Facebook's Zuckerberg Launches Group to Tackle Immigration Reform

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calififornia, March 7, 2013.

WASHINGTON — Facebook chairman Mark Zuckerberg, among the world’s wealthiest people, is wading into politics to help some of America’s poorest people – undocumented immigrants.

The multi-billionaire announced he and other high-tech entrepreneurs are launching a group called FWD.us to push for immigration reform in the United States.

“We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants. And it’s a policy unfit for today’s world,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Washington Post Op-Ed article Thursday introducing the new non-partisan group.

Noting that America’s current economy is based primarily on knowledge and ideas, rather than the natural resources, industrial machines and manual labor of years past, Zuckerberg said the U.S. needs to train and attract the most talented and hardest working people. And many of them, he said, are foreign-born.

“Given all this, why do we kick out the more than 40 percent of math and science graduate students who are not U.S. citizens after educating them?” he asked. “Why don’t we let entrepreneurs move here when they have what it takes to start companies that will create even more jobs?”

Zuckerberg, the descendent of immigrants, recalled his experience teaching an entrepreneurship class at an after-school program in his community.

“One day I asked my students what they thought about going to college. One of my top aspiring entrepreneurs told me he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to go to college because he’s undocumented. His family is from Mexico, and they moved here when he was a baby,” Zuckerberg wrote.

FWD.us, said Zuckerberg, has the support of tech giants such as Google chairman Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. He added that the group will be working with both political parties in Congress, as well as local and state officials to push for policy change.

Zuckerberg, 28, didn’t offer many details, but said the group would back comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, plus higher standards in schools and investment in scientific research.

The Facebook co-founder is one of a growing number of high-profile figures to join the immigration debate, which brought thousands of people to a rally at the U.S. capital and across the nation Wednesday.
Senators working on a new reform bill are trying to strike a balance between competing interests, including business and labor unions, tech companies, religious groups and political constituents. They are expected to introduce a draft bill next week that would update laws governing agricultural workers, low and high-skilled workers, border security and the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Source: voanews.com

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Posted in: Computer,Facebook,Politics,Society,USA

PC sales worldwide have tumbled, data from IDC shows

Global sales of PCs fell 14% in the first three months this year, the biggest fall since research firm IDC started tracking the industry in 1994.

It was hoped that the launch Microsoft's
Window 8 would revitalise PC sales

IDC said 76.3 million units were shipped, a figure that underlines the appeal of tablets and smartphones as alternatives to PCs.

The firm said Microsoft's latest version of Windows had failed to revitalise the industry.

Recession had also led companies to put back renewal of their PCs, IDC said.

The firm's vice president, Bob O'Donnell, said: "Unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only didn't provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market."

Windows 8 is designed to work well with touch-sensitive screens, but the displays add to the cost of a PC. Together, the changes and higher prices ``have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices,'' Mr O'Donnell said.

Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.

IDC also said that, traditionally, companies replaced PCs every three years, but that during the economic downturn this was more likely to be every five years.

"This is horrific news for PCs," said BGC financial analyst Colin Gillis. "It's all about mobile computing now."

Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest maker of PCs, saw a 24% fall in shipments in the first quarter compared with the same period a year ago.

China's Lenovo Group, number two in the market, is benefiting from sales to first-time buyers in China and other developing countries. Its sales held steady, IDC said.

Source: BBC

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Posted in: Computer,Technology

Advancing Secure Communications: A Better Single-Photon Emitter for Quantum Cryptography

Apr. 9, 2013 — In a development that could make the advanced form of secure communications known as quantum cryptography more practical, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated a simpler, more efficient single-photon emitter that can be made using traditional semiconductor processing techniques.

Single-photon emitters release one particle of light, or photon, at a time, as opposed to devices like lasers that release a stream of them. Single-photon emitters are essential for quantum cryptography, which keeps secrets safe by taking advantage of the so-called observer effect: The very act of an eavesdropper listening in jumbles the message. This is because in the quantum realm, observing a system always changes it.

For quantum cryptography to work, it's necessary to encode the message -- which could be a bank password or a piece of military intelligence, for example -- just one photon at a time. That way, the sender and the recipient will know whether anyone has tampered with the message.

While the U-M researchers didn't make the first single-photon emitter, they say their new device improves upon the current technology and is much easier to make.

"This thing is very, very simple. It is all based on silicon," said Pallab Bhattacharya, the Charles M. Vest Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and the James R. Mellor Professor of Engineering.

Bhattacharya, who leads this project, is a co-author of a paper on the work published in Nature Communications on April 9.

Bhattacharya's emitter is a single nanowire made of gallium nitride with a very small region of indium gallium nitride that behaves as a quantum dot. A quantum dot is a nanostructure that can generate a bit of information. In the binary code of conventional computers, a bit is a 0 or a 1. A quantum bit can be either or both at the same time.

The semiconducting materials the new emitter is made of are commonly used in LEDs and solar cells. The researchers grew the nanowires on a wafer of silicon. Because their technique is silicon-based, the infrastructure to manufacture the emitters on a larger scale already exists. Silicon is the basis of modern electronics.

"This is a big step in that it produces the pathway to realizing a practical electrically injected single-photon emitter," Bhattacharya said.

Key enablers of the new technology are size and compactness.

"By making the diameter of the nanowire very small and by altering the composition over a very small section of it, a quantum dot is realized," Bhattacharya said. "The quantum dot emits single-photons upon electrical excitation."

The U-M emitter is fueled by electricity, rather than light -- another aspect that makes it more practical. And each photon it emits possesses the same degree of linear polarization. Polarization refers to the orientation of the electric field of a beam of light. Most other single-photon emitters release light particles with a random polarization.

"So half might have one polarization and the other half might have the other," Bhattacharya said. "So in cryptic message, if you want to code them, you would only be able to use 50 percent of the photons. With our device, you could use almost all of them."

This device operates at cold temperatures, but the researchers are working on one that operates closer to room temperature.

The paper is titled "Electrically-driven polarized single-photon emission from an InGaN quantum dot in a GaN nanowire." The first author is Saniya Deshpande, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science. The work is supported by the National Science Foundation. The device was fabricated at the U-M Lurie Nanofabrication Facility.

