Posts
Last night when I arrived home, there was a garder snake down on the ground to the left of my door in the bark, at the corner of the brick wall and concrete stoop, maybe a foot long.
What might it represent?
1. the heat - it was sunning itself
2. it came around because we have chipmunks in the garden now - likely because I removed all the cats in the neighborhood which have not returned and I don't miss them
3. I would rather have snakes than cats because snakes don't keep me up at night fighting and howling (unlike renters) and they don't piss everywhere (...), or if they do it isn't enough to notice - I have previous notes on this topic - so long as they don't over-reproduce or nest in my crawlspace (...), this snake is non-poisonous and also seasonal (...), being cold-blooded (...), so I should probably see it as a good omen or at least as an organizational change. Unlike cats and like snakes, renters are a necessary evil. Afterall, I've only owned my place since 2007.
4. but, I do hope they don't find their way to the crawlspace because I suppose they could eventually get in through the dryer vent or air ducts which might detract from the curb appeal. I mean snakes here, not renters.
5. it represents the circle of life and suggests that everything amounts to a mouth and an anus, so I should get into grad school soon before life has another bowel movement
6. I would estimate myself to be somewhere around the esophagus of the circle of life, just not sure how long the snake is
7. If I'm lucky the snake of life within which I've most recently been ingested could be an ouroboros (snake devouring it's tail) so there's a chance I could get recycled
8. too bad I lost my camera
9. I thought about picking up the snake but there's really no point in a personal welcome. I hope it eats the chipmunks. and a few of the renters and possibly a couple of the maintenance crew.
10. I'm getting into a habit of kicking the tree outside at night to shut up that one cicada when I'm ready to sleep. Either the neighbors think I'm nuts or they are relieved when it mysteriously shuts up. Again, much like a few of the renters.
11. I also like to run off the crows in front on Saturday mornings because they upset the mockingbirds who raise holy hell and I like to imagine they think I'm helping which probably means I have low self esteem. But, actually those mockingbirds are collectively more annoying more frequently, although the crows are louder when they show up. They probably come around more often because I leave early and I'm not working from home as much now and wouldn't know about them until the weekend. See renters.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Start-up to release 'stone-like' optical disc that lasts forever
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218881/Start_up_to_release_stone_like_optical_disc_that_lasts_forever
New optical disc aims for consumer market first, then corporate archives
By Lucas Mearian
August 8, 2011 06:05 AM ET
8 Comments
Computerworld - Start-up Millenniata and LG plan to soon release a new optical disc and read/write player that will store movies, photos or any other data forever. The data can be accessed using any current DVD or Blu-ray player.
Millenniata calls the product the M-Disc, and the company claims you can dip it in liquid nitrogen and then boiling water without harming it. It also has a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) study backing up the resiliency of its product compared to other leading optical disc competitors.
Millenniata CEO Scott Shumway would not disclose what material is used to produce the optical discs, referring to it only as a "natural" substance that is "stone-like."
The M-Disc
Millenniata's M-Disc is made of a stone-like substance that the company claims does not degrade over time.
Like DVDs and Blu-ray discs, the M-Disc platters are made up of multiple layers of material. But unlike the former, there is no reflective or die layer. Instead, during the recording process a laser "etches" pits onto the substrate material.
"Once the mark is made, it's permanent," Shumway said. "It can be read on any machine that can read a DVD. And it's backward compatible, so it doesn't require a special machine to read it - just a special machine to write it."
While Millenniata has partnered with LG for the initial launch of an M-Disc read-write player in early October, Shumway said any DVD player maker will be able to produce M-Disc machines by simply upgrading their product's firmware.
Millenniata said it has also proven it can produce Blu-ray format discs with its technology - a product it plans to release in future iterations. For now, the platters store the same amount of data as a DVD: 4.7GB. However, the discs write at only 4x or 5.28MB/sec, half the speed of today's DVD players.
"We feel if we can move to the 8X, that'd be great, but we can live with the four for now," Shumway said, adding that his engineers are working on upping the speed of recording.
Millenniata is also targeting the long-term data archive market, saying archivists will no longer have to worry about controlling the temperature or humidity of a storage room. "Data rot happens with any type of disc you have. Right now, the most permanent technology out there for storing information is a paper and pencil -- until now," Shumway said.
In 2009, the Defense Department's Naval Air Warfare Weapon's Division facility at China Lake, Calif. was interested in digitizing and permanently storing information. So it tested Millenniata's M-Disc against five other optical disc vendors: Delkin Devices, Mitsubishi, JVC, Verbatim and MAM-A.
"None of the Millenniata media suffered any data degradation at all. Every other brand tested showed large increases in data errors after the stress period. Many of the discs were so damaged that they could not be recognized as DVDs by the disc analyzer," the department's report states.
Recordable optical media such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs are made of layers of polycarbonate glued together. One layer of the disk contains a reflective material and a layer just above it incorporates an organic transparent dye. During recording, a laser hits the die layer and burns it, changing the dye from transparent to opaque creating bits of data. A low power laser then can read those bits by either passing through the transparent dye layer to the reflective layer or being absorbed by the pits.
Over long periods of time, DVDs are subject to de-lamination problems where the layers of polycarbonate separate, leading to oxidation and read problems. The dye layer, because its organic, can also break down over time, a process hastened by high temperatures and humidity.
While the DVD industry claims DVDs should last from 50 to 100 years, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), DVDs can break down in "several years" in normal environments. Additionally, NIST suggests DVDs should be stored in spaces where relative humidity is between 20% and 50%, and where temperatures do not drop below 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gene Ruth, a research director at Gartner, said generally he's not heard of a problem with DVD longevity. And, while he admits that a DVD on a car dashboard could be in trouble, the medium has generally had a good track record.
But Ruth said he can see a market in long-term archiving for a product such as the M-Disc because some industries, such as aircraft engineering, healthcare and financial services, store data for a lifetime and beyond.
Millenniata partnered with LG to provide M-Ready technology in most of its DVD and Blu-ray drives. Shumway said the products will begin shipping next month and should be in stores in the beginning of October.
"We felt it was important that we first produce this with a major drive manufacturer, someone that already had models and firmware out there," Shumway said.
Unlike DVDs, which come in 10-, 25-, 50- or 100-disc packs, M-Discs will be available one at a time, or in groups of two or three for just under $3 per disc. Millenniata is also courting system manufacturers in the corporate archive world.
"We're working with some very large channels as we train their distribution networks to launch this," he said. "At the same time, we're launching this at Fry's [Electronics] so consumers can see it and be introduced to this technology."
Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at Twitter @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed Mearian RSS. His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.
New optical disc aims for consumer market first, then corporate archives
By Lucas Mearian
August 8, 2011 06:05 AM ET
8 Comments
Computerworld - Start-up Millenniata and LG plan to soon release a new optical disc and read/write player that will store movies, photos or any other data forever. The data can be accessed using any current DVD or Blu-ray player.
Millenniata calls the product the M-Disc, and the company claims you can dip it in liquid nitrogen and then boiling water without harming it. It also has a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) study backing up the resiliency of its product compared to other leading optical disc competitors.
Millenniata CEO Scott Shumway would not disclose what material is used to produce the optical discs, referring to it only as a "natural" substance that is "stone-like."
The M-Disc
Millenniata's M-Disc is made of a stone-like substance that the company claims does not degrade over time.
Like DVDs and Blu-ray discs, the M-Disc platters are made up of multiple layers of material. But unlike the former, there is no reflective or die layer. Instead, during the recording process a laser "etches" pits onto the substrate material.
