An open source, physically secure personal computer.
Source: ORWL – The First Open Source, Physically Secure Computer | Crowd Supply
ORWL – The First Open Source, Physically Secure Computer
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Daily Archives: September 15, 2016
System can read closed books
MIT researchers and their colleagues are designing an imaging system that can read closed books.
In the latest issue of Nature Communications, the researchers describe a prototype of the system, which they tested on a stack of papers, each with one letter printed on it. The system was able to correctly identify the letters on the top nine sheets.
“The Metropolitan Museum in New York showed a lot of interest in this, because they want to, for example, look into some antique books that they don’t even want to touch,”
[..]
The system uses terahertz radiation, the band of electromagnetic radiation between microwaves and infrared light, which has several advantages over other types of waves that can penetrate surfaces, such as X-rays or sound waves. Terahertz radiation has been widely researched for use in security screening, because different chemicals absorb different frequencies of terahertz radiation to different degrees, yielding a distinctive frequency signature for each. By the same token, terahertz frequency profiles can distinguish between ink and blank paper, in a way that X-rays can’t.Terahertz radiation can also be emitted in such short bursts that the distance it has traveled can be gauged from the difference between its emission time and the time at which reflected radiation returns to a sensor. That gives it much better depth resolution than ultrasound.
The system exploits the fact that trapped between the pages of a book are tiny air pockets only about 20 micrometers deep. The difference in refractive index — the degree to which they bend light — between the air and the paper means that the boundary between the two will reflect terahertz radiation back to a detector.
Source: Judging a book through its cover | MIT News
Azure is on fire, your DNS is terrified
Microsoft Azure is wobbling all around the world at the moment, especially Azure DNS.
According to a status update on Microsoft’s site, the issues began around lunchtime, although there is no mention of when they are likely to be fixed.
Customers using Azure DNS in multiple regions are experiencing difficulties connecting to their goodies at the moment due to the mysterious issues affecting Microsoft’s cloud computing and infrastructure platform.
Azure proudly advertises itself as a global network of name servers using Anycast routing to provide “outstanding performance and availability” though such is not visible at the moment.
Engineers had only managed to identify “a possible underlying cause” as of the update and “are working to determine mitigation options.”
Azure DNS, which currently is still in preview, and is supported through community forums, allows customers to host their DNS domain in Azure, so they can manage their DNS records using the same credentials, billing and support contract as their other Azure services.
Also affected are users of SQL Database, App Service/Web Apps, API Management, Service Bus and Visual Studio Team services. ®
Source: Azure is on fire, your DNS is terrified
Ubuntu Torrent Removed from Google for ‘Infringing’ Transformers Movie – OMG! Ubuntu!
Cited in a DMCA takedown request filed against Google on behalf of Paramount Pictures, and spotted by TorrentFreak (and tipped to us by reader ~nonanonymous) is an innocuous link to a 32-bit alternate install image Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS.
The takedown request seeks to remove links to a number of torrent URLS that are alleged to infringe on Paramount movie ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction‘.
Ubuntu clearly doesn’t. All it takes is a quick glance at the URL in question to see that. It’s very much a stock iso of an old Ubuntu release.
And yet Google has complied with the request and scrubbed the link to the page in question from its search index.
Source: Ubuntu Torrent Removed from Google for ‘Infringing’ Transformers Movie – OMG! Ubuntu!
The writers of this article don’t blame Google for this, citing the amounts of DMCA takedowns Google has to cope with, but Google did manage to not take down Warner Brothers automated DMCA
Nvidia’s faster, better GeForce Experience 3.0 launches with mandatory registration
Nvidia’s GeForce Experience 3.0 is better than ever before, but you need to sign up to use it.
