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Feed Google News Sci Tech: You know Uber's real-time map showing the auto locations? It's fake - Dispatch Times (google.com)

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Dispatch Times
You know Uber's real-time map showing the auto locations? It's fake
Dispatch Times
But Uber UK says that the cars are real, if occasionally lagging behind real time. Based on the investigation they have made, the company has further concluded that the number illustrated by the app does not represent an accurate representation of the...
Uber shows phantom cabs on taxi mapBetaNews
Uber's apps might be lyin...Bitterwallet
You know Uber's real-time map showing the vehicle locations? It's fakePress Examiner
The Utah People's Post-Mashable
all 40 news articles

Submission + - Britain shuts off 750,000 streetlights with no impact on crime or crashes (astronomy.com)

Submitted by Flash Modin
Flash Modin writes: English cities are hard up for cash as the national government dolls out cuts. And in response, the country's councils — local governing bodies — have slashed costs by turning off an estimated 750,000 streetlights. Fans of the night sky and reduced energy usage are happy, but the move has also sparked a national debate. The Automobile Association claims six people have died as a direct result of dimming the lights. But a new study released Wednesday looked at 14 years of data from 63 local authorities across England and Wales and found that residents' chances of being attacked, robbed, or struck by a car were no worse on the darker streets.

Submission + - OwnStar Device Can Remotely Find, Unlock and Start GM Cars

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Car hacking just jumped up a few levels. A security researcher has built a small device that can intercept the traffic from the OnStar RemoteLink mobile app and give him persistent access to a user’s vehicle to locate, unlock, and start it.

The device is called OwnStar and it’s the creation of Samy Kamkar, a security researcher and hardware hacker who makes a habit of finding clever ways around the security of various systems, including garage doors, wireless keyboards, and drones. His newest creation essentially allows him to take remote control of users’ vehicles simply by sending a few special packets to the OnStar service. The attack is a car thief’s dream.

Kamkar said that by standing near a user who has the RemoteLink mobile app open, he can use the OwnStar device to intercept requests from the app to the OnStar service. He can then take over control of the functions that RemoteLink handles, including unlocking and remotely starting the vehicle.
The Military

US Navy Tests 3D Printing Custom Drones On Its Ships 66

Posted by timothy from the just-in-time dept.
itwbennett writes: Researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School are testing the use of 3D printers on ships to produce custom drones outfitted for specialized missions. The idea, said Alan Jaeger, a faculty research associate at the school, is that ships could set sail with kits of the core electronics parts, since they are common to most drones, but have the bodies designed according to specific requirements for each mission. A prototype drone was designed by engineers on shore based on requirements of the sailors at sea, and the 3D design file was emailed to the USS Essex over a satellite link. Flight tests revealed some of the potential problems, most of which were associated with operating the drone rather than the printing itself, Jaeger said. 'Even with a small amount of wind, something this small will get buffeted around,' he said. They also had to figure out the logistics of launching a drone from a ship, getting it back, how it integrated with other flight operations, and interference from other radio sources like radar.

Submission + - CISA: the dirty deal between Google and the NSA that no one is talking about (thehill.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: It's hard to find a more perfect example of this collusion than in a bill that's headed for a vote soon in the U.S. Senate: the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA.

CISA is an out and out surveillance bill masquerading as a cybersecurity bill. It won't stop hackers. Instead, it essentially legalizes all forms of government and corporate spying.

Here's how it works. Companies would be given new authority to monitor their users — on their own systems as well as those of any other entity — and then, in order to get immunity from virtually all existing surveillance laws, they would be encouraged to share vaguely defined "cyber threat indicators" with the government. This could be anything from email content, to passwords, IP addresses, or personal information associated with an account. The language of the bill is written to encourage companies to share liberally and include as many personal details as possible.

That information could then be used to further exploit a loophole in surveillance laws that gives the government legal authority for their holy grail — "upstream" collection of domestic data directly from the cables and switches that make up the Internet.

Submission + - US Navy Tests 3D-Printing Custom Drones On Its Ships (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School are testing the use of 3D printers on ships to produce custom drones outfitted for specialized missions. The idea, said Alan Jaeger, a faculty research associate at the school, is that ships could set sail with kits of the core electronics parts, since they are common to most drones, but have the bodies designed according to specific requirements for each mission. A prototype drone was designed by engineers on shore based on requirements of the sailors at sea, and the 3D design file was emailed to the USS Essex over a satellite link. Flight tests revealed some of the potential problems, most of which were associated with operating the drone rather than the printing itself, Jaeger said. 'Even with a small amount of wind, something this small will get buffeted around,' he said. They also had to figure out the logistics of launching a drone from a ship, getting it back, how it integrated with other flight operations, and interference from other radio sources like radar.

