Jump to content

Saran999

Retired Staff
  • Content Count

    740
  • Donations

    $0.00 
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    25

Posts posted by Saran999


  1. Cyber security pundits and contractors can't seem to make it through a presentation without invoking the specter of hackers shutting down the US electric grid. That's certainly something to be concerned about, especially if we end up at war with a country like China, but at the moment actual incidents are hard to come by. Indeed, serious electric grid vandalism remains comfortably old school—like climbing a 100-foot high-voltage transmission tower and chopping through the cables with a saw, then removing a few bolts from the bottom of the metal tower, then attaching a half-inch thick cable to the tower with a 15 inch eyebolt, and then pulling the cable across the adjacent Union Pacific railroad track "in an apparent attempt to utilize a moving train to bring down the tower." You know, old school.
    iuzTn21LIknFI.jpg
    According to the FBI, this actually happened in Cabot, Arkansas in the early morning on August 21. The vandalism closed state highway 321 for the entire day, and the FBI has offered a $20,000 reward for the arrest of a suspect.
    We should have expected a fire in some random electrical substation?

    That kind of heat might deter most suspects, though probably not the kind of person who would climb an electric transmission tower and cut a high voltage power line with a saw. And indeed, a similar act of vandalism was reported September 29 at an Energy Arkansas substation down the road in Keo. An intentionally-set fire consumed the substation control house but caused no power outages in the surrounding community. To make an already strange story that much odder, the arsonist left a message scrawled on the metal plate outside the substation: "You should have expected us."
    ibrTUPnIve1gjr.JPG
    The "expect us" tagline belongs to the hacker collective Anonymous, though "membership" in the group is so fluid and the phrase so well known at this point that it's impossible to say if the attack actually had anything to do with the group.
    inmMIItE4OHZ.jpg
    Then this week in Jacksonville, Arkansas, someone climbed over a utility company fence to access a parked "Skytrim" tractor complete with circular saw blade on the end of its massive extendable arm. The stolen tractor, used for chopping down tree limbs, was driven through a large cattle gate, down two roads, and then off-road along the clear-cut right-of-way for high voltage transmission lines. The driver continued until he came to a pair of key utility poles, which he promptly cut down. 10,000 First Electric Cooperative customers lost power.

    itav44LJ1JL5e.jpg

    • Like 1

  2. Microsoft will be releasing a new version of its Remote Desktop software to Android and iOS in the future, as part of a raft of enterprise cloud computing launches. The app, which allows users to control a PC or virtual desktop remotely, will appear on the mobile operating systems at the same time as updated versions of the software ship for Windows, Windows RT, and OS X.
    ib1UHiymJJQXVV.png

    Remote Desktop Android
    The iOS Remote Desktop app will have an "app bar" to remotely launch and switch between apps, writes Microsoft MVP Michel Roth, with the app said to work with both iOS 6 and iOS 7. The updated OS X app will apparently have more functionality, including "seamless windows."
    i64bRFDZMopeV.png

    Remote Desktop iOS

    The Android version, usable on devices running Gingerbread and later, with support for the Remote Desktop Gateway also touted. All touch-enabled versions will apparently have various virtual mouse modes, and will be able to bring on screen a virtual keyboard for text entry.
    The new Remote Desktop apps will be made available later this month on the appropriate app stores, though pricing was not revealed.
    ijarzRDLzCpUD.png

    Remote Desktop Mac OS

    Microsoft also outlined its plans to release Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 on October 18th, .NET 4.5.1 for Visual Studio 2013 on the same day, access discounted Windows Azure prices for Enterprise Agreement customers on November 1st, and the introduction of the Windows Azure US Government Cloud.


