Researcher’s Video Shows Secret Software on Millions of Phones Logging Everything

By David Kravets  

 

November 29, 2011  |  

7:18 pm  |  

Categories: Coverups, The Ridiculous

The Android developer who raised the ire of a mobile-phone monitoring company last week is on the attack again, producing a video of how the Carrier IQ software secretly installed on millions of mobile phones reports most everything a user does on a phone.

Though the software is installed on most modern Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones, Carrier IQ was virtually unknown until 25-year-old Trevor Eckhart of Connecticut analyzed its workings, revealing that the software secretly chronicles a user’s phone experience — ostensibly so carriers and phone manufacturers can do quality control.

3-D Printer Used to Make Bone-Like Material

ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2011) — It looks like bone. It feels like bone. For the most part, it acts like bone.

Abstinence-Only Education Does Not Lead to Abstinent Behavior, Researchers Find

ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2011) — States that prescribe abstinence-only sex education programs in public schools have significantly higher teenage pregnancy and birth rates than states with more comprehensive sex education programs, researchers from the University of Georgia have determined.

Is the Time Finally Right For Hybrid Hard Drives?

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday November 30, @02:18AM 

from the half-man-half-machine dept.

a_hanso writes"Hard drives that combine a traditional spinning platter for mass storage and solid state flash memory for frequently accessed data have always been an interesting concept. They may be slower than SSDs, but not by much, and they are a lot cheaper gigabyte-for-gigabyte. CNET's Harry McCracken speculates on how soon such drives may become mainstream: 'So why would the new Momentus be more of a mainstream hit than its predecessor? Seagate says that it's 70 percent faster than its earlier hybrid drive and three times quicker than a garden-variety, non-hybrid disk. Its benchmarks for cold boots and application launches show the new drive to be just a few seconds slower than a SSD. Or, in some cases, a few seconds faster. In the end, hybrid drives are compromises, neither as cheap as ordinary drives — you can get a conventional 750GB Momentus for about $150 — nor as fast and energy-efficient as SSDs.'"

Stradivarius violin recreated from CAT scan, 'sounds amazingly similar'

By James Trew  posted Nov 30th 2011 6:37AM

We've seen all kinds of crazy things being printed -- from bones to blood vessels -- and now you can add antique violins to that list. Music loving Radiologist Steven Sirr popped his into a CAT scanner to see what it was made of, then showed the results to a violin-making friend. Curiosity soon led them to scan everything from guitars to mandolins, so when the chance to take a peek inside a 307-year-old Stradivarius came up, how could they resist? 1000 scans later, the files were converted to 3D CAD format and another violin maker enlisted. Crucially, the images show the density of the wood all the way through, allowing a CNC machine to carve out copies of each section, with different woods used to match the differing densities. With all the parts in place and a lick of varnish, the replicas were complete. Sirr claims the copies sound "amazingly similar" to the original, but we are unsure if he plans to make itopen-source.

NASA CTO Says Help Desks May Disappear

Posted by timothy on Friday October 14, @05:47PM 

from the no-trash-can-therefore-no-trash dept.

Lucas123 writes"NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has placed its data, from photos of Mars to top secret government information, in 10 different public or private clouds. JPL's 5,000 workers have access to that data with any mobile devices they want to use, as long as it has first been secured. Because JPL's and other workforces are becoming more mobile, a help desk as it's known today may soon become unnecessary, according to JPL's IT CTO Tom Soderstrom. 'Have you ever called a help desk for your mobile device? What do you do? Probably, the first you do is Google or Bing it,' he said. 'If you can't get your answer there, you ask your friends who are like you. For us, that's the workgroup.'"

Nokia Lights Up London With Awesome 4D Projection

BY 

JOANNE CARTER

 – NOVEMBER 29, 2011

POSTED IN: NEWS

Yesterday Nokia brought deadmau5 and the world’s most advanced 4D technology together and created an amazing free light show at Millbank Tower, London.

Check out the video below of this incredible event.

Verizon details live FiOS TV service for Xbox 360, Kinect controls on tap

By Donald Melanson  posted Nov 29th 2011 11:35AM

Microsoft announced back in October that it would be bringing live FiOS TV channels to the Xbox 360 (along with some offerings from Comcast), and Verizon has now finally filled in most of the specifics. As expected, you'll need both a FiOS TV subscription and an Xbox Live Gold membership to access the "select" live channels (up to 26 depending on your TV package), but Verizon is making a special offer available to coincide with the launch. You can get its FiOS Triply Play package including FiOS internet, TV and phone, plus a year of Xbox Live Gold for $89.99 a month if you sign up before January 21st, and Verizon will also throw in the new anniversary edition of Halo. What's more, Verizon has also confirmed that the new service will make use of Kinect voice and gesture controls, and it's accepting orders for the new bundle package right now -- the service itself will be available next month.

