KobeUniversity
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Researchers say crab-based computing possible, lobsters throw up claws in disbelief
IBM's Holey Optochip? Yawn. Fujitsu's K supercomputer? Yesterday's news. Forget about boring old conventional computing stuff, the future of computer technology lies in crabs -- lots and lots of crabs. Researchers at Kobe University and the University of the West of England's Unconventional Computing Centre have discovered that properly herded crabs can signal the AND, OR and NOT arguments essential to computers, not to mention those crucial 1s and 0s. Forcing two swarms of crabs into one, for instance, represents the OR gate -- a trick the computational crustaceans pulled off fairly reliably. Not every operation was pincer perfect, however, as the crabs tended to stumble a bit through attempts at signaling the AND function. At least guiding a group of crabs isn't as tough as herding cats -- researchers used a shadow to imitate a predatory bird and direct the hapless creatures accordingly. Sure, it may not be the first biological computer, but it just might be the first fear-based computer.
WPA networks cracked in just under a minute, researchers claim
To think it was just a few months ago that we thought taking 15 minutes to crack WPA encryption was a feat. Researchers from Kobe University in Japan are claiming they can best that by a wide margin by cracking any WPA-protected connection using the TKIP algorithm within just one minute flat. The details will be revealed at a tech conference on September 25th. Feeling paranoid? Bump up your encryption to the still-secure AES algorithm or WPA2... and if you're just wanting to live life on the edge, consider downgrading to WEP -- it's as good as open at this point anyway.