"Once the mark is made, it's permanent," Shumway said. "It can be read on any machine that can read a DVD. And it's backward compatible, so it doesn't require a special machine to read it - just a special machine to write it."
While Millenniata has partnered with LG for the initial launch of an M-Disc read-write player in early October, Shumway said any DVD player maker will be able to produce M-Disc machines by simply upgrading their product's firmware.
Millenniata said it has also proven it can produce Blu-ray format discs with its technology - a product it plans to release in future iterations. For now, the platters store the same amount of data as a DVD: 4.7GB. However, the discs write at only 4x or 5.28MB/sec, half the speed of today's DVD players.
"We feel if we can move to the 8X, that'd be great, but we can live with the four for now," Shumway said, adding that his engineers are working on upping the speed of recording.
Millenniata is also targeting the long-term data archive market, saying archivists will no longer have to worry about controlling the temperature or humidity of a storage room. "Data rot happens with any type of disc you have. Right now, the most permanent technology out there for storing information is a paper and pencil -- until now," Shumway said.
In 2009, the Defense Department's Naval Air Warfare Weapon's Division facility at China Lake, Calif. was interested in digitizing and permanently storing information. So it tested Millenniata's M-Disc against five other optical disc vendors: Delkin Devices, Mitsubishi, JVC, Verbatim and MAM-A.
"None of the Millenniata media suffered any data degradation at all. Every other brand tested showed large increases in data errors after the stress period. Many of the discs were so damaged that they could not be recognized as DVDs by the disc analyzer," the department's report states.
Recordable optical media such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs are made of layers of polycarbonate glued together. One layer of the disk contains a reflective material and a layer just above it incorporates an organic transparent dye. During recording, a laser hits the die layer and burns it, changing the dye from transparent to opaque creating bits of data. A low power laser then can read those bits by either passing through the transparent dye layer to the reflective layer or being absorbed by the pits.
Over long periods of time, DVDs are subject to de-lamination problems where the layers of polycarbonate separate, leading to oxidation and read problems. The dye layer, because its organic, can also break down over time, a process hastened by high temperatures and humidity.
While the DVD industry claims DVDs should last from 50 to 100 years, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), DVDs can break down in "several years" in normal environments. Additionally, NIST suggests DVDs should be stored in spaces where relative humidity is between 20% and 50%, and where temperatures do not drop below 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gene Ruth, a research director at Gartner, said generally he's not heard of a problem with DVD longevity. And, while he admits that a DVD on a car dashboard could be in trouble, the medium has generally had a good track record.
But Ruth said he can see a market in long-term archiving for a product such as the M-Disc because some industries, such as aircraft engineering, healthcare and financial services, store data for a lifetime and beyond.
Millenniata partnered with LG to provide M-Ready technology in most of its DVD and Blu-ray drives. Shumway said the products will begin shipping next month and should be in stores in the beginning of October.
"We felt it was important that we first produce this with a major drive manufacturer, someone that already had models and firmware out there," Shumway said.
Unlike DVDs, which come in 10-, 25-, 50- or 100-disc packs, M-Discs will be available one at a time, or in groups of two or three for just under $3 per disc. Millenniata is also courting system manufacturers in the corporate archive world.
"We're working with some very large channels as we train their distribution networks to launch this," he said. "At the same time, we're launching this at Fry's [Electronics] so consumers can see it and be introduced to this technology."
Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at Twitter @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed Mearian RSS. His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Steely Dan drummer, Keith Carlock - '03-'11
Green Earrings
Posted on Steely Dan's site, info on the phenomenal drummer:
http://www.steelydan.com/2kband.html
Unique, tasteful, musical, and muscular; in our opinion Keith Carlock is destined to be one of the greats.
Born in Greenville, Mississippi, Keith has been playing professionally since his early teens. He attended The University of North Texas where he studied with Ed Soph and George Lawrence.
Keith has drummed SD and Fagen gigs since 2003, and tracked each cut on SD's Everything Must Go, Fagen's Morph The Cat, and Becker's Circus Money. Recent tours with Sting and James Taylor bespeak his growing collection of prestigious drum chairs.
Keith has also gigged and recorded with Grover Washington Jr., David Johansen, The Blues Brothers, Heads Up Superband, Rhett Tyler, Harry Belafonte, Diana Ross, Joe Beck, Leni Stern, Tal Wilkenfeld, and Oz Noy, among others. He's a member of the Wayne Krantz trio — the legendary regulars for the last several years at New York City's premiere "jazz dive", The 55 Bar. In 2007, Keith and friends launched the Nu-Jam band Rudder with a CD and US tour.
Starting in 2006, Keith joined legends like Steve Gadd and Vinnie Colaiuta on the medals podium of Modern Drummer's Readers Poll. In 2009, he ascended to #1 in the best pop, fusion, and all-around categories.
Also In 2009, Keith released his long-awaited Instructional DVD, The Big Picture: Phrasing, Improvisation, Style & Technique.
Visit Keith's website and mailing list at keithcarlock.com
Posted on Steely Dan's site, info on the phenomenal drummer:
http://www.steelydan.com/2kband.html
Unique, tasteful, musical, and muscular; in our opinion Keith Carlock is destined to be one of the greats.
Born in Greenville, Mississippi, Keith has been playing professionally since his early teens. He attended The University of North Texas where he studied with Ed Soph and George Lawrence.
Keith has drummed SD and Fagen gigs since 2003, and tracked each cut on SD's Everything Must Go, Fagen's Morph The Cat, and Becker's Circus Money. Recent tours with Sting and James Taylor bespeak his growing collection of prestigious drum chairs.
Keith has also gigged and recorded with Grover Washington Jr., David Johansen, The Blues Brothers, Heads Up Superband, Rhett Tyler, Harry Belafonte, Diana Ross, Joe Beck, Leni Stern, Tal Wilkenfeld, and Oz Noy, among others. He's a member of the Wayne Krantz trio — the legendary regulars for the last several years at New York City's premiere "jazz dive", The 55 Bar. In 2007, Keith and friends launched the Nu-Jam band Rudder with a CD and US tour.
Starting in 2006, Keith joined legends like Steve Gadd and Vinnie Colaiuta on the medals podium of Modern Drummer's Readers Poll. In 2009, he ascended to #1 in the best pop, fusion, and all-around categories.
Also In 2009, Keith released his long-awaited Instructional DVD, The Big Picture: Phrasing, Improvisation, Style & Technique.
Visit Keith's website and mailing list at keithcarlock.com
Friday, August 5, 2011
Why is the West silent on 5-year cyberwar launched by China?
http://www.itworld.com/security/190077/why-west-silent-5-year-cyberwar-launched-china
No threat, no outrage, no reprisals after revelation of attacks on 70 organizations in 14 countries
By Kevin Fogarty
August 04, 2011, 12:16 PM —
There were no big surprises in the reaction of the countries or organizations named as targets of a series of persistent, aggressive, often successful online attacks during the past five years – a campaign described in detail by a report from security vendor McAfee, which became public yesterday.
Most of the victims – 49 U.S.-based corporations and a series of U.S. government agencies as well as companies and government sites in 13 other countries – were well aware of the attack, and more aware of their source than the unnamed "state actor" McAfee admitted to in the report.
“All the signs point to China,” Vanity Fair quotes James A. Lewis, director and senior fellow of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as saying.
