E.C.Snaith and Son Ltd – Supplier Of Military Medals, Ribbons, Badges, Buttons & Insignia.
E.C.Snaith and Son Ltd – Supplier Of Military Medals, Ribbons, Badges, Buttons & Insignia
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Monthly Archives: November 2013
Google to CyanogenMod: Git yer warranty-voiding ass outta our store
Google has taken a dim view of the CyanogenMod Installer, an app that makes it easier to install alternative firmwares on Android phones, leading its developers to pull it from the Google Play Store.The installer was the first major undertaking by Cyanogen Inc., the Seattle company recently formed to promote CyanogenMod, its open-source alternative Android build for smartphones and tablets; it’s intended to replace official distributions of the mobile operating system.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/28/cyanogenmod_installer_pulled_from_google_play/
I thought Android was supposed to be the open, user configurable, friendly, alternative OS. Guess Google wants it to be as closed as Apple IOS
Build a Cheap Home Automation System in 10 Minutes with Ninja Blocks
Home security and automation are rarely mentioned in the same sentence as the word cheap, but it’s totally possible if you’re willing to do a few things yourself. We checked out a $200 DIY kit called Ninja Blocks, and were able to get a home automation and security system up and running in about 10 minutes.
Electrode recreates all four tastes on your tongue
Signals that reproduce the four well-known major taste components – salt, sweet, sour, bitter – are transmitted through a silver electrode touching the tip of the tongue. The taste receptors are fooled by a varying alternating current and slight changes in temperature controlled by semiconductor elements that heat and cool very rapidly.
3d sculpting: MIT ‘smart tools’ meld personal technique with computerized controls
You create a 3d model and then use the tool to whittle away the block of material
http://m.youtube.com/watch?hd=1&v=krRTZqFFn6c&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DkrRTZqFFn6c%26hd%3D1
Winamp to die!
Winamp.com and associated web services will no longer be available past December 20, 2013. Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download. Please download the latest version before that date
via Download Winamp Media Player – Free MP3, Video, and Music Player – Winamp.
That is hugely depressing!
mrQuery Searches Your Phone, Calls Friends, and Opens Apps in Two Taps
You tap home and it starts a box in which you type….
Michael Robertson: Introducing The World’s First Radio Search Engine
I just launched a beta version of RadioSearchEngine.com – the world’s first radio search engine. There are other directories of A-Z lists of radio stations, but this is the first search engine where any song or artist can be located on stations playing from anywhere in the world. A universal web player for the first time connects to and plays nearly every station offering immediate audio satisfaction and unprecedented user control – See more at: http://www.michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=378#sthash.RqNJMCHx.dpuf
http://www.michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=378
There went Spotify…
TSA screening works only ‘a little better than chance,’ according to government report
Summarizing 400 studies over the past 60 years, the report concludes that humans perform only “the same as or slightly better than chance.” Given that the TSA has spent almost a billion dollars on the program, that’s a pretty poor record.
This includes extensive studies of the TSA SPOT programme over 2011 & 2012
Hackers steal ‘FULL credit card details’ of 376,000 people from Irish loyalty programme firm
A hack attack against an Irish loyalty programme firm, Loyaltybuild, has led to the theft of the full credit card details of at least 376,000 consumers, says the country’s data protection watchdog.According to the results of a preliminary investigation by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), credit card and – contrary to all payment storage rules – CVV details were held unencrypted on Loyaltybuild’s systems in the run-up to attacks in the middle of October.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/14/irish_loyalty_card_breach/
Microsoft’s Office 365 email, Lync cloud down
Due to a DNS problem with onmicrosoft.com, the glue tying domain names to Microsoft cloud services logins, these services were down. Long live the cloud!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/14/office_365_cloudy_oopsie/
Bewustwording pakt de belangrijkste schakel in online veiligheid aan: de mens
Bewustwording pakt de belangrijkste schakel in online veiligheid aan: de mens
Online gebeurt er veel. Bedrijven stellen steeds vaker web-based systemen ter beschikking aan medewerkers. Zo kunnen ze altijd en overal bij de gegevens en functionaliteiten die ze nodig hebben en vaak zelfs nog méér. Alles SaaS, Cloud en 2.0. Met goede reden; er hoeft minder specialistische infrastructuur onderhouden te worden. Verantwoordelijkheid wordt overgenomen door derde partijen. Maar is dat wel zo?
