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hear,hear. HomSec is doubleplusungood.
That TIA logo is scary too. Keep those creeps away from me.

I found this to be pretty interesting.
The logo really sums up their motives nicely.

I completely agree that our right to peaceably assemble is being assaulted.
But it goes so much farther than that. The ultra-invasive Information Awareness Office , wants information on every little part of our lives. The WiFi deal is just helping them reach that end.
In the name of security they ask us to give up our privacy. We must ask ourselves, is that a sacrifice we want to make?

I knew this was coming, but hoped it wouldn't. Folks, its time to realize that what is going on has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. We are witnessing the rapid deployment of a full-scale police state, the likes of which has never been possible in human history. All the signs and seals are there.

I wish all slashdot readers the best of luck. Freedom was great while it lasted. Enjoy it while you still can. May we all survive the coming tragedies and meet on the other side alive and free.

To paraphrase the GREAT Ben Franklin:

"Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Get your heads out the sand people! If you don't care enough about your freedom to put a stop to this kind of thing then go ahead and email your data to the Information Awareness Office!

American! Knows what that means! And PROUD!

I've written about this in varying detail on my Web site. Here's an excerpt from one of the more pertinent entries:

I'm hoping to tie this rambling into a coherent conclusion. I've had people tell me that it doesn't matter what data collection is being undertaken by the government; if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. If my slowing down for a stopped vehicle is suspicious enough to warrant following, what happens when they have a list of the books I read, the sites I visit on the Internet, and the people I send mail to (even if I use PGP, you think there aren't honeypot remailers out there?)?

Howard Rheingold pointed out on the radio the other night that once all this data is collected (note that They doesn't have to gather the information, just collect it from private companies), the potential for data mining is enormous. What happens when whatever AI and heuristics they have scanning our lives flags a particular coincidence, and the person writing the report is lazy or is ideologically prejudiced? Remember, once it's typed up in a report with a nice abstract by someone told by the computer that you're "suspicious", things look a lot more airtight than they are.

Do you want the police crashing your door, cursing and beating you, and kicking in your teeth, because of a red-flagged coincidence? Do you want to die in a shootout defending your family based on a misunderstanding, bad spin, or a lie? And don't forget, Bush's Justice Department now wants to be able to force you to incriminate yourself.

You can check it out here"

That's 150 meters, not 150 feet.

HID is the Human ID at a Distance program that DARPA is working on. Their goal is to develop technology to be able to positively ID individuals from a camera at a distance of 150 feet.

You can check it out here.

Control theory is more of a traditional engineering discipline, studied by electrical, mechanical, and industrial engineers. It takes a strong math background: calculus, linear and nonlinear equations, tensors, Laplace and Z transforms. There isn't yet "Control Systems for Dummies", although some friends of mine are trying to change that by writing a controls curriculum, accompanied by a parts kit, for bright high-school students.

The path to low-level AI (moving around, not bumping into stuff, not falling down) may lie in the region between model-based control and machine learning. That region is now open for business, due to cheap compute power. Control systems used to be powered by computers with well under 1 MIPS; most of them still are. With cheap gigaflops available, approaches that were once far out of reach can be used. Real-time stereo vision finally works, and is about to get cheap. Stability enhancement systems for cars are quite impressive today. Self-balancing machines, from the Segway to the Asimo, are showing up as products.

Mobile robots, which have been sluggish machines for decades, typically have rather low-performance control systems. The DARPA LA to Las Vegas robot race may change that.

Honestly, though I have no great love for Microsoft (having suffered through WinMe, and being raised on Macs and IBM DOS will do that to ya)- I'm glad the government is at least keeping it's nose out of something in a day where it wants it's nose in everything.

I mean, let's face it, for even your intelligent computer user, Linux is no solution. I went through the process of partitioning, and installing Red Hat and only came out dissapointed. I could never get a PPP protocol to sign me onto the internet, and even though the computer didn't crash, I couldn't use my CD-ROM either. Until Linux is as intuitive as Windows (or even better, Mac's OS X) it's doomed to be for businesses and hobbyists.

