Twitter tightens security after high-profile breaches

Google – AFP, 23 may 2013 

Twitter is stepping up security measures (AFP, Yasuyoshi Chiba)

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter said Wednesday it was stepping up security measures for the popular messaging service following a series of high-profile breaches by hackers hitting media organizations and others.

Twitter said it would implement a new login verification system, "a form of two-factor authentication" which is "a second check to make sure it's really you" when a user signs in.

"Of course, even with this new security option turned on, it's still important for you to use a strong password and follow the rest of our advice for keeping your account secure," said Jim O'Leary of Twitter Product Security.

Some recent attacks took over Twitter feeds and delivered fake tweets using the accounts of Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, Financial Times and other news organizations.

Last month, hackers spooked markets after breaking into the AP Twitter account and falsely reporting President Barack Obama had been injured after two blasts at the White House.

Twitter said the new system would be an option for users, and would allow them to require a verification code for each sign-in.

"You'll need a confirmed email address and a verified phone number. After a quick test to confirm that your phone can receive messages from Twitter, you're ready to go," O'Leary said.

The security system will send a text message to the user's mobile phone with a verification code that would be entered for the login.

While Twitter has seen phenomenal growth as a social media outlet, its security has been questioned. Twitter said in February it was hit by a "sophisticated" cyber attack and that the passwords of about 250,000 users were stolen.

James Gabberty, professor of information systems at Pace University, said the new verification system appeared positive but "it depends on how they deploy it."

He said the decision to use a separate communications channel such as a mobile phone is "generally very safe" but that it is preferable if the phone and Internet services are different carriers with "a different architecture."

"If it is a different company, then this is extremely safe and gives a very high level of assurance that the integrity of the message is not compromised."

But Gabberty said Twitter still has other security problems which need to be addressed, such as requiring strong passwords and frequent changes in passwords.

"I stay away from Twitter because it's such an insecure system. It's begging to be hacked," he said.

The Syrian Electronic Army, which appears to be aligned with the government of President Bashar al-Assad, has claimed credit for hacking AFP, AP and other news organizations.

Earlier this month, the Twitter feed of satirical US news website The Onion was also taken over by the Syrian group aiming to inject its own sardonic spin on the deadly conflict.

The Onion posted details of how its feed was hijacked, describing how emails were sent to some employees in a phishing spoof to gain access to passwords.

Germany's SAP speeds up recruitment of autistic persons

Deutsche Welle, 21 May 2013

German software giant SAP has announced it will recruit more autistic people over the next couple of years. The company claimed having such people on board would give it a competitive edge.

Walldorf-based software firm SAP announced Tuesday it would employ 100 autistic people globally over the next seven years. The German DAX-listed company said those people would be able to do a great job in programming and quality checks.

The World trade Organization defines autism as a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication and by restricted and repetitive behavior.

But SAP said it believed autistic people could help the company to explore different lines of thinking. "SAP thinks that employing people with autism can give us a competitive edge and can help such colleagues pursue a meaningful way of earning a living," the firm said in a statement.

Part of a larger drive

"The recruitment scheme is a chance to find extremely specialized people," said SAP's Anke Wittenberg who's responsible for integration matters.

In 2011, SAP started a pilot project in its development laboratory in India where autistic people have been found to be very successful. More people with the disorder are to be employed this year in Ireland, the United States, Canada and Germany with a view of enhancing the teams' productivity as well as customer satisfaction.

