Highlights of F-35 Flight Testing

At NAS Patuxent River, Md., NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, and Edwards AFB, Ca.

Via Theo Spark:

Cloud Computing Vulnerable to Hackers

I love this idea of cloud computing, but it's not particularly safe.

Interesting piece at Los Angeles Times, "Hacker attacks show vulnerability of cloud computing":

As hackers continue their rampage against the world's largest banks, defense contractors and technology companies, executives and government officials are confronting a sobering truth: The bad guys are winning.

The seemingly unending string of high-profile attacks, most recently against Citigroup Inc. and Sony Corp., have shown that nearly every organization is vulnerable to a growing contingent of well-trained and agile attackers who are finding security holes faster than they can be plugged.

"It's gotten very dangerous out there," said Stan Stahl, a security consultant and president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Information Systems Security Assn. "There's an epidemic of this stuff going on right now."

The increase in high-profile attacks comes as companies are looking to move more of their business operations online, including to the "cloud," in which computing tasks are outsourced to firms that maintain huge data centers around the world.

Despite the cloud's potential for cost savings and reducing the hassles of running in-house computer servers, security analysts say it may not yet be as safe as advertised — a warning that many companies are taking seriously.

Alex Bermudez, the security manager for Beachbody, a Los Angeles company that makes the popular P90X workout videos, said that although his company is beefing up security as it expands overseas, he's held off on shifting operations into the cloud.

"There are a lot of good technology companies doing the cloud well," he said, but having his company's data stored remotely, alongside data from many other firms, "is a little scary."

More at the link.

The Internet Lets It All Hang Out

See Gordon Crovitz, at Wall Street Journal. A great piece.

The Other America: Mountain View Workers Struggle as High Tech Booms

Fascinating piece at New York Times, "In Mountain View, 2 Contrasting Economic Worlds Intersect":

At the Google campus on the outskirts of Mountain View, employees sip lattes under brightly colored umbrellas as others pass on company bicycles, laptops secured in the front baskets. This year the company will add substantially to its work force of more than 5,000 in that Silicon Valley city, and it has just leased nine acres to expand its campus.

But closer to downtown, Carolina Rivera finds herself in a decidedly less attractive environment — the crowded office of the Community Services Agency, where she is looking for a job. She has three children to support and has not found anything since her hours at an organic-food factory were reduced. Those like Mrs. Rivera find life difficult in Mountain View: the competition for work is fierce, housing is expensive and cuts in government services are pending as the city tries to balance its budget.

Mountain View, home to technology kingpins like Google, LinkedIn and Symantec, illustrates the disconnect between the current technology boom and the daily economic realities of many in Silicon Valley. The five biggest tech companies with headquarters in town are valued at more than $200 billion, but Mountain View, with a population of 74,000, faces a $2.6 million budget gap and has an unemployment rate of 7.7 percent.

“We really are seeing two very different economies emerging,” said Emmett Carson, chief executive of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. “We have the Google campus; they’re expanding, they’re adding employees, they’re doing very well financially. But the nonprofit sector and local government have been stretched to the maximum.”

But these people are supposed to be progressive:

Part of the problem is that corporate campuses, with their own cafeterias, day care centers and other employee perks, are not always very integrated into the surrounding community.

“The industry doesn’t create a lot of demand for services,” said Terry Christensen, a professor at San Jose State University who specializes in Silicon Valley politics. “The Google campus, they pay their taxes, but their workers don’t necessarily use parks, police and other traditional services, so you get a disconnect between the businesses themselves and the people who work in them.”

Just as important, many local residents are simply not in the talent pool for high-tech jobs. The people looking for work at the Community Services Agency have skills in other areas, like housecleaning, gardening and washing dishes, and those jobs are scarce.

Actually, Google acts exactly as it should. It's an extremely successful business that creates a self-sustaining social support system. The trick is to create more Googles, that is, to expand the employment sector to include more companies providing goods and services to an expanding marketplace, which will increase the demand for labor and take the strain off local governments, which don't have the money to care for the sick and unskilled. The rub is that Googe and other progressive tech firms are left-leaning business organizations that operate according to a vision more like Milton Friedman's than Paul Krugman's. It's all in the messaging. New York Times is going off the reservation on this one.

China Hacks Google

At WSJ, "Google Mail Hack Blamed on China":

Google Inc. said Chinese hackers targeted the email accounts of senior U.S. officials and hundreds of other prominent people in a fresh computer attack certain to intensify growing concern about the security of the Internet.

