Graphene Links Could Enable Super-Fast Internet

Researchers in Manchester and Cambridge show graphene’s potential for superfast broadband


Graphene, the magic material that has the science world buzzing, has been shown to be a potential accelerator for a future high-speed Internet.
The substance is strong, flexible and impermeable, but its greatest properties lie in it being the thinnest material known with stunning conductivity. It is this final attribute that has attracted attention to graphene as a potential successor to silicon in electronic devices, but new research has shown photonic properties that were not realised before.


Nanostructures Make Light Work


A team of researchers at the universities of Manchester and Cambridge have been looking at ways to improve the absorption of light by graphene. In its natural state, the material only absorbs three percent of light falling on it. Despite this, it has been shown acting in a 10Gbps optical communication link.
In a paper published in Nature Communications, the researchers show that, by combining graphene with plasmonic nanostructures, acting as minutely thin wires, the efficiency of graphene-based photodetectors can be increased by up to 20 times. In addition, the wavelength and polarisation of absorbed light can be altered by using nanostructures of different geometries.
“Such graphene devices can be incredibly fast, tens and potentially hundreds of times faster than communication rates in the fastest Internet cables. This is due to the unique nature of electrons in graphene, their high mobility and velocity,” the researchers claim.
Nobel Prize winners Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov are part of the team and were the discoverers of graphene in 2004. Since then, IBM has demonstrated how the material can be used for minute chips in wireless devices, the University of California has created a miniature, incredibly fast optical data transmitter using graphene as a modulator to switch a light source on and off, and Samsung has demonstrated a 25-inch touch screen coated in the material.
The story of graphene seems to extend monthly and Novoselov, who works with the Manchester University team, said, “The technology of graphene production matures day by day, which has an immediate impact both on the type of exciting physics which we find in this material, and on the feasibility and the range of possible applications.”


Source: e-Week Europe

Stolen Google Certificate Puts Gmail Accounts in Danger

Aug 30, 2011 | 1:26 PM ET | By Matt Liebowitz, SecurityNewsDaily Staff Writer

Hackers have obtained a Google website authentication certificate, putting anyone visiting a Google-owned Web property, including Gmail and YouTube, in serious danger.

The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate allows whoever is wielding it to set up fraudulent Web pages under a legitimate Google domain name; the victims, security researchers say, would believe they were on a perfectly safe Google site while, behind the scenes, attackers could harvest all their personal information.

"This type of attack allows someone to eavesdrop on encrypted traffic, allowing them to decipher traffic which would otherwise not be possible," Kaspersky Lab researcher Roel Schouwenberg told SecurityNewsDaily.

Why is this so scary?

Most phishing emails or spoofed websites look legitimate, but close inspection will reveal a misspelled URL or an unencrypted Web session, or a third-party Web page that bears no resemblance to the original address. Anti-virus software often will detect these rogue pages as threats before they even get to you.

A stolen SSL certificate, however, could mean that when you log on to your Gmail account, or receive an email with a link to any Google.com Web domain (a YouTube video, for example), all of your credentials could be up for grabs.

"This particular certificate is a so-called 'wildcard' certificate," Schouwenberg said. "It's valid for any google.com subdomain. This means this certificate allows an attacker to eavesdrop on virtually all of Google's services, including Gmail, while the traffic is encrypted. This will allow the attacker to not only read/write emails but also grab the target's Google credentials."

Even worse, your computer — and you — would never even know, because nothing about the site would seem off. After all, the attack could take place on an encrypted Gmail page.

How did it happen?

Hackers accessed the SSL certificate on July 19 from DigiNotar, a Dutch certificate authority, which said in a press release that the breach "resulted in the fraudulent issuance of public key certificate requests for a number of domains, including Google.com."

DigiNotar said it revoked all the fraudulently issued certificates, but "recently, it was discovered that at least one fraudulent certificate had not been revoked at the time."

That certificate, for Google.com, has since been revoked, but it existed in the wild for more than five weeks.

An email to DigiNotar was not returned.

Who is behind the hack?

"This type of attack is mostly suited to intelligence/espionage operations," Schouwenberg said. "We have to keep in mind that these attacks are quite targeted and most likely carried out by nation-states."

Mikko Hypponen from the security firm F-Secure captured a screenshot of a compromised DigiNotar Web page that reads, "Hacked by KiAnPhP, Extrance Digital Security Team, Iranian Hackers."

"It's likely the Government of Iran is using these techniques to monitor local dissidents," Hypponen wrote.

Google itself supports this claim, writing in a blog post on Sunday (Aug. 28) that "the people affected were primarily located in Iran."

However, Hypponen came across another defaced DigiNotar Web page that reads, "Hacked by Black.Spook! Persian Gulf For Ever!!!"

"If you keep digging deeper, you'll find that although these Web defacements are still live right now, they are not new," Hypponen wrote. "Much worse: They were done years ago. In fact, these hacks are so old, it's unlikely they are connected to the current problem. Or at least so we hope."

What can you do?

"Unfortunately, there are only very few solutions for this type of problem," Schouwenberg told SecurityNewsDaily. "Right now, we have to rely on the browser makers to release an update to the browser which blacklists this particular certificate."

