defense

With Army Gen. Keith Alexander named as its first commander, U.S. Cyber Command has a challenging mission and Alexander a demanding job.

Receiving a promotion to four-star general, Alexander on Friday was officially given the reins of U.S. Cyber Command by Defense Secretary Robert Gates during a ceremony in Fort Meade, Md. That signaled the initial launch of the division, which won't be up to full capability until October 1.

The mission of U.S. Cyber Command, or CyberCom, is to synchronize the Defense Department's various networks and cyberspace operations to better defend them against the … Read more

Ford's newest employee has moved from the army to the assembly line. But since he's virtual, that type of job change shouldn't pose a problem.

Designed to test the safety of Ford's auto factories, Santos is a virtual avatar that can mimic and record all the physical strains and pains that plague us poor humans. By reaching, lifting, and stretching in his own virtual world, he can provide feedback on how those activities might affect an actual person.

Initially created for the U.S. Department of Defense to help find ways to relieve physical strain on soldiers, Santos is now working at Ford testing the ergonomics of assembly lines. His job is to perform the same physical tasks that a factory worker would perform when building a car to gauge their impact on the human body. The automaker's goal is to improve the quality and safety of its factories before assembly lines are even created.

… Read more

I check the iPad apps lists every day in the hope to uncover new gems. Though the frequency of apps coming into the app store is probably better described as a trickle rather than a flood, there's already been a few keepers that I've spent a lot of time with. One new addition to my iPad is a strategy game like no other I've seen so far and I think it has just the right elements to keep strategy gaming fans coming back for more.

Space Station: Frontier HD ($4.99) takes elements from tower-defense-type games and … Read more

If you're the kind of person who worries about the security of computer networks, you should know that the National Security Agency is worrying about it too.

Since Tuesday, the NSA has been conducting its 10th annual Cyber Defense Exercise, a competition that pits students from a series of military academies against each other--and against the competition's leaders at NSA--in a bid to see who has the best cyberdefense skills. The idea? To "build and defend computer networks against simulated intrusions by the National Security Agency/Central Security Services Red Team."

The competition will last until … Read more

Castle Conflict is a charming little arcade strategy game that has gotten much better since its limited debut.

Based on a fairly primitive desktop game, Castle Conflict starts with a straightforward premise: two castles fighting against each other, sending out units to do battle and gather resources (i.e., the trees that pop up randomly in the middle of the battlefield). You play the castle on the left, on a small 2D screen, and as you build up resources, you press touchscreen buttons to create new units. You start with a limited palette of units: cheap but fragile peasants to … Read more

Earth Vs Moon is a fast-paced, well-made, and often funny arcade game that bears a close resemblance to the Atari classic Missile Command, along with quite a few homages to other beloved old-school video games.

The setup is similar to Missile Command: three stationary bases along the bottom of your screen that fire missiles up at incoming targets with a limited ammo supply. Earth Vs Moon makes great use of the touch screen (you tap to target), offering an improvement over the original game's trackball controls and the Atari 2600's joystick. Many of the game's levels play … Read more

The Defense Department has made its peace with social media.

Long skittish about forums such as Facebook and Twitter, the U.S. Department of Defense says that it is now OK with social-networking services and other interactive Web 2.0 applications. A memorandum released Friday makes it official policy that the agency's nonclassified network will be configured to provide access to Internet-based capabilities across all Defense components, including the various combat branches.

That's not to say that the Pentagon is embracing all of the free-wheeling nature of blogs, tweets, and online video. Soldiers, sailors, and airmen will still … Read more

Before we get to the apps today, I have a couple of news items to tell you about. First, there is a sale right now for the game I wrote about in last week's post, Space Miner: Space Ore Bust (was $4.99; now $1.99). I really can't recommend this game enough (I'm still playing whenever I get a chance), so if you were waiting for the price to come down, now is the time to pull the trigger.

Also, a new Apple patent application, reported by AppleInsider, suggests that a future handheld device will have … Read more

Score one for the Airborne Laser.

In a milestone for the ambitious directed-energy project, now dramatically downsized, the Pentagon's Airborne Laser prototype weapons system destroyed a ballistic missile that was in flight. The shootdown took place February 11 off the central coast of California.

"The Airborne Laser Testbed team has made history with this experiment," said Greg Hyslop, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems, in a statement released Friday. Boeing is the prime contractor for the Defense Department project.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency was equally enthusiastic about the results. "The … Read more