Have 2 Minutes? Check Out Who Has Access to Your Social Media Accounts

Just read this article ini maskable,

You don’t have to be an online privacy expert to understand that’s probably too many, but how many apps have permission to your account?

Israel-based entrepreneur Avi Charkham has cut down the time it will take you to find out. After becoming frustrated with how difficult it is to locate app permission pages on social sites, Charkham compiled direct links to such pages for eight different networks into one place on the site MyPermissions.

“I kept connecting to services, and one day I was looking for the list to remove some of them,” Charkham tellsMashable. “I found that Facebook hid them behind four or five links…and thought to myself, ‘There’s no way people can find this.’ Two clicks I could live with, but four or five made it clear they were hiding it.”

He recently relaunched the list at the domain mypermissions.org, and it took off on Twitter and Facebook after a fan submitted it to Hacker News on Monday. Using the site to help clean up your app permissions takes about two minutes, and you can sign up to receive monthly reminders to review your app permissions thereafter.

Charkham is the cofounder of a web app called MyFamilio that lets families post their family moments privately. The simple MyPermissions site is just a side project and — if you’re looking to better protect your online privacy this year — a favor.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Darwin Bell

It's become obvious people doesn't know when they got trap with apps that connect to their social media.

Which one is you?

Dapet ini dari profile pict BBM teman.

Teman lama yang sekarang sudah jarang bertemu dan bersua. Memang tipikal orangnya serupa, jadi wajar klo pendapat, pandangan dan pemikirannya sering mirip. Sekarang masih ndak yah ???

Anyway thanks to Her.

Hi again ....

Rasanya sudah lama tidak bersua di blog ini.
Karena belakangan lagi sering akses lagi ... tidak ada salahnya kayaknya menulis lagi.

Official Google Enterprise Blog: We’re better together: how cloud, mobile and socia...: Posted by Amit Singh, Vice President, Google Enterprise Who puts in a 9-5 day anymore? Or works on their own? The demands on our time are ...

Maria Sharapova by Dan and Jonny

Mantan Insinyur Boeing Bocorkan Teknologi ke China

WASHINGTON, SELASA - Pihak berwenang federal AS menangkap seorang mantan insinyur Boeing yang dituduh membocorkan teknologi ke China. Ia ditengarai menjual informasi tentang teknologi yang digunakan dalam program antariksa, termasuk pada wahana ruang angkasa maupun roket Delta 4.

Agen FBI menangkap Dongfan "Greg" Chung, demikian nama orang tersebut, di rumahnya wilayah Orange, California tanpa insiden, Senin (11/2). Sebelumnya, pria berusia 72 tahun itu telah dituntut delapan pasal terkait kegiatan spionase (mata-mata).

"Chung dituduh mencuri teknologi rahasia yang dikembangkan selama beberapa tahun oleh para insinyur yang disumpah untuk melindungi produknya karena hal tersebut akan dianggap rahasia dagang," ujar pengacara AS Thomas P O'Brien.

Chung adalah keturunan asli China yang telah melakukan naturalisasi sebagai waraga negara AS. Ia bekerja di Rockwell International sejak tahun 1973 sebelum unit usaha pertahanan dan antariksa diakusisi Boeing tahun 1996. Chung keluar dari Boeing tahun 2002, namun tetap bekerja sebagai kontraktor pada program pesawat Beoing di Huntongton Beach, California sampai September 2006.

Hasil investigasi FBI dan NASA menunjukkan bahwa Chung telah melakukan tindakan mata-mata sejak bekerja di program antariksa. Ia awalnya mendapat surat dari seseorang di industri penerbangan China pada tahun 1979 yang meminta informasi spesifik teknologi pesawat ruang angkasa, militer, maupun komersial.

Dalam suart balasannya, Chung bersedia membantu perkembangan industri antariksa di negara asalnya. Chung sempat mengirimkan manual-manual teknik yang dikumpulkannya sendiri termasuk 24 dokumen rahasia milik perusahaan.

Salah satunya tentang pesawat pengebom B1. Ia juga mengirimkan spesifikasi teknologi antena yang digunakan pada pengembangan lanjut wahana ulang alik AS di pertengahan 1990-an dan deskripsi rinci proses pengisian bahan bakar pada roket Delta 4.

Bahkan, Chung sempat melakukan korespondensi dengan pejabat pemerintah China tentang cara pengiriman dokumen-dokumen tersebut agar aman. Antara lain melalui istrinya yang berprofesi sebagai seorang artis.

"Pengungkapan informasi ke luar seperti kepada (Pemerintah Republik Rakyat China) akan membahayakan kemanan nasional kami," tandas O'Brien.(SPACE.COM/WAH)

Yahoo Tolak Tawaran Microsoft

Liputan6.com, New York: Yahoo belum lama ini telah menolak tawaran akuisisi senilai US$ 40 miliar yang diajukan raksasa software, Microsoft, dengan mengatakan harga penawaran itu terlalu rendah. Perusahaan pengelola portal search engine itu mengatakan penawaran Microsoft masih di bawah nilai Yahoo yang sebenarnya. Hal tersebut jelas tak menjadi daya tarik pemegang saham.

Microsoft mengajukan penawaran mengambil alih Yahoo seharga 31 dolar per saham, adalah 62 persen lebih tinggi dari harga saham Yahoo ketika penawaran akusisi itu dibuat 1 Februari silam. Penggabungan antara Microsoft dan Yahoo akan menjadi sebuah perusahaan teknologi yang besar, dan akan menyejajarkan kembali Yahoo dengan pesaing utamanya, Google.

Tidak putus asa, pihak Microsoft mengatakan penolakan oleh Yahoo itu bukan jalan buntu. Namun, pihak Microsoft tetap percaya penawarannya sudah pantas, bahkan dianggap sudah maksimal dan terbuka. Dalam penolakan penawaran Microsoft, Yahoo berkata, tawaran itu masih terlalu rendah untuk brand, audience, platform investasi periklanan dan prospek pertumbuhan ke depan, potensi pendapatan serta cash flow (arus kas) Yahoo.

