Maxim Bange

A 110-core chip has been developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology as it looks for power-efficient ways to boost performance in mobile devices, PCs and servers.

Motorists could go hands-free, leaving their cars' computer brains fully in charge, as early as 2020, when Nissan says it plans to have a self-driving vehicle ready for the market.

The Japanese automaker said Tuesday that its "revolutionary" self-drive technology could be ready by then, and that it is already building a synthetic cityscape of real roads and buildings for testing the vehicles.

"I am committing to be ready to introduce a new ground-breaking technology, Autonomous Drive, by 2020, and we are on track to realize it," chief executive Carlos Ghosn said Tuesday.

Nissan, which broke ground in 2010 with the introduction of its Leaf fully electric small car, said it is aiming to build a self-driving car that can be sold at "realistic prices."

"The goal is availability across the model range within two vehicle generations," the company said in a statement.

Nissan said it is already testing how to extend its Safety Shield technology, which uses a 360 degree system of cameras and sensors to help drivers park and avoid collisions.

Autonomous Drive would enhance safety and accident avoidance, and allow drivers who spend hundreds of hours commuting every year to make more productive use of their time.

It will also give the elderly and disabled much more freedom and mobility, the company said.

Nissan next year will complete the construction of a proving ground for self-driving cars in Japan.

"Featuring real townscapes -- masonry, not mock-ups -- it will be used to push vehicle testing beyond the limits possible on public roads to ensure the technology is safe," the company said.

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Great stuff here from Richard Koo of Nomura, who weighs in on the recent selling in emerging market currencies (and equities and debt).

His take: This is the price emerging markets are paying for not being more vigilant about hot money rushing into their economies after the Fed announced QE after the U.S. crisis. The emerging market, he argues, could have prevented the big rush of foreign cash through prudent measures, but that they opted not to take any pain, and now they're paying the price for going the easy route.

He concludes that we're now in for a "tumultuous new era" for emerging markets as QE gets unwound.

... the recent announcements would not have been necessary if these countries had taken advantage of these measures to restrict capital inflows from the US. They did not do so probably because restricting capital inflows is extremely unpopular. In nations attracting foreign capital, asset prices rise, people feel richer, companies are able to obtain low-cost funding, and inflation tends to be low with a stronger currency. Essentially everyone is happy but exporters, which suffer from a stronger currency. It takes a courageous policymaker to spoil that pleasant environment with capital controls, even if it is necessary for stable, longer-term economic growth. Therefore, the authorities typically preserve the status quo, in which “everyone is happy.”

 Recent turmoil in emerging economies marks opening of tumultuous new era

Taiwan’s central bank has traditionally been quick to check on and if necessary restrict capital inflows, making its governor, Perng Fai-nan, an unpopular figure at certain foreign financial institutions. But it was only because the authorities kept such inflows in check that the Taiwanese economy escaped from the 1997 Asian currency crisis largely unscathed.

The lesson for emerging economies today is that in a world in which the industrialized economies are free to engage in quantitative easing at will, local authorities need to have the courage to restrict capital inflows or stop them altogether. It should also be remembered that the recent rise in US interest rates occurred simply because Mr. Bernanke said the Fed was considering scaling back its bond purchases. If the Fed were to actually discontinue its purchases under QE3 or sell the bonds in its portfolio, the resulting increase in rates would likely be much larger. In that sense, both the US and the emerging economies that will be affected as quantitative easing is wound down need to prepare themselves for a tumultuous era.

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Een DDoS'end botnet is stukken effectiever geworden omdat het anti-DDoS-maatregelen detecteert en zich daarop aanpast.

De op GPU's draaiende kraaktool Hashcat schrapt de wachtwoordgrens van 15 tekens en gaat nu voor 55 tekens, of zelfs meer.

Windows 8.1 is nu echt officieel af, meldt Microsoft. De code wordt gedeeld met hardware-partners, én met een handjevol app-makers.