SAP said it was cooperating with a Danish initiative called Specialisterne which has been aiming to get at least one million autistic persons employed worldwide.

hg/hc (Reuters, dpa)

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"THE NEXT 18 YEARS"–  Dec 2, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)

(Subjects: You are looking  at a Quantum event, clearing a filter - Portal pineal , Higher self to step forward and communicate to You, Still remains in 3D but exposure to multi dimensions, Evolution of humanity, Intent, Mayan Calendar, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, 26.000 Years, Milky Way, Nostradamus, 1987, Beginning to a New Time, Channellers/Teachers, Center of Galaxy – Black hole, Bridge of Swords, Pleiadians, Children, Inventions – The discoveries (e.g. : Airplanes - Medicines – Radio .. ): These new Discoveries were given all over the planet when Human consciousness was ready for it. New Inventions are coming, the timing depends on how the middle East problems are solved, Biology reaction of quantum energy; new radio of the future, seeing quantum energy, when it is revealed all science books will have to be rewritten, This will be an AHA moment – be possible to communicate with the rest of Galaxy, NASA, Church/Religion will be effected the most by these discoveries, The quantum discovery will see the grid, life, gardens and will redefine life, DNA (3 billion pieces) evolving piece DNA are chancing, Gaia/Humanity are linked, new instruments will start to reveal the DNA variance, Evolution revealed: Autistic children have born with the removal of their 3D structure in the brain, Gaia/Spirit are testing these quantum beings  (Evolved DNA), Universe central clock = Rifs,  Globally there will be only 5 currencies, Wars on earth will be declared barbaric, Middle East, Global Unity, .. etc.)

Human Evolution –  27 Sep 2008 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

“.. What do you think the Human brain can really do? What do you think it's built to do? Let me give you an example of what your society has come to accept as an "unbalanced person." Some of you think it's a "sick person." Let me talk about the autistic one. Let us talk about autism in what you call the most severe case.

Blessed is the autistic one who has come to this earth to show you what future Human evolvement looks like! They spend a lifetime trying to figure out linearity and it frustrates them. Blessed is the savant who the earth looks at and calls unbalanced. For the Humans who do this cannot see what they don't understand. The autistic one is able to get up off the paper and be in color! Many of the autistic ones can do what your calculators can do on your desks, did you know that? And they don't need a calculator! Give them a problem - two digits multiplied by three digits. Now watch how fast they give you the answer. Because they're not linear! Ask them what weekday the 13th of August will be in 2012, and they'll tell you, and they don't need a calendar. You might say, "What kind of a mind can do that?" I'll tell you - a nonlinear one without the walls in the brain that you have.

Have you ever thought about that? The autistic have a nonlinear mind. The barriers are dropped. Can you imagine the frustration of this Human? Here he is in a world of black and white while he is in color. Not only that, you want him to go in a straight line when he is used to all directions at once. This also explains why the only energies that will work to calm him are interdimensional ones - music, art, and love. Does this start to make sense to you? (see below)

What is taking place, dear ones, for all to know and see and understand, is that very, very slowly you have the linearity of the Human brain starting to be reduced. Unlike the autistic, it will be in ways that will still be balanced and make sense. In other words, you will be able to move in and out of quantum thought any time you wish in order to live in a linear, 3D existence, but have quantum consciousness. It will be a return to a form of consciousness that Lemurians had, but with the wisdom of the ages that you have collected. This will not be fast, but the forerunners of that are already here.

I'm going to give you some attributes of Human evolution in a moment, but let's return to the autistic ones. Many reading this are very concerned about autism. You wish to know why there are so many autistics being born. You say it's beyond coincidence that there are suddenly so many! There's more autistic children being born today than there ever have been on this planet. Humans are scurrying around wanting to know what's wrong. Is it the chemistry of the food? Perhaps it must be vaccinations! Some are saying, without any proof, "Yes, that's it - vaccinations must be it." You are grasping at almost anything to solve the puzzle of why so many autistics are arriving.

Yet very few Humans, if any, have looked at the puzzle and said, "Perhaps we're evolving, and this is the first wave of what we're going to see?" Not mentally unbalanced, but nonlinear thinking! This is, indeed, the case. You are seeing a form of evolution and you are calling it odd and unusual. It's simply those who are coming in early with activated quantum DNA. This early forerunner has DNA activated in an uncontrolled way, and so learning is needed to know how to make sense of it all. This is what they are doing, and each generation of savant will have a better time of it, figuring out what is linear and what is not.

