Category: Computers, Science & Technology

It’s the end of the world, I’m tellin’ ya!

This Company Is Making Robot Security Guards That Look Like Daleks

Gizmodo – By: Chris Mills – “If you’re sitting down at the drawing board to design a robotic security guard, and you don’t want people to run the other way screaming ‘oh hell no’ at first sight, here’s a little tip: don’t make it look like the evil killer robot from a science fiction show. (Dr. Who, of course – Dr. Bill)

The K5 is a robotic security guard being developed by California startup Knightscope (I’m pretty sure that’s also the name of the world-ruling megacorp in some dystopian sci-fi movie), to provide an alternative to flesh-and-bones security. The robot isn’t armed (thank Christ), but it’s about five feet tall, outfitted with an array of sensors to detect humans and phone home, and yes, it exists outside of a lab. In fact, there’s a fleet of five patrolling Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus as we speak.

The robots are kitted out with four cameras, one on each side, plus microphones, weather sensors, GPS, and a laser rangefinder to help navigation. If you try and mess with it, the robot will ‘beep ominously’, before sending a SOS to its control center.

Realistically, these things aren’t going to be replacing security patrols any time soon — I can’t imagine it’d be that hard for a determined human to evade a grown-up Roomba, or there’s always the option of just pushing it over. But for some mundane tasks — I’m particularly thinking parking attendants — this thing could actually make sense. Just do not, under any circumstances, give it a weapon. And, um, maybe rethink the styling a little?”

Now, this is just CWAZY! Though I give him points for geekery!

Chinese Programmer Sticks Windows 95 On An iPhone 6 Plus

TechCrunch – By: John Biggs – “Today in ‘putting stuff onto things on which they don’t belong,’ we present a user, xyq058775, and his exciting admission that he installed Windows 95 on a brand new iPhone. He used a tool called iDos, an open source DOSBox-like app to install the OS. He found that most of it worked fine but he was unable to upgrade to Windows XP. And we can assume he was also able to play Doom.

There’s is very little new about this whole process – people have been putting emulators on things since the original VAX machines – but it’s cool to see resurrected software run so readily on new hardware. While I can’t imagine a real world use case for this (maybe you really need to run a copy of Mavis Beacon?) it’s a great theoretical exercise. Who knows, maybe someone can run POSDT next.

Here is the poorly translated FAQ:

1.Q: Can I install WINDOWS XP? A: The answer is yes you can, but certainly not by idos, because idos simply simulate the DOS environment is not the true sense of the virtual machine, so the system is more difficult to run the DOS and idos simulation environment and do not have XP running basic environmental needs, so later if transplanted XP system, then I will make use of their leisure time with friends ios platform to write a plug-in to run XP virtual machine system.

2.Q: Why are you doing this? Why not use Remote Desktop. A: First, to show that this kind of thing tall Remote Desktop is currently no support on win98 systems, not to use during system installation and tool methods have sent me here.

3.Q: Why is the process I installed the explorer process wrong? A: Because idos simulator only simulates the 16’s dos environment, although win98 16/32 hybrid system but Explorer and exe process large part needed is a 32-bit environment, so when they need 32 program calls some system environment variables and support libraries when an error occurs, LZ modify some of the resource is designed to allow him to run in idos environmental good, However, this modification will change the part of the machine, which has led some device errors when using LZ modify the good image. After LZ according to everyone’s feedback slowly improve!

There are full instructions on his post if you can read Chinese. If not, I leave the installation as an exercise for the reader.”

This claims to be open information, free to the world. Hummmm…

I guess my question is, who determines what information gets distributed?

Here’s more information on “Outernet.”

I am down with this!

News Feed FYI: Reducing Overly Promotional Page Posts in News Feed

Facebook – “One of the main reasons people come to Facebook is to see what’s happening in their News Feeds. Our goal with News Feed has always been to show people the things they want to see. That’s why we often look to people on Facebook to tell us how we can improve. As part of an ongoing survey we asked hundreds of thousands of people how they feel about the content in their News Feeds. People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content.

We dug further into the data to better understand this feedback. What we discovered is that a lot of the content people see as too promotional is posts from Pages they like, rather than ads. This may seem counterintuitive but it actually makes sense: News Feed has controls for the number of ads a person sees and for the quality of those ads (based on engagement, hiding ads, etc.), but those same controls haven’t been as closely monitored for promotional Page posts. Now we’re bringing new volume and content controls for promotional posts, so people see more of what they want from Pages.

According to people we surveyed, there are some consistent traits that make organic posts feel too promotional:

• Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app
• Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context
• Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads

Fewer Promotional Page Posts

Beginning in January 2015, people will see less of this type of content in their News Feeds. As we’ve said before, News Feed is already a competitive place – as more people and Pages are posting content, competition to appear in News Feed has increased. All of this means that Pages that post promotional creative should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.

This change will not increase the number of ads people see in their News Feeds. The idea is to increase the relevance and quality of the overall stories – including Page posts – people see in their News Feeds. This change is about giving people the best Facebook experience possible and being responsive to what they have told us.