A U.S. Air Force spokesperson said only that the Department of Defense "reported to Congress in 2010 that China is actively pursuing cyber capabilities with a focus on the exfiltration of information, some of which could be of strategic or military utility," according to a story in Reuters.
Which is pretty much what everyone else has been saying for about the same five years or so, during which large-scale data breaches, successful spear-phishing campaigns and long-term, large-scale penetration attempts have been reported against many U.S. military and government facilities.
Other countries are in even worse shape:
"I'm not surprised because that's what China does, they are gradually dominating the cyberworld," according to India-based IT analyst Vijay Mukhi, who talked to Reuters about the vulnerability of South Asian governments. "I would call it child's play (for a hacker to get access to Indian government data) ... I would say we're in the stone age."
No one is really doing much about either defense or prevention, though.
The White House is encouraging federal agencies to tighten their security, according to a White house spokesman quoted in Reuters today.
The chief executive of the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA) – sort of a law-enforcement version of NATO charged with helping member countries track and fight online attacks – said the McAfee report makes the threat of cyberwarfare irrefutable, apparently to those few people computer-savvy enough to spell "Internet" correctly without knowing that connecting "Internet" and "security" makes a cliched oxymoron more popular and more accurate even than pairing "military" and "intelligence."
Despite its mission to reinforce cybercrime units internationally, ICSPA boss John Lyons put the onus of self-protection on potential victims themselves:
"Businesses that have mainstream exposure to the Internet and that are dependent upon technology for their survival must now surely take the threat seriously," Lyons told Reuters.
Companies that have been breached need to get over their reluctance to admit the attacks and cooperate with each other and with law enforcement to help close gaps that could affect other companies as well, Lyons said.
Absolutely right; everyone involved in IT security has been saying exactly the same thing for 20 years. So far the only change in that reluctance is that companies hacked by non-state groups like Anonymous or LulzSec are now willing to admit it after the hactivists post irrefutable evidence of the attacks.
If someone else doesn't publicize an attack, most companies still avoid mentioning them for fear of copycat attacks and damage to their reputations or stock prices.
Which is largely irrelevant to the main point that a superpower is waging active, open cyberwar against much of the rest of the world to further its own political ends and the commercial fortunes of companies based there.
Individual corporations – however large – are not equipped to respond to those kinds of attacks. They can ramp up technical defenses but, as we saw with the censorship fight between Google and China this spring, corporations are vulnerable to other sorts of pressure – both commercial and temporal.
What would a mid-sized U.S. company do if, for example, a couple of its locally based executives and their families were arrested in Tehran after the home office complained (or simply admitted publicly) that it had been hacked by a group that appeared to be the newly-invigorated cyber-defense force of the Iranian paramilitary?
State-sponsored digital attack and espionage efforts are not the kind of thing for which any company is equipped to respond.
Despite theories that giant global corporations could punish unfriendly governments by closing facilities, shedding jobs and refusing to do business impoverished countries need to survive – a corporation-as-puppetmaster trope common in cyberpunk novels such as those by Bruce Sterling, William Gibson that popularized the concept of "cyberspace" – national governments have far more power to punish corporations than vice versa.
Earlier this year, when conflict over censorship prompted Google to threaten to pull out of China, the Chinese government was clearly worried it would lose a major player in the global economy. It wasn't worried enough to change its policies or plan to replace Google by heavily promoting a homegrown search service it could control more effectively, but they were clearly a little concerned.
Google gave in.
It was a more serious threat when Egypt arrested a mid-level Google executive for participating in the online arguments and discussions that eventually led to the overthrow of the government there in February.
Egypt is not Somalia, whose whole piratical expeditionary force could be overwhelmed by a couple of coast guard cutters or Navy missile cruisers.
Egypt is far too powerful militarily and in its ability to enforce laws within its own borders than most (if any) corporations could manage.
And China – identified by enough DoD and third-party investigations as the source of a long series of dramatic penetrations of U.S. facilities during the past few years – is a much larger step in the international hierarchy above Egypt than Egypt is above Somalia.
Which is probably why neither U.S. nor British government spokespeople said anything of substance about reprisals, defense, additional security measures or any of the other kinds of responses we've come to expect following either major or minor outrages from foreign countries.
Even more important than China's powerful military and arsenal of ICBMs is the huge chunk of the Western economy China owns as our second-largest trading partner and largest creditor.
The U.S. could protest cyberattacks by sending a couple of aircraft-carrier groups to the China Sea for a little gunboat diplomacy, but it would be pretty embarrassing if China were to just repossess the whole fleet as partial repayment of the $1.2 trillion the U.S. owes it.
We'd end up having to pay off the whole debt just to get the boats back—plus whatever huge fee there would be for the towing and daily storage fee at the aircraft-carrier impound lot, and that's a lot of money to spend for bit of saber-rattling that would be futile in the real world and irrelevant in the virtual one.
It would be much more diplomatic, much more effective and much less expensive to respond digitally by building digital defenses able to keep cyberspies out, or at least identify the information they shouldn't be allowed to take and keep that in.
There have certainly been enough attempts to build a force able to do that. In 2009 the newly sworn-in Obama Administration swore to build a swank new facility and powerful new cybersecurity military force.
Unfortunately, the U.S. military – the federal agent most prepared for large-scale, sophisticated cyber defense and counterattack – isn't remotely prepared for any serious effort at cyberwar, according to a Government Accountability Administration report released last week.
Its efforts in cybersecurity have been so uncoordinated between services, inconsistent in its execution and uncertain in its goals, that the DoD admitted earlier this week it essentially has no coherent or effective plan to defend the U.S. against cyberattack.
And, despite threats spoken in harsh voices from under large hats at the Pentagon that attacks made entirely in cyberspace could be made kinetic if foreign hackers ticked them off badly enough, the DoD has done little but agree with the GAO report that it needs to get its staff together on the whole cyberwar thing, and will do so any day now.
So it's not surprising there hasn't been much response to the shameful record revealed in McAfee's report this week.
Part of the reason is that the revalations didn't surprise anyone.
Most of the reason is that, despite knowing in detail about the continued risk as well as the nature, source and method of the attacks, none of the Western "state actors" on the receiving end of five years worth of sustained and consistent attacks has done a damn thing to stop them.
Governments, IOC and UN hit by massive cyber attack
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14387559
By Daniel Emery Technology reporter, BBC News
Anon hacker The report says the cyber attacks had been going on since 2006
IT security firm McAfee claims to have uncovered one of the largest ever series of cyber attacks.
It lists 72 different organisations that were targeted over five years, including the International Olympic Committee, the UN and security firms.
McAfee will not say who it thinks is responsible, but there is speculation that China may be behind the attacks.
Beijing has always denied any state involvement in cyber-attacks, calling such accusations "groundless".
Speaking to BBC News, McAfee's chief European technology officer, Raj Samani, said the attacks were still going on.
"This is a whole different level to the Night Dragon attacks that occurred earlier this year. Those were attacks on a specific sector. This one is very, very broad."
Dubbed Operation Shady RAT - after the remote access tool that security experts and hackers use to remotely access computer networks - the five-year investigation examined information from a number of different organisations which thought they may have been hit.
"From the logs we were able to see where the traffic flow was coming from," said Mr Samani.
"In some cases, we were permitted to delve a bit deeper and see what, if anything, had been taken, and in many cases we found evidence that intellectual property (IP) had been stolen.
"The United Nations, the Indian government, the International Olympic Committee, the steel industry, defence firms, even computer security companies were hit," he added.
