No one can argue that Bear Grylls is the quintessential alpha male. The guy has shown in his hit TV show Man Vs. Wild the various ways a man can survive when he left out to fend for himself in various inhospitable environments. It’s an entertaining show that gives you a great peek into survivalism and, of course, gives you an idea of what to do in case you get stranded in the middle of the Arctic Circle (well, it could happen). [Read more…]
THE TECHNOLOGICAL FEATURES OF CALLING CARDS
It is undeniable that international calling cards are one of the greatest technological innovations that have made our lives and chores easier and faster. With calling cards, communication became more convenient, accessible and cost efficient. For instance, a businessman can simply call India from Philippines to follow-up the supplies needed for his business. Likewise, a son can simply call India from United States to talk to his parents and tell them that he made it to the honor’s list.
Originally, calling cards have been developed for use in public pay phone booths. The user simply inserts the calling card into the pay phone and the machine can automatically read the available load balance. The user can then use the calling time corresponding to the available load balance. Earlier phone cards have a magnetic strip that contains important information such the available load balance and calling time of the account. Indeed, that magnetic strip serves as the data storage of the calling card. As technology advanced, innovations have also been introduced to calling cards. Some calling cards started to use optical storage instead of the magnetic information database. With the optical storage, the available load balance can already be reflected on top of the card for the user’s convenience. The most recent technological development among calling cards is the use of micro chips. Issues such as hacking threatened the use of micro chips but the problems were later solved with the use of highly-secured technologies.
NTT Strengthens Data Center Security in Northern Europe
Corporations all over the world increasingly realize the essential role that data centers play in their business. With technology being central to day to day operations, this is really not at all surprising. One of the major players in the global data center service sector is NTT Communications. This company is well known all over the world due to the scale of its operations. Services range from telecommunications to IT solutions to management solutions – and more.
In the early part of August, NTT Communications announced that their acquisition of a European company, Secode AB. This company has established a name for itself in northern Europe in particular. Secode AB specializes in the area of managed-security and security-consulting services. It provides these services to financial institutions – both in the public and private sectors – in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. With this development, Secode AB will continue to offer its services – with a plus.
The resources of NTT Communications will now be behind Secode AB, which has become a totally owned subsidiary. More so, the subsidiary will be able to expand its operations as it will now be absorbed by other NTT-owned centers in other parts of the world, namely, Japan, Germany, Singapore, and the US. Some of the services that will continue to be offered are:
- Intrusion detection
- Intrusion prevention
- Log management
- Vulnerability analysis
- Data-loss prevention
- Anti-virus
- Anti-spam
- Managed VPN/firewall
- Mobile security.
With this acquisition, the real winners are the entities that will be benefiting from the combined forces of NTT Communications and Secode AB. The end result? Much better data center security for everyone involved.
Star Wars Rubber Duckies
“Use the force or give yourself to the duck side!”
Introducing the Star Wars Rubber Duckies
Luke Pond Water
Princess Layer
Pondtrooper
The Funny cute side of Star Wars, for Star Wars fans out there this is a must have along with your lightsabers, Stormtrooper armors, Blasters, lunch boxes, coffee mugs and posters. These Rubber duckies are water activated and automatically switches off when out of the water these ducks glow and then gently phases different colors although batteries are not replaceable, they last for a total of 45 hours.
Featuring Luke Pondwalker in his X-Wing outfit, Princess Layer as Princess Leia, and Pondtrooper as the Stormtrooper.
Via RED5
Nokia N8 is coming
Maybe you’ve heard of Nokia’s upcoming N8. The new Nseries phone, set to overtake the N97 as Nokia’s new flagship phone, is making a huge buzz here on the web. To think the phone’s not even released yet.
There is a lot to be excited for the N8 anyway. Besides, this is the first phone to run Nokia’s new Symbian ^3 operating system. The specifications of this phone is also astounding:
– Screen size: 3.5″
– Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) OLED
– 16.7 million colours
– Capacitive touch screen
– Finger touch support for text input and UI control
– On-screen alphanumeric keypad and full keyboard
– Dedicated camera and volume keys
– Bluetooth 3.0
– HDMI
– 2mm Charging connector
– Micro USB connector and charging
– High-Speed USB 2.0 (micro USB connector)
– USB On-the-Go
– 3.5 mm AV connector
– FM Radio
– FM Transmitter
– Internal memory: 16 GB
– MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32 GB
– 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
– Xenon flash
– 720p video recording
Whew, that’s quite a lot, isn’t it? The camera alone is enough for anyone to consider getting the Nokia N8. It’s looking like it’s going to be more than a capable content creation device. Throw in the fact that it doubles as a portable entertainment center, people can enjoy HD-quality video with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound by plugging into their home theatre system. I don’t see how you could lose by not having this phone.
Oh yeah. The operating system. The Nokia N8 was already given an early review, and the reviewer panned Symbian ^3, going as far as to jokingly accuse Nokia engineers of sabotaging the brand. To be fair, they were testing an early version of Symbian ^3, and we might find an operating system that might just be able to compete against the iPhone. Although knowing Nokia, the first few iterations of the N8 won’t probably be as good as we’d hope it would be. We’re probably better off waiting for a couple of firmware updates.
Honda’s U3-X will ensure atrophy
So, we’re living in a society that already encourages being a lazy-ass meatbag already. You’d see people working day in and day out, chained to their desks, without moving a single major muscle. So, how else do we ensure that people become fatter? Honda apparently has an idea. You see, Honda’s U3-X personal mobility prototype will ensure that you will never ever want to walk again, be it long or short distances.
