Saran999

Every time you mix things up, you receive less that you get when you use specific programs for specific tasks. Firewall is one thing, and PrivateFirewall block and alert on incoming and outgoing connections. But for an antimalware, you have to get file and registry protection, and this something that only a real IDS program (Intrusion Detection System) may offer to you. So, you have to choose, IMO, PrivateFIrewall AND Spybot - Search & Destroy, that's free as well: http://www.safer-networking.org/dl/ This is not a real time IDS system, but it will protect and sign fairly well your files, so you may have a piece of mind about malware and virus that wish to modify them. If you really wish to play with IPS/IDS, anti-malware and stuff... why not to give a shot to Snort? www.snort.org You will have to study a bit... but you already have a bunch (huge bunch) of predefined rules and configurations... this is the PRO choice, when you don't want to pay for it... you'll pay only with your knowledge...

Granted, but was the weight of your keys, so you don't feel them anymore in your pocket and you loose them, don't having the possibility to get back into your car, or enter in your house, or opening your bank secure box, where all your money and valuables where stored. I wish I could have my eyes as piercing and strong as those of an healthy and young eagle, not those of a puppy eagle, but a young adult eagle. So, I keep my eyes, but they become stronger and more piercing, ok? No kidding...

That's was really informative, @oobydooby, thank you! Macrural having a long tail

I feel ya, bro! Cheers

Finally! They have understood that security is for professionals! And there no less secure minded ppls than MS crew... poor guys! Thanks for sharing this, very funny and informative... perhaps in need to be 'mirrored' in the Fun and Laughs Section too! Cheers

Very informative and useful post, Thanks for sharing this @freak Most true, there are really a lot of nightmare stories about exploding batteries... it's tough out there, lol! Sparing money on a battery mean to start to sleep very worried... you'll never know when it will... EXPLODE...

I was really missing those... and I think that Ronald is becoming more and more mad after all the ill publicity he got! I'm happy about it!

Macrophobia fear of prolonged waiting

Legendary iOS hacker MuscleNerd tweeted today that there’s no bootrom exploit out there for A5+ processors, this could mean that iOS 7 jailbreak might end up taking quite some time. iOS 7 jailbreak MuscleNerd rules out possibility of a bootrom exploit, iOS 7 jailbreak might take time An exploit is required to jailbreak an iOS device. There are two kinds of exploits, a bootrom exploit and a software level exploit. The latter can easily be patched by Apple through a firmware update, so even if such an exploit is found, the jailbreak is usually limited to one firmware. Bootrom exploits are hardware based and can’t be patched in devices that have already been shipped to customers. This exploit allows at least a tethered jailbreak on any particular firmware. Unfortunately, no bootrom exploit has been found in any iOS device processor after the A4, which powers iPhone 4, iPod touch 4G etc. There were rumors going around recently that there was a bootrom exploit for A5 and high processors out there, but MuscleNerd has flat out rejected these rumors, saying there’s no even a bootrom dump. There has been talk of an iOS 7 jailbreak, notable developer Ryan Petrich posted an image recently what supposedly was an iPod touch 5G jailbroken on iOS 7. If such a breakthrough has been made, its likely that a software based exploit has been found in iOS 7. The fact that there’s no bootrom exploit means that iOS 7 jailbreak will take time. Dealing with software level exploits is cumbersome, and a lot of work has to be done before the jailbreak is ready for the public.

