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Here you'll learn all about me: my interests and hobbies, the people in my family, my pets, and more.
I've even included a list of my favorite links to other sites.
On this home page, I'll introduce myself and talk about my reasons for wanting a web site. I might
put a picture of myself on this page...or just a picture that I especially like.
I hope that you'll be enjoying reading those pages...
Its simple but true.
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Robotic rover detects life in the driest desert
Researchers have proventhat a robotic rover can be used
to detect living organisms, even in a desert with barely any to find.
The team led by Nathalie Cabrol of NASA's Ames Research
Center is planning an even more ambitious, more automated attempt later in 2005. The ultimate goal is to develop a system
that can be used to hunt for signs of life on Mars.
The team, which includes scientists from Carnegie Mellon
University's renowned Robotics Institute in the US, used a 1-metre-tall, four-wheeled rover called Zoe to explore a nearly
lifeless region at the heart of the Atacama Desert in Chile - the driest place on Earth.
In order to simulate operating a rover on Mars, the
vehicle was controlled remotely by scientists in Pittsburgh. The controllers were not told exactly where it had "landed" -
only that it was somewhere within a large "landing ellipse".
Furthermore, the chosen site was selected solely on
the basis of geological information from satellite imagery. Just as with a Mars landing, the team then had to figure out where
the vehicle was, based on images relayed back from the rover.
The team then instructed the rover to move to a specified
spot, but the rover had to use its onboard software to plan its own route and avoid obstacles. The rovers currently exploring
Mars only travelled up to 317 metres under autonomous control, but Zoe went as far as 5000 m on its own. "Zoe is the next
generation of rover," Cabrol said.
Spray and flash
When scientists determined a given location was worth
investigating - based on images relayed from the rover's cameras - Zoe looked for evidence of life using fluorescent biomarkers.
Four specially formulated fluorescent dyes, each designed
to glow a particular colour in the presence of proteins, carbohydrates, membrane lipids or nucleic acids, were sprayed on
the ground, which was then illuminated by a brief flash.
It was possible to detect the faint fluorescence even
under the bright midday sunlight by coordinating the short, intense burst of light with a camera taking a very short-exposure
image. The shade provided by the rover's body also helped.
Pleasant surprise
The first field tests were done near the
coast, where there is more life present, and the rover easily detected lichens on the rocks. When taken to the extremely arid
region, the fluorescence detector was able to pick up signs of what appeared to be cyanobacteria in cracks on some rocks.
"We weren't expecting to see anything positive
there," says a pleasantly surprised Lauren Ernst, a biochemist at Carnegie Mellon who developed the fluorescence detection
system.
A human scientist retraced the robot's
route, to see how its findings compared to those of a trained geologist or biologist. Samples taken back to the lab and cultured
confirmed the robot's results - no false detections were found.
The rover will be sent back to the Atacama
Desert later in 2005 for further tests. So far, parts of the process - such as choosing where to stop and perform the tests,
and actually spraying the dyes on the ground - were done by team members. In the next attempt these functions will be automated.
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Laptop designed to break in half
The latest developments in laptop design were also on show at CeBit. One offering is a prototype personal computer that somewhat
disturbingly is designed to be broken in half. Toshiba's prototype Dynabook SS SX notebook computer features a detachable
display that converts into a tablet PC with a snap of the screen. The display continues to communicate with the rest of the
unit via a wireless connection, powered by its own lithium-ion battery.
Meanwhile if you know your Intel from your AMD microprocessors, and you like elements of both, then you may appreciate
a motherboard designed by Elitegroup Computer Systems. Codenamed PF88, the board comes with slots for both companies' latest
64-bit microprocessors as well as all the latest multimedia and networking sockets.
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What's New?
Electronic Threats: Instant Expert
Any computer connected to the internet faces a daunting
range of electronic threats. Perhaps the biggest single threat to any computer is the humble software bug. Seemingly innocuous programming errors can be exploited
to force entry into a computer and also provide the weak spots that allow computer worms and viruses to proliferate.Many software bugs will simply cause a computer to crash. But an expert programmer can sometimes figure out
how to make a computer malfunction in a creative way, so that it provides access to secure parts of a system, or shares protected
data.When a software vulnerability is revealed, it is often a race against the clock to apply the correct software patch before an attacker
can convert the bug into an "exploit" that can be used to cause major damage.
