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Cisco Introduces a 322 Tbit/sec. Router
CWmike writes "Today Cisco Systems introduced its next-generation Internet core router, the CRS-3, with about three times the capacity of its current platform. 'The Internet will scale faster than any of us anticipate,' Cisco's John Chambers said while announcing the product. At full scale, the CRS-3 has a capacity of 322Tbit/sec., roughly three times that of the CRS-1, introduced in 2004. It also has more than 12 times the capacity of its nearest competitor, Chambers said. The CRS-3 will help the Internet evolve from a messaging to an entertainment and media platform, with video emerging as the 'killer app,' Chambers said. Using a CRS-3, every person in China, which has a population just over 1.3 billion, could participate in a video phone call at the same time. (Or you could pump nearly one Library of Congress per second through the device, or give everyone in San Fransisco a 1Gbps internet connection.) AT&T said it has been using the CRS-3 to test 100Gbit/sec. data links in tests on a commercial fiber route in Florida and Louisiana."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

Doctors Skirt FDA To Heal Patients With Stem Cells
kkleiner writes "For many years countless individuals in the US have had to watch with envy as dogs and horses with joint and bone injuries have been cured with stem cell procedures that the FDA has refused to approve for humans. Now, in an exciting development, Regenerative Sciences Inc. in Colorado has found a way to skirt the FDA and provide these same stem cell treatments to humans. The results have been stunning, allowing many patients to walk or run who have not been able to do so for years. There's no surgery required, just a needle to extract and then re-inject the cells where they are needed. There has always been a lot of hype around stem cells, but this is the real deal. Real humans are getting real treatment that works, and we should all hope that more companies will begin offering this procedure in other states soon."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

The Secret Origin of Windows
harrymcc writes "Windows has been so dominant for so long that it's easy to forget Windows 1.0 was vaporware, mocked both outside and inside of Microsoft — and that its immediate successors were considered stopgaps until OS/2 was everywhere. Tandy Trower, the product manager who finally got Windows 1.0 out the door a quarter century ago, has written a memoir of the experience. (He thought being assigned the much-maligned project was Microsoft's fiendish way of trying to get rid of him.) The story involves such still-significant figures as Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, and Nathan Myhrvold; Trower left Microsoft only in November of 2009 after 28 years with the company."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

Open Data Needs Open Source Tools
macslocum writes "Nat Torkington begins sketching out an open data process that borrows liberally from open source tools: 'Open source discourages laziness (because everyone can see the corners you've cut), it can get bugs fixed or at least identified much faster (many eyes), it promotes collaboration, and it's a great training ground for skills development. I see no reason why open data shouldn't bring the same opportunities to data projects. And a lot of data projects need these things. From talking to government folks and scientists, it's become obvious that serious problems exist in some datasets. Sometimes corners were cut in gathering the data, or there's a poor chain of provenance for the data so it's impossible to figure out what's trustworthy and what's not. Sometimes the dataset is delivered as a tarball, then immediately forks as all the users add their new records to their own copy and don't share the additions. Sometimes the dataset is delivered as a tarball but nobody has provided a way for users to collaborate even if they want to. So lately I've been asking myself: What if we applied the best thinking and practices from open source to open data? What if we ran an open data project like an open source project? What would this look like?'"

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

HTC Android Phones Found With Malware Pre-Installed
Trailrunner7 writes "Security researchers have found that Vodafone, one of the world's larger wireless providers, is distributing some HTC phones with malware pre-installed on them. The phone, HTC's Magic, runs the Google Android mobile operating system, and is one of the more popular handsets right now. A researcher at Panda Software received one of the handsets recently, and upon attaching it to her PC, found that the phone was pre-loaded with the Mariposa bot client. Mariposa has been in the news of late thanks to some arrests connected to the operation of the botnet."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