  3. “Gold phone” is something of a misnomer these days, the term appended to champagne- and rose-colored variants of devices like the iPhone 5s and Galaxy S 4, though no actual gold is used in their construction. Until recently, the only true “gold” smartphones to be found were a few ultra-high end Vertu handsets destined for the pockets of the super-rich.

    i2iHSYUlOIkJM.jpg

    HTC’s newest variant of the One, plated in 18-karat gold protected by a non-scratch clear-coat, isn’t a groundbreaking reinvention of the “gold” phone paradigm; valued at $4000 and limited to a production run of just five units, it’s much more an appeal to publicity than a mainstream consumer product. But anytime a guy walks into a room with a Pelican case protected by two locks and a beefy security dude, you just can’t help but want to peek inside.

     

    Fortunately, our hands-on video is here to help you do just that. Granted, it’s more of an eyes-on, and the reflective gold plating in the dim demo room played havoc with our auto-focus, but even given those conditions, we think you’ll enjoy a look at the most authentic “golden phone” we’ve seen to date.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1vhPTUnFYY8

    • Like 1

  4. ixP7jdX77kUZP.png

    Firefox OS is unquestionably a work in progress, but with a point upgrade a few weeks after launch (and the release of the ZTE Open), at least we can confirm that Mozilla is, in fact, putting the work in. The 1.1 version of the software is available now for users of the mobile operating system, featuring a number of enhancements. At the top of the list is the arrival of MMS support, letting you send and receive images, audio and video files and the like via messages. Performance has also been enhanced, with smoother scrolling and faster load times. There's music search built in now, too, plus an API for push notifications for app developers. All that, plus improvements to email, contact management, calendar and keyboard.

    iDOmGA9x8MRK5.jpg

    • Like 1

  5. ikED91tEYLcqI.jpg

    LaCie and Porsche Designs are at it again, but this time their storage collaboration has a slightly smaller footprint. The companies' latest effort is a brushed steel USB 3.0 thumb drive that's available in 16GB and 32GB varieties, starting at $30. For the security minded, files onboard are password-locked and protected with AES 256-bit encryption -- there's a free year of Wuala cloud-storage included too. You won't have to worry about a speeding ticket with this Porsche's transfers either -- the're rated at so-so 95MBs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUlQQWgHmzMjNdgh1SH2aJEw&feature=player_embedded&v=TBlF154vt8c


  6. The eighth generation of console gaming is closing in (sorry, Wii U), and both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will land next month. Sony’s new console will drop on November 15 of this year, and Microsoft’s Xbox One will release one week later on November 22. With every new console generation, the launch consoles are either must-haves or must-waits. Will the launch PS4 follow the route of the PS3 and end up a must-have in hindsight? Will the Xbox One follow the Xbox 360 and launch with various console-killing bugs? We’re here to help you figure it all out.

    iDmNFMfIPCqAc.jpg

    Console revisionist history
    We’ve been around long enough to know that only one or two years after a console launch, it’s likely a revision will be on the way. Sony likes to slim down its gaming boxes, with the original PlayStation, PS2, and PS3 all getting a Slim version; the PS3 receiving a second, even slimmer revision toward the end of its lifecycle. The PSP experienced four different iterations — the original model, the subsequent 2000 and 3000 models, and the ill-fated PSP Go. The PS Vita has only been around for a year-and-a-half, and it’s already getting a 2000 model, as well as being turned into the PS Vita TV set-top box. Though every single Sony console has been revised into a slimmer form, the PS4 may be the first one that isn’t. The console is using x86 — or, standard PC — architecture, which means there isn’t much room to get smaller without getting more expensive.
    ibybZPDaBXNEuw.jpg

    The same — more or less — applies to the Xbox One. The original Xbox didn’t undergo a slim revision, though it received many different color variations and specially branded editions. This might be because the original Xbox employs x86 architecture. However, the original Xbox released late into its console generation, so it’s possible Microsoft simply didn’t get far enough into the hardware’s lifecycle to slim it down. Microsoft did revise the original Xbox gamepad, though. Meanwhile, the non-x86 Xbox 360 received a number of revisions and redesigns.

