ScienceDaily: Internet News

New record in wireless data transmission

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:53:53 EDT

Researchers have achieved the wireless transmission of 40 Gbit/s at 240 GHz over a distance of one kilometer. Researchers say that their most recent demonstration sets a new world record and ties in seamlessly with the capacity of optical fiber transmission. In the future, such radio links will be able to close gaps in providing broadband internet by supplementing the network in rural areas and places which are difficult to access.

New software spots, isolates cyber-attacks to protect networked control systems

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:29:29 EDT

Researchers have developed a software algorithm that detects and isolates cyber-attacks on networked control systems -- which are used to coordinate transportation, power and other infrastructure across the United States.

IT industry ignores silver surfers at its peril: Design for seniors to tap market, industry urged

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:14:14 EDT

Hardware and software vendors are foolish to ignore the needs of the growing population of older computer and information technology users, the so-called "silver surfers." US researchers offer convincing evidence that from the business perspective, seniors represent a rapidly growing sector of the market with the most disposable income to spend on these companies' products.

Common myths about digital piracy busted

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:14:14 EDT

The results of a large-scale, analysis of BitTorrent file-sharing of computer games, focusing on using open methodologies, bust some of the common myths about digital piracy.

Data storage: Synchronized at the 'write time'

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:49:49 EDT

Numerical simulations show how to avoid imperfections in the next generation of high-density data storage.

New model to recommend media content according to your preferences

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:31:31 EDT

Researchers have developed a model capable to recommend audiovisual content to each user based on their own media consumption and intrinsic features of images and videos.

Benefit vs. risk of facial recognition technology

Wed, 08 May 2013 21:32:32 EDT

Law enforcement agencies are using facial recognition software as a crime-fighting tool. Now businesses are looking to use the technology to reach customers. But a professor questions whether customers are ready for it.

Internet content is looking for you

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:17:17 EDT

"Contextual search" is improving so gradually the changes often go unnoticed, and we may soon forget what the world was like without it, according to a technology expert.

Best of both worlds: Towards a quantum Internet with combined optical and electrical technique

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:18:18 EDT

Scientists have achieved a breakthrough in quantum science that brings the prospect of a network of ultra-powerful quantum computers -- connected via a quantum internet -- closer to reality. The team is the first to have detected the spin, or quantum state, of a single atom using a combined optical and electrical approach.

New simulation speed record on Sequoia Supercomputer

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:40:40 EDT

Computer scientists have set a high performance computing speed record that opens the way to the scientific exploration of complex planetary-scale systems. Scientists have announced a record-breaking simulation speed of 504 billion events per second on LLNL’s Sequoia Blue Gene/Q supercomputer, dwarfing the previous record set in 2009 of 12.2 billion events per second.

Engaging online crowds in the classroom could be important tool for teaching innovation

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:05:05 EDT

Online crowds can be an important tool for teaching the ins and outs of innovation, educators say, even when the quality of the feedback provided by online sources doesn't always match the quantity.

Visitors and residents: Students' attitudes to academic use of social media

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:49:49 EDT

Research has shown that university students behave very differently when using social media as part of their academic learning.

Sexually explicit material affects behavior in young people less than thought

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:15:15 EDT

Viewing sexually explicit material through media such as the Internet, videos, and magazines may be directly linked with the sexual behavior of adolescents and young adults, but only to a very small extent. The findings suggest that the practice is just one of many factors that may influence the sexual behaviors of young people.

Teenage password security: Risk of identity theft

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:13:13 EDT

Many of us are sharing increasing amounts of personal information through online social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. However, according to researchers, many of us are side-stepping apparently laborious security measures and putting our data at risk of being hijacked and used in identity theft and other fraud.

High-volume Bitcoin exchanges less likely to fail, but more likely breached, says study

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:11:11 EDT

Online exchanges that trade hard currency for the cyber money Bitcoin have a 45 percent chance of failing -- often taking customer money with them. A new empirical study into the closure of Bitcoin currency exchanges found that exchanges that buy and sell a high volume of Bitcoins are less likely to shut down but more likely to suffer security breaches.

