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Google CEO: Phone tracking to enrich lives
Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt came out to defend tracking technology in smartphones arguing the technology will ultimately enrich and benefit the lives of consumers.
Recent debates regarding privacy have surfaced following the discovery of tracking files native to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android mobile operating system.
“Today, you’re phone knows who you are, where you are, where you’re going, to some degree, because it can see your path. And with that and with your permission, it’s possible for software and software developers to predict where you’re going to go, to suggest people you should meet, to suggest activities and so forth,” he said. “So ultimately what happens is the mobile phone does what it does best, which is remember everything and make suggestions.”
Allowing your phone to know you, follow you and help you will allow users to enjoy their social experience more, he contended. The experience of will become increasingly Read more…
Chinese space plans cause military jitters
China has announced plans to put its own space station in orbit by 2020. The 60-tonne construction will be one-seventh the weight of the ISS and will focus on scientific experiments. However, military involvement with the project is causing concern.
Beijing’s Space City research center is opening its doors to the media, as China has announced its intention to build a rival to the International Space Station.
While some see Chinese advances in space travel as a potential threat, the country’s officials are keen to stress the spirit of co-operation, which they say is behind China’s space program.
“We are looking forward to co-operating with other countries in the field of space exploration,” said Yang Liwei, Vice Director of Manned Space Engineering Bureau. “We are also looking forward to having more countries join this club, so we can promote the common goals of mankind.”
For the moment though, the Chinese space program is doing very well on its own.
Since becoming only the third country in the world to send a person in to space, in 2003, the Chinese also carried out a space walk in 2008 and the Read more…
India’s Army Could Receive WMD-Resistant Gear
Russia announced that it would provide its military with these suits earlier this month.
India’s army could receive new gear designed to provide protection against chemical, biological or nuclear materials, the Press Trust of India reported on Wednesday (see GSN, April 26).
Kanpur’s Defense Material and Stores Research Development Establishment “has developed a new NBC or nuclear-biological-chemical suit that would be proved effective against any kind of dangerous weapons or chemicals and protect soldiers from any sort of attack,” agency head Arvind Kumar Saxena said.
“The organization [has] developed the chemical attack-resistant suit, but the suits necessary for the nuclear and biological war situation has not been prepared,” the official said. “The work on the biological suit is likely to be completed by 2013, whereas the preparation for the Read more…
Now, a spy plane that can be flown with or without a pilot!
A new intelligence and surveillance aircraft that falls into the category of an Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) with its ability to be flown robotically or with a human pilot on board was unveiled recently.
It is claimed that the Firebird will allow the U.S. military to simultaneously gather real-time high-definition video, view infrared imagery, use radar and eavesdrop on communications, reports the Daily Mail.
Incredibly, it has an interface like a memory stick that can be plugged into a PC without the need for additional software.
Measuring 34ft-long and 9.7ft-high, the twin-tailed plane can reach a maximum altitude of 30,000ft and has a maximum flying time of between 24 and 40 hours, depending on its configuration.
Its wing span is 65ft and it has a pushed-propeller at the rear of its fuselage.he Firebird, which performed its first flight in February 2010, was designed and built in California’s Mojave Desert by Scaled Composites and unveiled yesterday by U.S. aero defence firm Northrop Grumman.
The aircraft was designed with the certainty of cuts in U.S. defence spending in mind.
“Firebird addresses future budgetary constraints by combining the best of our piloted and unmanned systems,” said Paul Meyer, a spokesman for Northrop Grumman.
Rick Crooks, Firebird program manager, described it as an adaptable system that is highly affordable because of the number of different missions that can be accomplished in a single flight.
The Firebird will be demonstrated in public from May 23 to June 3. It is currently unclear how much it will cost. (ANI)
Osama bin Laden dead: hi-tech secret may end up in China
There are growing fears that top-secret stealth technology taken from the helicopter that crashed during the raid on the home of Osama bin Laden could be smuggled into China and cause a diplomatic row.
The American troops used thermite grenades to destroy the helicopter’s main body but its rear section was left intact and taken away by the Pakistani military soon after the night raid on Monday. It is feared that if Islamabad refuses a request from Washington for the return of the tail section that the issue could turn into a diplomatic rift Read more…
Sony suffers second data breach with theft of 25m more user details
Sony has suffered a second enormous data breach with nearly 25m customers’ details from its SOE network stolen. Photograph: Nick Rowe/Getty Images
The crisis at Sony deepened on Tuesday as it admitted that an extra 25 million customers who played games on its Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) PC games network have had their personal details stolen – and that they were taken before the theft of 77 million peoples’ details on the PlayStation Network (PSN).
The electronics giant said the names, addresses, emails, birth dates, phone numbers and other information from PC games customers were stolen from its servers as well as an “outdated database” from 2007 which contained details of around 23,400 people outside the US. That includes 10,700 direct debit records for customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, Sony said.
The dataset was stolen on 16 and 17 April, before the PSN break-in, which occurred from 17 to 19 April. Sony said that it had not previously thought that the data was copied by the hackers who broke into its systems.
A Sony spokeswoman in Tokyo admitted that the company was unable to predict where or how or when the next attack would come. “They are hackers. We don’t know where they’re going to attack next,” Read more…
Scientists Seek More Accurate Cargo Scanners
Scientists in North Carolina are pursuing new cargo scanning technology capable of more accurately identifying nuclear- and radiological-weapon ingredients by making use of newly discovered atomic “fingerprints,” Duke University said on Thursday (see GSN, April 28).
The High Intensity Gamma-Ray Source generates beams that interact in specific ways with radioactive materials including uranium and plutonium. Such interactions might someday be used to identify weapon-grade uranium and other dangerous atomic materials amid benign radiation sources, Duke University nuclear physicist Mohammad Ahmed said in a press release. Ahmed’s team is examining the distinct patterns in which the atomic nuclei of different materials emit neutrons when exposed to the beam. Read more…
China unveils rival to International Space Station
Less than a decade ago, it fired its first human being into orbit. Now, Beijing is working on a multi-capsule outpost in space. But what is the political message of the Tiangong ‘heavenly palace’?
Visitors to the Airshow China exhibition look at a model of the Tiangong-1 space station. Photograph: Ranwen/Imaginechina
China laid out plans for its future in space yesterday, unveiling details of an ambitious new space station to be built in orbit within a decade.
The project, which one NASA adviser describes as a “potent political symbol”, is the latest phase in China’s rapidly developing space programme. It is less than a decade since China put a human into orbit for the first time, and three years since its first spacewalk.
The space station will weigh around 60 tonnes and consist of a core module with two laboratory units for experiments, according to the state news agency, Xinhua.
Officials have asked the public to suggest names and symbols for the unit and for a cargo spacecraft that will serve it.
Professor Jiang Guohua, from the China Astronaut Research and Training Centre, said the facility would be designed to Read more…
Pictures of China’s new submarines, tanks, stealth planes and railgun development
Here is a picture that compares the Chinese J20, the US F22 and the Russian T50 stealth fighter planes from the side and from the top
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
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