Yahoo mengatakan, dewan direkturnya tengah melanjutkan evaluasi semua opsi strategisnya. Sebuah sumber yang dikutip oleh Wall Street Journal mengatakan bahwa direksi Yahoo tidak akan mempertimbangkan berbagai hal lagi dengan harga yang diinginkan 40 dolar per saham.

Adapun pada penutupan perdagangan Senin di New York, Amerika Serikat, saham Microsoft melemah tipis, sementara Yahoo naik 2,3 persen ke posisi 29,87 dolar. Para analis mengatakan Microsoft sepertinya akan datang lagi dengan menaikkan penawarannya. "Ini penting bagi perspektif Microsoft, ada sebuah peluang yang sangat baik yang bisa mendatangkan banyak uang," kata Ian Maude dari Enders Analysis seperti dikutip BBC News.

"Strategi logisnya adalah pada pasar iklan online. Ini (penggabungan Microsoft-Yahoo) akan membuat mereka menjadi tujuan terakhir bagi banyak perusahaan yang tengah mempertimbangkan rencana periklanannya," kata dia.

Sebuah laporan terpisah menyatakan bahwa Yahoo kemungkinan mendekati divisi online Time Warner, AOL, dengan harapan bisa meningkat menjadi sebuah kesepakatan yang mengikat. Meskipun saham Yahoo telah turun tajam dalam bulan ini, situsnya masih termasuk yang terpopuler di dunia.

Nilai pasar Microsoft sebelumnya adalah sekitar 44,6 miliar dolar, tapi sejak program akusisi Yahoo diumumkan harga sahamnya jatuh. Kini nilai pasar Microsoft turun menjadi hanya US$ 41,8 miliar.(ANS/Antara)

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Jumlah etnis Cina di Indonesia sekitar 3,5 juta. Ini angka proyeksi. Sensus Penduduk tahun 2000 tidak mencatat angka keseluruhan etnis Cina di Indonesia. Yang dicatat adalah per provinsi. Berdasarkan data itu, Leo Suryadinata dkk.(2003) memperkirakan jumlahnya 3 juta atau 1,5 persen. Sedang jumlah penduduk Indonesia keseluruhan, menurut sensus, 205,8 juta. Dengan menggunakan asumsi tingkat pertumbuhan penduduk 1,37 persen per tahun (periode 1990-2000), angka 3,5 juta terbilang moderat.

Sensus Penduduk tahun 2000 adalah sensus pertama sejak kemerdekaan yang mencacah etinisitas, termasuk etnis Cina. Di masa penjajahan, persisnya 1930, sensus sama pernah dilakukan. Ketika itu tercatat 2,03 persen etnis Cina. Dengan alasan bisa menimbulkan konflik SARA (suku, agama, ras, dan antargolongan), sensus penduduk yang diselenggarakan setiap sepuluh tahun sekali menghilangkan pertanyaan tentang etnisitas.

Angka 1,5 persen atau 3,5 juta tentu terasa kecil. Tapi sensus bukan soal rasa. Suka atau tidak, itulah angkanya. Soal berapa persisnya jumlah etnis Cina di Indonesia memang sudah lama menjadi perdebatan. Banyak pakar dan pengamat membuat proyeksi dan perkiraan. Tak jarang bercampur dengan persepsi.

Maka, misalnya, ada yang mengestimasi jumlahnya antara 2,3 juta dan 2,6 juta (antara 2,40 persen dan 2,70 persen) pada 1961 (Skinner, 1963); pada 1965 berjumlah 2,5 juta (N. Iskandar); pada awal 1970-an berjumlah 3,6 juta atau 2,8 persen (Leo Suryadinata, 1978); pada 1970 berjumlah 3 juta (Mackie, 1976); dan pada 1975 berjumlah 5,0 juta (mantan Menlu Adam Malik).

Dibanding negara tetangga, kecuali Filipina, persentase ini terbilang kecil. Di Thailand, misalnya, persentase etnis Cina 13,0 persen, Brunei Darussalam 25,4 persen, Singapura 76,9 persen, dan Malaysia 33,1 persen (Mely G. Tan, 1985).

Persepsi atas besarnya penduduk etnis Cina di Indonesia lebih disebabkan penguasaan ruang publik. Terutama sejak Reformasi, etnis ini tak lagi dilarang mengekspresikan identitas dan budayanya di ruang publik. Perayaan Imlek, misalnya, beberapa tahun terakhir ini begitu meriah dan dahsyat. Di kota-kota besar di Indonesia, terutama yang memiliki fasilitas ruang publik seperti mal dan hotel, ritus Chun Ciek (pesta musim semi) yang mulanya dirayakan kaum petani ini nyaris mewarnai secara fantastis.

Ruang publik media juga tak kalah dahsyatnya. Menjelang dan tepat pada hari H, televisi di Indonesia memborbardir penontonnya dengan program-program yang berkaitan dengan perayaan mensyukuri berkah alam ini. Iklan-iklan di media cetak dan televisi dari berbagai korporasi besar pun seakan berlomba mengucapkan gong xi fa cai.

Apa yang bisa dibaca dari semua ini? Pertama, jumlah menjadi tidak relevan ketika perayaan identitas mengambil ruang publik. Iklan dan program berbau gong xi fa cai yang menghiasi media itu menjelaskan kekuatan etnis minoritas ini memang sungguh dahsyat baik secara ekonomi maupun budaya. Dalam bidang politik belum terlalu terlihat, memang. Ada satu dua figur dan politisi etnis Cina dalam kabinet dan lembaga perwakilan, juga ada partai politik mengusung sentimen entnis Cina, tapi perannya belum begitu menonjol. Bisa dibayangkan seperti apa hebatnya jika tiga kekuataan– ekonomi, budaya, dan politik–ini kelak bergabung.

