Join Dr. Bill as he examines the wild and wacky world of the web, computers, and all things geeky! Hot Tech Tips, Tech News, and Geek Culture are examined… with plenty of good humor as well!
Search Engine Watch – By: Yuyu Chen – “Microsoft is working on an advanced version of Cortana to rival the likes of Apple’s Siri and Google Now, according to a Reuters’ interview with Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft research.
The new version of Cortana is based on research from Microsoft’s artificial intelligence project called ‘Einstein.’ It will be built into Windows 10 this fall, and further be available on both iOS and Android devices.
‘This kind of technology, which can read and understand email, will play a central role in the next roll out of Cortana, which we are working on now for the fall time frame,’ said Horvitz.
Supported by Cortana’s search, speech recognition, and machine learning capabilities, Microsoft aims to this advanced version into the first intelligent digital assistant that can predict users’ needs.
But whether Cortana will become the cream of the crop remains to be seen, as Google and Apple are pushing boundaries as well.
In its latest mobile app, Google has leveraged its billions of searches to predict what a user is doing and what they are interested in, and send them relevant information accordingly. At the same time, Apple has integrated Siri (which uses Microsoft’s Bing search engine) into its CarPlay software to allow drivers to reply to incoming messages without taking their eyes off the road. The company has also placed Siri on its HomeKit system and Apple Watch.”
C|net – By: Don Reisinger – “Sony’s PlayStation 4 continues to cement its position as the leading game console for this generation of devices.
Sony has sold 20.2 million PlayStation 4 units worldwide as of March 1, up nearly 2 million units since the company announced in January that sales had hit 18.5 million units. Sony said the PlayStation 4 is the fastest-selling game console it has ever launched.
The announcement comes as the game industry holds one of its biggest events of the year, the Game Developers Conference. This year’s event in San Francisco has included announcements of new games, new set-top boxes, and Sony’s latest prototype of its Project Morpheus virtual-reality headset.
Sony’s grip on console sales has been tight since the device launched in November 2013. The PlayStation 4 got off to a strong start, thanks in part to its solid game library and a $400 price tag that made it $100 cheaper than its chief competitor, the Xbox One, which launched in the same month.
The price difference became such an issue for Microsoft last year that the company decided to unbundle its Kinect motion-gaming sensor, bringing the price down to match its chief competitor, the PlayStation 4. During the fourth quarter, Microsoft also offered special pricing to boost console sales — an effort that paid off when research firm NPD announced that the Xbox One led the holiday-shopping season in the US.
Still, the Xbox One is trailing Sony’s PlayStation 4 in worldwide sales. In November, Microsoft announced that its console had nearly reached 10 million unit sales. Since then, the company hasn’t divulged sales data. But given holiday sales, Microsoft is believed to have sold millions more since November.
Microsoft declined CNET’s request for more recent sales figures.
In sharper contrast is Nintendo. The company announced earlier this year that through 2014, it had sold 9.2 million Wii U units since its release in November 2012, trailing far behind its chief competitors. Nintendo has said it believes it can still turn the console around by focusing more on first-party software, but the chances that it will catch up with PS4 or Xbox One seem less and less likely.
Looking ahead, Sony’s PlayStation business will play a central role in the company’s operation. Sony said last month that it hopes to generate an operating profit of over 500 billion yen (about $4.2 billion) by March 2018 by focusing on four core areas: the PlayStation gaming division, Sony Pictures, Sony Music and its device business that includes sensors.
Sony said that it will invest heavily in those areas, while spending less in other parts of its business that have been underperforming. Sony didn’t announce a road map for its PlayStation business, but said that the console will be a cornerstone for profit in the coming years.
Actually getting to use that profit may be difficult: Sony expects to finish its current fiscal year, which ends this month, with a net loss of 170 billion yen ($1.4 billion).
Ars Technica – By: Dan Goodin – Computers running all supported versions of Microsoft Windows are vulnerable to ‘FREAK,’ a bug disclosed Monday that for more than a decade has made it possible for attackers to decrypt HTTPS-protected traffic passing between vulnerable end-users and millions of websites.