Source sciencedaily.com

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Posted in: Computer

Computer Scientists Develop Video Game That Teaches How to Program in Java

Apr. 8, 2013 — Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have developed an immersive, first-person player video game designed to teach students in elementary to high school how to program in Java, one of the most common programming languages in use today.

The researchers tested the game on a group of 40 girls, ages 10 to 12, who had never been exposed to programming before. They detailed their findings in a paper they presented at the SIGCSE conference in March in Denver. Computer scientists found that within just one hour of play, the girls had mastered some of Java's basic components and were able to use the language to create new ways of playing with the game.

"CodeSpells is the only video game that completely immerses programming into the game play," said William Griswold, a computer scientist at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego.

The UC San Diego computer scientists plan to release the game for free and make it available to any educational institution that requests it. Researchers are currently conducting further case studies in San Diego elementary schools.

Teaching computer science below the college level is difficult, mainly because it is hard to find qualified instructors for students in elementary to high school, Griswold said. So he and his graduate students set out to find a way to reach these students outside the classroom. They designed the game to keep children engaged while they are coping with the difficulties of programming, which could otherwise be frustrating and discouraging.

Teaching children how to program must be a priority in a society where technology is becoming more and more important, said Sarah Esper, one of the lead graduate students on the development of CodeSpells. Programming also teaches logical thinking, said Stephen Foster, another lead student.

"We're hoping that they will get as addicted to learning programming as they get addicted to video games," Foster said.

How CodeSpells works

CodeSpells' story line is simple: the player is a wizard arriving in a land populated by gnomes. The gnomes used to have magic, but lost it at some point. The wizard must help them. She (or he) writes spells in Java. Players have seven spells available to them, including levitating objects within the game, flying and making fire.

Players can also earn badges by undertaking simple quests, which help them master the game's spells. One quest entails crossing a river. Another entails rescuing a gnome from the roof of his cottage, where he got stuck. Yet another entails starting a large bonfire. By the time players complete the game's first level, they have learned the main components of the Java programming language, such as parameters, for if statements, for loops and while loops, among other skills.

Testing the game

Researchers tested the game on a group of 40 girls ages 10 to 12 in San Diego. They gave the students a brief overview of the game's mechanics, including how to write and edit code within the game's user interface. The girls were divided in groups of two or three. Researchers encouraged them to explore the game and see what they could do. "We were purposefully vague," they wrote, "as we hoped to encourage a largely unstructured learning environment."

The students were disappointed when they had to stop playing because the test was over. Their interest in the game didn't wane when they made mistakes while writing code. Instead, they used the mistakes as a stepping stone to explore the game's possibilities. For example, one group made the mistake of levitating an object so high into the air that their wizard couldn't reach it. So the girls made their wizard jump onto another object and levitated it high enough to reach the object they were after. The girls also reported feeling empowered. When they encountered a difficulty, they tried different spells and made changes to the code until they solved it.

Computer science learning theory

CodeSpells was influenced by research that Esper and Foster conducted on how successful programmers learn their trade. They surveyed 30 computer scientists and identified five characteristics that are key to learn programming outside a classroom setting: activities must be structured by the person who is trying to learn; learning must be creative and exploratory; programming is empowering; learners have difficulty stopping once they start; and learners spend countless hours on the activity.

Researchers summarized these findings in their SIGCSE 2013 paper, humorously titled "On the Nature of Fires and How to Spark Them When You're Not There."

Esper will present her CodeSpells work April 18 at Research Expo at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego.

Source sciencedaily.com

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Posted in: Computer,Science

'Anonymous' hackers hit US security firm Stratfor

Stratfor urged its members to notify authorities
about any suspicious credit card activities

The activist hacker group Anonymous says it has stolen thousands of emails, passwords and credit card details from a US-based security think-tank.

The hackers claim they were able to obtain the information because the company, Stratfor, did not encrypt it.
They say Stratfor's clients include the US defence department, law enforcement agencies and media organisations.
The Austin-based company says it has now suspended the operation on its servers and email.
An alleged member of Anonymous posted an online message, claiming that the group had used Stratfor clients' credit card details to make "over a million dollars" in donations to different charities.
Stratfor later announced that it would keep its email and servers suspended for some time.
It also said the disclosure was "merely a list of some of the members that have purchased our publications and does not comprise a list of individuals or entities that have a relationship with Stratfor".
Anonymous has previously claimed responsibility for cyber attacks on financial institutions seen as enemies of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks.

Source BBC

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Posted in: Computer,Society,USA

Windows 8 to feature image sign-on system

Using Windows 8 devices could involve signing on by tapping, circling or touching images.

The sign-on system will track gestures forming lines, points and circles

Microsoft has revealed details of a login system for the next version of Windows based around pictures a user stores on a touchscreen device.
Only when parts of an image are tapped or touched in the right order will a user be able to access a device.
Experts said it might stop people using weak passwords but could lead to other loopholes that are harder to solve.
Press here Microsoft aired the idea of using images to sign on to a device via a blog written by engineers working on Windows 8 - the next version of the Windows operating system expected to be released in late 2012.
Windows 8 is designed for touchscreen devices such as tablets and the novel sign-on systems makes use of the sensitive displays they are likely to sport.
The familiar process of getting to use a desktop PC or laptop by typing in a password made of up lower and upper case letters as well as numbers was felt to be too "cumbersome" for tablets, wrote Microsoft engineer Zach Pace on the blog.
The replacement system proposed by Microsoft employs a picture chosen by a user from their collection of images on a device.
On this image, users are encouraged to tap on, underline or circle the parts that are important to them. The sequence of gestures, including start and end positions and orientation act as a key to unlock the device.
'Interesting and cute' User-testing suggests that the image-based system can grant access to a portable gadget far faster than was possible through text-based passwords, wrote Mr Pace.
He stressed that the system would work alongside text-based passwords rather than replace them. If a user failed to properly reproduce the correct gestures fives times in a row they would be prompted for the password they set up when they first used the device.
The permutations of taps, touches and circles that could be drawn on a picture was likely to be far higher than those available from text-based passwords, said Prof Alan Woodward from the department of computing at the University of Surrey.
That was especially true, he said, when one considered the limited number of words from which most people picked their passwords.
"The initial calculations show that it is likely to provide a level of security that is at least as strong as a password, and frankly, stronger than most passwords chosen by users," he added.
Graham Cluley, senior security researcher at Sophos, said the research was "interesting and cute" but may introduce other security problems.
It could, he said, make people vulnerable to "shoulder surfing" - a practice better known from cash machines where crooks try to spot a victim's Pin as they tap it into a number pad.
"With normal password entry, what you're doing is asterisked on the screen," said Mr Cluley. "With this gesture input, folks may find it easier to see the movements you are making."
There might be more value in operating systems encouraging people to use stronger passwords by refusing to let them use dictionary words or ones that are easy to crack, he added.
Source : BBC

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Posted in: Computer,Science

Internet Explorer: Microsoft plans 'silent' updates

From January, Internet Explorer (IE) users will be automatically updated to the latest version of the browser.