In May the United States lifted sanctions on the export of electronics and computer products to Iran, and now Apple is following suit by modifying its own policies. The Wall Street Journal reports that Cupertino will begin selling its products to customers who plan on bringing them or sending them to the country. "We've been told by the U.S. government that most Apple products are covered by regulatory changes announced by the Treasury Department," an Apple spokesperson told the Journal in a statement. "As a result, Apple is no longer banned from selling Macs and iOS devices to customers who plan to bring or send those products to Iran."

While the US has had sanctions in place for decades, the situation started to thaw in the wake of...

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Voor het beveiligen van een netwerkomgeving kan onder andere een nac-systeem worden ingezet. Hiermee kunnen, op basis van vooraf ingestelde policies, automatisch netwerkapparaten worden geblokkeerd als zich een ongewenste situatie voordoet. Denk daarbij aan onbekende netwerkapparaten van bezoekers, een worm die zich probeert te verspreiden of een geautoriseerd apparaat dat via een bootflop of live-cd van een ander besturingssysteem is voorzien. PacketFence is zo'n nac-systeem, met ondersteuning voor 802.1x en vlan isolation, waarmee een netwerkapparaat na analyse in het juiste vlan kan worden geplaatst. Voor meer informatie verwijzen we naar deze pagina en naar het 32e [In]Secure Magazine, waarin een artikel over dit pakket is terug te vinden. De ontwikkelaars hebben versie 4.0.5 uitgebracht en voorzien van de volgende aankondiging:

KRIEGSFELD - Twee Nederlanders zijn maandag om het leven gekomen door een ongeval met een ultralightvliegtuig in Duitsland. Dat meldde de Duitse politie. Het toestel werd sinds maandag 19.00 uur vermist. Een jager vond brokstukken, waarna de politie een grote zoekactie begon in het bos in de omgeving van Kriegsfeld, zo'n 80 kilometer ten zuidwesten van Frankfurt.

Syrië zegt dat de Amerikaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Kerry liegt met zijn bewering dat er onomstotelijk bewijs is voor een gifgasaanval die uitgevoerd is door het Syrische leger. Het staatspersbureau van Syrië vindt dat Kerry daarmee voorbijgaat aan het werk van de VN-inspecteurs, die de situatie ter plaatse in Damascus onderzoeken.

Kerry zei gisteren dat alles wijst op betrokkenheid van het regime in Damascus bij de gifgasaanval. Hij liet weten dat aanvullend bewijs over de chemische aanval in de komende dagen wordt gepresenteerd. President Obama beraadt zich met zijn bondgenoten op strafmaatregelen tegen Syrië.

Volgens Syrië moet eerst het werk van de inspecteurs worden afgewacht en maakt de VS misbruik van de situatie. Kerry heeft bewijs verzonnen, zegt de Syrische regering.

Samsung announced today the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids, a variant of the earlier Galaxy Tab 3 designed specifically with kids in mind. Clad in the brightest yellow you can get and surrounded by an easy-to-grip bright orange bumper, the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids is a fairly low-end device with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 pixel display; 3-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel front camera; and a dual-core processor. It runs Android 4.1, but your kids probably won't ever see that, since Samsung is including its own software layer and app store targeted at children. The Tab 3 Kids also has a Time Management mode, which lets parents set specific time limits for use on the tablet. It doesn't sound much different than the time management features available in the K...

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Microsoft is confirming today, after recent reports, that the company has completed Windows 8.1 and is releasing it to manufacturing (RTM). The finalization of the Windows 8 update means that hardware partners can now ready systems running Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 for release on October 18th. For existing Windows 8 users, the update will be made available broadly on October 18th — with most regions getting access to a digital upgrade copy on October 17th via the Windows Store.

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What do people see when you walk into a room? Hopefully they see a confident, successful business owner. But if you're not careful, your body language may be projecting a very different image.

"You are in control of [the message] you are sending out," Barbara Pachter writes in her book The Essentials Of Business Etiquette. "I believe that if you project a confident, credible, composed image, people will respond to you as if you are all those things. Who cares what you are feeling on the inside?"