Microsoft confirmed the vulnerability in an advisory published Thursday. A vulnerability-scanning service at FREAKAttack.com, a site that offers information about the bug, confirmed the advisory, showing that the latest version of IE 11 running on a fully patched Windows 7 machine was susceptible. Previously, it was believed that the Windows system was immune to the attacks.
FREAK attacks—short for Factoring attack on RSA-EXPORT Keys—are possible when an end-user with a vulnerable device connects to a vulnerable HTTPS-protected website. Vulnerable sites are those configured to use a weak cipher that many presumed had been retired long ago. In analyses immediately following Monday’s disclosure of FREAK, it was believed Android devices, iPhones and Macs from Apple, and smartphones from Blackberry were susceptible. The addition of Windows dramatically increases the number of users known to be vulnerable.
Attackers who are in a position to monitor traffic passing between vulnerable users and vulnerable servers can inject malicious packets into the flow that will cause the two parties to use a weak 512-bit encryption key while negotiating encrypted Web sessions. Attackers can then collect some of the resulting exchange and use cloud-based computing from Amazon or other services to factor the website’s underlying private key. The process requires about seven hours and $100. From that point on, attackers on a coffee-shop hotspot, rogue employees working at an ISP, or nation-state-sponsored hackers can masquerade as the official HTTPS-protected website, a coup that allows them to read or even modify data as it passes between the site and the end-user.
Meanwhile, Android and Apple devices
On Thursday, Google developers released an updated version of Chrome for Mac that can’t be forced to use the weak 512-bit cipher, effectively closing the FREAK hole when OS X users are on the Google browser. At the time this post was being prepared, Chrome for Android remained vulnerable, and Google officials have yet to provide any public estimate on when a fix would be available. Apple officials have said patches for OS X and iOS would be released next week. Microsoft’s advisory provided no estimate on when a patch would be available, either. In the interim, people on vulnerable devices should consider using Firefox, which over the past two days has consistently been labeled as safe by the FREAKAttack site.
In recent weeks, security researchers scanned more than 14 million HTTPS-protected websites and found that 36 percent of them supported the weak cipher, meaning they are vulnerable to the attack. As of Thursday morning, vulnerable sites included AmericanExpress.com, Groupon.com, Bloomberg.com, and many more. Microsoft’s advisory offers several work-arounds for more technically inclined readers, but some of them will prevent IE from connecting as expected to certain websites.
Despite the large number of sites and end-user devices known to be vulnerable, there has been considerable debate among security professionals about just how critical the threat posed by FREAK is. Support for the argument the threat is low is the fact that it’s hard or impossible for adversaries to carry out FREAK attacks remotely or in mass numbers. Additionally, Google, Facebook, and most other large sites aren’t vulnerable. These considerations and the perception the threat is low are likely contributing to the slow pace of patches coming from Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
Still other researchers say the severity is much higher. Besides the millions of websites and incomprehensibly high number of end-user devices now known to be vulnerable, other reasons to think FREAK is severe is the fact that it has existed for a decade. That means it’s possible malicious attackers have known about and exploited it for years already.”
ZDNet – By: Ed Bott – For several years, Oracle has been bundling the Ask toolbar with its Java software for Windows PCs, often using deceptive methods to convince customers to install the unwanted add-on.
With the latest release of Java for the Mac, Oracle has begun bundling the Ask adware with default installations as well, changing homepages in the process.
The unwelcome Ask extension shows up as part of the installer if a Mac user downloads Java 8 Update 40 for the Mac. In my tests on a Mac running that latest release of OS X, the installer added an app to the current browser, Chrome version 41. (In a separate test, I installed Java using the latest version of Safari, where it behaved in a similar fashion.)
As with its Windows counterpart, the Java installer selects the option to install the Ask app by default. A casual Mac user who simply clicks through the dialog boxes to complete the installation will find the app installed and enabled in their browser, with the New Tab page changed to one with an Ask search box.
I found it interesting that the Chrome Web Store listing for the Ask Search Extension reveals that the app’s developer is listed as ‘chromewebstore12.’ That developer name is used by three related Ask apps and might lead an unsophisticated user to think that the app is an official offering from Chrome.
The previous Ask Search Extension, with more than 5 million installs and several dozen one-star reviews, is listed as being developed by APN LLC, which is identified in the license agreement for the Java installer.
