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An anonymous reader writes from a report via Bleeping Computer: An attacker can downgrade components of the Android TrustZone technology -- a secure section of smartphone CPUs -- to older versions that feature known vulnerabilities. The attacker can then use previously published exploit code to attack up-to-date Android OS versions. The research team proved their attack in tests on devices running the ARM TrustZone technology, such as Samsung Galaxy S7, Huawei Mate 9, Google Nexus 5, and Google Nexus 6. They replaced updated versions of the Widevine trustlet with an older version that was vulnerable to CVE-2015-6639, a vulnerability in Android's Qualcomm Secure Execution Environment (QSEE) -- Qualcomm's name for its ARM TrustZone version that runs on Qualcomm chips. This vulnerability allows attackers root level access to the TrustZone OS, which indirectly grants the attack control over the entire phone. The research paper is available here, and one of the researcher's authors explains the attack chain in an interview here.

SchrodingerZ writes "Since 1985, scientists have been trying to determine how Buckyballs (scientifically named Buckminsterfullerene) are created. They are molecules with the formula C60 (a fullerene) that forms a hexagonal sphere of interlocking carbon atoms. 'But how these often highly symmetric, beautiful molecules with extremely fascinating properties form in the first place has been a mystery.' For over three decades the creation of these molecules have baffled the scientific community. Recently researchers at Florida State University, in cooperation with MagLab, have looked deeper into the creation process and determined their origin. It was already known the the process for buckyball creation was under highly energetic conditions over an instant, 'We started with a paste of pre-existing fullerene molecules mixed with carbon and helium, shot it with a laser, and instead of destroying the fullerenes we were surprised to find they'd actually grown.' The fullerenes were able to absorb and incorporate carbon from the surrounding gas. This study will help to illuminate the path towards carbon nanotechnology and extraterrestrial environmental studies, due to buckyball's abundance in extrasolar clouds."

New submitter schrodingersGato writes "Researchers at the Los Alamos campus of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory achieved a record-setting 100.75 Tesla magnetic field. To do this, scientists placed a resistive magnet (a sophisticated electromagnet) coupled to massive bank of capacitors within another magnet fixed at a 'lower' magnetic field. A short-lived pulse two million times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field was generated. The magnet itself made an eerie sound as it was energized (video). Prepare for the birth of Magneto!"

First time accepted submitter tonyt3 writes "Scientists plan on conducting an unusual climate experiment at a Norfolk airfield next month. They plan to spray water into the air about 20 km high to mimic volcanic particles, hoping that their findings could lead to a solution to global warming. From the article: 'Pouring 10 million tonnes of material into the stratosphere each using 10 to 20 giant balloons could achieve a 2C global drop in temperature, the scientists believe. Sulphate emissions from the Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines in June 1991 reduced world temperature by 0.5C for two years.'"

Roland Piquepaille writes "There are many teams of U.S. scientists working on robots able to find improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq before they can kill American soldiers. Today, let's look at an effort going on at Florida State University (FSU) to build unmanned ground vehicles that could save soldiers' lives. The researchers are creating complex algorithms to control these robots who will have to integrate many different factors such as the type of ground surface or obstacles that might block the vehicle's path. Some of these robots, which also could be used for civilian missions, are currently being tested at FSU. Read more for additional references and pictures of these robots which will have to navigate among dense obstacles."

Case_Argentina writes "Interesting article and photos on News.com about a guy who does microscopy photography discovering hidden images in computer chips. The images, made by tiny wires connecting the deeper layers of the chip, were left there by engineers leaving messages to competitors, or just having plain fun. Snoopy, Daffy Duck, Dilbert, Dogbert and lots of silicon characters and images can be seen at The Silicon Zoo." Update: 10/15 06:27 GMT by Z : As some readers have pointed out, if history serves you can look forward to reading about this again in 2007.

Ron Harwood observes: "Molecular Expressions at Florida State University has a view of Earth starting at 10 million light years and working it's way closer by "powers of ten" till you are at the smallest point scientists can go in the subatomic universe."

Ron Harwood observes: "Molecular Expressions at Florida State University has a view of Earth starting at 10 million light years and working it's way closer by "powers of ten" till you are at the smallest point scientists can go in the subatomic universe."

Ron Harwood observes: "Molecular Expressions at Florida State University has a view of Earth starting at 10 million light years and working it's way closer by "powers of ten" till you are at the smallest point scientists can go in the subatomic universe."

