MISSION TO FIX HUBBLE BEGINS

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Seven astronauts blasted off on the space shuttle Atlantis on Monday for one last flight to the Hubble Space Telescope — an extraordinarily ambitious mission that NASA hopes will lift the celebrated observatory to new scientific heights.

The six men and one woman who will attempt the complicated, riskier-than-usual job shouted, waved and raised their fists as they headed out to the pad, eager to get going after waiting seven months to fly. Their flight was delayed last fall, two weeks before the scheduled launch, after the orbiting telescope broke down.

"At last our launch has come along," commander Scott Altman said just before the afternoon liftoff. "It's been a long time coming."
The weather was nearly perfect for the 2:01 p.m. ET launch. In the final hours of the countdown, NASA kept an eye on the weather at an emergency landing strip in Spain, as well as ice buildup on one of the fuel lines on Atlantis' tank. But neither concern held back the shuttle's launch.

As Atlantis ascended into the sky, Endeavour stood on NASA's other shuttle launch pad, a mile away, primed for an emergency rescue in case Atlantis is battered by launch debris or space junk.

Tens of thousand of onlookers, including Kennedy Space Center workers and invited guests, gathered to watch the launch. The Hubble scientists and managers were euphoric to finally be so close to liftoff.

The 19-year-old Hubble, last visited by astronauts seven years ago, is way overdue for a tuneup.

On this fifth and final repair mission, two spacewalking teams will replace Hubble's batteries and gyroscopes, install two new cameras and take a crack at fixing two broken science instruments, something never before attempted. Those instruments, loaded with bolts and fasteners, were not designed to be tinkered with in space.

The astronauts also will remove the science data-handling unit that failed in September and had to be revived, and put in a spare that was hustled into operation. Fresh insulating covers will be added to the outside of the telescope, and a new fine guidance sensor for pointing will be hooked up.

Five spacewalks will be needed to accomplish everything.

All told, it's a $1 billion mission. The space telescope, over the decades, represents a $10 billion investment. It was launched amid considerable hoopla in 1990, but quickly found to be nearsighted because of a flawed mirror. Corrective lenses were installed in 1993 during what NASA's science mission chief, Ed Weiler, calls "the miracle in space mission."

With all the newest pieces, NASA hopes to keep Hubble churning out breathtaking views of the universe for another five to 10 years. The new cameras should enable the observatory to peer deeper into the cosmos and collect an unprecedented amount of data.

"I personally believe the stakes for science are very high," senior project scientist David Leckrone said on the eve of the launch. "It's a very complex, very ambitious mission, and it makes the difference between an observatory that's kind of limping along scientifically and an observatory that's the best ever."

The 11-day mission, led by Altman, a former Navy fighter pilot, comes with a higher risk than usual.

Atlantis will be flying in an unusually high orbit for a space shuttle — 350 miles (560 kilometers) up. Space is more littered there with spacecraft parts, and the odds of a catastrophic strike are greater. In addition, there's always the chance the shuttle could be damaged during liftoff by a piece of fuel-tank insulating foam or other debris, which doomed Columbia in 2003.

NASA canceled this last Hubble mission in 2004, saying it was too dangerous. It was reinstated two years later by the space agency's new boss, but only after shuttle flights had resumed and repair techniques had been developed. As an added precaution, another shuttle was ordered to be on standby, in case Atlantis suffered irreparable damage.

Endeavour, the rescue ship, is ready to lift off within a week if necessary to save Atlantis' crew.

Boston Dynamics create Bio Dog.

Boston Dynamics has created BigDog the robotic pack mule which according to them is "the most advanced quadruped robot on Earth!" BigDog can carry four infantry backpacks while keeping its balance over different type of terrains. The following freaky video (28MB WMV) shows BigDog walking through mud, over slippery snow, over rocks, up a hill, and even keeps itself from toppling over when it's being kicked! BigDog stands about waist high, can carry 165 lbs (75 kg), can walk through most terrain and can always keep its balance. The on-board computer controls locomotion, monitors external & internal sensors and keeps itself balanced. A gasoline engine powers BigDog's hydraulic system for actuating the hydraulically controlled legs.

