Cloud Computing's Perfect Storm?
Technology Review (08/07/08) Borland, John
Intel, Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard, and a group of three international research
institutions recently announced they will be participating in a
collaborative cloud-computing research initiative aimed at developing an
Internet-based computer infrastructure stable enough to host a company's
most critical data-processing tasks. The project could also lead to
advancements in fields such as climate-change modeling and molecular
biology. The six linked data centers, each one operated by a project
sponsor, will be one of the largest experiments ever focusing on cloud
computing. The large scale of the project will allow researchers to test
and develop security, networking, and infrastructure components on a broad
basis simulating an open Internet environment. To test this
infrastructure, academic researchers will run real-world, data-intensive
projects that could lead to new discoveries in data mining,
context-sensitive Web searches, and communication in virtual-reality
environments. Despite its promise, experts say the cloud-computing model
remains technologically underdeveloped. The most progressive thinkers
predict that companies will ultimately use remotely hosted cloud services
to perform their most complex computing activities. Each of the companies
involved in the new initiative has a specific set of research projects
planned, with most broadly focusing on operational issues such as security,
load balancing, managing parallel processes on a large scale, and how to
configure and secure virtual machines across different locations.
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Open-Source E-Voting Gets LinuxWorld Test Run
Computerworld (08/06/08) Weiss, Todd R.
Computer engineer Alan Dechert unveiled the open source electronic-voting
system he helped develop at the recent LinuxWorld Conference & Expo. In
December 2000, Dechert cofounded the Open Voting Consortium to research
better ways to vote and to create an e-voting system that allows voters to
make their selections on a screen, print their ballots, and then have the
ballots scanned by reliable machines. Dechert says such a system leaves no
ambiguity over what a voter intended, fixing a common problem found in
punch-card systems and poorly designed ballot layouts. LinuxWorld attendees
were able to view the system and vote in a mock election. The system runs
on PCs loaded with Ubuntu Linux and a free, open source e-voting
application created by the consortium. Dechert says election officials can
easily set up and create a ballot for any election using a special software
tool. Some local voting jurisdictions are already in talks with the group
about further exploring the system; however, for use in national elections,
the system would have to be heavily analyzed and eventually certified as an
election system, Dechert says.
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EU Opens the Way for 'Cars That Talk'
Agence France Presse (08/05/08)
The European Commission has approved a plan that could lead to the
introduction of technology that will allow vehicles to communicate with one
another to reduce congestion and accidents. The initiative will encourage
automakers and telecommunications companies to adapt existing technology
for use in cars to take advantage of the pan-European bandwidth recently
made available. The technology could be used to detect a slippery patch on
roads and to communicate the information to nearby vehicles or to
communicate sudden road closures and alternate routes. Under the plan,
vehicle owners will not be forced to install the technology once it is made
available. E.U. Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding says that 24 percent
of driving time in Europe is spent in traffic jams, which could cost the
E.U. economy 80 billion euros by 2010. "So clearly saving time through
smart vehicles communications systems means saving money," she says.
Additionally, lives will be saved; upwards of 42,000 people died and more
than 1.6 million were injured in road accidents throughout the European
Union in 2006.
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Hacking Electronic Toll Systems
CNet (08/06/08) Mills, Elinor
Attendees of the Black Hat 2008 security conference in Las Vegas were told
that anyone with the right transponder reader could easily hack into the
transponders used by drivers subscribing to electronic toll systems such as
FasTrak and E-ZPass. Armed with the readers, hackers could steal
unencrypted identification numbers off transponders, put the data onto
their devices, and then stick the victim with the bill as they pass through
tolls for free. Worse, data could be switched from a transponder installed
in a vehicle used in a crime, thus providing the driver with an alibi. And
while the identification number is not personally identifiable, it can be
used to access customer information--including names, driver's license
numbers, and credit card numbers--through the back-end database. Nate
Lawson, a security expert at security consultancy Root Labs who warned of
the vulnerability at Black Hat, is designing a privacy kit for the FasTrak
system used in the San Francisco Bay Area that will allow users to put a
"kill switch" on a transponder, thus making it unreadable until it is
turned on with a special button.
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EFF Launches Coders' Rights Site at Black Hat
Conference
Ars Technica (08/06/08) Timmer, John
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is using the Black Hat USA
conference to launch the Coders' Rights Web site, which is intended to help
security researchers understand the legal issues involved when searching
for and testing vulnerabilities in commercial software. EFF civil liberties
director Jennifer Granick is spearheading the project. "Coders who explore
technology through innovation and research play a vital role in developing
and securing the software and hardware we use everyday," Granick says. "Yet
this important work can be stymied by bogus legal threats." The site
contains cautionary information for anyone thinking about getting involved
in testing for security threats. Many commercial programs come with
end-user license agreements (EULAs) that forbid any sort of disassembling
of the compiled code, prohibiting anyone bound by the EULA from using a
common method for finding vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, the legal
enforceability of click-through agreements varies between jurisdictions,
and developers that work with specific software development environments or
toolkits may be subject to nondisclosure agreements that prevent them from
revealing the inner workings of the software. Some security measures may
also fall under laws governing trade secrets, and any discoveries
concerning security measures taken to protect digital rights management
protected content can face challenges from the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act.
