InsideTech

'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 ...

'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 ...

Blind phone hacker's reign comes to a close On June 12, 2006, SWAT police stormed a house in Alvarado, Texas.  They had received a call from what appeared to be the phone number, from an individual who reported that he was holding hostages and had killed family members with an AK47 while high on hallucinogenic drugs.  The operation, which likely cost ...

'Kotaku uncovers new games lent to employees are sold as new.' - Kotaku has revealed that game distributor GameStop is selling used games as new. New games shipped to GameStop stores are lent out to employees and once returned are sold at full price. Kotaku confirmed this practice is taking place companywide after contacting store managers and employees across the United ...

'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 ...

'Source tells Laptop Mag that managers and sales people regularly lie about notebook availability, telling customers who won't buy extended warranties that models are out of stock.' - Most consumers have gone into a retail store looking for a product and only finding out after deciding to buy that the product is not in stock. At the same time most of ...

'The IBM & Los Alamos Roadrunner supercomputer might be as fast as your brain.' - Not even a week after the new Roadrunner supercomputer was juiced up and put to work, scientists are hard at work trying to push the machine to its limits. Housed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the primary goal of the supercomputer is to model the ...

'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" ...

'The worm that won't go away will get an upgrade on April 1.' - The Conficker worm has been wreaking havoc on internet users ever since it climbed out of its slimy hole in the internet's dark nether-regions back in 2008.  Now the worm is about to get even more dangerous when it receives its latest refresh in a series of ...

'New package includes provisions that makes it more difficult for companies obtaining aid to hire workers on H1-B visas.' - The $787B USD economic stimulus package, which passed through Congress and was into law on Tuesday by President Obama, contains many provisions that affect the tech industry.  While much of the funding it provides and funding that was cut from the ...

'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 ...

Just like with movies and video games, the fall season is the best time to find the best new gadgets. Check out our sample of the best of the best for late 2009, including the potential release of the mythical Apple 'iTablet.' Check out the gadgets below! 1. Zune HD The upcoming Zune HD is the first big upgrade to Microsoft's ...

Photo: Lachlan Hardy/Flickr (CC) You need to know how to deal with different types of people in order to get along. Some are especially sensitive to certain things, like the conflict resolution rep that hates to hears insults around the office, even when they're said in jest. IT workers like us are no different. We take our geekiness seriously and ...

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has given a green light to the Homeland Security Department to be more competitive and choosey as it hires up to 1,000 new cyber experts over the next three years, the first major personnel move to fulfill its vow to bolster security of the nation's computer networks. The announcement follows a wave of cyber attacks on ...

'A tiny invisibility cloak has been developed, combining silicon and a carpet-like design.' - A tiny, unique cloak has been developed, demonstrating how silicon and a carpet-like design can take scientists even further in their explorations of invisibility. The journal Nature Materials reported on the development, which was constructed based on a carpet-like design theory first described by Professor John Pendry, from ...

A radical new day has dawned for the operating system. Today Google finally aired its long awaited Chrome Operating System.  The operating system was detailed at a press conference starting at 1 p.m. EST, and the open source code was posted online just before the start of the presentation.  The new operating system brings a dramatically different look and perspective to ...

'Microsoft insists big Windows 7 security hole will not be fixed, is "by design."' - When Windows Vista was launched, it brought to the table a new feature that was supposed to safeguard the user:  the User Account Control (UAC).  However, the useful feature, which could be disabled, became the source of a great deal of the OS's early criticism due ...

'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 ...

'The billions in spending included in the stimulus plan may be more effective than tax incentives in stemming the outsourcing of IT jobs.' - Corporate America's drive to cut costs by moving jobs offshore has hit Robert Poulk hard. A veteran of the defense, aerospace, and computer industries, Poulk never had trouble finding work—until 2003. That year, his job as a ...

'The good old FF browser gets little love when it comes to security.' - Firefox has its plate full when it comes to security.  It has grown a substantial enough market share to place it in a strong second after Microsoft.  This gives it a high profile and leaves it a desirable target to be exploited by hackers and malware writers.  ...