Jonathan Hamilton asks: "I work at the School of Communications for a major state University. The IT Department for the University (the same people that won't let us have a firewall, and use IIS and Exchange) is trying to talk my boss into switching from using SQL for teaching database concepts to MS Access. My coworkers and I think they are nuts. I have googled for pages comparing the two and can't come up with anything. I know some of the reasons why it is a bad idea, but I can't find any references. Help!" The mantra here is: the best tool for the best job. Is Access a suitable tool for teaching database concepts to students? If not, what would you use instead, and why?

TeachingMachines writes "Photomicrographs are photographs taken through a microscope. A site called Molecular Expressions hosts a vast collection of photomicrographs, arranged in galleries. One gallery of interest is called the Silicon Zoo. While using a microscope to examine the silicon surfaces of processors and whatnot, investigators stumbled upon some renaissance artwork, dire warnings, and even some advertising that may be etched into your computer's silicon. Douglas Adams would have been happy to find this one. (from the Silicon Scriptures collection). This "EULA" probably has lawyers jumping for joy. An image on this page will give you a rough idea of how big the artwork actually is."

TeachingMachines writes "Photomicrographs are photographs taken through a microscope. A site called Molecular Expressions hosts a vast collection of photomicrographs, arranged in galleries. One gallery of interest is called the Silicon Zoo. While using a microscope to examine the silicon surfaces of processors and whatnot, investigators stumbled upon some renaissance artwork, dire warnings, and even some advertising that may be etched into your computer's silicon. Douglas Adams would have been happy to find this one. (from the Silicon Scriptures collection). This "EULA" probably has lawyers jumping for joy. An image on this page will give you a rough idea of how big the artwork actually is."

TeachingMachines writes "Photomicrographs are photographs taken through a microscope. A site called Molecular Expressions hosts a vast collection of photomicrographs, arranged in galleries. One gallery of interest is called the Silicon Zoo. While using a microscope to examine the silicon surfaces of processors and whatnot, investigators stumbled upon some renaissance artwork, dire warnings, and even some advertising that may be etched into your computer's silicon. Douglas Adams would have been happy to find this one. (from the Silicon Scriptures collection). This "EULA" probably has lawyers jumping for joy. An image on this page will give you a rough idea of how big the artwork actually is."

TeachingMachines writes "Photomicrographs are photographs taken through a microscope. A site called Molecular Expressions hosts a vast collection of photomicrographs, arranged in galleries. One gallery of interest is called the Silicon Zoo. While using a microscope to examine the silicon surfaces of processors and whatnot, investigators stumbled upon some renaissance artwork, dire warnings, and even some advertising that may be etched into your computer's silicon. Douglas Adams would have been happy to find this one. (from the Silicon Scriptures collection). This "EULA" probably has lawyers jumping for joy. An image on this page will give you a rough idea of how big the artwork actually is."

TeachingMachines writes "Photomicrographs are photographs taken through a microscope. A site called Molecular Expressions hosts a vast collection of photomicrographs, arranged in galleries. One gallery of interest is called the Silicon Zoo. While using a microscope to examine the silicon surfaces of processors and whatnot, investigators stumbled upon some renaissance artwork, dire warnings, and even some advertising that may be etched into your computer's silicon. Douglas Adams would have been happy to find this one. (from the Silicon Scriptures collection). This "EULA" probably has lawyers jumping for joy. An image on this page will give you a rough idea of how big the artwork actually is."

TeachingMachines writes "Photomicrographs are photographs taken through a microscope. A site called Molecular Expressions hosts a vast collection of photomicrographs, arranged in galleries. One gallery of interest is called the Silicon Zoo. While using a microscope to examine the silicon surfaces of processors and whatnot, investigators stumbled upon some renaissance artwork, dire warnings, and even some advertising that may be etched into your computer's silicon. Douglas Adams would have been happy to find this one. (from the Silicon Scriptures collection). This "EULA" probably has lawyers jumping for joy. An image on this page will give you a rough idea of how big the artwork actually is."

TeachingMachines writes "Photomicrographs are photographs taken through a microscope. A site called Molecular Expressions hosts a vast collection of photomicrographs, arranged in galleries. One gallery of interest is called the Silicon Zoo. While using a microscope to examine the silicon surfaces of processors and whatnot, investigators stumbled upon some renaissance artwork, dire warnings, and even some advertising that may be etched into your computer's silicon. Douglas Adams would have been happy to find this one. (from the Silicon Scriptures collection). This "EULA" probably has lawyers jumping for joy. An image on this page will give you a rough idea of how big the artwork actually is."