    Though both the Xbox One and PS4 are using x86 architecture, there is already room to slim down. A not insignificant portion of the Xbox One is composed of empty space for airflow. If Microsoft can figure out how Sony was able to remove all that empty space, the Xbox One could shrink in size. Meanwhile, both consoles use an HDD, so in a few years when SSD prices drop a bit, each console could employ the much slimmer, faster storage device and shed some weight while gaining some speed. Furthermore, Sony could remove the PS4′s internal power brick, freeing up quite a bit room within the console to rearrange its guttyworks for optimum space-saving solutions. The company likely wouldn’t do that for a while, as the internal power supply is a source of engineering pride.
    ilzjQ3S1maJDm.jpg
    Should you wait for a revised model?
    Now that we can look back on history, the biggest reason why the launch PS3 was worth an early adoption was because of the backwards compatibility with PS2 and PS1 games. Not long after launch, the feature was dropped, rendering your Sony back catalog useless unless you hung onto your PS1 and PS2. This time around, the PS4 and the Xbox One both won’t be inherently backwards compatible, so neither console will be launching with a must-have feature that could be dropped in the future. Both companies appear to be angling toward offering backwards compatibility through cloud services, which will always be available as long as the consoles are internet-capable.

    The only console revisions we can feasibly look forward to in a short amount of time would be the addition of an SSD, or slimmer units. If waiting a couple years for a somewhat smaller (but still giant) set-top box with a faster storage device is worth missing out on those couple years of games, go right ahead and sit this one out. If not, the eighth generation of consoles could easily be the least risky target for early adoption in video game history, thanks to the x86 architecture. This time around, it should all come down to how long you can do without the launch window games. You likely won’t be missing out on some kind of special launch-day hardware feature that gets dropped somewhere down the line.
    Unfortunately, console pre-orders are sold out almost everywhere, so you’ll have to put in a bunch of effort to find one.


  7. Ford Motor Company has developed two new test cars that offer a glimpse of the driverless car of the future. The first vehicle, a tricked out Ford Focus, uses sensors to detect obstacles in its path and will automatically brake or steer around them if the driver fails to react in time. The second is a prototype of a vehicle with self-parking technology, which works whether or not you’re actually in the driver’s seat.
    ibyzOuBJD7J5py.jpg
    The autonomous parking technology is particularly interesting because it shows that a vehicle is capable of driving itself without the intervention of the driver – even if it’s only within the confines of a parking lot. The driver can step out of the vehicle and activate a button on a keychain, and the car’s sensors, transmission and engine do the rest. Ford produced a video that shows how it works:

    While there are plenty of assisted parking systems in vehicles today, they’re all still driver guided – the car does the steering, but the driver mans the brake and the gear shift. Ford’s prototype is not only smart enough to act autonomously, it’s capable of finding the optimal parking space in a lot and picking the trajectory at which it enters that space. Ford is still putting safeguards in place. If a driver takes his finger off the keychain button, the car stops in its tracks.

    Ford’s obstacle avoidance technology is an extension of the automated driver assistance systems (ADAS) already appearing in many vehicles, but it takes the technology to a further extreme, taking over steering and brakes even when the car is moving at full speed. It may seem like a subtle distinction but it’s a meaningful one.
    iby1YyT6phFPRP.jpg
    Today’s ADAS systems can hit the brakes while you’re reversing if a pedestrian suddenly crosses your path, they can adjust your cruise control if you encounter traffic, and they can even give you a little nudge back into your lane if you find yourself drifting. But Ford new obstacle avoidance tech takes complete control of the vehicle at highway speeds – even if it’s only for the split second – in order to avoid potentially fatal accidents.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dQjntXvMVTE
    Ultimately that’s going to the distinction between the autonomous car and today’s driver-assistance technologies: Instead of us relying on our smart vehicles to inform and guide our driving, we’ll have to trust they can make better driving decisions than we can.


