Monthly Archives: April 2015

EXACTO Guided Bullet Demonstrates Repeatable Performance against Moving Targets

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DARPA’s Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program, which developed a self-steering bullet to increase hit rates for difficult, long-distance shots, completed in February its most successful round of live-fire tests to date. An experienced shooter using the technology demonstration system repeatedly hit moving and evading targets. Additionally, a novice shooter using the system for the first time hit a moving target.

This video shows EXACTO rounds maneuvering in flight to hit targets that are moving and accelerating. EXACTO’s specially designed ammunition and real-time optical guidance system help track and direct projectiles to their targets by compensating for weather, wind, target movement and other factors that can impede successful hits.

via 2015/04/27 EXACTO Guided Bullet Demonstrates Repeatable Performance against Moving Targets.

Debian 8 “Jessie” released

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After almost 24 months of constant development the Debian project is proud to present its new stable version 8 (code name "Jessie"), which will be supported for the next 5 years thanks to the combined work of the Debian Security team and of the Debian Long Term Support team.

"Jessie" ships with a new default init system, systemd. The systemd suite provides many exciting features such as faster boot times, cgroups for services, and the possibility of isolating part of the services. The sysvinit init system is still available in "Jessie".

The UEFI ("Unified Extensible Firmware Interface") support introduced in "Wheezy" has also been greatly improved in Jessie. This includes workarounds for many known firmware bugs, support for UEFI on 32-bit systems, and support for 64-bit kernels with 32-bit UEFI firmware (with the latter being included only on our amd64/i386 "multi-arch" installation media).

via Debian — News — Debian 8 "Jessie" released.

How to crash any iPhone or iPad within WiFi range

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Security researchers presenting at this week’s RSA Conference in San Francisco, have uncovered a whole new compelling reason to switch off your phone.

Skycure’s Yair Amit and Adi Sharabani have demonstrated a startling vulnerability in iOS that can allow malicious hackers to crash any iOS device within range of a WiFi hotspot.

And it doesn’t even matter if targeted devices are trying to deliberately connect to the WiFi network or not. The researchers have dubbed their discovery “No iOS Zone”,

via How to crash any iPhone or iPad within WiFi range.

Recon Jet finally ships – HUD sunglasses, not as creepy as Glassholes and works better

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Jet’s display is equivalent to a 30” screen viewed from 7 feet (2 m) away. It’s crisp and vibrant in all lighting conditions—and thanks to our patented Glance Detection technology, it wakes up instantly when you glance down, then turns off again when you look away, minimizing distractions and maximizing power efficiency.

Only $699

Recon Jet – Smart eyewear for your active lifestyle.

Google Handwriting Input – Finally Graffiti but better!

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Google Handwriting Input allows you to handwrite text on your phone or tablet in 82 languages. It supports printed and cursive writing, with or without a stylus. Google Handwriting Input also supports hundreds of emojis, so you can express yourself in any Android app.

via Google Handwriting Input – Android Apps on Google Play.

I’ve been trying this out on my tablet and my smartphone and I’m completely impressed! About time that Android got this basic Palm functionality 🙂

How To Make A Secret Phone Call

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His step-by-step instructions for making a clandestine phone call are as follows:

Analyze your daily movements, paying special attention to anchor points (basis of operation like home or work) and dormant periods in schedules (8-12 p.m. or when cell phones aren’t changing locations);
Leave your daily cell phone behind during dormant periods and purchase a prepaid no-contract cell phone (“burner phone”);
After storing burner phone in a Faraday bag, activate it using a clean computer connected to a public Wi-Fi network;
Encrypt the cell phone number using a onetime pad (OTP) system and rename an image file with the encrypted code. Using Tor to hide your web traffic, post the image to an agreed upon anonymous Twitter account, which signals a communications request to your partner;
Leave cell phone behind, avoid anchor points, and receive phone call from partner on burner phone at 9:30 p.m.—or another pre-arranged “dormant” time—on the following day;
Wipe down and destroy handset.

http://m.fastcompany.com/3044637/secret-phone-network

this is part of an art project which was looking at the surveillance state we live in

How Washington State Could Turn Aircraft Carriers Into Bridges

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Washington State just received federal funds to study a totally unique toll bridge concept, one made out of decommissioned US Navy Super Carriers. The bridge would consist of two or three carriers and would link Bremerton and Port Orchard, Washington, spanning the Sinclair Inlet.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/how-washington-state-could-turn-aircraft-carriers-into-1696976267

apparently they are fighting an uphill battle but what an awesome idea!

