FBI building system that blows away fingerprinting

TAMPA – The Federal Bureau of Investigation is expanding beyond its traditional fingerprint-focused collection practices to develop a new biometrics system that will include DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans, blended to create what's known as "multi-modal biometrics." Slideshow: The changing face of biometricsHow the Defense Department might institutionalize war-time biometrics "The FBI today is announcing a rapid DNA initiative," said Louis Grever, executive assistant director of the FBI's science and technology branch, during his keynote presentation at the Biometric Consortium Conference in Tampa. This multi-modal NGI biometrics database system will hold DNA records and more. The FBI plans to begin migrating from its IAFIS database, established in the mid-1990s to hold its vast fingerprint data, to a next-generation system that's expected to be in prototype early next year. Grever said that fingerprints and DNA appear to be the most mature and searchable biometrics possibilities, but the FBI is working to include iris-scan records among newer biometrics technologies to identify criminals and terrorists.

The FBI's current IAFIS database remains a workhouse; it processes about 200,000 daily transactions from its 370 million 10-fingerprint records, and it just crossed the 250 million transaction mark. The plan is to share this data with authorized U.S. and international investigative partners, as the agency does today. The next-generation FBI database system is under design by MorphoTrak and is expected to include DNA, iris scans, advanced 3-D facial imaging and voice scans among its multi-modal biometrics. The goal is to drop from a roughly two-hour response time for IAFIS urgent requests to less than 10 minutes. Lower turnaround times for delivering information over wide-area networks are planned.

But FBI officials acknowledged there's still a lot of research and development that needs to be done to reach its NGI goals. The FBI is cosponsoring research with the Department of Defense, which has a similar goal. One goal is to develop a rapid DNA analysis method that would provide DNA analysis in less than an hour, as opposed to several hours or even days. Kevin Reid, section chief for the biometrics service section at the FBI, said the FBI also wants to establish a service-oriented architecture for NGI, but it's not clear when this would be in place to provide services related to biometrics information-sharing. The FBI, under the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005, is now allowed to collect reference-sample DNA material for biometrics analysis purposes at the time of booking, Grever said. "DNA has become a powerful and timely tool," said Grever, adding there are no "privacy or civil liberties issues beyond those associated with fingerprints." The FBI is already moving into new areas, including setting up a palm-print repository and searchable databases for scars, marks and tattoos that it will be collecting.

Branson unveils spaceship that will launch civilians into heavens

The man behind Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways is launching a new venture that's out of this world. Virgin Founder and British billionaire Richard Branson is now throwing his entrepreneurial muscle behind Virgin Galactic , his latest business venture. Literally. The company later today plans to formally unveil its commercial spaceship - SpaceShipTwo - in the Mojave Desert.

The unveiling of [SpaceShipTwo] takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level and continues to provide tangible evidence that this ambitious project is not only moving rapidly, but also making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation." However, the company didn't say when the craft will undergo the required "extensive test flying" program or when it will start carrying tourists into space. Virgin Galactic reports that about 300 people have forked over $200,000, or at least a hefty deposit, to take a flight into space as astronaut tourists. "This is truly a momentous day," said Branson in a statement. "The team has created not only a world first but also a work of art. An engineering team, headed by Branson's Virgin Galactic partner Burt Rutan, began building the spacecraft in 2007. The vehicle is designed to carry two pilots and six passengers into a sub-orbital flight. If all goes as planned, the venture should become the world's first commercial space line, capable of providing civilians with access to space travel. The company also hope the craft can carry scientific equipment and payloads into space as NASA retires its space shuttle fleet next year. The new spacecraft is set to be unveiled as darkness falls this evening at the Mojave Air and Spaceport , according to the company.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Gov. California Gov. Bill Richardson are expected to christen the spacecraft the "Virgin Space Ship (VSS) Enterprise."

Five reasons to partition a disk

When you get a new Mac, it comes with one startup drive (a hard disk or, in a few cases, a solid-state disk) named "Macintosh HD." This arrangement is perfectly fine for most of us, but it's not your only option. Any internal (IDE or SATA) or external (FireWire, USB, or eSATA) disk can be reorganized into one or more volumes called partitions. If the need arises, you can split that disk up.

Each partition appears on your Desktop as an independent disk, and you can even mix and match formatting methods from one partition to the next on the same disk. You can also choose from several third-party utilities, such as Prosoft Engineering's $99 Drive Genius 2 and Coriolis System's $45 iPartition that can change a drive's partitioning without erasing it. You can use Disk Utility (found in /Applications/Utilities) to repartition a drive, although doing so normally requires erasing the entire drive in the process. I know some people who have partitioned their Macs' hard drives for decades, but can't really give a good reason for doing it. So why would you ever bother?

Partitioning can waste space and even decrease your hard drive's performance. Here are five good reasons: 1. To switch between versions of OS X If your Mac is capable of running multiple versions of OS X (for example, you have an early Intel-based iMac that can run Tiger, Leopard, or Snow Leopard), you can partition your drive so that you can use more than one. When you need to run a different version of the operating system-say, for testing, or to use older software that won't run under a newer OS-open the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences, select the partition you want, and click on Restart. 2. To use Boot Camp If you use Boot Camp Assistant (built into OS X 10.5 Leopard and later) to run Windows on your Mac, it creates a special partition just for your Windows installation. Divide your disk into one partition for each version of OS X, and then install the operating systems separately. Unfortunately, Boot Camp Assistant won't work if your disk is already partitioned, so if you intend to use Boot Camp, you'll have to stick to just two partitions (one each for Windows and OS X). 3. To repair disk problems If your startup volume develops disk errors, you may need to run a repair program (such as Disk Utility) from another volume in order to fix them. When trouble strikes, you can boot up from this volume and fix some problems without having any secondary media at all. 4. To share your iPhoto library If you want to share a single iPhoto library between two or more user accounts on the same Mac, one way to do so, per Apple's advice, is to move it to a volume where ownership is ignored.

