China’s Tianhe-2 supercomputer is expected to arrive in 2015. At 50 petaflops it would be three times faster than the new Cray XK7 Titan supercomputer but let’s face it, vaporware doesn’t count in the supercomputer race and China has only held the title once (in 2010 when its Tianhe-1 briefly held the title of the…
Category: Technology
Cisco VP to employee who leaked embarrassing confidential memo to blog: “Finding you is now my hobby”
Network world ran an article last month in which they claimed that California State University was ousting Cisco and replacing their campus’ network equipment with thousands of Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitches. The cost of the project is $22 million. With Cisco products the costs would have been $122 million – $100 million more expensive. Cisco followed up…
Stingray robot allows U.S. Navy to safely board pirate ships “ladder of death” without risk
VBSS (Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure) teams are required to board pirate ships, ships suspected of smuggling or piracy. The 8-man team approaches the ship in a small boat. If the ship refuses to allow entry, the US Navy must use grappling hooks and rope ladders to enter the vessel – an extremely dangerous moment…
Israel building out its elite “cyber warrior” combat group – Aman’s Intelligence Corps Unit 8200
The Jewish state is currently searching for young cyber-warriors to staff its Intelligence Corps Unit 8200 group, an elite cyber-warrior combat group led by Major General Ben Israel, in what it deems a high-priority operation. The move is in response to Iran’s new cyber command group which was formed more than a year ago. Most…
As Guy Fawkes day begins, sites stop dropping like flies – multiple NBC sites hacked
As November 5 dawned in European countries, those celebrating Guy Fawkes day (ahem, Anonymous) began dropping webistes like flies. Multiple NBC websites were hacked including the NBC mobile landing page, Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon’s page, Jay Leno pages, and NBC Sports Rotoworld. Pages were replaced with various incarnations including a nice red on black…
Meet Thermite, the extreme robot firefighter that can go where no man has gone before
Constructed by Howe and Howe Technologies, the Thermite RS1-T2 automated firefighting machine is designed to go into situations and blazes that firefighters could not normally enter – chemical plants, nuclear reactors, munitions plants, and other dangerous places that firefighters would draw straws for. Originally designed to neutralize IEDs in war zones, Thermite was redesigned as…
Amazon rolls out new Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app for easy storage of photos on the cloud
Amazon has rolled out a new photo-management application, Cloud Drive Photos for Android, this morning. The application integrates tightly with the photo capabilities in Android. Users can press and hold a photo in the gallery and choose “Upload to Cloud Drive” to send photos to Amazon’s cloud storage service or choose to upload all photos…
The hidden Deep Web (Undernet) easy HOWTO – road to enlightenment or highway to hell?
Most hardcore geeks have been there and a few hardy souls visit it regularly. Known variously as the Deep Web, Deepnet, Invisible Web, Hidden Web, and Undernet, it is claimed to be several orders of magnitude larger than the surface web – if you can find the buried, hidden content that lies deep within. But…
Thieves take advantage of bank software bug to steal $1 million from cash advance machines without overdrawing accounts
Citigroup software includes a mechanism intended to prevent the same “cash advance kiosk” withdrawal from being posted twice to an account. If near identical, near simultaneous transactions are submitted, the system is programmed to ignore all but one of the transactions. Thieves in California and Nevada discovered the flaw and took advantage of it.