Cybercrooks Surpassed Old School Bankrobbers In '09
krebsonsecurity writes "Organized cyber-criminal gangs stole $25 million in the 3rd quarter alone last year, by pilfering the online bank accounts of small to midsized businesses, the FDIC reported last week. In contrast, traditional bank robbers hauled just $9.4 million in 1,184 bank robberies during that same period, according to an analysis of FBI bank crime statistics by krebsonsecurity.com. From that story: 'The federal government sure publishes a lot more information about physical bank robberies that it makes available about online stick-ups. Indeed, the FBI's bank crime stats are extraordinarily detailed. For example, they can tell you that in the 3rd quarter of last year, bank robbers were more likely to hold up their local branch between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on a Wednesday than at any other time or day of the week; they can tell you the number of tear gas and dye packs taken with the loot, the number of security cameras activated, the number of food stamps taken, even what percentage of suspected perpetrators had illegal drug habits at the time of the robberies. About the only thing the stats don't tell you is what brand of jeans the perpetrators were wearing and whether the getaway car had cool vanity plates. What do we get about e-crime statistics from the federal government? One guy from the FDIC giving a speech at the RSA conference."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

European Parliament Declaring War Against ACTA
An anonymous reader writes "The European Parliament is preparing to take on ACTA. A joint resolution (DOC) has been tabled by the major EP parties that threatens to go to court unless things change. The EP is calling for public access to negotiation texts and rules out further confidential negotiations. Moreover, the EP wants a ban on imposing a three-strikes model, assurances that ACTA will not result in personal searches at the border, and an ACTA impact assessment on fundamental rights and data protection."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

Apple's iPhone Developer License Agreement Revealed
nigham writes "The EFF is publicly disclosing a version of Apple's iPhone developer program license agreement. The highlights: you can't disclose the agreement itself (the EFF managed to get it via the Freedom of Information Act thanks to NASA's recent app), Apple reserves the right to kill your app at any time with no reason, and Apple's liability in any circumstance is limited to 50 bucks. There's also this gem: 'You will not, through use of the Apple Software, services or otherwise create any Application or other program that would disable, hack, or otherwise interfere with the Security Solution, or any security, digital signing, digital rights management, verification or authentication mechanisms implemented in or by the iPhone operating system software, iPod Touch operating system software, this Apple Software, any services or other Apple software or technology, or enable others to do so.' The entire agreement (PDF) is up at the EFF's site."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

US Immigration Bill May Bring a National Biometric ID Card
schwit1 sends this quote from the Wall Street Journal: "Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain. Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal US workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker. ... A person familiar with the legislative planning said the biometric data would likely be either fingerprints or a scan of the veins in the top of the hand. It would be required of all workers, including teenagers, but would be phased in, with current workers needing to obtain the card only when they next changed jobs, the person said. The card requirement also would be phased in among employers, beginning with industries that typically rely on illegal-immigrant labor."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

50% Efficiency Boost From New Fuel Injection System
chudnall notes a Technology Review story on a new gas engine injection system that promises increased efficiency of up to 50%. "The key is heating and pressurizing gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber, says Mike Rocke, Transonic's vice president of business development. This puts it into a supercritical state that allows for very fast and clean combustion, which in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to propel a vehicle. The company also treats the gasoline with a catalyst that 'activates' it, partially oxidizing it to enhance combustion."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

Making Sense of CPU and GPU Model Numbers?
b4dc0d3r writes "How do you make sense of the various model numbers or naming schemes for CPUs, graphics cards, and the related chipsets? All I want is something that will run Oblivion and output full 1080 video to a TV. Last time I built my own computer I just went to Pricewatch, made a few easy choices, and everything came to my door. Do I really have to research the differences among Core i5, Core 2 Duo, Pentium 4, Pentium D, Semperon, Athlon, Phenom...? And that's just the processor. Is there a reference somewhere? In short, how do you buy a computer these days?"

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

NSA Still Ahead In Crypto, But Not By Much
Hugh Pickens writes "Network World summarizes an RSA Conference panel discussion in which former NSA technical director Brian Snow said that cryptographers for the NSA have been losing ground to their counterparts in universities and commercial security vendors for 20 years, but still maintain the upper hand in the sophistication of their crypto schemes and in their ability to decrypt. 'I do believe NSA is still ahead, but not by much — a handful of years,' says Snow. 'I think we've got the edge still.' Snow added that that in the 1980s there was a huge gap between what the NSA could do and what commercial encryption technology was capable of. 'Now we are very close together and moving very slowly forward in a mature field.' The NSA has one key advantage (besides their deep staff of Ph.D. mathematicians and other cryptographic experts who work on securing traffic and breaking codes): 'We cheat. We get to read what [academics] publish. We do not publish what we research,' he said. Snow's claim of NSA superiority seemed to rankle some members on the panel. Adi Shamir, the "S" in the RSA encryption algorithm, said that when the titles of papers in NSA technical journals were declassified up to 1983, none of them included public key encryption; 'That demonstrates that NSA was behind,' said Shamir. Snow replied that when technologies are developed separately in parallel, the developers don't necessarily use the same terms for them."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