Check out Gadzooki has to say:
The U3-X is a continuation of Honda’s unofficial human meat puppetry project, which started in 2008 with a set of assistive robo-legs, and will end with, well, Wall-E. Conceptually, it sits somewhere between two other historically dignified modes of transportation, the unicycle and the Segway. It supports the rider’s weight with an omnidirectional wheel, which is actually made of smaller, perpendicularly aligned wheels, and which responds to slight movements in the rider’s upper body; a shift of the shoulder in any direction eases the rider across the floor, in a surprisingly predictable and controllable way. It doesn’t feel like rolling so much as it feels like floating.
Okay, I have to admit, riding on a sort of futuristic and fully-automated cross between the Segway and a unicycle that will not let you fall off it is pretty neat. Apparently it’s the most comfortable thing to ride on, and Engadget goes as far as to say it’s a joy to ride on. I certainly hope that they don’t market it to able-bodied people though, because that thing has major potential for disabled people.
The Always Innovating Touch Book looks interesting
This is a rather old gadget already, but it’s worth a look because of renewed interest in tablet computers thanks to the iPad. The Always Innovating Touch Book is a smartbook that has a detachable touchscreen so you can use it as a tablet computer whenever you want or need it to be. I know we’ve seen this on Lenovo smartbooks already, but the Always Innovating Touch Book has an advantage over the competition – everything about this is open source! Yes, the hardware and software on this smartbook is open source, and is spearheaded by Gregoire Gentil, the man behind the Zonbu Desktop and Laptop. [Read more…]
Carry a secure computer on your keychain with IronClad
One of the things that I really don’t take for granted when I bring my laptop around everywhere I go is security. Aside from physical security (you know, never taking the laptop out in scary areas, never letting the bag out of my sight, bringing a Kensington lock), you can never be too careful about software as well.
Now, if you don’t like carrying around a full computer, but you like to keep your data with you all of the time, you might want to consider the IronClad. Created by Lockheed Martin – yes, the guys who created the F-22 Raptor fighter jet – the IronClad is basically an entire operating system embedded on an 8GB USB drive. So all you need to do is to plug it into your workstation, boot up from your USB drive, and work.
IronClad shrinks your laptop hard drive to a three-inch flash drive, portable and small enough to fit in your pocket or attach to your keychain.
Plug IronClad into virtually any laptop or PC, and it turns into your own computer.
IronClad will bypass the computer’s hard drive and run directly off the flash drive – from your operating system to your everyday applications.
This gives you the convenience of your home desktop, either stand alone or networked, with no risk of your sensitive data ever touching the hard drive of the computer you’re using, leaving no trace that you were there.
IronClad is secure enough to use at computer kiosks, shared laptops, or public workstations.
Personally, I’d like to use this instead of lugging around a laptop. What do you think?
Keep your money, business cards and credit cards safe with the iWallet
If you think about it, we’ve amassed a lot of security features for our various gadgets by now. We have password encryption, biometric scanners, and alarms to protect our gadgets.
But if you think about it, one important thing that we need to really protect seems to have been overlooked. I’m talking about the wallet. We keep a lot of important things in the wallet, yet we seem to have not given any thought on how to secure our belongings inside the wallet. If we lose our wallets, we basically give the thief free rein with our money, credit cards, ATM cards, IDs, and our other personal trinkets that we keep in them. We’re basically risking our privacy the more we put really sensitive objects in our wallets.
Now, the iWallet is being touted as a solution to this problem of possible identity theft. It is made of Kevlar and carbon fiber – the same material bulletproof vests are made of. Now I don’t know why anyone would want to put a bullet through your wallet, but for those times you need to protect your high school graduation picture from an armed attacker, this would be perfect.
Other added security measures would be the built-in biometrics reader – use your fingerprint to open your wallet! – and a Bluetooth alarm that will buzz your phone if your wallet and phone start to have a considerable distance away from each other.
I actually think that these security measures are a bit overkill. Unless you’re keeping the nuclear missile launch codes in your wallet, I don’t know why else you’d have a biometrics scanner in your wallet. But if you really feel like you need this and you have $299.00 USD to burn, go ahead, get an iWallet.
Jailbroken iPhones fall victim to hackers
I know, people are demanding that they get to use their phones the way they want to, and jailbreaking is a way to free your phone from the shackles of Apple’s tyranny. But jailbreaking opens up your phone to security risks and now, we have two separate incidents of iPhones being hacked.
First off, we have the Dutch hacker who held iPhones (that left SSH running) for ransom. The message read, “Your iPhone’s been hacked because it’s really insecure! Please visit doiop.com/iHacked and secure your iPhone right now! Right now, I can access all your files.”
Visiting the URL directs the user to send €5 to a PayPal account, after which the hacker will e-mail instructions to remove the hack. Apparently he had a change of heart and returned the money he gained from his stunt.
And then, we have Ashley Towns, a 21-year-old from Wollongong, south of Sydney, who was able to install a worm into unsuspecting users’ handsets. The worm changes your iPhone’s wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley. Yes, even though Rickrolling is old, this guy decides to rickroll the heck out of iPhone users. The virus relied on the iPhone user leaving a default password unchanged after installing the software that allows them to run third-party apps. Anyway, he claims it is a harmless prank, but it still highlights the need to make sure your iPhone is secure after jailbreaking. Who knows what malicious hacker would come and steal all the personal files stored in your phone next time.