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Comment Re:why not go after all social media (Score 2) 233

by Jonny6pak (#64312667) Attached to: US House Passes Bill To Force ByteDance To Divest TikTok or Face Ban

The bill mentions TikTok and ByteDance in the preamble as examples. This bill is still not specific to TikTok. While the initial impact is certainly geared towards TikTok, this legislation would also ban any similar future apps that fall into the same category of 20% ownership in a foreign adversary country.

Comment Re:Can't find it! (Score 1) 65

It's there on my mac. Type "open /System/Library/Image\ Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf" without the quotes into a terminal window and it opens right up. Or in Finder, go to Macintosh HD -> System -> Library -> Image Capture -> Devices, then right click on the Virtual Scanner and select "Show Package Contents", then continue navigating through the folders Contents -> Resources and you'll see the file.
The Almighty Buck

San Francisco Transit Center Criticized over Restaurant's Plans for Expensive NFT-Based Private Club (sfgate.com) 166

Posted by EditorDavid from the members-only dept.
Last month an SFGate.com columnist explored plans for San Francisco's first NFT-based restaurant, an "ostentatious Japanese-themed restaurant and private club" featuring a members-only Sho Club Sky Lounge. What's more galling than the repeated use of the terms "immersive" and "experiential" to describe an actual restaurant is the fact that, as the group's website proudly proclaims, the astronomically expensive and exclusive eatery "is the only rooftop restaurant located on the Salesforce Transit Center's roof." As downtown San Francisco suffers through soaring homelessness, vacant storefronts and a deadly fentanyl epidemic, the idea of its newest public space only providing food for those willing to spend exorbitant sums is brazen. In a terrifying J.G. Ballard-like dystopian metaphor come to life, the private lounge, which will charge a top-tier membership fee of $300,000 a pop... will be situated 70 feet above surrounding homeless encampments. [The cheapest membership tier is available for a one-time fee of $7,500.]

In maybe a projection of the venture's deficits, the most common word used in interviews and marketing blurbs surrounding the decidedly exclusionary club is "community." The word, adored in the crypto world, is used relentlessly in all of Sho marketing materials, as though if said enough times this ultra-bourgeois establishment under the bright lights of Salesforce Tower's beaming helmet will somehow magically help the working man under Sauron's gaze.... Outside of the private members lounge, the restaurant will be open to the public. Sho told SFGATE over email that the number of seats and tables available to the public is not available at this time....

It's a smug celebration of the widening chasm of wealth disparity, planted in a time and a city that needs just the opposite.
Marketing materials note that paid memberships "will be minted on the Ethereum blockchain. As an NFT, the SHO Club membership will be an asset to the holder, publicly verifiable, and can later be sold or transferred on the secondary market."

So Friday SFGate.com paid another visit to "the empty husk of the building that will, if all goes smoothly, soon sell NFT memberships between $7,500 and $300,000 to join a hospitality club at a yet-to-be-constructed Japanese fine-dining restaurant in the middle of Salesforce Park." (Predicted grand opening date: September/October 2023.) The public will have allocated reservations too, [CEO Joshua] Sigel said, without revealing numbers. "Then what's the selling point for a membership?" a reporter interjected. There will be special events, a monthly membership dinner for certain tiers, and concierge service, among other benefits, Sigel said... Sigel said there's "fantastic" interest in Sho Club memberships, that they've had thousands of sign-ups on their website, and they anticipate rolling out a private NFT sale next week, followed by a public sale in mid- to late September....

Inevitably came web3 talk. Once the 3,275 NFTs memberships are sold, that's it, no more. If you want to become a member after that, you'll have to obtain a Sho Group NFT on OpenSea, a secondary market for NFTs.... Sho Group will get a 10% kickback on any secondary market sales of NFTs. A reporter astutely asked how the restaurant will keep tabs on who its new members are, once the NFTs start exchanging hands. In other words: What happens when a genuine piece of s — t snags a secondary market membership? Sigel assured us the restaurant will have a terms and conditions agreement to deal with unruly forces....

Someone abruptly asked Sigel if he'll be helping the homeless, a non sequitur of epic proportions that does, in fairness, loom over everything related to this fancy restaurant located in an ostensibly public park. "Great question," he started, announcing that in the next few weeks, his group will be rolling out a foundation of some kind. "For those who know Sho and I well, giving back and supporting the community is a very big thing for us. You specifically asked about the homeless — I have a family member who's homeless. It's near and dear to my heart, in terms of serving not only the unhoused, but also those who are in need of food."

Submission + - Autonomous Robots Used In Hundreds of Hospitals At Risk of Remote Hijacks (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: [R]esearchers are now finding vulnerabilities in newer hospital technologies that weren’t as ubiquitous a decade ago. Enter autonomous hospital robots, the supposed-to-be-friendly self-controlled digital workhorses that can transport medications, bed linens, food, medications and laboratory specimens across a hospital campus. These robots, such as the ones built by robot maker Aethon, are equipped with the space to transport critical goods and security access to enter restricted parts of the hospital and ride elevators, all while cutting labor costs. But researchers at Cynerio, a cybersecurity startup focused on securing hospital and healthcare systems, discovered a set of five never-before-seen vulnerabilities in Aethon robots, which they say allowed malicious hackers to remotely hijack and control these autonomous robots — and in some cases over the internet.

The five vulnerabilities, which Cynerio collectively call JekyllBot:5, aren’t with the robots themselves but with the base servers that are used to communicate with and control the robots that traverse the hallways of the hospitals and hotels. The bugs range from allowing hackers to create new users with high-level access in order to then log in and remotely control the robots and access restricted areas, snoop on patients or guests using the robot’s in-built cameras, or otherwise cause mayhem. Asher Brass, the lead researcher on the Aethon vulnerabilities, warned that the flaws required a “very low skill set for exploitation.”

Cynerio said the base servers have a web interface that could be accessed from inside the hospital’s network, allowing “guest” users to view real-time robot camera feeds and their upcoming schedules and tasks for the day without needing a password. But although the robots’ functionality were protected by an “admin” account, the researchers said the vulnerabilities in the web interface could have allowed a hacker to interact with the robots without needing an admin password to log in. One of the five bugs, the researchers said, exposed robots to remote control using a joystick-style controller in the web interface, while exploiting another one of the bugs to interact with door locks, call and ride elevators, and open and close medication drawers.

Comment His Full title (Score 4, Insightful) 38

by Jonny6pak (#60839254) Attached to: Texas Plans To Sue Google for Alleged Anticompetitive Behavior

Why do reporters keep getting his title wrong? It's "Texas Attorney General Indicted for Securities Fraud and Under FBI Investigation for Abuse of Position and Bribery with a related Whistleblower Lawsuit" Ken Paxton. I know the thing is getting long, but the man deserves y'all use the whole thing.

Comment Re:Never Heard Of SPARKS (Score 2) 85

by Jonny6pak (#60474718) Attached to: Scene Bust Triggered Historic Drop In 'Pirate' Releases

They've been around for a long time but I don't think they've really mattered to the extent the feds are pretending. I honestly forgot about them and I'm pretty sure the last time I downloaded one of their releases was in like 2010. And even then it always seemed like a loose affiliation of people looking for a common brand rather than a full-fledged scene group. Individual members would always tag the releases with SPARKS and then their own handle. Seemed just a way for individuals to get into the pre database. If they busted EVO then this would be a real story.

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