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Innovative Research Brings Quantum Computers One Step
Closer
University of Surrey (08/06/08) La, Peter
Atomic quantum waves have been suspended in a silicon crystal using the
free electron laser FELIX in the Netherlands. The project headed by the
University of Surrey kept the quantum waves oscillating long enough for a
computer operation, which marks a breakthrough in the effort to develop a
workable quantum computer. Until now, researchers only have been able to
fix a limited number of atoms in a vacuum for a short period of time, and
they have not suspended enough atoms to make a whole computer. The quantum
wave is capable of holding more information than a regular computer bit,
which means computer logic and programs will need to be more powerful and
much faster to crack a code. The researchers involved in the Surrey
project now plan to produce a higher number of computer bits. "We hope
that this work will open up a new field of physics, where quantum coherence
can be explored in solid crystals, but at the same time we have brought a
scalable silicon quantum computer a step nearer," says team leader Ben
Murdin.
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Robots Learn to Move Themselves
BBC News (08/06/08)
Software that will enable robots to learn how to use their limbs has been
developed by researchers in Leipzig. Similar to the interconnected sensing
and processing of a brain in a neural network, the software sends out
signals to move in a certain way and predicts where the robot should end
up. Obstacles such as a wall can throw off the prediction, but the
software enables a robot to learn about its environment and to try
different moves. "It's like a newborn baby--it doesn't know anything but
tries motions that are natural for its body," says Ralf Der at the Max
Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences. Der has tested the
software on a simulated dog, which learned how to jump over a fence, and a
humanoid, which learned how to stand upright and do back flips. He says
his software offers more flexibility than planning movements with
traditional programming, and adds that it can be used with any robot.
Der's team wants to add long-term memory to enable a robot to know what to
do when it encounters similar situations. Video demonstrations are
scheduled for this week's Artificial Life XI conference in Winchester,
England.
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Ancient Greeks Help Build Better Computer Networks
iTWire (08/05/08) Winder, Davey
England's University of Leicester is leading a project to help develop a
new paradigm for future global computing environments. Working with teams
from the University of Exeter and the University of Glasgow, the project
will study ancient Mediterranean crafts-people from the late Bronze Age up
to classical times in an effort to improve code and data mobility over wide
area networks. The research will focus on how and why their traditions,
techniques, and technologies changed and were able to cross cultural
boundaries. University of Leicester professor Lin Foxhall says that by
investigating many crafts, researchers can explore the impact different
technologies had on each other, allowing researchers to apply their
understanding of ancient knowledge transfer to new computing paradigms.
"We aim to find good metaphors for new modalities of interaction and
production in global ubiquitous computing," Foxhall says. "By harnessing
the past, we aim to find new solutions for future computational systems
that can operate in resource-limited environments."
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IT's Advantage Women as Hiring Tide Turns
Economic Times of India (08/06/08) Sreekala, G
Women in India are finding it easier to obtain jobs in the IT sector as
companies are making a specific effort to hire women and are organizing
exclusive technology conferences for them. Companies have already realized
the potential benefits of having more women in their workforce. "Women can
bring in a different insight and dynamics to the work environment," says
Kalpana Margabandhu, the director of IBM's India Software Labs and
chairperson of the Indian Women's Leadership Council. "This can help
improve our products and technology." Only 16 percent of women enroll in
engineering as many female students tend to stay away from math and science
curriculums. Many female engineers may also find it difficult or
intimidating to try to enter the male-dominated IT industry, and the long
work hours often expected in the high-tech industry are difficult to
balance with family responsibilities. To create an interest among women
students to pursue a variety of careers in research, business, and
technology, IBM recently conducted an exclusive technology day for women in
Hyderabad. "We have also launched 'Bring women back' to create a channel
to hire women professionals who have taken a career break," Margabandhu
says. In a similar effort, Microsoft recently visited 11 cities to recruit
women for its Hyderabad center.
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Nissan Goes High-Tech to Stop Accidents, Inefficient
Driving
IDG News Service (08/04/08) Williams, Martyn
Nissan has developed two systems intended to keep drivers safer and
preserve energy by communicating safety and fuel-efficiency information to
drivers through force feedback in the pedals and steering wheel. The first
system, called side collision prevention, uses millimeter-wave radar to
monitor the driver's blind spot. The system indicates the presence of an
object with a small light positioned near the side-view mirror, and works
with other systems in the car to sense when a dangerous maneuver is being
attempted. When a driver attempts to change lanes when a car is in the
blind spot, an audible warning sound alerts the driver and the steering
wheel gently resists the turn. The resistance is light enough that the
driver could change lanes in an emergency, but is effective at letting the
driver know there is another car in the area. The second system, called
eco-pedal, monitors the car's fuel consumption and transmission efficiency
during acceleration and cruising to determine the optimal acceleration for
the best fuel efficiency. The system illuminates the dashboard to indicate
when the car is driving within the "eco-driving" range, and begins to flash
when the car moves out of the optimum range, and turns orange when the car
is being driven inefficiently. If the driver insists on accelerating, the
resistance in the pedal can be pushed through without significant effort,
but the pedal's resistance also makes it easier to hold the accelerator in
the optimal position and drive using the least amount of fuel.