The most successful businesspeople are the ones who understand exactly how to do this. The following four tips can help you alter your body language and give off a more confident vibe.

1. Maintain an assertive posture.

The key to coming off poised and confident is all in your posture. To stand confidently, keep your legs aligned with your shoulders and your feet approximately four to six inches apart. Distribute your weight equally on both legs, keep your shoulders back — but not way back — and turn your body towards others.

"This is an assertive posture," Pachter explains. "It is a posture that projects confidence, not insecurity. You are open to the person to whom you are talking. And you can stand tall, regardless of your height."

Never stand in a "submissive position" with your legs crossed, hands folded in front of you, or weight pressed down on one hip.

2. Watch your hands.

"An important part of mastering body language is knowing what your hands are saying," Pachter writes.

The last thing you want to do is offend someone by jabbing a finger in their face. Pointing can seem aggressive, but many people do it without understanding how intimidating it may be to others.

Instead, when you're explaining an idea, "point with an open palm, and keep your fingers together," she writes. "Both men and women point, but women have a tendency to do it more than men."

Placing your hands on your hips is a posture many people use, but this can actually give off an air of arrogance or impatience. If you tend to play with your hair, tap your nails on tables, or jiggle coins in your pocket when you're in front of a group, remember that behavior and try to resist it.

"You will drive others crazy if you indulge in these activities," Pachter warns. "Pen-clickers, hand-wringers, and rubber-band stretchers all reveal nervousness."

3. Don't cross your legs.

In a professional setting, crossing your legs can be distracting for others, depending on what you're wearing. For a woman, if her dress is too tight, "she projects a very sexy, too-thigh-revealing image," Pachter writes. For a man, if the hem of his pants is too short, it will be distracting when he crosses his legs and shows off bare skin.

"The bottom line, however, is health related: crossing your legs is bad for your circulation because it increases the pressure on your veins. We shouldn’t do it," she advises.

4. Pay attention to your face.

Know what your standard face looks like. This is the face that most people see when you're looking at them, listening to them, or just not talking in general. Some people's standard faces can be very stern and not communicate what they're feeling on the inside.

"There can be career consequences to having a severe standard facial expression," Pachter says. "People may avoid you, think you are mad at them, or get defensive around you. These are not good outcomes if you want to connect with people."

What can you do? Pay attention to the comments your friends and colleagues make when you're listening to them. Do they think you're upset because you've furrowed your brow in concentration? If this is the case, try to relax your muscles or smile more often when meeting new people.

In short, it's OK to be nervous when you're negotiating a deal or in a job interview, but you should learn to control your body so that this doesn't show.

SEE MORE ON OPEN FORUM:

• Why founders can make terrible CEOs >

• 4 time management tips for the chronically overworked >

• 6 ways to make a lasting impression >

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A comedian named Erik Stolhanske let Brandan Geise, a cybersecurity expert at a security firm called SecureState, go after him and try to hack his online identity, reports CBS News.

Going through a site that aggregates people's personal information, Spokeo, Geise found the comedian's Amazon account, his email address, and his house address. Using the email address, Geise found his Amazon Wish List.

Here's where the weaknesses start to show, of course – at the human level. The security expert calls up Amazon customer service (on the phone!) and adds a credit card to Stolhanske's account, which only requires his name, email address, and billing address, thanks to some loopholes and social engineering based on all the data he'd collected, is able to fully take over Stolhanske's Amazon account.

As the dominos begin to fall, Geise manages to take over Stolhanske's AOL account, Apple ID, and main email accounts. He started by calling Amazon back 30 minutes later saying he had lost his backup email address. He "confirmed" his identity with the last four digits of the credit card he just added to Stolhanske's account.

The final step was to guess an item Stolhanske had bought from Amazon recently. Geise already knew that he was a fan of Game of Thrones, so he said his wife had "recently bought a Game of Thrones book or DVD." He was allowed to change the reset the account, changing the password and email address it was associated with.

With access to more credit card info stored in the Amazon account, Geise used one card's last four digits to illegitimately verify his identity again and take over Stolhanske's AOL account, which he also found on Spokeo. The newly-compromised AOL email address was the backup email for his Apple ID, so it was a piece of cake to reset that as well. (This was also Stolhanske's main email address, so Geise now had access to his everyday email.)

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To call David Frei an "expert on dogs" would be an understatement.

He's the public face of the Westminster Kennel Club (he's hosted the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show for over 20 years), and he's also the founder of a therapy dog program called Angel on a Leash.

David Frei tells us what people need to consider when choosing the right dog, especially for people who live in a city.

<div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div>

Produced by Kamelia Angelova & Will Wei. Additional camera by Justin Gmoser

SEE ALSO: Here's Why Dogs Are So Loyal

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Sharks that 'walk' instead of swim use their pectoral and pelvic fins to push and wriggle their bodies along coral reefs.

A new species of "walking" shark, Hemiscyllium halmahera, was caught in eastern Indonesian waters and described in a study published in the aqua, International Journal of Icthyology in July 2013.

The shark is about 28 inches long. It's mostly brown in color with clusters of dark spots and scattered whites spots.

Check out its unusual method of travel in the video below, courtesy of Sci-News.com:

SEE ALSO: How To Make A 'Classic' Maine Lobster Roll

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Microsoft has started sending Windows 8.1 to its hardware manufacturers, hitting the so-called RTM milestone for the much-awaited update to Windows 8.

De start-up CoinTerra heeft 1,5 miljoen dollar bij investeerders opgehaald. Dit geld wil het bedrijf, waarin diverse veteranen uit de chipindustrie zitting hebben, gaan inzetten voor de bouw van de TerraMiner IV, een razendsnelle Bitcoin-miner op basis van asic-chiptechnologie.

Prosthetics are advancing fast: in just a few decades they've gone from rudimentary tools to high-tech limbs capable of advanced movements. Researchers are now working on ways to integrate prosthetics even more closely with the human body, but there could be one big issue on the horizon: funding. "You have a high-end product with a small market," Michael McLoughlin, a leading prosthetics researcher at Johns Hopkins University, tells Smithsonian Magazine. "You're not going to make your billions by investing in prosthetic limbs."

Even so, researchers have plenty to show up to this point. In a profile of the state of prosthetics, Smithsonian notes that one project, the Bionic Man, was able to recreate over half of the human body using...

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De Bitcoin Foundation, een brancheorganisatie voor bedrijven die actief zijn in de opkomende Bitcoin-handel, is gesprekken begonnen met Amerikaanse toezichthouders. De overheid in de VS poogt meer grip te krijgen op de cryptovaluta, maar de organisatie vreest te strenge regels.

With the U.S. darkening the doorway of direct military intervention in Syria, we thought it necessary to break down the weapon the U.S. will most likely employ in what is being described as an impending, but limited strike on Syrian military targets. 

With assets from the U.S. Navy's 5th and 6th fleets positioned off the coast of the Mediterranean, the U.S. will likely turn to a tested weapon that has been fired more than 2,000 times in combat over the last 30 years — the Tomahawk cruise missiles. 

Tomahawks come in four varieties; the Block II TLAM-A, a nuclear version; Block III TLAM-C, a conventioanal version; the Block III TLAM-D, a cluster bomb version; and the newest Block IV TLAM-E, called the Tactical Tomahawk, it can hover over it's target for hours and change directions long after it's been fired. 

Used in virtually every conflict since the Gulf War, here's everything you need to know about the Tomahawk Cruise Missile:

First, the specs:

Contractor: Raytheon Missile Systems Company, Tucson, AZ
Unit Cost: Approximately $600,000 for older Tomahawks, $1.45 million for Tactical Tomahawks.
Length: 20.3 feet 
Diameter: 21 inches 
Wingspan: 8 feet 9 inches 
Weight: 3,330 pounds
Speed: Subsonic (meaning slower than the speed of sound.)
Range: Block II TLAM-A - 1350 nautical miles
Block III TLAM-C - 900 nautical miles
Block III TLAM-D - 700 nautical miles
Block IV TLAM-E - 900 nautical miles
Warhead: Block II TLAM-N - W80 nuclear warhead
Block III TLAM-C and Block IV TLAM-E - 1,000-pound warhead
Block III TLAM-D - conventional submunitions dispenser with combined effect bomblets.

But Tomahawk missiles have been around for decades.

The first precision guided Tomahawk cruise missiles were developed nearly 40 years ago, and have been an important part of military kinetic operations ever since.

They were originally produced by General Dynamics.

Modern Tomahawks are insanely accurate.

Modern Tomahawks are designed to be able to fly through an open window at a designated time. 

From weapons developer Raytheon: "Today’s Tomahawk Block IV can circle for hours, shift course instantly on command and beam a picture of its target to controllers halfway around the world."

Even before the 2004 debut of the Block IV, Tomahawk cruise missiles boasted an impressive 85% direct hit record since the first Gulf War.

They can be fired from underwater.

Tomahawks can be fired from submerged submarines, enabling militaries to seemingly produce a long-range precision-guided missile from absolutely nowhere. A 2003 upgrade gave U.S. cruise-missile-capable submarines the ability to carry as many as 154 Tomahawks at a time. 

Check out what it looks like when a cruise missile is fired from a submarine:

They played a huge role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Coalition forces fired more than 700 cruise missiles in the first year of the war. 

And in the 2011 U.S.-led intervention in Libya.

Operation Odyssey Dawn, the international effort to enforce U.S. Security Council Resolution 1973, involved firing 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles at roughly 20 Libyan radar and anti-aircraft sites

In that operation, the U.S. used a mixture of the old Tomahawk cruise missiles, and the tactical Tomahawks, which can hover over a target, according to a Pentagon press briefing. 

"They allow us to penetrate what we would call a medium to high threat without putting air crew at risk [and] create the conditions for manned aircraft," then Vice Adm. William Gortney, director of the Joint Staff, told press in 2011. 

SEE ALSO: REPORT: Obama Is Considering A Limited Two-Day Strike On Syrian Military Targets

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Nissan heeft aangegeven dat het in 2020 zelfrijdende auto's op de markt wil hebben. Precieze plannen werden niet bekendgemaakt, maar de auto's moeten volgens de fabrikant 'betaalbaar' zijn. Google is al enige tijd bezig met dergelijke auto's.

Two kidnappers, identified only by their last names Lu and Xie, gave a hostage 500 yuan after they realized her family was poor, according to Shanghai Daily.

The duo targeted the 11-year old girl because her family owed gambling debts. 

They spent 10,000 yuan (approx. $1,634) in renting a car, buying masks and tools in preparation for the kidnapping, only to realize her parents couldn't afford the ransom.

The duo were looking to get 1 million yuan in ransom but the girl told them her parents didn't have any money. 

The kidnappers also gave the girl 500 yuan and sent her back to her family. Some reports suggest it was because they noticed a large police presence on the streets. But they were reported to have taken good care of the girl. 

Lu and Xie received four and five year sentences respectively for the kidnapping at the Jiaojiang District People’s Court, according to Shanghai Daily.  

SEE ALSO: 26 Things That China Ripped Off

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Wetenschappers zijn erin geslaagd om de hand van een persoon te laten bewegen via de hersensignalen van iemand anders. Terwijl een van de testpersonen aan een bepaalde beweging dacht, werd deze bij de ander 'uitgevoerd'.

De website van de New York Times is enkele uren onbereikbaar geweest, vermoedelijk door een aanval van hackers die zich de Syrian Electronic Army noemen. De krant probeerde aanvankelijk het probleem met een technische ingreep op te lossen, maar dat lukte niet.

De Wall Street Journal stelde uit solidariteit en uit protest zijn website open voor mensen die geen abonnement hebben en toch op de hoogte wilden blijven van het nieuws.

De Syrian Electronic Army zou ook verantwoordelijk zijn voor de aanval op 15 augustus op de site van de Washington Post en andere Amerikaanse kranten.

Het is de tweede keer binnen een maand dat de New York Times-website uit de lucht was. De eerste keer was een technisch probleem de oorzaak.

The pornographic website PornHub was kind enough to release data on the top search terms from each U.S. state to Tableau Public (via Gizmodo).

They have an outstanding visualization (link has no images but search terms may be NSFW-ish) over there, but we took the data to make this chart showing the top search term from each individual state. 

The results are a bit surprising. 

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As a celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver has garnered both praise and criticism for his reality TV-backed mission to put healthy foods on tables around the world.

The British import most recently went back home to the UK to launch a new series, "Jamie's Money Saving Meals" to give consumers tips on trimming their grocery bill.

But it's not an easy job to do, Oliver told the Huffington Post UK.

"The fascinating thing for me is that seven times out of 10, the poorest families in this country choose the most expensive way to hydrate and feed their families. The ready meals, the convenience foods," he said.

He went on to compare poor families in developed nations to those he's met on his travels to countries with excruciatingly high levels of poverty. You won't find Big Macs on a lot of their tables, he argues. 

"I meet people who say, 'You don't understand what it's like [to be poor].' I just want to hug them and teleport them to the Sicilian street cleaner who has 25 mussels, 10 cherry tomatoes, and a packet of spaghetti for 60 pence, and knocks out the most amazing pasta," he said. "You go to Italy or Spain and they eat well on not much money." 

We don't find much at issue with Oliver's overall mission here, but he seems to have missed a crucial point: Poor people in developed countries often find themselves literally surrounded by convenience foods. That's what makes them convenient. Hopping on a train or using precious gas money to get to their nearest green grocer 5 miles outside of their neighborhood isn't exactly worth saving a few bucks. 

Just visit any street in the South Bronx, one of the poorest New York City's neighborhoods where the unemployment rate has been the double digits for years. Count the number of fast food restaurants and convenience stores per block versus the number of fresh produce markets and that might explain how Easy Mac and Hamburger Helper wind up on the menu more often than Sicilian seafood pasta. 

In any case, hopefully shows like Oliver's (and plenty of other like-minded initiatives around the world) will help attack the issue from both sides: not only teaching people that they should eat healthy foods, but also dispelling the myth that they must always be the pricier option.

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Microsoft today confirmed that its next version of Windows, known as Windows 8.1, is on track to be delivered to the world on October 18.

The company has sent the operating system to hardware partners so they can finish their new devices.

But it also made a ruffled a lot of feathers with today's announcement.

Microsoft won't let third-party Windows developers or its enterprise customers get their hands on the revised OS until it's released to everyone, known in Microsoft-speak as "general availability" or "GA."

Normally, the company sends the "released to manufacturing" version to these folks a few weeks early, through its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet (enterprise) subscription services. 

By not letting these two groups get their hands on Windows 8.1 before its released to consumers, they can't test their software and make sure it won't crash, freeze, or otherwise blow up Windows.

In various blog posts today, Microsoft explained the reason: Windows 8.1 isn't completely cooked yet, so it doesn't want its software developers to use it for their tests.

Microsoft has vowed to release new versions of its software annually, instead of every three to seven years. But it clearly doesn't have the project management systems in place to work that fast.

"In the past, the release to manufacturing (RTM) milestone traditionally meant that the software was ready for broader customer use. However, it’s clear that times have changed ..." Microsoft senior vice president Antoine Leblond said in a post.

Commenters to that post were not happy. One wrote:

"We pay thousands for MSDN access so we can test our software/apps properly, early testing, before GA, is an important part of that process! We don't care about a couple of bugs in your OS, we [care] about bug[s] in our software."

Developers have had access to an earlier, even less cooked version of Windows 8.1. It has a bunch of new features, so Microsoft's decision to withhold early release to developers doesn't seem wise.

SEE ALSO: The Business App 50: The Best Apps To Help You Do Your Job

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