Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, February 04, 2010

HT4Sight Plugs Aerial Surveillance Video Into Any Cellphone [Surveillance]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/S8ERJ9nJDnI/ht4sight-plugs-aerial-surveillance-video-into-any-cellphone

HT4Sight seems like something only available to rogue agents who break people's legs and shout out their lungs every time they want to know where a nuclear head is, while nobody—except a hacker with permanent PMS—believes in them.

Except that HT4Sight is real, and available to anyone with deep enough pockets. The system allows anyone to route video signals from UAVs—or any aerial surveillance craft or satellite—to any cellphone around the world, using an encrypted data signal. The signal gets transmitted in real time to a command center. Then, HT4Sight compresses and encrypts the video, sending the stream to any phone in a cellular, Wi-Fi, or satellite network. [Helinet Technologies]

HDDBOOST Fuses SSDs with HDDs for Speed Made Cheap [PCs]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/UW_y02_eB_A/hddboost-fuses-ssds-with-hdds-for-speed-made-cheap

So, the HDDBOOST may be ridiculously brilliant. It's a hard drive bay that offers SATA connections to both a normal hard drive and a solid state drive. Ultimately, it promises the speeds of SSD with the storage capacity of HDD.

Here's how it works:

With no additional software, a 32GB SSD (recommended size, that you install) mirrors a chunk of data from your HDD, allowing it to act as a high speed data buffer, starting processes quickly while your computer only combs through your slower HDD-based files as necessary.

Of course, everything won't be SSD speed, but manufacturer SilverStone still promises a 150% speed increase across your entire computing experience. That number is a bit hard to swallow, given the fact that there's no intelligent optimization (that we've heard of, at least) guiding HDDBOOST to only copy over the most used, most beneficial files for speed increases. Then again, the idea certainly makes some level sense. And for $55 (available in Japan only at the moment), the HDDBOOST isn't a huge financial risk. [Hexus]

Director of National Intelligence says major cyber attack could wreak havoc on the U.S. of A.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/director-of-national-intelligence-says-major-cyber-attack-could/

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told the National Intelligence Committee that the United States is at risk of a "crippling" cyber-attack, and without the proper tools to defend against such an attack. Blair counseled the US to "deal with that reality," saying that catastrophic consequences would result if it did not deal with said reality. Specific problem areas he cited include the fact that more and more, foreign companies supply both the hardware and software for private businesses. Blair also noted the fact that the net has served as a breeding ground for "homegrown radicalism." You don't say? Hit the source link a fuller detail of yesterday's proceedings.

Director of National Intelligence says major cyber attack could wreak havoc on the U.S. of A. originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon buys touchscreen startup Touchco, merging with Kindle division

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/amazon-buys-touchscreen-startup-touchco-merging-with-kindle-div/

In what we're hoping bodes well for future Kindle iterations, Amazon's pulled out its credit card and picked up New York-based startup Touchco, who specializes in -- you guessed it -- touchscreen technology. The company will be merged with Lab126, a.k.a. the Kindle hardware division. Here's why we're excited: the startup claims its interpolating force-sensitive resistance tech can be made completely transparent, works with color LCDs, and can detect "an unlimited number of simultaneous touch points" as well as distinguish between a finger and stylus. Current cost estimates put it at less than $10 per square foot, which The New York Times says is "considerably" less expensive than the iPad / iPhone screens. We're not expecting to see immediate results with this acquisition, but given the proliferation of touch in the latest batch of e-book readers, it'd be foolish of Amazon not to join in on the fun. Ready for the Kindle 3 rumor mill to start up again?

Amazon buys touchscreen startup Touchco, merging with Kindle division originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Joojoo tablet now in production, will support full Flash at launch

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/joojoo-tablet-now-in-production-will-support-full-flash-at-laun/

That other tablet that was announced just a week ago sure doesn't seem to be setting Fusion Garage's Joojoo off course. Not only did it see an increase in orders after the iPad announcement, but Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishna just told us that production of the 12-inch tablet has kicked off and that the product is on target to start shipping this month. And it doesn't sound like legal fees from fighting the TechCrunch lawsuit over the product are depleting Fusion Garage's bank account: Chandra told us it's teamed up with OEM CSL Group of Malaysia, which will be footing the bill for manufacturing in exchange for a "low single-digit" percentage of product revenue. We have our doubts about the math, but we'll see how happy everyone is if and when the Joojoo starts shipping. (We'll also see if James Cameron notices that Fusion Garage keeps using unlicensed Avatar images in its promo pictures.)

Chandra still wouldn't budge on revealing what's powering the device, but he was more than happy to confirm that the tablet will support full Flash at launch, and HD Flash content once Flash 10.1 is officially released -- YouTube HD will play right now using a separate player plugin that takes advantage of GPU acceleration. "We have a bigger 'app store' than Apple because we have the full Internet," he told us. Nevertheless, Fusion plans to launch a "web store" that will allow people to find web applications on the Joojoo. Speaking of Apple, Chandra was quite blunt about the iPad: "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery." No really -- he told us everything from Steve Jobs calling the iPad a "magical product" to the couch being on stage during the keynote to the $499 price point was a nod to the Joojoo, since "juju" is an African word for "magical" and the Joojoo was positioned as a couch computer when it launched in November. Uh, sure. Trash talking aside, we're very excited to see what this thing can do -- a 16:9 720p tablet that can play Hulu sounds pretty interesting to us. Check the full press release after the break.

Continue reading Joojoo tablet now in production, will support full Flash at launch

Joojoo tablet now in production, will support full Flash at launch originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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