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NASA’s humans-in-space program may be on hiatus following dramatic recent budget cuts, but the agency’s robots-in-space program is alive and well.

In conjunction with manufacturing partner General Motors, the space agency has unveiled the latest generation robotic astronaut, dubbed Robonaut 2. NASA says that the robot is designed to work side by side with people; its leading edge control, sensor and vision technologies could assist astronauts during hazardous space missions.

“This cutting-edge robotics technology holds great promise, not only for NASA, but also for the nation,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “I’m very excited about the new opportunities for human and robotic exploration these versatile robots provide across a wide range of applications.”

NASA points out that the first generation of the robot was built by the software, robotics and simulation division at Johnson in a collaborative effort with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) 10 years ago. That generation was designed to be controlled by astronauts inside the International Space Station using a virtual reality interface: helmets and gloves wired to record their motions and immediately transfer those intentions and actions to robots outside the station.

Police in central China have arrested three people and seized money and equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in a crackdown on the country’s biggest commercial operation to train computer hackers, state media reported over the past two days.

But Western specialists in cybersecurity were skeptical that the arrests signified any broad commitment by China to halt the assaults on computer security that Google and other Western companies have endured in recent months.

China has not shut down the well-known servers that have been used in these attacks or arrested their operators, so the detention of three people in central China is unlikely to make much of a difference, said Ronald J. Deibert, a cybersecurity expert at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto.

“Their crackdown on this apparent hacker group needs to be placed in a broader context,” Mr. Deibert said. “I would characterize it as window dressing.”

Public security officers in Hubei province also shut down a Web site said to be used to raise more than $1 million in membership fees from 12,000 paying members, according to the Wuhan Evening Post in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei.

DVDStyler is a cross-platform free DVD authoring application for the creation of professional-looking DVDs. It allows not only burning of video files on DVD that can be played practically on any standalone DVD player, but also creation of individually designed DVD menus. It is Open Source Software and is completely free.

• Creation and burning DVD video with interactive menus
• Provides several templates for DVD menus v1.8.0
• Support of AVI, MOV, MP4, MPEG, OGG, WMV and other file formats
• Support of MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid, MP2, MP3, AC-3 and other audio and video formats
• Support of multi-core processor
• Allows using MPEG and VOB files without reencoding, see FAQ
• Allows put files with different audio/video format on one DVD (support of titleset)
• User-friendly interface with support of drag & drop
• Flexible menu creation on the basis of scalable vector graphic
• Import of image file for background
• Placing of buttons, text, images and other graphic objects anywhere on the menu screen
• Changing the font/color and other parameters of buttons and graphic object
• Scaling of buttons and graphic objects
• Coping of any menu object or whole menu
• DVD scripting

Download DVDStyler 1.80 Final

The K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of DirectShow filters, VFW/ACM codecs, and tools. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding audio and video formats. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your audio and movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular audio and video formats and even several less common formats.

K-Lite Codec Pack Changelog:

• Updated Media Player Classic Home Cinema to version 1.3.1595.0
• Changed default video renderer in MPC-HC on Vista/7 to “EVR Sync”
• Changed default H.264 decoder from “ffdshow (libavcodec)” to “DivX H.264″
• This gives better decoding performance, certainly on computers with multiple CPU cores
• Updated Gabest MP4 splitter to version 1.3.1572.0
• Updated AC3ACM to version 1.5
• Updated Codec Tweak Tool to version 4.2.0
• Updated Win7DSFilterTweaker to version 2.8
• Minor changes

Downloads (32-bit):
K-Lite Codec Pack 5.7.0 : Full
K-Lite Codec Pack 5.7.0 : Mega
K-Lite Codec Pack 5.7.0 : Standard
K-Lite Codec Pack 5.7.0 : Basic

Download (64-bit):
K-Lite Codec Pack 3.2.0 : 64-bit

This is a bundle of 64-bit DirectShow filters that can be used together with 64-bit players, such as Windows Media Center.