As with its Windows counterpart, the Ask search page returns low-quality results that are heavily loaded with ads, most of which are not clearly distinguished from organic search listings.
In an apparently unwitting acknowledgment that its software isn’t really a ‘convenient browsing tool,’ as its description suggests, the Help menu for the Ask button on the Chrome toolbar leads directly to a page containing uninstall instructions. The same menu contains a separate Uninstall listing.
In my testing, I found it relatively easy to uninstall the Ask Search extension from both Chrome and Safari, although an unsophisticated user might be intimidated by the process. In both cases, however, the home page remained set to an Ask search page and had to be manually changed.
Oracle has updated its installation instructions for the Mac installer to acknowledge its partnership deal with Ask. The mention of the Ask deal does not appear in the most recent previous version of the same page, saved at the Internet Archive a month ago.
Oracle’s timing in introducing adware with Java for the Mac comes on the heels of Lenovo’s disastrous scandal with the Superfish adware. Despite numerous requests, Oracle has refused to remove the Ask adware from its Java installer for Windows. With this latest move, the company appears to be doubling down on its commitment to sneaking adware onto PCs and Macs running Java.
IAC, the parent corporation that owns Ask.com, is a diverse organization. It also owns Match.com, Tinder, OKCupid, The Daily Beast, Vimeo, Dictionary.com, and HomeAdvisor, among many others. IAC pays a commission to Oracle and other affiliates that bundle the Ask toolbar.
Adware is a big business. In its most recent annual report, filed in February, IAC disclosed that the Search & Applications Division, which includes Ask, made nearly $1.6 billion in revenue and $311 million in operating income in 2014. ‘Substantially all of the revenue’ from that segment comes from a deal with Google. IAC reported that it paid $883 million, primarily in traffic acquisition costs, to partners who distribute its ‘customized browser-based applications.'”
I… obviously didn’t get a show done again! This time, though, I did have a real reason. I had a tooth issue that laid me out! I had a tooth that looked like it was going to need a root canal. My mouth was swollen up, I couldn’t eat. I was miserable! So, since I am still “dealing.” I think I will wait until Saturday to do a show. Sigh.
I was saddened today, to learn that Leonard Nimoy has passed away. I was a fan of his work on Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Fringe, and many other roles. He will, of course, best be remembered as Mr. Spock, a role in which he caught the imagination of a several generations of Star Trek fans. I got to meet him, personally, while I was working with the Science Fiction Fantasy Federation group while attending UNC-G.
OK, so the buzz is that Apple is hiring away Tesla workers with a plan to build an Apple car. If it is an electric car, will the battery be permanently built in and you have to throw away the car if it goes bad?
I just don’t know if I see Apple building a car. Oh, sure, it would probably look very cool, and, I am sure, it would be very expensive… but they have no experience in the car business. It seems to me that they would have to “come up to speed” fast in an arena that has 100 plus years of development and technology that is very different than their core products.
But, that’s just my two cents… I probably won’t buy a version 1.0 Apple car… if I could even afford it!
LinuxGizmos – By: Eric Brown – “On Indiegogo, CoroWare launched a 4WD ‘CoroBot Spark,’ open robot platform for STEM education, based on a Raspberry Pi SBC and a CoroWare controller board.
CoroWare Robotics Solutions’s CoroBot Spark is the latest of several open source robot kits that have used the Raspberry Pi single board computer. Recent examples include iRobot’s Create 2, a hackable version of its Roomba robot, as well as Frindo.org’s RPi-ready Frindo robot. Other Linux-based robot controller boards designed to integrate the Raspberry Pi include the Roboteq RIO, Mikronaut’s RoboPi, and the Calao Systems’s PinBall SBC.
The open source CoroBot Spark differs from the Create 2 or Frindo in that it’s a larger four-wheel drive (4WD) vehicle. Like the Create 2, the Spark is designed for middle school and high school science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs, as well as university research and education.
CoroWare’s Indiegogo campaign offers Corobot Spark early adopter kits for $275, and many more kits at $350, with shipments due in May. A $400 Educational/Developer package adds an Xbox controller, a USB flash drive, additional drivers, and premium tech support.
