Thursday, June 9, 2011

MIT: built-in motion sensors in devices improve wireless data rates

Today’s wireless communication networks consist of huge numbers of scattered transmitters with limited range.  While this “mesh” of WiFi and cellular technology makes for good coverage, these networks occasionally fall short of providing seamless roaming and successful handoffs.


This happens for a variety of reasons, including protocol errors, congestion, and interference.  Still, when you drop a cell-phone call in a moving car or lose a WiFi connection while walking from one conference room to another, you don’t offer much empathy for the network.


Recognizing the poor quality of experience, Researchers at MIT have developed a set of new communications protocols that use information about a portable device’s movement to improve handoffs.  Newer phones sport built-in motion sensors, such as GPS receivers, accelerometers and, increasingly, gyros, all of which provide information about the devices’ trajectory and velocity.


In experiments on MIT’s campus-wide Wi-Fi network, the researchers discovered that their protocols could often, for users moving around, improve network throughput (the amount of information that devices could send and receive in a given period) by about 50 percent.


The researchers — all from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory — used motion detection to improve four distinct communications protocols:


Protocol 1- Governs the smart phones selection of the nearest transmitter


“Let’s say you get off at the train station and start walking toward your office,” Professor Hari Balakrishnan says in an MIT news release. “What happens today is that your phone immediately connects to the WiFi access point with the strongest signal. But by the time it’s finished doing that, you’ve walked on, so the best access point has changed. And that keeps happening.”


By contrast, Balakrishnan explains, the new protocol selects an access point on the basis of the user’s inferred trajectory. “We connect you off the bat to an access point that has this trade-off between how long you’re likely to be connected to it and the throughput you’re going to get,” he says.


In their experiments, the MIT researchers found that, with one version of their protocol, a moving cell phone would have to switch transmitters 40 percent less frequently than it would with existing protocols. A variation of the protocol improved throughput by about 30 percent.


Protocol 2 - Governs a phone’s selection of bit rate


When a device is in motion, the available bandwidth is constantly fluctuating, so selecting a bit rate becomes more difficult. Because a device using the MIT protocol knows when it’s in motion, it also knows when to be more careful in choosing a bit rate. In the researchers’ experiments, the gains in throughput from bit rate selection varied between 20 percent and 70 percent but consistently hovered around 50 percent.


Protocol 3 - Governs the behavior of the wireless base stations


Ordinarily, a base station knows that a device has broken contact only after a long enough silence. In the meantime, the base station might try to send the same data to the device over and over, waiting forlornly for acknowledgment and wasting time and power. But with information about the device’s trajectory, the base station can make an educated guess about when it will lose contact.


Protocol 4 - Uses motion data to determine routing procedures for networks of wirelessly connected cars


A little out of left field, but the team is also involved with MIT’s CarTel project, which seeks to use information technology to make driving safer and more efficient. The relative position of cars are constantly changing, so this protocol could help in the dissemination of information about traffic and road conditions.


The team demonstrated their work recently at the Eighth Usenix Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation.


Source: MIT News


Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.


View the original article here

Friday, June 3, 2011

Lenovo bids for majority stake in German PC maker Medion

IDG News Service - Lenovo is hoping to acquire a majority stake in German PC maker Medion Electronics, in an effort to grow its consumer market share in Western Europe, the Chinese company said on Wednesday.

The acquisition would help Lenovo grow its consumer PC market share in Western Europe, and the German market specifically, the company said in a statement.

Lenovo has been trying to break into the consumer space in Europe, but has had little success, according to Eszter Morvay, research manager for IDC's European Personal Computing group.

Medion, the last pan-European PC maker, sells over 60% of its PCs in Germany, but has also made a mark in countries such as Austria and Belgium, according to Morvay.

During the first three months of 2011, Medion had a 4% share of the consumer market in Western Europe, compared to only 0.5% for Lenovo, Morvay said.

Lenovo is offering €13 ($18.70) in cash per Medion share, a 29% premium over the average closing price for the previous 30 days.

