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Submission + - Incomplete Microsoft Patch Left Machines Exposed to Stuxnet LNK Vulnerability (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: A five-year-old Microsoft patch for the .LNK vulnerability exploited by Stuxnet failed to properly protect Windows machines, leaving them exposed to exploits since 2010.

Microsoft today is expected to release a security bulletin, MS15-020, patching the vulnerability (CVE-2015-0096). It is unknown whether there have been public exploits of patched machines. The original LNK patch was released Aug. 2, 2010.

“That patch didn’t completely address the .LNK issue in the Windows shell, and there were weaknesses left behind that have been resolved in this patch,” said Brian Gorenc, manager of vulnerability research with HP's Zero Day Initiative. Gorenc said the vulnerability works on Windows machines going back to Windows XP through Windows 8.1, and the proof of concept exploit developed by Heerklotz and tweaked by ZDI evades the validation checks put in place by the original Microsoft security bulletin, CVE-2010-2568.

The vulnerability was submitted to ZDI by German researcher Michael Heerklotz.

Submission + - South African government issues plans to censor internet (htxt.co.za)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The South African department of communications is sitting on a draft paper drawn up by the local Film & Publication Board, which proposes strict regulation of the internet within in the country in order to bring online publishing inline with that of DVD, video and terrestrial TV ratings. The proposals are being called censorship and unconstitutional, and include plans to criminalise anyone who publishes material online — including uploading videos to YouTube — who doesn't pay a licence and submit to vetting by FPB agents.

Submission + - Strange Stars Pulse to the Golden Mean (quantamagazine.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: What struck John Learned about the blinking of KIC 5520878, a bluish-white star 16,000 light-years away, was how artificial it seemed.

Learned, a neutrino physicist at the University of Hawaii, Mnoa, has a pet theory that super-advanced alien civilizations might send messages by tickling stars with neutrino beams, eliciting Morse code-like pulses. “It’s the sort of thing tenured senior professors can get away with,” he said. The pulsations of KIC 5520878, recorded recently by NASA’s Kepler telescope, suggested that the star might be so employed.

A “variable” star, KIC 5520878 brightens and dims in a six-hour cycle, seesawing between cool-and-clear and hot-and-opaque. Overlaying this rhythm is a second, subtler variation of unknown origin; this frequency interplays with the first to make some of the star’s pulses brighter than others. In the fluctuations, Learned had identified interesting and, he thought, possibly intelligent sequences, such as prime numbers (which have been floated as a conceivable basis of extraterrestrial communication). He then found hints that the star’s pulses were chaotic.

But when Learned mentioned his investigations to a colleague, William Ditto, last summer, Ditto was struck by the ratio of the two frequencies driving the star’s pulsations.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute, that’s the golden mean.’”

Submission + - Apple Has Lost its Soul 1

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels—the ones who can drop 10 grand on a timepiece as Robinson Meyer writes at The Atlantic that Apple used to make technology for people who wanted to change the world, not the people who ran it. Today’s messaging is a little different. Most will correctly fixate on the price of the most expensive watch, the 18-karat-gold Apple Watch Edition. Unlike with a traditional mechanical watch, where an increase in price is also typically accompanied by more complex mechanisms and more hand-craft, the Apple Watch Edition is simply shrouded in gold. If you set that case aside, it has the same sapphire glass display, sensors, and electronics as the $549 Apple Watch. That's a mark-up of eighteen times the lower price. "The prices grate. And they grate not because they’re so expensive, but because they’re gratuitously expensive," concludes Robinson. "Instead of telling users to pay up because they’ll get a better quality experience, it’s telling them to pay up because they can, and because a more expensive watch is inherently preferable."

Submission + - Was Linus Torvalds Right About C++ Being So Wrong? (dice.com)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Perhaps the most famous rant against C++ came from none other than Linus Torvalds in 2007. It featured some choice language. 'C++ is a horrible language,' he wrote, for starters. 'It’s made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it’s much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it.' He's not alone: A lot of developers dislike how much C++ can do 'behind the scenes' with STL and Boost, leading to potential instability and inefficiency. And yet there's still demand for C++ out there. Over at Dice, Jeff Cogswell argues that C++ doesn't deserve the hatred. 'I’ve witnessed a lot of 'over-engineering' in my life, wherein people would write reusable classes with several layers of inheritance, even though the reusable class wasn’t actually used more than once,' he wrote. 'But I would argue that’s the exception, not the norm; when done right, generic programming and other high-level aspects of C++ can provide enormous benefits.' Was Linus going overboard?

Submission + - Computing the Optimal Road Trip Across the U.S. (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: Wouldn’t it be nice to have a map that hit landmarks in every state and not only that, wouldn’t it be great if the map represented the optimal, most efficient route across the country? Tracy Staedter at Discovery News pondered this idea and teamed up with computer science graduate student Randy Olson from Michigan State University to solve the ultimate traveling salesman problem. Olson nailed it with his own genetic algorithm to create a US road trip that would cover 13,699 miles and take 2-3 months to complete — probably the ultimate addition to any Bucket List.