That other volume could be an external hard drive or a bootable DVD. But another option is to keep a small partition on your main disk that includes a bootable copy of OS X and a repair utility or two. That can't be your main startup volume, but it could be an external disk-or another partition of your internal disk. 5. To manage backups efficiently I recommend maintaining two kinds of backups. The second is versioned backups (which store copies of your files as they appeared at many points in time) using Apple's built-in Time Machine or any of numerous other backup utilities. The first is bootable duplicates of your entire disk, using a program such as Bombich Software's Carbon Copy Cloner (donation requested) or Shirt Pocket Software's $28 SuperDuper!. You don't need to keep two different hard drives around for your two types of backup. For example, if you have a 1TB internal disk, you could buy a single 2TB external drive, divide it into two 1TB partitions, and then put your bootable duplicate on one while using the other for versioned backups.

Instead, use partitions. Joe Kissell is the senior editor of TidBits and the author of numerous e-books about OS X.

Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging Gartner's Magic Quadrant

In a ruling that should surprise no one, California Ninth Circuit Court Judge Jeremy Fogel has dismissed a lawsuit filed by ZL Technologies that accused Gartner of committing a host of illegalities via its placement of ZL's e-mail archiving software in the "niche" box of its Magic Quadrant. (Opinion) In essence, this case boiled down to a question of whether the Magic Quadrant is an objective presentation of quantifiable facts, or - as Gartner argued and should be obvious to all - simply Gartner's opinion based on its research. Here's my post from last month that includes all of the necessary links should anyone be inclined to read the back-and-forth filing that preceded the judge's tidy dismissal. Whatever one may think of Gartner or its fabled Magic Quadrant, this lawsuit - more accurately described as a legal fit of pique - was as frivolous as they come. From the judge's ruling filed yesterday: "The Court agrees with Gartner that the general tenor of the MQ Report negates the impression that Gartner is asserting an objective fact by assigning ZL a 'Niche' status.

Gartner notes that this language appears not in the MQ Report but on its website and that the language describes Gartner's research services generally rather than the MQ Report in particular. "More to the point, the terms 'objective, defensible, and credible' do not imply the assertion of factual information. The cover page of the email archiving review states specifically that, "The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice." "… Finally, ZL argues that Gartner's representation that it provides 'highly discerningresearch that is objective, defensible, and credible to help [customers] do their job better' implies that its Reports contain objective assertions of fact. Gartner argues convincingly that even if its self-description did refer to the statements within the MQ Report, its 'sophisticated readers' – corporate and government executives and professionals – would not infer that Gartner's rankings were anything other than opinion. Gartner also argues persuasively that the word 'defensible' simply means 'capable of being defended.' While its use of the word "credible" reflects Gartner's belief that its ratings are trustworthy, such use cannot reasonably be understood as a statement of fact. Gartner contends that its use of the word "objective," reasonably represents that its rankings are arrived at through 'independent and unprejudiced' methods.

While dismissing each and every one of ZL's five allegations - "defamation, trade libel, false advertising, unfair competition, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage" - the judge did reluctantly allow ZL another bite at the apple by giving the company 30 days to come up with something more credible. Here's part of statement e-mailed to me by ZL's public relations firm: "While we are disappointed that the court has dismissed our lawsuit as filed, we are pleased that it has given us leave to amend our complaint, over Gartner opposition. And, unfortunately, it appears as though ZL is committed to trying. We believe the market should take note that the defense on which Gartner prevailed was its argument that its reports contain 'pure opinions,' namely, opinions which are not based on objective facts. ZL intends to amend its complaint and refile within 30 days." And hopefully Judge Fogel will send them a bill for wasting the court's time. (Update: Gartner's ombudsman reacts to the decision here.) In ZL's view, that is directly contrary to the statements Gartner makes to its customers when selling its allegedly sound research.

HP to buy 3Com in networking, data center bid

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy 3Com for about US$2.7 billion, pushing forward the giant IT vendor's strategy for combining computing, storage, services and networking under one roof. HP is offering $7.90 per share for 3Com, about $2 per share above the stock's price of $5.69 at the close of trading on Wednesday. The deal has been approved by both companies' boards of directors and is expected to close in the first half of next year.

U.S. and foreign regulatory approvals will be required, the companies said. 3Com will add to HP's Ethernet switching portfolio, which is already a growing competitor to Cisco Systems, and add routing products to its lineup. "Companies are looking for ways to break free from the business limitations imposed by a networking paradigm that has been dominated by a single vendor," said Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Servers and Networking, at HP, in a prepared statement. "We will enable customers to build a next-generation network infrastructure that supports customer needs from the edge of the network to the heart of the data center." The acquisition will also give HP access to a research and development team and strong sales channels in China, where 3Com operates the H3C subsidiary it originally formed as a joint venture with Huawei Technologies. As data centers are centralized and virtualized, the largest IT vendors are pursuing data-center strategies that span all parts of what is increasingly a single infrastructure of networks, storage, computing and software. The deal would also bring in 3Com's TippingPoint line of intrusion prevention products. Cisco's introduction of servers earlier this year made it a more direct competitor to HP as well as IBM. HP's own ProCurve networking line has already gained ground on Cisco in enterprises over the past few years. 3Com has trailed the dominating Cisco in the networking arena since the late 1990s and has pursued several different strategies to find its place in the market. Its TippingPoint acquisition gave it a strong position in intrusion prevention, and the company has also focused on networking gear for small and medium-sized businesses.