Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

…In market share of usage, that is. Actually, this is good news from a security perspective. If Windows XP is still in use after April 2014, it will become a huge gaping security issue on the Internet! Why? No more patches. Stop using XP now!

Windows 8.1 surges in usage as XP continues to drop

ZDNet – “If you want people to adopt your platform, make it free.

That’s the lesson in this month’s web usage statistics from NetMarketShare, which measure worldwide usage share of desktop and mobile operating systems and browsers.

In October, both Microsoft and Apple released free updates to their flagship desktop and notebook operating systems. And despite the fact that the updates arrived late in the month, their impact was substantial.

Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 clocked usage of 1.72 percent, doubling its share from the previous month. That gives the Windows 8.x family a total usage share of 9.25 percent after one full year on the market. (Historically speaking, it appears that Windows 8 is following the same adoption patterns as Windows XP, whose share of the installed base was also just under 10 percent after its first year on the market.)

Usage of Windows XP, which celebrated its 12th birthday in October, continues to drop precipitously in NetMarketShare’s measurements as it heads toward its end-of-support date less than six months from now. For October, XP usage dropped to 31.24 percent, a new low. Windows 7 usage is virtually unchanged from the previous month, with just under half of all PCs running that flavor of Windows.

Meanwhile, Apple’s new OS X Mavericks (officially OS X 10.9), hit a usage level of 0.84 percent in its first (partial) month of availability. Overall, OS X usage continues to climb, slowly, with all OS X versions combined reaching 7.73 percent for the month, a new high. Linux advocates can also celebrate as usage of that free alternative also hit a new high of 1.61 percent.

In the desktop browser segment, Internet Explorer continues its steady growth, reaching 58.22 percent usage. That’s the highest level of usage for the Internet Explorer family in more than two years, and it comes as usage of Firefox and Chrome on traditional desktop operating systems continue to slide. According to the NetMarketShare numbers, Chrome usage hit a two-year low of 15.42 percent in October after briefly nearing the 20 percent mark earlier in the year.

It’s worth noting that the modern, standards-compliant versions of Internet Explorer, 10 and 11, combined for a total usage of 20.43 percent for the month. That’s more than the Firefox or Chrome figures. And Internet Explorer 10, which doesn’t run on Windows XP, is poised to overtake IE 8 as the most-used version.

The PC market is no longer growing as it once was, but even with lower shipments the installed base of traditional PCs continues to grow, with hundreds of millions of new shipments per year. For consumers (and increasingly for businesses), tablets and mobile devices are where the market momentum and excitement are to be found. But in most cases those new tablets are still going to be companion devices in households and offices that also have at least one PC or Mac.”

And you thought you had seen the worst malware ever? Nope. This is one is badder! Ouch!

Meet ‘badBIOS,’ the mysterious Mac and PC malware that jumps airgaps

Ars Technica – “Three years ago, security consultant Dragos Ruiu was in his lab when he noticed something highly unusual: his MacBook Air, on which he had just installed a fresh copy of OS X, spontaneously updated the firmware that helps it boot. Stranger still, when Ruiu then tried to boot the machine off a CD ROM, it refused. He also found that the machine could delete data and undo configuration changes with no prompting. He didn’t know it then, but that odd firmware update would become a high-stakes malware mystery that would consume most of his waking hours.

In the following months, Ruiu observed more odd phenomena that seemed straight out of a science-fiction thriller. A computer running the Open BSD operating system also began to modify its settings and delete its data without explanation or prompting. His network transmitted data specific to the Internet’s next-generation IPv6 networking protocol, even from computers that were supposed to have IPv6 completely disabled. Strangest of all was the ability of infected machines to transmit small amounts of network data with other infected machines even when their power cords and Ethernet cables were unplugged and their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards were removed. Further investigation soon showed that the list of affected operating systems also included multiple variants of Windows and Linux.

‘We were like, ‘Okay, we’re totally owned,” Ruiu told Ars. ”We have to erase all our systems and start from scratch,’ which we did. It was a very painful exercise. I’ve been suspicious of stuff around here ever since.’

In the intervening three years, Ruiu said, the infections have persisted, almost like a strain of bacteria that’s able to survive extreme antibiotic therapies. Within hours or weeks of wiping an infected computer clean, the odd behavior would return. The most visible sign of contamination is a machine’s inability to boot off a CD, but other, more subtle behaviors can be observed when using tools such as Process Monitor, which is designed for troubleshooting and forensic investigations.

