Computers

MIT Cybersecurity System Can Keep Servers Functioning Even During Attack

Popular Science - March 18, 2010 - 3:58am

One of the major problems with current cybersecurity measures is that while systems can detect the erratic behavior that heralds an incoming attack, there often isn't a whole lot those systems can do once the attack is underway short of pulling the servers offline, resulting in lost revenues and credibility for Web sites and a loss of key services for users. A new MIT system aims to change that by keeping servers and applications running even as it contains an incoming cyberattack.

The system works by observing programs as they normally run and memorizing those ranges of behavior. During an attack, the system simply locks the programs within those behavioral ranges; that is, if a program usually stores data at either location X or location Y, those are the only two places it will be allowed to store data once the security system detects that an attack is underway. Read more »

Super Mario Gets Real Pixelated in DIY Arduino 8x8 Version

Popular Science - March 11, 2010 - 9:45am

Mamma mia, I'm the ultimate science project!

Nintendo's Mario has long been beloved by geeks and scientists everywhere, as evidenced by a fluorescent bacterial version (seizure warning!) and a Mario "multiverse" that acts as a better guide to parallel universes than "Lost." Now a Carnegie Mellon University student has concocted a playable pixel tribute on an 8x8 LED matrix. Read more »

Pixel Qi Selling DIY Kits to Convert Your LCD Screen to E-Ink

Popular Science - March 9, 2010 - 3:43am

The kits will be available by mid-2010

Good news for anyone out there straining to read this text: Pixel Qi plans to ship its 3Qi technology in an easy-to-install DIY kit sometime toward the end of the second quarter of this year.

Pixel Qi's dual-mode 3Qi displays function as both full-color LCD monitors and e-ink-like, low-power black and white displays, giving laptops and netbooks the ability to toggle between vibrant, video-playing LCD color and an energy-efficient, eye-strain-saving e-reader mode. Read more »

Apple iPad Rollout, Slightly Delayed, Scheduled for April 3

Popular Science - March 6, 2010 - 2:57am

Pre-orders start March 12

Apple aficionados and first-adopters will have to wait a bit longer than anticipated to get their hot hands on the iPad. The tablet computer's debut has been moved back to April 3 for the U.S., AP reports.

Apple originally gave a tentative "late March" rollout when it unveiled the iPad for the first time in late January. The company has not given reason regarding the delay, but at least one analyst suggested some production issues relating to possible component shortages for Hon Hai Precision, Apple's Taiwan-based supplier. Read more »

Rogert Ebert to Debut His Miraculous New Voice Synthesizer Today

Popular Science - March 3, 2010 - 4:15am

Analyzing his voice recorded on countless DVD commentaries, CereProc has created software to allow Roger Ebert to speak again using his own voice

In 2006, famed film critic Roger Ebert lost the ability to speak after larynx surgery. Today, thanks to computer voice specialists CereProc, he gets it back. The new voice, which he will debut in an appearance on today's Oprah, samples DVD audio commentaries recorded before Ebert lost his voice. Read more »

Video Game Teaches Cambodian Kids to Avoid Real Landmines

Popular Science - March 17, 2010 - 1:30am

Warning: this game may have beneficial real-life consequences

Cambodian children grow up in a nation where millions of landmines left by decades of civil war have continued to cripple and kill hundreds of people each year. Now they could get a life-saving lesson from a video game developed by Michigan State University researchers.

In the game, players navigate photos of Cambodian jungle landscapes in search of photos for several adorable cartoon pets -- no cartoon landmine characters here. The point of the maze-like game is to train players and embed warning signals about landmines in their minds. Read more »

A Computer That Processes Faster Than The Speed of Light

Popular Science - March 10, 2010 - 8:16am

How fast is too fast? According to the laws of physics, the speed of light is a good boundary, as going beyond it opens you up to all sorts of paradoxes and space-time phenomena that are usually the stuff of sci-fi. But a couple of researchers in Austria have come up with a way to compute information faster than the speed of light.

The idea is not quite as crazy as it might sound, though you may wish to limber up your mind before delving deeper. It's based on the same principle as that of quantum entanglement -- the notion that two particles on opposite sides of the universe can be linked through their quantum states such that one cannot be adequately described without the other. That is, an action on one particle instantaneously influences its counterpart, even if they are separated by light years. Read more »

China's "Human-Flesh Search" Channels Netizen Rage Against Offline Targets

Popular Science - March 6, 2010 - 6:13am

Targets have included cheating spouses, corrupt government officials, and amateur porn makers, as well as citizens or journalists viewed as unpatriotic.

There's a new type of vigilante roaming across China. But unlike Batman or other caped superheroes, who work with a few sidekicks at most, this type of faceless vigilante draws power from legions of netizens who channel Internet crowd-sourcing to become "human-flesh search engines" that hunt down and punish wrongdoers in real life. The New York Times reports on the phenomenon. Read more »

Skinput Turns Any Bodily Surface Into a Touch Interface

Popular Science - March 4, 2010 - 2:50am

The future of touchscreen interfaces is: you? A project between a Carnegie Mellon researcher and a couple of creative thinkers over at Microsoft Research have created Skinput, a Bluetooth-enabled device that allows you to use your own skin as a peripheral input device for devices like cell phones, MP3 players or gaming consoles. Read more »

Is the World's Most Intelligent Music Composing Software as Creative as Bach?

Popular Science - February 26, 2010 - 9:15am

If the thought of a Wiimote-controlled robot drum circle sounded vaguely disturbing, prepare yourself. This month, composer and software developer David Cope is set to unveil the first musical works composed by his latest creation, dubbed "Emily Howell." Emily is a piece of software that many see as the most advanced artificially intelligent music composer. The program is already stirring fierce debate over its supposed ability to generate creations indistinguishable from those composed by the masters--Mozart, Bach and the gang. Miller-McCune went in-depth with this strange and fascinating tale of creativity in the age of artificial intelligence. Read more »