Watch the autistic child go through what they must do (autism in its most severe form). They are so nonlinear that there is incredible frustration in trying to linearize even the Human voice as you speak to them. They will do the same actions over and over and over, trying to linearize the nonlinear. The linear walls are gone in their brain, and they have to learn to build the ones that they need. Humans then see them as a problem, and it's not a problem. It's a form of gifted children who are helping this planet to grow. Blessed are those who come into Earth as the new wave of consciousness to show you where it's going. They are setting the stage for a new kind of Human. For this quantumness will develop in a balanced way where many will have the autistic talents where they want them, and the linear when they want that. That's what the Human mind is capable of - being quantum when they wish to be. That's a return to the way it was given to you.  ‘’

You are Multidimensional - Celebrate Your Life! -  6 April 2008 (a message from Goddess of Creation channeled by Shelly Dressel)

Question: Why are so many new humans developing autism at this time?  Is there a purpose? Is there something we can do to assist them?  And then in addition to that, is there a correlation between autism and Alzheimer's?

Goddess: Autism is very much on people's mind at this time upon the earth.  It is a term that has been given to many children.  It is a definition that people give to a child as a means of trying to understand their behavior or how they think or how they are within their life.  Autism as you know it right now is but a fraction of what it truly is going to indicate in the future.  Many of the individuals that are being termed autistic are not necessarily autistic.  Autism in and of itself is a disconnection within.  Or you could say it's that these people have a different way of being able to communicate from others around them.  So when we say disconnect, it's not that they have fully disconnected with the other individuals; it's just that they are vibrating and living and experiencing life on a different level or a different plane.

Many have said that those who are autistic have their feet in two different dimensions or in multiple dimensions; yes, that is true.  Many have said that those children who are autistic have a short in their wiring as if there are aspects that are not working in this individual and this I would like to disagree with.  What's happening is, you are getting children especially who are of very high vibrations that are incorporating more of the crystalline vibration and less of the dense energies that have been upon the earth for the last several thousand years.

Therefore the electrical impulses that move through a crystal as opposed to the electrical impulses that move through a regular individual we shall just say or someone with regular wiring, there's going to be much less resistance, therefore their whole metabolism, everything about them is functioning on a completely different basis.

This journey tonight was to assist each one of you in recognizing just how much you are moving between dimensions.  These children that come in with these special gifts are used to moving (between dimensions) and they do it unconsciously.  To them, their sense of awareness, their sense of reality is very different from your own.  They may live in other realities while their physical body is here upon the earth.  Provide them with the structure that they may need to be able to function in society but also recognize that these are highly evolved individuals and respect that about them.

There may be crystals, there may be colors, there may be vibrations, things that emanate a vibration that assist the children in feeling more comfortable in their skin, in their reality.  If you are one of the individuals that would like to work with them or you find yourself perhaps having a child with these symptoms, go and open your senses and communicate from that of an expanded consciousness from the fifth, sixth or even seventh dimension.  Communicate from your heart, communicate without words, communicate through feelings and energies and you will find there's a great deal of information they are sharing with you.  These children are extremely sensitive so be aware of that and what is in their environment.

When it comes to Alzheimer's, there are some parallel pathways that one could point out.  Alzheimer's is a means of an individual beginning to cross over, beginning that journey back to this side of the veil but they have not yet fully chosen to return so they move at their own pace, experiencing whatever it is that they seek to experience.  And that is one reason why Alzheimer's seems to affect people for years at a time.  So while there are some similarities, that's as far as that goes.  Alzheimer's is a time to love and nurture an individual and again accept that this is their choice and this is their path.

Towards the end they are spending more and more of their reality in this other dimension.  For some it's a means of allowing them to feel comfortable with where they are going before they transition.  What you can do with them is also communicate from the heart, communicate without words. Assist them in being comfortable in other vibrations and assist them in being comfortable with the light and they will transition when the time is right for them.

I knew that this was something that was affecting many, many people and that is why I chose to give it a little bit more time and connection, and I thank you all for your patience. 