The victims, including government and military personnel, Asian officials, Chinese activists and journalists, were tricked into sharing their Gmail passwords with "bad actors" based in China, Google said in an unusual blog post. The attack's goal was to read and forward the victims' email.

The company, which in 2010 blamed China for an attack on its computer networks, said it recently discovered the Gmail campaign, which "appears to originate from Jinan, China," and targeted specific individuals.

In Washington, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security said they were working with Google to investigate the attacks. "We have no reason to believe that any official U.S. government email accounts were accessed," said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

More at the link.

Interesting how the FBI got involved. It's a hacking case, you know, like Representative Weiner's. A Member of Congress certainly merits concern, although we've heard so many lies and distortions by now I think the dude's safe.

Anyway, see the Google blog post, "Ensuring your information is safe online." (Via Memeorandum.)

Predator: A Smart Camera that Learns

A scientific research project by Zdenek Kalal, a PhD at the University of Surrey, UK. More infos about the project here, but isn’t it too… powerful? Do you think?

The World's Smallest Solar Powered Movie Theater

Sol Cinema is the smallest solar powered cinema in the world. It works on solar energy and only 8 adults can fit inside it. Movies are shown on a LED projector.
The UK-based Sol Cinema is 100% powered by the Sun. They say:

"The U.K. isn't famous for sunny days, yet we still manage to run our entire cinema, including video projectors, sound systems, laptops, hard drives and lights from the energy of the sun via solar panels. This means we have no utility bill each year and can perform anywhere at anytime."

The film projector they use is powered by four large lithium-ion batteries that are charged by two 120W solar panels. Sol Cinema refrains from showing anything that glorifies violence or is "too mainstream". They tell customers to think more "Michael Moore rather than Demi Moore".


















































Source: thesolcinema

Explaining IMAX (Infographic)

IMAX is a motion picture film format and projection standard created by the Canadian IMAX Corporation. The Company’s activities include the design, leasing, marketing, maintenance and operation of IMAX film and digital theatre systems as well as the development, production, post production and distribution of IMAX motion pictures.

IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than most conventional film systems. A standard IMAX screen is 22 × 16.1 m (72 × 52.8 ft), but can be larger. IMAX theatres are described as either "Classic Design," (Purpose-built structures designed to house an IMAX theatre) or "Multiplex Design." (Existing multiplex auditoriums that have been retrofitted with IMAX technology). The world's largest cinema screen (and IMAX screen) is in the LG IMAX theatre in Sydney, New South Wales and also in Hyderabad, India at Prasads IMAX theater. It is approximately 8 stories high, with dimensions of 35.73 × 29.42 m (117.2 × 96.5 ft) and covers an area of more than 1,015 m2 (10,930 sq ft).

IMAX is the most widely used system for special-venue film presentations. As of December 2009, there were more than 400 IMAX theatres in over 40 countries. IMAX Corporation has released four projector types that use its 15-perforation, 70mm film format: GT (Grand Theatre), GT 3D (dual rotor), SR (Small Rotor), and MPX, which was designed to be retrofitted in existing multiplex theatres. In July 2008, the company introduced a digital projection system, which it has not given a distinct name or brand, designed for multiplex theatres with screens no wider than 21.3 m (70 ft). All IMAX projectors, except the standard GT system, can project 3D images.

Most IMAX theatres have flat, rectangular screens, but IMAX Dome theatres, formerly branded as OMNIMAX, use a GT projector with a fish-eye lens to project an image on a tilted hemispheric dome screen. Imax also has a special simulator technique which uses seat movement/vibration at specific points in the film. (Source: Wikipedia)

Here is how IMAX work.

More Infographics.

Click to Enlarge.

Source: theblackandblue

The World's Most Super-Designed Data Center: Pionen

Pionen is an underground data center that belongs to the biggest Swedish internet service provider Bahnhof. It is located 30 meters under the granite rocks. It was built in a former bomb shelter, thus it can withstand a direct attack with a hydrogen bomb. Two Maybach MTU diesel engines from a submarine are responsible for backup power supply. Together they produce 1.5 megawatts of power. The entrance doors are 40 cm thick. The place is surrounded with the granite and it just mesmerizes with its beauty.

It became famous for hosting some of Wikileaks servers. And this place looks beautiful.




















































Source: bahnhof