Republican Senators Just Voted To Sell Off US National Forests

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SA 838 is a budgetary amendment which backs support for and funding of state efforts to take over federal land. It was part of a larger debate over the 2016 fiscal year federal budget.

While yes, its language does note that it’s impossible to sell National Parks, National Monuments and National Preserves (which enjoy extraordinary legal protection), it leaves the door open to sell National Forests, Wildlife Refuges and Wildernesses. That’s some of you and I’s most beautiful lands on which we’re currently able to camp, hunt, hang out with our dogs and on which a large portion of wild animals rely for their habitat.

http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com/republican-senators-just-voted-to-sell-off-your-nationa-1696862450

aside from it not being theirs to sell, don’t they get that these are resources you can only sell once?

Hacker hijack ‘threat’: Your car’s security is Adobe Flash-grade BAD

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as we’ve long suspected, the computers in today’s cars can be hijacked wirelessly by feeding specially crafted packets of data into their networks. There’s often no need for physical contact; no leaving of evidence lying around after getting your hands dirty.

This means, depending on the circumstances, the software running in your dashboard can be forced to unlock doors, or become infected with malware, and records on where you’ve have been and how fast you were going may be obtained. The lack of encryption in various models means sniffed packets may be readable.

Key systems to start up engines, the electronics connecting up vital things like the steering wheel and brakes, and stuff on the CAN bus, tend to be isolated and secure, we’re told.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/09/car_security_senator_report/

Pixel OFF save battery on amoled screens

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Some AMOLED screen powered devices are able to “turn off” those pixels which are showing black colour. This app will let you to turn off some pixels in order to save your appreciate battery by showing very small black points.
As newer devices comes with very high density screens those points will be insignificant to the user´s sight and will be offset by lower spending battery

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.anrapps.pixelbatterysaver

Unpowered ankle exoskeleton takes a load off calf muscles to improve walking efficiency

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The result of eight years of work begun by Steve Collins and Greg Sawicki when they were graduate students together at the University of Michigan in 2007, the device has been shown to reduce the metabolic cost of walking by around seven percent. The researchers claim this is roughly equivalent to taking off a 10-lb (4.5 kg) backpack and equates to the same savings provided by electrically-powered exoskeletons.

via Unpowered ankle exoskeleton takes a load off calf muscles to improve walking efficiency.

After Obama’s cybersecurity order threatens Snowden fund, bitcoin donations spike

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A new executive order signed into law this week by the president has one online community up in arms, after its loose wording effectively ruled out donating to Edward Snowden and others.

In a post on Reddit’s Bitcoin subreddit, members pledged to donate to the whistleblower’s relief fund, despite the wording of the new executive order suggesting that doing so was illegal.

In the new executive order, signed into law on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama declared cyber-threats aimed at the US a "national emergency." The order threatens sanctions against those (including US residents) who engage in cyberattacks and espionage activities that threaten US interests at home and abroad.

Any regrets, Edward Snowden? "I’d have come forward sooner"

The former NSA contractor turned whistleblower said during a Reddit question-and-answer session that the leaks have also improved security and encryption in Silicon Valley.

Read More

The wording of the order specifically addresses any person whose "property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States."

Redditors were quick to assume (likely correctly) that this includes Edward Snowden, who for more than a year-and-a-half has lived in Russia, evading US justice.

via After Obama's cybersecurity order threatens Snowden fund, bitcoin donations spike | ZDNet.

How the Pentagon Lost Track of $45 Billion in Afghanistan

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Since 2002, Congress has set aside $104 billion specifically to rebuild Afghanistan. Of that, $66 billion went to the Pentagon.

Recently, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction asked the military to account for all that spending. It couldn’t. According to a new report from SIGAR, the Pentagon only knows how it spent a third of its reconstruction budget.

That’s $45 billion dollars the military can’t track and the reason is … ridiculous. According to SIGAR, the Pentagon didn’t check a box on an electronic form when it filed the information in government databases.

via How the Pentagon Lost Track of $45 Billion — War Is Boring — Medium.