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death)

Apple 'among largest tax avoiders in US' - Senate committee

BBC News, 21 May 2013

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Apple's Tim Cook will set out proposals
 to simplify corporate tax laws when he
appears at the hearing

Apple has been accused of being "among America's largest tax avoiders" by a Senate committee.

The committee said Apple had used "a complex web of offshore entities" to avoid paying billions of dollars in US income taxes.

Apple chief Tim Cook will go before the panel on Tuesday. In prepared testimony Apple said it did not use tax gimmicks.

The committee said there was no indication it had done anything illegal.

Apple has a cash stockpile of $145bn (£95bn), but the committee said $102bn of this was held offshore.

The company says it is one of the largest taxpayers in the US, having paid $6bn in federal corporate income tax in the 2012 fiscal year.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has been examining "methods employed by multinational corporations to shift profits offshore".

Some large firms in the US have come under fire for their reluctance to repatriate their foreign earnings as they could face a top tax rate of 35%.

US corporation tax is one of the highest in the world at 35%. However, companies typically pay far less, thanks to numerous deductions and exemptions.

'Holy Grail'

In its report into Apple, committee chairman Carl Levin said: "Apple wasn't satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven.

"Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere."

But committee member John McCain said: "Apple claims to be the largest US corporate taxpayer, but by sheer size and scale, it is also among America's largest tax avoiders."

Apple said in its statement: "Apple does not move its intellectual property into offshore tax havens and use it to sell products back into the US in order to avoid US tax.

"It does not use revolving loans from foreign subsidiaries to fund its domestic operations; it does not hold money on a Caribbean island; and it does not have a bank account in the Cayman Islands."

It added that it had "substantial" foreign cash because it sells the majority of its products outside the US, and these foreign earnings were taxed in the jurisdictions where they were earned.

'Dramatic simplification'

The committee has already questioned tech giants Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard over their tax practices.

In September, the committee accused the two firms of using places such as the Cayman Islands, so they do not have to pay US taxes, saying their methods ranged from "egregious to dubious validity". Both companies deny any wrongdoing.

Five of the top 10 companies with the biggest offshore cash balances are in the technology sector.

Apple said it wants to see legislation that "dramatically simplifies" the US corporate tax system.

It believes reform should be "revenue neutral, eliminate all corporate tax expenditures, lower corporate income tax rates, and implement a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows free movement of capital back to the US".

It said that, though these changes may increase its own taxes, it would not be opposed to such a result "if it occurs in the context of an overall improvement in efficiency, flexibility and competitiveness".

It said the changes would stimulate job creation in the US, increase domestic investment and promote economic growth.

Apple drew criticism three weeks ago when it sold $17bn in bonds to raise cash to fund payouts to shareholders, rather than repatriating some of its cash reserves, which would be taxed in the US.

The move saved the company an estimated $9.2bn in taxes.

In its prepared testimony, Apple said that the move was in its shareholders' best interests.

'Fair tax' debate

While critics argue that companies shifting their profits overseas is a huge tax avoidance scheme, others want lower rates to encourage firms to invest in the US.

Last week Cisco chief executive John Chambers said his company was likely to invest more overseas if US tax laws were not modified.

"I prefer to have the majority of my employees here in America. That's the right decision for us, but if we can't bring our cash back, we're going to grow dramatically faster overseas in terms of job placements," he told CNBC.

"I think this is something our country has to fix."

The US is not the only country trying to ensure companies pay their "fair share" of taxes.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has called for countries to work together to clamp down on tax avoidance.

In the UK, Google, Starbucks and Amazon are among several large companies to face criticism over the amount of corporation tax they pay.

Despite making sales of hundreds of millions of pounds, they reported small profits or even losses in the UK after shifting their earnings to overseas operations.

The row led coffee chain Starbucks to agree to pay more UK corporation tax.

On Sunday, Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt defended his company, saying it had "always aspired to do the right thing", but added that "international tax law could almost certainly benefit from reform".

