Memristor:The future

 

Memristor circuits lead to ultra small PCs. Intel and AMD unleash massively multicore CPUs. Samsung TVs respond to your every gesture. These and other developing technologies will fundamentally change the way you think about--and use--technology.

Researchers at Hewlett-Packard developed a working unit of a memory circuit that has existed in theory for 37 years, which could ultimately replace RAM and make computers more intelligent by tracking data it has retained.

The technology, called memristor, allow computers to make decisions by understanding past patterns of data it has collected, similar to human brains collecting and understanding a series of events.

For example, a memristor circuit could be capable of telling a microwave the heating time for different food types based on the information it has collected over time, said Stanley Williams, senior fellow at HP.

A memristor circuit requires lower voltage and less time to turn on than competitive memory like DRAM and flash, Williams said. "Because it [uses] less voltage and less time, of course, it uses much less power," Williams said. Denser cells also allow memristor circuits to store more data than flash memory.

Through prototypes, HP is trying to show circuit designers what memristor is capable of doing. "What we have done is confirmed a concept for a new electronic device that was originally proposed nearly 40 years ago," Williams said.

Memristor is the fourth fundamental circuit

Users location can be exposed on Skype due to a Security Flaw

Skype is known for being cheap and extremely secure, but the reputation of the internet telephone service has taken a knock after researchers revealed how to covertly track the location of people who use it.

The problem lies with the service's peer-to-peer technology, which establishes a direct connection between the two people participating in a call. Stevens Le Blond of the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Wartburg, Germany and colleagues worked out how to probe that connection to reveal the IP address of the person they were contacting.

IP (Internet Protocol) addresses identify individual computers and can be used to locate a device in the city, and sometimes even the specific building, where it is being used.

Le Blond's hack is doubly worrying because it can be executed without alerting the victim. His team showed that they could initiate a Skype connection and scoop up the IP address without the person's Skype account ever registering the call.

What's more, a malicious hacker could scale the process and automatically track many users at once. Le Blond and colleagues demonstrated this by showing that they could check the location of 10,000 Skype users on an hourly basis. Location information can be potentially embarrassing or even dangerous: stalkers could use the hack to pursue victims and employers could check up on the location of employees.

Le Blond says that he notified Skype of the problem in May, but that the security hole remains open. Skype's Chief Information Security Officer, Adrian Asher, told PC World "through research and development, we will continue to make advances in this area and improvements to our software."

Le Blond will present his work next month at the Internet Measurement Conference in Berlin, Germany.

source

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Crash Course in X Windows Security last part

.....this is the concluding part of this article....enjoy...

7. Trojan X clients - xlock and X based logins

Can you think of a more suitable program for installing a
password-grabbing trojan horse than xlock? I myself cannot. With a few
lines added to the getPassword routine in xlock.c, the password of
every user using the trojan version of xlock can be stashed away in a
file for later use by an intruder. The changes are so minimal, only a
couple of bytes will tell the real version from the trojan version.

If a user has a writable homedir and a ./ in her PATH environment variable, she is vulnerable to this kind of attack. Getting the password is achieved by placing a trojan version of Xlock in the users homedir and waiting for an invocation.  The functionality of the original Xlock is contained in the trojan version.  The trojan version
can even tidy up and destroy itself after one succesfull attempt, and the user will not know that his password has been captured.

Xlock, like every password-prompting program, should be regarded with suspicion if it shows up in places it should not be, like in your own homedir.
Spoofed X based logins however are a bit more tricky for the intruder to accomplish.  He must simulate the login screen of the login program ran by XDM. The only way to ensure that you get the proper XDM login
program (if you want to be really paranoid) is to restart the X-terminal, whatever key combination that will be for the terminal in question.


8. X Security tools - xauth MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE

To avoid unathorized connections to your X display, the command xauth for encrypted X connections is widely used. When you login, xdm creates a file .Xauthority in your homedir. This file is binary, and readable only through the xauth command. If you issue the command

$ xauth list

you will get an output of:

Crash Course in X Windows Security part 2

 Hello guys...yesterday i started this small piece on window x security...this is the part 2....