Submission + - Energy-generating fabric set to power battery-free wearables (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A team of researchers in Korea and Australia have developed a flexible fabric which generates power from human movement – a breakthrough which could replace batteries in future wearable devices. The effect of the fabric's nanogenerators mirrors static electricity with the two fabrics repeatedly brushing against each other and stealing electrons from the one another – this exchange creates energy from the wearer’s activity without the need for an external power source. During testing, the researchers demonstrated the nanogenerator powering a number of devices such as LEDs, a liquid crystal display, as well as a keyless car entry system embedded in a nanogenerator “power suit”.

Comment Re:A serious question (Score 2) 300

by jdschulteis (#49196991) Attached to: Mozilla: Following In Sun's Faltering Footsteps?

The question then becomes; is it bad if Mozilla were gone? What is the added value of Mozilla and their products right now?

Without Mozilla the Microsoft/Google/Apple triumvirate will control all browser standards. I think Mozilla brings a different perspective that would be missed. It would be nice if Firefox OS gained enough traction to make a similar difference in mobile but the chance of that happening seems slim.

Submission + - 'Chappie': What It Takes to Render a Robot (dice.com)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: The visual-effects supervisor on the new film 'Chappie,' Image Engine’s Chris Harvey, talked with Dice about what it took to render the titular robot. Director Neil Blomkamp thought Chappie needed to look realistic, like something you might honestly expect to see patrolling the streets a decade or two from now. Image Engine took the concept artwork created by Blomkamp and WETA and rendered it in three dimensions, refining the mechanics so the animated Chappie would move realistically for a six-foot-tall, gun-toting robot. As the movie progresses, Chappie begins to take damage from bullets, flames, and thrown debris; if that wasn’t enough, he also ends up covered in graffiti. That sort of wear-and-tear complicated things for the effects team; WETA had to produce three physical Chappie “skeletons” and a multitude of body panels representing the increasing levels of damage, and Image Engine needed to make sure every inch of the digital Chappie was rendered accurately to match. The movie itself might be scoring mediocre reviews, but at least the robot looks good.

Submission + - The Abandoned Google Project Memorial Page

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Quentin Hugon, Benjamin Benoit and Damien Leloup have created a memorial page for projects adandoned by Google over the years including: Google Answers, Lively, Reader, Deskbar, Click-to-Call, Writely, Hello, Send to Phone, Audio Ads, Google Catalogs, Dodgeball, Ride Finder, Shared Stuff, Page Creator, Marratech, Goog-411, Google Labs, Google Buzz, Powermeter, Real Estate, Google Directory, Google Sets, Fast Flip, Image Labeler, Aardvark, Google Gears, Google Bookmarks, Google Notebook, Google Code Search, News Badges, Google Related, Latitude, Flu Vaccine Finder, Google Health, Knol, One Pass, Listen, Slide, Building Maker, Meebo, Talk, SMS, iGoogle, Schemer, Notifier, Orkut, Hotpot, Music Trends, Refine, SearchWiki, US Government Search, Sparrow, Web Accelerator, Google Accelerator, Accessible Search, Google Video, and Helpouts. Missing from the list that we remember are Friend Connect, Google Radio Ads, Jaiku, SideWiki, and Wave.

We knew there were a lot, but who knew there'd be so many. Which abandoned Google project do you wish were still around?

Submission + - Sun light for your lair (lumilabs.co)

Submitted by MakeItGlow
MakeItGlow writes: A Pittsburgh based start-up has addressed a common problem of geeks everywhere. Natural light is biologically essential, but it's outside. A new light called Lumious changes like the sun. It hacks your photo-receptors to keep your circadian rhythms in check.

Submission + - World's first fully digital radio transmitter built purely from microprocessor t (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For the first time in history, a prototype radio has been created that is claimed to be completely digital, generating high-frequency radio waves purely through the use of integrated circuits and a set of patented algorithms without using conventional analog radio circuits in any way whatsoever. This breakthrough technology promises to vastly improve the wireless communications capabilities of everything from 5G mobile technology to the multitude devices

Submission + - Anthem Refuses Full IT Security Audit (databreachtoday.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A federal watchdog agency says Anthem Inc. has refused to allow it to conduct vulnerability scans of the health insurer's systems in the wake of its recent massive data breach affecting 78.8 million individuals. Anthem also refused to allow scans by the same agency in 2013.

Submission + - Unity Releases Full-Featured Free Edition (gamasutra.com)

Submitted by fsagx
fsagx writes: On the heels of Epic's announcement of a free-to-download version, Unity releases Unity 5, the latest version of its popular multiplatform engine. Unity 5 Personal is completely free to developers with revenue or funding less than $100,000 a year, and includes the full engine (but no advanced services package.)

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