Anonymous

Anonymous is a loosely organized hacktivist collective created to promote free speech, unimpeded access to information, and transparency in government and corporate activities. A The collective's slogan "We are Legion" refers to both the group's numbers and the anonymity of its members.
Anonymous comprises a diverse group of individuals connecting through social networking sites, forums and blogs scattered all over the world. Although the group was initially known for online pranks, it has become more serious and political in recent years.
Activities of Anonymous have included the following:

• In December 2010, Anonymous targeted the websites of organizations that it considered hostile to WikiLeaks or its founder Julian Assange.
• In August 2011, Anonymous sent out a mass email/fax bomb to San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit's personnel and organized multiple protests at the network's Civic Center station, in response to a shutdown of cell phone service. The shutdown was an attempt to prevent the organization of a non-violent assembly protesting a police shooting.
• In October 2011, the collective took down 40 child pornography sites, published the names of over 1500 users of those Web sites, and suggested that the FBI and Interpol follow up.
• Throughout the latter half of 2011, the group was also involved in the organization and support of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
• In January 2012, the collective attacked the United States Justice Department, as well as those belonging to several major entertainment industry organizations. The attack was in response to the government's seizure of Megaupload, a locker service that allows anonymous file transfers.
• In April 2012, Anonymous took several U.K. government websites offline, as a protest against what it called the country's "draconian surveillance proposals" and "derogation of civil rights." The denial of service (DoS) was a response to the proposed "Patriot Act," which would allow government monitoring of all phone calls, emails, social network and Web traffic.

MORE INFO:
> Anonymous attacks: Three phases of an anonymous attack methodology

Mickey

The mickey, in a computing context, is a unit for the smallest detectable movement of a mouse.

The mickey is not precisely quantified but varies depending on the specific equipment. A typical mickey would be about 0.1 milimeters (about 0.0039 inches). 

The cursor moves on the screen proportionally, at a rate of something like 2 pixels per mickey.

The mouse driver converts the mickey count (the number of mickeys that the mouse moves) into pixels to determine how far to move the cursor. Cursor direction is a function of the vertical and horizontal mickey counts.

The mouse mickey is named for Disney's Mickey Mouse.

MICKEY (all capitals) is a stream cipher algorithm.

Outside of computing, mickey means a number of other things, including:

Short form for Mickey Finn, meaning a drugged drink.

Slang for a pint bottle of liquor.

Taking the mickey, meaning to tease.

Six Thinking Hats Retrospective

Six thinking hats is a tool for structuring a discussion to make the process more efficient. The method was developed by Dr. Edward de Bono, a proponent of teaching critical thinking in schools. Dr. de Bono is credited with inventing the term lateral thinking, an approach to problem solving that encourages thinking about the problem in a creative, non-traditional manner.

Six thinking hats segments different aspects of a discussion into pre-defined parts called hats. The hats, which are represented by different colors, can be thought of as imaginary thinking caps. As the discussion progresses, the facilitator urges the participants to change their imaginary hats and the direction of the conversation. The hats focus the discussion and limit the risk of wasting time with off-topic discussions, arguing and wheel spinning.

Because one of the goals of six thinking hats is to use meeting time productively, it can be a very useful tool for agile and scrum meetings.

Mantrap

A mantrap is a small room with an entry door on one wall and an exit door on the opposite wall. One door of a mantrap cannot be unlocked and opened until the opposite door has been closed and locked.

Mantraps are most often used in physical security to separate non-secure areas from secure areas and prevent unauthorized access. They can also be found in high tech manufacturing to provide entry and exit chambers for clean rooms.

In the Middle Ages, mantraps were used to check visitor credentials in prisons. A visitor would be allowed entry into an enclosed vestibule, at which time the entry door would be locked and the visitor's credentials examined. If the credentials didn't check out -- or if the visitor was determined to be a person of interest - the trapped visitor could easily be arrested.

Today's mantraps use interlocking doors that are interfaced so that when one door is unlocked, the other door automatically locks. Pass-through authorization is validated bysmart card, key fob or biometric verification. Some systems may employ three-dimensional optical imaging or thermal imaging technology to prevent more than one person from passing through a mantrap at the same time.

Chromebook


A Chromebook is a notebook computer based on Google's Chrome OS and designed to access the user's applications, files, and configuration and setting information over the Internet.

The user's videos, pictures and documents are stored on cloud-based servers, so that they are accessible from anywhere, automatically synchronized across devices and do not require back-up or other loss prevention. Even if the device itself is lost or destroyed, because the user's data is not stored locally it will still be available and up to date.

The Chromebook is available in two models, one through Samsung and one through Acer. Both models are 3G or Wi-Fi-compatible. Like a smart phone, the 3G version enables use of the Chromebook from any location that has access to the network.

Chromebook features include:

* An eight-second boot time, which goes directly to the browser without any desktop or background.

* Instant resume from sleep.

* Reported battery life up to 8.5 hours.

* A 40% brighter screen than those of conventional laptops.

* Built-in security.

* Automatic updates.

* A memory card slot and USB drive.

* A keyboard tailored to Internet browsing, with a search command on both sides.

The Chromebook is available for purchase through Amazon and Best Buy retailers. There is also a subscription option for business and school use, which includes a Chromebook, warranty, support, routine hardware refreshes and cloud management for a monthly fee.

The first Chromebooks were released in June 2011. At the Black Hat 2011 security conference in August, Matt Johansen and Kyle Osborn of WhiteHat Security demonstrated how cybercriminals could target cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities to circumvent Chromebook security.

SlapOS

SlapOS (Simple Language for Accounting and Provisioning operating system) is a distributed, open source software platform for automating the deployment, accounting and billing of cloud computing services.

With SlapOS, anyone can become a cloud provider and sell Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The provider can use their own hardware infrastructure and/or public, shared infrastructure.
A SlapOS cloud is composed of two components -- a SlapOS masterand multiple SlapOS nodes. The SlapOS master is a representational state transfer (REST) web service that stores node configurations and assigns tasks to execute. The SlapOS nodes provide the actual computing resources required for the service.

Google Art Project 

Google Art Project is an online platform through which the public can access high-resolution images of artworks housed in the initiative’s partner museums. The project was launched on 1 February 2011 by Google, in cooperation with 17 international museums, including the Tate Gallery, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; and the Uffizi, Florence.^[1]

The platform enables users to virtually tour partner museums’ galleries, explore physical and contextual information provided about artworks, and compile their own virtual collection. The "walk-through" feature of the project uses Google's Street Viewtechnology.^[2] The virtual images of artworks were reproduced at extremely high quality, and each partner museum selected one artwork to be captured as a Gigapixel image (with over 1 billion pixels).

On April 3, 2012, Google announced a major expansion to the Art Project as it signed partnership agreements with 151 museums from 40 countries. Now, the platform features over 32,000 artworks from 46 museums, and the image acquisition process is underway at the remaining partner museums. Additionally, Google launched a second, improved version of the website with new Google+ features, enhanced search capabilities, and a series of educational tools. ^[3] Google intended for this second-generation platform to be a global resource; accordingly, the Art Project is now available in 18 different languages, including: Bahasa, English, French, Japanese, Polish, and Portuguese.^[4]