TeachingMachines writes "Photomicrographs are photographs taken through a microscope. A site called Molecular Expressions hosts a vast collection of photomicrographs, arranged in galleries. One gallery of interest is called the Silicon Zoo. While using a microscope to examine the silicon surfaces of processors and whatnot, investigators stumbled upon some renaissance artwork, dire warnings, and even some advertising that may be etched into your computer's silicon. Douglas Adams would have been happy to find this one. (from the Silicon Scriptures collection). This "EULA" probably has lawyers jumping for joy. An image on this page will give you a rough idea of how big the artwork actually is."

TeachingMachines writes "Photomicrographs are photographs taken through a microscope. A site called Molecular Expressions hosts a vast collection of photomicrographs, arranged in galleries. One gallery of interest is called the Silicon Zoo. While using a microscope to examine the silicon surfaces of processors and whatnot, investigators stumbled upon some renaissance artwork, dire warnings, and even some advertising that may be etched into your computer's silicon. Douglas Adams would have been happy to find this one. (from the Silicon Scriptures collection). This "EULA" probably has lawyers jumping for joy. An image on this page will give you a rough idea of how big the artwork actually is."

spence calder writes "FSU's High Magnetic Field Lab, more specifically my Kenpo teacher, just broke 7 world records, and brought the record for a superconducting magnet to 25 Tesla. Check it out at FSView and a more detailed article here. Now if only our football team was that cool." And if you'd like your magnetic toys to shoot metal bits, Jason Rollette points to his railgun project, which looks like good, clean, high-voltage fun.

Artifice_Eternity writes "For 20 years, citizens of Florida have been pushing for high-speed rail, as an alternative to the state's ever-growing, yet ever-crowded highways. A previous plan, the Florida Overland eXpress (FOX), was killed by governor Jeb Bush in 1998. The voters responded by passing a referendum to require the building of a "bullet train," starting by November 2003. The new Florida High Speed Rail Authority is focusing first on the busy Miami-Orlando and Tampa-Orlando corridors, but eventually hopes to serve the whole state. And they are seriously considering maglev technology! If the Florida HSR system did use maglev, it would be the largest one in the world. (Right now, maglev is in use on test tracks in Germany and Japan, with a 30-kilometer system under construction in Shanghai.) However, I like this humorous proposal best: it takes the idea of a "bullet train" literally, using the Jules Verne approach to propulsion."

WeeMan writes "Remember that cool video/film you might have seen in your high school science class "Powers of Ten"? Well Florida State University (FSU) has their own well done Java version of Powers of Ten. For those who have not seen it, basically it's a continuous zooming in of images by powers of ten, starting with galactic superclusters/walls and ending at the quantum scale. The FSU site also has some cool close up images of many chip designs here, Java virtual microscopy there, and plenty of other cool applets and microscopy images (like microscopic images of beer from around the world : )"

WeeMan writes "Remember that cool video/film you might have seen in your high school science class "Powers of Ten"? Well Florida State University (FSU) has their own well done Java version of Powers of Ten. For those who have not seen it, basically it's a continuous zooming in of images by powers of ten, starting with galactic superclusters/walls and ending at the quantum scale. The FSU site also has some cool close up images of many chip designs here, Java virtual microscopy there, and plenty of other cool applets and microscopy images (like microscopic images of beer from around the world : )"

WeeMan writes "Remember that cool video/film you might have seen in your high school science class "Powers of Ten"? Well Florida State University (FSU) has their own well done Java version of Powers of Ten. For those who have not seen it, basically it's a continuous zooming in of images by powers of ten, starting with galactic superclusters/walls and ending at the quantum scale. The FSU site also has some cool close up images of many chip designs here, Java virtual microscopy there, and plenty of other cool applets and microscopy images (like microscopic images of beer from around the world : )"

WeeMan writes "Remember that cool video/film you might have seen in your high school science class "Powers of Ten"? Well Florida State University (FSU) has their own well done Java version of Powers of Ten. For those who have not seen it, basically it's a continuous zooming in of images by powers of ten, starting with galactic superclusters/walls and ending at the quantum scale. The FSU site also has some cool close up images of many chip designs here, Java virtual microscopy there, and plenty of other cool applets and microscopy images (like microscopic images of beer from around the world : )"

WeeMan writes "Remember that cool video/film you might have seen in your high school science class "Powers of Ten"? Well Florida State University (FSU) has their own well done Java version of Powers of Ten. For those who have not seen it, basically it's a continuous zooming in of images by powers of ten, starting with galactic superclusters/walls and ending at the quantum scale. The FSU site also has some cool close up images of many chip designs here, Java virtual microscopy there, and plenty of other cool applets and microscopy images (like microscopic images of beer from around the world : )"

