The Raspberry Pi
is an inexpensive computer a low-power ARM-based processor and
virtually everything you need to run a Linux-based operating system on a
system board that’s around the size of a pack of cards. Oh yeah, and
the goal is to eventually sell it for as little as $25.

While the developers behind the project are hoping to see Raspberry
Pi systems used in educational settings or other environments where low
price and power consumption could be killer features. But the
applications for this device aren’t limited to education. This weekend
the group is showing off a Raspberry Pi system running XBMC, a powerful media center application.

Intel Chefs Bake WiFi Into Mobile Chips

Rosepoint represents a breakthrough that Intel engineers have been hammering away at for years.
They’ve been able to digitize little blocks of radio components in the
past — things like amplifiers and synthesizers — but now they’ve managed
to put a digital 2.4 GHz WiFi radio on a chip, right next to one of
their low-power Atom central processing units (CPUs).

Building analog WiFi chips is a bit of an art. Radio Frequency (RF)
chip designers build complex, customized circuits that operate on a
continuum of voltages. The problem is that it’s often tough to shrink
these analog designs down to the tiny scale that’s possible with today’s
cutting-edge chipmaking processes.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/02/rosepoint/

Put everything inside and do software radio already...please...

Tor Tests Undetectably Encrypted Connections In Iran

"Ahead of the anniversary of Iran's revolution, the country's
government has locked down its already-censored Internet, blocking
access to many services and in some cases cutting off all encrypted
traffic on the Web of the kind used by secure email, social networking
and banking sites. In response, the information-freedom-focused Tor
Project is testing a new tool it's calling 'obfsproxy,' or obfuscated
proxy, which aims to make SSL or TLS traffic appear to be unencrypted traffic
like HTTP or instant messaging data. While the tool currently only
disguises SSL as the SOCKS protocol, in future versions it will aim to
disguise encrypted traffic as any protocol the user chooses. Tor
executive director Andrew Lewman says the idea is to 'make your Ferrari
look like a Toyota by putting an actual Toyota shell over the Ferrari.'" Reader bonch adds: "A thread on Hacker News provides first-hand accounts as well as workarounds."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/02/10/1838207/tor-tests-undetectably-encrypted-connections-in-iran

Tribler Makes BitTorrent Impossible to Shut Down

So how does it work?

Like many other BitTorrent clients, Tribler has a search box at the
top of the application. However, the search results that appear when
users type in a keyword don’t come from a central index. Instead, they
come directly from other peers.

Downloading a torrent is also totally decentralized. When a user
clicks on one of the search results, the meta-data is pulled in from
another peer and the download starts immediately. Tribler is based on
the standard BitTorrent protocol and uses regular BitTorrent trackers to
communicate with other peers. But, it can also continue downloading
when a central tracker goes down.

The same is true for spam control. Where most torrent sites have a
team of moderators to delete viruses, malware and fake files, Tribler
uses crowd-sourcing to keep the network clean. Content is verified by
user generated “channels”, which can be “liked” by others. When more
people like a channel, the associated torrents get a boost in the search
results.

The latest addition to Tribler is a Wikipedia-style editing system dubbed “Open2Edit,”
where users have the option to edit names and descriptions of torrents
in public channels. All without a central server, totally decentralized.

According to Dr. Pouwelse, Tribler is fully capable of resisting any
pressure from outside, and it will still work when all torrent sites and
trackers are gone. It simply can’t be shutdown, blocked or censored,
whatever laws politicians may come up with.

“The only way to take it down is to take The Internet down.” Pouwelse told us.

One thing that could theoretically cause issues, is the capability
for starting users to find new peers. To be on the safe side the Tribler
team is still looking for people who want to act as so called bootstraptribler peers. These users will act as superpeers, who distribute lists of active downloaders.

“Together with software bugs and a code cleanup, that is now our last known weakness,” says Pouwelse.

While the Tribler client only has a few thousand users at the moment,
for avid file-sharers it must be a relief to know that it’s out there.
No matter what crazy laws may pass in the future, people will always be
able to share.

Those who want to give it a spin are welcome download Tribler here. It’s completely Open Source and with a version for Windows, Mac and Linux.

OMAP5 at CES 2012

The 60 GHz technology is based on the IEEE 802.11ad
standard now in the works, scheduled for completion in late 2012. Early
test chips are delivering 3.5 to 4.5 Gbits/second user throughput, but
the 60 GHz technology does not penetrate walls so is focused on in-room
use.

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4231319/WiGig-preps-software-specs-for-60-GHz

A Japanese research team developed three technologies that are expected to help realize wireless SSD.

The team, whose members include Ken Takeuchi, associate professor at the
University of Tokyo, Tadahiro Kuroda and Hiroki Ishiguro, professor and
associate professor, respectively, at Keio University, will announce
the details of the technologies at ISSCC 2012. The research was
conducted as part of the Core Research for Evolutional Science and
Technology (CREST), which is sponsored by Japan Science and Technology
Agency (JST).

The three technologies are (1) a new error correction technology for
NAND controllers (lecture number: 25.2), (2) a high-speed wireless data
transmission technology for memory modules (lecture number: 2.8) and (3)
a wireless power transmission technology for memory cards (lecture
number: 16.8). They were respectively developed by Takeuchi, Kuroda and
Ishiguro.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20120221/205290/

Anonymous, Decentralized and Uncensored File-Sharing is Booming

But there are more file-sharing tools that are specifically built to
withstand outside attacks. Some even add anonymity into the mix.
RetroShare is such a private and uncensored file-sharing client, and the
developers have also noticed a significant boom in users recently.

The RetroShare
network allows people to create a private and encrypted file-sharing
network. Users add friends by exchanging PGP certificates with people
they trust. All the communication is encrypted using OpenSSL and files
that are downloaded from strangers always go through a trusted friend.

In other words, it’s a true Darknet and virtually impossible to monitor by outsiders.

RetroShare founder DrBob told us that while the software has been
around since 2006, all of a sudden there’s been a surge in downloads.
“The interest in RetroShare has massively shot up over the last two
months,” he said.

“In January our downloads tripled when interest in SOPA was at its
peak. It more than doubled again in February, when cyberlockers disabled
sharing or shut down entirely. At the moment we are getting 10 times
more downloads than in December 2011.”

RetroShare’s founder believes that there is an increased need for
security, privacy and freedom among file-sharers, features that are at
the core of his application.

https://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-decentralized-and-uncensored-file-sharing-is-booming-120302/