China speculation
McAfee said it did not know what was happening to the stolen data, but it could be used to improve existing products or help beat a competitor, representing a major economic threat.
"This was what we call a spear-phish attack, as opposed to a trawl, where they were targeting specific individuals within an organisation," said Mr Samani.
"An email would be sent to an individual with the right level of access within the system; attached to the message was a piece of malware which would then execute and open a channel to a remote website giving them access.
"Once they had access to an organisation, they either did what we would call a 'smash-and-grab' operation, where they would try and grab as much information before they got caught, or they sometimes embedded themselves in the network and [tried to] spread across different systems within an organisation."
Mr Samani said his firm would "not make any guesses on where this has come from", but China is seen by many in the industry as a prime suspect.
Jim Lewis, a cyber expert with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying it was "very likely China was behind the campaign because some of the targets had information that would be of particular interest to Beijing".
Lulzsec Logo Experts warned that commercial espionage was a bigger threat to business than Lulzsec and Anonymous.
"Everything points to China. It could be the Russians, but there is more that points to China than Russia," Lewis said.
However, Graham Cluley - a computer-security expert with Sophos, is not so sure. He said: "Every time one of these reports come out, people always point the finger at China."
He told BBC News: "We cannot prove it's China. That doesn't mean we should be naive. Every country in the world is probably using the internet to spy.
"After all, it's easy and cost-effective - but there's many different countries and organisations it could be."
Mr Cluley said firms were often distracted by the very public actions of LulzSec and Anonymous, groups of online activists who have hacked a number of high-profile websites in recent months.
"Sometimes it's not about stealing your money or publicly leaking your data. It's about quietly stealing your information, which can have a very high political, military or financial value.
"In short, don't let your defences down," he added.
No threat, no outrage, no reprisals after revelation of attacks on 70 organizations in 14 countries
By Kevin Fogarty
August 04, 2011, 12:16 PM —
There were no big surprises in the reaction of the countries or organizations named as targets of a series of persistent, aggressive, often successful online attacks during the past five years – a campaign described in detail by a report from security vendor McAfee, which became public yesterday.
Most of the victims – 49 U.S.-based corporations and a series of U.S. government agencies as well as companies and government sites in 13 other countries – were well aware of the attack, and more aware of their source than the unnamed "state actor" McAfee admitted to in the report.
“All the signs point to China,” Vanity Fair quotes James A. Lewis, director and senior fellow of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as saying.
A U.S. Air Force spokesperson said only that the Department of Defense "reported to Congress in 2010 that China is actively pursuing cyber capabilities with a focus on the exfiltration of information, some of which could be of strategic or military utility," according to a story in Reuters.
Which is pretty much what everyone else has been saying for about the same five years or so, during which large-scale data breaches, successful spear-phishing campaigns and long-term, large-scale penetration attempts have been reported against many U.S. military and government facilities.
Other countries are in even worse shape:
"I'm not surprised because that's what China does, they are gradually dominating the cyberworld," according to India-based IT analyst Vijay Mukhi, who talked to Reuters about the vulnerability of South Asian governments. "I would call it child's play (for a hacker to get access to Indian government data) ... I would say we're in the stone age."
No one is really doing much about either defense or prevention, though.
The White House is encouraging federal agencies to tighten their security, according to a White house spokesman quoted in Reuters today.
The chief executive of the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA) – sort of a law-enforcement version of NATO charged with helping member countries track and fight online attacks – said the McAfee report makes the threat of cyberwarfare irrefutable, apparently to those few people computer-savvy enough to spell "Internet" correctly without knowing that connecting "Internet" and "security" makes a cliched oxymoron more popular and more accurate even than pairing "military" and "intelligence."
Despite its mission to reinforce cybercrime units internationally, ICSPA boss John Lyons put the onus of self-protection on potential victims themselves:
"Businesses that have mainstream exposure to the Internet and that are dependent upon technology for their survival must now surely take the threat seriously," Lyons told Reuters.
Companies that have been breached need to get over their reluctance to admit the attacks and cooperate with each other and with law enforcement to help close gaps that could affect other companies as well, Lyons said.
Absolutely right; everyone involved in IT security has been saying exactly the same thing for 20 years. So far the only change in that reluctance is that companies hacked by non-state groups like Anonymous or LulzSec are now willing to admit it after the hactivists post irrefutable evidence of the attacks.
If someone else doesn't publicize an attack, most companies still avoid mentioning them for fear of copycat attacks and damage to their reputations or stock prices.
Which is largely irrelevant to the main point that a superpower is waging active, open cyberwar against much of the rest of the world to further its own political ends and the commercial fortunes of companies based there.
Individual corporations – however large – are not equipped to respond to those kinds of attacks. They can ramp up technical defenses but, as we saw with the censorship fight between Google and China this spring, corporations are vulnerable to other sorts of pressure – both commercial and temporal.
What would a mid-sized U.S. company do if, for example, a couple of its locally based executives and their families were arrested in Tehran after the home office complained (or simply admitted publicly) that it had been hacked by a group that appeared to be the newly-invigorated cyber-defense force of the Iranian paramilitary?
State-sponsored digital attack and espionage efforts are not the kind of thing for which any company is equipped to respond.
Despite theories that giant global corporations could punish unfriendly governments by closing facilities, shedding jobs and refusing to do business impoverished countries need to survive – a corporation-as-puppetmaster trope common in cyberpunk novels such as those by Bruce Sterling, William Gibson that popularized the concept of "cyberspace" – national governments have far more power to punish corporations than vice versa.
Earlier this year, when conflict over censorship prompted Google to threaten to pull out of China, the Chinese government was clearly worried it would lose a major player in the global economy. It wasn't worried enough to change its policies or plan to replace Google by heavily promoting a homegrown search service it could control more effectively, but they were clearly a little concerned.
Google gave in.
It was a more serious threat when Egypt arrested a mid-level Google executive for participating in the online arguments and discussions that eventually led to the overthrow of the government there in February.
Egypt is not Somalia, whose whole piratical expeditionary force could be overwhelmed by a couple of coast guard cutters or Navy missile cruisers.
Egypt is far too powerful militarily and in its ability to enforce laws within its own borders than most (if any) corporations could manage.
And China – identified by enough DoD and third-party investigations as the source of a long series of dramatic penetrations of U.S. facilities during the past few years – is a much larger step in the international hierarchy above Egypt than Egypt is above Somalia.
Which is probably why neither U.S. nor British government spokespeople said anything of substance about reprisals, defense, additional security measures or any of the other kinds of responses we've come to expect following either major or minor outrages from foreign countries.
Even more important than China's powerful military and arsenal of ICBMs is the huge chunk of the Western economy China owns as our second-largest trading partner and largest creditor.
The U.S. could protest cyberattacks by sending a couple of aircraft-carrier groups to the China Sea for a little gunboat diplomacy, but it would be pretty embarrassing if China were to just repossess the whole fleet as partial repayment of the $1.2 trillion the U.S. owes it.
We'd end up having to pay off the whole debt just to get the boats back—plus whatever huge fee there would be for the towing and daily storage fee at the aircraft-carrier impound lot, and that's a lot of money to spend for bit of saber-rattling that would be futile in the real world and irrelevant in the virtual one.
It would be much more diplomatic, much more effective and much less expensive to respond digitally by building digital defenses able to keep cyberspies out, or at least identify the information they shouldn't be allowed to take and keep that in.
There have certainly been enough attempts to build a force able to do that. In 2009 the newly sworn-in Obama Administration swore to build a swank new facility and powerful new cybersecurity military force.
