Technically Incorrect: In Florida, a man on a motorbike decides to show
his dexterity during a police chase. It doesn't turn out well.
Hands-free communication can be useful, especially if you're in control of a vehicle in motion.
Hands-free control of a vehicle, while you're busily communicating, seems to make less of a contribution to society.
We all make our own choices, however, as footage released by the Martin County Sheriff's Office in Florida shows. As NBC Miami reports,
a camera on a sheriff's office helicopter on Thursday recorded a
motorcyclist's driving during what was described by the police as "an
intense chase" on Interstate 95. What's intense is the concentration
required to maneuver a motorbike at high speed while using both of your
hands to text on a phone.
What was he texting and to whom? Why was it so important when fleeing was the priority?
The sheriff's office declared on its Facebook account:
"MCSO Chief Pilot, Deputy Doug Newsom, strategically forced a fleeing
motorcyclist off the interstate in an attempt to end his erratic
driving."
The sheriff's office wasn't immediately available for
comment. However, it said on Facebook that the motorcyclist, who hasn't
yet been named, has hurtled into multiple charges, including fleeing and
eluding.
Gadgets' influence on dangerous driving have been manifold. Gadget use at the wheel has led to deaths. Others have used them to document the dangerous behavior of those who think they can sit in their cars and use their phones and laptops at the same time. Yes, while driving.
Ultimately, though, it's the human who decides to pick up the gadget. I wonder whom this particular motorcyclist was texting.
I suspect it wasn't his insurance company.
A hack of Experian, the company that handles credit checks for the
wireless carrier, results in the loss of T-Mobile customers' Social
Security numbers, birth dates and names.
Hackers stole the personal data of 15 million T-Mobile customers by
going after the company that processes the wireless carrier's credit
checks.
The company, Experian, said
Thursday that it experienced a breach that nabbed customer data from
September 1, 2013, to September 16, 2015. The stolen data includes
names, birth dates, addresses, and Social Security and drivers' license
numbers, but not credit card or payment information, Experian said.
Experian stores the data when it runs a check on customers' credit
scores to determine whether they qualify for service and what promotions
they're able to take advantage of. At risk from the breach is anyone
who went through a credit check, whether an existing or former customer,
or even an applicant who opted to switch right after the approval
process.
The breach marks the latest high-profile compromising of personal data, a list that includes the US government losing the information of 4 million federal workers and health insurer Excellus BlueCross BlueShield seeing 10 million health records exposed.
Last year, Home Depot and Target were among the major companies hit by
hackers in what has become increasingly dangerous cyberwaters.
"This data breach is certainly a big deal," said Jonathan Bowers, a
fraud and data specialist at fraud prevention provider Trustev. "Give a
fraudster your comprehensive personal information, they can steal your
identity and take out lines of credit that destroy your finances for
years to come."
T-Mobile CEO John Legere warned his customers in a tweet, blog post and frequently asked questions page.
"Obviously I'm incredibly angry about this data breach and we will
institute a thorough review of our relationship with Experian, but right
now my top concern and first focus is assisting any and all consumers
affected," he said.
The 15 million people hit by the breach
represent more than a quarter of Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile's
58.9 million customers, although some of the affected are no longer
subscribers.
Experian, which is taking responsibility for the
breach, said it's in the process of notifying customers who may be
affected. Both existing and former customers would receive letters next
week, according to a T-Mobile spokesman.
The company is offering
two years of credit monitoring and identity protection services through
ProtectMyID, which it owns. Any T-Mobile customers, regardless of
whether they were affected, can take advantage of the offer here.
"It is not enough because the lasting effect can go on for more than
two years," said Stephen Coty, chief security evangelist for security
software provider Alert Logic.
An Experian spokesman said the fraud resolution service would be available for as long as customers need it.
"We take privacy very seriously and we understand that this news is
both stressful and frustrating," said Craig Boundy, chief executive of
Experian North America.
The company also warned customers to be
wary of email and the like. Neither T-Mobile nor Experian will contact
its customers to seek personal information in connection with the
breach.http://www.cnet.com/news/data-breach-snags-data-from-15m-t-mobile-customers/
IBM researchers have licked a problem that stood in the way of a
promising technology that could sustain the computing industry's
remarkable march of progress.