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Austria to loosen bank secrecy laws within weeks

Luxembourg to ease the secrecy surrounding its banks

Australia to force multinationals to disclose tax arrangements


HMRC in offshore tax evasion crackdown after receiving fresh data

100 of UK's richest people concealing billions in offshore tax havens

G20 urges global community to end banking secrecy

Major EU countries to tackle tax havens

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France's President Hollande: Eradicate tax havens

Dutch MPs call for action on tax havens, plan should be ready by summer

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French ministers to declare assets publicly

The 'who's who' of European tax havens

Accountancy firms 'use knowledge of Treasury to help rich avoid tax' – MPs

The nation at the heart of the offshore scandal: Britain

Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore

Dutch finance ministry denies Starbucks tax secrecy claims

Is computing speed set to make a quantum leap?

Quantum mechanics research could hold the key to a new generation of super-fast computers

The Guardian, The Observer, John Naughton, 18 May 2013

The Large Hadron Collider was built in the pursuit of pure science, but research
 into quantum mechanics might soon yield enormous benefits for computing.
Photograph: Rex Features

Our imagination is stretched to the utmost," wrote Richard Feynman, the greatest physicist of his day, "not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things that are there." Which is another way of saying that physics is weird. And particle physics – or quantum mechanics, to give it its posh title – is weird to the power of n, where n is a very large integer.

Consider some of the things that particle physicists believe. They accept without batting an eyelid, for example, that one particular subatomic particle, the neutrino, can pass right through the Earth without stopping. They believe that a subatomic particle can be in two different states at the same time. And that two particles can be "entangled" in such a way that they can co-ordinate their properties regardless of the distance in space and time that separates them (an idea that even Einstein found "spooky"). And that whenever we look at subatomic particles they are altered by the act of inspection so that, in a sense, we can never see them as they are.

For a long time, the world looked upon quantum physicists with a kind of bemused affection. Sure, they might be wacky, but boy, were they smart! And western governments stumped up large quantities of dosh to enable them to build the experimental kit they needed for their investigations. A huge underground doughnut was excavated in the suburbs of Geneva, for example, and filled with unconscionable amounts of heavy machinery in the hope that it would enable the quark-hunters to find the Higgs boson, or at any rate its shadowy tracks.

All of this was in furtherance of the purest of pure science – curiosity-driven research. The idea that this stuff might have any practical application seemed, well, preposterous to most of us. But here and there, there were people who thought otherwise (among them, as it happens, Richard Feynman). In particular, these visionaries wondered about the potential of harnessing the strange properties of subatomic particles for computational purposes. After all, if a particle can be in two different states at the same time (in contrast to a humdrum digital bit, which can only be a one or a zero), then maybe we could use that for speeded-up computing. And so on.

Thus was born the idea of the "quantum computer". At its heart is the idea of a quantum bit or qubit. The bits that conventional computers use are implemented by transistors that can either be on (1) or off (0). Qubits, in contrast, can be both on and off at the same time, which implies that they could be used to carry out two or more calculations simultaneously. In principle, therefore, quantum computers should run much faster than conventional, silicon-based ones, at least in calculations where parallel processing is helpful.

For as long as I have been paying attention to this stuff, the academic literature has been full of arguments about quantum computing. Some people thought that while it might be possible in theory, in practice it would prove impracticable. But while these disputes raged, a Canadian company called D-Wave – whose backers include Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and the "investment arm" of the CIA (I am not making this up) – was quietly getting on with building and marketing a quantum computer. In 2011, D-Wave sold its first machine – a 128-qubit computer – to military contractor Lockheed Martin. And last week it was announced that D-Wave had sold a more powerful machine to a consortium led by Google and Nasa and a number of leading US universities.