Orang Jawa, Sunda, dan Madura sebagai etnis bisa saja besar dalam jumlah. Tapi jika jumlah itu tidak bisa ditransformasikan menjadi sebuah kekuatan, ia akan tidak terasa di ruang publik. Ketiga etnis itu bisa saja punya perayaan rakyat seperti Imlek, tapi jika mereka tidak menguasai ruang publik, perayaan identitas dan budaya itu belum tentu juga bisa semeriah dan sespektakuler perayaan Imlek.

Kedua, kita belum tahu atau belum bisa menebak ke mana arah perkembangan budaya ini. Kita belum tahu bagaimana perasaan etnis non-Cina atas hiruk-pikuk perayaan Imlek setiap tahun ini. Yang kita tahu: kita punya Pancasila dan Bhineka Tunggal Ika. Artinya, di sana ada pengakuan akan pluralitas, tapi juga kebersamaan dan toleransi. Yang kita tahu juga: kita pernah punya sejarah hitam rasialisme dan etnis Cina selalu menjadi korban. Peristiwa Sukabumi tahun 1950-an misalnya, atau Peristiwa Mei 1998 di Jakarta.

Ketiga, kita berharap perayaan Imlek tidak dipahami sebagai perebutan ruang publik secara tidak adil dan berlebihan. Kita ingin Imlek, seperti perayaan hari-hari besar pada etnis lain, seperti Galungan untuk etnis Bali, dianggap sebagai bagian dari perayaan manusia Indonesia baru. Pada titik mana persisnya pemahaman dan anggapan ini bisa diterima, sangat tergantung pada tingkat pencampuran (akulturasi) budaya yang pas dan bertolak dari pengendalian diri yang pas pula dari semua etnis.

Gong Xi Fa Cai.


Iskandar Siahaan
Kepala Litbang Liputan 6

Google Raih US$ 8,6 Miliar

Liputan6.com, Jakarta: Sepanjang tahun 2007, situs mesin pencari (search engine) Google telah meraih pendapatan US$ 8,6 miliar dari para pemasang iklan online di Amerika Serikat. Perolehan ini berarti mencapai 75 persen dari pangsa pasar iklan online di negara tersebut. Sementara pesaing utamanya, Yahoo, hanya menguasai lebih dari sembilan persen pangsa pasar iklan di AS. Sedangkan 16 persen dari bagian itu dikuasai oleh situs online lainnya. Demikian laporan periset bisnis online, e-marketer, Rabu (6/2).

Kendati demikian, e-marketer tidak menyebut siapa yang menguasai sekitar lima persen sisa dari pangsa pasar iklan online di AS yang dijelaskan tersebut. Yang terang, dengan pangsa pasar 75 persen itu, penguasaan pasar Google naik dari tahun 2006 yang 60 persen. Sementara para periset memprediksi pada tahun 2011 peluang pasar iklan search engine mencapai 16,6 juta miliar dolar AS.(ANS/Antara)

SSH: Best Practices

Introduction

Are you using SSH in the best way possible? Have you configured it to be as limited and secure as possible? The goal of this document is to kick in the new year with some best practices for SSH: why you should use them, how to set them up, and how to verify that they are in place.

All of the examples below assume that you are using EnGarde Secure Linux but any modern Linux distribution will do just fine since, as far as I know, everybody ships OpenSSH.

SSHv2 vs. SSHv1

There are numerous benefits to using the latest version of the SSH protocol, version 2, over it's older counterpart, version 1 and I'm not going into a lot of details on those benefits here - if you're interested, see the URL in the reference below or Google around. That being said if you don't have an explicit reason to use the older version 1, you should always be using version 2.

To use SSHv2 by default but permit SSHv1, locate the "Protocol" line in your sshd_config file and change it to:

Protocol 2,1

When doing 2,1 please note that the protocol selection is left up to the client. Most clients will default to v2 and "fall back" to v1, while legacy clients may continue to use v1. To force everybody to use SSHv2, change it to:

Protocol 2

When you make this change don't forget to generate the appropriate HostKey's as well! SSHv2 requires the following keys:

# HostKeys for protocol version 2
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key

While SSHv1 requires:

# HostKey for protocol version 1
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key

Once your changes are made, restart the SSH daemon:

# /etc/init.d/sshd restart

[ SUCCESSFUL ] Secure Shell Daemon
[ SUCCESSFUL ] Secure Shell Daemon

From another machine, try SSH'ing in. You can use the -v option to see which protocol is being used, and the '-oProtocol=' option to force one or the other - for example, "ssh -v -oProtocol=2 " would force protocol version 2.

Binding to a Specific Address or Non-Standard Port

If you're running SSH on an internal, firewalled, workstation then you can probably skip this section, but if you're running SSH on a firewall or on a machine with two network interfaces, this section is for you.

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Out of the box OpenSSH will bind to every available network address; while convenient and suitable for most installations, this is far from optimal. If your machine has two or more interfaces then the odds are that one is "trusted" and the other is "untrusted." If this is the case, and you don't need nor want SSH access coming in on the untrusted interface, then you should configure OpenSSH to listen on a specific interface.

To have OpenSSH only bind to your internal interface, 192.168.0.1 in the example below, locate the following line in your sshd_config file:

ListenAddress 0.0.0.0

and change the 0.0.0.0 to 192.168.0.1:

ListenAddress 192.168.0.1

To verify that this change took, restart OpenSSH and look at netstat:

# /etc/init.d/sshd restart

[ SUCCESSFUL ] Secure Shell Daemon
[ SUCCESSFUL ] Secure Shell Daemon

# netstat -anp | grep sshd

tcp 0 0 192.168.0.1:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 7868/sshd

As you can see, the sshd daemon is now only listening on 192.168.0.1. SSH requests coming in any other interface will be ignored.

Similarly, you may want to change the port that the SSH daemon binds to. Sometimes there is a functional need for this (ie, your employer blocks outbound 22/tcp) but there is also security-through-obscurity value in this as well. While not providing any real security benefit against a determined attacker, moving the SSH daemon off of port 22 protects you against automated attacks which assume that the daemon is running on port 22.