5. Snooping techniques - reading keyboard

If you can connect to a display, you can also log and store every
keystroke that passes through the X server. A program circulating the
net, called xkey, does this trick. A kind of higher-level version of
the infamous ttysnoop.c. I wrote my own, who could read the keystrokes
of a specific window ID (not just every keystroke, as my version of
xkey).  The window ID's of a specific root-window, can be acquired
with a call to XQueryTree(), that will return the XWindowAttributes of
every window present. The window manager must be able to control every
window-ID and what keys are pressed down at what time.  By use of the
window-manager functions of Xlib, KeyPress events can be captured, and
KeySyms can be turned into characters by continuous calls to
XLookupString.

You can even send KeySym's to a Window. An intruder may therefore not
only snoop on your activity, he can also send keyboard events to
processes, like they were typed on the keyboard.  Reading/writing
keyboard events to an xterm window opens new horizons in process
manipulation from remote. Luckily, xterm has good protection
techniques for prohibiting access to the keyboard events.


6. Xterm - Secure keyboard option

A lot of passwords is typed in an xterm window. It is therefore
crucial that the user has full control over which processes can read
and write to an xterm.  The permission for the X server to send events
to an Xterm window, is set at compile time. The default is false,
meaning that all SendEvent requests from the X server to an xterm
window is discarded. You can overwrite the compile-time setting with a
standard resource definition in the .Xdefaults file:

xterm*allowSendEvents    True

RIM may face possible class action suit over BlackBerry outages

Research In Motion (RIM), faces a possible class action lawsuit over recent outages in its BlackBerry services earlier this month, they also could face class action suit for a trademark infringement complaint in their use of the BBX name for their upcoming  tablets and smartphones platforms.

Consumer Law Group (CLG), a Canadian law firm, said on Tuesday that it had filed in the Quebec Superior Court a proposed national class action lawsuit against RIM on behalf of individuals who have BlackBerry smartphones and pay for monthly data plan, but were unable to access their email, BlackBerry Messenger service, or Internet from Oct. 11 to Oct. 14 (during the outage in Black Berry services).

The lawsuit was filed by CLG on behalf of the lead plaintiff, M. Blackette, a BlackBerry customer with a data plan from a local operator.

"The lawsuit is only dealing with the refund of people's data plan charges during the outage. No punitive damages, nor inconvenience is being claimed," said Jeff Orenstein, a CLG attorney, in an email. "Plain and simple: if you pay for a service you should receive it. And if you don't, you should be entitled to get your money back."

In a separate action in the U.S., a software company said it had filed a complaint on Monday in the United States District Court, District of New Mexico, alleging that RIM's use of the BBX name infringes its trademark for its software. Basis International of Albuquerque, New Mexico said it had also written on Oct. 19 through its counsel to RIM, a day after RIM announced the new platform, asking it to cease all use of the BBX mark.

Basis also said last week it had taken legal action to preserve and protect its "longstanding ownership" of the BBX trademarked operating system-independent language, database, and tool-set, but did not specify the action.

RIM was not immediately available for comment but the company said last week that it had not yet seen the legal complaint from Basis, but did not believe the marks are confusing because the two companies are in different lines of business.

The Blackberry service disruptions affected customers in North America, Latin America, and EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa). RIM said the disruption was caused by a failure of a core switch within its infrastructure. Although the system was designed to fail-over to a back-up switch, the fail-over did not function as previously tested, creating a large backlog of data that RIM had to clear.

RIM tried to placate-irate customers with an apology...

...from president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. It later said it will give away apps worth over US$100 to consumers "as an expression of appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions". It also offered enterprise customers one month of free support to help make up for the problems.