The evolution of computers from
refrigerator-sized mainframes to smartphones in your pocket has hinged
on chips that keep getting smaller and working faster. The
miniaturization that's central to that progress, though, is facing
serious engineering problems as electronic components shrink down toward atomic-size scales.
On Thursday, IBM published research results that show how miniaturization can keep moving ahead, part of a $3 billion research effort
to build chips using a foundation of carbon nanotubes. These nanotubes
are hollow cylinders whose walls are made of a single layer of carbon
atoms linked into a hexagonal lattice pattern. It looks like an
extremely tiny roll of chicken wire, but about 10,000 times smaller than
a human hair.
"This breakthrough demonstrates the technology can
scale," enabling ever-smaller chip components, said Shu-Jen Han, a
materials scientist at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center, headquartered
in Yorktown Heights, New York. "And we believe it can happen in the
decade, sooner than the industry thinks."
Making chips smaller and more capable is key to sustaining the computing industry's decades-long track record of progress called Moore's Law.
That progress, with new chip manufacturing technologies arriving about
every two years, has brought computers to our desks, pockets and now
wrists. It's helped Google to make sense of the Web and enabled Facebook
to recognize our friends' faces in photos. But that progress is
slowing, and if it were to come to a halt, many of tomorrow's
revolutionary computing ideas wouldn't have a chance to evolve.
IBM's
new technique is "very good news, for sure. They've made good progress
in this area," said Aaron Thean, director of the logic research program
at IMEC,
an independent nanoelectronics research center based in Belgium. A lot
more work needs to be done to make nanotubes practical, though, he said.
Mike Feibus, a longtime chip-industry analyst at TechKnowledge Strategies, called IBM's work a breakthrough.
"This is huge," Feibus said. "This should quiet those who've been saying that Moore's Law may finally have run its course."
A
carbon nanotube (CNT) is a lattice of carbon atoms rolled into a
cylindrical shape. Each one is about 10 billionths of a meter wide --
about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair.
IBM Research
The
entire microprocessor industry is trying to find a path beyond today's
difficulties, but IBM has a particular focus on carbon nanotubes.
Ultimately, it expects nanotubes to be used for chips in everything from
mammoth supercomputers to the tiny computers spreading to places like
clothing and car tire pressure gauges.
Today's chip transistors
are made using the element silicon, taking advantage of the fact that
under different circumstances it either conducts electricity or doesn't.
Carbon nanotubes share this "semiconductor" nature that enables them to
act as on-off switches that can process data.
What IBM has
figured out is a better way to connect those nanotubes to the rest of
the microprocessor so they can conduct electricity when in their "on"
state. Previously, high resistance stopped electrons from flowing, but
IBM figured a way to bond each end of a nanotube to the metal
molybdenum. The bonds themselves are small, a crucial factor in making
tiny chip circuitry.
The technique could be be built into chips
three generations into the future of chipmaking technology, Han said.
But it offers miniaturization abilities good enough that it can enable
chips another three generations beyond that, a hard problem since
electrical resistance can get worse as components shrink.
Thean
sees other challenges, though. Although IBM has figured out how to lower
resistance, researchers still need to address an electrical problem
called capacitance that slows electron flow, he said. Resistance and
capacitance both reduce the speeds at which circuits can switch on and
off and therefore perform computing work.
IBM itself points to
other hurdles, too. One is that carbon nanotubes come in two varieties:
semiconducting and metallic. They're hard to separate, but transistors
are ruined if they use the metallic kind.
Another
challenge is in manufacturing. Today's core chipmaking technology,
called photolithography, shines patterns of light on the silicon wafers
used to make chips. Those patterns ultimately are used to carve away
portions of material, leaving the chip circuitry behind.
Carbon nanotubes, though, require materials to be laid down on the chip with extraordinary precision.
"When
building silicon chips out of wafers, it's akin to getting a piece of
marble and sculpting it away to make a statue," Han said. For carbon
nanotubes, "we are starting with the marble dust and have to figure out a
way to make that into a statue.
From CNET Magazine: Smartphones, online services and biometric scanners
are already easing the way for travelers. Expect even more tech to
transform your journeys in the not-too-distant future.
Andy Abramson spends more than 200 days a year
traversing the globe. It can be a grueling combination of international
flights, airport layovers and rush-hour traffic.