  8. ihELkrRbzxJ0V.png

    Vendor tests and very early 802.11ac customers provide a reality check on 'gigabit Wi-Fi' but also confirm much of its promise. Vendors have been testing their 11ac products for months, yielding data that show how 11ac performs and what variables can affect performance. Some of the tests are under ideal laboratory-style conditions; others involve actual or simulated production networks. Among the results: consistent 400M to 800Mbps throughput for 11ac clients in best-case situations, higher throughput as range increases compared to 11n, more clients serviced by each access point, and a boost in performance for existing 11n clients."

    ibmAqvCBZFauzi.png


  9. The Raspberry Pi microcomputer, which costs as little as $25/$35 and has helped fledge many a DIY hardware project, has racked up worldwide sales of 1.75 million, its U.K.-based creator, The Raspberry Pi Foundation, said today. The first Pis went on sale in March 2012, with its U.K. makers imagining they might sell a thousand in the first year (in the event they sold circa one million — and are now well on their way to two million).
    iuIqjxWOpIVPD.jpg
    Another U.K.-specific milestone for the device is that one million Pis have been produced since the Foundation shifted the bulk of production to a factory based in the U.K. (Sony’s Pencoed, Wales facility). So that’s one million U.K.-made Pis.

    Initially, as with scores of inexpensive electronic devices before it, Pi was made in China. But the Foundation, itself a U.K. startup, was keen to support a production facility closer to home — to make it easier to visit and oversee elements of Pi production, but also to support local manufacturing. And so Sony was brought on board and the Pencoed factory turned out its millionth Pi today.
    The rest of the 1.75 million Pis produced to-date were built in China. The Foundation’s primary Pi distributor, Premier Farnell/element 14, shifted all its production to Wales back in March but a small portion of non-U.K. Pi production remains.
    ibevkUkMlTL6kD.png
    As well as keeping the maker community busy by powering DIY hardware projects like this solar-powered FTP server, the Pi has been helping schoolkids cut their teeth on coding projects. At the start of this year, Google put up $1 million to fund 15,000 Pis for U.K. schoolkids, for example. Further afield, Pi has been used as a low-cost component to kit out school computing labs in Africa.
    Back in April, the Pi Foundation revealed details of the countries where the — at the time — 1.2 million Pis had been shipped to. The vast majority (98%) were being sold in Western nations such as the U.K. and the U.S. Helping Pi spread further around the world to reach more developing nations is one of the Foundation’s challenges this year, Pi founder Eben Upton said then.

    Discussing what it’s been doing to improve Pi distribution globally since then, Upton said Pi distributor RS Components now stocks units locally in South Africa — and can then ship directly to a number of countries in Southern Africa.

    “This has important implications for delivered cost, and also for reliability of delivery — it can be challenging to ship stuff into Africa reliably from Europe,”

    he told

    “We’re continuing to work to understand how to get units into South American markets without incurring very import high tariffs. Nothing to announce yet, but it’s high on our radar,”

    he added.
    iJHzFR65B1WUs.png
    Upton also revealed that Pi shipments are growing in Asian markets.  ”Looking at the per-country stats, while the U.S. remains our largest market, and the U.K. our largest per-capita market, what’s really striking is that Asian markets, notably Japan, Korea and the Philippines, are consistently up month on month,” he said.

    Today’s millionth-made British Pi (rightly) isn’t going to stray far. “Sony have made us a gold-plated case to keep it in, and we’ll be displaying it proudly here at Pi Towers [in Cambridge, U.K.],” the Foundation said today.


  10. One of the more ambitious and interesting hardware projects on a crowdfunding platform recently has to be the Quasar IV, a smartphone designed entirely around security, encryption and identity protection. QSAlpha’s Quasar IV uses authentication tech called Quatrix, and a hybrid Android/Linux and Quatrix mobile OS called QuaOS to make sure communications in and out of the phone are protected.
    ibvcxhiGS0KnXX.jpg
    The Quasar IV is going to be made, despite the fact that there are only nine days remaining in its Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, and only $48,796 raised out of $3.2 million sought on a fixed funding goal (meaning they don’t get anything if they haven’t got the whole amount committed). While the Quasar IV won’t raise that much money in the next 9 days, it apparently will get made regardless thanks to help from outside investors.