Honor among (credit card) thieves?

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:12:12 EDT

A criminologist dug into the seamy underbelly of online credit card theft and uncovered a surprisingly sophisticated network of crooks that is unique in the cybercrime domain.

Security holes in smartphone apps

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:19:19 EDT

Popular texting, messaging and microblog apps developed for the Android smartphone have security flaws that could expose private information or allow forged fraudulent messages to be posted, according to researchers.

Researchers create novel optical fibers

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:16:16 EDT

Researchers have found a novel way to propagate multiple beams of light in a single strand of optical fiber. The discovery could increase the amount of information fiber optic cables can carry.

Social media can support healthiness of older people

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:48:48 EDT

The use of social media by older people can offer valuable additional support in cases of sickness and diseases, new research has shown.

Smartphone way to lose weight

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:49:49 EDT

Forget fad diets and hypnotherapy; your smartphone could be a key tool to losing those post-Easter egg pounds, according to scientists.

Tourist's trust is based on social media and the web

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:59:59 EDT

Does social media and internet based information sources such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs and many more influence our decision on where we travel to and how we share our experiences with others?

Is there a future for a privacy-friendly Internet?

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:46:46 EDT

A privacy-friendly Internet might be possible in the future according to an academic.

Texting, social networking and other media use linked to poor academic performance

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:17:17 EDT

Freshmen women spend nearly half their day -- 12 hours -- engaged in some form of media use, particularly texting, music, the Internet and social networking.

Information technology amplifies irrational group behavior

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:40:40 EDT

Web tools and social media are our key sources of information when we make decisions as citizens and consumers. But these information technologies can mislead us by magnifying social processes that distort facts and make us act contrary to our own interests. Companies such as Google and Facebook have designed algorithms that are intended to filter away irrelevant information -- known as information selection -- so that we are only served content that fits our clicking history. Researchers say this is, from a democratic perspective, a problem as you may never in your online life encounter views or arguments that contradict your worldview.

Social media: The perils and pleasures

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:18:18 EDT

Too much social media activity may damage strong relationships.

Google searches about mental illness follow seasonal patterns

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:12:12 EDT

Google searches for information across all major mental illnesses and problems followed seasonal patterns, suggesting mental illness may be more strongly linked with seasonal patterns than previously thought.

Online learning: It's different

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:22:22 EDT

Researchers have found that, by interspersing online lectures with short tests, student mind wandering decreased by 50 percent, note-taking tripled and overall retention of the material improved.

Biological transistor enables computing within living cells

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:24:24 EDT

Bioengineers have taken computing beyond mechanics and electronics into the living realm of biology. Scientists have used a biological transistor made from genetic material -- DNA and RNA -- in place of gears or electrons. The team calls its biological transistor the "transcriptor."

Study explores gang activity on the internet

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:15:15 EDT

Gangs are not using the Internet to recruit new members or commit complex cybercrimes, according to a new study.

Personal monitor system could change healthcare

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:44:44 EDT

A wireless personal health monitoring system using smartphones to upload data via the Internet will revolutionize the U.S. healthcare industry, its pioneering creators say.

New lung cancer study takes page from Google's playbook

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:11:11 EDT

A new study shows that the same sort of mathematical model that Google uses to predict which websites people want to visit may help researchers predict how lung cancer spreads through the human body.

Feeling sick makes us less social online, too

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:15:15 EDT

When it comes to posting on social media, there are few areas of our lives that are off limits. We post about eating, working, playing, hunting, quilting – you name it. Just about everything is up for public consumption … except our health.

'Practice' makes a perfect lure for Internet gambling

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 09:58:58 EDT

New research has studied the behavior of young people lured into Internet gambling through so-called 'free-play' or 'practice' modes.

