Information Technology News

Microsoft yet again has a new OS in store for us. New features abound: a brand new user interface with an entirely new application model, support for a new architecture that enables Windows to run on smaller form factors, new touch-focused features, huge leaps in Hyper-V capability way beyond the competition, huge enhancements in remote desktop capabilities, new priorities for managing many servers as if you were managing one, new ways to secure data and grant access—and the list goes on.

The Windows 8 Developer Preview is a pre-beta version of Windows 8 for developers. These downloads include prerelease software that may change without notice. The software is provided as is, and you bear the risk of using it. It may not be stable, operate correctly or work the way the final version of the software will. It should not be used in a production environment. The features and functionality in the prerelease software may not appear in the final version. Some product features and functionality may require advanced or additional hardware, or installation of other software.

Download Windows 8 Developer Preview Downloads

Note: You can't uninstall the Windows 8 Developer Preview. To go back to your previous operating system, you must reinstall it from restore or installation media.

More:
In-Depth Course: Windows 8 Beta Server and Client
Windows 8 Launching In Autumn 2012?

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Carl H Programming with corresponding subreddit

Google Code University

Learn about Linux

Free Technology Academy

Lynda.com

Web Building Tutorials

Building Websites via Academic Earth

Opera Web Standards Curriculum

Stack Overflow (Question Site)

D Zone (Question Site)

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MIT to offer free online courses with unofficial certification for completion
Computer Security Class - Presented by Stanford University, February 2012

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'MITx' will offer courses online and make online learning tools freely available.

MIT today announced the launch of an online learning initiative internally called “MITx.” MITx will offer a portfolio of MIT courses through an online interactive learning platform that will:

• organize and present course material to enable students to learn at their own pace
• feature interactivity, online laboratories and student-to-student communication
• allow for the individual assessment of any student’s work and allow students who demonstrate their mastery of subjects to earn a certificate of completion awarded by MITx
• operate on an open-source, scalable software infrastructure in order to make it continuously improving and readily available to other educational institutions.

MIT expects that this learning platform will enhance the educational experience of its on-campus students, offering them online tools that supplement and enrich their classroom and laboratory experiences. MIT also expects that MITx will eventually host a virtual community of millions of learners around the world.

When will MITx go live?
MIT plans to launch an experimental prototype version of MITx in the spring 2012 timeframe. Once the open learning infrastructure is in stable form, MIT will also release the open-source software infrastructure and will establish ways for other universities, as well as interested individuals, to join MIT in improving and adding features to the technology.

MITx online learning tools to be freely available
MIT will make the MITx open learning software available free of cost, so that others — whether other universities or different educational institutions, such as K-12 school systems — can leverage the same software for their online education offerings.

“Creating an open learning infrastructure will enable other communities of developers to contribute to it, thereby making it self-sustaining,” said Anant Agarwal, an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science and director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). “An open infrastructure will facilitate research on learning technologies and also enable learning content to be easily portable to other educational platforms that will develop. In this way the infrastructure will improve continuously as it is used and adapted.” Agarwal is leading the development of the open platform.

President Hockfield called this “a transformative initiative for MIT and for online learning worldwide. On our residential campus, the heart of MIT, students and faculty are already integrating on-campus and online learning, but the MITx initiative will greatly accelerate that effort. It will also bring new energy to our longstanding effort to educate millions of able learners across the United States and around the world. And in offering an open-source technological platform to other educational institutions everywhere, we hope that teachers and students the world over will together create learning opportunities that break barriers to education everywhere.”

Sources:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/mitx-faq-1219.html
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/mitx-education-initiative-1219.html

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Related: Computer Security Class - Presented by Stanford University, February 2012

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Ths video UMG and IFPI fraudulently attempted to block from youtube

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In the third quarter, Intel spent around $878,000 lobbying the U.S. trade representative, Congress, and other federal entities. Intel firmly believes that the U.S. needs to change the way it does business with the rest of the world. And they’ve been serious about it for a while. Last year the company spent $830,000 lobbying. Additionally, in the second quarter of this year, Intel paid a whopping $988,120 in lobbying fees.

