American carrier-based drone made its first flight

American carrier-based drone X-47B, designed by Northrop Grumman, made its maiden test flight, according to Agence France-Presse in the Sunday, Feb. 6, with reference to the command of the U.S. Navy - the customer's aircraft.

X-47B, the report says the U.S. Navy, first flew on Air Force Base Edwards, California on February 4 at around 14:00 local time. The first flight lasted 29 minutes, a new carrier-based drone rose to a height of 5,000 feet (about 1.5 kilometers) from the landing gear. The tests were successful, maneuvers performed X-47B during the first flight,

The company Northrop Grumman has been developing X-47B in 2007, winning a contract for 636 million dollars from the U.S. Navy. Originally it was assumed that the first flight of X-47B will be

SAN FRANCISCO, Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday announced that it is adding its own operating software to personal computers to augment the capabilities of Microsoft's Windows.

HP executives said webOS software from freshly-acquired Palm would complement Windows in machines designed to synch with the computer giant's smart phones, printers and a new TouchPad tablet computer built on the platform.
“It indicates, at least somewhat, a HP rejection of Microsoft,” said Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg.
“The fact that they said webOS is coming to PCs (personal computers) is indicative that there is something they are not getting from Microsoft right now.”
HP bought Palm last year in a US$1.2-billion deal evidently driven by a desire to get its hands on Palm's webOS software platform.

European Stocks Slide; Nokia, L’Oreal Decline, Michelin Gains

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks dropped, erasing their gain for the week, as Nokia Oyj slumped and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to step down immediately. U.S. index futures and Asian shares slid.

Nokia tumbled 8.2 percent after announcing that it will form a software partnership with Microsoft Corp. L’Oreal SA sank 5.2 percent after the world’s largest cosmetics maker reported profit that failed to beat analysts’ estimates. Michelin & Cie. climbed 1.3 percent as the world’s second-largest tiremaker announced that full-year profit exceeded analysts’ projections.

OECD: Hi-tech cyber-attacks may have “catastrophic” global implications

According to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), co-ordinated hi-tech attacks on critical computer systems have the potential to rake a perfect storm with "catastrophic" global implications.
The report, which largely dealt with the incidents that can create global disruption in the cyber arena, said that a multiple cyber-attacks, one after the other, may end up becoming "a full-scale global shock," similar to a pandemic or financial instability in the world.
Suggesting emergency plans for recovering affected computer systems and cyber-security policies pertaining to the needs of all citizens and not just central government facilities, the report said that the cyber-attacks generally cause problems that are localised and short-lived.
Noting that "What should concern policy-makers are combinations of events - two different cyber-events occurring at the same time, or a cyber-event taking place during some other form of disaster or attack. In that eventuality,

Deutsche Bank “overwhelmingly positive” on iPhone trial

A recently-released Deutsche Bank Equity Research report has revealed that the company's two-month trial of the Apple iPhone - using Good Technology's secure email app - was an "overwhelming positive" experience, despite a few minor hiccups.
Talking about the highly satisfactory trial of the iPhone, Deutsche Bank's research analyst Chris Whitmore said in a telephonic statement: "You're seeing consumers, or employees, bring their iPhones in to IT managers and `say make this work'."
The statement implicitly underscores a scenario in which a slew of small security software developers are helping the iPhone gain traction within businesses - a market that is typically considered the exclusive domain of Research In Motion's BlackBerry.

Zuckerberg’s Facebook page hacked; two new security measures announced

In a high-profile breach on the Facebook site, the fan page of Mark Zuckerberg – the founder of the popular social networking site – was hacked on Tuesday. Zuckerberg’s fan page breach came close on the heels of the Sunday hack French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wall, with a hacker posting a message that the president will not run for re-election.
The message on Zuckerberg’s page said: “Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn't Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a 'social business' the way Nobel Price winner Muhammad Yunus described it?http://bit.ly/fs6rT3 What do you think? #hackercup2011?”
Facebook, which has often been scrutinized about its handling of the private data information of its over 600 million users, soon removed the message from Zuckerberg’s page; though not it had received over 1,800 “likes.”

Repeated Hacking Attempts Alarm NASDAQ Authorities

A number of attempts were made to hack the computer networks of Nasdaq Stock Market during last year. Federal investigators are still trying to identify the persons responsible for this offence and they are still not sure about their purpose behind doing this.
Though it was a relief that the main trading platform was not compromised in any way but the situation is still doubtful about which other parts of Nasdaq's computer network were accessed.
Investigators are anticipating different possible motives and intentions behind it but it cannot be anything other than unlawful financial gain, theft of trade secrets and a national-security threat designed to damage the exchange.
This incident came out alarming the officials as it plays an important role including power companies and air-traffic-control operations. The authorities are not taking it lightly because they can well remember the case in which hackers planted potentially disruptive software programs in the U. S. electrical grid.