Personeels- en snel afschrijvende hardwarekosten worden vermeden. Particulieren maken veelvuldig gebruik van de internet giganten: Zoekmachines, social media en winkelen. De opkomst van betaalbaar mobiel internet, smartphones en tablets zorgen ervoor dat mensen steeds vaker online zijn. Ook dat er meer vervlochtenheid is tussen privé en werk: mensen willen graag bedrijfsemail op hun persoonlijke tablet lezen, of hun eigen PC of laptop gebruiken om met bedrijfsgegevens te werken. (BYOD)
Bewustwording noodzakelijk
Bedrijven kunnen zich niet alleen meer bezig houden met de beveiliging van hun eigen netwerk. Ook de beveiliging van apparatuur van de werknemer is belangrijk. Het surfgedrag van werknemers is – niet alleen thuis – veranderd. Overal wordt o.a. getweet en geFacebookt. Hierdoor wordt het potentieel voor onveilige situaties veel hoger. Er is veel minder controle over wat er gebeurt op een netwerk. Je firewall, virus- en malwarescanners kunnen in orde zijn, maar wat een werknemer mee van huis neemt is vaak onbeschermd. Het is duidelijk dat de mensen zelf bewust moeten zijn wat de risico’s op het internet zijn.
Jij bent het product geworden
De risico’s zijn niet gelimiteerd tot virussen en malware. Ons dagprogramma “privacy & security in één dag”, geeft duidelijk aan dat het geven van informatie aan Cloud providers verregaande consequenties heeft: je geeft hen namelijk vaak de mogelijkheid om te doen waar ze zin in hebben met de data die je ze geeft. Hieronder valt letterlijk alles wat je intypt of opslaat in hun systemen. Jij bent het product geworden. De informatie die jij geeft valt niet meer te verwijderen of te corrigeren. De consequenties zijn dus levenslang. Het is zeer moeilijk om deze gegevens te beschermen tegen hackers. Uiteraard zijn er mogelijkheden om deze risico’s sterk te verminderen. AlertOnline biedt hiertoe een goed begin: bedrijven en particulieren informeren dat het niet allemaal zo onschuldig is als het lijkt op het internet.
Vanaf welke leeftijd begint u met digitale voorlichting?
Bewustwording begint echter met het onderwijs. Vaak hoor ik dat de huidige jeugd de computergeneratie is, die er alles van snapt. Als ik jongeren met een computer om zie gaan, dan merk ik dat ook zij niets snappen van computers. Ze begrijpen hoe ze Instagram, Twitter en Word moeten gebruiken maar hebben geen idee hoe het allemaal werkt. Op school is computerles eigenlijk les in het gebruiken van bepaalde programma’s. Veiligheid, privacy maar ook vooral basis hardware theorie, databases en programmeren zouden vanaf de middelbare school verplichte kost moeten zijn (en zo mogelijk eerder). Alleen dan kan de jeugd begrijpen hoe bepaalde onveiligheden werken en logischerwijs zelf bedenken wat wel en niet kan op internet. Daarbij zouden ze in staat zijn om een belangrijke bijdrage te kunnen bieden aan onze maatschappij, die inmiddels bijna overal op IT middelen draait.
Open Source software de toekomst
Ook moet er meer aandacht zijn voor Open Source en het MKB. Uit deze hoek komt de meeste innovatie. Veelal hebben zij moeite om voet aan de grond te krijgen omdat er nog steeds een idée fixe bestaat dat deze groepen weinig stabiliteit kunnen bieden. Niets is minder waar. Open Source is veilig omdat iedereen in de code kan kijken en fouten er uit kan halen. Het is betrouwbaar omdat de meeste aanbieders meedoen aan de ontwikkeling ervan. Het is fijn omdat het omgeschreven kan worden naar precies de functionaliteiten die jij nodig hebt. Vooral belangrijk is dat je gemakkelijk van leverancier kunt wisselen omdat meerdere leveranciers bekend zijn met het product dat jij gebruikt en er support op kunnen leveren.
Bewustwording méér dan een checklist
Bewustwording is dus niet alleen een checklist met puntjes die je aan iedereen kan geven en af kan lopen. Het is een manier van denken aanleren, die niet alleen beveiliging maar ook consequenties van gedrag in de hand loopt. Het zorgt er voor dat je meer kan met de middelen die je hebt. Computers kunnen veel, maar het blijft de mens die er voor zorgt welke mogelijkheden er worden benut en op welke manier dit allemaal gaat
Robin Edgar
ACTA 2: TPP
Wikileaks releases the text and positions of a trans Pacific version of ACTA, another way to erode internet rights through patents.
NL pushes for closer European defence
The only way for Europe to project the military might it needs to be able to protect its vast economic interests is by unifying the military and foreign policies of its member states. Only this will allow the economies of scale necessary to create an effective, non duplicated, expeditionary tool for politicians to use when diplomacy fails. The NL seems to have seen the light and is leading the way not only by example (integrating withe the DE navy, the BE air force, the UK marines, the common air transport fleet, the NATO AWACS fleet and the EU battlegroups), but also by leading the charge in this speech to the EU member states to get other nations on board as well. Only this way can the reliance on the US and NATO be removed and will the EU be able to stand on its own two feet in order to pursue its independent interests.
Study into consumer hard drive failures
Backblaze’s study finds that both AFR and MTBF are bunk. The document finds that disks follow the predicted “bathtub” curve of failure: lots of early failures due to manufacturing errors, a slow decline in failure rates to a shallow bottom and then a steep increase in failure rates as drives age.Backblaze’s disk longevity study shows something pretty close to the ‘bathtub’ curve one would expect
The study then looked at when drives fail and found a drive that survives the 5.1 per cent AFR of its first 18 months under load will then only fail 1.4 per cent of the time in the next year and half. After that, things get nasty: in year three a surviving disk has an 11.8 per cent AFR. That still leaves over 80 per cent of drives alive and whirring after four years, a decent outcome.