Another intriguing characteristic: in addition to jumping ‘airgaps’ designed to isolate infected or sensitive machines from all other networked computers, the malware seems to have self-healing capabilities.

‘We had an air-gapped computer that just had its [firmware] BIOS reflashed, a fresh disk drive installed, and zero data on it, installed from a Windows system CD,’ Ruiu said. ‘At one point, we were editing some of the components and our registry editor got disabled. It was like: wait a minute, how can that happen? How can the machine react and attack the software that we’re using to attack it? This is an air-gapped machine and all of a sudden the search function in the registry editor stopped working when we were using it to search for their keys.’

Over the past two weeks, Ruiu has taken to Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus to document his investigative odyssey and share a theory that has captured the attention of some of the world’s foremost security experts. The malware, Ruiu believes, is transmitted though USB drives to infect the lowest levels of computer hardware. With the ability to target a computer’s Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), and possibly other firmware standards, the malware can attack a wide variety of platforms, escape common forms of detection, and survive most attempts to eradicate it.

But the story gets stranger still. In posts here, here, and here, Ruiu posited another theory that sounds like something from the screenplay of a post-apocalyptic movie: ‘badBIOS,’ as Ruiu dubbed the malware, has the ability to use high-frequency transmissions passed between computer speakers and microphones to bridge airgaps.”

I still don’t get why people think Chromecast is a bust because it “doesn’t have apps.” It can stream ANYTHING that you can view in your Chrome browser! Come on, people, think! That means anything I can see, or listen to, on the Internet, I can now watch on my big screen TV… that’s pretty much the world!!! Last night, I watched a TV show (“Tomorrow People” on the CWBut, if you want local apps… here’s Pandora.

Google Chromecast Now Streams Pandora to Your TV

Mashable – “Music-streaming service Pandora is finally offering support for Google’s Chromecast device, which plugs into any HDTV to stream online videos and music, controlled from your tablet or smartphone.

Chromecast users can access Pandora starting now via the free Android and iOS mobile app update. The $35 HDMI dongle, which debuted this summer, already supports Vimeo, Redbox Instant, Netflix, YouTube and Hulu Plus. Compatibility with HBO is also reportedly in the works.

‘More than one-third of radio listening takes place in the home and we are continually innovating and investing in new platforms that help us seamlessly deliver access to Pandora across a broad range of connected devices,’ Pandora CTO and Executive VP of product Tom Conrad said in a statement. ‘By integrating Google Cast technology into our mobile apps, users now have another easy access point to a better listening experience from the biggest screen in their living room.’

After launching the Pandora app on a mobile device, users can stream music from the cloud to the TV when the Chromecast dongle is attached. It also offers basic control functionality such as pressing play, pause and skip, so users can use the Pandora app like a remote control.

Chromecast is currently only available in the United States, but international users have reportedly accessed the Android app in the Google Play store, hinting at a possible launch of Chromecast in other markets.”

The big news for me? It is coming to my Nexus 10 soon! YES!

Android For All and the New Nexus 5

Google Blog – “Just in time for Halloween, we have two new treats for Android fans. First, we’re excited to unwrap our latest platform release, KitKat, which delivers a smarter, more immersive Android experience to even more people. And second, we’re introducing Nexus 5—a new Nexus phone developed with LG.

The first thing you’ll notice about KitKat is we’ve made the experience much more engaging: the book you’re reading, the game you’re playing, or the movie you’re watching—now all of these take center stage with the new immersive mode, which automatically hides everything except what you really want to see.

Bringing more Google smarts to Android
Behind the polish on the screen is the power under the hood. Take the Phone app, which for most people hasn’t really changed since the days of flip phones. Now, we’re making calling easier than ever, by helping you search across your contacts, nearby places, or even Google Apps accounts (like your company’s directory), directly from within the app. And with the new Hangouts app, all of your SMS and MMS messages are together in the same place, alongside your other conversations and video calls, so you’ll never miss a message no matter how your friends send it. This is just a small taste of KitKat—learn more on our site.

Google has always focused on helping users get immediate access to the information they need, and we want to bring this same convenience and power to users on Android. With the new Nexus 5 launcher, Google smarts are deeply integrated into the phone you carry around with you, so getting to the information you need is simple, easy and fast. Swipe once from the home screen to get Google Now literally at your fingertips. Put Google to work for you by saying ‘OK, Google’ to launch voice search, send a text, get directions or even play a song you want to hear. And in the coming weeks, we’re enhancing Now with important new card types that bring you information about contextual topics that interest you such as updates from a favorite website or blog.