Apple has been fighting a war of attrition against the jailbreaking community since the original iPhone was jailbroken in 2007. The jailbreakers expend resources and time to find a new exploit, but then Apple pushes out a small update to block it. This was a cycle for years, but the flow of reliable jailbreaks has been slowing. There was a jailbreak for iOS 6 the day it launched, but iOS 7 is much more locked down. We’ve been hearing for weeks that a jailbreak is on the way, with iOS developers hard at work, but have yet to see any significant movement. How much longer will it be until there is a reliable iPhone 5S jailbreak? By gaining root access to iOS, modders are able to give the user privileges to bypass Apple’s security measures and install unapproved software or tweak deep system settings. This usually requires finding a bug or vulnerability in iOS or the boot ROM. Hardware-related vulnerabilities in the Apple A-series chips are also possible, but less common, especially after the iPhone 5 and its A6 chip. Today, without an exploit, an iOS 7 jailbreak simply can’t happen. Not all hacks are created equal, though. Many of the bugs that make jailbreaks possible only lead to tethered jailbreaks. That basically means you need to plug the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch into a computer running the jailbreak software every time it boots. If you’re not around a computer with the necessary software, the phone is a brick. Most users aren’t willing to deal with this, preferring to wait on the untethered jailbreak. The untethered version is a persistent jailbreak that works without the aid of a computer to make the phone or tablet boot up. These unfortunately are much harder to develop — the days of going to an website and getting your iDevice jailbroken with a tap seem to be long gone. There used to be plenty of iOS jailbreak suites, many of them with caches of new exploits ready to go when Apple patched one. However, it seems like most of the low-hanging fruit is gone now. Tethered jailbreaks have become far more common, and Apple has been continuing to harden the system against even minor exploits. There isn’t yet a jailbreak for iOS 6.1.4, the version prior to iOS 7. Noted iOS hacker Winocm says he has a jailbreak for this version of the platform in the works and will release it before the end of the year. So when can we expect a jailbreak for iOS 7? Members of evad3rs, the team behind evasi0n (a popular jailbreak tool) previously said an exploit is in the works. More recently, evad3rs modder Planetbeing claimed to have all the pieces in place for an iOS 7 jailbreak. In fact, evad3rs members have successfully run unsigned code on iOS 7. This probably means the necessary exploits have been identified, but the team is still working out the specifics and building a tool for the general public to use. Apple will, of course, patch the holes in one of the upcoming bug fix releases of iOS 7, so Evad3rs may end up waiting for iOS 7.1 to blow the jailbreak exploits. That would give users more time to enjoy the freedom before Apple locks them out again. Every piece of software has vulnerabilities, but they have to be found and exploited first. The jailbreakers aren’t the only ones looking, either. Apple hunts for the same things on its end because these exploits are security concerns. You can’t blame Apple for patching jailbreak exploits — it’s making iOS more secure for the vast majority of users who don’t jailbreak. When and if a jailbreak is developed for iOS 7, it might not be a good solution. Maybe Apple is close to winning this war.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has issued a decision that anti-censorship campaigners say could spell an end to anonymous website comments in the EU. The judgment came through on Thursday in the case of Delfi AS v. Estonia. Delfi is an Estonian news site that had been found liable by a court in that country for offensive comments posted by anonymous users under one of its stories – it went to the ECHR claiming this violated its right to freedom of expression, but the human rights court disagreed. This all traces back to the start of 2006, when Delfi carried a story about a ferry company that had changed its routes in a way that delayed the opening of new ice roads to various islands. Enraged readers wrote nasty things about the ferry firm, which successfully sued Delfi, winning around €320 ($434) in damages. Having established that the comments were defamatory and Delfi should have expected that, given the nature of the article, the ECHR’s ruling (which can still be appealed) noted that the comments had not been taken down by Delfi’s automated system for catching naughty words, nor by its notice-and-take-down system. Now here comes the crucial bit for online publishers. Although Delfi’s site was clear that commenters were themselves liable for what they wrote, which would theoretically have allowed the ferry company to sue them rather than Delfi, the commenters were anonymous. And so, according to the ECHR’s subsequent statement: Index on Censorship’s Padraig Reidy responded by saying : What it could stand as a precedent for is not entirely clear. The Delfi case was quite specific: it was largely about the legality of Estonia’s interpretation of EU free-expression law (which the court upheld); the comments were apparently merely offensive rather than whistleblowing or anything like that; the fine in question was small and found to be reasonable; and Delfi’s systems for picking up abusive comments seem to have failed in this instance. Also, the EU is not America – it has fairly good guarantees for free expression, but not as cast-iron as those stateside. But nonetheless, particularly in the context of a wider questioning of anonymous comments, it’s not hard to see why Index on Censorship finds the ruling troubling. There can be great value in anonymous comments, and a ruling such as this may have a chilling effect if it leads publishers and site operators to decide the potential liability is too great.