To have OpenSSH bind to a port other than port 22, 31337 in the example below, locate the following line in your sshd_config file:

Port 22

and change the 22 to 31337:

Port 31337

To verify that this change took, restart OpenSSH and, again, look at netstat:

# netstat -anp | grep sshd

tcp 0 0 192.168.0.1:31337 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 330/sshd

Finally, to SSH into a host whose SSH daemon is listening on a non-standard port, use the -p option:

ssh -p 31337 user@192.168.0.1

Using TCP Wrappers

TCP Wrappers are used to limit access to TCP services on your machine. If you haven't heard of TCP Wrappers you've probably heard of /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny: these are the two configuration files for TCP Wrappers. In the context of SSH, TCP Wrappers allow you to decide what specific addresses or networks have access to the SSH service.

To use TCP Wrappers with SSH you need to make sure that OpenSSH was built with the -with-tcp-wrappers. This is the case on any modern distribution.

As I indicated earlier, TCP Wrappers are configured by editing the /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow files. Typically you tell hosts.deny to deny everything, then add entries to hosts.allow to permit specific hosts access to specific services.

An example:

#
# hosts.deny    This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#               *not* allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#               by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#
ALL: ALL
#
# hosts.allow   This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#               allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#               by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#
sshd: 207.46.236. 198.133.219.25

In the example above, access to SSH is limited to the network 207.46.236.0/24 and the address 198.133.219.25. Requests to any other service from any other address are denied by the "ALL: ALL" in hosts.deny. If you try to SSH into a machine and TCP Wrappers denies your access, you'll see something like this:

ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

This simple configuration change significantly hardens your installation since, with it in place, packets from hostile clients are dropped very early in the TCP session -- and before they can do any real damage to a potentially vulnerable daemon.

Public Key Authentication

The last item I will cover is public key authentication. One of the best things you can do to tighten the security of your SSH installation is to disable password authentication and to use public key authentication instead. Password authentication is suboptimal for many reasons, but mostly because people choose bad passwords and attackers routinely try to brute-force passwords. If the systems administrator has chosen a bad password and he's permitting root logins... game over.

Public key authentication is no silver bullet - similarly, people generate passphrase-less keys or leave ssh-agents running when they shouldn't - but, in my opinion, it's a much better bet.

Just about every distribution ships with public key authentication enabled, but begin by making sure it is:

RSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes

Both of these options default to "yes" and the "RSAAuthentication" option is for SSHv1 and the "PubkeyAuthentication" option is for SSHv2. If you plan on using this authentication method exclusively, while you're there, you may want to disable password authentication:

PasswordAuthentication no

Before you proceed, make sure you have a terminal open on your target machine. Once you restart the SSH daemon you will no longer be able to log in without a key... which we haven't generated yet!

Once you're sure, restart the SSH daemon:

# /etc/init.d/sshd restart

[ SUCCESSFUL ] Secure Shell Daemon
[ SUCCESSFUL ] Secure Shell Daemon

Now, from your desktop, try to SSH in to your target machine:

$ ssh rwm@brainy

Permission denied (publickey,keyboard-interactive).

We're locked out! This is a good thing. The next step, on your desktop, is to generate a key:

$ ssh-keygen -t dsa -C "Ryan's SSHv2 DSA Key (Jan 2008)"

Generating public/private dsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/rwm/.ssh/id_dsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): **********
Enter same passphrase again: **********
Your identification has been saved in /home/rwm/.ssh/id_dsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/rwm/.ssh/id_dsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
98:4d:50:ba:ee:8b:79:be:b3:36:75:8a:c2:4a:44:4b Ryan's SSHv2 DSA Key (Jan 2008)

A few notes on this:

• You can generate a DSA (-t dsa), RSA (-t rsa), or SSHv1 (-t rsa1) key. In the example above I'm using dsa.


• I like to put the date I generated the key in the comment (-C) field, that way I can change it out every so often.


• You're entering a passphrase, not a password. Use a long string with spaces and punctuation. The longer and more complicated the better!

The command you just ran generated two files - id_dsa, your private key and id_dsa.pub, your public key. It is critical that you keep your private key private, but you can distribute your public key to any machines you would like to access.

Now that you have generated your keys we need to get the public key into the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the target machine. The best way to do this is to copy-and-paste it - begin by concatenating the public key file:

$ cat .ssh/id_dsa.pub

ssh-dss AAAAB3NzaC1kc3MAAACBAL7p6bsg5kK4ES9BWLPCNABl20iQQB3R0ymaPMHK...
... ds= Ryan's SSHv2 DSA Key (Jan 2008)

This is a very long string. Make sure you copy all of it and that you do NOT copy the newline character at the end. In other words, copy from the "ssh" to the "2008)", but not past that.

The next step is to append this key to the end of the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on your target machine. Remember that terminal I told you to keep open a few steps ago? Type the following command into it, pasting the key you've just copied into the area noted KEY:

echo "KEY" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

For example:

echo "ssh-dss AAAA5kS9BWLPCN...s= Ryan's SSHv2 DSA Key (Jan 2008)" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Now, try to SSH in again. If you did this procedure correctly then instead of being denied access, you'll be prompted for your passphrase:

$ ssh rwm@brainy

Enter passphrase for key '/home/rwm/.ssh/id_dsa':
Last login: Thu Jan 10 14:37:14 2008 from papa.engardelinux.org
[rwm@brainy ~]$

Viola! You're now logged in using public key authentication instead of password authentication.

In Summary...

SSH is a wonderful tool and is every systems administrators second best friend (Perl, of course, being the first :). It allows you to read your email from anywhere, provided you still use a terminal-based mail reader. It allows you to tunnel an xterm or X11 application from your home server to your desktop at work. It provides you a far superior alternative to FTP in SFTP and SCP.