Unfortunately, the U.S. military – the federal agent most prepared for large-scale, sophisticated cyber defense and counterattack – isn't remotely prepared for any serious effort at cyberwar, according to a Government Accountability Administration report released last week.
Its efforts in cybersecurity have been so uncoordinated between services, inconsistent in its execution and uncertain in its goals, that the DoD admitted earlier this week it essentially has no coherent or effective plan to defend the U.S. against cyberattack.
And, despite threats spoken in harsh voices from under large hats at the Pentagon that attacks made entirely in cyberspace could be made kinetic if foreign hackers ticked them off badly enough, the DoD has done little but agree with the GAO report that it needs to get its staff together on the whole cyberwar thing, and will do so any day now.
So it's not surprising there hasn't been much response to the shameful record revealed in McAfee's report this week.
Part of the reason is that the revalations didn't surprise anyone.
Most of the reason is that, despite knowing in detail about the continued risk as well as the nature, source and method of the attacks, none of the Western "state actors" on the receiving end of five years worth of sustained and consistent attacks has done a damn thing to stop them.
Governments, IOC and UN hit by massive cyber attack
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14387559
By Daniel Emery Technology reporter, BBC News
Anon hacker The report says the cyber attacks had been going on since 2006
IT security firm McAfee claims to have uncovered one of the largest ever series of cyber attacks.
It lists 72 different organisations that were targeted over five years, including the International Olympic Committee, the UN and security firms.
McAfee will not say who it thinks is responsible, but there is speculation that China may be behind the attacks.
Beijing has always denied any state involvement in cyber-attacks, calling such accusations "groundless".
Speaking to BBC News, McAfee's chief European technology officer, Raj Samani, said the attacks were still going on.
"This is a whole different level to the Night Dragon attacks that occurred earlier this year. Those were attacks on a specific sector. This one is very, very broad."
Dubbed Operation Shady RAT - after the remote access tool that security experts and hackers use to remotely access computer networks - the five-year investigation examined information from a number of different organisations which thought they may have been hit.
"From the logs we were able to see where the traffic flow was coming from," said Mr Samani.
"In some cases, we were permitted to delve a bit deeper and see what, if anything, had been taken, and in many cases we found evidence that intellectual property (IP) had been stolen.
"The United Nations, the Indian government, the International Olympic Committee, the steel industry, defence firms, even computer security companies were hit," he added.
China speculation
McAfee said it did not know what was happening to the stolen data, but it could be used to improve existing products or help beat a competitor, representing a major economic threat.
"This was what we call a spear-phish attack, as opposed to a trawl, where they were targeting specific individuals within an organisation," said Mr Samani.
"An email would be sent to an individual with the right level of access within the system; attached to the message was a piece of malware which would then execute and open a channel to a remote website giving them access.
"Once they had access to an organisation, they either did what we would call a 'smash-and-grab' operation, where they would try and grab as much information before they got caught, or they sometimes embedded themselves in the network and [tried to] spread across different systems within an organisation."
Mr Samani said his firm would "not make any guesses on where this has come from", but China is seen by many in the industry as a prime suspect.
Jim Lewis, a cyber expert with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying it was "very likely China was behind the campaign because some of the targets had information that would be of particular interest to Beijing".
Lulzsec Logo Experts warned that commercial espionage was a bigger threat to business than Lulzsec and Anonymous.
"Everything points to China. It could be the Russians, but there is more that points to China than Russia," Lewis said.
However, Graham Cluley - a computer-security expert with Sophos, is not so sure. He said: "Every time one of these reports come out, people always point the finger at China."
He told BBC News: "We cannot prove it's China. That doesn't mean we should be naive. Every country in the world is probably using the internet to spy.
"After all, it's easy and cost-effective - but there's many different countries and organisations it could be."
Mr Cluley said firms were often distracted by the very public actions of LulzSec and Anonymous, groups of online activists who have hacked a number of high-profile websites in recent months.
"Sometimes it's not about stealing your money or publicly leaking your data. It's about quietly stealing your information, which can have a very high political, military or financial value.
"In short, don't let your defences down," he added.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Neb. mine find to challenge China’s dominance of vital rare minerals
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/2/rush-for-rare-earth-may-create-nebraska-boomtown/
By Claire Courchane
-
The Washington Times
Updated: 10:58 a.m. on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Geologist Matt Joeckel displays a core sample of carbonatite rock containing niobium and rare-earth elements, which was taken from a deposit near Elk Creek, Neb., in early February. (Associated Press)Geologist Matt Joeckel displays a core sample of carbonatite rock containing niobium and rare-earth elements, which was taken from a deposit near Elk Creek, Neb., in early February. (Associated Press)
Elk Creek, Neb. (population 112), may not be so tiny much longer. Reports suggest that the southeastern Nebraska hamlet may be sitting on the world’s largest untapped deposit of “rare earth” minerals, which have proved to be indispensable to a slew of high-tech and military applications such as laser pointers, stadium lighting, electric car batteries and sophisticated missile-guidance systems.
Canada-based Quantum Rare Earths Developments Corp. last week received preliminary results from test drilling in the area, showing “significant” proportions of “rare earth” minerals and niobium.
The only people more excited than Quantum? The residents of Elk Creek, where nearly one in seven people live under the poverty line, but whose economy has been booming ever since the company showed up late last year to start laying the groundwork for a possible mining bonanza.
“It’s been a very, very positive experience for our community,” said state Sen. Lavon Heidemann, an Elk Creek farmer. “When Quantum came in here, they put money in the local community. And any time you have money flowing in a small town, that’s a positive.”
The potential mining operation, the first in the U.S. in a decade, could have an international impact as well. U.S. officials and lawmakers in Congress have been eager to break the near monopoly on global production of the 17 rare-earth elements in China, which has shown its willingness to use its power in the market for political ends.
Quantum acquired a circular piece of land - a bit more than 4 miles in diameter - near Elk Creek late last year. The land, which the U.S. Geological Survey projects may have one of the world’s largest deposits of niobium and rare earths, has since been poked, prodded and drilled to determine whether it held any niobium, which has never been mined in the U.S., or rare earths, which the U.S. has not mined in almost 10 years.
Boom times based on natural-resource strikes can disrupt a community and its economy, but it’s hard to find anyone in Elk Creek bad-mouthing the potential rare-earth bonanza.
“The whole community is behind Quantum,” said Greg Krueger, a local contractor. “When the drillers showed up this spring, people just opened their arms up.”
The town of Elk Creek consists of not much more than a Lutheran church, a village tavern and a grocery store called Scotty’s, owned by a local family. Even in the exploratory phase, Quantum has brought some big changes.
“They’ve rented houses, they go to our local grocery store for their food, and straight off they signed all of their leases with local farmers, just like they promised,” Mr. Heidemann said.
Mr. Krueger added that Elk Creek residents were eager to provide any help they could, including allowing the drills to be dragged across their land free of charge.
“It was, ‘What do you need? Where do you need to stay?’ Nobody is pessimistic, as far as thinking, ‘They’re here to destroy things,’ ” Mr. Krueger said.
“Elk Creek is a very small community,” he added. “And [Quantum] has provided a lot of business.”
The Quantum project is the latest example of U.S. attempts to become less dependent on foreign sources for the obscure minerals found in few places on earth, but essential to a variety of modern gadgets.
