Sunday, January 10, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Daytime Nap Can Benefit A Person's Memory Performance
A brief bout of non-REM sleep (45 minutes) obtained during a daytime nap clearly benefits a person's declarative memory performance, according to a new study.
Podcast: Richard Bradley on Understanding Decisions
Podcast by Richard Bradley on Risk based behaviour and Decision making theory - This discussion, hosted by Philosopy Bites, draws somewhat from the tragic figure of UK polymath Frank Ramsey
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The Future of IT Project Management Software - Business Technology Leadership
Today's information technology organisations are responding to the most treacherous recession in memory. Their actions range from classic belt-tightening to innovating and improving value-added services in their organisations. A primary value-adding strategy for the most effective organisations is to further improve project management.
In view of this strategy, the project management software industry's future looks especially promising. During the global recession, industrial countries around the world devoted billions in economic stimulus funds for infrastructure and other projects. This has created considerable demand for project management software.
China steals another Poland Infrastructure contract by underpricing strategy
Poland's motorway constructors have levelled claims that China is buying its way into the European infrastructure market by underpricing its bids.The letter alleged that Beijing was helping Chinese firms skew foreign markets. It was sent to Barroso and cited the commission polices competition rules across the 27-nation European Union.
The OIGD urged the commission to take anti-dumping measures against the China Overseas Engineering Group Company (COVEC)
In September, COVEC beat several European competitors in the race to build 49 kilometres (30 miles) of the A2 highway linking the Polish and German capitals, Warsaw and Berlin.
The construction is part of Poland's ongoing issuing of tenders as it drives to upgrade its infrastructure in time to co-host the 2012 European football championships.
Cybersitter is suing the Chinese government for piracy and breach of copyright
A US software maker is suing the Chinese authorities and seven major computer maker, including; Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo, etc. Cybersitter is accusing China of openly pirating its Cybersitter content filtering software and using it for their own purposes.The federal lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles by Cybersitter and the compensation demanded is $2.2 billion (£1.37 billion).
The company alleges that the Chinese authorities have blatantly copied its codes and incorporated them into their 'citizen security' software. This software is used to monitor and block Chinese citizens' ability to access sites deemed politically undesirable by the government.
Cybersitter software was originally designed to help parents monitor and filter content seen by children.
The seven computer manufacturers, including Sony, Lenovo, and Toshiba, that are also being cited in this lawsuitsued, have been distributing the Chinese 'citizen security' software program with PCs sold in the country.
This was forced on PC manufacturers who wanted to distribute their products in China. It was done to comply with a mandate from the Chinese authorities to ensure that no computers were sold in China without the 'security' software bundle on it. This mandate was later amended.
Monday, January 4, 2010
GSM encryption key revealed | IT PRO
The encryption key used to protect the privacy of calls on 80 per cent of the world's mobile phones has been made freely available – in order to highlight its vulnerability
A German security expert has published details of how to break the encryption algorithm used by GSM mobile phone technology, highlighting the ageing system's increasing vulnerability.
Karsten Nohl, 28, used a hacker conference in Berlin to publish the work of a collaborative research project to crack the 21-year-old GSM algorithm, a 64-bit encryption function known as A5/1, in a “code book” containing the the encryption key used in a GSM call.
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is the standard form of digital voice encryption that keeps conversations on more than three billion handsets private – more than 80 per cent of the world's mobile phones.
Nohl and research partner Chris Paget said their research proves that with relatively modest funds and some widely available open-source tools, GSM encryption can be cracked, allowing virtually anyone – in theory – to listen in on phone calls.
However, the GSM Association (GSMA) played down the demonstration. It pointed out that the practical complexity of the so-called hack made it highly difficult both to set up and to perform unnoticed, and in any case – it said – the newer, far stronger A5/3 algorithm was in the process of replacing A5/1.
“We consider this research, which appears to be motivated in part by commercial considerations, to be a long way from being a practical attack on GSM,” a spokeswoman said. “A5/1 has proven to be a very effective and resilient privacy mechanism.”
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