SSH is great but just like any tool, it's only as good as you use it. I hope that you found value in some of my best practices and if you have any of your own, leave them in the comments!

Before I go, here are some additional resources on SSH:

• The OpenSSH Project


• SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide


• Introduction to SSH Versions 1 and 2


• Knock, Knock, Knockin' on EnGarde's Door (with FWKNOP)

Brain/Machine Interfaces Approaching Usefulness

Gary writes with a link to a Wired article about a brain-machine interface that may eventually have practical purposes. Though right now it simply allows a user to move a train on a track by performing math in their head, someday it may result in more serious applications. "Honda, whose interface monitors the brain with an MRI machine like those used in hospitals, is keen to apply the interface to intelligent, next-generation automobiles. The technology could one day replace remote controls and keyboards and perhaps help disabled people operate electric wheelchairs, beds or artificial limbs. Initial uses would be helping people with paralyzing diseases communicate even after they have lost all control of their muscles. Since 2005, Hitachi has sold a device based on optical topography that monitors brain activity in paralyzed patients so they can answer simple questions - for example, by doing mental calculations to indicate 'yes' or thinking of nothing in particular to indicate 'no.'"

 

Hitachi: Move the Train With Your Brain

By HIROKO TABUCHI
Associated Press Writer

AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi

Technology Video

Buy AP Photo Reprints

HATOYAMA, Japan (AP) -- Forget the clicker: A new technology in Japan could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity.

The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi Inc. analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals.

A cap connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links, in turn, to a toy train set via a control computer and motor during one recent demonstration at Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory in Hatoyama, just outside Tokyo.

"Take a deep breath and relax," said Kei Utsugi, a researcher, while demonstrating the device on Wednesday.

At his prompting, a reporter did simple calculations in her head, and the train sprang forward - apparently indicating activity in the brain's frontal cortex, which handles problem solving.

Activating that region of the brain - by doing sums or singing a song - is what makes the train run, according to Utsugi. When one stops the calculations, the train stops, too.

Underlying Hitachi's brain-machine interface is a technology called optical topography, which sends a small amount of infrared light through the brain's surface to map out changes in blood flow.

Although brain-machine interface technology has traditionally focused on medical uses, makers like Hitachi and Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. have been racing to refine the technology for commercial application.

Hitachi's scientists are set to develop a brain TV remote controller letting users turn a TV on and off or switch channels by only thinking.

Honda, whose interface monitors the brain with an MRI machine like those used in hospitals, is keen to apply the interface to intelligent, next-generation automobiles.

The technology could one day replace remote controls and keyboards and perhaps help disabled people operate electric wheelchairs, beds or artificial limbs.

Initial uses would be helping people with paralyzing diseases communicate even after they have lost all control of their muscles.

Since 2005, Hitachi has sold a device based on optical topography that monitors brain activity in paralyzed patients so they can answer simple questions - for example, by doing mental calculations to indicate "yes" or thinking of nothing in particular to indicate "no."

"We are thinking of various kinds of applications," project leader Hideaki Koizumi said. "Locked-in patients can speak to other people by using this kind of brain machine interface."

A key advantage to Hitachi's technology is that sensors don't have to physically enter the brain. Earlier technologies developed by U.S. companies like Neural Signals Inc. required implanting a chip under the skull.

Still, major stumbling blocks remain.

Size is one issue, though Hitachi has developed a prototype compact headband and mapping machine that together weigh only about two pounds.

Another would be to tweak the interface to more accurately pick up on the correct signals while ignoring background brain activity.

Any brain-machine interface device for widespread use would be "a little further down the road," Koizumi said.

He added, however, that the technology is entertaining in itself and could easily be applied to toys.

"It's really fun to move a model train just by thinking," he said.

How to Dominate The Sky in Future Warfare

The Dominator, the future terror of the sky

By: Lucian Dorneanu, Science Editor

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The future of air combat will make the classical dogfight obsolete. The times of air aces like the Red Baron – the most successful fighter pilot of f World War I, credited with 80 confirmed air combat victories – are gone, and the next flying aces will be unmanned drones, hunting and killing ground enemies while being remote controlled from a safe distance, or even capable of taking decisions on their own.

More and more scientists,

militarists, and governments are investing large amounts of resources in an intriguing, futuristic technology: fleets of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The main reason for investing in UAV technology lies in the replacement of the traditional, open battleground with the urban theater of war.

Boeing’s Air Dominator is a 100 lb drone with a 12-foot span which looks like a model aircraft. It will have a special lightweight fuel cell, that could bring its endurance to over 40 hours, and there are plans for a sophisticated new vision system for mid-air refueling to increase endurance even further.

The Dominator drone will carry a payload of three explosive charges, each warhead firing an explosively-formed projectile triggered by a two-color infrared sensor. It won't operate alone, but rather in swarms of tens of drones, along with a few 'gateway' vehicles providing networked communications and refueling.

In the JITSA scheme, Dominators would be packed in pallets of twenty on a C-17 transport plane, with thirty pallets in all – that’s a total of six hundred drones. They will be able to wirelessly communicate with each other, to confirm the destruction of a target, so that ammunition is not wasted two times on the same target.

As a last resort, once the drone had fired all three warheads, it will also be able to make the ultimate sacrifice and plunge kamikaze-style into a target, creating a small blast powerful enough to destroy a terrestrial vehicle.

The manufacturers estimate that any target in the kill zone could be hit within 2-4 minutes maximum. None of those fleeting targets would escape, so this UAV will fully deserve the name of Dominator of tomorrow's sky.

NANO-BIOTECHNOLOGY

New Laser Technique Could Redefine Absolute Zero and the Kelvin

- A new and improved definition of the Kelvin unit of temperature

By: Lucian Dorneanu, Science Editor

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The kelvin (K) is a unit of temperature, one of the seven base units, along with the Celsius and Fahrenheit degrees. Absolute zero on the Kelvin scale is defined as being equivalent to zero kelvin (0 K). The magnitude of the kelvin unit is precisely 1 part in 273.16 parts the difference between absolute zero and the triple point of water.