They say creativity lies in hiding your sources. At Apple innovation has always been given the top spot. Yet much has become public knowledge before the launch of a product or service. Leakage regarding iPhones and iPads has plagued Apple. The iPad mini created quite a storm when it arrived last year. Possessing the perfect streamlined form that enabled easy handling, the object of desire came at a reasonable rate. However, even before it came out, expectations went sky high regarding a high resolution Retina display that would accompany the new version of the iPad mini. Then there was the date when this feature would accompany the model. Some have set October 22nd of this year as the slated date. Others say something else. The changes inside the iPad mini include the incorporation of an A7X microchip. And then the five megapixel camera along with fingerprint authentication system makes it a dream device alright. Mean while, according to the grapevine, the next iPad will be sleeker, slimmer and even lighter in weight. It will be a cinch to use on a regular basis. The hues in which it will come are space gray and silver both of them sophisticated and pretty mature adult choices. A high energy A7X SoC will feature at its core. Several other products are under construction at Apple. They are to be revealed at the function due on the 22nd of October of this year. The wait is about to be over.

Taser International, a manufacturer of electronic stun guns, is not the company most people would expect to be bumping elbows with the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Dropbox as it looks for acquisitions. Taser is the best-known maker of a class of weapons known as electric control devices, which are intended to give law enforcement officials a nonlethal method of immobilizing suspects with electrical shocks. But a medical study last year said the devices could pose significant health risks, including cardiac arrest, and Amnesty International, the human rights group, released a report blaming Tasers for the deaths of at least 500 people held in custody in the United States since 2001. And Taser is currently named as a defendant in 23 lawsuits in which plaintiffs say wrongful death or personal injury stemmed from its devices, according to the company’s most recent quarterly filing with securities regulators. Taser has said its products are less risky for civilians than firearms. A Taser International device, with a built-in video camera to record activity, meant to subdue targets with jolts of electricity.Taser International, via Mkt A Taser International device, with a built-in video camera to record activity, meant to subdue targets with jolts of electricity. It was the lawsuits that, through a chain of events, brought Taser into closer contact with Silicon Valley companies. About seven years ago, Taser developed a miniature camera that attached to its devices so law enforcement officers could record the situations in which the devices were needed. Eventually, Taser began offering wearable cameras that officers could clip to their glasses, chests and helmets. said Jason Droege, general manager of Evidence.com, a cloud service run by Taser. But police officers shooting video through wearable cameras and smartphones have created big new technology challenges for police departments, which must manage the vast numbers of photos and videos that the devices capture. The files have to be stored securely, with audit trails that show who had access to them and other controls that prevent tampering. Taser created Evidence.com to help law enforcement agencies do all this. In an effort to bolster its new direction, Taser plans to announce on Thursday that it has acquired a start-up based in Seattle called Familiar that is in a business that seems to have almost no connection with Taser’s own. Familiar runs a service that turns ordinary smartphones and tablets into digital picture frames, letting friends and family members automatically broadcast photos and videos to each others’ devices. Facebook, Dropbox and Twitter also had conversations with Familiar about an acquisition, according to a person briefed on the discussions who declined to be named because the conversations were confidential. Slater Tow, a spokesman for Facebook, declined to comment, as did Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Twitter. Dropbox did not respond to a request for comment. As part of the deal, which this person said was for less than $10 million, five people from Familiar will join Taser. Mr. Droege said Taser was attracted to the expertise that Familiar had in creating a consumer-friendly service for securely moving video and images among devices. he said.

