Sharks: Most Dangerous Internet Hackers?

Are sharks the most dangerous internet hackers because they can disrupt a large region’s internet coverage with just one bite?

By: Ringo Bones 

Excuse the pun, but there has been recent undeniable proof that sharks can be more dangerous than the internet's most notorious black hat hackers. Forget the Mainland Chinese Unit 61398’s most coordinated DDOS attacks between 1999 and 2006, 13 incidences of broken underwater internet cables of previously unknown causes have been attributed to shark attacks after shark bite damage contained fragments of shark tooth – physical proof of a confirmed shark attack. The most recent one shut down Vietnam’s internet back in 2014.  

Underwater cables are rather old tech that dates back to Victorian era telegraphy, and yet they provide a more reliable and cost-effective internet connectivity between continents and nation-states in comparison to the latest high-bandwidth digital communications satellites. Underwater telecommunication cables are often attack by sharks because their Ampullae of Lorenzini cause them to be attracted to the rather strong electromagnetic fields emitted by the high-current direct-current power supply of underwater cables.    

At present, 75-million internet servers worldwide are connected via submarine telecommunications cables where 500,000 miles of underwater cables connect various landing stations that make everyone on the planet more or less connected. 41 cable repair ships currently service those underwater cables that carry our internet signals. In case of a shark attack incident, underwater cable repair currently costs about 10,000 US dollars a day. 

But as the underwater cable reaches land and go subsurface, humans scavenging for scrap metal are as dangerous as sharks when it comes to disrupting the internet service. In 2011, a 75-year-old Georgian woman looking for scrap metal to sell in order to augment her meager government pension accidentally cut an underground telecommunications cable with her digging shovel, shutting down the internet services of Georgia and Armenia for 5-hours. 

Whatever Happened To Grand Theft Auto Los Alamos?

Though such video games and their ilk are primarily known for their gratuitous violence and misogyny, are there any “high-brow alternative” to Grand Theft Auto Los Angeles?

By: Ringo Bones

Grand Theft Auto Los Alamos: a high-brow alternative to Grand Theft Auto Los Angeles? Maybe, but for those fortunately old enough to remember, furor over the theft of the U.S. government’s top tier nuclear secrets – when the U.S. Department of Defense’s ultra-compact W88 thermonuclear warhead construction secrets got leaked to Beijing - are a serious issue back in 1998 before it was overshadowed by the September 11, 2001 Terror Attacks.

Well, the Taiwanese born American scientist Wen Ho Lee who had been working at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratories in Los Alamos, New Mexico facility since the 1970s had become headline news back near the end of 1998 when he was found out to be passing nuclear weapon’s secrets to the Beijing Government via Hong Kong. And for those fortunately old enough to remember the atomic-powered car – the Ford Nucleon – and add this to the mix, now you have a recipe for a high-brow nuclear science oriented video game reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto Los Angeles. And name it “Grand Theft Auto Los Alamos” in order to capitalize on the curious old enough to remember the “Atomic Age” first hand.

Sometimes I too wonder why nobody has though of this yet. Given the advances made in home based computer game consoles and in desktop PCs, tablets, mobile devices and what have you, Grand Theft Auto Los Alamos could have been a historically-based video game that’s both educational and thrilling. Maybe one of these days - through Crowdfunding I guess – it may suddenly dominate the computer gaming market, or maybe an IMAX 3D big-budget action movie tie-in perhaps?

    

Is Your Website Google Mobile Search Friendly?

Despite the fears of a “Mobilegeddon”, does your dedicated commercial website compliant with Google’s latest “mobile friendly update”?

By: Ringo Bones 

A few days ago, anyone with a dedicated economically viable website had been busy to comply with their “Mobilegeddon checklists” due to social media wide “Mobilegeddon scare” a few days ago in order to avoid their site from retreating from Google’s top-tier search results. But does a mobile-friendly website insure a recipe for success in the face of Google’s recent revamp of its search algorithm to prioritize mobile friendly websites priority for top-tier Google search results? 

A few web savvy nettizens first learned of Google’s plan to release a new search results algorithm designed to reward mobile-friendly web pages back in February 2015. According to these web savvy nettizens, it’s unprecedented for Google to pre-announce a big algorithmic change like this, but Google did so in order to give online publishers ample time to make their sites more “mobile friendly”.

Google’s brand new search results algorithm was officially launched back in April 21, 2015. Fortunately, according to Google, this update will impact only mobile searches and it will give a search results ranking boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results only. As it will only impact mobile searches – as in mobile smartphone devices (powered by Google’s Android?) and will have no impact on your desktop computer’s search ranking results. Tablet computer search results are the same as desktop search results. 

Even though experts say that in order for your website to comply to be “mobile friendly”, it must have easily clickable function buttons and must easily resize its fonts and graphics to fit into mobile devices, according to Google, the only “official way” to know if your site is already indexed by Google as “mobile friendly” is to see if your site has the “mobile friendly label” in the mobile search results. Using Google’s official mobile friendly testing tool will show if your site is “mobile friendly”, but Google may still need some time to update their index to pick up on the fact that your web pages are mobile friendly. You can also check with the mobile usability reports within Google Webmaster Tools, but those can be fairly delayed. 