Feed Google News Sci Tech: OPM, Anthem hackers may also have breached United Airlines - Computerworld (google.com)

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Computerworld
OPM, Anthem hackers may also have breached United Airlines
Computerworld
The cyberespionage group that stole the personal records of millions of Americans from U.S. health insurer Anthem and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has also reportedly breached United Airlines. The data stolen from United includes ...
Chinese Hackers Undetected Inside United For A Year. Is World's 2nd Biggest ... Forbes
United Airlines Also Hacked by OPM HackersI4U News
Anthem Hackers Suspected In United Airlines BreachPYMNTS.com
Techaeris
all 80 news articles

Microsoft

Windows 10 App For Xbox One Could Render Steam Machines Useless 170

Posted by timothy from the significant-overlap dept.
SlappingOysters writes: The release of Windows 10 has brought with it the Xbox app -- a portal through which you can stream anything happening on your Xbox One to your Surface or desktop. Finder is reporting that the love will go the other way, too, with a PC app coming to the Xbox One allowing you to stream your desktop to your console. But where does this leave the coming Steam Machines? This analysis shows how such an app could undermine the Steam Machines' market position.

Submission + - Microsoft Edge introduces new security risks in Windows 10 (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: The Internet Explorer replacement Microsoft Edge is one of the headline features of Windows 10. With security at the heart of Microsoft's latest operating system, and the general concern about online safety, it makes sense to put the web browser under the microscope to see how it fares against the competition.

This is exactly what security analysts at Trend Labs have done. While the teams concedes that Microsoft Edge beats Firefox's security and roughly draws level with Chrome's, the new web browser also introduces new security problems and threat vectors.

Of particular concern for the security experts is the integration of PDF reader and Adobe Flash plugins.

Submission + - Samsung finds bug in Linux trim code - trim with raid0/10 corrupted data

Submitted by Mokki
Mokki writes: After many complaints that Samsung SSD's corrupted data when used with Linux, Samsung found out that the bug was in Linux kernel and submitted a patch to fix it. Turns out that kernels without the final fix can corrupt data iff the system is using linux md raid with raid0 or raid10 and issues trim/discard commands (either fstrim or by the filesystem itself). The vendor of the drive did not matter and the previous blacklisting of Samsung drives for broken queued trim support can be most likely lifted away after further tests. According to this post the bug has been around for a long time.

Comment This is logical next step (Score 5, Informative) 239

People in USA and Europe with excellent grid connections are not aware of it. But in places like India with unreliable grid, people have been using backup electricity storage for quite some time. Typically truck lead-acid batteries are used to store enough energy to power a couple of ceiling fans, a few lamps and the TV, never forget the TV, for a few hours. They put up with power outages using these contraptions.

They use inverters to convert the DC to some square wave and approximate it to A/C using electronic gimmicks. Not a pure sine wave A/C, but close enough to run fans and the lamps. Energy conversion efficiency is not bad, the inverters do hot heat up too much. But they play havoc with the motors. So the Japanese A/C makers have been selling ruggadized air conditioners that can run on the inverter electricity.

The logical next step is to create A/C to run purely on DC. Probably it would use AC to DC converters to use grid electricity. Again this DC would be poor in quality compared to battery DC. So this Aircon also would need to be ruggadized.

All these calculations about when residential solar will become viable compared to coal or natural gas are completely different between G8 and rest of the world. Places like India will pay well over the current grid price for steady electricity supply. Not all of them. But the affluent population of India is about the size of Japan, some 120 million people. They have been making do with truck-battery-inverter contraptions, small gasoline generator sets etc. They would probably form the wave of early adopters who pay for the early fixed costs of solar panel factories.

Feed Google News Sci Tech: What Windows 7 holdouts will miss: 11 improvements in Windows 10 - PCWorld (google.com)

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PCWorld
What Windows 7 holdouts will miss: 11 improvements in Windows 10
PCWorld
Forget about new stuff like Cortana and virtual desktops and windowed Metro apps. Windows 7 holdouts are missing out on a lot more than what's fresh in Windows 10. Beyond its contentious Live Tiles and Jekyll-and-Hyde interface, Windows 8 packed a ton...
Bravo, Microsoft. Windows 10 Is Fast, Smart, and Surprisingly Innovative.Slate Magazine
Why You'll Actually Want to Use Microsoft's New Web BrowserTIME
Windows 10 Updating, Reinstalling And Activation Guide: Essential Advice To ... Forbes
NDTV-Business Today-Firstpost
all 3,285 news articles

Submission + - The Windows 10 App for Xbox One Could Render the Steam Machines Useless

Submitted by SlappingOysters
SlappingOysters writes: The release of Windows 10 has brought with it the Xbox app; a portal through which you can stream anything happening on your Xbox One to your Surface or desktop. Finder is reporting that the love will go the other way, too, with a PC app coming to the Xbox One allowing you to stream your desktop to your console. But where does this leave the coming Steam Machines? This analysis shows how such an app could undermine the Steam Machines' market position.

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