The best HDMI operating system sticks | ZDNet

http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-best-hdmi-operating-system-sticks/

Fwd: malware

'Microsoft and Interpol have teamed up to derail a malware infection that compromised more than 770,000 Windows PCs worldwide.

Simda is a "pay-per-install" software nasty: fraudsters pay miscreants some sum of money for every 1,000 or so machines they compromise. The hackers effectively earn cash by selling access to the infected computers, renting out the botnet real-estate to other crooks.

The Simda malware, once installed and has set itself up to run after every system startup, kills off antivirus software, logs keystrokes made by the user so it can steal passwords and other sensitive information, downloads and executes banking Trojans and other malicious programs, upload copies of the user's files, and so on.

It opens a backdoor to a command-and-control server, so it can receive orders from the brains behind the malware, and send back any stolen data.

The botnet was seeded by compromising legitimate websites, and hijacking them to redirect visitors to sites hosting exploit kits – which are webpages booby-trapped with code that exploits software vulnerabilities to install the malware.

The most heavily infected countries were the US, UK, Russia, Canada and Turkey, although Simda spreads its tentacles worldwide. The vast majority of victims were located in the US, where there were more than 90,000 new infections since the start of 2015 alone.

In a series of raids last Thursday, 10 command-and-control servers were physically seized in the Netherlands, with additional servers taken down in the US, Russia, Luxembourg and Poland. The operation involved officers from the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), the FBI in the US, and the Russian Ministry of the Interior's Cybercrime Department "K" supported by the INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Moscow.

Security firms Trend Micro and Kaspersky Lab provided the cops the technical knowhow to locate the systems. The crackdown effectively decapitated the botnet by taking away the servers that sent infected PCs their instructions and received swiped passwords and other data.

Windows PCs keelhauled into the botnet remain compromised, hence the need for a cleanup operation. In order to help victims disinfect their PCs, Kaspersky Lab has created a website that will check your public IP address against a database of machines known to be infiltrated by Simda. This database was lifted from the command and control servers during the takedown raids.'

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/13/simda_botnet_takedown/

Agile

http://www.quora.com/?digest_story=10749087

Fwd: enlighten

'Enlighten 3 offers a unique method of implementing advanceddynamic lighting inside of digital content, which not only improves the image visually as compared to the older Enlighten technology, but also offers significant performance gains. "Lighting is the most critical element in producing computer graphics that reflect the realism of the natural world," said Masaki Kawase, lead software engineer, YEBIS, Silicon Studio. "Post processing is an integral part of this. With the inclusion of YEBIS 3 Post Processing Effects Middleware is Forge, artists will more easily be able to realize their creative vision."

By using Enlighten, game developers can create realistic light effects. Although this isn't entirely new, many games today still feature ambient lighting, seemingly coming from no source; or if a source is shown, the light often does not actually emit from it.'

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/geomerics-enlighten-3-dynamic-lighting,28673.html

 

Fwd: Neutrality

'While Mr. Obama's position stunned officials at the FCC, he wanted to push for strong rules ensuring net neutrality right after his 2008 election over Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.). The FCC's chairman at the time, Julius Genachowski, supported Mr. Obama and aimed to write strong rules preventing broadband providers from making some websites work faster than others for fees…

​​

​...

Mr. Obama made them clear in a 1,062-word statement and two-minute video. He told the FCC to regulate mobile and fixed broadband providers more strictly and enact strong rules to prevent those providers from altering download speeds for specific websites or services.

​..​

That essentially killed the compromise proposed by Mr. Wheeler, leaving him no choice but to follow the path outlined by the president.'

http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-white-house-thwarted-fcc-chief-on-internet-rules-1423097522

​I pay my Internet Service Provider for high speed access, but that ISP has been charging Netflix to provide that same access. 

 The only issue is whether Netflix can pay for preferential treatment?  I would think that technology would make this unnecessary, because I am now getting at least 60 megabits per second downloads, but I am not sure of the issues involved.  Perhaps

​all that ​

Netflix

​streaming ​

causes bottlenecks

​ on the Internet​

?

Although I don't know this for certain, it would seem that one service paying ​preferential treatment would negatively impact other services.

Fwd: Microsoft VR

'Unlike other head-mounted computing systems in the works, Microsoft's new glasses-based virtual reality device, HoloLens, doesn't need to be connected to a phone or computer. "We've unlocked the screen," one developer said during the presentation at its Windows 10 event this afternoon.