Once IE is updated, future changes will be
applied without a user's knowledge

Microsoft said it was starting the project to update millions of machines to improve security online.
Future updates to the browser would be applied without a user's knowledge to help beat scammers catching people out with fake updates.
Those who did not want their browser updated could opt out or uninstall the software, said Microsoft.

"The Web overall is better - and safer - when more people run the most up-to-date browser," wrote Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's IE boss, in a blogpost explaining the plan.

He said the data gathered by Microsoft for its security intelligence reports showed that many cyber criminals targeted old or outdated software when they tried to trick people into installing fake updates.

To beat such scams, Mr Gavin, said that once the latest version of the browser was installed all future updates would arrive silently and be applied without a user getting involved.

Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor at Sophos, said the plan would aid those who did not see the importance of staying up to date.

"Microsoft has been struggling with browser stragglers for years," he said in a statement.

Demise of IE6

The giant upgrade programme will affect IE users running Windows XP, Vista and 7, and will first be rolled out in Australia and Brazil. Only those Windows users with automatic updates turned on will be enrolled in the programme.

Those using Windows XP will be upgraded to IE8, while those on Vista and 7 get bumped up to IE9. This will probably mean the demise of IE6, a 10-year-old version of the browser that Microsoft has been trying to kill off for a while.

Figures gathered by Microsoft suggest IE6 is used by about 8.3% of people around the world, with the biggest number of users in China, where almost 28% of people remain wedded to it.

Globally, Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser, with more than 52% of people using it, according to net market research firm Net Applications. Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome are battling it out for second place.

Microsoft said it had made tools that would let people avoid or uninstall the more up-to-date versions of the browsers if they wanted to stay with an older copy.
Source BBC

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Posted in: Computer

PlayStation data theft hits 70m gamers

Users trying to connect to the PlayStation Network are met with an error message

Sony has warned users of its PlayStation Network that their personal information, including credit card details, may have been stolen.

The company said that the data might have fallen into the hands of an "unauthorised person" following a hacking attack on its online service.
Access to the network was suspended last Wednesday, but Sony has only now revealed details of what happened.
Users are being warned to look out for attempted telephone and e-mail scams.
In a statement posted on the official PlayStation blog, Nick Caplin, the company's head of communications for Europe, said: "We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network".
The blog posting lists the personal information that Sony believes has been taken.

• Name
• Address (city, state/province, zip or postal code)
• Country
• E-mail address
• Date of birth
• PlayStation Network/Qriocity passwords and login
• Handle/PSN online ID

Mr Caplin added: "It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained.
"For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information."

Credit cards Sony admitted that credit card information, used to purchase games, films and music, may also have been stolen.
"While there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we cannot rule out the possibility," Mr Caplin said.
"If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, to be on the safe side we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained."
Sony has not given any indication of how many PlayStation Network users may have had their information taken, but the service has around 70 million members worldwide.
'PR Disaster' The theft of so much detailed customer data would be seen as a "public relations disaster", according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos.
"This is a big one," he told BBC News.
"The PlayStation Network is a real consumer product. It is in lots of homes all over the world.
"The impact of this could be much greater than your typical internet hack."
Mr Cluley warned that, even without credit card details, the information taken was enough to help criminals carry out further attacks on other services.
"Some people will use the same passwords on other sites. If I was a hacker right now, I would be taking those e-mail addresses and trying those passwords," he said.
User anger

Some streaming media services available on PlayStation have been affected by the outage

PlayStation users got their first indication that something was wrong with the service when it became unavailable on Wednesday 20 April.
In the following days, Sony issued three brief statements asking users to be patient while it investigated an "external intrusion", or hack.
However, the fact that it took almost seven days for the company to reveal that data had been taken has angered some gamers.
Commenting on the Sony blog, Tacotaskforce wrote: "You waited a week to tell us our personal information was compromised? That should have been said last Thursday."
Another user Sid4peeps wrote: "This update is about 6 days late. I think it is time to move to the other network, no regard for customers here."
But some PlayStation users appeared to be happy with Sony's handling of the matter. Ejsponge61 commented: "Wow, this is alot of info. Thanks, this is very much appreciated by all of us PlayStation fans."
The Sony PlayStation Network remains unavailable to users. The company has not said when service will be restored.

Source BBC

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Posted in: Computer,Technology

'Time Machine' Made to Visually Explore Space and Time in Videos: Time-Lapse GigaPans Provide New Way to Access Big Data

Gigapan enables viewers to explore gigapixel-scale, high-resolution videos and image sequences by panning or zooming in and out of the images while simultaneously moving back and forth through time.