UK government computers hit by Zeus information-stealing Trojan

During his Friday speech at the 47th Munich Security Conference, the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted that the UK government computers were infected the Zeus information-stealing Trojan in December 2010.
Acknowledging that a Zeus variant had successfully infected UK government computers in December, Hague further elaborated that the government was targeted with bogus emails that apparently originated from the White House. The emails supposedly featured a link which downloaded the malware.
Hague told the conference attendees: “The UK Government was targeted in this attack and a large number of emails bypassed some of our filters. Our experts were able to clear up the infection, but more sophisticated attacks such as these are becoming more common.”
Hague also disclosed that the UK government had also suffered two attacks lately – while one attempted to steal information about the UK’s nuclear Trident programme; the other came from a unreal Foreign Office employee who happened to be a hostile state intelligence agency.

ENPA’s arguments against Apple’s new in-app subscription system

Close on the heels of its last-week announcement, disallowing Sony from selling content via its Sony Reader Store app on the iPad, Apple is now sparring with publications, by looking to confine consumers as well as publications to one single purchasing site - the iTunes store.


While the move clearly reflects Apple’s attempts to benefit from consumer information and commission for periodical sales, the European Newspaper Publishers' Association (ENPA) has expressed the opinion that subscriptions should largely be left to the publishers, not the platform providers.


Appreciating the iPad for the platform it provides, ENPA – which represents 5,200 newspapers in the European Union – has voiced its concern over what it considers is a restraining condition inherent in Apple’s new in-app subscription system in its iOS 4.3 beta.

LG to unveil first full 3D smartphone

MADRID: The world's very first 3D smartphone will be unveiled by LG at Mobile World Congress (MWC) to be held on February 14 in Barcelona.

There will a live demo of LG’s 3D smartphone.

The LG Optimus 3D is aimed at addressing the lack of such a smartphone and the lack of 3D content issue.

Users will experience a full 3D experience right in the palm of their hands.

Concentrating on the 3D elements only the smartphone comes with a dual-lens camera offering 3D recording, the screen is a glasses-free LCD offering 3D viewing, HDMI and DNLA for 3D content sharing. 

LG will provide the full details for the LG Optimus 3D at MWC, meanwhile you can look at whats known to-date here.
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Construction begins on Bloodhound supercar

Construction work formally begins this week on what is expected to be the world's fastest car.

Called Bloodhound, the vehicle has been designed to reach 1,000mph (1,600km/h).

The British car will attempt to set the mark as it breaks the land speed record on a dried out lake bed in South Africa's Northern Cape late next year.

Bloodhound has been in design for the past three years. It will be powered by a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine bolted above a hybrid rocket.

The power unit combination should deliver a thrust in the order of 200 kilonewtons (47,000lb). This is not dissimilar to the thrust delivered by one of Concorde's famous Olympus 593 jet engines, except Bloodhound will weigh only about six tonnes.

"It's a fantastic feeling to be handing over the drawings to the people who will now build the car," said chief engineer Mark Chapman. "It's a 'progressive definition release' which means as soon as we finish a design, it goes out the door. The first metal parts should start coming back to our design house in Bristol by Easter," he told BBC News.

The steel-lattice rear chassis will be prepared by aerospace specialists Hampson Industries. They were officially passed the design drawings just a few days ago so that they could start work this week.

Bloodhound's front section will be prepared by Advanced Composites Group, renowned for their work on America's Cup yachts and other hi-tech vehicles that use carbon and glass fibre materials.

ACG will also construct the master models and tooling from which critical elements of the car's bodywork and structural components, such as the monocoque and nose, will be produced.

Bloodhound's Falcon rocket will be the biggest hybrid (solid fuel propellant, liquid oxidiser) booster ever produced in the UK. Such is its scale, it will need a Formula One engine supplied by the legendary Cosworth group just to pump the oxidiser through the motor.

Click to play

Click to playWing Commander Andy Green gives a tour of the Bloodhound SSC model

The car's 900mm-diameter wheels will be made from an aluminium alloy. They will have to withstand rotation in excess of 10,000 rpm while at the same time being blasted by grit thrown up by Bloodhound as it sweeps across the lake bed floor. The discs will be made from a grade chosen by Lockheed Martin following simulations that involved firing stone particles at metal plates using a high-powered gas gun.

"If necessary we'll design a fancy mud guard for down the front of the wheels just to protect them," said Mr Chapman. "That's one thing we're still looking at. We're also having one last look at the design of the rear fin before locking out the top of the car."

If it achieves 1,000mph, Bloodhound will surpass the World Land Speed Record set by the Thrust SuperSonic Car in 1997 (763mph; 1,228km/h).

Three people who worked on Thrust are also engaged in the Bloodhound project.

They are driver Wing Cdr Andy Green, project director Richard Noble and chief aerodynamicist Ron Ayres.

The trio envisaged Bloodhound not just as another record bid but as a project that could inspire children to engage in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects. Some 4,000 British schools are now involved in the Bloodhound Education Programme. Many more around the globe have access to online teaching resources via IT partner Intel Corporation's "Skoool" initiative.

Bloodhound is expected to be ready to begin "low speed" trials on a UK runway in the first half of next year before being shipped to Hakskeen Pan in the Northern Cape for high speed runs in late 2012 or 2013.

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