With BlackBerry on life support, it’s time to accept the likelihood that there won’t be a BlackBerry a year from now. Your business will be in for a rude awakening if it relies on the once-mighty smartphone for mobile communication and productivity. You don’t need to abandon BlackBerry immediately and run for the lifeboats, but you do need to know what your options are. Here are five things you should start thinking about now in order to prepare for a transition away from BlackBerry. 1. If not BlackBerry, what? If you’ve built your entire mobile ecosystem around BlackBerry, the first issue you need to address is which mobile platform (or platforms) you should switch to if BlackBerry ceases to be an option. Figuring out what you especially like about the BlackBerry platform is the first step to choosing a suitable successor. “Ownership matters,” says John Dasher, vice president of product marketing for Good Technology “Assuming your BlackBerry devices are company-owned, is your go-forward plan the same? Or is BYOD in your future? Or maybe a mixture of the two options? The answer here potentially affects your security model and deployment plan.” Take a step back and consider why your business uses BlackBerry devices. Which BlackBerry features or benefits are most important to your business or your users? With those considerations in mind, you can compare Android, iOS, and Windows Phone to determine which platform(s) can best meet your needs. 2. Mobile device management BlackBerry essentially invented the concept of mobile device management (MDM). BlackBerry Enterprise Server gives companies direct control over their mobile ecosystem, as well as the tools needed to provision, protect, and manage BlackBerry devices. BlackBerry is unique among the major mobile device manufacturers in offering its own proprietary ecosystem. Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices, in contrast, rely on the wireless service providers—and companies that use them have to invest in and implement some sort of third-party MDM system to manage it all. If you switch to iOS or Android, BlackBerry can still help you with device management. If you want to switch from BlackBerry to Windows Phone, you’re on your own. But if you choose to migrate to iOS, Android, or both, BlackBerry can help. It offers its customers BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, which extends the familiar BES environment so that it can manage Android and iOS devices along with BlackBerry hardware. It’s not a permanent solution, but BlackBerry Mobile Fusion gives you a short-term means of transitioning from BlackBerry by attrition. Eventually, however, you may still need to migrate to a third-party MDM. 3. Secure messaging One hallmark of BlackBerry is BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), its messaging back end. BlackBerry built its reputation on reliable, secure mobile communications. If you’re transitioning from BlackBerry to another mobile platform, the role that BBM used to play for your business will be hard to fill. “BlackBerry is still the only cell phone provider that bypasses the carriers for messaging,” says Rob Enderle, principal analyst with Enderle Group. “Depending on Internet speed, you may be able to use an instant messaging technology, but it will need to be a secure form, the clients will need to be able to run the related software, and you’ll likely need a low-latency guarantee of service from your carrier to get this to work.” BlackBerry had plans (now on hold) to offer BlackBerry Messenger for both Android and iOS devices. At first blush, Apple’s iMessage may look like a similar platform-specific messaging tool. But iMessage is essentially just SMS text messaging with a little extra Apple polish. BBM has much greater depth of features and is more secure, requiring users to do more than just provide someone’s phone number in order to connect and chat. BlackBerry intended to ease this transition by offering a BBM app for both iOS and Android. The app would have enabled an organization to begin switching to one or both of those platforms, while maintaining the security, reliability, and familiarity of BBM. The apps are currently on hold, however, following a botched launch that caused BlackBerry to pull the whole thing for the time being. 4. Data protection BlackBerry is synonymous with mobile security. BlackBerry customers are accustomed to end-to-end encryption out of the box and built-in data protection technologies to secure company data against unauthorized access. Android, iOS, and Windows Phone are—first and foremost—consumer devices. They can function as well as or better than BlackBerry mobile devices in many business and productivity roles, but they treat things like encryption and data protection more as options than as default features. As you assess your mobile platform options for replacing BlackBerry, consider how each handles the critical job of protecting data—both on the device itself and during its transfer across the airwaves. Make sure that the inherent security features and capabilities of the mobile platform you choose meet your needs, and confirm that your IT admin will be able to manage and enforce security policies on the mobile devices involved. 5. Alternative apps Good Technology’s Dasher stresses that apps are crucial, and should play a significant role in your choice of a mobile platform to replace BlackBerry. “Your BlackBerry is likely used for email, calendar and contacts. In the destination plan, think about the additional apps that are needed to ensure employee productivity.” Finding suitable replacements for your BlackBerry apps is an essential part of making a successful transition to a new platform. List all of the BlackBerry apps you depend on: email, contacts, calendar, CRM (customer relationship management), VPN, and any others. Then determine whether those same apps are available on other mobile platforms. If they’re not, you’ll have to do additional research to find appropriate alternatives. If you plan to migrate by attrition, make sure that the alternative app can work alongside the BlackBerry app; and check to see whether you can integrate or transfer data from the old app to the new one to smooth the transition. Keep calm and carry on Harry Brelsford, founder of SMB Nation and a loyal supporter of BlackBerry, believes that businesses could use up to 24 months to plan and execute the next phase of their mobility strategy. He notes some potentially serious disruptions on the horizon, including how the Nokia/Microsoft deal will play out, and (of course) what company will acquire BlackBerry. The future is murky. “It’s one of those strange times in technology,” Brelsford says, “where we don’t know what we don’t know.”

