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23 February, 2015
Software reverse engineering, the art of pulling programs apart to figure out how they work, is what makes it possible for sophisticated hackers to scour code for exploitable bugs. It’s also what allows those same hackers’ dangerous malware to be deconstructed and neutered. Now a new encryption trick could make both those tasks much, much harder.
Labels:
Cybersafety,
Intellectual Property
15 February, 2015
12 February, 2015
10 February, 2015
08 February, 2015
04 February, 2015
03 February, 2015
31 January, 2015
26 January, 2015
Tucked away in the Sydney inner-city suburb of Ultimo is one of Australia's largest game developers, yet most Aussie gamers have no idea it even exists. BigWorld Technology is a team of over 100 talented coders, testers and designers, and is responsible for the technology that powers World of Tanks, a free-to-play title with more than 100 million registered player accounts, making it one of the biggest games in the world.
Labels:
ICT Career
20 January, 2015
18 January, 2015
China's Xiaomi is taking on Apple at its own game, as the world's third-biggest smartphone maker and most valuable tech start-up unveils the flagship Mi Note, its challenger to the smartphone king's iPhone 6 Plus. Chief Executive Lei Jun introduced the Mi Note in Beijing with a breakdown of the large-screen phone's technical features, with multiple comparisons to Apple's equivalent. At 2299 yuan ($452) for a model with 16 gigabytes of memory, the Mi Note will retail for almost two-thirds less than the iPhone 6 Plus.
Labels:
Asia Connection,
Intellectual Property
14 January, 2015
Created by French company sen.se, Mother is one of thousands of devices on display at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It is the biggest technology event of its kind in the world and the big trend this year was internet-enabled objects, also known as the Internet of Things, or IoT. Think wearable health and fitness devices like the FitBit, smart home automation systems, Wi-Fi enabled coffee machines and "connected cars".
Labels:
Cybersafety,
Privacy
This week at CES, Mercedes-Benz unveiled their latest concept car with technology plucked from the pages of science fiction – including one of our latest prototypes. Embedded into the console, Leap Motion’s Meadowhawk modules allow drivers to access an experimental natural user interface.
Labels:
research
13 January, 2015
12 January, 2015
10 January, 2015
Which tools the spies can't crack The Tor network, which was developed for surfing the web anonymously, is considered to be a "major" problem, as is Truecrypt, a program for encrypting files on computers. A combination of Tor, the instant messaging system CSpace, and a system for internet telephony called ZRTP is categorised as "catastrophic" for the NSA and its partners, resulting in a "near-total loss/lack of insight to target communications".
Labels:
Cybersafety,
Privacy
Meet the ultimate mobile phone data extractor, a $40,000 Israeli-made machine manufactured by Cellebrite and used by private investigator Navid Sobbi's business National Surveillance and Intelligence and numerous law-enforcement agencies around the word. The machine can crack passwords and extract varying degrees of data from almost every smartphone on the market bar a number of Blackberry models and the iPhone 5 and above.
18 December, 2014
Ralph H. Baer never reached the levels of public recognition of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs but, as the inventor of home video games, his contribution to technology and entertainment are arguably on the same scale. A relentless inventor, Baer - who died aged 92 on December 6- produced the first home machine to connect to a television and allow users to control the images, creating the video game industry that today is worth billions of dollars and has allowed an entirely new medium for art and entertainment.
15 December, 2014
12 December, 2014
11 December, 2014
Just last year, Mozilla stood strongly against Apple’s hardheaded refusal to allow alternative rendering engines on iOS. Now, Mozilla seems totally willing to play ball in exchange for access to Apple’s massive user base. If I had to guess, this is likely due to the tepid response Firefox OS has seen since launch.
Labels:
Critical + Creative Thinking,
History
06 December, 2014
05 December, 2014
About 18 months ago, Google began working on an advanced risk analysis engine that could figure out just who — or what — was behind an attempt to get through a CAPTCHA screen. The researchers looked at a host of cues. They included what web site the person had come from, where their mouse went on the screen, how long it moved, how steady it was and other cues Google won't divulge.
Labels:
Critical + Creative Thinking,
Cybersafety,
research
30 November, 2014
29 November, 2014
27 November, 2014
22 November, 2014
Showing a rather shocking disregard for the long-term safety of human civilization, Microsoft has become one of the first companies to deploy autonomous robot security guards. Dubbed the K5, Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus was being policed last week by five of these roughly human-sized 300-pound (136 kg) robots
21 November, 2014
The University of NSW says it has issued 238 fines — estimated to total around $100,000 - to students illicitly downloading copyright infringing material such as movies and TV shows on its Wi-Fi network since 2008. The main issues are that the University is not returning any money to the copyright holders but is instead using the money raised for campus facilities and that it is essentially enforcing a commonwealth law.
Labels:
Critical + Creative Thinking,
Ethical
19 November, 2014
A PRIVATE college that fought the regulator for the right to enter the higher education market expects its IT degree will undercut university offerings by 15-20 per cent. He said the new, three-year bachelor of information technology and systems would cost $45,000 for overseas students and $39,000 for locals.