    On the Quasar IV Indiegogo page, an update posted a few hours ago says that production with “one of the world’s largest consumer electronics OEMS manufacturers” has already begun, as a result of support from “various vendors and companies” who share the founding team’s passion for a vision of an ultra-secure mobile device. Early backers will be added to the pre-order list for the Quasar IV automatically, and will be notified about how to buy one when the time comes, which QSAlpha CEO and founder Steve Chao says will happen sometime in Q2 2014.
    ibt9VeKg1xVHeV.jpg
    There’s very little in the way of information about who has picked up the tab for the initial production run, but Quasar’s appeal, while niche, applies very specifically to firms that require incredibly high levels of security and encryption, which are resistant to outside attempts (*cough* NSA *cough*) to read said data. QSAlpha has said it was inspired by the stealthy ways of the ninja in designing the phone and its operating system, and there are, conceivably, clients who would pay well for a phone that stays truly off-grid.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TJ8edQY5Sfo
    Indiegogo has sort of become a place for ambitious new smartphone concepts to go to attract a lot of attention before falling well short of their funding goal (see the Canonical Ubuntu Edge), but it looks like the Quasar IV might become real with a little help from some potentially high-powered friends. Or, it could always disappear in a puff of smoke, ninja-style.


  11. Researchers at Disney have invented a unique method to generate tactical feedback on a smooth glass display – all without physically modifying the screen. Unlike traditional haptic feedback solutions that use a vibrating mechanism, the new method uses electrostatic combined with a slick algorithm to accomplish the same task.
    ibx6vcZKHp4gEK.jpg
    The researchers determined that the sensation one feels when sliding a finger across a bump on a surface was mostly caused by the fingertip being stretched and pulled as it travels over a raised area. This sensation can be created artificially, the Mickey Mouse team found, by using electrovibration to generate electrostatic. This in turn creates friction which is said to feel just as if your finger was coming into contact with a raised area.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zo1n5CyCKr0
    Using the aforementioned algorithm, the team is able to generate sensations on-the-fly. For example, an on-screen ball would feel like a gradually curved surface while a stack of DVDs would exhibit a series of bumps as if running your finger across them in real life.

    The technology has a lot of potential, especially for those with a visual disability. What’s more, typing or playing a game on your mobile device could become a whole new experience although I’m not so sure how I feel about the idea of constantly getting zapped by my phone or tablet. I imagine its safe or they wouldn’t be looking into it for everyday use, but I digress.


  12. Apple needs to start making bargain basement mobes because soon there won't be enough rich new iPhone customers left in the world to prop up its sales growth, a leading analyst has suggested.

    The claim comes in a report by Toni Sacconaghi, senior analyst with Bernstein Research, with the snappy title:

    "Are There Enough Wealthy People in the World to Sustain iPhone Unit Growth?"

    The tech sales researcher said that "only a finite number of users globally can afford a $450-plus smartphone", warning that Apple could struggle to pull in new users in the face of tough competition from Android phones.
    iG1gSiBTX6DEO.jpg
    This could mean that the fruity firm's growth will "invariably slow" unless it caters to the lower end of the market. There are expected to be five times as many first time budget smartphone buyers in 2015 as in 2013 year, the analyst suggested, and Apple needs to get in fast and steer them towards the fruity path if it wants to survive.

    Sacconaghi added:

    "Invariably, we and most investors believe that Apple should introduce a lower-priced device, in large part because the high end of the smartphone market is becoming increasingly saturated, leaving limited room for ongoing growth."

    The report made the "surprising" claim that the majority of new iPhones are still sold to first-time fanbois and gurlz. In 2011, 52 million iPhones were sold to new users, accounting for 72 per cent of the market. This figure dipped in the next two years, but in 2013 the majority of new iPhone owners were still brand new to the world of Apple mobes, with 57 percent, or 85 million people, choosing to take Cupertino's blue pill for the first time.