The journey was long and full of baby steps, but we’ve finally reached the destination: Google updated its terms of service on Friday to allow the company to slap your real name and face alongside ads, under an expansion of its “shared endorsements” program. Getting here took a while, and it took a slow expansion of the Google+ social service. First, Google+ users had to sign up for the service with their real names, rather than pseudonyms. Next, all new Google Accounts—even if you only wanted Gmail—required you to sign up for Google+. Then, back in May, Google began coaxing veteran YouTubers into adopting Google+ accounts, and a few weeks ago, the company announced that all YouTube comments will be powered exclusively by Google+. Google+ integration throughout Google’s services seemed pretty handy at first. When searching the Play Store, the power of “shared endorsements” showed you when your friends like a given app (not unlike what iOS and OS X users see when looking for game recommendations in Apple’s Game Center app). When searching the web, Google+ identified when your buddies +1’d a given site. Now, Google’s bringing your real name, face, reviews, and comments to Search ads across the web. But while Facebook forces all users to participate in “sponsored stories,” Google gives you the opportunity to opt out of its ad program. Minors will be automatically excluded, but you’ll have to manually tell Google to leave your name out of its ads if you’re over 18. Fortunately, it’s easy to do so. How to tell Google to stop using your face and name in ads To stop Google from using details from your Google+ profile in its advertising campaign, you’ll need to head to the Shared Endorsements page on Google+. The Shared Endorsements page spells out the details of the program. If you scroll down below all the words and pictures, you’ll see a single settings option on the page: “Based upon my activity, Google may show my name and profile photo in shared endorsements that appear in ads.” Simply uncheck the box and click Save and you won’t have to worry about your face and name appearing in Google’s ads. Here’s the settings option you need to change. Opting out of the ad campaign doesn’t opt you out of all Shared Endorsements, however; your persona will still appear alongside websites you +1 and apps you like while your friends are scouring the web or Google Play.

Apple is in the final approval process for its new "Spaceship" campus in Cupertino, California. The company hopes to finish construction of the Spaceship three years from now, in the middle of 2016. Next week, the city of Cupertino, California will vote whether or not to give Apple final approval for its new "spaceship" headquarters, which will be located about a mile away from the company's current campus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=618en9VJ7N8 The San Jose Mercury News got an exclusive look at a giant model of Apple's new headquarters, complete with some impressive lighting and a bunch of tiny people for scale. When built, the campus is going to be massive, yet surrounded by plenty of green space. There will also be external buildings for top-secret research and development projects, an underground parking garage, and a theater for keynotes and company presentations. But it hasn't broken ground yet.

Apple analyst Brian White at Cantor Fitzgerald is in Asia filing daily reports. In today's report he says he was surprised to see that in China, there were plenty of gold iPhones in stock, but the "Space Grey" model was selling out. We don't think anyone can read anything meaningful into this anecdote but we read it, said, "huh," to ourselves, and thought it would be interesting to pass along. Consider it one for the files:

Google Glass, Google schmass. What you really want on your face are these puppies. ION Glasses are sunglass or prescription glasses frames with a built-in LED, Bluetooth stack, and tiny button controller. What do they do? Well the LED lights up to notify you of new messages – you can set different people to different colors – and you can use the glasses to control the music on your phone, a presentation, or almost anything else controlled via Bluetooth. The astute observer will say “Why in the living blazes would I want an LED in my glasses? Are you daft, man?” And to this I would say “Non!” Understand me here – I’m not saying this product is for everyone, but I met the founder, Santiago Ambit, and he is so earnest and big-hearted that we have to assume that he thought this through. So here we are. Ambit’s system is fairly ingenious. He’s embedded a small piezo buzzer, LED, and Bluetooth stack inside the eyepieces of a standard pair of glasses. They are no heavier than regular Wayfarers and the logo glows on the side so people know you’re into the ION lifestyle. He is raising funds on Indiegogo and has raised $22,000 of his $150,000 goal. You get a pair of glasses — suitable for prescription or sunglass lenses — for a pledge of $89. They last a week on one charge. Again, why do you need these? Well, they’re extremely unobtrusive and they’re a great way to see when someone important is calling and to help your prioritize the times you need to pick up your phone. Because of their clever design no one will have to know you’re using them and, in turn, you can react to messages and notifications without panic or rudeness. Would I wear these? I’m not so sure, but if I were in security or needed to be in a lot of important meetings I could definitely see myself wanting to get small, discrete messages in the corner of my eye without the potentially off-putting nature of Google Glass. I rarely end posts with a question but I ask you, dear reader, would you wear these?

This infographic addresses some of the negative assumptions about remote access and its effect on the network. This infographic, courtesy of HOB Secure Business Connectivity, explains how VPNs are much improved from the past and offer the best way to provide anytime/anywhere access to resources for employees.