Chromet Robot !

The Choromet is expected to be available from General Robotics in September, with price which is less then five grands. The Choromet is about 13-3/4 inches tall, and is capable of walking upright on two legs. Four companies in Japan have created a relatively low-cost, user-programmable humanoid robot targeting educational and research applications. The HRP-2m Choromet uses technology from Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and is user-programmable thanks to open software running on a user-space real-time Linux implementation. AIST hopes Choromet's ability to run software-based movement programs on a real-time Linux platform will enable researchers and schools to experiment with the effectiveness of humanoid robot motion pattern applications. The Choromet is based on several technologies developed by AIST, including A business-card sized SBC (single board computer) 240MHz SH-4 processor, 32MB of RAM, "ARTLinux," an operating system that provides a user-space real-time Linux environment. Humanoid motion application software based on OpenHRP (Humanoid Robotics Project) Some other Choromet features are: Triaxial force sensors on legs, Accelerometer and gyroscope in trunk, and real-time sensor feedback. More info at http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS8377820601.html

What Do You Hate About Backing Up Your Data ?

Backup is one of those things that we rarely think about until it is far too late. It’s usually a task that’s somewhere buried on your to-do list. It may even be a high priority task on your list, but somehow weeks and months pass and still, no backup. Could it be because too much pain is associated with the process? Or maybe it’s just being a bit lazy? Or more likely, we are all too busy and just don’t make the time.

Here, we take a look at some of the painful aspects of backing up our PCs and laptops and how we can easily overcome that pain to make sure we don’t end up losing our valuable data.

Method

The first issue is determining how you will back up your data. Online? Off site? Off line? All of the above? And within each of those options are again many other options! First, here’s the bad news; you really should be doing all of the above. Three times the work you say! Not quite. Fortunately, with a little initial investment in time and money, you can setup these solutions relatively painlessly with the result being safe, secure data.

You can back up off site two ways: 1) Use a web-based service provider or 2) use a portable backup drive and physically move it off site. We recommend option 1, because it will save more of your time; however, if you prefer more control of your data and don’t mind the extra time involved, option 2 works just fine.

Since external drives are inexpensive, it’s also a good idea to maintain an on-site backup, giving you the advantage of speedy recovery when data is lost. While you can back up to a USB or FireWire hard drive attached to one of your PCs, a much more convenient solution is a network storage device, often referred to as Network Attached Storage (NAS).
A NAS, like Western Digital’s My Book World Edition, connects directly to your home network and allows for easy backup of any computer connected to the network.
Time

Now that you have your backup method ready to go, how to remember to back up? You have two options: 1) Setup an annoying reminder to tell you to back up every few hours or 2) automate it and forget it. You can guess that we prefer option 2.

Most on-line services will have this feature available, but you have to be connected to the Internet for it to work, and it can be slow. That is why we like the NAS solution so much. Devices like WD’s My Book World Edition backs up your systems as soon as you connect to your home network, even if you have no Internet access. With this particular product, you don’t have to remember anything – it backs up automatically every time you save a file.
What Do You Hate About Backing Up Your Data?

Now that you have automated the procedure, time no longer becomes an issue. That said, it’s a good idea to periodically check your back ups to make sure your data is indeed being backed up.

Are Hackers Working For The Mob ?

Hackers stole more data last year than in the previous four years, according to new research.

In its 2009 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), Verizon investigated 90 data breach cases that exposed a 285 million records, which is equivalent to nine records per second. This figure is far greater than the 230 million records recorded as breached in the five years combined from 2004 to 2008.

The study looked only at breaches involving attacks that resulted in compromised records being used in a crime. Verizon Business found that organised crime was behind 90 percent of all breaches which involved compromised records.

Market saturation has driven down the price of credit card details on the black market. Details that were valued at around $10 to $16 per record in mid-2007, are now sold for less than 50 cents per record today.

As a result, personal identification numbers (PIN) fraud has exploded as criminals are targeting financial firms to steal PINs and together with associated credit and debit accounts. Financial firms accounted for 93 percent of the over 285 million records compromised.