The kits include a Raspberry Pi board with camera, along with the chassis, motors, wheels, battery, sensors, and CoroWare’s CoroBot Pi Hat controller board. The Pi Hat supports peripherals including variable speed motors, and sensors for touch, ultrasonic, infrared, sound, and more.
The Indiegogo page mentions availability of both the older ARM11-based Raspberry Pi Model B+ and the new quad Cortex-A7-based Raspberry Pi 2 Model B. With the latter, it says, you can run either Debian Linux or the upcoming Windows 10, which to the surprise of many, landed on the RPI 2’s list of supported OSes along with Ubuntu.
CoroWare has long offered a line of four-wheeled, x86-based robots with Windows and Ubuntu support. Rolling robots such as the Ubuntu ready CoroWare Explorer EX-L added Robot Operating System (ROS) middleware extensions. The company’s last major Ubuntu/ROS model was the CoroBot Pro, a $9,000 robot development platform announced in 2013, which is currently in the process of being updated to a v2 model (see farther below).
The CoroBot Spark’s software stack, including its cross platform GUI, was written entirely in Python. The stack will include open and cross-platform APIs, says CoroWare. Each Debian image will come preloaded with Anaconda, SciPy, iPython Notebook, and other tools.
‘The CoroBot Spark platform is especially attractive because the chassis design, software and APIs will all be available through open source channels such as GitHub,’ stated Lloyd Spencer, CEO of CoroWare.
The CoroBot Spark can be assembled in less than 30 minutes with the included screwdriver in a process does not require breadboards or jumper wires, claims CoroWare. The entire kit, excluding the Pi Hat, ‘is designed to be made at a local makerspace using 3D printing and laser cutting,’ says the company.
The Pi Hat board is touted for its inclusion of Cypress’s PSoC 5LP system-on-chip, as well as two lesser powered PSoC 4 (4200 Series) chips. Built around an ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller, the PSoC 5LP offers digitally reprogrammable logic, which is somewhat like an FPGA, but easier to use, says CoroWare. As a result, ‘you can customize which pins do what on the fly,’ says the company.
The CoroBot Spark ships with a USB WiFi dongle for the Raspberry Pi, and does not require tethered operation to navigate. A desktop control application that supports Linux, Mac, or Windows, offers basic user input, sensor information, and a Python console for basic scripted commands. The Pi Hat board, meanwhile, is ‘preloaded with basic control blocks and will have many more freely available online that can be uploaded via PSoC creator,’ says CoroWare.
4x discrete multi-gear DC motors and drivers (supports replacement with omni-directional wheels)
Frame made of laser-cut birch plywood
CoroWare promises to donate 15 percent of all Indiegogo contributions to fund program proposals submitted by schools, universities and non-profit organizations. If the ‘flexible funding’ project surpasses the $45,000 Indiegogo goal, CoroWare will donate 30 percent of all contributions made above that, says the company.
The water resistant CoroBot Pro can be fitted with one of several robot arms, one of which offers up to 5 degrees of freedom (DoF) and can lift up to 800 grams, says CoroWare. Specific options include the Point Grey Bumblebee stereo vision camera, the Microsoft Kinect, and a variety of HD webcams.
CoroWare had few details on the upcoming Corobot Pro v2, which appears to be close to completion. The new robot will add special mounting hardware that ‘allows for easy integration of additional sensors and payload,’ says CoroWare. The company also hints that it’s a more rugged platform for outdoors use, presumably with greater extended temperature support.
CoroWare also says that long-range communications (perhaps cellular data support) will be standard. As a result of these and other improvements, the v2 version will start at $20,000, more than double the price of the current model.
Further information
The CoroBot Spark is available on Indiegogo through April 5 starting at $275 and $350, with shipments due in May. Developer kits and classroom bundles are also available. Full specs for the CoroBot Spark may be found at the CoroWare website.
More on the Corobot Pro and upcoming v2 version may be found here. The first generation CoroBot Pro starts at $8,995 at The Robot Marketplace, which has additional specs.”