Europe's Largest IT Company To Ban Internal Email

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Tuesday November 29, @08:07AM 

from the 140-characters-or-die dept.

Hugh Pickens writes writes"Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos, Europe's Largest IT Company, wants a 'zero email' policy to be in place in 18 months, arguing that only 10 per cent of the 200 electronic messages his employees receive per day on average turn out to be useful, and that staff spend between 5-20 hours handling emails every week. 'The email is no longer the appropriate (communication) tool,' says Breton. 'The deluge of information will be one of the most important problems a company will have to face (in the future). It is time to think differently.' Instead Breton wants staff at Atos to use chat-type collaborative services inspired by social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter as surveys show that the younger generation have already all but scrapped email, with only 11 per cent of 11 to 19 year-olds using it. For his part Breton hasn't sent a work email in three years. 'If people want to talk to me, they can come and visit me, call or send me a text message. Emails cannot replace the spoken word.'"

Tower To Be Built By Flying Robots

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Tuesday November 29, @03:19AM 

from the quadrocopter-bots-to-unionize dept.

Zothecula writes with an excerpt from an article in Gizmag:"The FRAC Centre in Orléans, France will for the first time host an exhibition to be built entirely by flying robots. Titled 'Flight Assembled Architecture,' the six meter-high tower will be made up of 1,500 prefabricated polystyrene foam modules. The installation involves a fleet of quadrocopters that are programmed to interact, lift, transport and assemble the final tower, all the time receiving commands wirelessly from a local control room."

Newer Technology Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet: More power to your USB devices

by Steven Sande

Nov 28th 2011 at 2:30PM
I'll admit that I'm not the best person to be writing about a do-it-yourself project involving electricity. After all, I've zapped myself more than once while replacing wall switches and installing light dimmers, and I once had smoke pouring from my kitchen ceiling after installing a new light fixture. But I'm going to get out my insulated gloves and screwdriver to install a Newer Technology Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet (US$39.95) to replace a standard AC outlet in my home.

Earthscraper Takes Sustainable Design Underground

Posted by samzenpus on Monday November 28, @10:18AM 

from the moving-on-down dept.

Hugh Pickens writes"The 'Earthscraper,' a 65-story, 82,000-square-foot inverted pyramid beneath Mexico City takes a new approach to escalating megacity problems like population growth, urban sprawl, preserving open space, and conserving energy and water, promising to turn the modern high-rise, quite literally, on its head. The proposed building will be located at the Zocalo, Mexico City's major public plaza one of the few sizable open spaces left in the city of 9 million. 'It's a massive empty plot, which makes it the ideal site for our program,' says architect Esteban Suarez. The Earthscraper concept begins with a glass roof replacing the opaque stone surface of the Zocalo preserving the open space and civic uses of the Zocalo, whileallowing natural lighting to flow downward into all floors of the tapering structure through clear or translucent core walls. The first 10 stories would hold a museum dedicated to the city's history and its artifacts. 'We'd almost certainly find plenty of interesting relics during the dig — dating right back to the Aztecs who built their own pyramids here,' says Suarez adding that the design incorporates a system of gardens occurring roughly every 10 stories, to help generate fresh air. One thing working in Earthscraper's favor is there are strict laws that prevent building upwards in this part of Mexico City, but no laws for building down. 'They will have to develop new laws to stop this from happening," says Chief Design Officer Emilio Barja. "I hope they don't [find the] time to do that.'"

A Fifth of Global Energy Could Come from Biomass Without Damaging Food Production

ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2011) — A new report suggests that up to one fifth of global energy could be provided by biomass (plants) without damaging food production.

Smart Phones Power Consumption Cut by More Than 70 Percent

ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2011) — Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have designed a network proxy that can cut the power consumption of 3G smart phones up to 74 percent. This device enhances performance and significantly reduces power usage by serving as a middleman for mobile devices to connect to the Internet and handling the majority of the data transfer for the smart phone. Historically, the high energy requirements of mobile phones have slowed the adoption of mobile Internet services in developing countries.