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
Boeing is looking to clean up one of the smallest and dirtiest component of travel—the commercial airplane toilet.With barely enough space to um, sit, and with high capacity usage, the commercial airline toilet perhaps is an engineering marvel but little else. Boeing however is looking to that notion with a self-cleaning aircraft bathroom– known as the Fresh Lavatory -- that the company says uses ultraviolet (UV) light to kill 99.99% of germs in the loo – and even puts down the toilet seat lid.+More on Network World: NASA: “Wild” technology will transform aviation+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Boeing is looking to clean up one of the smallest and dirtiest component of travel—the commercial airplane toilet.With barely enough space to um, sit, and with high capacity usage, the commercial airline toilet perhaps is an engineering marvel but little else. Boeing however is looking to that notion with a self-cleaning aircraft bathroom– known as the Fresh Lavatory -- that the company says uses ultraviolet (UV) light to kill 99.99% of germs in the loo – and even puts down the toilet seat lid.+More on Network World: NASA: “Wild” technology will transform aviation+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency took one step further in building a radically different vertical take off and landing or VTOL aircraft that can fly fast and carry a big load.Specifically DARPA awarded Aurora Flight Sciences the $89 million prime contract for Phase 2 of the agency’s Vertical Takeoff and Landing Experimental Plane (VTOL X-Plane) program which looks to:
Achieve a top sustained flight speed of 300 kt-400 kt
Raise aircraft hover efficiency from 60% to at least 75%
Present a more favorable cruise lift-to-drag ratio of at least 10, up from 5-6
Carry a useful load of at least 40% of the vehicle’s projected gross weight of 10,000-12,000 pounds
+More on Network World: The iconic Boeing 747 is almost 50!+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Criminals continue to work the phones in nefarious ways – this time they are claiming to be US Marshals threatening arrest and fines for failing to report for jury duty.The US Marshals warned of the scam and said the fraudsters try to appear more credible, offering information like badge numbers and the names of actual federal judges and courthouse addresses.Victims have been told they can avoid arrest by paying a fine using a reloadable credit card, and were urged to call a number and provide their own credit card number to initiate the process, the law enforcement agency stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The massive federal data center consolidation effort has seen $2.8 billion in cost savings and a shuttering or merging of some 3,125 sites but issues remain, according to a report from the watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office.According to the GAO, the 24 agencies participating in the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative have collectively made progress on their data center closures efforts. As of November 2015, agencies identified a total of 10,584 data centers, of which they reported closing 3,125 through fiscal year 2015.+More on Network World: In the face of relenting network attacks and it seems that the government’s chief weapon for combatting the assault lacks some teeth+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The massive federal data center consolidation effort has seen $2.8 billion in cost savings and a shuttering or merging of some 3,125 sites but issues remain, according to a report from the watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office.According to the GAO, the 24 agencies participating in the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative have collectively made progress on their data center closures efforts. As of November 2015, agencies identified a total of 10,584 data centers, of which they reported closing 3,125 through fiscal year 2015.+More on Network World: In the face of relenting network attacks and it seems that the government’s chief weapon for combatting the assault lacks some teeth+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The US Department of Energy said it has whittled 92 teams down to 9 finalists for its competition that aims to double the current amount of energy captured from ocean waves.Each of the finalists in the Wave Energy Prize and two alternates will now receive seed DOE funding to develop a 1/20th-scale model of their deep water wave energy converter (WEC) devices. The final round of testing will take place this summer at the nation's most advanced wave-making facility—the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Maneuvering and Seakeeping Basin in Carderock, Maryland.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The US Department of Energy said it has whittled 92 teams down to 9 finalists for its competition that aims to double the current amount of energy captured from ocean waves.Each of the finalists in the Wave Energy Prize and two alternates will now receive seed DOE funding to develop a 1/20th-scale model of their deep water wave energy converter (WEC) devices. The final round of testing will take place this summer at the nation's most advanced wave-making facility—the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Maneuvering and Seakeeping Basin in Carderock, Maryland.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A 31-year-old Florida man got 10 years behind bars for hacking women’s social media accounts including Facebook, stealing pictures and personal information and posting it on pornographic websites.Specifically Michael Rubens was sentenced to 10 years in prison for cyberstalking, unauthorized access to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft, a $15,000 fine and $1,550 in restitution his crimes, according to acting Northern District of Florida U.S. Attorney Christopher Canova.+More on Network World: 26 of the craziest and scariest things the TSA has found on travelers+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Internal Revenue Service has issued its second major warning about tax scams in a little over a month– this one involving a phishing email scheme that look a like a message from company executive requesting personal information from employees.The IRS said the scheme has claimed several victims as payroll and human resources offices mistakenly email payroll data including Forms W-2 that contain Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information to cybercriminals posing as company executives.+More on Network World: Yikes! 10,000 IRS impersonation scam calls are placed every week+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Federal Trade Commission found few surprises in its annual summary of consumer complaints – offensive debt collection activities, identity theft, and imposter scams were the main offenders in 2015.