Since 2013, premium online adverts – i.e. ones that make your website earn more money in its operation – had been relegated by Google on mobile device search results. That is, your website earns more money if more people are using Google to search for it on their mobile devices. Recently, it has been announced that Google had been telling the press that they are “experimenting” with a new mobile friendly search ranking algorithm as far back as December 2014.

Can An Artificial Intelligence Program Beat Us At Everything?

Even though Prof. Stephen Hawking had warned us about it back in December 2014, will artificial intelligence systems be better than us at everything? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Though it has yet to dethrone those classic rock gods in terms of composing the best songs, an artificial intelligence program recently managed to make itself master at playing classic 1980s era Atari computer games.  Researchers working for Google in London say they have developed an artificial intelligence system that has taught itself how to win at 1980s era computer games. The computer program, which is inspired by how the human brain works learned how to play 49 classic Atari games, in half the time, it was better than a professional human player. 

Google’s DeepMind team said this was the first time a system had learned how to master a wide range of complex tasks. The study is published in the journal Nature. Dr. Dennis Hassabis, DeepMind’s vice president of engineering showed the BBC’s Pallab Ghosh how the artificial intelligence program had taught itself to excel at classic Breakout – a 1980s era Atari game. 

While the warning issued by Prof. Stephen Hawking on artificial intelligence systems’ ability to destroy mankind speech back in December 2014 still on their minds, Google’s DeepMind team wants ethical guidelines on artificial intelligence development be put in place to avoid such fears.  Despite the potential risks, the promise posed by true artificial intelligence systems that could accurately model how our brain works is just too good not to pursue further. 

Can One Fly A Plane With Their Thoughts Alone?

Even though the technology is still at its proof of concept stage, can Tekever’s Brainflight someday allow pilots to fly aircraft via their thoughts alone? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Ricardo Mendes, COO of Portugal based drone specialists Tekever has now become the latest cause célèbre in the tech and aviation world for demonstrating a system that allows a pilot to control an unmanned drone in flight via their thoughts alone. Even though the technology is still at its proof of concept stage, Tekever’s Brainflight has practical implications that go beyond the drone and aviation world – it could make fully paralyzed individuals control their wheelchairs or personal computers / mobile smart-phones using their thoughts alone. But in the short-term, Tekever is eyeing to market their system that allows individuals with restricted movement to pilot a plane with the same ease as an able-bodied individual. 

In the long term, the firm said piloting of larger jets, such as cargo planes, could be controlled this way without the need of crew on board. However, one aviation expert – John Strickland, an independent aviation consultant based in London – recently told the BBC that the largely conservative civil aviation industry would be unlikely to adopt such technology due to the current perception of Tekever’s Brainflight that the civil aviation industry sees as potentially unsafe. Mr. Strickland said the airline industry was instead currently focusing its innovation efforts towards things like better aircraft construction materials and more economical engines. 

Drone specialists Tekever, which works with security firms, police forces and the military, adopted existing electroencephalography (EEG) technology so it could issue instructions to the software used to give the unmanned drone instructions reminiscent of those “neural interface control networks” featured in late 1990s era episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. EEG works by detecting activity in specific parts of the brain. After several months of training, “pilots” are said to be able to teach their brain how to think about moving a small circle on a computer screen either up or down, which in turn steers the drone left or right.  

“We believe that Brainflight represents the beginning of a tremendous step change in the aviation field, empowering pilots and de-risking missions and we’re looking forward to deliver these benefits to the market with highly innovative products.”- says Ricardo Mendes, chief operating officer of Tekever. However, similar neural interface control systems have origins that go back to the early 1970s. Back in 1974, a computer was hooked up to the human brain via an electroencephalography (EEG) electrode studded skull-cap as an interface by Lawrence Pinneo of Stanford Research Institute. 

Malawi: The Most Expensive Country To Own A Mobile Phone?

Despite having a significant portion of the country’s citizenry earning less than 2 US dollars a day, is Malawi the most expensive place on Earth to own a mobile phone? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Even though mobile phones and related devices had been recently dubbed as the most financially empowering telecommunications device of the last 25 years, it seems a tad hard using one – never mind improving your socio-economic status in the next few years - when you live in a part of the world when more than 50 percent of your monthly earnings will be spent just getting you online. Sadly, this represents the current reality of mobile phone services and other internet connected device users in the country of Malawi. 

One of the first things to strike a foreign visitor to the nation of Malawi is the huge number of adverts put up by mobile phone companies and internet service providers marketing their products and services. In fact a recent report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) says on average, Malawians spend more than 12 US dollars a month just to keep their mobile phones and other internet connected devices online. This represents 56.29 percent of the average earnings of a typical gainfully-employed Malawian, which is a premium in a part of the world where a significant number of the population earns on average less than 1 US dollars a day. 

Ben Chisonga, head of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MARCA) says “We are thinking of reducing the interconnection rates, which are about four cents per minute which we believe, is the highest in the continent.” which is seen by many as a move in the right direction. But at present, Malawi’s mobile phone subscribers currently complain of the lack of service quality and high mobile phone service fees. When it comes to the topic of expensive mobile phone services, Malawi is quite a contrast to Macau, China where it is dubbed by the International Telecommunications Union as the part of the world that is the lowest cost to own a mobile phone where only 0.11 percent of the average monthly earnings are spent on mobile phone service fees while providing world-class service quality.