ScienceDaily — Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute have leveraged the latest browser technology to create GigaPan Time Machine, a system that enables viewers to explore gigapixel-scale, high-resolution videos and image sequences by panning or zooming in and out of the images while simultaneously moving back and forth through time.Viewers, for instance, can use the system to focus in on the details of a booth within a panorama of a carnival midway, but also reverse time to see how the booth was constructed. Or they can watch a group of plants sprout, grow and flower, shifting perspective to watch some plants move wildly as they grow while others get eaten by caterpillars. Or, they can view a computer simulation of the early universe, watching as gravity works across 600 million light-years to condense matter into filaments and finally into stars that can be seen by zooming in for a close up.
"With GigaPan Time Machine, you can simultaneously explore space and time at extremely high resolutions," said Illah Nourbakhsh, associate professor of robotics and head of the CREATE Lab. "Science has always been about narrowing your point of view -- selecting a particular experiment or observation that you think might provide insight. But this system enables what we call exhaustive science, capturing huge amounts of data that can then be explored in amazing ways."
The system is an extension of the GigaPan technology developed by the CREATE Lab and NASA, which can capture a mosaic of hundreds or thousands of digital pictures and stitch those frames into a panorama that be interactively explored via computer. To extend GigaPan into the time dimension, image mosaics are repeatedly captured at set intervals, and then stitched across both space and time to create a video in which each frame can be hundreds of millions, or even billions of pixels.
An enabling technology for time-lapse GigaPans is a feature of the HTML5 language that has been incorporated into such browsers as Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari. HTML5, the latest revision of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) standard that is at the core of the Internet, makes browsers capable of presenting video content without use of plug-ins such as Adobe Flash or Quicktime.
Using HTML5, CREATE Lab computer scientists Randy Sargent, Chris Bartley and Paul Dille developed algorithms and software architecture that make it possible to shift seamlessly from one video portion to another as viewers zoom in and out of Time Machine imagery. To keep bandwidth manageable, the GigaPan site streams only those video fragments that pertain to the segment and/or time frame being viewed.
"We were crashing the browsers early on," Sargent recalled. "We're really pushing the browser technology to the limits."
Guidelines on how individuals can capture time-lapse images using GigaPan cameras are included on the site created for hosting the new imagery's large data files, http://timemachine.gigapan.org. Sargent explained the CREATE Lab is eager to work with people who want to capture Time Machine imagery with GigaPan, or use the visualization technology for other applications.
Once a Time Machine GigaPan has been created, viewers can annotate and save their explorations of it in the form of video "Time Warps."
Though the time-lapse mode is an extension of the original GigaPan concept, scientists already are applying the visualization techniques to other types of Big Data. Carnegie Mellon's Bruce and Astrid McWilliams Center for Cosmology, for instance, has used it to visualize a simulation of the early universe performed at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center by Tiziana Di Matteo, associate professor of physics.
"Simulations are a huge bunch of numbers, ugly numbers," Di Matteo said. "Visualizing even a portion of a simulation requires a huge amount of computing itself." Visualization of these large data sets is crucial to the science, however. "Discoveries often come from just looking at it," she explained.
Rupert Croft, associate professor of physics, said cosmological simulations are so massive that only a segment can be visualized at a time using usual techniques. Yet whatever is happening within that segment is being affected by forces elsewhere in the simulation that cannot be readily accessed. By converting the entire simulation into a time-lapse GigaPan, however, Croft and his Ph.D. student, Yu Feng, were able to create an image that provided both the big picture of what was happening in the early universe and the ability to look in detail at any region of interest.
Using a conventional GigaPan camera, Janet Steven, an assistant professor of biology at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, has created time-lapse imagery of rapid-growing brassicas, known as Wisconsin Fast Plants. "This is such an incredible tool for plant biology," she said. "It gives you the advantage of observing individual plants, groups of plants and parts of plants, all at once."
Steven, who has received GigaPan training through the Fine Outreach for Science program, said time-lapse photography has long been used in biology, but the GigaPan technology makes it possible to observe a number of plants in detail without having separate cameras for each plant. Even as one plant is studied in detail, it's possible to also see what neighboring plants are doing and how that might affect the subject plant, she added.
Steven said creating time-lapse GigaPans of entire landscapes could be a powerful tool for studying seasonal change in plants and ecosystems, an area of increasing interest for understanding climate change. Time-lapse GigaPan imagery of biological experiments also could be an educational tool, allowing students to make independent observations and develop their own hypotheses.
Google Inc. supported development of GigaPan Time Machine.

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Posted in: Computer,Science,Technology

Why Google Doesn't Want the iPhone to Die

Google has a vested interest in seeing the iPhone succeed.

 Us journalists and bloggers like to make a lot of the battle between Google's Android and Apple's iOS, but it the search engine has a vested interest in seeing the platform succeed. Why? iPhones and iPads are simply sending the site a ton of traffic.
Says Asia-Pacific president Daniel Alegre to AdNews:

"Whenever iPhone succeeds, Google succeeds. I actually don't look at it as iPhone versus Android. iPhone is a very strong driver of query growth for Google. We also monetise apps through the iPhone..we actually benefit from iPhone's growth."

Makes sense. In total the iOS ecosystem is getting increasingly larger, and if you group the iPad and iPhone together, is more than holding its own against the Android platform. Simply put, pissing off Apple is not in Google's best interest no matter how much they'd like to see their mobile OS be #1.
Google has said previously that the iPhone has been a key driver of growth in its mobile search efforts. So it shouldn't be surprising that at least publicly executives like Alegre are making such statements. Then again, if all those iPhone users pick up a Droid -- the only other really dominant mobile platform -- is Google really losing anyway?

pcworld

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Posted in: Computer,Entertainment

Four New Features Coming to Ubuntu 11.04 'Natty Narwhal'

The combination of Ubuntu Linux's growing popularity with all the big changes coming up in the next version mean that Natty Narwhal, or Ubuntu 11.04, might just be the most widely and anxiously anticipated release of the open source operating system ever.
Due to launch officially on April 28, Natty Narwhal will be the first version of Ubuntu to reflect a number of radical changes. The Wayland graphics system won't be ready in time, but 3D-enabled Unity has already replaced the GNOME shell as the default desktop interface, for example.


A 2D version of Unity is also available, and Ubuntu 11.04 uses the Compiz window manager rather than Mutter by default. LibreOffice is now included, and a raft of other changes are planned for the software as well. The first beta version of Natty Narwhal was just released on Thursday.
Meanwhile, news of several additional features has emerged in recent weeks that will likely further heighten anticipation of the final release. Here are the four that have most recently stood out.
1. Try Before You Buy
Starting with Ubuntu 11.04, the Ubuntu Software Center will reportedly let you test out applications without actually installing them, much the way Android users now can on the Amazon Appstore. A WebUpd8 video on YouTube demonstrates the new Ubuntu capability in action.
2. 'Love Handles'
Those using touchscreen devices will surely appreciate Ubuntu's upcoming "Love Handles," which are designed to make it easier to resize or move windows when using Ubuntu on a tablet or other touchscreen device. Available as a Compiz plug-in, Love Handles reportedly let users resize a window by tapping on arrows or grabbing a corner. An OMG! Ubuntu! video demonstrates how Love Handles work.