Viruses and worms
A computer virus is a program that spreads between computers by hiding
itself within a - seemingly innocent - document or application. A worm, on the other hand, is a program that replicates
and travels without "infecting" anything else on a system.Many
modern specimens of malevolent code, however, use a mixture of tricks to cheat their way onto computer systems, blurring
the line between worms and viruses. The terms are now often used interchangeably.The first worms appeared in the 1970s and spread slowly between computers connected to the same network. They simply
displayed an annoying message on the screen of each infected machine. The first computer virus, called Elk Cloner, was written
in 1982 and infected computers via floppy disks.
Trojans and zombies
But viruses and worms no longer just provide a way for
malevolent hackers to gain notoriety. Today's viral code can contaminate computers at lightning speed, spreading via email, peer-to-peer file-sharing networks and even instant messaging programs. The most successful ones cause serious damage, forcing companies around the globe to close down while
infected computers are cleaned up.A string of recent specimens have been designed to snatch passwords or credit card information and install programs that can be used to remotely control infected machines. These programs are known as trojan horses.There is evidence that virus writers can earn large amounts of money by leasing access to networks of compromised computers
- often referred to as "botnets". These groups of remote-controlled "zombies" have been used to extort money from websites, by threatening
to crash them with a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. This involves overloading a server with bogus page requests, so that real messages cannot get through.
Spam, Spam, Spam
Spammers have also begun using botnets to forward unsolicited bulk email advertising, or spam, through scores of zombie PCs. This makes
it far more difficult for spam hunters to block the messages at source and catch the culprits.Once considered a fairly minor problem, spam is rapidly spiralling out of control, and much more than half of all email messages are now thought to consist of unwanted advertising
messages.To combat computer scientists' best efforts to stem the tide of junk email, the spammers have had to become more cunning
and sophisticated. More recently, spim (spam by instant messenger) and spit (spam by internet telephony) have joined the fray.
Phishing
Spam's more sinister cousin is the phishing email.
This is a con trick that arrives as an email and tries to trick a recipient into handing over money or sensitive personal
information like their bank account details or a username and password. The simplest phishing tricks try to dupe a target into sending money as part of a get-rich-quick scheme. But phishing
tricksters are also getting more devious and recent scams pose as customer service emails
and send users to bogus banking or commercial websites where they are invited to "re-enter" their account information. Some genuine sites have even proven vulnerable to software glitches that can be exploited to capture information from regular
users. Phishing is especially threatening because it can be used to steal a person's digital identity.
Spyware
Along with spam and phishing, spyware represents the third of an unhappy trinity of internet
pests. These insidious and clandestine programs typically find their way onto a computer system alongside
another, often free, software application, although some can also exploit software bugs to get onto a machine. The programs are used to serve
up unwanted adverts, change system settings and gather information on a user's online behaviour for marketing purposes.
Hackers
The term "computer hacker" was first coined in the 1960s
and originally meant someone capable of developing an ingenious solution to a programming problem. But the phrase has since
fallen into disrepute, entering the popular vocabulary as a term for a programmer with criminal intent. The earliest "criminal" hackers were in fact relatively harmless, interested in testing the boundaries of their knowledge and their ability to get around security measures. They mainly performed
innocuous pranks, for example employing low-tech tricks to get free calls through the US phone networks. There are many tools in the modern hacking kit, including network scanners, packet sniffers, rootkits and decompilers.
But "social engineering" - for example, putting a particularly enticing message in an email header to encourage people to
open it - and even search engines can also be useful weapons for the hacker.
Computer crime
As the number of computers networks has grown, so have
the possibilities for more serious misuse. And, as money increasingly becomes a digital commodity, the world has seen the
emergence of serious computer criminals. Criminal gangs have also started to get in on the action, attracted by the huge quantities of money now spent online
every day. There is evidence that unscrupulous experts can also earn serious
money from crime syndicates by breaking into computer systems, writing viruses and creating phishing scams. And it is not just ordinary desktop computers that are under threat. Governments, banks and critical infrastructure can also be brought to a standstill by an expert armed
only with a laptop computer and a net connection.
Mobile menace
The biggest new target for computer hackers is the mobile device. Virus writers are already experimenting with code designed for smartphones and experts predict more may be on the way, while hackers are also looking at ways to crack handheld devices. While the internet has transformed global communication beyond recognition, the arms race between those intent on harnessing
its power for criminal purposes and those tasked with preventing them has only just begun.
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