The amount of money Intel devotes to lobbying is actually pretty small considering how much revenue the company brings in every year. Still, it’s a lot of money for one company to pay in the world of lobbying. In case you’re wondering, here’s what Intel wants the federal government to change:

• They want the U.S. to approve free-trade agreements as soon as possible. These free-trade agreements would allow the U.S. to trade more services and goods with an increased number of global markets. As a result of the ability to trade with additional markets around the world, Intel ardently believes that the U.S. jobs market would improve dramatically. According to Intel, increased access to trade opportunities would increase the need for more U.S. workers to produce more products and deliver more services.
   
• Intel, along with several other major tech companies, would like the federal government to ease up on their immigration policies as they relate to allowing foreigners to relocate and work in the U.S. Major tech companies want to be able to recruit globally, so they have access to the most talented and skilled workers in the world. According to some sources, Intel believes that being able to recruit the most skilled workers from other countries will allow U.S. tech companies to become even more influential and innovative. Additionally, relaxing immigration policies for skilled foreign workers could be a good PR move for the U.S.

No one is sure yet what kind of influence Intel will be able to have on the federal government. However, it stands to reason that if major tech companies join forces to lobby for change, U.S. trade and immigration policies could be altered forever.

Contributing author of this article: Ryan is a guest post writer on the subjects of global progress, technology, and the best method to get a deal with an HP coupon.

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(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have set a new world record for data transfer, helping to usher in the next generation of high-speed network technology. At the SuperComputing 2011 (SC11) conference in Seattle during mid-November, the international team transferred data in opposite directions at a combined rate of 186 gigabits per second (Gbps) in a wide-area network circuit. The rate is equivalent to moving two million gigabytes per day, fast enough to transfer nearly 100,000 full Blu-ray disks—each with a complete movie and all the extras—in a day.

Source: 186 gigabits per second: High-energy physicists set record for network data transfer

MIT has made a camera that can take 1 Trillion frames per second! With this high speed capability, they can actually SEE the movement of photons of light across a scene or object.

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Be careful of today's ATM's

Good reading; Source: All About Skimmers

Jan. 15, 2010: Would You Have Spotted the Fraud? Pictured here is what’s known as a skimmer, or a device made to be affixed to the mouth of an ATM and secretly swipe credit and debit card information when bank customers slip their cards into the machines to pull out money. Skimmers have been around for years, of course, but thieves are constantly improving them, and the device pictured below is a perfect example of that evolution. This particular skimmer was found Dec. 6, 2009, attached to the front of a Citibank ATM in Woodland Hills, Calif. Would you have been able to spot this?

Real card slot on left, skimmer on right.

Feb. 2, 2010: ATM Skimmers, Part II …The U.S. Secret Service estimates that annual losses from ATM fraud totaled about $1 billion in 2008, or about $350,000 each day. Card skimming, where the fraudster affixes a bogus card reader on top of the real reader, accounts for more than 80 percent of ATM fraud. Last week, I had a chance to chat with Rick Doten, chief scientist at Lockheed Martin‘s Center for Cyber Security Innovation. Doten has built an impressive slide deck on ATM fraud attacks, and pictured below are some of the more interesting images he uses in his presentations.

ATM PIN capture overlay device pulled back to reveal the legitimate PIN entry pad.

March 25, 2010: Would You Have Spotted This ATM Fraud? …The site also advertises a sort of rent-to-own model for would-be thieves who need seed money to get their ATM-robbing businesses going. “Skim With Our Equipment for 50% of Data Collected,” the site offers. The plan works like this: The noobie ATM thief pays a $1,000 “deposit” and is sent a skimmer and PIN pad overlay, along with a link to some videos that explain how to install, work and remove the skimmer technology.

The backside end of a standard, $1,500 Diebold skimmer sold online.

June 3, 2010: ATM Skimmers: Separating Cruft from Craft …The truth is that most of these skimmers openly advertised are little more than scams designed to separate clueless crooks from their ill-gotten gains. Start poking around on some of the more exclusive online fraud forums for sellers who have built up a reputation in this business and chances are eventually you will hit upon the real deal.

