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Comment Just so we're all on the same page here (Score 2) 39

by Marquis231 (#59353958) Attached to: After Two Years The Air Force's X-37B Space Plane Finally Lands

So are we all just going to tacitly ignore this vehicles true purpose? Rumors have been openly circulating for years that this space plane is simply the latest nuclear payload delivery mechanism of the United States (or 'fourth column' of preemptive nuclear 'defense') with orbital loitering capabilities measured in years rather than hours. In trademark style the air force neither confirms nor denies this all the whilst claiming the mission is entirely scientific in its (top secret) purpose.

I do wonder in the dead of night if the nuclear umbrella keeping us all safe has in recent years become a literal umbrella of space-based nuclear weapons without the general populace being at all aware of it. The Sword of Damocles has become all too real and it is more terrifying than any ballistic missile submarine lurking off the coast.

It is 2 minutes to midnight.

Comment Re:Good on Mr. Branson (Score 1) 77

by Marquis231 (#54080565) Attached to: Stephen Hawking Will Travel To Space

Too many people have gone (Arthur C. Clarke as one) that fully expected to experience spaceflight during their lives and it's nice to see Dr. Hawking will get that opportunity

You touched a nerve there. Of all people I would of been very happy to see him experience space for himself. Rest in peace Mr Clarke
Microsoft

Microsoft Teases Windows 10's Upcoming 'Project Neon' Design Language (windowscentral.com) 139

Posted by BeauHD from the sneak-peek dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Windows Central: Microsoft just gave developers a sneak peek at Project Neon, Microsoft's upcoming design language for Windows 10 that aims to add fluidity, animation and blur to apps and the operating system. We exclusively revealed that this was in the works in late 2016, and today Microsoft has given us a first peak at what Project Neon will look like. During the Windows Developer Day livestream, an image of Project Neon was seen the background of one of the PowerPoint slides being shown off on stage. Although not much, it's further confirmation that this is the end goal for Windows 10's UI, and Project Neon will be bringing a fresh coat of paint to apps. Project Neon should benefit all types of Windows 10 devices, including Windows 10 Mobile, HoloLens and even Xbox. We're still several months away from Project Neon being everywhere in Windows 10, and we're expecting to see more at BUILD this coming May. In fact, a lot of the Project Neon APIs are available in the latest Insider Preview builds of Windows 10, meaning developers can already begin taking advantage of these new user interfaces and design language! Animations and transitions are a big deal with Project Neon, with the goal of making the operating system and apps feel like they work together. Peter Bright does a good job summarizing the looks of the screenshot via Ars Technica: "The picture shows a refreshed version of the Groove music app on a Windows desktop. The fundamentals of the app and its layout aren't changed, underscoring that Neon is very much an iteration of the current Metro/Microsoft Design Language (MDL). The window has shed its discrete title bar and one pixel border, with the application content now extending to the very edge of the window. The search text field no longer has a box around it, and the left hand pane has a hint of translucency to it." You can view the screenshot here and judge it for yourself.

Comment Already seen it (Score 2) 145

by Marquis231 (#53651513) Attached to: Latest Adobe Acrobat Reader Update Silently Installs Chrome Extension
I thought it was odd this morning when I logged onto my Windows 7 work PC that the first thing I saw upon opening Chrome was a dialogue box asking permission to install a new extension from Adobe that I hadn't asked for. I declined, of course. Now I see my suspicions that it was official spyware have been vindicated, surprise surprise.

Comment Re:Heard that before.. (Score 1) 376

I still use and carry around my Zune HD regularly as my Nexus 5 lacks an SD card slot and music streaming services aren't quite there yet IMO (data charges aside). It's a nifty little player as well as quirky part of consumer tech history. They command a hefty price tag on eBay nowadays as it would seem they have become a collectors items of sorts.
Iphone

Apple Says Air Exposure Is Causing iPhone 6s Battery Problems (arstechnica.com) 76

Posted by BeauHD from the air-exposure dept.
Last month, Apple announced a repair program for a "small number" of iPhone 6s phones that suffer from faulty batteries. The phones that were affected by this fault were manufactured between September and October 2015. Two weeks later, Apple now says the fault was caused by overexposure to "controlled ambient air." Ars Technica reports: The same press release -- issued only in China so far, but available in English if you scroll down -- says that some owners of later iPhone 6S models are also reporting problems with unexpected shutdowns. Apple isn't replacing those batteries just yet, but the company says that an iOS update "available next week" will add "additional diagnostic capability" that will allow Apple to better track down and diagnose the causes of these shutdowns. It "may potentially help [Apple] improve the algorithms used to manage battery performance and shutdown," as well. Those improvements will be included in future iOS updates. Apple says that the battery problem "is not a safety issue," an important thing to note given the way the Galaxy Note 7 blew up in Samsung's face. The software update that Apple mentions in the release is almost certainly iOS 10.2, which is currently in its sixth beta build. The update will be the first major bug-fix release since October's iOS 10.1, and it also includes a handful of other changes like new and redesigned emoji, the TV app that Apple demoed at its last product event, and other features.

Comment Ideal Ratio (Score 1) 87

Quality over quantity, please! It's already enough work separating the wheat from the chaff without publishers working to multiply their daily output in a bid to spoof search algorithms.

1440 pieces of content in one day is ridiculous, nobody has time to read even 1% of that unless you exclusively read the Washington Post.
Security

Someone Is Learning How To Take Down the Internet, Warns Bruce Schneier (schneier.com) 237

Posted by msmash from the storm-is-coming dept.
Some of the major companies that provide the basic infrastructure that makes the internet work have seen an increase in DDoS attacks against them, says Bruce Schneier. He adds that these attacks are of much larger scale -- including the duration -- than the ones we have seen previously. These attacks, he adds, are also designed to test what all defense measures a company has got -- and they ensure that the company uses every they have got, leaving them with no choice but to demonstrate their defense capabilities to the attacker. He hasn't specifically shared details about the organizations that are under attack, but what little he has elaborated should give us a chill. From his blog post: [...] This all is consistent with what Verisign is reporting. Verisign is the registrar for many popular top-level Internet domains, like .com and .net. If it goes down, there's a global blackout of all websites and e-mail addresses in the most common top-level domains. Every quarter, Verisign publishes (PDF) a DDoS trends report. While its publication doesn't have the level of detail I heard from the companies I spoke with, the trends are the same: "in Q2 2016, attacks continued to become more frequent, persistent, and complex." There's more. One company told me about a variety of probing attacks in addition to the DDoS attacks: testing the ability to manipulate internet addresses and routes, seeing how long it takes the defenders to respond, and so on. Someone is extensively testing the core defensive capabilities of the companies that provide critical Internet services. Who would do this? It doesn't seem like something an activist, criminal, or researcher would do. Profiling core infrastructure is common practice in espionage and intelligence gathering. It's not normal for companies to do that. Furthermore, the size and scale of these probes -- and especially their persistence -- points to state actors. It feels like a nation's military cybercommand trying to calibrate its weaponry in the case of cyberwar. It reminds me of the US's Cold War program of flying high-altitude planes over the Soviet Union to force their air-defense systems to turn on, to map their capabilities.

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