Reaching the next 1 billion users
Building a platform that makes mobile phones accessible for everyone has always been at the heart of Android. Until now, some lower-end Android phones couldn’t benefit from more recent Android releases due to memory constraints. With KitKat, we’ve slimmed down Android’s memory footprint by doing things like removing unnecessary background services and reducing the memory consumption of features that you use all the time. We did this not only within Android but across Google services like Chrome and YouTube. RAM (or memory) is one of the most expensive parts of a phone, and now Android can run comfortably on the 512MB of RAM devices that are popular in much of the world, bringing the latest goodies in Android 4.4 within reach for the next billion smartphone users.

Introducing Nexus 5
Along with our sweet naming tradition, we also introduce a new device with each platform release to showcase the latest Android innovations. For KitKat, we partnered with LG to develop Nexus 5 — the slimmest and fastest Nexus phone ever made. Its design is simple and refined to showcase the 5″ Full HD display. Nexus 5 also keeps you connected at blazing speeds with 4G/LTE and ultra fast wifi. The advanced new lens on Nexus 5 captures more light for brighter night and sharper action shots. And with optical image stabilization, you no longer have to worry about shaky hands and blurry pictures. A new HDR+ mode automatically snaps a rapid burst of photos and combines them to give you the best possible single shot. Learn more on our site.

Nexus 5 is available today, unlocked and without a contract, on Google Play in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea (and coming soon to India), starting at $349. Just in the time for the holidays, Nexus 5 will be available soon at the following retailers: Sprint, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy and RadioShack.

Android 4.4, KitKat, which comes on Nexus 5, will also soon be available on Nexus 4, 7, 10, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks.

How’s that for a treat?”

People generally seem to like the new Microsoft Surface 2, BUT, they can;t use their favorite apps… so they are timid about making the jump.

Apps the issue for Microsoft Surface 2

The Australian News – “The new Surface 2 improves on last year’s Surface RT in almost every way.

The Surface 2 is quick by virtue of its up-to-the-minute Nvidia Tegra 4, four-core CPU. Apps open quickly, multi-tasking is smooth, video doesn’t stutter and, unlike the original RT, you can bash away on the optional Type and Touch Cover keyboards and not get ahead of the tablet’s processing power.

I tested the Surface 2 against the original RT model using the 3DMark Ice Storm cross-platform benchmark and it was no contest, with the new model racking up a score of 9531 on Ice Storm Extreme and 14,360 on Ice Storm Unlimited. The RT could only muster 2069 and 3276.

The 10.6-inch screen scores a major upgrade from 1366 x 768 pixel resolution to the 1920 x 1080 pixel screen used on the big brother Surface Pro 2.

It’s a sweet screen with deep blacks, vivid colours and a wide range of viewing angles, but not quite up to the standard of Apple’s Retina display on recent iPads.

Unlike an iPad, you can plug plenty of stuff into a Surface tablet. The new one gets a USB 3.0 port upgrade compared with USB 2.0 on the original and there’s a micro HDMI port for hooking up to bigger screens and projectors, as well as a micro SD card slot for boosting the memory beyond the supplied storage of 32GB or 64GB.

The front 3.5-megapixel and rear 5-megapixel cameras are way better than the just-get-you-by 1.2-megapixel cameras on the Surface RT and are capable of decent 1080p video recording.

The cameras are also designed to work well in low light, which comes in handy for video calls.

The Surface 2 is slightly lighter at 680g and a smidgin thinner. But ergonomically, the big news is Microsoft has given the Surface 2 a double-position kickstand with the second position making the gadget more lap-friendly.

I really like the kickstand, it comes in especially handy for bedtime reading where larger-screen tablets like the Surface 2 become tedious to hold for long periods.

Battery life is decent but not outstanding. Microsoft claims 10 hours of video playback time. I scored a bit better than that, running continuous video with the display at 85 per cent brightness. The gadget looks prettier too, with a silvery matt finish on the magnesium alloy casing replacing the fingerprint-magnet black on the RT.

Then there’s the accessories. The Surface 2 works with the new Touch Cover 2 and Type Cover 2 clip-on keyboards, which now come with backlighting and transform the device into an almost notebook.

Microsoft sells a small and portable, Bluetooth-connected Wedge Mouse if you want to go the whole hog into laptop operation.

The old Touch and Type covers also work on the Surface 2.

