Technology Futures

Electric cars don't produce emissions, but the batteries have to be charged up by something. If that something is fossil fuel, you still have pollution and potentially high energy costs. A new generation of nuclear power plants, which emit virtually nothing into the air, may be part of the long term solution to the ever increasing cost of fossil fuels.

The new plants are smaller, safer, and loaded with safety features that make them easier and safer to manage.

This article highlights a dark side of the Web, where blogs, FaceBook, YouTube, and MySpace, among others, makes it easy for people to be cruel. It is becoming common for students to post cruel, slanderous, and/or profane online content about their teachers. And it is not just teachers that are are the object of this cruelty. Students are "cyberbullying" other students, and even some warped adults are posting cruel comments about students that are somehow competing with their own children.

We have failed to teach our kids, dare I say, manners, and the ease of use of this new technology combined with that lack of manners, has led to the notion that it is okay to post whatever one feels like, regardless of the affect on the person to which the content is directed.

In the article, it is noted that some teachers are responding with civil lawsuits, and some schools are suspending or expelling students for their actions. Parents that are not paying attention to their children's online activities may find themselves paying legal fees and/or expensive financial settlements to the victims.

This moderately technical article (PDF file) has an extensive discussion of the vulnerabilities of wireless systems, including WiFi, Bluetooth, and WiMax. Communities interested in investing primarily in wireless broadband should read this article first, as the data presented illustrates why most businesses do not regard wireless as a business class service.

Here is a short summary of the issues from the article:

Wireless networks have three additional aspects that make the security of wireless
networks even more challenging than the security of fixed networks:

• Wireless networks are always open
• Attackers can connect into the network from anywhere and from any distance
• Attackers are always anonymous

Wireless networks are always open – Physical media does not protect them. Any device
that implements the same radio interface can access a wireless network. One common
assumption is that wireless technologies are secure when authentication and encryption
are properly deployed. Looking closely at the operation of related protocols, there are
many message sequences that take place before the authentication. These message
sequences can always be attacked regardless of the deployed security measures.
Attacks are not limited by location or distance.

Attacks are not limited by location or distance. The distance from where the attacker can
reach the wireless network is only limited by the power of the transmitter. For example,
Bluetooth attack tools are known to have several-mile radiuses, although valid usage
scenarios would never attempt such range of coverage for Bluetooth.

Attackers are always anonymous. Although a valid user can be pinpointed with good
accuracy, an attacker can use directed antennas that will only target a selected victim. It is impossible to guarantee detection of malicious users in wireless networks. As stated
above, an attacker can also always attack the message sequences that happen before the
authentication of the device and thus avoid identification.

Those digital photo frames that are becoming popular hold more than pictures. Millions of them apparently come pre-loaded with a potent virus designed to thwart computer anti-virus programs. The virus is spread from the frame to a computer when the frame is plugged into a USB port.

The virus is difficult to remove, and the article recommends plugging a suspect picture frame into a Linux or Macintosh first to see what is stored in the frame memory (and then deleting it).