Teen sexting, the gender gap

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:49:49 EDT

A survey of US adolescents reveals a gender gap in attitudes towards sexting and perceived harm.

Does expressing anger on online rant-sites make you feel better or worse?

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:17:17 EDT

Little is known about the value and emotional consequences of expressing anger on the Internet. Rant-sites provide an outlet for anonymous, angry outbursts. How people feel after reading and writing rants and the effects of this behavior is explored in a new article.

Cloud-computing platform for robots launched

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:11:11 EDT

Researchers have developed a cloud-computing platform for robots. The platform allows robots connected to the Internet to directly access the powerful computational, storage, and communications infrastructure of modern data centers - the giant server farms behind the likes of Google, Facebook, and Amazon - for robotics tasks and robot learning.

'Bad neighborhoods' on the internet are a real nuisance

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 09:38:38 EST

Of the 42,000 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) surveyed, just 20 were found to be responsible for nearly half of all the internet addresses that send spam. That just is one of the striking results of an extensive study that focused on “Bad Neighborhoods” on the internet (which sometimes correspond to certain geographical areas) that are the source of a great deal of spam, phishing or other undesirable activity.

Engineers develop techniques to boost efficiency of cloud computing infrastructure

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:57:57 EST

Computer scientists have developed a novel approach that allows the massive infrastructure powering cloud computing to run as much as 15 to 20 percent more efficiently. This novel model has already been applied at Google.

Internet searches can identify drug safety issues well ahead of public alerts

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:11:11 EST

Internet searches on health symptoms can be used to identify drug side effects and could be used to develop a new kind of early warning system to boost drug safety, a new study indicates.

Netradar reveals the quality of mobile Internet connections

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:50:50 EST

Netradar is a free service that provides neutral, accurate information about the quality of mobile Internet connections and mobile devices collected by end users themselves throughout the world. Unlike other applications that mostly focus on bandwidth, Netradar anonymously gathers, measures and shares over ten different types of data

Big data: Searching large amounts of data quickly and efficiently

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:25:25 EST

Not only scientific institutes but also companies harvest an amazing amount of data. Traditional database management systems are often unable to cope with this. Suitable tools are lacking in information retrieval on big data. Computer scientists have now developed an approach which enables searching large amounts of data in a fast and efficient way.

Creating your own animated 3-D characters and scenes for the web

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:03:03 EST

To show spatial animations on websites, developers so far have had only two options: to use special software or to implement it from scratch. Computer scientists have developed a declarative markup language which facilitates the creation of distinct spatial animations and ensures their smooth replay in the web browser.

Should grandma join Facebook? It may give her a cognitive boost, study finds

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:39:39 EST

Preliminary research findings suggest learning to use Facebook may help give adults older than 65 a cognitive boost. The study shows that seniors who learned to use Facebook saw improvements in their ability to continuously monitor and quickly add or delete the contents of their working memory.

New method to measure the redundancy of information

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:28:28 EST

Understanding information as well as its redundancy, or duplication, has been crucial in the development of many of our everyday items such mobile phones, the internet, the compact disc as well as ensuring the success of many space missions. Using information geometry tools, researchers have developed a new mathematically precise method of measuring information redundancy.

Largest known prime number discovered; has 17,425,170 digits

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:54:54 EST

On Jan. 25, the largest known prime number, 257,885,161-1, was discovered on Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) volunteer Curtis Cooper's computer. The new prime number, 2 multiplied by itself 57,885,161 times, less one, has 17,425,170 digits. With 360,000 CPUs peaking at 150 trillion calculations per second, 17th-year GIMPS is the longest continuously-running global "grassroots supercomputing" project in Internet history.

Cracking the semantic code: Half a word's meaning is 3-D summary of associated rewards

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:31:31 EST

Half of a word's meaning is simply a three dimensional summary of the rewards associated with it, according to an analysis of millions of blog entries undertaken by researchers.