Maybe TIA will use TNIK.

Seriously. The United States is starting to get scary what with John Poindexter running the brand new Information Awareness Office at once-honorable DARPA.

Seriously. The United States is starting to get scary what with John Poindexter running the brand new Information Awareness Office at once-honorable DARPA.

The fact that they apparently put John freaking Poindexter in charge of this thing makes me feel really secure about it too. At least we know he won't horribly abuse his power in an illegal and unconstitutional effort to support some psychotic partisan ideal and then lie to congress and the American people about it and get off scot-free. Whew! One less thing to worry about!

Seriously though, I'm wondering if we'll see a big upswing in militia membership. Has Charlton Heston come out against this yet? When's the NRA march on Washington to protest this thing? Do Republican civil libertarians have the courage of their convictions, or are they just as spineless as the Democrats? It'll be interesting to see.

Total Information Awareness will be used for the security of all American citizens, watching over you with the compassion and leadership of a big broth---er, uh - a favorite uncle.

Our glorious leader will leverage these tools to usher in a new era of safety and prosperity, unfettered by the shackles of complicated and antiquated laws. Never fear, no terrorist will be able to hide behind the The Constitution.

Of course, we rely on your cooperation and your TIPS to ensure our enduring freedom.

Everything is warm and fuzzy. War is peace.

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

By far the scariest thing about this project is the huge all-seeing pyramid logo on the IAO homepage. Maybe I'd better reread the Illuminatus trilogy sometime soon.

All of my friends get several copies of every Radio Shack flier, addressed to names like John P. Sartre, J. Wilkes Booth, J Philip Sousa, P Dadi....

I guess that with the new TIA database tracking all of your purchases, it's just redundant data anyway.

"This work has been funded by a grant from DARPA under the CHATS program." I was wondering why the US military would support this. darpa. Anyone knows?

Meant to add in my last post that Whitfield Diffie was also in attendance at this workshop.

Also, also, also, in case you are one of the three people left who haven't seen this, here's the TIA systems breakdown [darpa.mil site]

It would be even funnier if it weren't so true.

When Sensors Attack!

Be amazed by real live footage of sensors watching other sensors!

Be captivated by the secret sensor mating ritual!
(mount, fsck, unmount!)

Laugh at sensors hopping around the battle field like little metal frogs.

Be horrified by real live footage of sensors mauling some guy who sprayed himself with sensor musk!

... is there also, complete with flowchart...."Planned Accomplishments: TBA"

I knew that name sounded familiar... Oh, thats it! He's the director of the I.A.O., or Information Awareness Office, the agency with the scariest name/logo combination in the entire pentagon! (shouldn't the be a link to the IAO along with this story? *ahem* update:)

I knew that name sounded familiar... Oh, thats it! He's the director of the I.A.O., or Information Awareness Office, the agency with the scariest name/logo combination in the entire pentagon! (shouldn't the be a link to the IAO along with this story? *ahem* update:)

Ponder Poindexter's world here. The logo is red meat for the conspiracy guys. Lots of interesting programs too.

nah, THIS is the definitive DARPA reference of this age.

Dammit, when you refer to a darpa.mil URL in an item like this it should point to some space-age particle beam device that would turn the offending "Warbling Chattybitch" in the seat next to you into a pile of ash. Or better yet, cocaine. Now that would be an invention.

On a more realistic (and practical) note, if they're in front of you and you have a good (and accurate, please) arm, you can always use the partially-chewed hot tamale. They have an excellent size / mass ratio so they can be accurately thrown, and they're extra-sticky.

1. The food portions are smaller than a few years ago.
Go every day. Then you will hardly notice when they get smaller.

2. The price is WAY WAY higher!
Than what?? If you're comparing with a few years ago, see point #1.

3. People's cell phones are going off.
Build a Faraday cage over the building before you go in.

4. Some a**hole is giving comentary to the person sitting next to him/her.
Hmmm.. this is a tough one. I'm torn between a paintball gun and something like this.