Techcrunch – By: Frederic Lardinois – “After a number of delays, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today officially announced its proposed rules for small commercial drones. Most of the proposed rules already leaked earlier this weekend. Overall, the proposed rules are pretty straightforward and more lenient than expected, but while they open up a number of use cases, they are still strict enough to make it impractical to operate the kind of delivery drones Amazon and others have envisioned.
Here are the basics of the rules, which will apply to drones weighing fewer than 55 pounds: pilots will have to pass a knowledge test (but not a practical test) to get a newly developed drone operator license and will have to be vetted by the TSA. They will have to take a recurrent test every 24 months and be at least 17 years old. Pilots will only be allowed to fly during daytime hours and must be able to see the drone at all times (though they can also use a second operator as an observer). Once an operator has this license, it will apply to all small drones.
Thankfully, it turns out that the FAA will not require drone pilots to get a private or commercial pilots license, and operators will not have to pass a medical exam.
As expected, commercial drones will only be allowed to fly under 500 feet and no faster than 100 mph. Drones will have to be registered with the FAA. Flights over people are prohibited and visibility has to be over 3 miles. Drones can fly autonomously, but all of the other regulations (line of sight, maximum height, etc.) still apply and the pilot has to be able to take manual control at all times.
The FAA is also considering to create a separate category for very small drones under 4.4 pounds that may allow operators to fly over people.
You can find a more detailed summary of the proposed rules here and our analysis of the leaked document — which turned out to be correct — is here.
It’s worth noting that these rules do not apply to hobbyists and model airplanes.
‘We have tried to be flexible in writing these rules,’ said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in today’s announcement. ‘We want to maintain today’s outstanding level of aviation safety without placing an undue regulatory burden on an emerging industry.’ As Huerta also noted in a press conference this morning, drones have the potential to ‘greatly change how we use our airspace,’ but the FAA is obviously also interested in ensuring the safety of the existing users.
One of the most frustrating aspects of the proposed rules — at least for many drone startups — is that only line-of-sight flights are allowed. While you can obviously use a camera on the drone, you have to be able to see it at all times (and binoculars are not allowed). This mostly restricts commercial drone usage to use cases like photography, power line inspections, search and rescue, and crop monitoring. As Jesse Kallman, the director of regulatory affairs at commercial drone startup Airware notes in a statement today, ‘this is not unexpected. They [the FAA] state the technology is not available, but indeed it is, and is being used safely in Europe today.’
Amazon Prime Air Remains Grounded In The U.S.
It’ll be almost impossible to operate any delivery drones like the ones Amazon has proposed under these rules.
As Amazon’s vice president of Global Public Policy told us in an emailed statement this morning, ‘the FAA’s proposed rules for small UAS could take one or two years to be adopted and, based on the proposal, even then those rules wouldn’t allow Prime Air to operate in the United States. The FAA needs to begin and expeditiously complete the formal process to address the needs of our business, and ultimately our customers. We are committed to realizing our vision for Prime Air and are prepared to deploy where we have the regulatory support we need.’ Chances are then, that Prime Air will first launch outside the U.S.
prime-air_high-resolution01As the FAA however also noted in today’s press conference, this is only a first step. The administration continues to evaluate technologies that will allow drones to go beyond line of sight and will continue to allow for exemptions. For now, though, delivery drones remain grounded.
For the most part, the new rules follow common sense and are a good first step, even though they still prohibit some use cases. Brian Wynne, the president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International echoed this sentiment. ‘This is a good first step in an evolutionary process that brings us closer to realizing the many societal and economic benefits of UAS technology,’ he writes in a statement today.
It will still be a while before today’s proposed rules become reality — and they could still change before they do. The FAA is now asking for comments on a number of aspects of these rules. It will likely still take a while (possibly more than a year or two) before these rules can take effect. Until then, commercial operators will still have to apply for exemptions with the FAA.”
I was saddened today, to learn that Leonard Nimoy has passed away. I was a fan of his work on Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Fringe, and many other roles. He will, of course, best be remembered as Mr. Spock, a role in which he caught the imagination of a several generations of Star Trek fans. I got to meet him, personally, while I was working with the Science Fiction Fantasy Federation group while attending UNC-G.
Looks like I can still fly my new toy drone that I got for Christmas! Whew!