The offer values Medion at €629.4 million. The deal will only go ahead if the holders of at least 15% of publicly traded Medion shares accept. That would be sufficient to give Lenovo a majority stake in the company, as Medion founder and CEO Gerd Brachmann has already agreed to sell two-thirds of his 60% stake in the company to Lenovo for €13 per share, 80% of it in cash and 20% in Lenovo shares.

This isn't the first time Lenovo has tried to buy a European PC maker: A few years ago, it also made a play for Packard-Bell, but lost out to Acer.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2010 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

View the original article here

New hybrid plant machinery cuts fuel consumption in half

Heavy duty non-road mobile machines used in construction, mining and agriculture are operated for long periods of time resulting in high fuel consumption and emissions. So why not use similar technology that has proven successful in hybrid cars to improve efficiency? That’s exactly what researchers at Aalto University in Finland have done. They’ve created hybrid machines with both combustion and electric engines that cut the amount of fuel consumed by half.


 


The new technology captures energy, which up to now has been lost by the machinery when working, and uses it instead of fuel. Unlike hybrid cars, which only capture energy from wheels during coasting and breaking, the electric power transmission system integrated into the machines creates most of the extra energy during work tasks.


The researchers plan to analyze the work cycles of different types of machinery to determine work tasks allow energy to be captured, such as deceleration and lowering a load.


The hybrid work machines enable short-term energy storage, making it possible to store energy for use during a peak in power demand. Other benefits include better control, operator comfort, efficiency and lower operating costs.


With electric power transmission, the machines may even be connected to normal wall sockets, and according to Professor Jussi Suomela, who is in charge of the project at Aalto University’s HybLab research network, they could eventually be outfitted with fuel cells.


Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.


View the original article here

We're Doomed to Insecurity In the Cloud and On Thin Clients

Working in the IT security field, you spend every waking hour stvriving to improve protection and lower risk. Then another computing technology emerges -- the Internet, wireless networking, mobile computing, social networking, and so on -- and you have to learn every security lesson all over, as if something new and surprising has come along.
In the past few weeks, we've seen authentication token leaks from Facebook; a rise in mobile malware; major networks running without a firewall and with unpatched major software; and an array of security appliance vulnerabilities. Secunia, which doesn't track every software product, is still publishing 250 to 350 vulnerabilities announcements per week. Some of the exploited technologies may be relatively new, but in terms of security, it's really more of the same.
[ Master your security with InfoWorld's interactive Security iGuide. | Stay up to date on the latest security developments with InfoWorld's Security Central newsletter. | Get a dose of daily computer security news by following Roger Grimes on Twitter. ]
Now some people think cloud computing and thin clients will decrease security risks and usher in an age of fewer exploits. I'm not so hopeful.
Thin clients have the potential to be less exploitable, simply because they have fewer lines of code, which should in turn mean fewer bugs, fewer security vulnerabilities, and less attack surface. However, thin clients rely on browsers to do the heavy lifting -- and browsers are the most exploitable pieces of software ever created.
Many readers might still think that Microsoft (my full-time employer) has the most vulnerable browser on the market in Internet Explorer. Surprise, surprise -- every major vendor that has tried to make a significantly less vulnerable browser has failed. Chrome, Firefox, and Safari have vulnerabilities numbering in the hundreds -- far more than Internet Explorer in the same time periods. It turns out making a truly secure browser is harder than it looks.
Further, the forthcoming thin client OSes use these same browsers to do most of the end-user work. How can we expect an entire OS platform to be more secure if the major single application they rely on has hundreds of bugs?
One good argument could be that these forthcoming client computers will have less functionality. They won't allow users to save files (or even states) locally. If the end-user can't save to their machines, it's going to be a lot tougher for malware writers and hackers to manipulate those computers, right? Probably not.
First, just as users aren't supposed to care where their data or profiles are located, malware writers won't care either. Wherever you are allowed to write data, the bad guy will follow. It's merely a change in locale, and as bank robbers break into banks because that's where the money is, the same principle applies here.
Second, I'm already hearing hedges. For example, end-users are asking how they will be able to work on their data files when they aren't connected to the Internet or the vendor cloud. The thin client vendors are replying that the users can work with a locally cached copy while offline. Get that? Users can't save files to their computer, but their computer will save cached copies locally. What's the difference between that computing model and the current PC model? Not much.
View the original article here

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Intel moves top executive to lead China unit

IDG News Service - Intel is bringing one of its top executives to China, in a move that is meant to bolster the company's strategy in a country set to become the world's largest PC market.

