protocols

NASA and the European Space Agency say they have successfully tested an interplanetary communications protocol, with astronauts on the International Space Station using it to control a Lego robot in Germany.

The protocol is called Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), and one of its creators is Vint Cerf, who helped come up with the original Internet Protocol suite. NASA and the ESA said on Thursday that DTN may one day allow "internet-like communications" with spaceships and help support infrastructure on other planets.

"The demonstration showed the feasibility of using a new communications infrastructure to send commands to a … Read more

Apple is again facing controversy over an item being sold through iTunes.

The Conference of European Rabbis wants Apple to remove a book known as "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," which is being sold as a 99-cent e-book through iTunes.

The Protocols, which surfaced early in the 20th century, purports to reveal a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. The book has since been discredited as a fake but was used by Nazis and is still used by some hate groups to justify their anti-Semitism.

The rabbis are concerned that the book's availability in … Read more

Transmit was already one of the very best FTP clients for the Mac, and it's only gotten better with its long-awaited leap to version 4.

The two most noticeable things about the new Transmit are faster speeds (especially when dealing with lots of smaller files) and a completely revamped, more Finder-like interface. Transmit's snappy, animated new interface makes workflows more natural and streamlined than ever. The file browsing has also gotten easier, with new features like "Places" (for storing shortcuts to frequently used folders) and useful Finder-style functionality (which has been showing up in other FTP … Read more

You can call it "Mission: Impossible 4" or Tom Cruise's comeback flick after a career that suddenly hit the skids. But whatever it's called, Paramount's done another stellar job with the video transfer and the Blu-ray version offers impressive fine detail along with an equally dynamic soundtrack to back up the picture quality.

As for the movie, well, it's also pretty good, so this one might very well be worth a purchase rather than a rental.

I know, I know, a lot of you don't buy discs anymore, you just stream everything or … Read more

Fetch is one of the oldest and most well-loved FTP clients, whose cute fetching-dog animation has been running--literally--on Macs since 1989. Fetch can handle all your basic FTP needs, including SFTP and FTP with TLS/SSL, along with support for AppleScript and one-click remote file editing (with any kind of file and any kind of application). In addition to a fairly minimal and intuitive visual interface, Fetch saves you time with extras like Quick Look previews (optimized for OS X), easy drag and drop (including droplet shortcuts that save you from having to retype connection information), progress-tracking Dashboard widgets (shaped … Read more

Firefox made a change to how URLs are displayed when visiting Web pages. Unfortunately, if you're trying to find out if you're on a secure connection by reading the protocol at the start of the URL, you can't do that anymore. Here's a quick fix for getting the protocol back in the address bar so you can see the full URL, every time:

The current address bar appears like the one above.

Step 1: Open Firefox and type "about:config" into the address bar.

Step 2: Click the button that says, "I'll … Read more

LA DEFENSE, France--BitTorrent, a company that's enabled network-crushing levels of file sharing, can be seen as Internet service providers' natural opponent. But the company's chief executive today entered the lion's den with a surprising message:

"I'm actually here to help."

How? In a speech at the Broadband World Forum here, BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker tried to build enthusiasm for his company's Micro Transport Protocol, or μTP, an open-source technology that's built into the company's client software for sharing files over peer-to-peer connections. μTP increases network efficiency and addresses congestion--the biggest concern … Read more

A global deal on a pact to succeed the U.N.'s main climate agreement is still within reach but will not be struck this year, with the pace of talks still far too slow, New Zealand's top climate negotiator said today.

Inevitably, there would be a gap after the Kyoto Protocol's first period expires in 2012, Minister of Climate Change Negotiations Tim Groser said in an interview after delegates from 35 nations attended two days of climate talks in Auckland.

Disputes between rich and poor on sharing curbs in greenhouse gases mean gridlock over the Kyoto Protocol, … Read more

When it comes to integrating mobile entertainment apps with vehicle infotainment systems, manufacturers have been slow to embrace Androids. Harman announced this week that it is the first big automotive technology partner to fully integrate Android devices, which will let users control mobile apps using the vehicle's head unit.

Some Harman infotainment platforms already integrate preapproved BlackBerry and iPhone apps, such as Pandora and Facebook. Newly added to the platform is support for Android's Open Accessory Protocol. Similar to Terminal Mode, this new feature means some apps on an Android device equipped with the protocol can be integrated … Read more