Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

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.”