Rebels Without a Cause: LulzSec

Most people have heard of Anonymous.  They are a mostly-political activist group of hackers, or hacktivists. Anonymous has gained a fair reputation in the last several months for being powerful enough to take down what sites they like, for supporting file sharing, and for activities supporting revolution in the Middle East.

Aside from these morally motivated pursuits, Anonymous is also responsible for several less defensible attacks and pranks, such as bombarding YouTube with porn disguised as family-friendly film.

Lately, a new hacker group has been making headlines: LulzSec.  LulzSec, or Lulz Security, is a grey hat hacker group committed to revealing and making fun of embarrassing security flaws.  Grey hat in this case means neither malicious hacking for personal gain (black hat), or paid hacking meant to test security features and reveal gaps before they are exploited (white hat).  Big name hacks include PBS, Sony, Bethesda Games, pron.com, Infragaurd (affiliated with FBI), and CIA.

These attacks range from just-for-fun, pointing-out-a-problem-cause-we-want-to-help, on down to the government attacks, motivated by a statement made by the Pentagon that hacking could be considered an act of war.  LulzSec considers it a game, not war, and seemed upset by the comparison.  In retaliation, they hacked the Senate website, releasing some non-crucial data along with  taunting statement (previous link is to an article by LulzSec, contains profanity).

LulzSec's main message breaks down into a few points:

1. Don't everyone be so serious.
2. Be more careful with your security (don't reuse passwords).
3.   It's a game.  We're winning.

Personally, I'd say the first two are fairly good advice.  

News from Computex

Computex is underway. Meg, Natasha, and Jim are there! Here are some of the big releases we've heard about so far.

• New chips for tablets.  Tablets are still growing in popularity, and the hardware that powers them is coming along for the ride.
• Ultra slim laptops.  Thin is in!  Ultra portable computers increase their usability and efficiency.  Read as: everyone wants them.
• Tablets, tablets, everywhere.  Growing popularity means everyone is hopping on the tablet boat, and Apple has ever-stiffer competition.
• And my favorite, the new Windows 8 has been previewed.  This is a newer, more aerodynamic OS, if you.  With great tiles showing up to date info and hints that Microsoft is moving towards the cloud, I am incredibly excited for this.  Plus, this OS will still run legacy programs!  And it will run on just about everything - laptops, tablets, phones, desktops.  Check out the video preview!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, all!  Do we all recognize the stunning cartoon to the left?  No?  But it's Carl Sagan!  Amazing astronomer of great renown.  He was a huge part  of the space program, made great discoveries about the universe and solar system, and starred in the awesome mashup music video below.  Carl Sagan also has the dubious honor of being featured in my new favorite Valentine, as you may have noticed.

In other space-related news, spacecraft Stardust is making a historical second fly by of a comet. Twelve years ago it was the first spacecraft to collect dust particles from a comet.  Now, it will be flying past a second comet, with only a cup of fuel left, to take pictures of a man-made crater.  This is the first time one comet has ever been studied by two different spacecraft.

Other items of interest:

• Since 1986, more than 295 billion gigabytes of data have been stored.  In case you were wondering, thats a whole lot.  
• Playstation hops on the mobile tech bandwagon with a new smartphone that will feature 50 games, including the popular Splinter Cell, Guitar Hero, Assassin's Creed, and more. 
• A new human-aware computer is taking on Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, both champions, on a special episode of Jeopardy airing tonight.  Jennings commented at a press conference,  "One of the first things I thought was, 'This time, I'm not just playing to pay my mortgage or something, or to feed my kid's college fund, I'm actually sort of representing 7 billion human beings against our new machine tyrants.'"
• Research in Motion, makers of the BlackBerry smart phone, are releasing a new tablet, the Playbook, which will function on three different 4G networks.  This can be contrasted to the super-popular iPad, which is not yet available for the faster 4G.
• Our new software bundles are in!  Each bundle contains five titles, which in turn contain fun and educational games or programs.Look for these up on the website soon!

New Technology

This past week saw technology buffs and professionals from around the world gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show.  The CES hosts nearly 150,000 visitors yearly, and is often the event of choice for tech companies to unveil new products and partnerships.  This year's CES featured many new technologies and surprising developments.

Big developments include Microsoft's venture into ARM-chip technology, which has producer Nvidia poised to threated leader's like Intel and AMD; Intel's deal with major studios to stream movies as soon as they are released to DVD/Bluray; the Motorola Atrix smartphone, which docs to run as what is essentially a fully functional netbook; IoSafe's nearly indestructible hard drive; a robotic suit designed to aid in heavy lifting, physical therapy, and mobility for disabled individuals; a plethora of hot new tablets; wireless charging for mobile devices in GM vehicles; and some huge announcements for Vizio, a smaller, lower-end TV manufacturer.

These are just a few of the hundreds of new products and announcements showcased at this year's CES.

Although CCT did not attend the show, we'd also like to take the chance to tell you about some of our new products.

     TextSpeak is a perfect on-the-go AAC (AlternativeAugmentative Communication) solution.  This intelligent text generating speaker and keyboard combo creates speech anywhere, right at your fingertips, and paired with many of our Chester Creek keyboards, including our large-print and large-key keyboards, allows individuals with speech impairment to be heard.  Great for students who need unlimited vocabulary, TextSpeak works right out of the box, can be programmed to male or female voices, and has 30 programmable phrases.  Small, light, and portable, TextSpeak is also an item users can throw in a backpack or purse for use as needed in social or work situations, and works from both battery and AC power sources.  

Chester Creek is now offering a wireless keyboard.  Our Wireless VisionBoard offers greater mobility, flexibility, and convenience while decreasing the clutter of cords on and behind your desk.  We also offer the option of purchasing this new wireless keyboard with a matching mouse, also wireless.

        Children often struggle learning all the correct buttons needed for computer use.  For those still learning and those who prefer a mouse without it, we have eliminated the scroll wheel in our new LittleMouse.  With two buttons, the left “green for go” and the right “red for stop,” teaching use of a mouse is easier than ever.  Like the Chester and TinyMouse, this model is also child-sized.

        Another new learning tool being offered this year is the LessonBoard Pro.  With the same color-coding and layout as the original LessonBoard, the Pro is for more advanced students and lacks letter and number labels.  Perfect for the classroom, the Pro continues to teach students correct finger placement and also encourages memorization of letter and number placement.

        Additional new products include transparent braille stickers for our large-key keyboards and educational software bundles for preschool and early elementary students.