Similar to existing Kinect technology on the Xbox, HoloLens allows wearers to interact with computer programs and games in three dimensions, using their hands and speaking commands.

During the presentation, a developer walked onstage wearing HoloLens, and used her finger and a 3D-modeling program called Holo Studio to build a quadcopter drone before the audience, which could then be sent to a 3D printer.

Microsoft also showed a video of a NASA scientist sitting at a computer wearing HoloLens glasses, then stepping away from the desk into an immersive hologram of the surface of Mars. It's not yet Star Trek's Holodeck (video), but it's not so far off.'

 

http://qz.com/330837/microsoft-wants-us-all-to-play-with-holograms/

 

Fwd: Dell

'While You Weren't Looking, Dell Made Android Tablets Interesting Again

 

First off—just to get this out of the way—it's the thinnest tablet the world has ever produced. At just 6mm thick, the badass gunmetal-grey aluminum chassis handily takes the crown from Sony's 6.4mm thick Xperia Z2 slate. See how my 10.4mm Moto X looks ridiculously fat by comparison? The Dell is thin, no joke.

 

Second, this slate also comes with arguably the world's best tablet screen: a gorgeous 8.4-inch, 2560 x 1600 OLED panel with colors to die for. 

http://gizmodo.com/while-you-werent-looking-dell-announced-the-worlds-mos-1632621335

 

Fwd: The Machine

'The Machine's design includes other novel features such as optical fiber instead of copper wiring for moving data around. HP's simulations suggest that a server built to The Machine's blueprint could be six times more powerful than an equivalent conventional design, while using just 1.25 percent of the energy and being around 10 percent the size.'

 

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/533066/hp-will-release-a-revolutionary-new-operating-system-in-2015/

How did the NSA hack our emails?

How did the NSA hack our emails?

Top scientists react to the game "2048"

One of my favorite games ...

Top scientists react to the game "2048"

Average US internet speeds -- how does your state compare?

http://betanews.com/2014/08/11/average-us-internet-speeds-how-does-your-state-compare/

 

… my Internet speed in Utah is around 25 Mbs.  However, the actual speed can range from about 13 to 20.

The Trick That Makes Google's Self-Driving Cars Work

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/all-the-world-a-track-the-trick-that-makes-googles-self-driving-cars-work/370871/?google_editors_picks=true

Fwd: automation using computer software

automation

 

 

Netflix Said to Agree to Pay Comcast for Faster Web Access

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-23/netflix-said-to-agree-to-pay-comcast-for-faster-broadband-access.html

 

… something seems very wrong about this, like the cable companies are blackmailing content providers to provide the bandwidth that the customers have already paid for.  So much for “Unlimited Internet Access.”

Apple brilliantly waxes poetic in new iPad Air ad

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57617098-71/apple-brilliantly-waxes-poetic-in-new-ipad-air-ad/

Apple and Samsung Could Be Dethroned by Asus' Radical New Device (AAPL, GOOG, SSNLF)

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/15/apple-and-samsung-could-be-dethroned-by-asus-radic.aspx#.UrSLjni9LCQ

Is Rabbit TV a scam? We go hands on to give you the answer

Saw this for sale at Walmart...

http://m.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/rabbit-tv-real-deal-or-swift-swindle/

Doug Kass: This could be trouble for Apple

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/talking-numbers/doug-kass-could-trouble-apple-225638686.html

 

 

This woman essentially invented computer programming languages.

The Google doodle honors the birthday of Grace Hopper.

 

Although COBOL is tedious compared to modern computer languages, she got the ball rolling by inventing the first computer languages.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper

 

5 Things Tim Cook Should Say (but Probably Won't)

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/5-things-tim-cook-probably-won-t-170523614.html

I am intrigued

http://www.thetileapp.com/?utm_source=AdWords&utm_medium=CPC

Take My Wi-Fi, Please – ReadWrite

http://readwrite.com/2013/07/12/take-my-wi-fi-please#awesm=~obIssQFhiYhC3F

- I have never password protected my wi-fi. The range is so poor that
at best only my nearest neighbors could connect, and I am not even
sure if that is possible. It would not bother me if they did connect.

google chrome has started giving me advertising, which I had not seen before.

http://www.neowin.net/news/google-now-showing-ads-in-chrome-will-users-jump-ship

--


John Coffey

Windows 7

Consider the vi text editor.  Like many editors used by computer programmers, it is overly complicated and hard to learn.  When I was first forced to use it in a computer class in college, I hated it.  Now I will use nothing else.   Once I overcame the difficulty of learning it, I realized that it had many powerful features that I liked.  However, a non-technical person would never even remotely need these features.