A bogus PIN pad overlay

June 17, 2010: Sophisticated ATM Skimmer Transmits Stolen Data Via Text Message – Operating and planting an ATM skimmer — cleverly disguised technology that thieves attach to cash machines to intercept credit and debit card data — can be a risky venture, because the crooks have to return to the scene of the crime to retrieve their skimmers along with the purloined data. Increasingly, however, criminals are using ATM skimmers that eliminate much of that risk by relaying the information via text message.

The backside of a GSM-based PIN pad overlay

July 20, 2010: Skimmers Siphoning Card Data at the Pump …Thieves recently attached bank card skimmers to gas pumps at more than 30 service stations along several major highways in and around Denver, Colorado, the latest area to be hit by a scam that allows crooks to siphon credit and debit card account information from motorists filling up their tanks.

Bluetooth-enabled gas pump skimmer.

Fun With ATM Skimmers, Part III …According to the European ATM Security Team (EAST), a not-for-profit payment security organization, ATM crimes in Europe jumped 149 percent form 2007 to 2008, and most of that increase has been linked to a dramatic increase in ATM skimming attacks. During 2008, a total of 10,302 skimming incidents were reported in Europe. Below is a short video authorities in Germany released recently showing two men caught on camera there installing a skimmer and a pinhole camera panel above to record PINs.

Nov. 10, 2010: All-in-One Skimmers– ATM skimmers come in all shapes and sizes, and most include several components — such as a tiny spy cam hidden in a brochure rack, or fraudulent PIN pad overlay. The problem from the thief’s perspective is that the more components included in the skimmer kit, the greater the chance that he will get busted attaching or removing the devices from ATMs. Thus, the appeal of the all-in-one ATM skimmer: It stores card data using an integrated magnetic stripe reader, and it has a built-in hidden camera designed to record the PIN sequence after an unsuspecting customer slides his bank card into the compromised machine

Nov. 23, 2010: Crooks Rock Audio-based ATM Skimmers – TheEuropean ATM Security Team(EAST) found that 11 of the 16 European nations covered in the report experienced increases in skimming attacks last year. EAST noted that in at least one country, anti-skimming devices have been stolen and converted into skimmers, complete with micro cameras used to steal PINs. EAST said it also discovered that a new type of analogue skimming device — using audio technology — has been reported by five countries, two of them “major ATM deployers” (defined as having more than 40,000 ATMs).

Audio skimmer for Diebold ATMs

Dec. 13, 2010: Why GSM-based ATM Skimmers Rule …So, after locating an apparently reliable skimmer seller on an exclusive hacker forum, I chatted him up on instant message and asked for the sales pitch. This GSM skimmer vendor offered a first-hand account of why these cell-phone equipped fraud devices are safer and more efficient than less sophisticated models — that is, for the buyer at least (I have edited his sales pitch only slightly for readability and flow).

A GSM-based ATM card skimmer.

Jan. 17, 2011: ATM Skimmers, Up Close…I wasn’t sure whether I could take this person seriously, but his ratings on the forum — in which buyers and sellers leave feedback for each other based on positive or negative experiences from previous transactions — were good enough that I figured he must be one of the few people on this particular forum actually selling ATM skimmers, as opposed to just lurking there to scam fellow scammers.

Jan. 31, 2011: ATM Skimmers That Never Touch the ATM….Media attention to crimes involving ATM skimmers may make consumers more likely to identify compromised cash machines, which involve cleverly disguised theft devices that sometimes appear off-color or out-of-place. Yet, many of today’s skimmer scams can swipe your card details and personal identification number while leaving the ATM itself completely untouched, making them far more difficult to spot.

Feb. 16, 2011: Having a Ball With ATM Skimmers …On February 8, 2009, a customer at an ATM at a Bank of America branch in Sun Valley, Calif., spotted something that didn’t look quite right about the machine: A silver, plexiglass device had been attached to the ATM’s card acceptance slot, in a bid to steal card data from unsuspecting ATM users. But the customer and the bank’s employees initially overlooked a secondary fraud device that the unknown thief had left at the scene: A sophisticated, battery operated and motion activated camera designed to record victims entering their personal identification numbers at the ATM.