    However, to keep up this ratio between Apple virgins and world-weary fanbois, Apple will have to sell a whopping 125 million iPhones in the next two years. Sacconaghi fears this might not be achievable, asking where these users will come from "if the benefit from carrier additions is modest beyond China Mobile" – a carrier with more than 100 million customers, probably the world's biggest, which does not offer the iPhone on contract.
    iIHXMQQ5lSUQD.png
    If a deal is inked between Apple and China Mobile, the analyst continued, Apple could bolt on at least 15 million more customers almost overnight.

    The analyst said:

    "Absent carrier additions or new offerings, iPhone unit growth is likely to be tepid over the next two years. We note that the number of consumers who can afford a high-end phone that don't already have one is gated, as is the number of available high-end devices to take from competitors.

    "We estimate that approximately 800 million people have a high-end smartphone, and that – based on income levels across geographies – perhaps 1.25 billion can afford one, suggesting we are past the steep part of the adoption curve for new high-end smart phone users."

    As Apple watchers already suspect, the fruity firm's ability to, ahem, "innovate needs" as far as smartphones are concerned appears to have been dampened, the report concluded.
    So far, the only thing on Apple's horizon is the rumoured launch of a new iPad on 22 October, and we don't know how much of a features jump that will be on the existing iPad, although the technical specifications are likely to be upgraded.

    So, Mr Cook, are you up to the job of stopping Apple from rotting?


  13. In the city, getting somewhere is only half the battle — and sometimes much less than that. Finding a parking spot can be an even bigger time-waster.
    iRJzTQQU3ODlz.png
    Not any more, if Israel-based Anagog has its way.

    Via multiple apps and a service for developers to integrate into their own apps, Anagog has built a real-time service that knows when people are vacating parking spots, and where you should go to get them. The company calls it “the first living parking map of an urban center,” and says that its data has just been built into the Easypark app.

    “We all saw what crowdsourcing did for traffic and navigation, and we are excited to see this concept brought to the world of parking,” says Ofer Tziperman, CEO of Parx, which makes EasyPark.
    iVXdEJrpbd1ow.png
    Clearly, he’s referencing another Israeli startup, Waze, which was recently bought by Google for about $1.3 billion. And, of course, the two would be perfect companions: Waze to help you find your destination, Anagog to get you parked once you get there.

    Anagog has a variety of apps such as FindMyCar, 2Park, OTO, StopPark, and ParkDroid, which help people find their car again after parking. Clearly, data accumulated by those types of apps feeds into the open parking spot database, as does data from EasyPark and other partners. Altogether, Anagog says it has about 500,000 users, which enables it to do this:

    Israel, of course, is one story. The company has about 100,000 users there, in a country of about eight million people. Getting good enough data for San Francisco, New York, London, or other global cities is an entirely other matter, with 400,000 Anagog users spread over the rest of the world.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UuPKLQibUTo
    Still, partnership like that with EasyPark will help — Parx currently works in 130 cities. But more partners will be needed.

    “Anagog’s technology is a ready-made, global solution for navigation systems, cellular operators, map providers, car manufacturers, and municipalities, who are constantly working to provide tailored, real- time information to their audience,”

    says Yaron Aizenbud, Co- CEO of Anagog.
    Anagog is currently raising a funding round.


  14. ibv1drFqAiduRl.png

    The odd, controversial signs that have been popping up all around the Bay Area lately with messages like “all your data should belong to the NSA” and “the internet should be regulated” now have a source: BitTorrent.
    ihoL14XAlPdng.png

    iZiLZyPHbrpH6.png

    “These statements represent an assault on freedom,”

    BitTorrent posted today on its blog.

    “They also, for the most part, represent attitudes Internet culture has accepted. Chips we’ve traded for convenience. Part of the allegiance we’ve sworn to the web’s big platforms and server farms. That’s what you get for going online.”

