To help California residents affected by the fires stretching across Southern California, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T – News) today announced that AT&T Wi-Fi service will be offered free of charge at nearly 600 hot spot locations across Riverside, San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Orange and Ventura counties.
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Residents will have free access to the AT&T Wi-Fi service 24 hours a day beginning tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 27.“We want to help residents in Southern California in any way that we can,” said Kieran Nolan, AT&T vice president and general manager, Los Angeles area. “By enabling free Wi-Fi at hundreds of AT&T hot spot locations, we’re hoping to provide families and friends with another way to stay connected — and to reconnect — throughout this difficult time.”
Archive for October, 2007
AT&T Offers Free Wi-Fi Access in Southern California
Technical Advances Make Your Passwords Practically Worthless
Passwords are supposed to be kept secret, but due to continuing advances in technology, they are becoming weaker every day. The threat has grown to the point where using a password as the sole form of authentication provides you with almost no protection at all. Randy Nash outlines the dangers facing passwords and suggests some additional measures needed to protect even ordinary digital assets.
Password-cracking chip causes security concerns
A technique for cracking computer passwords using inexpensive off-the-shelf computer graphics hardware is causing a stir in the computer security community.
Elcomsoft, a software company based in Moscow, Russia, has filed a US patent for the technique. It takes advantage of the “massively parallel processing” capabilities of a graphics processing unit (GPU) – the processor normally used to produce realistic graphics for video games.
Using an $800 graphics card from nVidia called the GeForce 8800 Ultra, Elcomsoft increased the speed of its password cracking by a factor of 25, according to the company’s CEO, Vladimir Katalov.
Free My Phone
Whether you are a consumer, a hardware maker, a software developer or a provider of cool new services, it’s hard to make a move in the American cellphone world without the permission of the companies that own the pipes. While power in other technology sectors flows to consumers and nimble entrepreneurs, in the cellphone arena it remains squarely in the hands of the giant carriers.
A Life Revealed
Names have power, so let us speak of hers. Her name is Sharbat Gula, and she is Pashtun, that most warlike of Afghan tribes. It is said of the Pashtun that they are only at peace when they are at war, and her eyes—then and now—burn with ferocity. She is 28, perhaps 29, or even 30. No one, not even she, knows for sure. Stories shift like sand in a place where no records exist. Time and hardship have erased her youth. Her skin looks like leather. The geometry of her jaw has softened. The eyes still glare; that has not softened.
Internet preparing to go into outer space
After expanding across Earth, the Internet is now set to spread into outer space to reach parts no network has gone before, one of its co-creators predicted Wednesday.
ADVERTISEMENTVinton Cerf said the proposed “interplanetary” Internet would allow people an ability “to access information and to control experiments taking place far away” from Earth.
Expanding into the solar system would bring new rules and regulations too, he told an annual Seoul forum, saying he and other experts were working on a set of standards designed to guide space-era Internet communications.
“Finally, the Internet can take us where no network has gone before,” said Cerf, who is Google’s vice president and chief internet evangelist,
Britain launches digital TV switchover
Britain prepared Tuesday to begin the switchover from analogue to digital television broadcasting, with a seaside town the first to make the move.
ADVERTISEMENTThe BBC2 channel’s analogue signal was to be switched off from around 2:00 am (0100 GMT) Wednesday in the northwest English resort of Whitehaven, affecting 25,000 households. The other analogue channels will be switched off on November 14.
Region by region, Britain is switching to digital broadcasting, due to be completed by 2012.
Every television set must be connected to satellite, cable or broadband transmissions, though the majority are already signed up to such services
The Wilhelm scream
The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect first used in 1951 for the film Distant Drums. Actor-singer Sheb Wooley is considered to be the most likely voice actor for the scream, having appeared on a memo as a voice extra for the film.
The Wilhelm scream has been featured in many films and television programs since. Alongside a certain recording of the cry of the Red-tailed Hawk, the “Universal telephone ring”[1], the Goofy holler and “Castle thunder,” it is probably one of the best-known cinematic sound clichés.
FREE Hidden Electricity!
This Instructable will show you how to tap into a FREE source of electricity! All you need is a phone line! All phone lines have a constant flow of voltage, around 40-70 volts (up to 100 volts when it rings!), but you can’t just plug stuff into it and expect it to work. You can really mess with your phone system by doing that. I discovered how to do it the right way!
Gadget of the Day – MicroOptical MyVu
Most video viewing specs have the small hitch of cutting you off from the outside world by obliterating your view with their tiny screens.
Not so with this spanking pair fresh in at the Apple Store. While still not recommended for driving, they manage to prop themselves far enough up your delicate conk to give you half an idea of what’s going on in front of you while you watch South Park.
Naturally, they’re designed to work seamlessly with video iPod; the battery pack doubles as a sturdy case for your player’s protection and keeps the screen flickering for up to eight hours.
Audio’s taken care of by the built-in, noise-reducing ear buds and an in-wire remote keeps you in control. And, of course, you can don lycra and pretend to be Lieutenant Geordi La Forge from Star Trek, which is always a bonus.