What's interesting about this is not so much its confirmation that the technology may indeed be a practical proposition, though that's significant in itself. More important is that it signals the possibility that we might be heading for a major step change in processing power. In one experiment, for example, it was found that the D-Wave machine was 3,600 times faster than a conventional computer in certain kinds of applications. Given that the increases in processing power enabled by Moore's law (which applies only to silicon and says that computing power doubles roughly every two years) are already causing us to revise our assumptions about what computers can and cannot do, we may have some more revisions to do. All of which goes to prove the truth of the adage: pure research is just research that hasn't yet been applied.

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Three new suicides at Foxconn China factory

Google – AFP, 18 May 2013

Foxconn recruitment point is pictured in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong

province, on February 22, 2013 (AFP/File)

BEIJING — Three Foxconn workers have committed suicide at a factory in China in the past three weeks, state media and a labour rights group said Saturday.

All three jumped to their deaths at a plant in the central city of Zhengzhou run by the Taiwanese electronics giant.

A 30-year-old married man killed himself on Tuesday following the similar deaths of a 23-year-old woman on April 27 and a 24-year-old man three days earlier, the Xinhua news agency reported.

"The reasons for these building jumpings are unclear," the New York-based China Labor Watch rights group said in a statement.

Foxconn, which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia, has come under the spotlight after suicides and labour unrest at its Chinese plants since 2010.

In 2010, at least 13 Foxconn employees in China died in apparent suicides, which activists blamed on tough working conditions, prompting calls for better treatment of staff.

Although Foxconn denied the accusations, it raised wages by nearly 70 percent at its China plants in 2010.

Foxconn is the world's largest maker of computer components and employs up to 1.1 million workers in China.

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Glasgow scientists create single-pixel camera for 3D images

BBC News, 16 May 2013

A projector displays patterned light on the face on a mannequin. These patterns
 are used to produce a 2D image. A 3D image is then formed using a technique
called "shape from shade"

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Scientists in Glasgow have discovered a low-cost way to create 3D images.

Their system uses detectors which have a single pixel to sense light instead of the millions of pixels used in the imaging sensors of digital cameras.

The detectors can "see" frequencies beyond visible light, which researchers say could open up new uses for 3D imaging in medicine and geography.

They said the single-pixel detectors cost "a few pounds" compared to current systems, which cost "thousands".

It is hoped that the system's ability to senses wavelengths far beyond the capability of digital cameras and its low cost, could make it a valuable tool for a wide range of industries.

Researchers said possible uses could range from locating oil to helping doctors find tumours.

Crossword patterns

Prof Miles Padgett led the team at University of Glasgow's School of Physics and Astronomy, which developed the technique.

He said: "Single-pixel detectors in four different locations are used to detect light from a data projector, which illuminates objects with a rapidly-shifting sequence of black-and-white patterns similar to crossword puzzles.

"When more of the white squares of these patterns overlap with the object, the intensity of the light reflected back to the detectors is higher.

"A series of projected patterns and the reflected intensities are used in a computer algorithm to produce a 2D image."

He said a 3D image was then created by combining images from the four detectors using a well-known technique called "shape from shade".

This 3D computational imaging, or ghost imaging produces detailed images of objects in just a few seconds.

Conventional 3D imaging systems uses multiple digital camera sensors to produce a 3D image from 2D information.

Careful calibration is required to ensure the multi-megapixel images align correctly.

Beyond the visible

Prof Padgett said: "Our single-pixel system creates images with a similar degree of accuracy without the need for such detailed calibration."

Lead author on the paper Baoqing Sun said: "It might seem a bit counter-intuitive to think that more information can be captured from a detector which uses just a single pixel rather than the multi-megapixel detectors found in conventional digital cameras.

"However, digital camera sensors have a very limited sensitivity beyond the spectrum of visible light, whereas a single-pixel detector can easily be made to capture information far beyond the visible, reaching wavelengths from X-ray to TeraHertz."

The team's paper, 3D Computational Imaging with Single-Pixel Detectors, is published in the journal, Science.

