InsideTech

'Hyperion, Toshiba, others, race to produce "personal" nuclear power.' - Using technology licensed from the U.S. government, an Arizona-based company is planning to bring a new generation of miniature nuclear reactors to market. The Hyperion Hydride Reactor is not much larger than a hot tub, is totally sealed and self-operating, has no moving parts and, beyond refueling, requires no maintenance of any ...

'MIT researchers have devised a graphene signal multiplier that produces a clean signal with low power.' - The computer industry is involved in a never-ending quest for the highest possible performance from computer components and other electrical devices. Over the years, there have been many advances that have boosted the computational power of computer systems from increasing the number of transistors ...

'New solar dish from MIT concentrates sunlight intensely enough to melt steel.' - The solar industry is booming. With waves of investment and grants, the solar power industry is for the first time becoming a serious business. New power plants will soon be pumping power out to consumers, while other firms market to sell panels directly to the consumer, providing them ...

'Office-Space style crime makes it to the real world with less-than-perfect results. Maybe the recently charged hacker just needed someone to take a certain employee's stapler.' - In the world of hacking and phishing, there are your slightly unusual attacks, significant but not super eye-catching – there are hackers involved in corporate espionage, zealous nationalists targeting news sites, and rings of ...

Google announced on Monday plans to unveil a version of its own Web browser, challenging Microsoft's dominance over the Internet. Today, a beta version of the browser, called "Google Chrome," will debut in more than 100 countries and offer features that make it easier and faster to browse the Web. Monday's move escalates the rivalry between the Mountain View company and ...

'We're one step closer to flying cars.' - The Terrafugia Transition car/plane may seem like a concept straight out of Back to the Future II or The Jetsons, but researchers want to prove that it's for real. The Massachusetts-based company's part-car, part-airplane flew for 37 seconds before successfully landing on the runway.  The Transition apparently leans towards being a "roadable aircraft" ...

'No brute-force attacks needed. Bring your laptop, leave your dictionary.' - A pair of security researchers claim to have partially cracked WPA encryption, with an attack that takes around 15 minutes. The technique relies on an undisclosed “mathematical breakthrough,” say researchers Erik Tews and Martin Beck, and breaks the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) key used to encrypt data between a ...

'The state has refused to pay the $10M ransom demand.' - Days after it was revealed a hacker successfully compromised the Virginia Health database and stole records of more than 8 million patients; the state of Virginia announced it will not pay a requested $10 million ransom. The database is used by pharmacies and doctors to track narcotics and painkiller prescriptions, ...

SAN FRANCISCO - Lost drivers soon will be able to Google for help at the pump. As part of a partnership to be announced Wednesday, the online search leader will dispense driving directions at thousands of gasoline pumps across the United States beginning early next month. The pumps, made by Gilbarco Veeder-Root, include an Internet connection and will display Google's mapping ...

'A new, near-production LED bulb means the future of lighting is about to look very bright.' - The race towards better, more affordable solid state lighting is heating up quickly.  The U.S. government has sponsored a $20M USD prize for the first team of researchers to come up with solid state lighting that meets a strict set of standards.  New research ...

'Conficker continues to infect a large number of computers while security experts try and figure out what to do.' - Microsoft has created a new technology industry posse and a $250,000 reward for people who help turn over the creators of the Conficker worm. The Conficker worm multiplied like wildfire, and spreads through a hole found in Microsoft Windows systems, though ...

'Crazy raspberry ants stack their dead to avoid pesticides on surfaces.' - There are many things that can harm electric devices like computers. From water to power surges to toddlers, computers are apt to be damaged by many different things. Some Houston, Texas residents are finding that a new danger is looking to harm their computers and electronics: ants. A new ...

'Google wants to build communication and collaboration.' - Google is previewing a new web application to developers that may eventually supplant Gmail. Google Wave goes beyond the basic capabilities of email in order to let people communicate and work collaboratively in real-time with text, photos, videos, maps, gadgets, and social networking feeds from other sources on the internet. A "wave" is equal parts conversation and ...

'Latest Microsoft ad may be its strongest attack on Apple yet.' - Microsoft founder Bill Gates once famously said that he "didn't get" Apple's attack ads on Microsoft.  After all, both companies trying to do the same thing -- create ultra-functional OS systems that met all the users’ needs.  Indeed, for a long time Microsoft was dumbfounded as to how to ...

'Ban is unprecedented in the site's history.' - Wikipedia.org has just announced the biggest ban in its history in an effort to stop exploitation of its online resources.  The Church of Scientology has been "excommunicated" from the site, so to speak, with all IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associate banned from making contributions. The ...

'Google finally ends long-term speculation, announcing a new Chrome OS.' - Google publicly announced it is working on a new Linux-based operating system aimed to compete against Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X. Chrome OS is being designed by Google engineers for netbooks and is completely independent from its Android OS currently used on a growing number of smartphones. "Google Chrome ...

For almost every computer sold, another machine is discarded. Somewhere between 50 million and 75 million desktops, laptops, and monitors reached the end of their lives in 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. But not all those 1.15 million tons of hardware make their way into trash heaps. Many end up with refurbishers that restore the machines and then sell ...

'New worm is very sophisticated and spreading fast.' - Last week the international community was hit by one of the worst viral internet attacks to take over the corporate world in recent years.  The worm, which goes by the names Downadup, Conficker, or Kido, had infected 8 million computers, almost all on corporate networks, by Friday.  Describes Mikko Hypponen, chief research ...

Q. The other day, my Internet service went down as it does from time to time. But this particular time, I needed to check my e-mail for an important reply I was expecting. After some frustrating time passed, I happened to notice that there was a Wi-Fi signal available. I have no idea to whom the service belonged but I suspected ...

SAN FRANCISCO - Anna Patterson's last Internet search engine was so impressive that industry leader Google Inc. bought the technology in 2004 to upgrade its own system. She believes her latest invention is even more valuable - only this time it's not for sale. Patterson instead intends to upstage Google, which she quit in 2006 to develop a more comprehensive and ...