My pick for mobile working on a Surface is the Type Cover with its tactile, moving keys.

While the Surface 2’s hardware has improved at almost every level over the Surface RT, software, or a dearth of it, remains the big problem affecting the Surface 2 and other devices based on the Microsoft Windows 8.1 operating system. Apple and Android tablet owners not only have hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from, they are assured of scoring a version of pretty much every new game, social network platform utility, service or productivity app that arrives, or even temporary apps designed for one-off events like a rock concert or sporting event.

If you are using an RT device, there is no such comfort. Need iTunes? Forget it. Want another browser besides Internet Explorer? No can do.

The list goes on. Run the Sonos music system in your home? Sonos doesn’t do a control app for Windows RT or Windows Phone 8, although there is a pay-for-third-party Sonos app available.

The RT software library has grown over the past 12 months, with Microsoft claiming 100,000 apps on offer, and there are some great-looking Metro interface-style apps that work on the Surface 2, such as the showcase Fresh Paint app.

If you like Microsoft apps and services such as Skype messaging, Skydrive cloud storage and Xbox gaming, then you are well served and the integration is very good.

There is one killer app, from Microsoft’s point of view, that the Surface 2 packs for free and is unavailable on Apple and Android tablets and that is Microsoft Office, which now includes the all-important Outlook client.”

Can AI (Artificial Intelligence) be TOO smart? What if computer programs could start passing CAPTCHA tests on-line? CAPTCHA tests are those little image and word tests that identify that you are a human, and not a computer, so that it eliminates spam of on-line questionnaires, etc. Well, one has passed that test for the first time!

Vicarious AI Passes Turing Test

EEtimes – PORTLAND, Ore. — The world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) to pass the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart — Captcha — debuts today from Vicarious FPC Inc. in San Francisco.

Captcha is that annoying authentication test where users have to decipher and type-in the characters from a distorted image to prove they are human. Without Captcha authentication, software robots (bots) can only keep trying passwords over and over until they hit on the right one. Now that Vicarious’s AI has been demonstrated to perform as well as a human at Captcha, it has proven the technique ineffective as an authentication method at Google, Paypal, Yahoo, and hundreds of other sites.

Alan Turing, the computer science pioneer and recognized “Father of AI,” designed his original Turing Test as a procedure by which an AI displays behavior that is indistinguishable from a human. Since Captcha was specifically designed to distinguish humans from computers, it is sometimes called a reverse Turing Test. Nevertheless, the crux is that Vicarious’s AI is now as smart as a human — at least at Captcha.

‘Our algorithms have passed their first Turning Test — Captcha — the world’s most widely used test of a computer’s ability to act human,’ said D. Scott Phoenix, co-founder of Vicarious, in an interview with EE Times. ‘Captcha is considered broken if a computer is able to solve it at least 1 percent of the time, and our algorithms achieve success rates of over 90 percent on the Captcha used by Google, Paypal, Yahoo, and many others.’

Now that the Vicarious bot has become as smart as a human at Captcha, the world is going to have to come up with a better test. However, for now, Vicarious is keeping its proprietary algorithms as a trade secret, so most sites are expected to keep using Captcha in the short term.

‘We don’t plan on exposing how our algorithms work, and we don’t expect other people to be able to duplicate them in the near term,’ said Phoenix. “So I think people can keep using Captcha for now.”

Nevertheless, because it is now known to be possible for a bot to pass that Turing Test, its only a matter of time until hackers figure out how to do it, too.

Vicarious is a three-year old California Flexible Purpose Corporation (thus the FPC after its name), which instead of maximizing shareholder value, like a normal corporation, is aiming to fulfill a singular purpose — to solve the important algorithmic problems behind building a human-like AI. For Captcha, its already succeeded, but Vicarious’s long-term goal is to generalize its Captcha AI into a complete robotic brain that is as smart as a human in all areas of sensory perception.

‘Our goal is to combine insights from neuroscience with modern machine learning techniques and cast them into mathematical algorithms that are just as intelligent as humans,’ Phoenix told us.

The three-year-old startup was founded by Phoenix, formerly entrepreneur in residence at Founders Fund, and co-founder Dileep George, formerly chief technology officer of Numenta. Vicarious is running on its second round of funding. The first seed round in 2010 was $1.1 million, and its Series A for $15 million was just completed last year, giving the six-person company the time and money it thinks it needs to fulfill its mission of casting human intelligence into mathematical algorithms, which it expects to achieve in five to seven years.”