Now, a group of French physicists were able to perform the first direct measurement of the Boltzmann constant, using a technique

known as laser spectroscopy, whose accuracy could help in creating a new and improved definition of the kelvin unit of temperature.

The Boltzmann constant (k or kB) is the physical constant relating temperature to energy, in fact a bridge between macroscopic and microscopic physics, relating the kinetic energy of an ensemble of microscopic particles, like gas molecules, to its temperature.

Only one technique can, so far, determine the constant to an accuracy of about 2 parts-per-million (ppm), but the new one – currently less accurate, but easily improvable – could surpass the present degree of accuracy.

This promised accuracy is welcomed by the Paris-based International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM), which is planning to redefine the kelvin in 2011 using kB. They want to define the kelvin and other SI units in terms of each other and the fundamental constants; more specifically, they want to define the absolute temperature involving a time unit, the second, which is known to an extremely high degree of accuracy of about one part in 1016.

The new alternative way of measuring kB to ppm accuracy, the laser spectroscopy technique, was developed by Christian Chardonnet and colleagues at Université Paris 13 - Institut Galilée, and is based on the fact that the thermal motion of a molecule – ammonia in Chardonnet’s experiment – smears out peaks in its optical absorption spectrum in a process called thermal broadening.

This phenomenon is determined by kB, but also by the pressure and temperature of the gas and the frequency of the light being absorbed, so one only needs to measure the width of the broadening as a function of pressure at a fixed temperature and frequency, to determine kB to an accuracy of about two parts in ten thousand.

Although not completely reliable yet, the researchers say this applications could be improved to 1 ppm.

Gnome 2.19.1 Released

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On the road to 2.20.0 Gnome has just reached the 2.19.1 release. What does it bring new compared to 2.18? Well, first of all it brings new documentation and translations (maybe just in case the previous were not enough), new features and new bug-fixes. This is a development release though; so many modules still need improvements. The Gnome developers encourage Linux lovers to compile and test this new release and offer some for download and for some compiling tools. For example for compiling Gnome 2.19.1 you can use Garnome, which can be found here and the release should be found here along with the release notes.

The Gnome 2.19.1 developers announced this release as a snapshot of development code that is mainly intended for testing and hacking purposes. The release is though buildable and usable. You can join the Gnome project too. Any Linux fan willing to help with the Gnome development is more than welcomed here. You do not have to be a programmer to join this project, as there are also a lot of things to be improved that do not require programming knowledge.

The Gnome project aims to create an easy-to-use computing platform out of completely free software. The Gnome project gathers a lot of software and it is used in conjunction with an operating system such as Linux or Solaris. It is also part of the GNU operating system, being its official desktop environment.

Gnome was set-up in August 1997 by the GNU project as an alternative to the KDE software desktop environment that relied on the Qt widget toolkit, which did not use a free software license at that time. Gnome was intended to create a new desktop without making use of the Qt libraries. Thus, instead of Qt Gnome uses GTK+ toolkit under the GNU Lesser Public License (LPGL).

Low-Energy LED Lighting for Streets and Buildings

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A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits incoherent narrow-spectrum light through a form

of electroluminescence. LEDs are small extended sources with extra optics added to the chip, which emit a complex intensity spatial distribution. The color of the emitted light depends on the composition and condition of the semiconducting material used and can be infrared, visible or near-ultraviolet.

The Department of Trade and Industry-led Technology Programme in UK has funded a £175,000 ($350,000) grant to researchers at The University of Manchester to develop powerful low-cost LED lighting modules that can be used in buildings and on roads. Dialight Lumidrives - a company founded by a former student - is contributing another £175,000 to the scheme.

The main goal is to investigate how tightly packed groups of LEDs can be made to work safely and reliably, and with less energy consumption and lower sosts. LEDs lighting solutions have the potential to reduce energy consumption by between 25 and 50 per cent, depending on the applications.

Illumination applications using LEDs are already being used in advertising panels in the streets and for traffic lights, but their use in street and building lighting has yet to overcome some obstacles.

The technical ones involve thermal and electrical issues at the desired lighting levels (of 12,000 lumens and above, when a typical 60w household light bulb produces about 800 lumens), like the amount of heat generated by LEDs packed closely together.

Since the project aims to develop LED modules to be used outside, environmental factors will also be a concern, such as glare, pollution and even the possibility of a bird nesting over a vital heatsink.

Dr Roger Shuttleworth from the Power Conversion Group at The University of Manchester, said: "LED technology first came to prominence in instrument displays back in the 1970s, but we are increasingly seeing it used in things like traffic signals and car lights. Towards the end of the twentieth century, the old fashioned sodium street lights that made everything look orange were gradually replaced by high-pressure sodium lamps. While these are brighter and more aesthetically pleasing, and can help tackle street crime and anti-social behaviour, they are also less energy efficient. With the environment at the top of the public and political agenda, energy saving has become a very important issue. When you consider how many street lights there are in the UK alone, it's clear there are some big opportunities for energy and cost savings."

The many benefits of LEDs will include cutting energy consumption and overall running costs, reducing light pollution and the glow that radiates from big cities, and their longer lifespan which means they would need to be replaced less often, potentially cutting down on traffic disruption and local council repair bills.

Gold Nanoparticles Used to Detect a Toxic Metal - Mercury

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Throughout history, mercury has widely been used by alchemists that were trying to produce gold. Now, the roles have changed, and gold is what helps scientists find mercury.

In

the litmus test, litmus is a water-soluble mixture of different dyes extracted from certain lichens, especially Roccella tinctoria, often absorbed on to filter paper. The resulting piece of paper or solution with water becomes a pH indicator (one of the oldest), used to test materials for acidity. Blue litmus paper turns red under acidic conditions and red litmus paper turns blue under basic (alkaline) conditions, the color change occurring over the pH range 4.5-8.3 (at 25 degrees Celsius). Neutral litmus paper is purple in color.