While that kind of life on the road can bring strong men to their knees,
Abramson eases through it with apps on his Apple iPhone and MacBook
Air, including Uber for hailing rides, Airbnb for booking lodging, and
Skype and GoToMeeting for video chatting.
"I pretty
much live using my technology," says Abramson, CEO of Comunicano, a
public relations and marketing consultancy in Del Mar, California.
Though few of us will travel a fraction as much as Abramson,
getting around is certainly easier now than a decade ago. Online booking
has replaced trips to travel agents. Digital bar codes are supplanting
boarding passes. Google Maps keeps us from getting lost. Apps from
United and other airlines stream movies to our tablets while we're in
the air.
The next decade promises even more
innovation. Touchscreens, wireless networks, sensors and software will
escort you from home to hotel, and all points in between. Online
services will handle the grunt work of finding hotels, booking flights
and figuring out transportation. Biometric readers will scan your
fingerprints, face or eyes to speed you through security and passport
lines. Smart luggage won't get lost. Hotel Wi-Fi will automatically sync
up with your devices. And smartphones will let doctors remotely
diagnose ailments.
Here's how technology will change our journeys in the not-too-distant future.
At your service
Looking for a flight from San Francisco to Rome? Today, you could
spend hours comparing flight times, connecting flights and prices.
Technology is changing tedious parts of travel.
CNET/Getty Images
Intelligent software agents will take over that chore, predicts David
Lloyd, chief executive of IntelliResponse, which makes "virtual agent"
software that large companies use to provide customer support. These
virtual agents will know your travel habits and preferences (aisle seat
and extra legroom, please). They'll also act swiftly to rebook flights
in case of delays or cancellations.
It's the direction Expedia
is headed with online service, says John Kim, chief product officer of
the popular online travel site. "But first, we have to generate trust
with our customers."
Then there's the little issue of those
long, snaking lines in front of airlines' check-in counters. Several
carriers, including Alaska Airlines and Spain's Iberia, let you print
baggage tags at home to bypass those lines.
Speedy check
Biometric authentication -- using our bodies to identify who we are -- will also speed us through airport checkpoints.
It's slowly starting to happen. Two years ago, London's Gatwick
airport ran a trial in which 3,000 British Airways passengers scanned
their irises when checking in. That allowed security cameras to
recognize them as they passed through checkpoints and boarding gates.
Scandinavian carrier SAS now scans passengers' fingerprints when they
check their bags and uses those prints to let them board. Click above for more CNET Magazine stories.
"We are going to move toward self-boarding of airlines," says
Terry Hartmann, vice president for Unisys security solutions, which
makes biometric authentication systems.
Security checks will
also get faster and less intrusive (no more TSA agents rummaging
through your gear) with new scanners from companies like startup Qylur
Security Systems. Its five-cubbyhole baggage scanner, tested in Brazil
during last year's World Cup, takes 30 seconds compared with 2 minutes
for today's X-ray conveyor belt systems, says CEO Lisa Dolev. And it's
smart enough to let you leave water or laptops packed in your bag.
You'll also spend less time getting through customs when you land.
The Vancouver Airport Authority's face-detection technology cut peak
waiting times from 90 minutes to less than 15, says Paul Mewett, a VAA
director. Fingerprint and facial scanners at South Korea's Incheon
Airport get travelers through customs in about 12 minutes, compared with
45 minutes worldwide.
About 14 percent of the world's
airports plan to use biometric technology of some sort within the next
couple of years, according to a survey by SITA, which provides
technology to airports and airlines.
When you're there
Hilton's smartphone app already lets you check in and pick a room
before you arrive. Later this year, you'll be able to bypass the front
desk altogether by unlocking your room with your smartphone.
And in a few years, today's flaky hotel Wi-Fi will be an unpleasant
memory. It'll accommodate multiple devices and heavier traffic -- and it
won't cost extra.
"Wi-Fi is the new hot water. It's
something you absolutely expect," says Umar Riaz, a travel services
consultant at Accenture.
Tomorrow's travel tech, today
Don't want to wait for the future? Try today's gadgets and services. Phablets
like the iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Google Nexus 6
improve productivity when your laptop's packed. Their bigger screens
ease thumb typing and make mobile document editing more practical.