Auslogics Disk Defrag Screen Saver is a handy tool that allows users to run defragmentation of their disks in Screen Saver mode. Like other screen savers in Windows, it starts automatically when a system has been idle for a few moments.

In fact, it is a great time to run a defragmenter, as its impact on system resources won’t disturb your work at all. Furthermore, due to its ability to run automatically, Auslogics Disk Defrag Screen Saver doesn’t require any user interaction.

Disk Defrag Screen Saver will perform defragmentation automatically while you are away from your computer. Once you resume your work, defragmentation stops immediately, allowing you to continue your work uninterrupted. Disk Defrag Screen Saver will wait until your next break to proceed with disk defragmentation.

While running, Auslogics Disk Defrag Screen Saver generates a well designed real-time fragmentation map. It allows tracking disk fragmentation level and overall defragmentation progress, as well as the name of currently defragmented file and its path.

Download Auslogics Disk Defrag Screen Saver 1.1.1.50

This update for iPhone and iPod touch contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

• Improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
• Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instances
• Fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard

Products compatible with this software update:
• iPhone (all models)
• iPod touch (all models)

For feature descriptions and complete instructions, see the user guides for iPhone and iPod touch at:
http://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone
http://support.apple.com/manuals/ipodtouch

For more information about iPhone and iPod touch, go to:
http://www.apple.com/iphone
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch

To troubleshoot your iPhone or iPod touch, or to view additional support information go to:
http://www.apple.com/support/iphone
http://www.apple.com/support/ipodtouch

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Social media is increasingly becoming fertile ground for hackers to attack companies with spam and malware, according to a report released Monday by a security firm.

According to a Sophos survey of nearly 500 companies worldwide, the number of firms that reported attacks through social media increased by 70 percent compared with the year before.

IT professionals became more concerned that employees’ everyday actions on social-networking sites are exposing companies to attacks. Sixty percent of interviewees said they were most concerned about security vulnerabilities in Facebook.

Criminals banked on the inherent trust people have on their contacts, said Sophos senior security adviser Chet Wisniewski.

“Social media provides criminals with an opportunity. When I get a message on Facebook from my wife and I see a link, I’m going to click it,” Wisniewski said.

Online lures known as phishing schemes and malware attacks – malicious programs that aim to steal private information or control a victim’s computers – expanded their presence in social media sites by around 10 percent in the past eight months.

Sophos identified 50,000 variants of existing viruses in 2009, almost twice as much as the previous year.

Iowa investigators say they believe a breach of a state computer database can be traced to China. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission said someone hacked into one of its computer servers last week.

The server contained records of more than 80,000 casino employees including birth dates and Social Security numbers. While they believe the breach came from China, they acknowledge the hackers disguised their digital footprints.

Officials say they don’t know if personal information was stolen but they are proceeding as if all the data was compromised.

Source ~ WHO-TV

Accenture, the big information technology consulting firm based in Ireland, is already entrenched in San Diego’s military community.

As the federal government calls for more help with the vexing problem of cybersecurity, Accenture is bidding for more work.

An Accenture spokeswoman says the company is pursuing a major cyber defense contract in San Diego. Company representatives declined to name the customer, saying it is “in the intelligence space.”

The thing Accenture would like to deliver is a “dynamic cybersecurity” system. The computer system would have the ability to automatically sense danger in the network and respond, says Bud Horton, an Accenture executive who leads Accenture’s cybersecurity initiatives.

In the world of cyberwar, the rules are different.

“You’re fighting in nanoseconds. You’re not fighting in hours,” said Horton.

The contract proposal occurs against a backdrop where hackers continually seek access to U.S. government computer networks, and to networks controlling vital pieces of the United States’ infrastructure, such as utilities. The hackers are able to operate anonymously or disguise themselves easily, federal officials say. They can sabotage crucial data or clog a network with traffic.