The U.S. has relied on China for years for the 17 minerals that are defined as rare earths by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Despite having such obscure names as praseodymium, promethium and samarium - no copper or zinc here - they are necessary for such routine contemporary technologies as magnets, laser pointers and miniature electronics, such as iPods.
“Without these minerals, our cellphones would be 3 pounds,” Quantum CEO Peter Dickie said.
The U.S. used to produce rare earths through the Mountain Pass Mine in California, but it was shut down in 2002, primarily because of environmental concerns, including the spillage of hundreds of thousands of gallons of water carrying radioactive waste into a nearby lake.
China has emerged as the world’s predominant supplier, controlling 97 percent of the global market for rare earths. In recent years, lawmakers have expressed concerns about China’s “rare earth” dominance, and these concerns were heightened when Beijing temporarily halted exports to Japan last year during a territorial dispute.
Another essential mineral Quantum hopes to mine is niobium, a steel strengthener used by the automotive and aerospace industries.
Using niobium, “you get a thinner, lighter, stronger steel,” Mr. Dickie said. “It’s important to the automotive industry, where they’re trying to get lightened-up vehicles” needed to meet fuel-economy standards without compromising safety.
The U.S. imports most of its niobium from Brazil, and has never mined it at home.
U.S. resources
Mineral mining has created many a boomtown in the West over the past two centuries, such as the Klondike gold rush and the copper industry of Butte, Mont. But some places have been left holding the bag, or turned into ghost towns, when the deposits were tapped out, leaving behind environmental damage from storage, mining processes and waste.
Environmental groups have remained silent on the Quantum project in Nebraska, but rare earths are used in many aspects of “green” technology, including hybrid-engine cars and wind turbines.
The Sierra Club of Nebraska has declined to comment on the mine until production begins.
Said Brian McManus, a spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, “The project is still in early stages, so we don’t have a lot of detail on it.”
He added that the permits the company has obtained will help to make sure they stay environmentally cautious.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not return requests for comment.
Although studies have shown the U.S. has 13 million metric tons of rare-earth minerals, National Mining Association spokeswoman Carol Raulston said it does not mine any of it - partly as a result of the difficulty of obtaining permits.
“One of the key problems that investors tell us about is that the permitting regime in this country is so complicated and time-consuming that it has hurt investments here in the United States,” Ms. Raulston said.
Mr. Dickie said a bill approved by the House Natural Resources Committee late last month may help Quantum and other U.S. mining operations.
The National Strategic and Critical Minerals Policy Act of 2011 states that it is “essential to the national interest to ensure an expanding and competitive manufacturing industry built upon a healthy mining and minerals industry.”
The bill “helps to ensure a steady supply in the event of a breakdown of a normal supply chain, but the other thing that’s important to us is that it has brought to the forefront of the minds of politicians and users - who are, quite frankly, everybody - the knowledge that these materials are critical,” Mr. Dickie said.
On July 5, the U.S. and European Union won a major case against China when the World Trade Organization ruled that China was engaging in restraint of trade by keeping world supplies low on several other minerals on which it is the major supplier. Trade analysts said that ruling could set a precedent for a future rare-earth minerals case that also could loosen China’s grip on that market.
But Rep. Mike Coffman, Colorado Republican, who fought for rare-earth amendments on the bill, said that it is not enough to open up supplies from abroad.
“It’s important to develop other sources [for rare earths] in the United States and not be so reliant on China,” Mr. Coffman said. “It’s a bipartisan bill with a very strong chance of passage.”
Looking forward
Elk Creek residents say they know the riches won’t pour in overnight. They don’t care.
“It’s not short and sweet,” Mr. Dickie said of the process to open a mine. “There’s obviously regulatory and permitting issues that you run into.”
Mr. Dickie said the next step is to get results of metallurgical testing, followed by a full feasibility study.
He said the date for mine construction to begin is “fluid,” but hopes it will be in the next couple of years.
Minerals and money flow aren’t the only benefits to Elk Creek of the proposed Quantum mine: The project will create several hundred jobs in addition to the handful it created while test-drilling proceeds.
Other companies racing to exploit the rare-earth rush include Molycorp, which is attempting to reopen the former Mountain Pass Mine in California and recently secured the environmental permits to proceed there.
Molycorp did not return requests for comment on its permit, but Quantum does not see the California mine as a threat.
“They’ve been processing some of the mine tailings and building new facilities. It’s been very minor production,” Mr. Dickie said. “We don’t anticipate that we could supply the entire U.S. requirement of rare earths, so obviously there’s room for several other players.”
By Claire Courchane
-
The Washington Times
Updated: 10:58 a.m. on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Geologist Matt Joeckel displays a core sample of carbonatite rock containing niobium and rare-earth elements, which was taken from a deposit near Elk Creek, Neb., in early February. (Associated Press)Geologist Matt Joeckel displays a core sample of carbonatite rock containing niobium and rare-earth elements, which was taken from a deposit near Elk Creek, Neb., in early February. (Associated Press)
Elk Creek, Neb. (population 112), may not be so tiny much longer. Reports suggest that the southeastern Nebraska hamlet may be sitting on the world’s largest untapped deposit of “rare earth” minerals, which have proved to be indispensable to a slew of high-tech and military applications such as laser pointers, stadium lighting, electric car batteries and sophisticated missile-guidance systems.
Canada-based Quantum Rare Earths Developments Corp. last week received preliminary results from test drilling in the area, showing “significant” proportions of “rare earth” minerals and niobium.
The only people more excited than Quantum? The residents of Elk Creek, where nearly one in seven people live under the poverty line, but whose economy has been booming ever since the company showed up late last year to start laying the groundwork for a possible mining bonanza.
“It’s been a very, very positive experience for our community,” said state Sen. Lavon Heidemann, an Elk Creek farmer. “When Quantum came in here, they put money in the local community. And any time you have money flowing in a small town, that’s a positive.”
The potential mining operation, the first in the U.S. in a decade, could have an international impact as well. U.S. officials and lawmakers in Congress have been eager to break the near monopoly on global production of the 17 rare-earth elements in China, which has shown its willingness to use its power in the market for political ends.
Quantum acquired a circular piece of land - a bit more than 4 miles in diameter - near Elk Creek late last year. The land, which the U.S. Geological Survey projects may have one of the world’s largest deposits of niobium and rare earths, has since been poked, prodded and drilled to determine whether it held any niobium, which has never been mined in the U.S., or rare earths, which the U.S. has not mined in almost 10 years.
Boom times based on natural-resource strikes can disrupt a community and its economy, but it’s hard to find anyone in Elk Creek bad-mouthing the potential rare-earth bonanza.
“The whole community is behind Quantum,” said Greg Krueger, a local contractor. “When the drillers showed up this spring, people just opened their arms up.”
The town of Elk Creek consists of not much more than a Lutheran church, a village tavern and a grocery store called Scotty’s, owned by a local family. Even in the exploratory phase, Quantum has brought some big changes.
“They’ve rented houses, they go to our local grocery store for their food, and straight off they signed all of their leases with local farmers, just like they promised,” Mr. Heidemann said.
Mr. Krueger added that Elk Creek residents were eager to provide any help they could, including allowing the drills to be dragged across their land free of charge.
“It was, ‘What do you need? Where do you need to stay?’ Nobody is pessimistic, as far as thinking, ‘They’re here to destroy things,’ ” Mr. Krueger said.
“Elk Creek is a very small community,” he added. “And [Quantum] has provided a lot of business.”
The Quantum project is the latest example of U.S. attempts to become less dependent on foreign sources for the obscure minerals found in few places on earth, but essential to a variety of modern gadgets.