Scientists at Northwestern University have recently developed a simple "litmus test" for mercury that could be used for environmental monitoring of bodies of water, such as rivers, streams, lakes and oceans, to evaluate their safety as food and drinking water sources.

The colorimetric screening technology and its success in detecting mercury rely on using gold nanoparticles and DNA.

Produced directly and indirectly as part of several industrial processes such as the manufacture of acetaldehyde, methyl mercury is a neurotoxin that is particularly dangerous to young children and pregnant women and the form of mercury people ingest when they eat contaminated fish and shellfish.

Mercury is released into the air through industrial pollution, falling into bodies of water and polluting the waters in which fish and shellfish live. Bacteria in the aquatic environment then convert water-soluble mercuric ion (Hg2+) into methyl mercury, which accumulates in varying amounts in fish and shellfish.

Chad A. Mirkin, George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Medicine and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, who led the study, said that "It is critical to detect mercury quickly, accurately and at its source. Most existing detection methods require expensive complicated equipment forcing tests to take place in a lab. Our method is simpler, faster and more convenient than conventional methods, and results can be read with the naked eye at the point of use."

Being highly sensitive, they are capable of detecting mercuric ions at the 100 nanomolar level. "To the best of my knowledge, we have set a record for the most sensitive colorimetric sensor," said Mirkin. "A glucose meter, for example, operates at a high micromolar scale, with glucose being 100,000 times more concentrated than the mercury we are detecting."

Future applications using similar principles will include developing a colorimetric screening method for cadmium and lead.

Geographic Records of the Water

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Water is the blood of planet Earth and its circuit maintains it alive.

And this cycle implies rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.

Here are some of their records.

The largest running water

in the world is the Amazon river. Each second, this enormous river disgorges 150,000 cubic meters of water into the Atlantic Ocean (3,120 cubic km annually).

Amazon is also the longest river in the world (4,195 mi or 6,750 km), 50 mi (80 km) longer than the Nile, and it also has the largest river basin in the world: 7,050,000 square km (2/3 of Europe or double of the sum for Mississippi and Nile).

The second river is Congo and the third by debit is Ganges.

The largest river delta in the world is that formed by the Ganges and Brahmaputra (Bangladesh and northeastern India): 7,800,000 hectares.

The longest river estuary is that of Obi (Siberia): 450 mi (720 km).

The largest lake in the world is the Caspian Sea: 424,800 square km and 975 m maximum depth.

The deepest lake in the world is Baikal (Siberia): 1,620 m. It has 23,000 cubic km of water, and harbors 1,200 animal species and 700 plant species.

The largest gulf in the world is the Gulf of Mexico: 615,000 square mi (1.6 million square km).

The shortest known river is D.River, in Oregon, that enters into the Pacific after just 132 m (440 ft).

The highest waterfall in the world is the Angel Falls (Venezuela): 979 m (3,212 ft) tall.

The biggest geyser in the world is “Old Faithful” from Yellowstone National Park (Wyomong, US): its water column is 30-54 m (100-180 ft) tall and erupts from 21 to 65 minutes.

The saltiest ocean is the Atlantic: 3.5 % salts, and amongst the seas, the record is detained by the Red Sea : 4 %.

The warmest seawater is that of the Persian Gulf: 35 degrees C, followed by the Red Sea: 32 degrees C.

The coldest seawater is that of the Ross and Weddell seas (Antarctica).

The strongest marine current is the Gulf Stream: it carries 82 million cubic meters of water per second.

The widest strait is the Yucatan Channel between Yucatan peninsula (Mexico) and Cuba: 220 km (360 mi).

It is also the deepest: 2,000 m (6,660 ft).

The longest strait is the Straits of Malacca, between Sumatra Island and Malacca peninsula: 805 km (500 mi) long.

The narrowest intercontinental strait is Bosporus (between Europe and Asia): 700-750 m wide (0.5 mi) and 80 km (50 mi) long.

The narrowest navigable strait in the world is Khalkis (Aegean Sea), between the Balkan peninsula and Eubea island: 40 m (133 ft).

The largest fjord in the world is Northwestern, located in ...eastern Greenland: 313 km (195 mi) long.

Geographic Records of the Water

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Water is the blood of planet Earth and its circuit maintains it alive.

And this cycle implies rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.

Here are some of their records.

The largest running water

in the world is the Amazon river. Each second, this enormous river disgorges 150,000 cubic meters of water into the Atlantic Ocean (3,120 cubic km annually).

Amazon is also the longest river in the world (4,195 mi or 6,750 km), 50 mi (80 km) longer than the Nile, and it also has the largest river basin in the world: 7,050,000 square km (2/3 of Europe or double of the sum for Mississippi and Nile).

The second river is Congo and the third by debit is Ganges.

The largest river delta in the world is that formed by the Ganges and Brahmaputra (Bangladesh and northeastern India): 7,800,000 hectares.

The longest river estuary is that of Obi (Siberia): 450 mi (720 km).

The largest lake in the world is the Caspian Sea: 424,800 square km and 975 m maximum depth.

The deepest lake in the world is Baikal (Siberia): 1,620 m. It has 23,000 cubic km of water, and harbors 1,200 animal species and 700 plant species.

The largest gulf in the world is the Gulf of Mexico: 615,000 square mi (1.6 million square km).

The shortest known river is D.River, in Oregon, that enters into the Pacific after just 132 m (440 ft).

The highest waterfall in the world is the Angel Falls (Venezuela): 979 m (3,212 ft) tall.

The biggest geyser in the world is “Old Faithful” from Yellowstone National Park (Wyomong, US): its water column is 30-54 m (100-180 ft) tall and erupts from 21 to 65 minutes.

The saltiest ocean is the Atlantic: 3.5 % salts, and amongst the seas, the record is detained by the Red Sea : 4 %.