Imposter scams have been in the news of late because the Internal Revenue Service issued a report in January that said that aggressive and threatening phone calls by criminals impersonating IRS agents continues to plague taxpayers. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration in January said it has received reports of roughly 896,000 contacts since October 2013 and have become aware of over 5,000 victims who have collectively paid over $26.5 million as a result of the scam. The IRS also noted recently that there has been a 400% surge in phishing and malware incidents in this tax season alone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
NASA wants to put a supersonic passenger jet back in the sky that promises to a soft thump or supersonic heartbeat as the agency called it -- rather than the disruptive boom currently associated with such high-speed flight.The “low-boom” aircraft known as Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) will be built by a team led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics which will get $20 million to develop baseline aircraft requirements and a preliminary aircraft design.+More on Network World: NASA: What cool future passenger aircraft will look like+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apparently IBM’s Watson isn’t all that popular amongst the robot community – at least that’s how it looks in a new IBM commercial "Coping with Humans": A Support Group for Bots.”In the commercial Carrie Fisher (or Princess Leia of Star Wars fame) tries to guide a raft of disgruntled robots in a therapy session that apparently has had problems in the past – saying “maybe this week we might try and listen more – and throw things less.”It’s pretty funny, take a look.
+More on Network World: NASA touts real technologies highlighted in 'The Martian' flick+ To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apparently IBM’s Watson isn’t all that popular amongst the robot community – at least that’s how it looks in a new IBM commercial "Coping with Humans": A Support Group for Bots.”In the commercial Carrie Fisher (or Princess Leia of Star Wars fame) tries to guide a raft of disgruntled robots in a therapy session that apparently has had problems in the past – saying “maybe this week we might try and listen more – and throw things less.”It’s pretty funny, take a look.
+More on Network World: NASA touts real technologies highlighted in 'The Martian' flick+ To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
He could have gotten 10 years behind bars but this week a former IT manager at software maker Smart Online only got 30 months for sending malicious code that destroyed the company’s computers and data.+More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2015+The Department of Justice said that according to the plea agreement, from 2007 to 2012, Nikhil Shah, 33 was an information technology manager at Smart Online Inc., of Durham, North Carolina, that develops mobile applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Can the development of artificial intelligence technology be kicked up a notch? Scientists at Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) certainly hope so and recently issued a Request For Information about how AI advances could be made more quickly and consistently.“Artificial intelligence, defined here as computer simulation of cognitive processes such as perception, recognition, reasoning, and control, have captured the public’s imagination for over 60 years. However, artificial intelligence research has proceeded in fits and starts over much of that time, as the field repeats a boom/bust cycle characterized by promising bursts of progress followed by inflated expectations and finally disillusionment, leading to what has become known as an “AI winter” – a long period of diminished research and funding activity,” IARPA wrote. IARPA is the high-risk, high-reward research arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There has been a 400% surge in phishing and malware incidents in this tax season alone, the Internal Revenue Service warned this week.According to the IRS phony emails aimed at fooling taxpayers into thinking these are official communications from the IRS or others in the tax industry, including tax software companies.+More on Network World: The Big Hang-up: IRS customer call center service stinks+“The phishing schemes can ask taxpayers about a wide range of topics. E-mails can seek information related to refunds, filing status, confirming personal information, ordering transcripts and verifying PIN information. Variations of these scams can be seen via text messages, and the communications are being reported in every section of the country,” the IRS stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Strong gravityImage by NASABlack holes had the spotlight as the centerpiece of the gravitational waves discovery announced recently. The waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes – that were about 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. NASA defines black holes as places in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space and that can happen when a star is dying for example. While black holes are basically invisible, they make for some spectacular imagery, some an artist’s interpretation, in the space matter and stars around them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A ripple in the space-time continuumIn one of the great astronomical discoveries scientists today said they made direct observation of gravitational waves -- ripples in space-time foretold by Albert Einstein 100 years ago. Physicists said the detected gravitational waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes – that were about 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. This collision which happened about 1.3 billion years ago, had been predicted but never observed, according to the National Science Foundation. The gravitational waves were detected on Sept. 14, 2015 at 5:51 a.m. EDT by both of the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, located in Livingston, La., and Hanford, Wash.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Michael Cooney