Alex Reid

Chinese telecommunications provider ZTE have announced today that they held a field demonstration of an optical network capable of transmitting 1.726 Tbps. They used Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) to separate data into different wavelengths (8 different channels, each transmitting 216.4Gbps) and transmitted those wavelengths over the same standard fiber-optic cable over 1750 KM in China.

While the company has no plans to provide a terabit-network, they say the purpose of their experiment was to prove that “a seamless upgrade from a 100G transmission system to a 200G system is possible.”

Pretty interesting stuff.

I was looking at Trend Micro’s web site following yesterday’s post and I found this interesting online guide titled How Social Engineering Works concerning how not to be tricked online.

This should be sent to everyone’s parents.

I will warn you though that this guide is written by a computer security company for the novice, so it can be a scary read for those new to the Internet.

There’s one part of the guide that suggests that cybercriminals are like “bad guys holding a gun to your back to take your money” but “don’t inflict that much harm unless you give in”. What?.. This is terrible advice. Bad guys holding a gun to your back are not harmless, but that’s beside the point. Cybercrooks are more like snake oil salespeople trying to steal your banking and identity information; they are data terrorists.

It’s a good starter guide. More people should educate themselves about how scams can work, and in general, question what they see and hear.

Beware of Starbucks gift cards on Pinterest. Trend Micro found that scammers are already using Pinterest to lure clicks to a phishing site.

Apple announced on Tuesday more details about its planned massive new $1 billion, 500,000-square-foot data centre in North Carolina. This will be their fifth data centre, along with facilities in Cork, Munich, California and another one already in North Carolina. They’ve also recently bought 160 acres of land in Oregon for yet another data centre.

The data centres are being built to maintain their growth into cloud computing with its iCloud storage service.

The new billion-dollar data center will feature a 100-acre solar power field and biofuel burner, which will provide much of the data center’s power needs.

The company has also updated its own environmental policy, which include applying reflective paint to the roofs and windows of their buildings, using disposable tableware in the cafeteria compost, and creating a shared bike program for Cupertino employees.

Samsung has developed a transparent window display screen that allows you to view through it – but only one way for privacy – while it acts as a computer screen. Samsung’s new Smart Window is a 22-inch LCD touchscreen which was showcased at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show.

It’s similar to GM’s augmented reality (AR) windshield which was showcased a couple years ago which allows drivers an overlay display on their windshield to show drivers things they may not see, and things they may not want to look down for like their speedometer.

The Samsung windows may be ready next year while GM’s AR windshields won’t be ready until at least 2018.