3. No Third-Party Installs by Default
After considering the possibility of enabling by default the option to "install third-party software" when installing Ubuntu, the Ubuntu Technical Board voted last week not to do that. Both legal and usability reasons were cited for voting down the proposed change.
"There is a low tolerance for failure in common and basic use cases," the board meeting notes explain. "In the world we want to get to, all the functionality users expect will be deliverable with open source software."
Flash, for example, will be downloadable from within Ubuntu, but the option won't be selected by default.
4. No More Netbook Edition
Finally, a few weeks ago we learned that Canonical is planning to discontinue its separate Netbook Edition of Ubuntu starting with the Natty Narwhal release. Rather, there will be a single core product that you run on "anything you like from a netbook to a notebook to a desktop," the company explained on a recent blog. Ubuntu Server, meanwhile, will be maintained separately.
Work has already begun, of course, on Ubuntu 11.10, or Oneiric Ocelot. But with so much exciting new functionality coming to Natty Narwhal, there's plenty to look forward to in the much closer future.

soure : pcworld

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Posted in: Computer

Microsoft takes Google complaint to EU

Microsoft is to take an anti-competition complaint against Google to the European Commission.

Microsoft claims that Google has tried to restrict
its growth in the search market

The software maker claims that Google used its dominant position in the search market to restrict the growth of Microsoft services.
It cites a number of practices, including Google limiting the ability of Microsoft Bing to index web content.
Google said it was not surprised by the move and would happily explain itself.
In a detailed blog, Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, outlined the company's grievances.
He wrote: "Our filing today focuses on a pattern of actions that Google has taken to entrench its dominance in the markets for online search and search advertising to the detriment of European consumers."
The post goes on to list five different ways in which Google, according to Microsoft, has sought to control the search market.
Those are:

• Using technical measures to stop Microsoft's search engine Bing from indexing content on Google-owned YouTube.
• Blocking Microsoft Smartphones from operating properly with YouTube.
• Controlling access to online copies of out-of-copyright books.
• Limiting the ability of businesses to reclaim "their own information" generated through Google advertising campaigns for use elsewhere.
• Compelling leading websites to only use Google search boxes on their pages.

Heavy fines The European Commission launched an investigation into allegations of anti-competitive practices by Google last November, at the behest of several internet companies, including Ciao, a shopping site owned by Microsoft.
It is likely, if the Commission accepts the latest round of complaints from Microsoft, that they would be rolled into the same investigation.
For the Microsoft case to be accepted, the company would have to prove two things - firstly that Google was dominant in a particular market, namely search, and secondly that it had abused that position.
In a statement, Google said it would cooperate with any investigation.
"We're not surprised that Microsoft has done this, since one of their subsidiaries was one of the original complainants. For our part, we continue to discuss the case with the European Commission and we're happy to explain to anyone how our business works," is stated.
Penalties for companies found to have engaged in anti-competitive practices in Europe can be severe. The EC has the power to impose fines up to 10% of global earnings.
That will likely have a bearing on how the case proceeds, according to Mark Tricker, an antitrust lawyer with the law firm Norton Rose.
He told BBC News: "Once the Commission has formulated its claims then I suspect that Google will enter into a dialogue with them to address those concerns so it does not have to reach a judgement."
Role reversal Microsoft's position as accuser in an anti-competition case is something of a role reversal.

Microsoft's Bing search engine suffered because of Google's actions, it alleges

In the past, the world's leading software company has been the target of similar actions.
A 2003 EC ruling determined that Microsoft had unfairly advantaged its Windows Media Player software over other streaming technologies by embedding it into the Windows operating system.
It was fined £381m, followed by a further £194m in 2006 for failing to comply with elements of the original ruling.
To date, the largest fine levied by the EC was £948m against Intel in 2009.
The microchip maker was found to have offered financial incentives to manufacturers to favour its products over those of its rivals.

 Source: BBC

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iPhone 5 Delay Rumors: Will Apple Hold Out Until After WWDC?

Apple emphasized that this year's WWDC 2011 conference in June will be all about the future of iOS and Mac, giving tech pundits reason to believe we won't see a new iPhone 5 announced during the event. With the rumor mill in full swing, speculation suggests that the iPhone 5 is more likely to arrive some time this fall, or even in 2012. Will Apple break its annual update cycle and make iPhone fans wait longer for refreshed hardware?

Points and Counterpoints

The focus will be on software at WWDC this year, Apple said. Upcoming features in iOS 5 were widely discussed in rumors this weekend, such as cloud music storage and social features. But WWDC was also expected to stage the unveiling of the new iPhone 5, sticking to Apple's traditional summer release schedule for the iPhone. But it's not happening, says Jim Dalrymple of The Loop (who was a strong track record regarding Apple sources). No new iPhone, no new Macs.

Instead, Darlrymple's sources say the conference will see announcements regarding advancements with Mac OSX Lion (expected to arrive this summer, too), and TechCrunch reports iOS 5 will only be previewed at the event, with a delay until it's actually available, giving developers time to modify their apps.

But if Apple does not release or announce a new iPhone at WWDC (or shortly after), does that mean the iPhone 5 is delayed until fall, to arrive with iOS 5 preinstalled? That's something separate rumors suggest as well. One site claims Apple has not even ordered components for the iPhone 5, pointing toward a 2012 release. However, chances are Apple will not miss the holiday season, where it makes significant sales.

We have yet to purchase a crystal globe at PCWorld, so we will have to wait until June to find out if the iPhone 5 is delayed or not. Until then, one thing is for sure: Apple hasn't said a word about the timing of iOS 5, or whether the next version of its mobile OS will be called that; same goes for the next iPhone.