    BitTorrent’s goal, of course, is freedom and privacy. Freedom from surveillance, whether by the shadowy arms of the executive branch or the silent tracking of the modern advertising ecosystem. And freedom to send and store data and files as you wish.
    In other words, BitTorrent says, freedom like the internet used to have.
    This is not just an expression of who and what BitTorrent is, of course — although it is that too.
    ij89kuSszSa1c.png

    It’s also a marketing campaign — that has had the entire Bay Area technorati talking — for BitTorrent’s new store-in-the-file product for artists, a file format called BitTorrent Bundles where the art is the cash register and sharing is a form of currency, not a form of theft.
    iCFpWWrs4ewgo.png

    The new format embeds a pay gate inside content, and the payment can be a share, a like, a sign-up, a donation, an actual cash payment, or just about anything the artist wishes, which is a really interesting way for BitTorrent to remain true to its core values of privacy and freedom while offering an option to artists both indie and corporate to benefit from the fruits of their labor.
    iS9EpMa5mfiEJ.png

    BitTorrent BundlesIn fact, BitTorrent goes so far as to call itself not just a decentralized file-sharing network or protocol but an “artist-owned publishing platform.” It’s one that Tim Ferriss of 4-Hour fame has used, as have Madonna, the Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, and Linkin Park, among other groups, artists, and publishers.

    “This is the generation that will decide whether the Internet is a tool for control or a platform for innovation and freedom, BitTorrent says. “We have an incredible opportunity. We can shape the next one and one hundred years of human connection. A free, open Internet is a force for change, creativity; the backbone of a society where citizens are stakeholders, not data sets.”

    BitTorrent’s protocol has always been about freedom — freedom for Internet users to do what they want without surveillance or without thought for law or regulation.

    The organization’s new file format retains that freedom while also adding a very welcome way for artists’ and publishers’ real contributions to our culture be recognized, where and how they see fit.


  15. WhatsApp, the popular free messaging app, was hacked and defaced yesterday — but don’t worry, it was only the website.
    iuHO1sIU1fIfX.png
    A group, which calls itself the KDMS Team of Plaestinian [sic] Hackers” took over the company’s domain whatsapp.com posting pro-Palestine messages and threats toward anonymity. One message said, “There is no full security, we can catch you!” with an image of one of the hacktivist group Anonymous’ insignia — the headless, suited man — with the words “Anonymous Palestine” written around it. It seems a little contradictory, but we get the point for the most part.

    It seems KDMS was able to take over the site by changing the IP address associated with the domain, according to CNET. The hackers reportedly changed the IP address on record for the domain today, redirecting any visitors to their new page. This likely means the WhatsApp website itself wasn’t harmed.

    iq36f1j8mgn46.jpg

    “Our website was hijacked for a small period of time, during which attackers redirected our website to another IP address. We can confirm that no user data was lost or compromised. We are committed to user security and are working with our domain hosting vendor Network Solutions on further investigation of this incident,”

    a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement.

    But it doesn’t seem like we’ll be hearing from the KDMS Team again in the near future. The very last message left on WhatsApp’s website reads:

    “Hacked by KDMS Team. Now we will quit hacking.”

     


  16. A new way of verifying you’re a real person and not a spam machine might eliminate the chore of typing phrases like “beetle sausage” and so on, with a start-up looking to gamify the art of verifying you’re a human.
    ibz5ia56XmJb32.png
    The PlayCaptcha system, developed by the UK’s Future Ad Labs, replaces the tired old text verification system with a mini game, suggesting it’s quicker than squinting at a normal captcha and, in good news for advertisers and brands, provides an exciting new little animated box that grabs the attention of internet users.

    Products made and advertised by giant conglomerates Heinz and Reckitt Benckiser are among the first to sign up to these interactive adver-games on their sign-up pages, so look out for them the next time you’re voluntarily adding your details to some company’s spam database.
    ibkSQOq2jmNVU9.jpg
    The early demo example supplied asks you to move the (Heinz branded) salad cream onto the sandwich, a gaming experience that’s perhaps not quite up there with the 20-minute epic police chases people are currently enjoying in GTA V, but still. It’s quicker and easier than identifying some wonky words.

×