Phablets' batteries last longer, too. Make sure you get a fast-charging
model. Google Translate serves as a language
middleman, enabling a two-way conversation. Its Word Lens feature isn't
perfect, but it helps translate signs and menus. Portable Wi-Fi hotspots
for rent from companies like XCom Global cut roaming charges and hotel
network fees. Their Wi-Fi networks link your phone, PC and tablet to
wireless data networks in other countries. TripIt
minimizes travel chaos. Using your booking emails from hotels, flights
and rental cars, it creates a tidy itinerary linked to your online
calendar. The $49-per-year Pro version adds alerts, locates alternate
flights and strips out ads. Google's $35 Chromecast
plugs into your hotel's TV to bypass pay-per-view videos in favor of
streaming video. You can hold videoconferences on the big screen, too.
Profound changes
Transportation itself may also change.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wants to revolutionize travel with a
Hyperloop transportation system. Solar-powered electromagnetic pulses
would propel pressurized passenger cabins through tubes on a cushion of
air. Speeds could theoretically approach 800 mph.
Others
think high-speed rail will be the mainstream transportation of the
future. Passengers already use it widely throughout Asia and Europe. And
California broke ground this year for its own $68 billion bullet
service.
Then there are remote-controlled telepresence robots from iRobot
and others. These wheeled machines bring your face, eyes and voice to
another location so your virtual self can roam the corridors and chat
with co-workers. "We're in the early stages of a massive opportunity to
reduce the need for business travel," says Double Robotics CEO David
Cann.
Maybe the ultimate future of travel is none at all. This story appears in the fall edition of CNET Magazine. For other magazine stories, go here.
The Australian mainland lacks active volcanoes, but its geologic
history looks very different with the identification of a
2,000-kilometer-long (1,240-mile-long) volcanic track, the longest known
on any continent. The first volcanoes on the track are 33 million years
old, but the forces responsible may still be having an effect on the
sea floor off Tasmania.
Most of the world's volcanoes lie where tectonic plates meet, particularly around theRing of Fire, or at mid-ocean ridges. However, exceptions such as volcanoes in Hawaii can be found within plates. The most popular, although still disputed, explanation is that these sit above mantle plumes, where
hot material rises from the boundary between the mantle and
core, forcing its way through the crust to be released at the surface. Image Credit: Hannes Grobe/AWI / Wikimedia Commons
Plumes are thought to be fixed relative to the Earth's core. As the
tectonic plates move, new locations are exposed, with active volcanoes
above the plume and a track of extinct peaks left behind. The Hawaiian track, including older mountains now eroded beneath the sea, is far longer, but Dr. Rhodri Davies of the Australian National University says Yellowstone Snake River Plain was thought to be the most extended example within a continental plate.
However, Davies reports in Nature that
Australia hosts a track three times as long as Yellowstone. Dubbed
"Cosgrove track," it begins with ancient volcanoes like Pinnacle Rock in
north Queensland. These have been identified as the likely remnants of a
mantle plume for decades.
However, other parts of the track areless obvious. Central New South Wales and Victoria host thin layers of the volcanic mineral leucitite. In
between are stretches of up to 700 kilometers (435 miles) without any
sign of volcanic activity at all, leading geologists to reject an
association between the volcanic provinces. However, Davies says the
ages are perfect to be formed by the continent passing above a single
plume. Image: The path of the volcanic track across eastern Australia. Credit: Drew Whitehouse/NCI NationalFacilityVizLab.
Davies attributes the surface differences to “dramatic variations in the thickness of the lithosphere” in
the region. “In north Queensland, the lithosphere is only 80km [50
miles] thick,” he told IFLScience, allowing magma to make its way to the
surface. However, evidence from the speed at which earthquakes
propagate through the Australian crust indicates that for other parts of
the track, the lithosphere is more than 130 kilometers (81 miles) thick, preventing volcanic activity. Intermediate thicknesses produce the potassium-rich leucitite.
Things get complicated in the south, as the plume's patch crosses a
chain of extinct volcanoes that Davies told IFLScience are caused by
quite a different phenomenon, known as edge-driven convection.
where volcanic activity is a result of a sharp boundary between thick
and thin sections of the lithosphere.“This is the first documented case
of the interaction of a mantle plume and edge-driven convection,” Davies
said.
“The chain is so long because Australia is the fastest moving
continent, traveling north at about 7cm a year.” Davies told IFLScience.