"Financial services firms were singled out and fell victim to some very determined, very sophisticated, and--unfortunately--very successful attacks in 2008," said the report.

The report also found most data breaches originate from external threats, rather than internal, with 74 percent of breaches caused by external sources.

Hacking is the leading cause of data breaches for the fifth year running, involved in 94% of cases that led to breached records. Malware was involved in over one-third of the cases investigated and contributed to nine out of 10 of all records breached. SQL injection was the favourite type of attack, used in 79% of cases were records were compromised.

But most breaches resulted from a combination of events rather than a single action, the report found, with 64 percent of breaches attributable to hackers using a combination of methods.

Matthijs van der Wel, manager principal forensics EMEA, at Verizon Business Security Solutions, outlined the typical scenario for data losses. "The end user makes a mistake. The attacker takes advantage of some mistake committed by the victim company, hacks into the network, perhaps using an SQL injection attack, and installs malware on a system to collect data."

Viruses Could Power Elecronic Devices :MIT

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have revealed that they can genetically engineer viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a lithium-ion battery.

Intel shows off next-gen atom processor

Intel used the first day of the Spring IDF in Beijing to show off its Moorestown integrated processor, which is expected to replace the current Atom CPU and chipset later this year or early 2010. The company also introduced two new Z-series Atom processors.

It was the first time that a Moorestown chip was shown live to the public. What makes this processor special is the fact that it integrates graphics and all other chipset components on-die, which will make it substantially smaller and apparently less power hungry than today’s Atom generation.

Moorestown is promised to run at ten times less idle power than the current Atom platform. Intel declined to reveal how much power the chip will actually consume and, at least for us, it is difficult to estimate that number. Today’s Atom relies on a 45 nm processor as well as an older chipset design, based on an updated i915 version, which is called System Controller Hub (SCH) as part of the Atom platform. The SCH is manufactured in 130 nm and simply too power hungry and too large to be used in small mobile devices such as smartphones.

Moorestown is expected to become Intel’s second serious attempt to make an impact in the cellphone market – the first was the Xscale processor, a technology which was acquired by Marvell in 2006. However, this time, the CPU seems to be much more focused and could turn into an interesting competitor to ARM processors.

Microsoft Windows Vista Update

Microsoft has released an almost final version of Vista Service Pack 2 to its testing community.

The release candidate of Vista SP2 is not yet publicly available, but judging by past releases you may not have to wait too long before the official update ships.

Microsoft released the beta version of SP2 to its testing community in late October, and made SP2 beta publicly available in early December. Then the update seemed to suffer some setbacks when, in late January, reports surfaced that Microsoft wouldn’t be coming out with a release candidate of SP2 until at least March. A week later, however, Redmond surprised the tech world by releasing the updated service pack to a select group of testers. Now Microsoft’s significantly larger testing pool reportedly has the near-final version of SP2. Judging by the timeline from SP2 beta, a final version could be ready to go within in the next 4 to 6 weeks; however, the Malaysian blog TechARP, which has been right about Microsoft timetables before, believes Vista SP2 will start shipping around April or May of this year.

Vista SP2 is largely about improving performance, and in addition to the contents of Vista SP1, the new update includes 691 hotfixes, significant performance improvements and a Service Pack clean up tool that will recover some hard disk space used by previous Vista updates.

Printer runs on coffee ground

It appears that not only is coffee good to the last drop, but the dregs are now good for printing a document. Yes, someone has actually invented a printer that uses old coffee grounds as ink, and to make it even more interesting, the printer does not even require electricity. 

This coffee and manually powered printer was not entirely the product of pure inspiration, but it is an entry in the Greener Gadgets competition. The RITI printer is designed by Joen Hwan Ju, and it has generated a lot of buzz on the gadget blogosphere. In fact, I’m surprised that someone on this blog hasn’t covered this already. 

In case you haven’t heard how the RITI printer works, you have to place the remnants of your wet and dirty coffee filter inside an ink cartridge with some water. Then you manually move the cartridge back and forth and it will mark up the paper. The cartridge can be easily emptied by throwing the twice-used grounds into a compost bin.