Technical issues are pretty much a guarantee these days whenever a highly anticipated game makes its online debut. It’s incredibly frustrating not to be able to play your just-purchased game as the creators intended and rather than try and prepare for the issue ahead of time, it seems publishers are content to work out the kinks or add more servers after the fact and shovel freebies at gamers to make up for it. Such is the case with Rockstar’s latest smash hit, GTA V. While the single-player mode is outstanding, the multiplayer segment was predictably met with numerous technical issues. As a peace offering to those that have been unable to enjoy the online experience, Rockstar is offering anyone that has played or will play GTA Online this month a special in-game stimulus package. Specifically, users’ bank accounts will receive $500,000 of in-game cash starting as early as next week. To help keep the worldwide in-game economy in check, the money will be awarded via two separate deposits of $250,000. Specific dates will be announced as soon as possible, Rockstar promised, and they hope this will facilitate a fresh start or makes your continued in-game life a bit sweeter. Players must first install the latest inbound patch (1.04) which is expected to remedy some lingering issues like vehicle purchase loss. Otherwise, no additional actions are required and the money should automatically appear in the in-game bank accounts of eligible players. Technical issues are pretty much a guarantee these days whenever a highly anticipated game makes its online debut. It’s incredibly frustrating not to be able to play your just-purchased game as the creators intended and rather than try and prepare for the issue ahead of time, it seems publishers are content to work out the kinks or add more servers after the fact and shovel freebies at gamers to make up for it. Such is the case with Rockstar’s latest smash hit, GTA V. While the single-player mode is outstanding, the multiplayer segment was predictably met with numerous technical issues. As a peace offering to those that have been unable to enjoy the online experience, Rockstar is offering anyone that has played or will play GTA Online this month a special in-game stimulus package. Specifically, users’ bank accounts will receive $500,000 of in-game cash starting as early as next week. To help keep the worldwide in-game economy in check, the money will be awarded via two separate deposits of $250,000. Specific dates will be announced as soon as possible, Rockstar promised, and they hope this will facilitate a fresh start or makes your continued in-game life a bit sweeter. Players must first install the latest inbound patch (1.04) which is expected to remedy some lingering issues like vehicle purchase loss. Otherwise, no additional actions are required and the money should automatically appear in the in-game bank accounts of eligible players.

A European trio of researchers has discovered a "circumstellar disk" – a corpse, in other words – of a minor planet that was about 26 per cent water. The discovery of the rocky remains, found orbiting a white dwarf star 150 light years over the rainbow, gives credence to the theory that our own Earth's watery condition was brought about when such H2O-bearing rocks – asteroids, planetoids, and the like – crashed into our home world in the distant past. The boffinry breakthrough is detailed in a paper published in the journal Science titled "Evidence for Water in the Rocky Debris of a Disrupted Extrasolar Minor Planet". While those of us on Earth's surface are duly impressed by the vastness of our oceans and seas, our planet is actually rather water-poor. As Phys.org points out, water accounts for only about 0.02 per cent of Earth's mass. That's a paltry dribble when compared with the 26 per cent of mass estimated to have been in the now-destroyed planetoid that once orbited around its home star, which collapsed into white dwarf GD61 about 200 million years ago. That 26 per cent, by the way, is essentially equal to the proportion of water in Ceres, the largest asteroid in our solar system's main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. At 930 kilometers in diameter, however, Ceres is much larger than the now-defunct victim of GD61, which the researchers estimate to have been just 90km or so. Artist's conception of a watery asteroid being torn apart white dwarf GD 61 Artist's conception of a watery asteroid being shredded Despite its formerly small size, the ex-asteroid is tantalizing in a number of ways. First, of course, is its water content. But also of great interest is that it's the first body found outside our solar system that has the two main ingredients needed for life as we know it: a rocky composition and abundant water. Also of interest is the fact that when GD61 turned into a white dwarf, there was no particular reason why the asteroid, planetoid, or whatever you want to call it – and likely some of its fellow travelers – should have been torn apart by the dwarf's gravitational forces. Unless it was pushed. the paper's lead author Jay Farihi told Phys.org, That means that there are other, far more massive bodies that are now orbiting or have orbited GD61, and that at least some of them are or were likely to have the same rocky, watery composition as the object that met its doom in GD61's gravitational maw, or were given water by similar objects, as it appears that the Earth has been. Farihi said.