While Pages that post a lot of the content we mention above will see a significant decrease in distribution, the majority of Pages will not be impacted by this change.”

Since I am a Google Play Music subscriber, I am stoked! Yes!

Google says Play Music subscribers automatically get access to YouTube Music Key starting next week

9 to 5 Google – By: Stephen Hall – “When YouTube Music Key was announced earlier this week, we were left with many details about the service unexplained. Of these, was the question of whether or not current Google Play Music subscribers were going to have access to the service automatically. While the announcement said that subscribers of Music Key would be getting All Access subscriptions included, it wasn’t exactly clear whether or not it worked the other way around. Now we have the answer:

Starting next week, as a Google Play Music subscriber, you’ll get free and complete access to the YouTube Music Key beta, a new service from YouTube where you can watch ad-free music videos, and keep the music playing in the background or when you’re offline. The Google Play Music app will also include ad-free music videos alongside select tracks. Stay tuned for more information.

In an email sent out to Google Play Music subscribers this morning, the above snippet of text explained that those who already subscribe to Google’s music service will be getting access to the Music Key beta starting ‘next week.’ The service promises ad-free listening to music on YouTube, offline playback, and the ability to listen to music in the background on your mobile devices.

If you’re not a Google Play Music All Access subscriber and you still want to get access to the Music Key beta, head over to the Music Key splash page and hand over your email address.”

Yep, the end of the world, like I said. Microsoft is the safest phone. OK, did somebody not tell me and it is really April 1st?

Mobile Pwn2Own 2014: Windows Phone’s sandbox resists attack
https://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=17640

Help Net Security – “The Mobile Pwn2Own 2014 hacking competition, held at the PacSec Applied Security Conference in Tokyo, Japan, was concluded on Thursday, and not one of the targeted phones has survived completely unscathed.

Of the targets available for selection, Amazon Fire Phone, Apple iPhone 5S, Samsung Galaxy S5, and Google/LG Nexus were completely ‘pwned,” the Nokia Lumia 1520 running Windows Phone partially, and BlackBerry Z30, Apple’s iPad Mini and the Nexus 7 weren’t targeted at all.

Competitors were encouraged to come at the phones from a variety of sides – via the mobile web browser, through mobile app and OS holes, via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or NFC, messaging services or, in limited cases, via baseband.

A successful exploitation of a bug in the latter carried with it a $150,000 prize, the others less: $100,000 for messaging services, $75,000 for short distance and $50,000 for the browser, apps or OS.

Not many details about the successful exploits were provided, as the information is first shared with vendors and will be shared with the public once the bugs are closed.

What we know is that the Apple iPhone 5S was owned via the Safari browser by exploiting two bugs, the Amazon Fire Phone was breached via three bugs in its browser, Samsung Galaxy S5 was successfully targeted via NFC by two different teams (one by triggering a deserialization issue in certain code, and the other by targeting a logical error), and the Nexus 5 was forced to pair with another phone via Bluetooth.

The two contestants that did their attacks on the second day were less successful: Jüri Aedla used Wi-Fi to target a Nexus 5, but was unable to elevate his privileges further than their original level. And Nico Joly tried to exploit Lumia’s browser, but didn’t manage to gain full control of the system as the sandbox held. He did, however, manage to extract the cookie database.

More details about the exploits can be expected in the coming weeks, as the vendors patch the bugs and the contestants are given leave to discuss their attacks publicly.”

Yep, must be here, the end of the world that is… Microsoft Open Sourcing .NET. Yep… we’re done.

How The Worm Turns — Microsoft Open Sources .NET

Forbes – Ben Kepes – “It seems like several lifetimes ago that Bill Gates, then CEO of Microsoft, declared that Linux (and, by extension, open source) was a cancer for the technology industry. The Microsoft of today increasingly embraces open source initiatives as a valid approach to some problem areas for technology. But embracing open source, and open sourcing some of the crown jewels of the organization are two different things and that is what Microsoft announced this week

The company announced that it places to open source most of the full server-side .NET core stack, beginning with the next version (note though, this does not include the client-side .NET). The .NET framework is an incredibly important programming language, while looking at young startups one might be forgiven for thinking that newer, more agile languages had removed the validity of old stalwarts like .NET, the truth is very different. There are many huge enterprises out there that run the bulk of their enterprise applications on .NET, and those organizations aren’t moving any time soon. Microsoft .NET had however lost a degree of credibility among the indie developer set and hence this move looks like an attempt to reinvigorate .NET among these folks. A reported six million developers build on top of the .NET framework, but Microsoft’s corporate VP of the developer division, Soma Somasegar, believes that open sourcing .NET will be the way to move the framework forward.

The open source .NET will be broadened to run on both Linux and Mac OS X. Microsoft is planning on working with the Xamarin-sponsored Mono community which already produces a cross-platform open source .NET framework – interestingly this is yet another coming together of Microsoft and Xamarin – I’ve long suggested that Xamarin will eventually be acquired by Redmond, as Microsoft deepens its open source commitment this looks ever more likely.