And a link to the FCS website

Check out the DARPA project for more info. Do a Google search on "orbital express" for other links and news.

Another interesting site rejected by /. is here which features cross-country robot racing.

All hail Dubya! Bringing the worst of cold-war era eastern-block governments to a city near you.

Did no-one else see the logo at DARPA's IAO website? Either the conspiracy is about to be exposed; or they're taking the piss ;)

These types of robots.

These are robots which need to be able to autonomously traverse 50-100 miles of unknown terrain, perform operations at their destinations, and return. Testing them on the 3 acre front lawn doesn't quite give enough opportunity to prove out systems like that.

These types of robots.

These are robots which need to be able to autonomously traverse 50-100 miles of unknown terrain, perform operations at their destinations, and return. Testing them on the 3 acre front lawn doesn't quite give enough opportunity to prove out systems like that.

First we had bees as mine detectors then came the ratbots and now the spyfly-report on CNN gets slashdotted. These are just small pieces in a bigger puzzle, obviously released one after the other. To get the larger picture at once, you have to go to the DARPA site about the Controlled biological systems and see, what will be promoted next...

One of the main potential military applications of robots is working in built-up areas, because these are so hazardous for soldiers. DARPA sponsors a LOT of work in this area, for example the MARS program.

The current most successful approaches are all broadly statistical, providing a means to "see through" the noise, drift and variations in robot sensor readings. Sebatian Thrun's group at CMU has some of the best work in this area (for an overview, see this review paper. Andrew Howard at USC has some cool movies here showing his technique based on a physical spring/damper metaphor. Great stuff.

This problem is here to stay. If you have ideas, join a grad school program and help out!

Government projects like this could fuel a recovery in the technology sector. In this "war on terrorism", the U.S. government is going to be looking for technological solutions to the various problems that will be encountered, so we will likely see more projects like this in the next year. Tech people looking for work should keep an eye on the technologies that will be needed. I found a page on Doing Business with DARPA that might be a good starting point.

One warning, however, is that working effectively with the government requires patience. A lot of what they will require will seem stupid, and you will run into plenty of clueless people along the way. However, there are some really bright technical people working for government agencies, so don't despair.

The task goal is to produce ten working two-way prototypes from each of four teams by the end of 18-months. The languages that will be translated are Farsi, Dari, Arabic, Pashto, Mandarin, and Uzbeki.

Does this set off alarm bells for anyone? Those are complicated languages, and I believe Mandarin in particular is EXTREMELY tonal (i.e., doesn't work well in speech recognition).

Look, just imagine which you get out of Babelfish. Now take it a few levels up, to speech. Does this proposal in any way sound achievable? (again, pun unintended)

Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)

Try reading just a bit to inform yourself about the technology first. Betavoltaic technology was first developed by NASA. NASA file about betavoltaic technology Most recently it has been advanced by Sandia National Laboratories. Read DARPA-betavoltaic Learn your subject. Then you wont seem quite so ignorant. Betavoltaic will start to replace chemical batteries in the next few years.

the rats are just a byproduct of a DARPA-program that's called Development of Biomimetic Robots and Sensors Using Hybrid Brain-Machine Technology, which in turn is just part of something called "Controlled Biological Systems". the mother of it all is the "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO)".

the rats are just a byproduct of a DARPA-program that's called Development of Biomimetic Robots and Sensors Using Hybrid Brain-Machine Technology, which in turn is just part of something called "Controlled Biological Systems". the mother of it all is the "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO)".

the rats are just a byproduct of a DARPA-program that's called Development of Biomimetic Robots and Sensors Using Hybrid Brain-Machine Technology, which in turn is just part of something called "Controlled Biological Systems". the mother of it all is the "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO)".

Note the relevant words:

offerors should emphasize radical concepts that may contain high technical risk but if enabled would have commensurate high military payoff.