Source: Nvidia’s faster, better GeForce Experience 3.0 launches with mandatory registration | PCWorld
Sigh. We buy their products already, so they don’t actually need to monetise our private lives 🙁
Lightweight, wearable tech efficiently converts body heat to electricity
Researchers have developed a new design for harvesting body heat and converting it into electricity for use in wearable electronics. The experimental prototypes are lightweight, conform to the shape of the body, and can generate far more electricity than previous lightweight heat harvesting technologies
Source: Lightweight, wearable tech efficiently converts body heat to electricity — ScienceDaily
MySQL can dish out root access if allowed to write config files
By creating config files you can escalate through the mysqld_safe script using malloc_lib
Source: Bad news: MySQL can dish out root access to cunning miscreants
Vectr – Free Vector Graphics Editor
Free vector graphics editor. A simple yet powerful web and desktop cross-platform tool for everyone.
Source: Vectr – Free Online Vector Graphics Editor
You don’t have to use the online version, you can also download the offline client.
Over 6 million ClixSense users compromised by data breach
ClixSense, a site which pays users to view ads and take surveys, was the victim of a massive data breach compromising around 6.6 million user accounts.
Usually when there’s a data breach of this size, the information stolen contains usernames, passwords, and some other personal information, but due to the nature of ClixSense and the service it provided, home addresses, payment histories, and other banking details have also been compromised.
Source: Reset those passwords — again: Over 6 million ClixSense users compromised by data breach
Russian Hackers Get Into World Anti-Doping Agency Data, Find Nothing Incriminating
Perhaps feeling a little bent out of shape about how much shit their country caught for running a massive, Cold War-style doping program for Olympic athletes, a group of Russian hackers have obtained confidential documents that they claim prove American Olympians are also big fat cheaters. The only problem is that the leaked documents don’t actually contain any evidence of cheating.
Source: Russian Hackers Get Into WADA Data, Find Nothing Incriminating
Google’s become an obsessive stalker and you can’t get a restraining order
The FCC has been formally regulating behavioural advertising since the 1990s. You’d think they’d be all over Google and Facebook, then, right? Actually, no. The FCC is now run by a former Obama fund-raiser, Tom Wheeler, and it can’t do enough for Silicon Valley, whether it’s collectivising songwriters rights or disaggregating TV.
What the FCC did this year, with little fanfare, was cripple telecoms companies and wireless networks from doing what Google and Facebook do. That’s a very odd decision. If behavioural advertising is so bad consumers need an opt-out, how come you can opt out of your ISP’s profiling, but not Google’s. How could that be?
Don’t count on “digital rights” groups to help you, dear citizen, when we discover that Google is funding them. Privacy lawsuits became cosy backroom carve-ups, with privacy NGOs greedy to pocket Google’s cash. Marc Rotenberg at EPIC is one of very few exceptions: the object to the conflict of interests raised by the cy pres settlements, that saw “digital rights” groups raise a privacy class action only to settle. Money laundering might be a better description.
Source: Google’s become an obsessive stalker and you can’t get a restraining order
Oddly enough, I had Google Maps ask me to take pictures of the restaurant I was in as a notification yesterday. That kind of freaked me out, as I wasn’t running maps at the time!
Users have reported battery life issues with the latest Android build, with many pointing the finger at Google Play – Google’s app store – and its persistent, almost obsessive need to check where you are.
Amid complaints that Google Play is always switching on GPS, it appears Google has made it impossible to prevent the app store from tracking your whereabouts unless you completely kill off location tracking for all applications.
You can try to deny Google Play access to your handheld’s location by opening the Settings app and digging through Apps -> Google Play Store -> Permissions, and flipping the switch for “location.” But you’ll be told you can’t just shut out Google Play services: you have to switch off location services for all apps if you want to block the store from knowing your whereabouts. It’s all or nothing, which isn’t particularly nice.
This is because Google Play services pass on your location to installed apps via an API. The store also sends your whereabouts to Google to process. Google doesn’t want you to turn this off.
It also encourages applications to become dependent on Google’s closed-source Play services, rather than use the interfaces in the open-source Android, thus ensuring that people continue to run Google Play on their devices.
Delete Google Maps? Go ahead, says Google, we’ll still track you