Jobs Says No Tethering iPad To iPhone
tugfoigel writes "Anyone who currently owns an iPhone and was hoping they would be able to use it as a mobile Web access point for a Wi-Fi iPad just got some bad news. Reportedly, Steve Jobs has said this will not happen. Swedish blog Slashat.se claims they e-mailed Jobs directly to ask him whether or not you'd be able to tether your iPad and iPhone and received a terse 'No' in reply. According to the report, the email headers made it plausible that the reply had come from Jobs's iPhone."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

Why Microsoft Can't Afford To Let Novell Die
geek4 sends in an analysis indicating that Microsoft may have the most to lose if hedge-fund operator Elliot buys Novell. (The eWeekEurope piece is based on a longer and geekier writeup by Andy Updegrove on how the mechanics of unsolicited tender offers can play out in the tech world.) To avoid meltdown or asset-stripping, Novell can try and find a preferred bidder — a company with some interest in running Novell as a business, and preferrably a tech company. Or another company may make a move independently. But who might that be? A couple of analysts have suggested IBM, Oracle, or SAP. These all have problems... Microsoft is in a similar category, with one added problem. ... Microsoft has staked any open source credibility that it has on Novell's SUSE distribution. If Novell falls to bits, then Microsoft's efforts to gain open source cred pretty much disappear with it. It's something that would have been impossible to imagine a few years back, but if we're looking for someone to prop Novell up, Microsoft would now be a prime candidate."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

AIDS Virus Can Hide In Bone Marrow
suraj.sun writes "The virus that causes AIDS can hide in the bone marrow, avoiding drugs and later awakening to cause illness, according to new research that could point the way toward better treatments for the disease. Dr. Kathleen Collins of the University of Michigan and her colleagues report in this week's edition of the journal Nature Medicine that the HIV virus can infect long-lived bone marrow cells that eventually convert into blood cells. The virus is dormant in the bone marrow cells, she said, but when those progenitor cells develop into blood cells, it can be reactivated and cause renewed infection. The virus kills the new blood cells and then moves on to infect other cells, said. In recent years, drugs have reduced AIDS deaths sharply, but patients need to keep taking the medicines for life or the infection comes back, Dr. Collins said."

