Hacker Challenge: Crack Blind Quantum Computing, We Dare You
PCMAG.COM | JANUARY 20, 2012

Security professionals would balk at the notion of a computer code so perfectly unbreakable that you couldn’t crack it entering, exiting, or even perf… Read more

Adobe has finally realized that many potential users are unable to afford the high price of their software. They are now offering subscriptions to their most popular software, giving more people an extended taste of their product. Perhaps they are feeling some pressure from free software such as GIMPshop and apps which have shown potential consumers that you don’t have to pay $600 to change a photo’s background. Whatever the reason, it’s a great move towards more affordable software solutions.
-k

Today it was announced that Google might have improperly used the open-source Linux kernel during the development of its wildly popular Android OS, and intellectual property experts say that this ‘faux pas’ has the potential to bring about the extinction of the Android “ecosystem”.

At issue is an intellectual property concept known as “copyleft”, which basically states that open-source software (this includes the Linux kernel), when altered by anyone, must be redistributed under the same terms stated in the original license agreement.  In short, it is believed that Google has not done this.

As it stands, it appears that Google took code from hundreds of different Linux kernels, cleaned it up using a process they developed at their labs, then adopted the open-source code as original content.

At risk, some say, is everything that is based/depends on the Android OS.  Unless Google replaces all of the “cleaned up” code they borrowed from Linux kernels far and wide, a lawsuit could bring the OS to its knees.

Do I think this is likely to happen?  My gut says no, based upon how this sort of thing usually plays out in the industry, but spending a little time thinking about what the market would look like if Android where no longer in it, makes for an interesting diversion.

Finally, lest you forget, this isn’t the only legal entanglement Google is wrestling with on behalf of its Android OS.  Oracle recently sued them over copyright infringement issues, stemming from Android’s use of code stolen from their Java platform.

Get this intellectual property and copyright stuff under control guys, or this could be a really short trip.

-Dave Snodgress

I am hoping that this will solve the problem of equations editors in our LMS. Please, please, please….

Editing equations is one of my biggest problems in supporting math content in our blended learning program. Google docs has an equation editor, but it is not compatible with Forms…yet. I am really looking for something that will allow students and teachers in a math class interact, exchange work and , yes, even test using an equation editor. Is this it? Part of it? I’ll let you know!

-Cindy

This is amazing news!  Industry analysts say that as many as 500,000 iPad 2s were sold in the first weekend they became available.

Coupled with the growing demand for the iPad in schools, this seems to indicate that even with competition from the Motorola Xoom and the newly Androidized B&N Nook, Apple’s iPad is maintaining its hegemony over the tablet market.

-Dave Snodgress

A nice video comparison of the Motorola Xoom and the Apple iPad 2 from PC Mag.  To sum up, the Xoom has many great features, but the advantage went to the iPad 2, based upon a its well-stocked App Store and a smoother, more feature-rich browsing experience.

-Dave Snodgress

I’m really nervous about this one.  A prequel (and/or possibly a sequel) to one of the best films of the 20th century, which is based upon one of the best sci-fi novels of the 20th century? 

I hope Alcon Entertainment, the company that has acquired the rights to Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick) respects the original film enough to execute this project properly.

As yet, a director and screenwriter have not been chosen, although Ridley Scott (Blade Runner’s director) is rumored to be in discussions with Alcon Entertainment at this time.

If I could choose the way in which this whole project will play out, I’d like to see Darren Aronofsky  in the director’s chair and sci-fi literary giant William Gibson as screenwriter.

The film would be shot in black and white, in the French New Wave style, a la Jean-Luc Godard’s sci-fi/film noir masterpiece Alphaville.

The plot would deal with how replicants (the artificial humans in Blade Runner) began to become self-aware and could be explored from a variety of metaphysical and existential angles, as Philip K. Dick probably would have himself.  A common theme in many of his novels and short stories is the existential conundrum,  “What is real and what is not real?”

Done poorly, without proper care being taken, this new film could become another excessively CGI-laden, Hollywood money-grab, devoid of substance and meaning.

-Dave Snodgress

“Even if all students mastered core academic subjects, they still would be woefully under prepared to succeed in post secondary institutions and workplaces, which increasingly value people who can use their knowledge to communicate, collaborate, analyze, create, innovate, and solve problems.” This is powerful stuff. No tip toeing around, no sugar coating, this report shoots straight into the heart of the need for technology in the classroom. Even I have never been this blunt! Sure there are obstacles, of course there are budget issues, naturally it won’t be easy, but the walls of our classrooms should not insulate us from the world. The winds of real life need to blow through our schools, and technology is a big part of real life. And becoming bigger every day.

The business of schools is the future. We teach young people with an eye toward what they will need to be independent, literate, contributing adults. If we don’t have an idea of what those needs are, how will we meet them? Technology is a tool, and it is more than a tool. It is not enough to have a basic understanding of a lever, one must be able to change and adapt the lever and all of its evolutions to solve problems that haven’t even been invented yet. It’s a huge undertaking. 

No wonder we feel more comfortable with doing what we have always done.

-Cindy

As 3G and 4G smartphones become more common, rogue smartphone apps that behave in much the same way as a virus or trojan on a PC are also becoming more common.

Enter the latest nasty little Android OS trojan.  This one is a hacked variant of a legitimate application known as Steamy Windows.  In its original form, Steamy Windows did nothing but simulate a foggy touch screen window, which you could simply “wipe” off with your finger.  Cute.  Pointless.  Harmless.

The hacked variant of Steamy Windows is far from harmless and actually uses your phone to send text messages to people in your phone’s contact list, while blocking access to your phone’s text messaging accounting feature, a service designed to tell you how many text messages you’ve sent and how many you have left before you begin to be charged a per message fee.

In order to protect itself from discovery, it also blocks incoming text messages to make sure that the contacts you’re spamming aren’t able to notify you that they are receiving text spam from your phone.  Clever.

What makes this hacked app stand out from those that have preceded it is the level of sophistication required to create it.

Watch for more apps like this to flood the market in the near future.  Hackers and virus writers go where the people are.  They seek out target rich environments, in order to ensure that their efforts create the most damage possible. 

After all, what’s the point of spending your time to create a payload that’s only going ruffle a few feathers, when you can blow up the entire chicken coop.

Be smart about what you download.  If you didn’t get an app from the iPhone or Android App store, don’t trust it.  For that matter don’t download it, period.  Furthermore, if you’re installing an app on your phone and it starts asking you to give it permission to access all sorts of things on your phone, stop installing it.  That is usually (but not always) a bad sign.

Be careful out there.

-Dave Snodgress

Cliches have always been a stumbling block for designers of web and print mediums. Somehow your best ideas can feel canned or cheesy and perhaps this is not always true. The same emotions that give cliches staying power can be emulated in your work if you take the time to apply those feelings in a more creative way. Check out Smashing Mag’s take on cliche design & idea generation.

-k