New study examines victims and cyberstalking

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:54:54 EST

Victims of cyberstalking take more self-protective measures, pay higher out-of-pocket costs to combat the problem and experience greater fear over time than traditional stalking victims, said a researcher.

Online or off, bullying proves harmful

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:23:23 EST

Children who are bullied online or by mobile phone are just as likely to skip school or consider suicide as kids who are physically bullied, according to a study led by a criminologist.

Surveillance system can identify and track emerging infectious diseases

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:02:02 EST

A team of researchers developed a method to identify the cause of infectious disease outbreaks based on online reports about the symptoms, the season, and the ratio of cases to fatalities. Using data from the Internet outbreak reporting system ProMED-mail, the researchers applied this method to more than 100 outbreaks of encephalitis in South Asia, recently identified as an emerging infectious disease "hotspot," to determine which of 10 infectious diseases was causing symptoms of encephalitis.

The last big bump before a supernova explodes

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:11:11 EST

Astronomers have found the first causal evidence that massive stars shed huge amounts of material in a "penultimate outburst" before they finally detonate as Type IIn supernovae. After characterizing supernova 2010mc, the scientists found evidence of previous outbursts in the same location and were able to conclusively relate them to the supernova explosion.

Faster video streaming in a mobile era

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:35:35 EST

In the smartphones and tablet era, more and more users are watching videos on the move -- with a resulting strain on mobile networks. The combination of the HEVC video compression standard with LTE brings networks welcome relief.

Biodiversity exploration in the 3-D era

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:26:26 EST

A group of marine biologists from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Crete are testing computed tomography as a tool to accurately document the anatomy of biological specimens. The resulting 3-D models can be instantly accessed and interactively manipulated by other researchers, thus promoting rapid dissemination of morphological data useful to biodiversity research.

Facebook unfriending has real life consequences: Many avoid 'unfrienders' in real life

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:00:00 EST

Unfriending someone on Facebook may be as easy as clicking a button but a new study shows the consequences can reach far beyond cyberspace.

Into the quantum Internet at the speed of light

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 09:46:46 EST

Not only do optical fibers transmit information every day around the world at the speed of light, but they can also be harnessed for the transport of quantum information. Physicists now report how they have directly transferred the quantum information stored in an atom onto a particle of light. Such information could then be sent over optical fiber to a distant atom.

Security protocol for online banking and Facebook has ‘serious weaknesses,’ say researchers

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 21:24:24 EST

The protocol that provides security for online banking, credit card data and Facebook has major weaknesses, according to researchers.

Scientists use Amazon Cloud to view molecular machinery in remarkable detail

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:02:02 EST

Researchers have shared a how-to secret for biologists: New code for Amazon Cloud that significantly reduces the time necessary to process data-intensive microscopic images.

Policy, enforcement may stop employees from wasting time online at work

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:07:07 EST

Researchers studied cyberloafing -- wasting time at work on the Internet -- and the effects of Internet use policies and punishment on reducing cyberloafing.

Checking out open access

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:29:29 EST

From Wikipedia to shareware, the Internet has made information and software more widely available than ever. At the heart of this explosion is the simple idea that information should be open and free for anyone. Yet with publishers charging exorbitant fees for subscriptions to academic journals, university libraries are struggling to keep up.

The ecological badminton robot: Optimizing energy efficiency in machine design

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:27:27 EST

A robot to play with! A childhood's dream has now come true for researchers in Belgium. Wim Symens and his team pioneered the development of the first robot ever to play badminton. But this robot is only a guinea pig to test a software application designed to optimize energy efficiency in machine design.

Engineers solve a biological mystery and boost artificial intelligence

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:23:23 EST

By simulating 25,000 generations of evolution within computers, engineering and robotics researchers have discovered why biological networks tend to be organized as modules -- a finding that will lead to a deeper understanding of the evolution of complexity. The new insight also will help evolve artificial intelligence, so robot brains can acquire the grace and cunning of animals.