This movement has carried the Australian mainland beyond the plume, now
located off the coast of Tasmania. “There are no known volcanic
eruptions. Nothing obvious on the sea floor, but there have been
earthquakes in the region and it needs to be investigated further.”
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With the help of the Large Hadron Collider’s (LHC) heavy-ion
detector ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment), physicists have
confirmed there is a fundamental symmetry in nature. By making precise
measurements of particle mass and electric charge, researchers from the
University of São Paulo (USP) and the University of Campinas (UNICAMP)
confirmed the symmetry between the nuclei of particles and antiparticles
in terms of charge, parity, and time (CPT). The results were published
in Nature Physics on August 17 and will help scientists better understand the laws of our Universe.
The team used ALICE – an instrument known for its high-precision
tracking and identification capabilities – to take measurements of
particles produced from high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The purpose of
their experiment was to look for subtle differences in the ways protons
and neutrons join in the nuclei and then compare that to how
antiparticles join in the antinuclei. The researchers are also hoping
ALICE will help them better understand how heavy quarks – such as the
charm and beauty quarks – are produced.
"After the Big Bang, for every particle of matter an antiparticle was
created. In particle physics, a very important question is whether all
the laws of physics display a specific kind of symmetry known as CPT,
and these measurements suggest that there is indeed a fundamental
symmetry between nuclei and antinuclei," said Marcelo Gameiro Munhoz, a professor at USP's Physics Institute (IF) and a member of the Brazilian team working on ALICE.
In their experiment, the researchers measured differences in the
mass-over-charge ratio for deuterons and antideuterons along with
helium-3 and antihelium-3. Researchers took that data and combined it
with recent high-resolution measurements comparing proton and antiproton
properties. As we know, the LHC is a massive particle accelerator and
ALICE is a specialized instrument that looks for heavy-ion (lead)
collisions. When lead ions collide, they produce a massive amount of
particles and antiparticles. Data shows these particles combine to form
nuclei as well as antinuclei at almost the same rate, allowing for a
detailed comparison.
The team measured both the curvature of particle tracks within the
detector’s magnetic field and the particles’ flight time in order to
calculate the mass-to-charge ratios. After measuring both the curvature
of particle tracks in the detector's magnetic field and the particles'
time of flight, that information was then used to determine the
mass-to-charge ratios for nuclei and antinuclei.
There are many theories regarding the fundamental laws of the
universe and the measurements of mass and charge conducted in this
experiment are an integral part that will help physicists determine
which theory reigns supreme. Scientists are hopeful that by
understanding these results, they will better grasp the relationship
between matter and anti-matter.
"These laws describe the nature of all matter interactions," Munhoz explained in a statement,
"so it's important to know that physical interactions aren't changed by
particle charge reversal, parity transformation, reflections of spatial
coordinates and time inversion. The key question is whether the laws of
physics remain the same under such conditions."
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Alien communications could be reaching Earth, although we might not
be able to distinguish them from background radiation, according to
Edward Snowden. The CIA employee-turned-whistleblower believes
encryption – turning data into a code that's difficult to read – harms
our chances of detecting or being detected by alien species.
Snowden was speaking on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk podcast
from Russia, where he has claimed temporary asylum. He suggested that
if aliens encrypted their communications as we do, then they would be
hard to identify.
“If you look at encrypted communication, if they are properly
encrypted, there is no real way to tell that they are encrypted,”
Snowden told deGrasse Tyson. “You can’t distinguish a properly encrypted communication from random behavior.”
We have been searching for extraterrestrial signals
for half a century, but Snowden suggested that the movement away from
open communications on Earth could be replicated in alien societies if
they exist, meaning there is a restricted window of opportunity to
intercept their signals.
“So if you have an alien civilization trying to listen for other
civilizations or our civilization trying to listen for aliens, there’s
only one small period in the development of their society when all their
communication will be sent via the most primitive and most unprotected
means.”
Maybe there are alien civilizations out there after all, but they
started encrypting their communications long before we started looking
for them – we could have been receiving the alien version of The Office
all this time without even realizing it.
But don't get too downhearted, ET fans. If there are aliens advanced
enough to create electronic communication systems and then encrypt them,
surely they're capable of broadcasting their own unencrypted "We're
here!" signal.