This move plays into many different hands – it both opens .NET up to more developers, but also across more partnerships. Two examples, Microsoft’s Cloud tsar Scott Guthrie admitted that “often tell Microsoft that while they like .NET, many don’t use it because it’s closed-source and only supports Windows. After [this move], all the reasons not to use it have disappeared”. And it even plays into the hands of the exciting Docker space. Said Docker’s head of business development Nick Stinemates, ‘a central value of the Docker open platform is application portability to any infrastructure via Docker containers. The delivery of an open-source .NET runtime across all major OS platforms means that Microsoft is extending the concept of portability to the application platform itself’.

In what would have been met with incredulity only a few short years ago, Somadegar suggests that developers will soon be able to run a .NET app in a Docker container in Linux on Microsoft Azure – that’s a Microsoft we’ve not seen before. It’s a positive sign that the old, black and white lenses about open source and proprietary software no longer hold true. An exciting day for the technology industry.”

Ubiquitous WiFi… I want it! And, I want it NOW!

WSJ: Elon Musk wants to bring the whole world online with affordable satellites

EnGadget – By: Mariella Moon – “Small, low-cost internet satellites that provide affordable internet to everyone on the planet. These are what Elon Musk wants to create next after working on reusable rockets, space capsules and electric cars since the early 2000’s, according to The Wall Street Journal. The publication says Musk is in the early stages of collaborating with Greg Wyler, who founded O3b Networks and led Google’s internet satellite venture until earlier this year. The duo (with Wyler now representing WorldVu, a company he also founded recently) apparently plans to launch a total of 700 internet satellites into space. They want each of those satellites to cost less than $1 million to build and to weigh less than 250 pounds — a huge undertaking, seeing as the smallest models these days cost several millions and weigh at least 500 pounds.

Wyler reportedly brought the idea to Google first during his time with the company, but he ended up leaving with his plans in tow, as he wasn’t entirely sure Mountain View had ‘sufficient manufacturing expertise.’ Perhaps he thought things would fare better with the man behind Tesla and SpaceX, that’s why he, along with Musk, have already talked to Florida and Colorado government officials about the possibility of building factories in those states. Still, they’re in the very early stages of planning, and Musk might even drop out of the picture, since nothing’s official just yet. If the two do decide to go through with their joint project, they’ll first have to face a lot of regulatory hurdles and raise $1 billion to spend for the development process, among other issues. But hey, if this report is true, at least they don’t have to worry about which rockets to use to launch the satellites to space anymore.”

Another Chromecast-like device? Why not just buy a Chromecast? They are cheap!

This is Vudu Spark, Walmart’s very own Chromecast competitor

GigaOm – By: Janko Roettgers – “Add Walmart to the list of companies that’s trying to sell you a Chromecast-like HDMI streaming stick: The retail giant’s Vudu streaming service is getting ready to unveil a HDMI stick dubbed Vudu Spark that is meant to – surprise – give users access to Vudu. The stick popped up in the FCC database this week, which tends to be a good sign that a release is imminent.

A Vudu spokesperson confirmed plans to release the device, sending me the following statement via email:

At VUDU, we’re always looking at new ways for our customers to experience the movies and TV shows in their VUDU library. We’re developing a streaming stick and will share more information in the coming months, so stay tuned.

The filing, which was done on behalf of the device’s South Korean manufacturer Inktel Corporation, comes with a bunch of unredacted details, including photos of the device as well as a user manual that describes the pretty straightforward functionality of the Spark streaming stick: Upon starting it for the very first time, users have to set up their Wi-Fi network. After that, it automatically launches into the Vudu app.

There is no mention of any other apps or features, so it looks like the Vudu Spark is very much a one-trick pony. The device does come with a remote control to navigate through the on-screen menus of the Vudu app, which uses Zigbee RF as opposed to Wi-Fi Direct, so you shouldn’t expect Miracast or any similar type of mirroring functionality either.

Walmart filed for a trademark for Vudu Spark last month, but the Spark streaming stick isn’t listed on Walmart’s or Vudu’s website just yet. My guess is that Walmart will try to sell this device as cheap as possible to compete with Chromecast and Roku’s streaming stick on price if it can’t do so on features alone.”

This sounds very handy! If you have an application installed on your computer, you can now open Google Drive files using the application on the PC.

Launch desktop applications from Google Drive in Chrome

Google Drive Blog – “Browsers are pretty amazing things. Before, if you wanted to do any serious computing, you’d have to install software onto your computer. But these days, most of that can be done right from within the browser. For example, you can use Google Drive to preview files directly in Gmail, create and share Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, and even edit other file types like Microsoft Office documents without installing a single thing on your hard drive.

But here’s the catch: when it comes to browsers and installed applications working well together, they aren’t quite on the same page. To change that, today we’re launching a new extension for Chrome that lets you open files from Google Drive directly into a compatible application installed on your computer. This includes apps like advanced image and video editing software, accounting and tax programs, or 3D animation and design tools. So, no matter what you keep in Drive, using the web to access and manage files doesn’t mean you’re limited to using applications that only work in your browser.”