The U.S. has relied on China for years for the 17 minerals that are defined as rare earths by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Despite having such obscure names as praseodymium, promethium and samarium - no copper or zinc here - they are necessary for such routine contemporary technologies as magnets, laser pointers and miniature electronics, such as iPods.
“Without these minerals, our cellphones would be 3 pounds,” Quantum CEO Peter Dickie said.
The U.S. used to produce rare earths through the Mountain Pass Mine in California, but it was shut down in 2002, primarily because of environmental concerns, including the spillage of hundreds of thousands of gallons of water carrying radioactive waste into a nearby lake.
China has emerged as the world’s predominant supplier, controlling 97 percent of the global market for rare earths. In recent years, lawmakers have expressed concerns about China’s “rare earth” dominance, and these concerns were heightened when Beijing temporarily halted exports to Japan last year during a territorial dispute.
Another essential mineral Quantum hopes to mine is niobium, a steel strengthener used by the automotive and aerospace industries.
Using niobium, “you get a thinner, lighter, stronger steel,” Mr. Dickie said. “It’s important to the automotive industry, where they’re trying to get lightened-up vehicles” needed to meet fuel-economy standards without compromising safety.
The U.S. imports most of its niobium from Brazil, and has never mined it at home.
U.S. resources
Mineral mining has created many a boomtown in the West over the past two centuries, such as the Klondike gold rush and the copper industry of Butte, Mont. But some places have been left holding the bag, or turned into ghost towns, when the deposits were tapped out, leaving behind environmental damage from storage, mining processes and waste.
Environmental groups have remained silent on the Quantum project in Nebraska, but rare earths are used in many aspects of “green” technology, including hybrid-engine cars and wind turbines.
The Sierra Club of Nebraska has declined to comment on the mine until production begins.
Said Brian McManus, a spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, “The project is still in early stages, so we don’t have a lot of detail on it.”
He added that the permits the company has obtained will help to make sure they stay environmentally cautious.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not return requests for comment.
Although studies have shown the U.S. has 13 million metric tons of rare-earth minerals, National Mining Association spokeswoman Carol Raulston said it does not mine any of it - partly as a result of the difficulty of obtaining permits.
“One of the key problems that investors tell us about is that the permitting regime in this country is so complicated and time-consuming that it has hurt investments here in the United States,” Ms. Raulston said.
Mr. Dickie said a bill approved by the House Natural Resources Committee late last month may help Quantum and other U.S. mining operations.
The National Strategic and Critical Minerals Policy Act of 2011 states that it is “essential to the national interest to ensure an expanding and competitive manufacturing industry built upon a healthy mining and minerals industry.”
The bill “helps to ensure a steady supply in the event of a breakdown of a normal supply chain, but the other thing that’s important to us is that it has brought to the forefront of the minds of politicians and users - who are, quite frankly, everybody - the knowledge that these materials are critical,” Mr. Dickie said.
On July 5, the U.S. and European Union won a major case against China when the World Trade Organization ruled that China was engaging in restraint of trade by keeping world supplies low on several other minerals on which it is the major supplier. Trade analysts said that ruling could set a precedent for a future rare-earth minerals case that also could loosen China’s grip on that market.
But Rep. Mike Coffman, Colorado Republican, who fought for rare-earth amendments on the bill, said that it is not enough to open up supplies from abroad.
“It’s important to develop other sources [for rare earths] in the United States and not be so reliant on China,” Mr. Coffman said. “It’s a bipartisan bill with a very strong chance of passage.”
Looking forward
Elk Creek residents say they know the riches won’t pour in overnight. They don’t care.
“It’s not short and sweet,” Mr. Dickie said of the process to open a mine. “There’s obviously regulatory and permitting issues that you run into.”
Mr. Dickie said the next step is to get results of metallurgical testing, followed by a full feasibility study.
He said the date for mine construction to begin is “fluid,” but hopes it will be in the next couple of years.
Minerals and money flow aren’t the only benefits to Elk Creek of the proposed Quantum mine: The project will create several hundred jobs in addition to the handful it created while test-drilling proceeds.
Other companies racing to exploit the rare-earth rush include Molycorp, which is attempting to reopen the former Mountain Pass Mine in California and recently secured the environmental permits to proceed there.
Molycorp did not return requests for comment on its permit, but Quantum does not see the California mine as a threat.
“They’ve been processing some of the mine tailings and building new facilities. It’s been very minor production,” Mr. Dickie said. “We don’t anticipate that we could supply the entire U.S. requirement of rare earths, so obviously there’s room for several other players.”
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Unlimited Detail Real-Time Rendering Technology Preview 2011
http://www.euclideon.com/
Brisbane-based Company's New Graphics Technology "100,000 Times Better"
Post by trog @ 10:33am 02/08/11
Euclideon, an Australian company based in Brisbane has made the remarkable claim that they've developed a new graphics rendering technology for video games that is "100,000 times better" than existing systems.
After their first announcement around a year ago, they dropped off the radar, and have recently resurfaced with a new statement as part of a video showcasing their new technology, built with nearly $2 million dollars of assistance from the Australian Government
While it is a bit light on the technical details, it is intriguing:
There is a better way to do computer graphics, which is used in medicine and the sciences. The better way to do computer graphics is to make everything out of tiny little atoms instead of flat panels. The problem is that this particular system uses up a lot of processing power. The more objects you have on the screen, the slower your computer will run. Having four or five detailed objects will run just fine, but you certainly can't do a level of a game.
We got a lot of attention because we made the claim that we could run unlimited "little 3D atoms" in real time.
The video below showcases a test island they've created, apparently comprising of over 21 trillion polygons and running at 20 FPS.
They're apparently a few months away from having an SDK available for game developers to start tinkering with the new technology, so we'll have to wait a bit and see. In the meantime, as AusGamers is also predominantly Brisbane-based, we've contacted them to see if we arrange a chat to discuss more about their new technology.
We're firm believers in the mantra of Carl Sagan - "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" - so we look forward to seeing more from Euclidean about their new technology soon!
"A small Australian software company — backed by almost AUD$2 million in government assistance — is claiming they've developed a new technology which is '100,000 times better' for computer game graphics. It's not clear what exactly is getting multiplied, but they apparently 'make everything out of tiny little atoms instead of flat panels.' They've posted a video to YouTube which shows their new tech, which is apparently running at 20 FPS in software. It's (very) light on the technical details, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, but they say an SDK is due in a few months — so stay tuned for more." John Carmack had this to say about the company's claims: "No chance of a game on current gen systems, but maybe several years from now. Production issues will be challenging."
Monday, August 1, 2011
China blames Muslim extremists for attack in Xinjiang
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/china-says-extremists-trained-abroad-behind-attack-west-034315503.html
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Monday that Islamic militants had mounted an attack that left 11 people dead in the restive western region of Xinjiang, which announced a crackdown on "illegal" religious activities at the start of the Muslim fasting month.
The attack in Kashgar city on Sunday afternoon was the latest violence to rattle the region where Muslim Uighurs have long resented the presence of Han Chinese and religious and political controls imposed by Beijing.
It came less than 24 hours after two small blasts hit the city, which is dominated by Uighurs.
"The malign intention behind this violent terror was to sabotage inter-ethnic unity and harm social stability, provoking ethnic hatred and creating ethnic conflict," the Kashgar government said on its website (http://www.xjks.gov.cn).