After all, Apple could just introduce a new iPhone, similar in design to the iPhone 4, but with improved internals, including the A5 dual-core chip from the iPad 2 and sprinkled with some NFC. Apple did a similar move with the upgrade from the iPhone 3G to 3GS. Then, later on in the year, iOS 5 would arrive and bring some new features to the table, both for a new iPhone and the iPad 2.

source: pcworld

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New Mathematical Model of Information Processing in the Brain Accurately Predicts Some of the Peculiarities of Human Vision

ScienceDaily  — The human retina -- the part of the eye that converts incoming light into electrochemical signals -- has about 100 million light-sensitive cells. So retinal images contain a huge amount of data. High-level visual-processing tasks -- like object recognition, gauging size and distance, or calculating the trajectory of a moving object -- couldn't possibly preserve all that data: The brain just doesn't have enough neurons. So vision scientists have long assumed that the brain must somehow summarize the content of retinal images, reducing their informational load before passing them on to higher-order processes.
At the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers' Human Vision and Electronic Imaging conference on Jan. 27, Ruth Rosenholtz, a principal research scientist in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, presented a new mathematical model of how the brain does that summarizing. The model accurately predicts the visual system's failure on certain types of image-processing tasks, a good indication that it captures some aspect of human cognition.
Most models of human object recognition assume that the first thing the brain does with a retinal image is identify edges -- boundaries between regions with different light-reflective properties -- and sort them according to alignment: horizontal, vertical and diagonal. Then, the story goes, the brain starts assembling these features into primitive shapes, registering, for instance, that in some part of the visual field, a horizontal feature appears above a vertical feature, or two diagonals cross each other. From these primitive shapes, it builds up more complex shapes -- four L's with different orientations, for instance, would make a square -- and so on, until it's constructed shapes that it can identify as features of known objects.
While this might be a good model of what happens at the center of the visual field, Rosenholtz argues, it's probably less applicable to the periphery, where human object discrimination is notoriously weak. In a series of papers in the last few years, Rosenholtz has proposed that cognitive scientists instead think of the brain as collecting statistics on the features in different patches of the visual field.
Patchy impressions
On Rosenholtz's model, the patches described by the statistics get larger the farther they are from the center. This corresponds with a loss of information, in the same sense that, say, the average income for a city is less informative than the average income for every household in the city. At the center of the visual field, the patches might be so small that the statistics amount to the same thing as descriptions of individual features: A 100-percent concentration of horizontal features could indicate a single horizontal feature. So Rosenholtz's model would converge with the standard model.
But at the edges of the visual field, the models come apart. A large patch whose statistics are, say, 50 percent horizontal features and 50 percent vertical could contain an array of a dozen plus signs, or an assortment of vertical and horizontal lines, or a grid of boxes.
In fact, Rosenholtz's model includes statistics on much more than just orientation of features: There are also measures of things like feature size, brightness and color, and averages of other features -- about 1,000 numbers in all. But in computer simulations, storing even 1,000 statistics for every patch of the visual field requires only one-90th as many virtual neurons as storing visual features themselves, suggesting that statistical summary could be the type of space-saving technique the brain would want to exploit.
Rosenholtz's model grew out of her investigation of a phenomenon called visual crowding. If you were to concentrate your gaze on a point at the center of a mostly blank sheet of paper, you might be able to identify a solitary A at the left edge of the page. But you would fail to identify an identical A at the right edge, the same distance from the center, if instead of standing on its own it were in the center of the word "BOARD."
Rosenholtz's approach explains this disparity: The statistics of the lone A are specific enough to A's that the brain can infer the letter's shape; but the statistics of the corresponding patch on the other side of the visual field also factor in the features of the B, O, R and D, resulting in aggregate values that don't identify any of the letters clearly.
Road test
Rosenholtz's group has also conducted a series of experiments with human subjects designed to test the validity of the model. Subjects might, for instance, be asked to search for a target object -- like the letter O -- amid a sea of "distractors" -- say, a jumble of other letters. A patch of the visual field that contains 11 Q's and one O would have very similar statistics to one that contains a dozen Q's. But it would have much different statistics than a patch that contained a dozen plus signs. In experiments, the degree of difference between the statistics of different patches is an extremely good predictor of how quickly subjects can find a target object: It's much easier to find an O among plus signs than it is to find it amid Q's.
Rosenholtz, who has a joint appointment to the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, is also interested in the implications of her work for data visualization, an active research area in its own right. For instance, designing subway maps with an eye to maximizing the differences between the summary statistics of different regions could make them easier for rushing commuters to take in at a glance.
In vision science, "there's long been this notion that somehow what the periphery is for is texture," says Denis Pelli, a professor of psychology and neural science at New York University. Rosenholtz's work, he says, "is turning it into real calculations rather than just a side comment." Pelli points out that the brain probably doesn't track exactly the 1,000-odd statistics that Rosenholtz has used, and indeed, Rosenholtz says that she simply adopted a group of statistics commonly used to describe visual data in computer vision research. But Pelli also adds that visual experiments like the ones that Rosenholtz is performing are the right way to narrow down the list to "the ones that really matter."

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HP CEO: webOS on Every Hewlett-Packard Computer

by Thom Holwerd.
Leo Apotheker has big plans. HP (relatively) new CEO wants to transform the company, and is willing to break with almost everything his predecessor Mark Hurd set out. How about webOS on every computer shipped by HP?
Apotheker is pretty harsh about HP's current state. "HP has lost its soul," he stated. To get that soul back, he first started listening to the people working at HP. "The first thing I wanted to do when I joined HP was listen to the people. The rank and file usually know about all the shortcomings."
Mark Hurd, HP's previous CEO, didn't like software all that much, and according to Apotheker, this has made HP slow to react to changes in the market. As such, he wants to strengthen the company through acquisitions - and of course, Palm is part of that strategy.
Apotheker wants every computer sold by HP to have the "ability" to run webOS. What exactly this means, I don't know; does this mean every HP computer will ship with webOS by default? Will it be an option during the order process? Or does "ability" literally mean ability - as in, every HP computer can run webOS, but it'll be something geeks will have to download and install manually.
Another welcome change is that he wants HP to refocus on quality. "Apotheker also aims to revive HP's emphasis on product quality, saying that when hardware performs better right out of the gate, the company incurs lower service and warranty costs - and customers are happier," BusinessWeek writes, "He's rehiring quality-assurance experts fired under Hurd and giving new responsibilities to those he says got 'sidelined' by the former CEO."
"We have cut enough costs," Apotheker told BusinessWeek.
I'm getting the feeling Apotheker wants HP to be more like Apple. While my personal experience with Apple's product quality and reliability has been rather abysmal, there's no denying that at least in surveys (as opposed to my anecdotal evidence) the company scores pretty good on these factors. HP wants that, too, I think.
All in all, it seems like Apotheker has the right idea: their own operating system and software and a focus on hardware quality.
source: osnews.com