According to the motion to authorize the bringing of a class action filed before the Quebec court, the right to download specific free apps does not properly compensate BlackBerry users who have paid for services that they were unable to use. The respondent has failed to take action to either directly or indirectly compensate BlackBerry users by arranging for wireless service providers to refund their customers and to take full responsibility for damages, it added.

source

Crash Course in X Windows Security

 This article is  by
runeb / cF --- runeb@stud.cs.uit.no  ---   http://www.cs.uit.no/~runeb

for those of us who don't really know so much about the x window, a detailed description can be found here on Wikipedia

     Content
1. Motivation / introduction
2. How open X displays are found
3. The local-host problem
4. Snooping techniques - dumping windows
5. Snooping techniques - reading keyboard
6. Xterm - secure keyboard option
7. Trojan X programs [xlock and xdm]
8. X Security tools - xauth MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE
9. Concluding remarks


1. Motivation / introduction

X windows pose a security risk. Through a network, anyone can connect
to an open X display, read the keyboard, dump the screen and windows
and start applications on the unprotected display. Even if this is a
known fact throughout the computer security world, few attempts on
informing the user community of the security risks involved have been
made.  This article deals with some of the aspects of X windows
security. It is in no sense a complete guide to the subject, but
rather an introduction to a not-so-known field of computer
security. Knowledge of the basics of the X windows system is
necessary, I haven't bothered including an introductory section to
explain the fundamentals. I wrote some code during the research for
this article, but none of it is included herein.  If the lingual flow
of English seem mayhap strange and erroneous from byte to byte, this
is due to the fact that I'm Scandinavian.  Bare with it. :)


2. How open X displays are found

An open X display is in formal terms an X server that has its access
control disabled. Disabling access control is normally done with the
xhost command.

$ xhost +

allows connections from any host. A single host can be allowed
connection with the command

$ xhost + ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ

where Z is the IP address or host-name. Access control can be enabled
by issuing an

$ xhost -

command. In this case no host but the local-host can connect to the
display.  Period. It is as simple as that - if the display runs in
'xhost -' state, you are safe from programs that scans and attaches to
unprotected X displays.  You can check the access control of your
display by simply typing xhost from a shell. Sadly enough, most sites
run their X displays with access control disabled as default. They are
therefore easy prey for the various scanner programs circulating on
the net.

Anyone with a bit of knowledge about Xlib and sockets programming can
write an X scanner in a couple of hours. The task is normally
accomplished by probing the port that is reserved for X windows,
number 6000. If anything is alive at that port, the scanner calls
XOpenDisplay("IP-ADDRESS:0.0") that will return a pointer to the
display structure, if and only if the target display has its access
control disabled. If access control is enabled, XOpenDisplay returns 0
and reports that the display could not be opened.

E.g:

Xlib: connection to "display:0.0" refused by server
Xlib: Client is not authorized to connect to Server

The probing of port 6000 is necessary because of the fact that calling
XOpenDisplay() on a host that runs

One more change made...

Hi guys, other discussion pages have been added to this blog...
I believe everyone of us are constantly learning and could help each others out so i thought it nice to create dedicated pages for specific discussions on programming and technology...I just set up these extra pages recently and will like it if we started commenting and asking questions right away...
I will try to answer as many questions as i can.....

Thanks,
Giga Frequency...

Coolest Android Ice Cream Sandwich Features

Android Ice Cream Sandwich is the new phone OS from Google...Check out some cool features of this  phone Operating System...

Wednesday morning last week, Google and Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Nexus, the first phone designed specifically with Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) in mind. Ice Cream Sandwich will, naturally, make its way to other handsets when it's released to the public sometime in November. As such, we're taking a look at the latest Google Android mobile operating system.

Ice Cream Sandwich contains many new features, but we've highlighted 10 of the tastiest, ranging from wireless sharing to new widget management. Check out the features and images below for a rundown on the new operating system. Which is your favorite?