The study also predicts accelerated failure rates in years four and five, guesstimating things will get very, very bad in years four and five.
LightZone | Open-source digital darkroom software for Windows/Mac/Linux
Lightzone allows you to select areas of photographs and manipulate the light on each of these areas seperately.
LightZone | Open-source digital darkroom software for Windows/Mac/Linux.
Your Face and Name Will Appear in Google Ads Starting Today
Google has updated its terms of service, allowing the company to use your profile information in ads. That means your face, name and personal details will start popping up all over your network.
Your Face and Name Will Appear in Google Ads Starting Today.
Wireless Device Converts “Lost” Energy such as WiFi signals into Electric Power
Using inexpensive materials configured and tuned to capture microwave signals, researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering have designed a power-harvesting device with efficiency similar to that of modern solar panels.
The device wirelessly converts the microwave signal to direct current voltage capable of recharging a cell phone battery or other small electronic device, according to a report appearing in the journal Applied Physics Letters in December 2013. (It is now available online.)
It operates on a similar principle to solar panels, which convert light energy into electrical current. But this versatile energy harvester could be tuned to harvest the signal from other energy sources, including satellite signals, sound signals or Wi-Fi signals, the researchers say.
http://www.pratt.duke.edu/news/wireless-device-converts-lost-energy-electric-power
This is bad news for energy companies, great for the environment
Feedly gets Greedly: Users suddenly HAVE TO create a Google+ account
Feedly has done an evil thing: it is now demanding anyone who uses the service to log in via a Google+ account – thereby helping the Chocolate Factory to scrape yet more data from netizens.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/feedly_insists_on_google_plus_sign_in/
Update:
Feedly is rolling this back, 1000s of users quit using Feedly
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/feedly_kills_google_plus_login/
Volume of nuclear waste could be reduced by 90 per cent says new research
Engineers from the University of Sheffield have developed a way to significantly reduce the volume of some higher activity wastes, which will reduce the cost of interim storage and final disposal.
The researchers, from the University’s Faculty of Engineering, have shown that mixing plutonium-contaminated waste with blast furnace slag and turning it into glass reduces its volume by 85-95 per cent. It also effectively locks in the radioactive plutonium, creating a stable end product.
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/nr/nuclear-research-sheffield-university-fukushima-1.324913
NL DoJ wants to store all travel data
Aside from the fact that these dabases leak all the time and it’s a major breach of privacy, this will only help track a few hundred suspected terrorists. Coming two weeks after launching AlertOnline, an initiative raising awereness of the dangers of online activity, this seems a bit wry.
Feedly gets Greedly: Users suddenly HAVE TO create a Google+ account
Feedly has done an evil thing: it is now demanding anyone who uses the service to log in via a Google+ account – thereby helping the Chocolate Factory to scrape yet more data from netizens.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/feedly_insists_on_google_plus_sign_in/
Anatomy of a password disaster – Adobe’s giant-sized cryptographic blunder
One of the better, understandable, but still technical, explanations of why the encrypted password list of 38 million users being out in the open is such a disaster.
Anatomy of a password disaster – Adobe’s giant-sized cryptographic blunder | Naked Security.
Microbe computers – Biological computers in living cells
This biological microcomputer sprang from the mind of Drew Endy, PhD, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford. In three scientific papers released over a 13-month span in 2012 and 2013, Endy and a team of researchers from his lab showed how they used ordinary genetic engineering techniques to turn the bacterium E. coli — that stalwart of the Petri dish — into a machine capable of the basic functions of a computer: logic, data storage and data transmission. They also showed that their techniques will work in any type of living cell, not just bacteria.
And while others have accomplished similar feats, Endy’s system has the singular advantage of being able to amplify the information flow.
“Amplification is what makes this system the best,” says Endy. “It’s the equivalent of the transistor in an electronic device. It’s what makes our computer really useful.”
[…]
An advocate of open-source technology (which, as with open-source software, makes its discoveries and technologies free to the public), he has made the instructions available free online. A video primer is also on YouTube (http://stan.md/15u6OtC); it’s been viewed nearly 30,000 times.
Hacker uses bots to top music charts, earn royalties without being able to make music
A Melbourne security professional has sent ear-piercing ‘garbage’ tunes to the top of online music charts by spoofing track plays.
Despite that Peter Filimore (@typhoonfilsy) has never played an instrument, in a month he accrued hundreds of thousands of plays for his tunes hosted in online music charts, trumping artists like P!nk, Nicki Minaj, Flume and chart topper album The Heist and making $1000 in royalties in the process.
Not only that, but he’s thought of a way to use his technique to bump rival artists off the services entirely as a DDoS.