WeeMan writes "Remember that cool video/film you might have seen in your high school science class "Powers of Ten"? Well Florida State University (FSU) has their own well done Java version of Powers of Ten. For those who have not seen it, basically it's a continuous zooming in of images by powers of ten, starting with galactic superclusters/walls and ending at the quantum scale. The FSU site also has some cool close up images of many chip designs here, Java virtual microscopy there, and plenty of other cool applets and microscopy images (like microscopic images of beer from around the world : )"

cybrpnk writes: "The QX3 Video Microscope may have been an obscure commercial failure as an educational toy, but it is widely available (for now, at least) as a fantastic tool/toy for any geek. The QX3 hooks up to a USB port and delivers live color 10X, 60X or 200X microphotos at 512x384 pixel resolution. Its kid-friendly software even makes time lapse videos a snap, like this one of TNT synthesis - a whole new way to blow up the lab, do not try this at home! Educators are doing amazing things with the QX3 in their classrooms. Sourceforge even has documentation on the software command structure used by the QX3, so it may be considered an open source microscope. Get yours today for under $50 at surplus closeout or EBay before they're all gone!" The Toys-R-Us nearest to me has one QX3+ left (now with my name on it) at $30, so I hope it really does work under Linux. And it's a lot less complicated than building a Scanning-Tunneling microscope.

cybrpnk writes: "The QX3 Video Microscope may have been an obscure commercial failure as an educational toy, but it is widely available (for now, at least) as a fantastic tool/toy for any geek. The QX3 hooks up to a USB port and delivers live color 10X, 60X or 200X microphotos at 512x384 pixel resolution. Its kid-friendly software even makes time lapse videos a snap, like this one of TNT synthesis - a whole new way to blow up the lab, do not try this at home! Educators are doing amazing things with the QX3 in their classrooms. Sourceforge even has documentation on the software command structure used by the QX3, so it may be considered an open source microscope. Get yours today for under $50 at surplus closeout or EBay before they're all gone!" The Toys-R-Us nearest to me has one QX3+ left (now with my name on it) at $30, so I hope it really does work under Linux. And it's a lot less complicated than building a Scanning-Tunneling microscope.

viking099 writes "File swapping programs such as Morpheus, Grokster, and Kazaa (all based on the same software from FastTrak) have grown over 480% in the past 4 months, and are set to break the 1.57 million concurrent connection record that Napster set." So who exactly is surprised by this?

viking099 writes "Palm announces Color Pilots - to be shipped the first half of next year. This should ensure Palms' dominance. " I have to imagine that the battery life is going to be bad on these new Palms - anyone have more details? Still, all things considered, another good move by 3Com.

Mike Holve, the guy with the cool website a lot of us have read, wrote in with a link to an SGI Press Release about the company using the new R12000 (R12K) processor running at 300 MHz in its Octane workstations. The chip is binary- and pin- compatible with the R10K, and from the press release, appears to be relativley inexpensive. Hey, I can dream, can't I? If anyone sees a press release about the actual chip, submit it and I will be sure to update the article. Update: 02/22 07:34 by J :Still no sign of a press release, but thanks to mmoore, we have a nice license plate mask.

Peter Ostrowski writes "A story on wired talks about finding Waldo and Daffy duck deeply embedded within the circuitry of a RISC microprocessor. Check out this picture of Waldo, or this one of Daffy Duck. "

Peter Ostrowski writes "A story on wired talks about finding Waldo and Daffy duck deeply embedded within the circuitry of a RISC microprocessor. Check out this picture of Waldo, or this one of Daffy Duck. "

Isaac writes " Check out this article from The Economist about slow progress in implementing high-speed internet access from home. In true form, The Economist pulls no punches with this analysis, detailing, in clear, readable language, why cable and telco companies are deliberatly stalling on broadband access for the home market. Chock full of examples on how the consumer is being forcibly bent over yet again by media-merger-mania. For once, an "evil corporation" article that doesn't focus on Microsoft. Worth a read. "

Matt Allen writes "Ok, if you've ever wanted to know what beer looks like under a microscope go here. It really is pretty cool..." Beer makes a good desktop background image.

Benjamin Ryzman writes "A couple of Slashdot subjects have been pretty nostalgic recently. One about the resurection of the mighty C=64 and also an informative report from Videotopia. I've been reading the comments about these and much to my dismay, I found that many Slashdot readers seemed to think that the famous 6502 family of microprocessor was made by Motorola. You can find the truth about it there. And for those who think the 6502 is dead, visit Western Design Center to find where the chip or its descendants are still produced and used. For those seeking a pretty desktop background, there are also some pictures of the chip. I'm just too nostalgic of this simple and effective chip. "

Robert Outlaw wrote in to tell us that GNOME 0.20 has made an appearance on the Official FTP Site. Tarballs and RPM's are availiable at RHAD's Site as