HackingTheUniverse

You are browsing the archives of 2009 December.

Symantecs MessageLabs Intelligence 2009 Annual Security Report offers some very interesting information about the past year and assumptions about the near future of malware and other security threats. Here are a few teasers that should encourage you to read the entire report: 3.2.4. Command and Control: Mysterious Messages and Covert Channels In the 12-months since [...]

Daniel Bernoulli was born in 1700 in the Netherlands and became a mathematician known for his work with fluid dynamics and probability and statistics. In fluid mechanics, “Bernoulli’s Principle” describes the relationships involved amongst fluid speed, pressure differential and potential energy. PRECURSOR: 1642 – Newton 1662 – Boyle’s law CONCURRENT: 1707 – Euler SUBSEQUENT: 1736 [...]

MEMS gyroscopes are very small, cheap gyroscopes that use a vibrating element to detect any change in their orientation. MEMS Gyroscopes – [nanogloss.com] Enabling a device to orient itself and respond to movement, MEMS gyroscopes have produced the next big technological splash: touch-triggered screens. This is what gives devices like the iPhone their interactive edge. [...]

A gyroscope is a device that can maintain a directional orientation because it is spinning rapidly and the axis of the spin resists being changed. A spinning top is a simple example. The first known gyroscope was documented by Johann Bohnenberger in 1817. In 1851 Leon Foucault demonstrated the Foucault pendulum and in 1852, coined [...]

Marin Mersenne was born in France in 1588 and studied theology, philosophy, mathematics and music. He is known for some of the first major contributions to acoustics and for his work compiling a list of large prime numbers by using the form 2^p – 1 where p is a known prime number. [raise 2 to [...]

Genetic programming is an extension of genetic algorithms that allows for refining and improving computer programs to seek solutions in the same way. John Koza Has Built an Invention Machine – [popsci.com] Now 62 and an adjunct professor at Stanford University, Koza is the inventor of genetic programming, a revolutionary approach to artificial intelligence (AI) [...]

From using colloids to model the behavior of glasses, to windows that can change their tint, to adding peptides that can repel dirt, our understanding of the characteristics of glass is changing. How long can it be before we actually have transparent aluminum? Materials scientists find better model for glass creation – [nanowerk.com] Glasses form [...]

Intel’s promise to deliver computers with thousands of processing cores takes a big step forward with the announcement of a 48 core CPU that they call the Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC). It claims to use better power management, high speed internal communications and provide good software compatibility. Single-chip Cloud Computer – [intel.com] Overview Intel Labs [...]