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Nasa buys into 'quantum' computer

BBC News, Alex Mansfield, BBC Radio Science Unit, 16 May 2013

The machine does not fit the conventional concept of a quantum computer,
but makes use of quantum effects

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A $15m computer that uses "quantum physics" effects to boost its speed is to be installed at a Nasa facility.

It will be shared by Google, Nasa, and other scientists, providing access to a machine said to be up to 3,600 times faster than conventional computers.

Unlike standard machines, the D-Wave Two processor appears to make use of an effect called quantum tunnelling.

This allows it to reach solutions to certain types of mathematical problems in fractions of a second.

Is quantum computing possible?

Effectively, it can try all possible solutions at the same time and then select the best.

Google wants to use the facility at Nasa's Ames Research Center in California to find out how quantum computing might advance techniques of machine learning and artificial intelligence, including voice recognition.

University researchers will also get 20% of the time on the machine via the Universities Space Research Agency (USRA).

Nasa will likely use the commercially available machine for scheduling problems and planning.

Canadian company D-Wave Systems, which makes the machine, has drawn scepticism over the years from quantum computing experts around the world.

Until research outlined earlier this year, some even suggested its machines showed no evidence of using specifically quantum effects.

Quantum computing is based around exploiting the strange behaviour of matter at quantum scales.

Most work on this type of computing has focused on building quantum logic gates similar to the gate devices at the basis of conventional computing.

But physicists have repeatedly found that the problem with a gate-based approach is keeping the quantum bits, or qubits (the basic units of quantum information), in their quantum state.

"You get drop out… decoherence, where the qubits lapse into being simple 1s and 0s instead of the entangled quantum states you need. Errors creep in," says Prof Alan Woodward of Surrey University.

One gate opens...

Instead, D-Wave Systems has been focused on building machines that exploit a technique called quantum annealing - a way of distilling the optimal mathematical solutions from all the possibilities.

Geordie Rose believes others have taken
 the wrong approach to quantum computing

Annealing is made possible by physics effect known as quantum tunnelling, which can endow each qubit with an awareness of every other one.

"The gate model... is the single worst thing that ever happened to quantum computing", Geordie Rose, chief technology officer for D-Wave, told BBC Radio 4's Material World programme.

"And when we look back 20 years from now, at the history of this field, we'll wonder why anyone ever thought that was a good idea."

Dr Rose's approach entails a completely different way of posing your question, and it only works for certain questions.

But according to a paper presented this week (the result of benchmarking tests required by Nasa and Google), it is very fast indeed at finding the optimal solution to a problem that potentially has many different combinations of answers.

In one case it took less than half a second to do something that took conventional software 30 minutes.

A classic example of one of these "combinatorial optimisation" problems is that of the travelling sales rep, who needs to visit several cities in one day, and wants to know the shortest path that connects them all together in order to minimise their mileage.

The D-Wave Two chip can compare all the possible itineraries at once, rather than having to work through each in turn.

Reportedly costing up to $15m, housed in a garden shed-sized box that cools the chip to near absolute zero, it should be installed at Nasa and available for research by autumn 2013.

US giant Lockheed Martin earlier this year upgraded its own D-Wave machine to the 512 qubit D-Wave Two.

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Send money to friends with Gmail and Google Wallet

Google Blog, Travis Green, Product Manager, Google Wallet

Paying back your friends is now as simple as sending an email, whether you’re chipping in for lunch or reimbursing your roommate for your share of the rent.

Google Wallet is now integrated with Gmail, so you can quickly and securely send money to friends and family directly within Gmail -- even if they don’t have a Gmail address. It's free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet Balance, and low fees apply to send money using your linked credit or debit card.

To send money in Gmail, hover over the attachment paperclip, click the $ icon to attach money to your message, enter the amount you wish to send, and press send.

While sending money in Gmail is currently only available on desktop, you can send money from Google Wallet at wallet.google.com from your phone or laptop. You will need to have set up Google Wallet to send and receive money, and Google Wallet Purchase Protection covers you 100% against eligible unauthorized payments.