These are typical words for a DARPA solicitation. The last thing DARPA wants to hear about is something you're pretty sure will work.

The problem space for this one is fairly prosaic in comparison to some recent ones (nanotech, weird biology, real AI), but the problems addressed (being absolutely sure you can communicate in a hostile and confusing environment, fighting on any randomly chosen battlefield like it's your home field, and weapons that will kill the bad guys but not the good guys) are first class Hard Problems.

Notice also that the amount of money they've got to spend on all three projects in this area is US$5M. Chicken feed. Shrinking budgets and a proper insistence that defense dollars show up on the battlefield preclude much else.

There are many other research programs, both academic and industrial, on wireless ad hoc networks, going back at least to the 1978 DARPA-sponsored Distributed Sensor Nets Workshop at Carnegie-Mellon University. Most of the work has been funded by DARPA, by the low-power wireless integrated microsensors (LWIM) project of the mid-1990s and now by the SensIT project. (Their projects page lists more than 25 academic research programs on these networks, complete with links.)

The University of California at Los Angeles, often working in collaboration with the Rockwell Science Center, has had a Wireless Integrated Network Sensors (WINS) project since 1993. UCLA also supports the similar-but-different "Smart Dust" program, which also employs ultra-low-power networking, but uses optical communication between network nodes.

Professor Anantha Chandrakasan at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the Principal Investigator of the uAMPS (microAMPS) project.

On the commercial side, these networks are being developed by Ember, graviton, Wherenet, and Motorola, just to name a few.

The ZigBee industry consortium is the marketing and compliance arm of the IEEE 802.15.4 draft standard, in a relationship similar to that between WECA (with the "Wi-Fi" brand) and IEEE 802.11b. This draft standard for ultra-low-power, ultra-low-cost wireless networking, now under development, should be finished this winter.

There are many other research programs, both academic and industrial, on wireless ad hoc networks, going back at least to the 1978 DARPA-sponsored Distributed Sensor Nets Workshop at Carnegie-Mellon University. Most of the work has been funded by DARPA, by the low-power wireless integrated microsensors (LWIM) project of the mid-1990s and now by the SensIT project. (Their projects page lists more than 25 academic research programs on these networks, complete with links.)

The University of California at Los Angeles, often working in collaboration with the Rockwell Science Center, has had a Wireless Integrated Network Sensors (WINS) project since 1993. UCLA also supports the similar-but-different "Smart Dust" program, which also employs ultra-low-power networking, but uses optical communication between network nodes.

Professor Anantha Chandrakasan at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the Principal Investigator of the uAMPS (microAMPS) project.

On the commercial side, these networks are being developed by Ember, graviton, Wherenet, and Motorola, just to name a few.

The ZigBee industry consortium is the marketing and compliance arm of the IEEE 802.15.4 draft standard, in a relationship similar to that between WECA (with the "Wi-Fi" brand) and IEEE 802.11b. This draft standard for ultra-low-power, ultra-low-cost wireless networking, now under development, should be finished this winter.

It is being sponsored by DARPA.

Cool stuff. They built it with security in mind and it runs under:
Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and Solaris.

Many DARPA projects are done in cooperation with universities and many of the software supporting them end up as OSS.
Here's a list of DARPA research areas, tying in to projects. I know MIT's project oxygen has helped a lot in the world of linux on handhelds.

Perhaps with heel-strike generators that use electrostrictive polymers installed in the boot heels...

How many times have I compiled a "stable" and had it not boot?
FreeBSD: 0 Linux: lost count

How many times have I rebooted after new kernel, and corrupted all mounted filesystems?
FreeBSD: 0 Linux: 0, but I laughed like hell when it happend to you.

Even if FreeBSD did cease to exist, and develpoment stopped, I would still use it, because it is that damn good.

Oh, and considering DARPA is putting a bunch of money into furthering FreeBSD development, I don't see it going anywhere soon.

"Barring a new invention, which is always possible, 'It should take us to the end of silicon...as we know it today,' he said."