Twice as fast as the iPhone 5? Twice as CRASHY claims app bug watcher Apple's flagship iPhone 5s handsets are suffering "Blue Screen of Death" crashes that force fanbois to reboot their expensive gear. And we're told application software, when launched by the user, crashes twice as often on the new mobile than freshly run code on the iPhone 5c and 5. That's all according to data provided by app-performance tracker Crittercism: it claims about two per cent of the "hundreds of millions of app launches" it has tracked on the iPhone 5s result in crashes, compared to one per cent for the iPhone 5c and 5. Crittercism boss Andrew Levy told AllThingD. Levy is of the opinion – which we share – that it's no surprise that the 64-bit A7-equipped iPhone 5s apparently has a higher app-crash rate than its 32-bit A6-equipped brethren. After all, developers have had over a year to tune their apps for the A6, which was introduced in September 2012 in the iPhone 5, and the iPhone 5c is essentially an iPhone 5 in an "unapologetically plastic" case. The A7 and the iPhone 5s' M7 sensor-managing coprocessor have been available for devs to conquer only since September 20 of this year. There were undoubtedly some lucky folks who got their hands on prerelease versions for optimizing and testing their apps, but the unwashed masses of iOS app developers had to wait in line like the rest of the fanboi flock. New hardware. New operating system. Nothing to see here. Move along – but keep your ear to the ground to learn whether Apple and its developer community can improve that 2X crash rate in a reasonable amount of time. Of perhaps more interest is the fact that some iPhone 5s users are experiencing a nostalgic Windows-like Blue Screen of Death, especially when exiting the apps in Apple's iWorks productivity suite: Numbers, Pages, and Keynote. The BSOD-then-reboot problem has been reported in Apple's discussion groups, MacRumors forums, and a YouTube video, among other places. Although the complaints center mostly on iWork apps, other users claim to have had the same problem with Chrome and Safari, and while using FaceTime. Interestingly, iOS (like any system worth its salt) supposedly sandboxes apps, so you'd think that a misbehaving program couldn't take down the entire device – but perhaps Apple bent its own sandboxing rules for its iWork apps, and is now paying the price. Some users have suggested that the BSOD issue can be fixed by disabling the iWork apps' iCloud syncing – which seems reasonable, knowing Apple's less than stellar history of cloudy offerings. To do so, launch Settings, tap iCloud, then toggle off Numbers, Pages, and Keynote in the app list that appears. The BSOD problem is not new to the iPhone – it has been reported previously on the iPhone 5, 4S, and 4, as well, but our best guess is that those appearances were due to hardware problems. This time around, well, who the Tophet knows? We're dealing with Apple, after all, and our role as consumers is to simply sit back and wait until Cupertino's iOS engineering team releases an update.

Has your boss ever bought everyone pizza, as a special favor? That must have been cool! Twitter employees ate oysters, scallops and lamb chops yesterday.

Mega-VC Peter Thiel's eponymous, anti-college "fellowship" is part of his techno-libertarian fantasy: in the future, no one will need to attend bloated institutions like college. You'll just start a business instead—how about trading an education for topical energy spray? https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sOxAK5USB6w Ben Yu is taking time off from Harvard to pursue "Sprayable Energy," which is exactly what it sounds like: caffeine you spray on your neck like cologne and absorb through your flesh. It's basic premise is that drinking caffeine—in a capsule, coffee, or whatever—is too much. Better to cut out the step of ingestion and just absorb chemicals directly into your bloodstream. Yu and his partner are looking to raise $15,000 on Indiegogo—meanwhile, we must notes that: Not that everyone leaves Harvard necessarily goes on to do something worthwhile, but trading time toward a degree for time fundraising for caffeine spray doesn't either.

Can big data predict heart disease before today’s doctors can? IBM thinks so. The company, joined by Sutter Health and Geisinger Health Systems, has received a $2 million grant to use big data analytic to detect the signs of heart disease years earlier than we can today. The research, which started back in 2009, will comb through patients’ electronic health records, using data like demographics, medical history, and medication to find common signals indicative of heart disease. If things go right, the insights from the analysis will eventually be integrated into primary care, which should make it easier for doctors to predict which patients are at highest risk for the disease. The research couldn’t come at a better time. Heart disease is the leading cause of death and hospitalization in the U.S., affecting 5.7 million people today. Half of those diagnosed with it die within five years — largely because by the time doctors detect the disease, it’s already done irreversible organ damage.