Labels:
Education
17 November, 2014
We’ve seen some absolutely amazing art over the past 6,000 years of human history, and, more recently, we’ve seen some incredible creations that were made using 3D printing and imaging techniques. But now it’s clear — some of the most impressive art is something we will never see. At least not with the naked eye. Or even a jeweler’s scope, or a microscope that can magnify 400x.
Labels:
3D,
Critical + Creative Thinking
16 November, 2014
13 November, 2014
A French-based startup has just launched a website that will let you add your skills to a comprehensive map of human skills. As quoted from their website "We aim to build the largest, most accurate, multilingual skills database ever made, by allowing a diverse and skillful community to contribute their individual skills to the global map." The ontology is simple: skills can have zero or more sub-skills. Every new skill is available in all supported languages (only English and French at the moment). The crowdsourced data is free for non-commercial use."
12 November, 2014
07 November, 2014
Using Australia Post's ShopMate service, launched last week, subscribers can have their parcels sent to their "US address" before they're forwarded to their Australian address. Parcel Post general manager Kelly Heintz says the service will cut the annoying price difference suffered by Australian consumers. ShopMate isn't the first service of its kind in Australia, but it's the first that won't rely on more costly international couriers.
Labels:
Intercultural Understanding
Microsoft today announced a significant change to its Office strategy for mobile devices: creating and editing is now free. The company also released standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps for the iPhone, as well a new preview of these apps for Android tablets. Starting today, whether you’re using an Office app on Android or iOS, you can create and edit content without an Office 365 subscription
04 November, 2014
Imagine every computer that ever existed, in your browser. The JAVASCRIPT MESS project is a porting of the MESS emulator, a program that emulates hundreds of machine types, into the Javascript language. The MESS program can emulate (or begin to emulate) a majority of home computers, and continues to be improved frequently. By porting this program into the standardized and cross-platform Javascript language, it will be possible to turn computer history and experience into the same embeddable object as movies, documents, and audio.
02 November, 2014
01 November, 2014
HP has taken a wild step toward re-imagining the personal computer, deleting the keyboard and mouse and merging a 3D scanner and projector to create a super all-in-one device it hopes can rekindle PC sales. The new desktop computer, called Sprout, being touted as 'unusual', 'futuristic' and 'wild', goes on sale online in the US on Wednesday, costing $US1899.
Labels:
3D,
Critical + Creative Thinking,
Game,
Graphic Design,
ICT Capability
In the context of the upcoming crackdown on piracy, Malcolm Turnbull quickly qualified the statement saying rights holders probably wouldn’t be interested in getting access to metadata. Simply put, Turnbull said, rights holders already have mechanisms with which to identify and pursue those engaging in illegal file sharing:
Although the government is downplaying comments from Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin that retained data could be used to hunt down Australians downloading infringing films, TV shows, or music, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed that the data could be accessed by film studios under a court order.
The proposed legislation, as he detailed in the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014, specifies six categories of metadata to be retained. They are: account or subscriber details source of communication destination of communication date and time of communication type of communication location of the device.
26 October, 2014
Adelaide has never had a strong reputation as a haven for game development; in fact our city has a history of making life somewhat difficult for the ludologically-inclined. But that hasn't disheartened Machine Spirit, whose first game, Amygdala, launches tomorrow.
Labels:
Critical + Creative Thinking,
Game,
ICT Career,
Women in IT
Robocar R&D is moving fast in Singapore, and this week, the National University of Singapore (NUS) announced they will be doing a live public demo of their autonomous golf carts over a course with 10 stops in the Singapore Chinese and Japanese Gardens. The public will be able to book rides online, and then summon and direct the vehicles with their phones. The vehicles will have a touch tablet where the steering wheel will go. Rides will be free
Labels:
Critical + Creative Thinking,
ICT Career
24 October, 2014
23 October, 2014
22 October, 2014
Doctor Who has been pressganged into the BBC’s “Make it Digital” push to help kids understand computers rather than just playing with them. Its answer: an educational video game. The cunning plan is to sweeten the task of understanding basic coding by sneaking it into something that is fun
Labels:
Critical + Creative Thinking,
Education,
Game,
ICT Capability
3D-printed gun maker draws jail term in Japan MORE LIKE THIS Japan police arrest man who made 3D-printed guns The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2014 (so far!) 3D vendor sells $1,500 part to make metal guns on IDG Answers Corrupt Lotus Notes NSF File Yoshitomo Imura, 28, was sentenced to 2 years as the court backed Japan's stiff gun controls
Labels:
3D,
Asia Connection,
Ethical
21 October, 2014
The self-described “math geek” from Perth, who represented Australia at the 1988 International Math Olympiad, obviously spent a lot of time with big numbers growing up. But those numbers must pale into comparison with the return he has delivered by betting $US500,000 on Snapchat, the social media phenomenon that has recently been valued at $US10 billion ($11.43bn).
Labels:
Critical + Creative Thinking,
ICT Career
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