China: A Capable Cyber Opponent

The world can be a scary place in today's age where threats of attack not only exist physically but also digitally. Cyberattacks have become a low risk, high reward way to get a hold of sensitive data. It is not only individual criminals carrying out these attacks but even nation states. For a long time the U.S. government has complained about China's hacking and cyberattacks. I decided to learn a bit more about the ongoing cyberwar between the two countries.

Net Neutrality Dealt Another Blow

Earlier in the beginning of the year the U.S. court of appeals overthrew the FCC's regulations  on the Internet (often referred to as net neutrality laws). This came as a blow to advocates of a free internet policy where anyone or any entity has the same rights and treatments when it comes to Internet usage. With no actual rules dictating internet policy many people felt that no good could come from the courts decision.

Cracking CAPTCHA

Are you familiar with the “completely automated public turing test to tell computers and humans apart”? More than likely you are, you’ve just heard of its’ acronym before:  CAPTCHA. CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites against nonhuman users such as bots. The term was coined back in 2000 by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and IBM. The program by definition requires little to no human intervention to maintain and thus is one of the most widely used forms of authorization and security on the internet because of its reliability and low cost. Since its’ inception CAPTCHA has been applauded by some as innovative and criticized by others as a tedious, often impossible task to achieve.

Coding Like An Astronaut

On April 10 NASA made over 1,000 codes available to the general public in a new online software catalog. Now, programmers can analyze and play with code integral to NASA's space programs.

We've Been Exposed: Heartbleed

For the past two years a security flaw has gone unnoticed in the technology community and has exposed countless user's personal information to attackers. The bug, named Heartbleed, was discovered and disclosed earlier this week. This bug affects OpenSSL, the Internet's most commonly used crytographic library that is suppose to keep your data secure. With a name like Heartbleed you can expect a powerful bug.

TED Talk: Bionics

TED, or Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a global set of conferences under the motto "ideas worth spreading". I recently watched a TED presentation on bionics that I believe is worth sharing.

Virtual Reality Becoming A Reality

The way users interact with technology is ever finding new innovative outlets and experiences. The Oculus Rift is one of the newer ideas the technology community has fostered. Started in 2012, Oculus Rift is a low costing virtual reality head mounted display.