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Viterbi Algorithm Goes Quantum
University of Southern California (07/31/08) Mankin, Eric
The Viterbi Algorithm, a 41-year-old logic tool for rapidly eliminating
dead end possibilities in data transmissions, now has a new application in
quantum communications. University of Southern California (USC) graduate
student Mark Wilde and professor Todd Brun worked on quantum communication
applications for an environment in which a sender is trying to send a
quantum message to a receiver using a stream of entangled photons. Noise
is created in the transmission of quantum data, and the USC researchers are
hoping to correct the problem through the Viterbi Algorithm. In the system
created by Wilde and Brun, the sender encodes each quantum bit of the
message with the help of an entangled qubit (ebit). The receiver receives
the sent message and combines the transmitted qubits with the other half of
the ebits. The receiver measures all of the qubits, processes the results
from the measurements, performs recovery operations, and finally decodes
the message. The fact that a noisy quantum communication channel can be
modeled as a sequential process of steps, each step of which changes the
state of the system, provides an opening, and the Viterbi Algorithm can
analyze the products of such progressions, called "Markov processes." In
the USC analysis, the receiver watches the steps coming out of the
measurement process and tests them against statistical probabilities using
standard Viterbi tools, allowing the receiver to reliably spot errors and
know which message qubits are incorrect before opening the message.
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UCR Gets Grant to Fund High-Tech Methods of Classifying
Ancient Artifacts
San Diego Union-Tribune (07/28/08)
University of California, Riverside (UCR) computer scientists will build
new tools that will allow anthropology professors to quickly compare and
categorize ancient Native American artifacts by shape and quality. The
applications will enable UCR to document and archive early Native American
images, beads, and tools. The National Science Foundation has awarded an
$805,000 grant over three years to help fund the project, "Tools to Mine
and Index Trajectories of Physical Artifacts." "By taking advantage of
recent advances in data mining and indexing, a massive amount of useful
information can potentially be extracted from the anthropological resources
that abound in North America," says UCR computer science professor Eamon
Keogh. "Spatiotemporal predicates" could help provide answers about the
development and spread of Native American cultural practices, such as where
the curved style of an arrowhead found in Oklahoma originated. The tools
have other potential uses, such as allowing law enforcement to track the
"tags" of street gangs.
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Scientists Open Columbia's New Computational Biology
Lab
Columbia University (07/29/08)
Columbia University's new Pe'er/Bussemaker Lab for Systems Biology will
work to develop and apply tools that can analyze and derive meaning from
the massive amounts of data being created by the rapidly expanding field of
systems and computational biology. Systems and computational biology is
the crossroad between modern molecular biology and new research techniques
that developed out of engineering, computer science, chemistry,
mathematics, statistics, and physical fields. Lab cofounder Dana Pe'er
says systems and computational biology could potentially allow scientists
to pose limitless questions on how our cells work and other issues related
to general human health, such as the study of gene networks, the analysis
of protein shapes, the prediction of biological function, and understanding
how a cell processes signals. Pe'er says data created from such research
could answer important questions such as what happens within a disease and
what drug targets can lead to a cure. The lab contains a "smart board," a
whiteboard computer with touch-screen technology, digital writing, video
projection, and other capabilities considered vital to visualizing large
amounts of data among groups of researchers. "The new lab allows students
from across different disciplines to interact and openly discuss their
research," Pe'er says. "Each discipline--biology, computer science,
physics, engineering, chemistry and mathematics--contributes tools and a
particular way of thinking."
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New Technique to Compress Light Could Open Doors for
Optical Communications
University of California, Berkeley (07/30/08) Tompa, Rachel
University of California, Berkeley scientists have developed a way of
compressing light that could enable the development of new technologies in
optical communications, miniature lasers, and optical computers. Berkeley
researchers, led by professor Xiang Zhang, have developed a way of
confining light to spaces only 10 nanometers wide, just five times the
width of a single piece of DNA and more than 100 times thinner than current
optical fibers. "There has been a lot of interest in scaling down optical
devices," Zhang says. "It's the holy grail for the future of
communications." Rupert Oulton, a research associate in Zhang's group,
says that ideally optics researchers would like to squeeze light down to
the size of electron wavelengths to create better cooperation between light
and matter. However, such efforts are hindered when light is compressed
farther than its wavelength, because light does not want to stay inside a
space that small, Oulton says. Researchers have been able to compress
light beyond its limits by using surface plasmonics, where light binds to
electrons allowing it to propagate along the surface of metal. However,
the waves can only travel short distances along the metal before
diminishing. Oulton was working on combining plasmonics and
semiconductors, which have even more pronounced losses, when he thought of
a new technique. Oulton ran simulations to test the idea, and found that
not only could light be compressed just tens of nanometers wide, but it
could travel distances nearly 100 times greater than in conventional
surface plasmonics alone. "This technique could give us remarkable control
over light," Oulton says. "And that would spell out amazing things for the
future in terms of what we could do with that light."
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