Biomass-consuming robot isn't 'Soylent Green' IT
Companies working on a DARPA-funded project to create a self-sustaining, biomass-consuming robot found themselves having to explain that the robots would not be eat dead bodies on the battlefield.
Habla Cobol? Tale of USPS upgrade finds an international audience
Open-source software, Linux and Cobol appear to be of universal interest, as a story on a USPS tracking-system upgrade draws a large Spanish audience.
NARA's missing hard drive shouldn't cloud the security issue
Some have speculated that data would be safer in the cloud, but the larger issue isn’t where data is kept but how.
Secure smart-grid meters sooner, not later, security expert says
An IOActive team identified multiple programming errors on smart-meter platforms that could allow hackers to assume full control of all exposed capabilities.
NASA, Japan release the most detailed digital model yet of Earth
NASA and a Japanese agency have released a digital topographical map that covers 99 percent of the Earth’s land mass, created from nearly 1.3 million images taken from NASA’s Terra spacecraft.
DARPA project seeks to teach machines better reading skills
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is giving new meaning to the term “machine readable” with a program to develop an automated reading system that would close the gap between natural text and artificial intelligence systems.
Smartbooks, an alternative to netbooks, are on the horizon
Mobile users looking for something between a smart phone and a laptop PC will have another choice in the fall: the smartbook, which will be a little smaller than a netbook, with an ARM processor that runs Linux.
Report hails semiconductors' role in energy efficiency
A study suggests that with enough development of semiconductor technology, the U.S. economy will grow by more than 70 percent by 2030 while using 11 percent less electricity than it did in 2008.
White House Web site makes case for cybersecurity
As President Obama’s announcement was streamed live on the White House Web site, visitors could also read a blog entry by cybersecurity chief Melissa Hathaway and view a video of government and industry leaders talking about the importance of online security to the nation's infrastructure.
CDC's social media blitz outpaces even the zombies
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employs social-media tools to provide a stream of updates and information on the H1N1 virus. Zombies not included.
Soy, the other black ink
Soy toner, which is less expensive than some traditional toners and more environmentally friendly, could catch on in office use.
Google's fifth column
The village of Broughton, England, stood up to Google and its Street View cameras. But it couldn't stop an army of Twitterers.
U.S. network readiness: You make the call
The World Economic Forum ranks the United States third in network readiness, behind Denmark and Sweden.
Brazil's schools go virtual
Brazil's Ministry of Education is deploying Userful and ThinNetworks’ desktop virtualization solution in all of the country's 5,560 municipalities.
FDA puts Web site search in a nutshell
The Food and Drug Administration used Google Search Appliance to compile an online list of hundreds of recalled peanut products.
Hacker nation
Security companies getting caught with their Internet guard down should serve as a warning to agencies increasingly conducting business on the Web.
Digitization and democracy
The Library of Congress is digitizing historical — and fragile — books to make them widely available as part of an open-content movement.
New York adds security requirement to software contracts
New York state will require a review of the top 25 programming errors in all software contracts, and starts a program to teach secure software development in universities.
The sole of dissent
An Iraqi journalist’s shoe-throwing attack on President George W. Bush inspires several online games.
Technicalities: Gag, indeed
Looking for a last-minute gag gift for that certain computer user? Got $50 to burn? If so, you could round up a Keyboard For Blondes.
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