Siemens and Airbus teamed up today to develop electric and hybrid electric/combustion engines for commercial and private aircraft.The companies said they would amass a joint development team of about 200 employees that would jointly develop prototypes for various propulsion systems with power classes ranging from a few 100 kilowatts up to 10 and more megawatts, for short, local trips with aircraft below 100 seats, helicopters or unmanned aircraft up to classic short and medium-range flights.+More on Network World: The most magnificent high-tech flying machines+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IT can trace its roots back to arguably the most important computer introduction made 52 years ago today. April 7, 1964 was the day IBM introduced its System/360, the first true mainframe for the masses, or at least that’s what it hoped on that day.IBM said on that day that it announced the S/360 to over 100,000 people gathered in cities across the country.+More on Network World: The (mostly) cool history of the IBM mainframe+It told them: "System/360 represents a sharp departure from concepts of the past in designing and building computers. It is the product of an international effort in IBM's laboratories and plants and is the first time IBM has redesigned the basic internal architecture of its computers in a decade. The result will be more computer productivity at lower cost than ever before. This is the beginning of a new generation - - not only of computers - - but of their application in business, science and government."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IT can trace its roots back to arguably the most important computer introduction made 52 years ago today. April 7, 1964 was the day IBM introduced its System/360, the first true mainframe for the masses, or at least that’s what it hoped on that day.IBM said on that day that it announced the S/360 to over 100,000 people gathered in cities across the country.+More on Network World: The (mostly) cool history of the IBM mainframe+It told them: "System/360 represents a sharp departure from concepts of the past in designing and building computers. It is the product of an international effort in IBM's laboratories and plants and is the first time IBM has redesigned the basic internal architecture of its computers in a decade. The result will be more computer productivity at lower cost than ever before. This is the beginning of a new generation - - not only of computers - - but of their application in business, science and government."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IT can trace its roots back to arguably the most important computer introduction made 52 years ago today. April 7, 1964 was the day IBM introduced its System/360, the first true mainframe for the masses, or at least that’s what it hoped on that day.IBM said on that day that it announced the S/360 to over 100,000 people gathered in cities across the country.+More on Network World: The (mostly) cool history of the IBM mainframe+It told them: "System/360 represents a sharp departure from concepts of the past in designing and building computers. It is the product of an international effort in IBM's laboratories and plants and is the first time IBM has redesigned the basic internal architecture of its computers in a decade. The result will be more computer productivity at lower cost than ever before. This is the beginning of a new generation - - not only of computers - - but of their application in business, science and government."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s not everyday you could have the opportunity to buy a piece of space – but Christie’s London auction house will on April 20 offer about 80 meteorite pieces and a bunch of space rock paraphernalia to go along with them.+More on Network World: 13 awesome and scary things in near Earth space+The meteorite collection is made up of a variety of sample space rocks from private and public collections with some items expected to fetch over a million dollars at the auction.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s not everyday you could have the opportunity to buy a piece of space – but Christie’s London auction house will on April 20 offer about 80 meteorite pieces and a bunch of space rock paraphernalia to go along with them.+More on Network World: 13 awesome and scary things in near Earth space+The meteorite collection is made up of a variety of sample space rocks from private and public collections with some items expected to fetch over a million dollars at the auction.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Department of Defense is unclear about who would take charge and work with civilian authorities during a large-scale cyber attack on the US.There are a number of plans and directions for how the government would respond to a cyber attack on the nation’s electric grid or other large entity but tons of clarification and specific directions need to be ironed out to respond effectively, according to a Government Accountability Office report out this week.+More on Network World: IRS: Top 10 2015 identity theft busts+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Looking to remove a little red tape from businesses and utilities that may want to use unmanned aircraft systems, the FAA today doubled the “blanket” altitude for certain drones to 400ft from 200 ft.Specifically the altitude increase is for FAA Section 333 exemption holders, or potential holders, which have typically been businesses, governmental or utilities looking to explore the drone applications.+More on Network World: DARPA: Show us how to weaponize benign technologies+Under the new blanket “Certificate of Waiver or Authorization,” the FAA will permit flights at or below 400ft for drone operators with a Section 333 exemption for aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds and for government unmanned operations. Operators must fly under existing daytime Visual Flight Rules, keep the drone within visual line of sight of the pilot and stay certain distances away from airports or heliports:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The fraud and scam war rages. This week the Federal Courts warned of swindles involving people posing as federal court officials and U.S. Marshals targeting citizens, threatening them with arrest unless they pay some fake fine for failing to show up for jury duty .+More on Network World: What are grand technology and scientific challenges for the 21st century?+“This year’s scams are more aggressive and sophisticated than we’ve seen in years past,” says Melissa Muir, Director of Administrative Services for the U.S. District Court of Western Washington in a statement. “Scammers are setting up call centers, establishing call-back protocols and using specific names and designated court hearing times.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Getting mobile devices to more intelligently access and use the ever-tightening wireless spectrum will be the goal of a new public competition from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.The defense research agency recently announced a $2 million Grand Challenge called the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2) and said the primary goal of the contest was to infuse radios with “advanced machine-learning capabilities so they can collectively develop strategies that optimize use of the wireless spectrum in ways not possible with today’s intrinsically inefficient approach of pre-allocating exclusive access to designated frequencies.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
