News about what is happening in technology today!

Intel, intent on world domination, said it has created a working prototype of the next generation of super-thin processors. Perhaps that phrase in the headline above about curing all known diseases, a shameless attempt to attract your attention, was an exaggeration on the part of your humble narrator. Anyway, this new manufacturing process creates chips that are just 45nm (nanometer = one-billionth of a meter) thick. That’s a lot slimmer than the current state-of-the-art PC processors, which at 65nm will be the thickness at which more than half of Intel’s PC chips will be built by the third quarter of this year.

Who really cares about all this dorky shit? Well, we do, because when chips are thinner they run much faster and cooler, and use a lot less power. So, more than a billion transistors can be fit onto a chip that’s the same size as today’s processors (Moore’s Law lives!), or better yet, chips can be smaller and fit into even tinier devices, and be quieter and less battery-hogging. It’s all good. Expect to see these new gee-whiz processors rolling out sometime in the second half of 2007. Meanwhile, by then you can expect AMD to leap even further ahead of Intel, maybe even making steady progress on that “curing all known diseases” thing.

Rare video footage shows a giant octopus attacking a small submarine off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Salmon researchers working on the Brooks Peninsula were shocked last November when an octopus attacked their expensive and sensitive equipment.

The giant Pacific octopus weighs about 45 kilograms, powerful enough to damage Mike Wood’s remote-controlled submarine.

Wood’s first reaction was to panic, knowing the marine creature can exert a powerful bite.

“I go full reverse and blast him with all these seabed particles,” said Wood, describing the attack shown in the video. “Finally, he lets go and disappears off into the gloom.

“It was desperation. It’s a $200,000 machine, and it’s not insured,” said Wood, who runs SubOceanic Sciences Canada in Duncan, B.C.

The rare footage, which has just been released, is believed to be the first documented attack of an octopus on a sub.

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Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of the case, it appears the BlackBerry patent battle will be resolved in the U.S. District Court system. In the case of an injunction, Research In Motion says it’s found a way to let customers keep using their BlackBerrys.

While the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Research In Motion Ltd.’s request to hear its case, the BlackBerry maker says it has a technology work-around ready to go in the event a U.S. District Court imposes an injunction.

RIM says it would pre-load a software work-around on new BlackBerry devices that avoids any alleged patent infringements before they’re shipped to customers. “Work-arounds are a legitimate strategy respected by the courts, so RIM would be fully entitled to alter its software with a non-infringing work-around and continue shipping,” said Mark Guibert, RIM’s VP of corporate marketing, in a prepared statement.

RIM believes that existing customers should be entitled to continuing the BlackBerry service and that any injunction, if granted, should only apply to new devices being sold. “To be clear, RIM doesn’t believe an injunction is appropriate,” Guibert said.

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A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military’s plans for “information operations” - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.

As the world turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the military opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies and the modern media offer.

From influencing public opinion through new media to designing “computer network attack” weapons, the US military is learning to fight an electronic war.

The declassified document is called “Information Operations Roadmap”. It was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University using the Freedom of Information Act.

Officials in the Pentagon wrote it in 2003. The Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, signed it.

The “roadmap” calls for a far-reaching overhaul of the military’s ability to conduct information operations and electronic warfare. And, in some detail, it makes recommendations for how the US armed forces should think about this new, virtual warfare.

The document says that information is “critical to military success”. Computer and telecommunications networks are of vital operational importance.

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ARLINGTON, Virginia — Insider attacks and industrial espionage could become more stealthy by hiding malicious code in the core system functions available in a motherboard’s flash memory, researchers said on Wednesday at the Black Hat Federal conference.

A collection of functions for power management, known as the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), has its own high-level interpreted language that could be used to code a rootkit and store key attack functions in the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) in flash memory, according to John Heasman, principal security consultant for U.K.-based Next-Generation Security Software.

The researcher tested basic features, such as elevating privileges and reading physical memory, using malicious procedures that replaced legitimate functions stored in flash memory.

“Rootkits are becoming more of a threat in general–BIOS is just the next step,” Heasman said during a presentation at the conference. “While this is not a threat now, it is a warning to people to look out.”

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