Mar. 11, 2011: Green Skimmers Skimming Green…To combat an increase in ATM fraud from skimmer devices, cash machine makers have been outfitting ATMs with a variety of anti-skimming technologies. In many cases, these anti-skimming tools take the shape of green or blue semi-transparent plastic casings that protrude from the card acceptance slot to prevent would-be thieves from easily attaching skimmers. But in a surprising number of incidents, skimmer scammers have simply crafted their creations to look exactly like the anti-skimming devices.

April 10, 2001: ATM Skimmers: Hacking the Cash Machine…Most of the ATM skimmers I’ve profiled in this blog are comprised of parts designed to mimic and to fit on top of existing cash machine components, such as card acceptance slots or PIN pads. But sometimes, skimmer thieves find success by swapping out ATM parts with compromised look-alikes.

May 18, 2011: Point-of-Sale Skimmers: Robbed at the Register …Michaels Stores said this month that it had replaced more than 7,200 credit card terminals from store registers nationwide, after discovering that thieves had somehow modified or replaced machines to include point of sale (POS) technology capable of siphoning customer payment card data and PINs. The specific device used by the criminal intruders has not been made public. But many devices and services are sold on the criminal underground to facilitate the surprisingly common fraud.

This paper-thin membrane fits under the real PIN pad.

Sept. 20, 2011: Gang Used 3D Printers for ATM Skimmers …An ATM skimmer gang stole more than $400,000 using skimming devices built with the help of high-tech 3D printers, federal prosecutors say. Apparently, word is spreading in the cybercrime underworld that 3D printers produce flawless skimmer devices with exacting precision. In June, a federal court indicted four men from South Texas (PDF) whom authorities say had reinvested the profits from skimming scams to purchase a 3D printer.

3D printer firm i.materialise received and promptly declined orders for these skimmer devices.

Oct. 13, 2011: ATM Skimmer Powered by MP3 Player …Almost a year ago, I wrote about ATM skimmers made of parts from old MP3 players. Since then, I’ve noticed quite a few more ads for these MP3-powered skimmers in the criminal underground, perhaps because audio skimmers allow fraudsters to sell lucrative service contracts along with their theft devices. The vendor of this skimmer kit advertises “full support after purchase,” and “easy installation (10-15 seconds).” But the catch with this skimmer is that the price tag is misleading. That’s because the audio files recorded by the device are encrypted. The Mp3 files are useless unless you also purchase the skimmer maker’s decryption service, which decodes the audio files into a digital format that can be encoded onto counterfeit ATM cards.

An audio skimmer for a Diebold ATM.

Source: All About Skimmers

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HMC will enable a new generation of performance in applications ranging from large-scale networking and high-performance computing, to industrial automation and, eventually, consumer products.

"This is a milestone in the industry move to 3D semiconductor manufacturing," said Subu Iyer, IBM Fellow. "The manufacturing process we are rolling out will have applications beyond memory, enabling other industry segments as well. In the next few years, 3D chip technology will make its way into consumer products, and we can expect to see drastic improvements in battery life and functionality of devices."

"HMC is a game changer, finally giving architects a flexible memory solution that scales bandwidth while addressing power efficiency," said Robert Feurle, Vice President of DRAM Marketing for Micron. "Through collaboration with IBM, Micron will provide the industry's most capable memory offering."

Source: Hybrid Memory cube with 3D memory and 10 times the data speed should be commerially available in 2 years

The Raspberry Pi Foundation currently plans to develop, manufacture and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer, for use in teaching computer programming to children.  It is expected to have many other applications both in the developed and the developing world.  A limited supply of beta PCBs will be made available in December.

The first product is about the size of a credit card, and is designed to plug into a TV or be combined with a touch screen for a low cost tablet. The expected price is $25 for a fully-configured system.

Specs:

• 700MHz ARM11
• 128MB or 256MB of SDRAM
• OpenGL ES 2.0
• 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
• Composite and HDMI video output
• USB 2.0
• SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
• General-purpose I/O
• Optional integrated 2-port USB hub and 10/100 Ethernet controller
• Open software (Fedora, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)

Website: Raspberry Pi

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