Now, 'cyborg dogs' to combat Taliban

British army chiefs have unveiled their latest weapon, 'cyborg dogs', to do battle in the war against the Taliban.

According to the Daily Star, scientists described cyborg troops as mechanical mutts, which would be in action within months.

The so-called Big Dog echoes the 'AT-AT land walkers' from Star Wars films. The 2ft 6in high machines use four legs to carry gear over rough terrain.

Other prototypes being developed include a four-legged "mule" to carry kit and a robot to transport wounded soldiers from battlefields.

Early tests show it can identify the direction of incoming bullets, lock on to a target and then return fire. Its blast-proof boxer shorts can also protect British troops.

Imagine a scene from any of Hollywood’s disaster films. An eerie scene where mobile phones go on the blink, GPS is knocked out, TVs go blank and the world is plunged into chaos.


Looks like disaster flicks aren’t too removed from reality since all this could well be the potential result of a gigantic solar storm, according to a new report by NASA. The report, a warning, says Earth and space are coming together in a way that’s new to human history.

A solar storm, which is essentially violent eruptions in the sun, can eject destructive radiation and charged particles into space. These are closely connected to magnetic fields – which are hazardous for satellites and space stations.

There are reports of a geomagnetic storm sparked by a huge solar flare that swept over the Earth in 1859. Telegraph wires shorted out and set houses on fire. A brilliant aurora was seen in Hawaii—so bright that “people could read newspapers by [its] red and green glow.” Scientists predict that in May 2013, the sun’s solar cycle will peak at about the same level as in 1859. (This content courtesy a post on Gawker.com)

High-tech systems are critical for life as we know it today. Everything that we depend on and take for granted – air travel, GPS navigation, banking services (even a credit card transaction uses a satellite) and emergency radio communications – can all be knocked out by intense solar activity.

To get an idea of scale, a massive solar storm could result in 20 times more damage than the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina which hit south-eastern US in August 2005. The storm killed 1,800 people and caused damages worth $81 billion.

Some good news is that some of the damage and destruction can be avoided with warning of an impending solar storm. There is technology to put satellites in ‘safe mode’ and disconnect transformers to protect them from destructive electrical surges.

The task of accurately forecasting a solar storm lies with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US. “Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we’re making rapid progress,” said Thomas Bogdan, director of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado.

The key for Bogdan lies in NASA and NOAA collaborating. “NASA’s fleet of heliophysics research spacecraft provides us with up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening on the sun. They are an important complement to our own GOES and POES satellites, which focus more on the near-Earth environment.”

Says Bogdon, “I believe we’re on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather.”

So far, we’ve been lucky to escape any big solar storms. I guess we could send Bruce Willis (a la Armageddon) to save us from the Sun in true Hollywood style. But then I would rather wait for NASA and NOAA to save us from space weather.

Nokia unveils 4 cheap phones, bicycle charger

Nokia Oyj unveiled on Thursday four new cheap phone models, and a first bicycle charger from the world's top cellphone maker, aiming to protect its dominant market share on emerging markets.
Nokia controls more than 50 percent of phone sales in India and Africa, and has a strong prosition on most other emerging markets.
"Tens of millions of these products will be sold, but competition is intensifying as Chinese vendors aggressively target the ultra low cost segment," said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight.

"With all the focus on its smartphone woes it is easy to forget that Nokia is a power house in entry level products."

Nokia has struggled to keep up with rivals like Apple and RIM in the high-end of the market, and its ailing smartphone offering has hurt the stock price over the last few months.

The four new simple phone models sales prices, excluding possible operators subsidies and local taxes, range from 30 euros ($36.9) to 45 euros.

Two of the new phones, including the cheapest 30 euro model, will enable usage of two different SIM cards -- helping sharing a phone between family members or friends.

Nokia introduced also its first bicycle charger, targeting especially consumers with limited access to electricity, and it will go on sale for roughly 15 euros price, depending on market, later this year, said a company spokesman.

Cloud computing could help improve security, says Microsoft

Cloud computing could help improve security, says Microsoft.

Cloud computing adds security challenges, but also provides opportunities to improve security posture, according to Steve Lipner, senior director of security engineering strategy at Microsoft.

In addition to traditional threats such as cross-site scripting, code injection and denial of service, cloud computing expands some of those threats and introduces others, he said.

“Data privacy issues such as data location and segregation, and privileged access control, become greater in the cloud, for example,” he said.

Threats introduced by cloud computing infrastructures include new types of privilege escalation vulnerabilities from virtual machine (VM) to host or VM to VM.

“These are the kinds of new issues that organisations looking at cloud services need to ensure have been taken care of by service providers,” said Lipner.

But the good news, he said, is that the cloud computing model also provides opportunities to mitigate threats, such as slow or incomplete security patching.

“With cloud services, patching is automated to ensure all applications are up to date from a security point of view at all times,” said Lipner.

Instances of applications can also be run on more secure systems within the service providers’ infrastructure and there is greater resilience across the service, he said.

But Lipner said the decision to move to cloud services is ultimately a business decision that must be taken based on a risk analysis.

“There is always a trade-off between cost and security,” he said.

At one end of the spectrum, private clouds provide the highest level of control, but no economy of scale, while public clouds provide the greatest economies of scale with little control.

“Organisations need to find the right balance by getting the information and assurances they need to make informed risk management decisions,” said Lipner.

Microsoft is banking on a combination of transparency about what it is doing to provide secure online services and third-party validation. All Microsoft online services and software conform to the company’s security development life-cycle principles, ISO 27001 and Common Criteria for IT security.

Compliance with these standards and objectives is validated by the certifying bodies and an annual third-party SAS 70 audit.

“In choosing a cloud services provider, organisations should look at reputation, openness and certification,” said Lipner.

In these early days of cloud computing, these are the only things organisations can take into account in order to make informed decisions, he said.