Thankfully, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Google Chrome have all updated their Web browsers to block the stolen Google SSL certificate.

Google warns users, especially located in Iran, to "keep their Web browsers and operating systems up to date and pay attention to Web browser security warnings."

Source: Security News Daily

Gartner Hype Cycle 2010 / 2011

Let's Fly

Let's fly and enjoy with these impressive bands. I'd like to have a glass of wine right now.

Steve Miller Band


Pink Floyd

New Ways of Thinking - IBM SyNAPSE

Beyond machines
For more than half a century, computers have been little better than calculators with storage structures and programmable memory, a model that scientists have continually aimed to improve.
Comparatively, the human brain—the world's most sophisticated computer—can perform complex tasks rapidly and accurately using the same amount of energy as a 20 watt light bulb in a space equivalent to a 2 liter soda bottle.


Cognitive computing: thought for the future
Making sense of real-time input flowing in at a dizzying rate is a Herculean task for today's computers, but would be natural for a brain-inspired system. Using advanced algorithms and silicon circuitry, cognitive computers learn through experiences, find correlations, create hypotheses, and remember—and learn from—the outcomes.
For example, a cognitive computing system monitoring the world's water supply could contain a network of sensors and actuators that constantly record and report metrics such as temperature, pressure, wave height, acoustics and ocean tide, and issue tsunami warnings based on its decision making.


Meeting of the minds
Researchers at IBM have been working on a cognitive computing project called Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE). By reproducing the structure and architecture of the brain—the way its elements receive sensory input, connect to each other, adapt these connections, and transmit motor output—the SyNAPSE project models computing systems that emulate the brain's computing efficiency, size and power usage without being programmed.
IBM is combining principles from nanoscience, neuroscience and supercomputing as part of a multi-year cognitive computing initiative. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded approximately US$21 million in new funding from for phase 2 of the SyNAPSE project. For this project, a world-class, multi-dimensional team has been assembled, consisting of IBM researchers and collaborators from Columbia University; Cornell University; University of California, Merced; and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Raul Seixas - Canceriano Sem Lar

Raul Seixas - Canto Pra Minha Morte

Raul Seixas - 21/08/2011

Há 22 anos atrás morria nosso eterno Raulzito. Nem parece né? A gente tá realmente ficando velho...hehehe...mas vamos relembrar e manter a chama do Raulseixismo sempre acesa.

O Corinthians e Shakespeare

O ano era 1597.

O texto, a peça "Henrique IV" (Henry iv), de Shakespeare.

A cena IV se inicia. Príncipe Henry adentra a taberna "Cabeça de Javali" (the "Boar's-Head Tavern"), e diz: "I am no proud, Jack, like Falstaff; but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy."

Ou, na nossa língua mãe; "Eu não sou orgulhoso, Jack, como Falstaff; mas um Corinthiano, um rapaz de coragem, um bom menino".

Acredito que a palavra-santa “CORINTHIANO” foi usada pela primeira vez como um adjetivo, como uma qualidade, neste escrito Shakesperiano.

Até então, CORINTHIANO era substantivo, que designava o Povo de Corinto (Corinthian), na Grécia. Corinthiano, utilizado por Shakespeare, designa Cavalheirismo, Nobreza (nos atos), Coragem. Mais de 400 anos depois defendemos a Lealdade, a Humildade e o Procedimento.

Alguns séculos depois, na mesma Inglaterra de Shakespeare, surgia o Corinthian Football Club, em 1882. E foi daí que passamos a gritar Corinthians! Esta foi a equipe a excursionar pelo Brasil inspirando o nome do Time do Povo, quando de seu nascimento no Bom Retiro.

Para entender o motivo da escolha do nome do time Inglês, e seu significado mais original, há que se deter da história da própria Corinto Grega e da sua contribuição a humanidade no campo das Artes, das experiências sociais dos Templos de AcroCorinto, sua organização, princípios e objetivos, tão a frente de seu tempo que causou aguda preocupação no apóstolo Paulo. Na 1º Carta de Paulo aos Coríntios, que é uma carta de aconselhamento, há um "poema sobre o Amor". Eis seu início:

"Ainda que eu falasse as línguas dos homens e dos anjos, e não tivesse Amor, seria como o metal que soa ou como o sino que tine. E ainda que tivesse o dom da profecia, e conhecesse todos os mistérios e toda a ciência, e ainda que tivesse toda a fé, de maneira tal que transportasse os montes, e não tivesse Amor, nada seria."

Até os dias de hoje é utilizada na Inglaterra a expressão Corinthian Spirit (Espírito Corinthiano) para designar atos de cavalheirismo, nobreza, o melhor sentido do amadorismo, tanto no desporto quanto nas relações sociais. O Espírito Corinthiano, da qualidade a que Shakespeare se referia há quase cinco séculos, deu origem à expressão Fair Play.

E coube a nós, e cabe a nós, Corinthianos, preservar, fortalecer e multiplicar esta corrente, desde o início do século passado, à luz do lampião, sob o brilho do cometa Halley, mãos trabalhadoras, povos de todas as partes do mundo.

Aqui é Corinthians!

Viva o S. C. Corinthians Paulista, que imortaliza os ideais milenares do Homem na luta pela Liberdade e Emancipação.

Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride