HP Lawsuit: Hackers can set HP printers on fire and steal data.

Hewlett Packard is being sued by the State of California for selling laser printers with known security vulnerabilities.  The vulnerability allows hackers to reprogram HP printers without detection using their wired or wireless connection to the Internet.  The lawsuit claims that,

“Once the HP printers’ software is maliciously reprogrammed, the HP printers can be remotely controlled by computer hackers over the Internet, who can then steal personal information, attack otherwise secure networks, and even cause physical damage to the HP printers, themselves.” – CNET News

Courtesy MSNBC and Columbia University.

HP denies these claims, however, researchers at Columbia University have published a report detailing the security vulnerability.  Instead of  a “blue screen of death” on their computer, HP Laser printer owners will see the series of messages on their laser printer screen shown on the right.  Once compromised, the printer can be controlled remotely through the Internet. Hackers can collect sensitive personal information from the printer and even cause the fuser in the printer to overheat and catch fire.

Printer security is a relatively new issue for IT.  Enterprises spend considerable time and money on firewalls and protecting endpoint computers, little is done to protect the increasingly sophisticated peripherals attached to the computer.  Many of today’s consumer grade printers use web servers that serve printer status information with users and in some cases, with the printer manufacturer.   Many end users are unaware of  their printer’s web server and fail to change the default password on their printer, thus allowing anyone on the network to manipulate their printer settings.  Printer security will soon become an issue for many consumers as an increasing number of retail printers become equipped with wireless (WiFi) printing capability.   This will open even more printers and networks to attack from hackers.

See more on this story in this video,

NVidia: Game consoles will perform 10 Teraflops in 100 Watt device

According to ComputerWorld, NVidia projects that gaming consoles will have the power of the Red Storm super computer by 2019 by engaging thousands of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) cores.  That’s right GPU cores, not central processing units (CPU) cores.  Consumers are becoming more aware of what processor or CPU is inside of their computers and smartphones (e.g., Intel or AMD, SnapDragon, A5, etc.).  However, computer enthusiasts and gamers have known for the last 20+ years that high performance graphics are best handled by the GPU on their graphics accelerator card.

In 1999, computer scientists began programming GPU cards in order to increase the computational throughput of their software applications.  Interest in this approach to computing grew and led to the development of development of the CUDA processing architecture by NVidia in 2006.  CUDA facilitates GPU computing by allowing programmers to use conventional computer languages (e.g., C/C++, Java,  or Python) to leverage a GPU computing architecture where the CPU manages sequential tasks while the GPU handles tasks that can be performed in parallel.  Computationally intense tasks such as video encoding/decoding, 3D rendering, real-time physics, and artificial intelligence can all be accelerated by a GPU.  CUDA broadens accessibility and application of the GPU computing architecture.

GPU cores are less complex than CPU cores.  Hundreds even thousands of GPU cores can be placed on a GPU.  Common enthusiast grade video cards such as the GeForce 440 has 96 GPU cores, the GeForce 590GTX has two GPUs with 512 cores each.  GPU computing will continue to find more application in the gaming and simulation industry due to continuing increases in the programmability of GPUs and the number of GPU cores that can fit on a chip.

In GPU computing, hundreds, even thousands of GPU cores can be used to perform computations in parallel when used in tandem with a CPU. Courtesy NVidia Corporation.

The world’s most powerful supercomputers are based on the above design.  However, supercomputers require mega-watts of power.  NVidia’s prediction that it can bring deca-teraflop computation to a 100 Watt gaming console is not too far fetched.  Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel and father of the now famous Moore’s Law, says that his 1965 prediction that the density of transistors on a chip will double every 18 months will come to an end in 2021.

The SRP bottom line: If true, 2019 game consoles will be a thousand times faster than the PS3 and we may be playing games of the visual quality of a Blu-Ray movie with computer generated characters smart enough to make us think they are human.

The guys from Mythbusters (Discovery Channel) explains the difference  between CPU and GPU processing in this fun video.  Enjoy.

Creative Personal Communication Devices

The 'muttering hat' by Kate Hartman

What kind of device would you use to relate to a glacier?  How would design a device to listen to your thoughts?  Artist Kate Hartman has some ideas.  Hartman combines art, psychology, and electronics to help people to relate to their environments in new and different ways.  She calls her creations, personal communications devices, and they are getting a a lot of attention.  Her personal communication devices have appeared at the Talk To Me exhibit of The Musuem of Modern Art.   Hartman recently presented some of her latest devices in a funny and creative talk at TED 2011. Enjoy.

The Lifesaver Bottle

Lifesaver Bottle in Pakistan Earthquake Relief

The human body can go weeks without food.  Less than four days without water.  Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and war can suddenly cut off access to clean water.  Engineer Micheal Pritchard has a solution.  In this presentation, Pritchard demonstrates the “Lifesaver Bottle”, a water sterilization solution that works with no power and can provide clean water for a family of four for three years.  This is far beyond your Brita filter.  Pritchard’s filtering method removes the smallest of viruses from contaminated water.  The LifeSaver Bottle is able to provide clean drinkable water from sources that would normally make one sick and is now being used in disaster relief around the world.  To learn more go to www.lifesaversystems.com.

Hallucinations Reveal Key Brain Processes

Functional MRI of the human head.

Author and Neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks is professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center. He explores paradoxes that reveal the inner workings of the human brain. In this fascinating video from TED 2009, he shares his experience with blind people who see things and the deaf who hear things. The study of these hallucinations are providing deep insight into how the human brain adapts to the loss of one or more senses. Dr. Sacks research has inspired several movies, documentaries, and his latest book, The Mind’s Eye. 

“The iPad is Dead! Long Live the iPad!”

The Apple iPad

No other electronic device has ever been more rapidly adopted worldwide than the iPad.  According to analysts, more than 4.5 million iPads per quarter have been sold since its introduction by Apple, hurting notebook computer and flat screen TV sales in 2010.  The allure of the iPad is its compact size, its potential to improve productivity, and the fact it is probably a 9.0 on the geek Richter scale of cool.

However, whenever you are first to capture the imagination of a culture with a new gadget like the iPad, you know there will be competitors.  At the time of the writing this post, the Samsung Tab (based on the Android operating system) is gaining traction as an alternative to the iPad, but that is not the reason for the title of this post.

One of the drawbacks of smartphones and the devices like the iPad is that they do not allow visual multitasking.  Users are constrained to consume information, one line or one page at a time.  Microsoft is trying to address this issue with its new series of Window 7 phones.  However, due to the small form factor and user interface constraints, you can only see and work effectively on one or two things at once.   Personal readers like the Kindle leverage the small form factor to help users focus on reading.

Get in “The Kno”

The Kno Textbook Tablet

So what is next?  Imagine two iPads joined together by a hinge to look like a composition notebook but much better.  With this device you can watch lectures, read a textbook or newspaper article, take hand written notes and highlight the text all at once.  Sounds like a dream?  Well, the dream is now a reality — meet “The Kno”.

The Kno is the a new kid on the block that might just have a shot at snatching the educational market from the iPad.

We all know someone for whom no matter how cool these personal mobile devices get, they will always want “the feel of a book.”  Well now, there are no more excuses.  Check out this video.

The Linux based Kno “tablet textbook” can surf the web, download all textbooks for an entire semester, and can run Windows apps via the cloud.  The Kno is being marketed to high school and college students throughout the country.  The single tablet Kno starts at $599.  The double screen Kno tablet notebook is $899.  It is important to note that the 64Gb iPad 3G is $829.

Is the iPad dead?  Maybe not.  The Kno will undoubtedly get more refinements such as a slimmer profile and lighter weight if this first run is successful.  In an age where “the laptop is becoming the new desktop,” all Apple has to do to is to find a way to seamlessly join two letter sized LCD touch screens together in a cost effective way to compete with this exciting innovation for education.

What do you think?

Organ Printing Uses Cells as “Toner” to Form New Organs Without STEM Cells

Organovo's 3D Organ Printing Device (Popular Science, Dec. 2009)

Today, if you need an organ transplant such as a kidney, liver, heart or tissues such as the pancreas, you would be placed on a donor waiting list to obtain a donor organ.  Although there have been great improvements since the first organ transplants in the 1950s, the complications of organ rejection, infection, and immune deficiency still exist.  Unfortunately, according the Journal of American College of Cardiology, death rates are significantly increased for candidates who wait long periods of time for donor organs.  According to Dr. Anthony Atala, Director of the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine, “Every 30 seconds a patient dies from a disease that could be treated with tissue replacement”.  Organ transplant challenges have motivated researchers to explore the controversial use of (adult and embryonic) STEM cells and human cloning.  Even Hollywood has taken up the issue in the movies such as The Island.

New research in the field of Tissue Engineering is promising to make organ transplants quicker and safer (and in some cases) without using STEM cells in the near future.  This research is seeking methods to develop new technology that is capable of building new organs using the cells from your own body.  The approach is to take healthy cells from your existing organ, replicate them, and organize them into structures to form and grow functional tissues to repair or even replace a failing organ.  A method to achieve this goal, known as “organ printing”, has been recently commercialized by regenerative medicine company, Organovo.  Organovo was featured in a recent issue of Popular Science Magazine for their recent advances in this field.

Tissue Engineering researchers, such as Dr. Anthony Atala,  see methods like organ printing as a means of boosting the (limited) regenerative capabilities of the human body in order to repair or regrow human organs and tissues without STEM cells.  Activists used organ printing research to oppose legislation to fund human (embryonic) STEM research.  However, some organs and tissues still need STEM cells in order to produce new organs.   In Dr. Atala’s fascinating presentation at TEDMED in 2009 he discusses and demonstrates how science is extending the human body’s capability to regenerate tissues and organs using chemistry, physics, and yes a printer whose “toner” is made of human cells.

His presentation is embedded here for your convenience.  Enjoy.

The Spirit Realm Project is non-profit technology outreach that is passionate about new technologies and the seeks to make the understanding the latest technology accessible to a broader community.

© 2010 The Digital Thought Foundation.  All Rights Reserved.

New Facebook Address for the SRP

The Spirit Realm Project (SRP) has a new Facebook address!

http://www.facebook.com/thespiritrealmproject

Please join us by clicking  “Like”  at the top of our Facebook page.

In The Spirit Realm: Game Awareness 101

On behalf of the Spirit Realm Project, I would like to thank everyone who took part in our Video Game Give Back Drive by donating their unwanted games and game consoles to benefit our effort.   The Drive was a success on many fronts.

In addition to receiving hundreds of games, we were blessed to meet dozens of video game enthusiasts of all ages as well as (grand-) parents, guardians, aunts, and uncles who buy games for family members. I am especially grateful to those who were moved to donate games they realized they shouldn’t play anymore.  Their honesty prompted this article which recounts a specific conversation with a parent.  Names have been withheld and relationships changed to preserve anonymity.

A parent came to our table with an arm full of game equipment to donate.  In the bundle, she had a CD case of games from her 7 year old grandson who got the games from her teenage nephew.  I opened the case and was surprised to find that all of the games were rated “M” by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB).   I explained the situation to her and shared some important facts about M-Rated games.

1.   M-Rated games are for “mature” audiences 17 years old and older.
2.  M-Rated games are the most sophisticated, popular, and highest rated games in the industry.
3.  They are the most lucrative games, averaging 5x more revenue per title than Teen or Everyone games.
4.  These games can have content that exceed an R rated movie, equivalent to an NC-17 (X –rated) film.
5.  Despite efforts enforcement efforts by retailers, underage youth still acquire M-rated titles.

