Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-408772.html
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Windows 7 less vulnerable without admin rights
Ninety percent of critical Microsoft Windows 7 vulnerabilities can be mitigated by configuring the operating system for standard user rather than administrator, according to a new report. by Elinor Mills CNET News
Google search tweak takes Chinese search offline
Several reports noted that Chinese Internet users inside the Great Firewall of China Tuesday were unable to do any kind of Google searches but the problem apparently wasn't directed at Google. by Tom Krazit CNET News
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-408806.html
Hydraulics Could Enable Fullscreen Braille Display
For most blind computer users, surfing the internet or catching up on e-mail means reading just one line at a time, because commercially available braille displays can’t show full pages of text.
Researchers from North Carolina State University now say they have devised a display that would allow visually challenged users to read a full page at a time — and at a much lower cost than existing displays.
“We have developed a low-cost, compact, full-page braille display that is fast and can be used in PDAs, cellphones and even GPS systems,” says Dr. Peichun Yang, one of the researchers working on the project, who is himself blind.
A full-page display is better because it allows readers to skip paragraphs and read the parts they want, instead of forcing them to go over it line by line. Full-page display also presents more information in a shorter time.
Braille characters, developed by Louis Braille in 1821, are created by a pattern of raised dots.�Alphabets, punctuation and numerals are represented in cells. Each cell is made of six dots arranged in a 2×3 dot matrix. A dot may be raised at any of the six positions to form the characters.
“Braille is very significant, and statistically about 90 percent of blind people who have a job can read braille,” says Dr. Yang. “It’s a very important part of their ability to read.”
Braille displays on the market now use piezo-ceramics, in which a 2-inch-long lever forces up the dots, explains�Dr Yang. “It’s expensive and limiting,” he says.
As a result, a typical braille display today has just one line of 80 cells, and can cost up to $8,000.
Instead, Dr Yang and his team developed a new way to create the raised dots. Each cell in their display uses what is called a ?hydraulic and latching mechanism.?
“The mechanism can offer a large displacement and fast response time simultaneously, which is the key to a good commercial braille display,” says Dr. Yang.
A four-line display developed using the new system could be around $1,000, and fullscreen displays could come later.
Here’s how Dr. Yang’s technology works. Picture each cell as a rectangular cavity that is filled with liquid. The top and bottom have a small opening that is sealed with a flexible diaphragm. There are four bendable actuators made of electroactive polymers — which means they change shape when voltage is applied — on each side.
By manipulating the voltage, two facing polymers can be made to displace the fluid housed within them. This pushes the fluid up towards the top, raising the dot. Once the dots are raised, a latching mechanism would support the weight being applied by a person?s fingers as the dots are read. A refreshable braille dot has a response time of around 30 milliseconds.
Dr. Yang and his team hope to create prototype displays within a year, and if successful they can be commercially produced.
See Also:
- Pulsing Touchscreen Tech Spells Out Braille
- Tattoos for the Blind
- All Eyes on Braille Software
- You Gotta Feel the Music
Photo: Braille sign at the Port Museum ( reinvented/Flickr)
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/PBsn6UhOYIE/
Gallery: Outrageously Complicated Rube Goldberg Videos
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Cartoonist Rube Goldberg got famous drawing fanciful, bizarrely complex, jury-rigged contraptions to accomplish simple tasks.
Not content with imagining these things, modern Rube Goldberg machine makers put such machines together in real life (or in virtual worlds) so you can actually see them go. There’s even a contest for the best.
A team of aspiring educators won the 2010 National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on March 27 with a complicated homage to ancient Egypt that took 120 discrete mechanical and electronic steps to accomplish one simple task: Dispensing a bit of hand sanitizer. The video above shows how the students, from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, beat out dozens of other teams to win the prize.
But while the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest has been going on for 23 years, it’s hardly the only place to find such outlandish devices. The internet is full of videos showing Rube Goldberg machines (or Heath Robinson contraptions, as the English call them), from impromptu assemblages to painstakingly engineered constructions.
In the following pages we’ll show you a few of the best.
For more on the National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, check out this gallery of Rube Goldberg machine photos published by Wired in 2007.
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/HNQdDZnn5Lc/
Smartphone users not protected against fraudsters
Dawinderpal Sahota, Computing, Tuesday 30 March 2010 at 17:14:00
Some 67 per cent of smartphone users not safeguarding their handset data
More than two thirds of smartphone users are failing to protect their
personal information from fraudsters, warned government-backed agency
GetSafeOnline.org.
A substantial one in four UK web users access the net using a mobile web
browser, and of these, 20 per cent synchronise their handsets with a PC.
However, 67 per cent of people using the internet from their smartphones do
not use passwords or the PIN function to safeguard information stored on their
handsets, according to the agency.
?Users must remember that they are essentially carrying around a tiny laptop
with a wealth of personal information that is very attractive to fraudsters,?
explained Tony Neate, managing director of GetSafeOnline.org.
?The frequency with which many of us upgrade or replace our phones means that
we often don?t value or look after them in the same way as we would a laptop,"
he added.
According to GetSafeOnline.org, criminals can easily discover where you bank
and shop with a quick look at your Favourites or browsing history.
Many web sites also use cookies to remember personal information such as
login details ? meaning that a fraudster can access and use your online accounts
without needing to know your password.
The agency also warned that users who synchronise smartphones with their PCs
but don't protect their phones are allowing fraudsters to access all the
information stored on the PC as well.
It advises that the first line of defence against fraudsters is to use the
password or PIN function to secure the handset. It also advised users to think
carefully about sharing information online, and to stick with reputable sites
and applications.
Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2260482/smartphones-users-protecting
Newsweek: Why Apple?s co-founder wants two iPads
Q&A with Steve Wozniak, Apple's co-founder.
Full story at http://www.newsweek.com/id/235567
Cosmic Log: The face in the Shroud
Full story at http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/03/30/2246609.aspx
After Quake In Haiti, Who's The Boss?
Governments and international aid agencies pledging to help Haiti say they want to take their lead from the Haitian government. But the government in Haiti remains extremely weak, and in the everyday life of many Haitians, it seems to be missing in action.
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Full story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125328026&ft=1&f=1001
Monday, March 29, 2010
China issues rules on reporting Google moves
A Chinese government ministry ordered Chinese media companies to toe the government line this week in their reporting on Google's decision to move its search operations to Hong Kong. by Tom Krazit CNET News
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-407967.html
Afghan enemies using iPhone as a weapon
Australian Department of Defense chief technology officer Matt Yannopoilos today said defenses were being beaten in Afghanistan by enemies accessing information quickly via iPhones. by Ben Grubb ZDNet Australia
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-407982.html
Gallery: Sexy, Strange New Timepieces Debut at Basel Watch Fair
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Each year, the watch industry gathers in Basel to show off the latest models to a mix of retailers, media and moguls.
Think of it as the high-end European version of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Like CES, there are 100,000 people there, but the booths for brands like Rolex are three-story towers of polished wood and leather, and each meeting comes with an offer of an espresso and some chocolate. Plus, people are smoking — inside the convention hall.
The 2010 Basel Watch Fair offered up the usual mix of high-end luxury, technical prowess and the just plain weird. Of the hundreds of watches we saw at this year’s show, here are a few that caught our eye.
Above:
Bell & Ross showed off its Radar model, which uses three concentric circular dials to mark the hours, minutes and seconds.
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/Z0gQwmxbFAc/
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