Captured suspects confessed that their ringleaders had earlier fled to Pakistan and joined the separatist "East Turkestan Islamic Movement," and received training in making firearms and explosives before infiltrating back into China, the Kashgar government said.
"The members of this group all adhere to extremist religious ideas and adamantly support Jihad," said the statement, referring to the Arabic term for struggle used by advocates of militant Islam to describe their cause.
Police shot dead five people and arrested four others after they stormed a restaurant, set in on fire after killing the owner and a waiter, and then ran onto the street and hacked to death four people, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Chinese-language Global Times newspaper said all the suspected attackers were Uighur.
For the ruling Communist Party, the bloodshed presents a tricky test of its control in Xinjiang, where Uighur and Han Chinese residents view each other with suspicion. (For more on the issues see.)
Beijing has been wary of contagion from uprisings across the Arab world inspiring challenges to Party power in China.
"I think it's a testament to how tense the region remains, and the fact that you have increased polarization between ethnic groups," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher on China for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group.
"There's a lot of pent-up anger and resentment of Chinese policies in Kashgar," added Bequelin, noting a controversial program to raze homes in traditional Uighur neighborhoods and relocate them to housing under firmer official control.
The top Communist Party official in Xinjiang, Zhang Chunxian, announced a crackdown on religious extremism and vowed harsh punishment for those found guilty of attacks, according to the region's official news website (www.tianshannet.com).
"(We will) resolutely attack religious extremist forces and effectively curb illegal religious activities," Zhang said.
DESERTED STREETS AFTER BURST OF ATTACKS
Kashgar city lies in Xinjiang's south and has a population of some 600,000 people, about four fifths of them Uighur, according to the government. The city is divided between Uighur and Han Chinese areas, and many residents depend on tourism for their livelihoods.
China sees Xinjiang as strategically vital, and Beijing has shown no sign of loosening its grip on the territory, which accounts for a sixth of the country's land mass and holds deposits of oil and gas.
In July 2009, the regional capital, Urumqi, was rocked by violence between majority Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people, many of them Han Chinese.
Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking people who have usually not embraced stricter forms of Islam, but in recent years religious traditionalism has made inroads.
Critics of Chinese policy in Xinjiang and advocates of Uighur self-rule say that Beijing has exaggerated the influence of terror groups, and its tough policies have deepened Uighur anger by smothering avenues for peaceful protest.
Bequelin, the human rights researcher, said he was skeptical about Chinese suggestions that the "East Turkestan Islamic Movement" (ETIM) was behind the attack.
"It's now an umbrella term used by China for any kind of Uighur separatist or anti-state activity," Bequelin said of ETIM, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in 2002.
Earlier on Sunday, Chinese media reported that two men wielding knives attacked a truck driver and then a crowd of people following two explosions in Kashgar on Saturday night, leaving eight people dead including one of the attackers.
Eighteen people including 14 "rioters" were killed in an attack on a police station in Xinjiang on July 18, according to the government.
In July 2009, Xinjiang was hit by a public backlash from Han Chinese residents of the regional capital Urumqi, who said officials acted too slowly to quell bloody rioting by Uighurs after police broke up a protest by Uighur students.
The latest attack also brought calls on the Chinese Internet for a harsh response.
"Our hope rests in policy-makers completely cutting through entangling shackles, our hope rests with the military," said one comment about the assault on Sina's popular Weibo microblogging site (http://weibo.com).
(Additional reporting by Sally Huang; Editing by Ken Wills and Jonathan Thatcher)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Monday that Islamic militants had mounted an attack that left 11 people dead in the restive western region of Xinjiang, which announced a crackdown on "illegal" religious activities at the start of the Muslim fasting month.
The attack in Kashgar city on Sunday afternoon was the latest violence to rattle the region where Muslim Uighurs have long resented the presence of Han Chinese and religious and political controls imposed by Beijing.
It came less than 24 hours after two small blasts hit the city, which is dominated by Uighurs.
"The malign intention behind this violent terror was to sabotage inter-ethnic unity and harm social stability, provoking ethnic hatred and creating ethnic conflict," the Kashgar government said on its website (http://www.xjks.gov.cn).
Captured suspects confessed that their ringleaders had earlier fled to Pakistan and joined the separatist "East Turkestan Islamic Movement," and received training in making firearms and explosives before infiltrating back into China, the Kashgar government said.
"The members of this group all adhere to extremist religious ideas and adamantly support Jihad," said the statement, referring to the Arabic term for struggle used by advocates of militant Islam to describe their cause.
Police shot dead five people and arrested four others after they stormed a restaurant, set in on fire after killing the owner and a waiter, and then ran onto the street and hacked to death four people, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Chinese-language Global Times newspaper said all the suspected attackers were Uighur.
For the ruling Communist Party, the bloodshed presents a tricky test of its control in Xinjiang, where Uighur and Han Chinese residents view each other with suspicion. (For more on the issues see.)
Beijing has been wary of contagion from uprisings across the Arab world inspiring challenges to Party power in China.
"I think it's a testament to how tense the region remains, and the fact that you have increased polarization between ethnic groups," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher on China for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group.
"There's a lot of pent-up anger and resentment of Chinese policies in Kashgar," added Bequelin, noting a controversial program to raze homes in traditional Uighur neighborhoods and relocate them to housing under firmer official control.
The top Communist Party official in Xinjiang, Zhang Chunxian, announced a crackdown on religious extremism and vowed harsh punishment for those found guilty of attacks, according to the region's official news website (www.tianshannet.com).
"(We will) resolutely attack religious extremist forces and effectively curb illegal religious activities," Zhang said.
DESERTED STREETS AFTER BURST OF ATTACKS
Kashgar city lies in Xinjiang's south and has a population of some 600,000 people, about four fifths of them Uighur, according to the government. The city is divided between Uighur and Han Chinese areas, and many residents depend on tourism for their livelihoods.
China sees Xinjiang as strategically vital, and Beijing has shown no sign of loosening its grip on the territory, which accounts for a sixth of the country's land mass and holds deposits of oil and gas.
In July 2009, the regional capital, Urumqi, was rocked by violence between majority Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people, many of them Han Chinese.
Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking people who have usually not embraced stricter forms of Islam, but in recent years religious traditionalism has made inroads.
Critics of Chinese policy in Xinjiang and advocates of Uighur self-rule say that Beijing has exaggerated the influence of terror groups, and its tough policies have deepened Uighur anger by smothering avenues for peaceful protest.
Bequelin, the human rights researcher, said he was skeptical about Chinese suggestions that the "East Turkestan Islamic Movement" (ETIM) was behind the attack.
"It's now an umbrella term used by China for any kind of Uighur separatist or anti-state activity," Bequelin said of ETIM, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in 2002.
Earlier on Sunday, Chinese media reported that two men wielding knives attacked a truck driver and then a crowd of people following two explosions in Kashgar on Saturday night, leaving eight people dead including one of the attackers.
Eighteen people including 14 "rioters" were killed in an attack on a police station in Xinjiang on July 18, according to the government.
In July 2009, Xinjiang was hit by a public backlash from Han Chinese residents of the regional capital Urumqi, who said officials acted too slowly to quell bloody rioting by Uighurs after police broke up a protest by Uighur students.
The latest attack also brought calls on the Chinese Internet for a harsh response.
"Our hope rests in policy-makers completely cutting through entangling shackles, our hope rests with the military," said one comment about the assault on Sina's popular Weibo microblogging site (http://weibo.com).
(Additional reporting by Sally Huang; Editing by Ken Wills and Jonathan Thatcher)
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