For example, the notorious Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA4) video game by Rockstar Games sold 6 million copies in its first weekend worldwide last year, and has in addition to strong language, prostitution and strip club scenes, full frontal female and male nudity (typically NC-17 content).  The gaming experience can be more intense since, unlike a movie, the player can control the action and game playing time is frequently open ended. Although some of the explicit scenes are optional, the temptation of the players’ curiosity is strong.  Episodes in the GTA series (e.g., The Ballad of Gay Tony, The Lost and the Damned)  include violence, substance abuse, gang wars, and  shock value.

I had her complete attention at this point. She was surprised that I mentioned GTA because her grandson loves cars and said she was going to buy GTA for him at Christmas because her grandson said, “It was about cars.” This scenario plays out in an alternate ending everyday with thousands of well meaning Christian parents and guardians everywhere.  The purpose of this article is not to condemn anyone; instead we seek to equip parents, guardians, (and gamers) with an awareness of game content.

The rating of a game is only a flag for further investigation.  Just as there are some movies you do not want (your children) to see, there are games that you may not want (them) to play.   Some say, “It’s just a game, I can tell the difference.”   When we play games, our palms may sweat, our hearts may race, and we may even get scared or excited and shout out loud even though it is not real; that is the part of you that can’t tell the difference. It is the part of you that is being entertained.   Question: What do you want to feed that part of you?

It is important to note at this point that all video games are not bad; they can be very entertaining and/or educational.    They can take us to imaginary places to experience new worlds and characters or develop new perspectives.   But like a movie, we have to check the reviews (www.whattheyplay.com), and ask yourself the question, “Do I want (them) to experience that?”   Let the Spirit answer that question.   For us here at the Spirit Realm Project, “Just because it says ‘adult’ or ‘mature’ doesn’t mean it is fit for human consumption.”  Apostle Paul would agree, “…all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not (1 Cor 10:23b KJV).”

The Spirit Realm Project is now on FACEBOOK

The SRP is now on Facebook! Visit our page and please let us know if you “Like” what we’re doing by clicking the “Like” button at the top of that page! An event page for the “Zero to Website” technology seminar has also been posted on Facebook.

Direct link for the SRP’s Official Facebook Page–> Click or to paste into browser:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Spirit-Realm-Project/119575588062634

Coming May 22, 2010 — “Zero to Website… In 3 Hours”

Always wanted a personal website? or want to get a website for your business?  If you can type (just a little) and use a mouse,  then you may be ready to go from Zero To Website… In 3 Hours™

On Saturday, May 22, 2010, The Spirit Realm Project in partnership with the Mount Pleasant Community Development Corporation, is pleased to present Zero To™ Website In 3 Hours,  the exciting new installment to the SRP’s  Zero To… Success™ Technology Workshop Series for small business and the adult workforce.   The donation for this event is $99 which includes workshop materials, basic website design instruction,  1 year website domain name registration, and a start-up hosting plan.  Don’t have the hundreds or thousands of dollars to hire your own web designer, don’t worry, on-site at the event you will have access to  IT and artistic professionals included as part of your registration! 

Click the link below for the Registration Form and the Pre-event Checklist: https://thespiritrealmproject.wordpress.com/zero-to-website/

Event Agenda

8:30 – Registration

8:45 – Opening session and Introduction.

9:30 – Design Breakout Begins

12:30 – Your website… Online!

Welcome to the Spirit Realm Project

Thank you for visiting The Spirit Realm Project’s “Updates” page.  This page will be updated with regular announcements of our events and projects.

Last year, we had successful business meetings, media give-back campaigns, family-fun entertainment, and networking events. New projects for 2010 and beyond will be announced here. The flier below shows an example of one of our past events. We invite you to participate in the Spirit Realm Project!