 

I feel a little bit the same way about being forced to use Windows 7.   It is not a bad operating system, but it feels more complicated than it needs to be.  Windows XP had a pleasant simplicity to it.  However, I am starting to get used to Windows 7.

 

It concerns me that there so many different ways that you can get to your files and run programs in the Windows OS.  For example, you could have a shortcut on your desktop, or you have something pinned to your task bar, or on the programs menu, or pinned to the start menu, or in a folder on the programs menu and there are other ways.  There is no consistency there, and therefore I think that Apple had the right idea with IOS.   It doesn’t have the same flexibility, but the simplicity of it means that almost anybody can use it without any training.

 

Scientists See Promise in Deep-Learning Programs

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/science/scientists-see-advances-in-deep-learning-a-part-of-artificial-intelligence.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1354308101-0WEOACOsCDepYXcaueXbDw

google-has-a-neural-network-that-can-recognize-objects

http://www.slashgear.com/google-has-a-neural-network-that-can-recognize-objects-26235666/

Fwd: Cyber-weapon

From: larry.r.trout

'Computer malware described as "the most sophisticated cyber weapon yet unleashed" has been uncovered in computers in the Middle East and may have infected machines in Europe, according to reports from antivirus researchers and software makers in Russia, Hungary and Ireland.

The malware, dubbed Worm.Win32.Flame, is unusual in its complexity, size and the multitude of ways it has of harvesting information from an infected computer including keyboard, screen, microphone, storage devices, network, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB and system processes.

The malware is called "Flame" by Kaspersky Labs, a Moscow-based antivirus software maker, but also known as sKyWIper by the Hungarian Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySyS Lab).

Both Kaspersky Labs and CrySyS Lab said it was likely the malware was developed by a government-sponsored entity.

"The geography of the targets [certain states are in the Middle East] and also the complexity of the threat leaves no doubt about it being a nation state that sponsored the research that went into it," Kaspersky Labs said in a report.

"The results of our technical analysis supports the hypotheses that sKyWIper was developed by a government agency of a nation state with significant budget and effort, and it may be related to cyber warfare activities," a CrySyS Lab report said. "Arguably, it is the most complex malware ever found."

Although the virus has just been detected, there was evidence that it may have been in operation for at least two years.

Vitaly Kamluk, chief malware expert for Kaspersky Labs, said there were many pointers to it being a weapon, not the least of which was how highly-targeted it was. According to their investigations, only 382 infections have been reported, 189 of which were in Iran, and the malware targeted individuals rather than organizations.

Kamluk said the malware was most likely introduced by a USB stick or other removable drive. Once injected, the malware would contact one of the many command and control servers around the world and download additional modules as needed.

It used the same technique as Stuxnet, an earlier highly sophisticated malware, to seek out other machines to infect.'

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/29/world-most-sophisticated-cyber-weapon-burns-computers-in-middle-east/

google-warns-users-dnschanger-malware

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2179174/google-warns-users-dnschanger-malware

Re: Precise 3D hand/computer control

larry.r.trout wrote:

'The distance between you and the virtual world is about to get even smaller. David Holz and Michael Buckwald, co-founders of startup Leap Motion, have created a 3-D motion control device that lets users control their computers by gesturing with their hands instead of using a keyboard or mouse.

The technology at work is reminiscent of that in Microsoft's Xbox Kinect device, which allows players to use their bodies as controllers or input devices. With the Leap, your fingers and hands are the controllers. Unlike the Kinect, the Leap uses a different technology that the creators say allows for far greater accuracy and precision within a smaller space.

Holz and Buckwald claim the Leap is accurate to within 1/100 of a millimeter and 200 times more sensitive than existing motion-sensing technologies. In a demo, Holz pointed at a laptop screen and traced the word "hello" in the air with his index finger while keeping his hand still and making only minimal movements with his finger. His gestures were processed and displayed simultaneously on the computer screen.'

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/leap-motion-computer-barely-lift-finger/story?id=16381309#.

I am concerned about the lack of tactile feedback.  It is hard to beat a mouse and the hands feel more comfortable resting on something and not raised for an extended period.  

The Story of Send

http://www.google.com/green/storyofsend