Slashdot ~Created Tue Mar 9 15:10:51 2010

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Mozilla Borrows from WebKit to Build Fast New JS Engine "Mozilla's high-performance TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which was first introduced in 2008, has lost a lot of its luster as competing browser vendors have stepped up their game to deliver superior performance. Firefox now lags behind Safari, Chrome, and Opera in common JavaScript benchmarks. In an effort to bring Firefox back to the front of the pack, Mozilla is building a new JavaScript engine called JaegerMonkey." OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010	The Secret Origin of Windows "Few people understand Microsoft better than Tandy Trower, who worked at the company from 1981-2009. Trower was the product manager who ultimately shipped Windows 1.0, an endeavor that some advised him was a path toward a ruined career. Four product managers had already tried and failed to ship Windows before him, and he initially thought that he was being assigned an impossible task. In this follow-up to yesterday's story on the future of Windows, Trower recounts the inside story of his experience in transforming Windows from vaporware into a product that has left an unmistakable imprint on the world, 25 years after it was first released." OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010
Cisco Unveils Next Internet Core Router Cisco Systems today introduced its next-generation Internet core router, the CRS-3, with about three times the capacity of its current platform. "The Internet will scale faster than any of us anticipate," Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers said during a webcast announcing the product. At full scale, the CRS-3 has a capacity of 322Tbit/sec., roughly three times that of the CRS-1, which was introduced in 2004. It also has more than 12 times the capacity of its nearest competitor, Chambers said. OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010	Schwartz Recalls Apple, Microsoft Patent Threats Against Sun In response to Apple's lawsuit against HTC, Jonathan Schwartz, former CEO of Sun Microsystems, has written a very intriguing blog post providing an insight into how major companies like Apple and Microsoft treat patents. He recounts two occasions on which Apple and Microsoft threatened to sue Sun - and how Sun retorted. OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010
European Parliament Opposes ACTA, Votes Wednesday We have some very, very good news for Europeans (which happens to include myself): we have the European Parliament on our sides when it comes to battling ACTA. If you may recall, ACTA is basically an attempt by the US to impose upon the rest of the world draconian measures like three strikes laws and the DMCA. All parties within the European Parliament have together put forth a resolution that would effectively tackle ACTA. OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010	The iPhone Developer Program License Agreement Leaks So have you actually read the iPhone Developer Program[me] License Agreement? The EFF, using a freedom of information act to shrewdly get a copy legally off of NASA, look into the details and don't like what they find. As well as trying to prevent anybody from so much as mentioning the existence of these terms, Apple owe you no more than $50 if they sink your company by removing your apps for any reason they so please. It makes for scary reading, that is--if you think the terms are enforceable in court. I hope to see this very thing challenged as soon as possible. OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010
Cisco To Unveil News that Will 'Forever Change the Internet' Cisco Systems says it will make a major announcement on Tuesday, news that the technology giant says "will forever change the Internet". Shares of Cisco gained 3.65% to close at $26.13 Monday, hitting a new 52-week high of $26.36 intraday, as some analysts speculated that the tech giant is rolling out new gear to help wireless phone companies cope with rising video Web traffic. Cisco had sent out invitations to analysts and the media for a "significant announcement" that it says "will forever change the Internet and its impact on consumers, businesses and governments". Let the speculation begin! OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010	QNX: The First OS to Support a PC Hard Drive You know what's fun? Making claims on the internet about how something or someone was first with something or someone - if you catch my drift. You know what's also a lot of fun? QNX, the microkernel realtime operating system that powers just about any possible piece of kit you can think of. As it turns out, QNX was the first operating system to support a hard drive on a PC. On a related note, a new pre-release has been released of QNX 6.5.0. OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010
Android Coders Get High-Speed Graphics Ability "Want better games on your Android phone? They may be coming sooner now, at least for Android 2.0 models. Google has let programmers tap directly into mobile phone graphics power by releasing a third version of its Android Native Developer Kit on Monday." OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010	Valve Brings Hit Games, Steam Service to Mac "It's officially official: Valve will bring its Steam online distribution service and titles from its massive library of hit games to the Mac this April, the company confirmed Monday. The successful content-delivery service will bring Valve titles like Left 4 Dead and the upcoming Portal 2, as well as games from other publishers, to Apple computers for the first time. The move was telegraphed last week in a series of teaser posters that mashed characters from Valve games into retro Apple ads." The big thing: native! Native! No emulation! Great news for Mac fans, and hopefully, a Linux version is on the way too. OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010
W3C Pulls Former Novell CTO for CEO Spot "Filling a position left open since 2008, former Novell CTO Jeffrey Jaffe has taken on the role of chief executive officer for the W3C. Jaffe will work alongside Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who will remain the organization's director. While Berners-Lee will concentrate primarily on the direction of the W3C's standards, Jaffe will look to streamline the W3C process of working with members." OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010	RSA 1024-bit Private Key Encryption Cracked "Three University of Michigan computer scientists say they have found a way to exploit a weakness in RSA security technology used to protect everything from media players to smartphones and ecommerce servers.RSA authentication is susceptible, they say, to changes in the voltage supply to a private key holder. The researchers - Andrea Pellegrini, Valeria Bertacco and Todd Austin - outline their findings in a paper titled "Fault-based attack of RSA authentication", to be presented 10 March at the Design, Automation and Test in Europe conference." OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010
It Doesn't Add up: Mathematics in Wonderland We're probably a little off-topic here, but with the renewed interest in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (the proper title), due to the Tim Burton film, people are starting to pick up Lewis Carroll's books again, which I can only see as a good thing (being an Alice fan myself and all). The New York Times is running an interesting article about an aspect of the Alice books you won't see in most adaptations: the mathematical one. OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010	Origyn Web Browser 1.7, Supports HTML5 Media, More Fabien "Fab" Coeurjoly has released Origyn Web Browser 1.7 for MorphOS. HTML5 video and audio is provided through FFMpeg, supporting a wide range of codecs (Ogg/Theora/Vorbis, MPEG4, H264, AAC, MP3, Wav). Highlights of the change log follow. OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010
*Episode 33: Steve, This One's For You* In which Apple sues HTC, and a good time is not had by all. Tess Flynn joins golden oldies Kroc and Thom to also discuss the Ubuntu redesign, Haiku's new browser, SkyOS'es lack of movement and Microsoft's Courier concept. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... OSNews ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010	NewsBone.com Suggest a feed to syndicate here, or check out what I'm doing over at freshtao. ~Created Tue Mar 9 21:49:21 2010