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A genius approach to web security

Song in a study area in her Berkeley office

FORTUNE -- The prototypical computer security expert is some ponytailed guy with a three-day beard and an uncomfortable habit of telling hacker war stories that make you scared to go online for weeks. Then there's Dawn Song, a 36-year-old associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a MacArthur Foundation fellow (also known as a MacArthur genius). With her broad smile and laugh, Song puts a visitor at ease, then begins mapping the Internet out on a whiteboard. The whole genius thing quickly becomes apparent.
Song and her research team aren't looking to simply patch holes in the Internet that online baddies are constantly trying to penetrate. She takes a more holistic approach, designing technology tools that can act as building blocks for an overall secure computing experience -- on any device. The proliferation of smartphones and tablets means more people are trying to share sensitive information via the public Internet instead of private networks, a practice that makes Song shudder. "If I have uploaded my data naively into the cloud, the best I can do now is cross my fingers and hope that whoever is storing my data is doing a good job with their security," she says.

By studying the underlying patterns of how software, hardware, and networks interact, Song has become expert at understanding the flow of both "good" data and ill-intentioned hacks. Song's groundbreaking research has become the basis for two important platforms: BitBlaze, which analyzes malicious software code, and WebBlaze, which focuses on defending web-based applications and services against it. (The WebBlaze approach has been used in the design of mainstream web browsers.) Song is also working on the privacy side of things, so that people can trace where their sensitive data have been and know that it is either secure or has been sold or breached.
Song's hope is that BitBlaze, WebBlaze, and her privacy initiatives become fundamental Internet tools that are deployed when any person or company builds a new cloud-based service or overhauls an existing one. Her team is working on commercial versions of the security platforms that would offer custom analysis to paying customers.

0:00 /2:45One professor vs. the Internet

Song is no fear monger, but she stresses that the risks are mounting as everything -- phones, tablets, even wireless health-monitoring gadgets -- gets connected to the web. "We are always playing catch-up," she admits. But if Song and her team are successful, consumers and companies won't have to simply keep their fingers crossed -- and she may even put a few of those ponytailed security experts out of business. 
source: cnn

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Computer Engineers Improve Wireless Networks by Making Users Connect Through Each Other

Several cities, including Philadelphia and San Francisco, are considering installing city-wide wireless internet connections of a new generation. These so-called wireless mesh networks will enable users to route their connections through other users' computers, in order to find available channels more efficiently and reduce down time.

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LAS VEGAS -- Tired of your slow wireless Internet and network connections that get bogged down? The next generation of WiFi technology is here, and it may be the best solution yet for our overloaded information super-highways.
Computer user, Kevin Maddrey says, "Sometimes the Internet connection is spotty, and I'll automatically lose connection for no reason."
Maddrey knows exactly what happens when too many uses try to log on. But now computer engineers have found a better way to wirelessly connect to cyber space. It's called mesh technology; a system where the more users there are the better it works.
"It's the exact opposite of a traditional 3G technology," says Mitchell Gonzalez, President & CEO of Cheetah Wireless Technologies in Las Vegas.
Gonzalez says mesh wireless technology is faster, cuts down on congestion and interference, has better coverage, and has one more special perk. "What the mesh technology does is increase our ability to provide service more efficiently for a lower cost," Gonzalez says.
Here's how it works: Once you subscribe to the network, wireless PCs in the network "talk" with each other. They connect through wireless routers installed throughout a business, home or car -- an ideal network for Maddrey and the millions of other people who log on to the Internet every day. And overcrowding is never a problem. If too many people are using part of the mesh network, users move through each other to reach an unused signal.
The mesh network is also ideal if local communication resources are destroyed during a disaster because the network seamlessly picks up where one left off. The first mesh networks are being tested in Philadelphia, New York and Las Vegas.

HOW IT WORKS: Wireless, or "WiFi," technology and the Wireless Internet are a direct result of the staggering growth in cell phone use over the last decade. It is a system of connecting personal computers and other electronic devices in close physical proximity through high-frequency radio waves instead of wires or cables. The Wireless network is basically a series of linked transmitters and receivers. There are two main components in a traditional hub-and-spoke wireless network: wireless access points and wireless clients. Access points are base stations that are connected to the network at regular intervals to provide maximum coverage in a given region. Wireless clients are the network interfaces housed in computer devices that communicate with the access point.
Many factors can affect the speed of a wireless connection: how far you are from the access point, for example, or interference from other devices, such as cordless telephones. In general, the closer you are to an access point, the faster your connection will be; speeds fall back automatically as you move away to compensate for the distance. Also, since wireless users must share bandwidth, the more clients are connected to a specific access point, the slower the speed will be for each client.
MESH ADVANTAGES: Mesh network models are more decentralized than the hub-and-spoke approach currently used. Mesh networks promise several key advantages over traditional wireless technologies like cell phones or Wi-Fi. These include higher speeds, less radio interference, less network congestion, better geographic coverage, and tighter security. It's also cheaper to build a mesh network, since it can be set up using poles already in place for streetlights, traffic signals and road signs. Routers are simply bolted to the posts and plugged into the photocell power adapter already atop most streetlights. The routers are then automatically assimilated into the mesh network. If a cellphone tower stops working because of a power failure or terrorist attack, users will be cut off entirely from access in that cell. With a mesh network, any piece of mesh hardware -- a wireless router, for instance, or a laptop's interface card -- is fully assimilated into the network and can act as a relay. If one relay goes down, there are lots of alternate routes available.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE), contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
source: Sciencedaily

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Miniature Lasers Could Help Launch New Age of the Internet

ScienceDaily— A new laser device created at the University of Central Florida could make high-speed computing faster and more reliable, opening the door to a new age of the Internet.