The chip maker is naming Sean Maloney to become chairman of Intel China, an entirely new position.

Maloney is currently an executive vice president and general manager for the company's Intel Architecture Group, which builds products and services for computing devices like PCs, data centers and handheld devices. He will continue as executive vice president after moving to the new position.

Maloney will start in the position some time this summer, according to Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.

"He will be implementing Intel's strategy for long-term success in China. But he won't be focusing on day-to-day stuff," Mulloy added. "He will be our highest ranking person in China."

Intel is adding the new position even as China's importance as a PC market is expected to increase. PC unit shipments in China are expected to surpass shipments in the U.S. in 2012, according to research firm IDC. By 2013, PC sales by value in China will also exceed that of the U.S.

The move will not change the company's management in China, but add a new layer above the existing business structure, Mulloy added. The company's Ian Yang will still serve in the same capacity as president of Intel China.

Maloney is seen as a potential candidate to eventually replace current Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Maloney's role in China will last two to three years, according to Mulloy.

Maloney worked in the country before during the 1990s, when he managed sales and marketing for all of Asia, including China. He joined Intel in 1982. He suffered a stroke last year, that resulted in a medical leave of absence that lasted for several months.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2010 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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What Does Sony Owe Consumers After PSN Nightmare?

What responsibility does Sony have to the 77 million Playstation Network customers who found out this week - days after the fact - that their personal data, online account info and credit card information were stolen by identity thieves?
"When I see something like this, I want to scream," says Florida identity theft expert Denise Richardson. "It's like a goldmine of information."
Companies in Sony's position typically respond by offering affected users a year of free credit monitoring--something any consumer in the U.S. is entitled to already. "To me, that's nothing," Richardson says. "Thieves are sitting back laughing at that."
Sophisticated data thieves have moved beyond stolen credit cards and use personal info like birthdates and home addresses to open bank accounts, obtain medical services or collect other people's unemployment checks. The fact that many of Sony's 77 million compromised accounts likely include teenagers and young adults makes it worse, she says, because they may not know their data was compromised for years, compounding Sony's potential liability.
"What happens next depends on how much damage comes from it," Richardson predicts. "It's going to cost Sony billions, is my guess."
Sadly, it falls to individuals to cancel credit cards, change passwords and watch their email and other communications carefully, and perhaps think twice about typing in reams of personal info on each website that asks for it. If you're looking for help try our PSN Hack Survival guide.

Sony says the data thieves may have collected credit card numbers and expiration dates along with users' names, physical and email addresses, PSN online handle and password, birthdate and purchase history, and password hints.
So yeah, they know your mom's maiden name, favorite musician and what elementary school you attended. And they know your password, so if you're the kind of person who uses the same passwords over and over, you might be in for a series of unpleasant surprises over the coming months.
But no worries, the consumer electronics giant said today--the three-digit security code found on the back of your credit card was NOT included in the breach!
"That," said computer law expert Mike Godwin, "is like the weakest defense ever."

Mike GodwinAdding a second 3-digit code to a 16-digit credit card number is "relying on security practices that are a couple of decades old," said Godwin, who was the first staff counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Assuming that is enough to wave off info thieves is symptomatic of a larger issue: "The entire system is broken."
Sony will have to admit that it violated its customers' trust and "start from the ground up," Godwin said. "They have to revamp their entire privacy system and not just paper over their mistake."
In the wake of the breach, Sony is facing multiple legal and regulatory challenges. Godwin adds, "A hugely comprehensive government action would actually help," although Sony's worldwide customer base complicates the possibility that regulatory action could do any good.
View the original article here