We’re rolling out this feature over the coming months to all U.S. Gmail users over 18 years old, so keep an eye out for the $ icon in the attachment options. You can also get earlier access if your friends have the feature and send money to you.   

To learn more, visit our website.    

Here’s technology from Africa that ensures the cloud works when your connection doesn’t

Quartz, Leo Mirani, May 8, 2013

A BRCK. Mobility comes in many guises. Ushahidi

The “cloud” is great for places that enjoy uninterrupted power and internet connections. But for large swathes of the world, where blackouts are common and connections unreliable, accessing files stored remotely on the internet is a massive hassle. Forget about downloading Adobe Creative Suite. Simply working on a Google doc can be aggravating.

That’s why the people behind Ushahidi, open disaster-mapping software, built BRCK (pronounced “brick.”) BRCK is a wi-fi router and mobile modem in one, with eight hours of battery life to keep it going when the power runs out. It can sit in an office connected by ethernet and switch seamlessly to a 3G or 4G connection if the line goes down. It can also support up to 20 wireless connections and has 16 gigabytes of storage so it can work as a back-up network drive. Connect it to some processing power, such as a Raspberry Pi cheap computer, and you have yourself a mini-server.

Erik Herzman, an Ushahidi co-founder, dreamed up BRCK more than a year ago as a solution to connectivity problems at the iHub, Nairobi’s best-known space for hackers to congregate. The result is a working prototype and a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that’s raised more than a third of the $125,000 target in less than five days. What makes BRCK stand out from Kickstarter’s clutter is that it solves a very real need: the iHub, for instance, currently has four internet providers to ensure connectivity, and a BRCK could lessen the need for so much redundancy.

Philip Walton, who heads software for BRCK, says there is more to the device than back-up internet for offices. It can work anywhere there is a mobile connection and can also be plugged into solar power chargers, making it well-suited for field work. Unlike similar devices like the MiFi, it is designed to handle the heat and dust typical of the developing world.

Ushahidi is making 2,000 devices for the initial, Kickstarter run. Once the team has mass-produced the first version, it aims to bring the price down from the present $200 (early funders get it for $150) so that the price-sensitive market at which it is aimed can afford to buy it.

The idea, according to Walton, is for the BRCK to function as one component of a larger ecosystem of development. “A brick is component of a structure. It’s not the end thing itself. So this idea that together with other bricks and mortar, it can form something is much greater than itself,” he said over the phone from Nairobi.

The device is made to work with third-party hardware and applications; it has an application programming interface to make it easier for people to write software around it. Walton sees it being used as a remote monitoring device for climate-data collection or anything else people can think of, and not just in Kenya. “In building a solution for Africa, you have to take into account that just getting across town requires a four-wheel-drive,” says Walton. “So if I build something that survives in these conditions here in Africa, it’s going to survive anywhere.”

Exaggerated battery specs exposed by testing in Taiwan

Want China Times, Tsai Yong-pin, Tsang Hong-tsu and Staff Reporter 2013-05-15

Batteries piled up at a press conference in Taipei. (Photo/Chen Chi-chuan)

Mobile phone batteries of several well-known brands, including Sony, Philips, Gigabyte and others, have been found not to perform as well as their manufacturers claim, according to tests carried out by Taiwan's Consumer Protection Commission, under the supervision of the Executive Yuan or cabinet.

The commission tested 20 models of battery and found out that the most efficient of them had only 77% of the capacity claimed on its packaging. The worst battery was made by a Chinese brand called Power Magic, that lasts less than 30% of its stated operational time.

Sony, Philips and Gigabyte produce only around 60% of the capacity they claim.

An official from the commission said that this is an obvious case of providing consumers with exaggerated claims. Instructions were found to be inadequate or in English only.

Another official said that these 20 models violated regulations, and is demanding that the information on the batteries be corrected within two months. Failure to do so could result in a fine of NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 (US$1,000-$10,000) for the manufacturer, while the dealer could be fined NT$20,000 to NT$200,000 (US$670-$6,670).