---

Sabine Freisem, a senior research scientist who has been
collaborating with Deppe for the past eight years,
works on lasers in their UCF lab. (Credit: UCF)

Professor Dennis Deppe's miniature laser diode emits more intense light than those currently used. The light emits at a single wavelength, making it ideal for use in compact disc players, laser pointers and optical mice for computers, in addition to high-speed data transmission.
Until now, the biggest challenge has been the failure rate of these tiny devices. They don't work very well when they face huge workloads; the stress makes them crack.
The smaller size and elimination of non-semiconductor materials means the new devices could potentially be used in heavy data transmission, which is critical in developing the next generation of the Internet. By incorporating laser diodes into cables in the future, massive amounts of data could be moved across great distances almost instantaneously. By using the tiny lasers in optical clocks, the precision of GPS and high-speed wireless data communications also would increase.
"The new laser diodes represent a sharp departure from past commercial devices in how they are made," Deppe said from his lab inside the College of Optics and Photonics. "The new devices show almost no change in operation under stress conditions that cause commercial devices to rapidly fail."
"At the speed at which the industry is moving, I wouldn't be surprised if in four to five years, when you go to Best Buy to buy cables for all your electronics, you'll be selecting cables with laser diodes embedded in them," he added.
Deppe and Sabine Freisem, a senior research scientist who has been collaborating with Deppe for the past eight years, presented their findings in January at the SPIE (formerly The International Society for Optical Engineering) Photonics West conference in San Francisco.
Deppe has spent 21 years researching semiconductor lasers, and he is considered an international expert in the area. sdPhotonics is working on the commercialization of many of his creations and has several ongoing contracts.
"This is definitely a milestone," Freisem said. "The implications for the future are huge."
But there is still one challenge that the team is working to resolve. The voltage necessary to make the laser diodes work more efficiently must be optimized
Deppe said once that problem is resolved, the uses for the laser diodes will multiply. They could be used in lasers in space to remove unwanted hair.
"We usually have no idea how often we use this technology in our everyday life already," Deppe said. "Most of us just don't think about it. With further development, it will only become more commonplace."
Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Central Florida. The original article was written by Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala.

Source: sciencedaily

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Quantum Hot Potato: Researchers Entice Two Atoms to Swap Smallest Energy Units

ScienceDaily — Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have for the first time coaxed two atoms in separate locations to take turns jiggling back and forth while swapping the smallest measurable units of energy. By directly linking the motions of two physically separated atoms, the technique has the potential to simplify information processing in future quantum computers and simulations.

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NIST physicists used this apparatus to coax two beryllium
ions (electrically charged atoms) into swapping the smallest
measurable units of energy back and forth, a technique that may simplify
information processing in a quantum computer. The ions are trapped
about 40 micrometers apart above the square gold chip in the center.
The chip is surrounded by a copper enclosure and gold wire mesh to prevent
buildup of static charge. (Credit: Y. Colombe/NIST)

Described in a paper published Feb. 23 by Nature, the NIST experiments enticed two beryllium ions (electrically charged atoms) to take turns vibrating in an electromagnetic trap, exchanging units of energy, or quanta, that are a hallmark of quantum mechanics. As little as one quantum was traded back and forth in these exchanges, signifying that the ions are "coupled" or linked together. These ions also behave like objects in the larger, everyday world in that they are "harmonic oscillators" similar to pendulums and tuning forks, making repetitive, back-and-forth motions.
"First one ion is jiggling a little and the other is not moving at all; then the jiggling motion switches to the other ion. The smallest amount of energy you could possibly see is moving between the ions," explains first author Kenton Brown, a NIST post-doctoral researcher. "We can also tune the coupling, which affects how fast they exchange energy and to what degree. We can turn the interaction on and off."
The experiments were made possible by a novel, one-layer ion trap cooled to minus 269 C (minus 452 F) with a liquid helium bath. The ions, 40 micrometers apart, float above the surface of the trap. In contrast to a conventional two-layer trap, the surface trap features smaller electrodes and can position ions closer together, enabling stronger coupling. Chilling to cryogenic temperatures suppresses unwanted heat that can distort ion behavior.
The energy swapping demonstrations begin by cooling both ions with a laser to slow their motion. Then one ion is cooled further to a motionless state with two opposing ultraviolet laser beams. Next the coupling interaction is turned on by tuning the voltages of the trap electrodes. In separate experiments reported in Nature, NIST researchers measured the ions swapping energy at levels of several quanta every 155 microseconds and at the single quantum level somewhat less frequently, every 218 microseconds. Theoretically, the ions could swap energy indefinitely until the process is disrupted by heating. NIST scientists observed two round-trip exchanges at the single quantum level.
To detect and measure the ions' activity, NIST scientists apply an oscillating pulse to the trap at different frequencies while illuminating both ions with an ultraviolet laser and analyzing the scattered light. Each ion has its own characteristic vibration frequency; when excited, the motion reduces the amount of laser light absorbed. Dimming of the scattered light tells scientists an ion is vibrating at a particular pulse frequency.
To turn on the coupling interaction, scientists use electrode voltages to tune the frequencies of the two ions, nudging them closer together. The coupling is strongest when the frequencies are closest. The motions become linked due to the electrostatic interactions of the positively charged ions, which tend to repel each other. Coupling associates each ion with both characteristic frequencies.
The new experiments are similar to the same NIST research group's 2009 demonstration of entanglement -- a quantum phenomenon linking properties of separated particles -- in a mechanical system of two separated pairs of vibrating ions. However, the new experiments coupled the oscillators' motions more directly than before and, therefore, may simplify information processing. In this case the researchers observed quantum behavior but did not verify entanglement.
The new technique could be useful in a future quantum computer, which would use quantum systems such as ions to solve problems that are intractable today. For example, quantum computers could break today's most widely used data encryption codes. Direct coupling of ions in separate locations could simplify logic operations and help correct processing errors. The technique is also a feature of proposals for quantum simulations, which may help explain the mechanisms of complex quantum systems such as high-temperature superconductors.
In addition, the demonstration also suggests that similar interactions could be used to connect different types of quantum systems, such as a trapped ion and a particle of light (photon), to transfer information in a future quantum network. For example, a trapped ion could act as a "quantum transformer" between a superconducting quantum bit (qubit) and a qubit made of photons.
Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

---

Journal Reference:

1. K. R. Brown, C. Ospelkaus, Y. Colombe, A. C. Wilson, D. Leibfried, D. J. Wineland. Coupled quantized mechanical oscillators. Nature, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/nature09721

source: sciencedaily

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