The warmest seawater is that of the Persian Gulf: 35 degrees C, followed by the Red Sea: 32 degrees C.

The coldest seawater is that of the Ross and Weddell seas (Antarctica).

The strongest marine current is the Gulf Stream: it carries 82 million cubic meters of water per second.

The widest strait is the Yucatan Channel between Yucatan peninsula (Mexico) and Cuba: 220 km (360 mi).

It is also the deepest: 2,000 m (6,660 ft).

The longest strait is the Straits of Malacca, between Sumatra Island and Malacca peninsula: 805 km (500 mi) long.

The narrowest intercontinental strait is Bosporus (between Europe and Asia): 700-750 m wide (0.5 mi) and 80 km (50 mi) long.

The narrowest navigable strait in the world is Khalkis (Aegean Sea), between the Balkan peninsula and Eubea island: 40 m (133 ft).

The largest fjord in the world is Northwestern, located in ...eastern Greenland: 313 km (195 mi) long.

Tiny Machines Made of Microbes

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Biomimetics employs organisms as models for building new machines.

But now new machines could be made of organisms. In fact, tiny machines from microorganisms.

The single-celled Spirostomum, a Paramecium-related protozoan, resembling a tiny brown worm, can contract its 0.5 mm-long body to 25% of its length

in a millisecond: this is the fastest known movement in a microorganism.

Many microorganisms are integrated in MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) technology, the so-called “biotic-MEMS,” developing micron-level machines.

A team of University of Washington has realized a catalogue of the most promising microorganisms (all less than 1 mm long and made of one or few cells) for MEMS systems, and which can boost the conventional MEMS technology. “Tools and concepts have been increasingly borrowed from biology to solve technology problems. Biological concepts such as self-assembly are under serious consideration by technologists now for making highly integrated nano and micro systems”, said co-author Babak Parviz, an electrical engineer.

The microorganisms were assigned into four employment fields: material synthesis, precise structure formation, as functional devices, and integrated into controllable systems. Through biomineralization, a process detected in 700 million years old rocks, microorganisms can produce at least 64 different inorganic materials employed in MEMS technology, like silicon dioxide, biogenic calcite, magnets, gold and silver crystals.

Magnetic bacteria produce magnetosome crystals, crucial for the heading of their water movements.

Unlike industrial MEMS synthesis methods, requiring high temperatures, corrosive gases, vacuums and plasma, microorganisms produce the materials at room temperature, at near-neutral pH, in water solutions.

These structures made by microbes can develop into three dimensions and can be changed with nanoscale or macroscopic (visible scale) precision.

The spicules in the skeleton walls of one deep-sea sponge have excellent fiber-optical properties.

The fields of the chemical and biological sensors (for food and environmental monitoring) could employ microorganisms, as they evolved to detect specific chemicals. “One of the most interesting applications of MOs [microorganisms] in MEMS is to directly use them for detecting chemicals. MOs can be genetically engineered to have various receptors. All the transduction and amplification machinery is already in MOs. I think integration of these MOs into MEMS platforms can generate extremely powerful chemical/biological analysis systems”, said Parviz.

There are microbes that turn chemical energy into electrical energy, like the environmentally-friendly Microbial Fuel Cells for powering robotics and biomedical devices, and for economic hydrogen production, replacing small conventional batteries.

The biggest challenge by now is to integrate these devices into controllable micron-scale systems. “Our ability to manipulate small organisms and produce platforms that can interface with them one cell at a time is brand new. It is yet to be seen how researchers will take advantage of these new capabilities”, Parviz added.

Linux Kernel 2.6.21 Released

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After two and a half months from the last release, Linus Torvalds has just announced today the final and stable release of the Linux kernel, version 2.6.21. The biggest change in 2.6.21 is all the timer changes to support a tickless system:

"If the goal for 2.6.20 was to be a stable release (and it was), the goal for 2.6.21 is to have just survived the big timer-related changes and some of the other surprises (just as an example: we were apparently unlucky enough to hit what looks like a previously unknown hardware errata in one of the ethernet drivers that got updated etc). [...] So the big change during 2.6.21 is all the timer changes to support a tickless system (and even with ticks, more varied time sources). Thanks (when it no longer broke for lots of people ;) go to Thomas Gleixner and Ingo Molnar and a cadre of testers and coders." - says Linus Torvalds.

Highlights of this release include:

• VMI (Virtual Machine Interface)
• KVM updates
• Dynticks and Clockevents
• ALSA System on Chip (ASoC) layer
• Dynamic kernel command-line
• Optional ZONE_DMA
• devres (optional subsystem for drivers)
• GPIO API

Here come the new drivers:

Graphics:

• Add fbdev driver for the old S3 Trio/Virge
• Driver for the Silicon Motion SM501 multifunction device framebuffer subsystem,

Storage devices:

• Add two drivers for the it8213 IDE device, one using the old IDE stack, and other using libata
• Add IDE Driver for Delkin/Lexar/etc.. cardbus CF adapter
• Add IDE driver for Toshiba TC86C001 (old IDE stack)
• Add SCSI driver for SNI RM 53c710
• Add driver for Initio 162x SATA devices

Networking devices

• Add driver for the latest 1G/10G Chelsio adapter, T3,
• Add driver for the Attansic L1 ethernet device
• Add driver for the Gigaset M101 wireless ISDN device
• Add PC300too alternative WAN driver
• Add driver for Silan SC92031 device
• Add driver for the Davicom DM9601 USB 1.1 ethernet device

Various

• Add driver to charge USB blackberry devices
• Add driver for iowarrior USB devices.
• Add support for the GTCO CalComp/InterWrite USB tablet
• New driver for the Analog Devices ADM1029 hardware monitoring driver

For a full change-log with all the new features, drivers and improvements, please visit this website.

The Linux Kernel is the essential part of all Linux Distributions, responsible for resource allocation, low-level hardware interfaces, security, simple communications, and basic file system management.

Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, initially written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.

You can download the Linux kernel now from Softpedia.