Face Unlock

Is swiping the home screen to unlock your phone growing a bit tiresome? Ice Cream Sandwich's new Face Unlock feature taps a phone's camera so that users can log in by simply looking at the handset. Don't worry, if you don't want to use your grill, you can still use a code number (or a drawing interface) to unlock the handset.

Another change made...

Sorry everyone...It was impossible to post any comment as an anonymous visitor but that as been taken care of now...I am so sorry for any inconveniences i may have caused you guys...
Later, thanks once again..

....Giga Frequency....

New changes...

Giga Frequency is still in its beta state and will be undergoing reviews from time to time.....
Please we will need your help in making this blog better tailored to your needs and taste...
Any criticism or suggestions you post will be greatly appreciated...

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Everyone...Don't mind my postings of only Apple and Steve Jobs related info....Just wanted to make it as a tribute to Jobs....
So up until Wednesday this week...i will only post info that is related to Apple and Steve Jobs.....
...From Wednesday 19th of this month, the content of the posts will be more general tech. info.


.......For as many that do not like the one sided posts, please bear with me for now.....

The next iPhone : IPhone 5

The

iPhone 4S

is not the last major project that Steve Jobs worked on, that would be the next iPhone according to one analyst.

The next-generation iPhone "was the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design. For that reason...this product will establish the high water mark for iPhone volumes," Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw, wrote in a research note this week. He expects

the iPhone 5

to be a "cult classic" because of Jobs' involvement.

In the note, Kumar said the phone will have a slimmer profile and larger screen size but with the same dimensions as the iPhone 4S (the relatively-small 3.5-inch screen is not one of the 4S' best features). The iPhone is also expected to have LTE, or Long Term Evolution--what's sometimes referred to as 4G.

Another source, who I spoke with this week and who claims to have knowledge of the redesign, said the iPhone 5 is a "complete redesign. This is a very large project that Steve dedicated all of his time to. He was not that involved in the 4S because his time was limited."

That makes sense to me. Cosmetically, the iPhone 4S is identical to the iPhone 4. So no big change here. And though the 4S has been revamped on the inside, in some respects, it carries over technology already in the iPad 2: the same dual-core processor, same memory capacity, same accelerometer, same gyroscope, among other similarities.

So, it's probably not unreasonable to expect the iPhone 5 to be a "complete redesign," as the source said--meaning both externally and internally, though probably less so internally when compared with pronounced user-facing changes like the display size. (No telling what kind of plans Apple has on the software front: iOS 6? Siri 2?)

The iPhone 5 should debut around the time of Apple's Developer's Conference in the summer of 2012, according to Kumar's research note.

info source

More videos on Steve Jobs

3 apples have changed the world

Adam's apple

Newton's apple

Steve Job's apple



Tributes to Steve Jobs

The state of California is also honoring the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs.

California Gov. Jerry Brown, in an announcement he made on Twitter, declared yesterday as "Steve Jobs Day" in the Golden State.

Silicon Valley royalty assembled yesterday at Stanford University to pay their respects to Jobs at a memorial service that was organized by Apple. The company sent invitations for the private event to some of the Valley's biggest names, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Apple as a company has put down plans to hold a company wide celebration of the Apple co-founder's life this Wednesday morning at the company's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.


Also on Sunday, the Discovery Channel plans to run a one hour long special about Jobs called "iGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World." MythBusters hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman pay tribute to Jobs through interviews with people whose lives and careers were impacted by Jobs, including Stevie Wonder, Tom Brokaw, and the company's (Apple) employees.


Steve Jobs, who died on the 5th of October after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, was buried a few days later during a private, non-denominational funeral in Santa Clara County.

Steve Jobs

Another video, a tribute to Steve

You might also like these posts

A speech made by Steve Jobs at stanford

Steve Jobs was a revolutionist and also a genius...The world has most certainly lost a rear gem...

Just getting started...

Hi everyone, i just got started with this blog...
kindda like new and cutting edge tech...
so i decided to set up this blog to enable me go on with my passion.....
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