NASA this week said it was considering a new Centennial Challenge: Build and airship capable of long duration flight for scientific missions.The agency issued a Request For information to see if there was enough industry interest in the challenge and to further develop rules for the competition. You may recall that NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program sets up challenging contests for the public, academia, and industry with an eye towards developing innovative technologies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The spectacular and the burn-outThe tech industry mirrors what goes on in regular society – people and companies rise in power one year only to fade away the next. That kind of change is the one constant in the high-tech industry. We have seen some spectacular successes and some incredible flame-outs. In 30 years the tech industry has seen many such transformations from companies such as IBM and Cisco to Nortel (remember them?) to technologies like SNA and Token Ring to Ethernet. Here we try to focus on the most important happenings since our own inception in 1986. Enjoy the ride.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The FBI today added two members of a Syrian hacker group to its Cyber Most Wanted list offering a reward of up to $100,000 each for information that leads to their arrest.+More on Network World: The FBI this week warned carmakers and owners that they need to pay much closer attention to automotive cybersecurity+According to the FBI, the new cybercriminals Amad Umar Agha22, known online as “The Pro,” and Firas Dardar,27, known online as “The Shadow,” engaged in a multi-year conspiracy that began in 2011 to collect usernames and passwords that gave them the ability to deface websites, redirect domains to sites controlled by the conspirators, steal e-mail, and hijack social media accounts. To obtain the login information they spear-phishing, where they tricked people who had privileged access to their organizations’ websites and social media channels into volunteering sensitive information by posing as a legitimate entity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The IRS faces an uphill battle in fighting identity theft, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t trying. In fiscal year 2015, the IRS said it started 776 identity theft related investigations, which resulted in 774 sentencings through its Criminal Investigation enforcement efforts. The courts continue to impose significant jail time with the average penalty in 2015 at 38 months in jail— the longest sentencing being over 27 years.+More on Network World: IRS Scam: 5,000 victims cheated out of $26.5 million since 2013+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The FBI this week warned carmakers and owners that they need to pay much closer attention to automotive cybersecurity.The National Highway Transportation Safety joined with the FBI in warning consumer that the increasing number of computers in the form of electronic control units (ECUs) that control numerous vehicle functions from steering, braking, and acceleration, to the lights and windshield wipers make them vulnerable to potential cybersecurity problems.+More on Network World: World’s coolest concept cars+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The network NASA uses to deliver telemetry ground-based tracking, data and communications services to a wide range of current and future spacecraft needs a serious bump in security technology.That was the conclusion of the space agency’s Office of Inspector General which stated: “We found that NASA, [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, which manages the network] failed to comply with fundamental elements of security risk management reflected in Federal and Agency policies. We believe that these deficiencies resulted from inadequate Agency oversight of the network and insufficient coordination between stakeholders. These deficiencies unnecessarily increase the network’s susceptibility to compromise.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The network NASA uses to deliver telemetry ground-based tracking, data and communications services to a wide range of current and future spacecraft needs a serious bump in security technology.That was the conclusion of the space agency’s Office of Inspector General which stated: “We found that NASA, [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, which manages the network] failed to comply with fundamental elements of security risk management reflected in Federal and Agency policies. We believe that these deficiencies resulted from inadequate Agency oversight of the network and insufficient coordination between stakeholders. These deficiencies unnecessarily increase the network’s susceptibility to compromise.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As unmanned aircraft become a larger part of the Air Force a number of challenges have surfaced that could impact drone squadron efficiency.A Government Accountability Office report out this week stated that while the Air Force has made efforts to manage its unmanned aircraftpilots but has not fully addressed issues related to: “identifying personnel requirements, recruiting and retention difficulties, the potential use of Department of Defense civilians as pilots, pilots completing their required training and moving pilots through the training pipeline.”+More on Network World: What’s hot at the monster CeBit show?+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was created years ago because the US didn’t want to be surprised again by any major new technological developments (specifically in response to the surprise launch of Sputnik in 1958) and ensure that the US should do any surprising.+More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2015+With that in mind the agency is launching a potentially scary program called “Improv” that looks at what DARPA calls today’s “bustling tech marketplace with an inventor’s eye and imagine how easily purchased, relatively benign technologies might be converted into serious security threats.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
How cool would it be if you could just pull into your garage and park over a special pad and a recharge your electric car for your morning commute?It’s a convenience item that would go a long way to making electric cars more attractive to the average US consumer that’s for sure.+More on Network World: World’s coolest concept cars+This week the US Energy Department’s Vehicle Technologies Office, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. said that technology they have been working on since 2012 could soon make wireless charging for electric cars more widespread.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Michael Cooney