainly not an exit route.........

Posted by: Ethan      Permalink         Source