Items tagged with Iraq
James Heselden, the late Segway company owner, died last weekend. It was ironic in two ways: he died after driving his ruggedized Segway off a cliff and into the River Wharfe, and he was about to be honored for donating 1,000 Segways to U.S. veterans. Jerry Kerr, president and co-founder of Disability Rights Advocates for Technology (DRAFT) said: "We were so looking forward to thanking Jimi in person and are pained that we will not be able to do so. Jimi's tragic death is a staggering loss." DRAFT sponsors the Segs4Vets program, which provides Segway transporters to help injured veterans become mobile. Although worth around $265 million and ranked 395th on the Sunday Times Rich List, Heselden...
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It is said that anything that can be hacked, will be hacked, and that pretty much anything can be hacked. In this case, the Wall Street Journal was the first to report the sad tale. It reported on Thursday that Iranian-backed insurgents in Iraq are using a software package, SkyGrabber, one that costs a mere $25.95, to download imagery from the much used Predator drones.Apparently, the reason SkyGrabber works on what one would think is a secure transmission is because the over-the-air transmission can't, quite obviously, be all that secure unless it is encrypted. Incredibly, it is not. Or at least, was not, as the U.S. is working on the issue, and have been for some time.In fact, the "hacking"...
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Honeywell, a Fortune 500 company and multinational corporation based in the U.S., declared today that their MAV (Micro Air Vehicle) will be deployed in Iraq. These MAVs will be used to spot IEDs (improvised explosive devices) from the air. The MAV deployment represents the very first time a ducted-fan UAV (unmanned air vehicle) will be used in combat. "Honeywell recently received two contracts from the U.S. Navy totaling $7.5 million for the manufacture of more than a dozen MAV systems as well as training and deployment support in Iraq." Every MAV is equipped with video cameras that send data to soldiers via a portable handheld terminal. Each MAV measures only 13 inches in diameter (33 cm),...
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