Month: April 2018

Intel Skylake die shot. (credit: Intel)

Since the news of the Metldown and Spectre attacks earlier this year, Intel has been working to reassure the computer industry that it takes security issues very seriously and that, in spite of the Meltdown issue, the Intel platform is a sound choice the security conscious.

To that end, the company is announcing some new initiatives that use features specific to the Intel hardware platform to boost security. First up is Intel Threat Detection Technology (TDT), which uses features in silicon to better find malware.

The company is announcing two specific TDT features. The first is "Advanced Memory Scanning." In an effort to evade file-based anti-virus software, certain kinds of malware refrain from writing anything to disk. This has can have downsides for the malware—it can't persistently infect a machine and, instead, has to reinfect the machine each time it is rebooted—but makes it harder to spot and analyze. To counter this, anti-malware software can scan system memory to look for anything untoward. This, however, comes at a performance cost, with Intel claiming it can cause processor loads of as much as 20 percent.

Enlarge / Oklahoma GOP Congressman Jim Bridenstine is Trump's nominee to become NASA administrator. (credit: Space Foundation)

Thursday update: It took awhile, but after eight months of consideration—and a key flip of Florida Senator Marco Rubio to "yes"—the United States Senate confirmed Jim Bridenstine to be NASA's next administrator on Thursday afternoon. The vote was 50 for, and 49 against, for Bridenstine. Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the National Space Council, was in the Capitol had a tie-breaking vote been necessary.

Like many other nominations from the Trump White House, this vote played out along party lines (Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, was absent). Historically, however, such nominations for NASA administrator have not been partisan affairs. For example, in 2009, the nomination of Charles Bolden as administrator, and Lori Garver, as deputy administrator, was approved with unanimous consent by the Senate. NASA's previous administrator, Mike Griffin, nominated by George W. Bush in 2005, was also unanimously approved.

Immediately after the vote, Bridenstine released the following statement: "It is an honor to be confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as NASA Administrator. I am humbled by this opportunity, and I once again thank President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for their confidence. I look forward to working with the outstanding team at NASA to achieve the President’s vision for American leadership in space."

Enlarge / SpaceX will build the BFR rocket and the BFS spaceship (shown here on the Moon) near its California headquarters. (credit: SpaceX)

During his State of the City address on Monday, the mayor of Los Angeles made it official: SpaceX will build the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) at the Port of Los Angeles. "This vehicle holds the promise of taking humanity deeper into the cosmos than ever before," Eric Garcetti added on Twitter.

The mention of SpaceX during Garcetti's speech confirmed widespread speculation about SpaceX's 30-year lease of an 18-acre site at Berth 240 in the port. At this facility on the water, SpaceX plans to build a "state-of-the-art" industrial manufacturing facility near Long Beach, about 20 miles south of its headquarters.

“SpaceX has called the Port of Los Angeles home to our West Coast recovery operations since 2012, and we truly appreciate the City of Los Angeles’ continued partnership," Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX, said in a statement. "As announced today by Mayor Garcetti, the Port will play an increasingly important role in our mission to help make humanity multi-planetary as SpaceX begins production development of BFR—our next generation rocket and spaceship system capable of carrying crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”