Ten Wi-Fi Security Threats to Monitor
WEP and wardriving probably sound quaint to modern ears, but that doesn't mean the Wi-Fi security landscape is that much safer. Bad clients, evil twins and wireless phishing should provide plenty to keep network security busy.

Wi-Fi Planet Wi-Fi Planet Wireless News ~Created Tue Mar 9 19:52:11 2010

HP Intros Ultra-Thin Notebooks
Hard-core mobile corporate users and their small business cousins are the target of new business notebooks from HP, which has set its sights on an anticipated refresh of aging business fleets and the need to accommodate Windows 7 upgrades.

Wi-Fi Planet Wi-Fi Planet Wireless News ~Created Tue Mar 9 19:52:11 2010

Analysts Predict Cheaper iPhones and Strong iPad Sales
Analysts are predicting that less expensive iPhones from Apple could be arriving later this year, with some speculating that the iPad could do fairly well, adding a significant amount to the company's annual profits.

Wi-Fi Planet Wi-Fi Planet Wireless News ~Created Tue Mar 9 19:52:11 2010

Mobile, Location-Aware Boom Forces Privacy Rethink
Smartphones, ubiquitous GPS and a host of new location-aware services have lawmakers, privacy advocates, industry groups and manufacturers rethinking the balance between public safety and consumer privacy.

Wi-Fi Planet Wi-Fi Planet Wireless News ~Created Tue Mar 9 19:52:11 2010

Juniper Focusing on Mobile Security
Employees love their smartphones and corporate IT hates the security headaches they introduce. Juniper's new push into mobile security aims to make smartphones and other mobile devices policy compliant the minute they hit the corporate network.

Wi-Fi Planet Wi-Fi Planet Wireless News ~Created Tue Mar 9 19:52:11 2010

AT&T Names 4G Hardware Partners
AT&T gives the nod to Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson as equipment suppliers for its 4G network. The two companies are already providing hardware for AT&T's 3G efforts, and they're partnered with Verizon.

Wi-Fi Planet Wi-Fi Planet Wireless News ~Created Tue Mar 9 19:52:11 2010

Juniper, Cisco Roll Out Wireless Tech to Handle Data Flood
Juniper, Cisco Roll Out Wireless Tech to Handle Data Flood

Wi-Fi Planet Wi-Fi Planet Wireless News ~Created Tue Mar 9 19:52:11 2010

Tablets: Apple Doesn't Need to Be First to Lead
Apple's iPad might not be the first, but an analyst with ABI Research says it will help define tablet computing as the market grows and matures.

Wi-Fi Planet Wi-Fi Planet Wireless News ~Created Tue Mar 9 19:52:11 2010

Medical and Educational Fields Could Fall Hard for iPad
iPad will be entering the educational and medical markets with a big leg up: A library of thousands of applications medical professionals already depend on, ready for use on a bigger screen with more choices for interaction.

Wi-Fi Planet Wi-Fi Planet Wireless News ~Created Tue Mar 9 19:52:11 2010

Reflecting on the Best of CES 2010
Now that we've had time to sort through everything the consumer tech industry threw at us, it's time to consider the most important news to come out of CES 2010.

Wi-Fi Planet Wi-Fi Planet Wireless News ~Created Tue Mar 9 19:52:11 2010

Allan Holmes - .Gov Websites That Work
The Government is no longer a secluded center of power that rules the citizenry. Government agencies now try to actively connect with the public and interact with them. Allan Holmes, Executive Editor at Government Executive, talks about how some of the well-made government websites are not only successful at what they set out to do, but top the internet charts for traffic and user engagement.