Daily Archives: September 30, 2019

MS really really wants to know who is using Windows, make it very hard for Win 10 users to create local accounts.

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Microsoft has annoyed some of its 900 million Windows 10 device users after apparently removing the ‘Use offline account’ as part of its effort to herd users towards its cloud-based Microsoft Account.

The offline local account is specific to one device, while the Microsoft Account can be used to log in to multiple devices and comes with the benefit of Microsoft’s recent work on passwordless authentication with Windows Hello.

The local account doesn’t require an internet connection or an email address – just a username and password that are stored on the PC

[…]

A user on a popular Reddit thread notes that the local account option is now invisible if the device is connected to the internet.

“Either run the setup without being connected to the internet, or type in a fake phone number a few times and it will give you the prompt to create a local account,” Froggyowns suggested as a solution.

So there is a way around the obstacle but as Reddit user Old_Traveller noted: “It’s such a dick move. I’ll never tie my main OS with an online account.”

[…]

as a user on Hacker News wrote, Microsoft has changed the name of the local account option to ‘Domain join instead’, which then allows admins to create an offline account.

Windows 10 users are accusing Microsoft of employing ‘dark-pattern’ techniques to usher them off local accounts, referring to tricks on websites that software makers use to choose an option that benefits the seller.

Source: Windows 10 users fume: Microsoft, where’s our ‘local account’ option gone? | ZDNet

My PC is at home. Microsoft, who sell the OS, have no right to know who I am or what I am doing with MY PC.

House Antitrust Investigators Now Scrutinizing Google’s Plans to Add DNS Encryption to Chrome

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Antitrust investigators with the House Judiciary Committee are looking into Google’s plans to add Domain Name System over Transport Layer Security (DNS over TLS) to its Chrome browser, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, in the latest escalation of scrutiny over the company’s business practices. The Department of Justice has also heard complaints, a source told the paper.

DNS translates a domain name (such as Gizmodo.com) into an IP address. It’s essentially an internet phonebook. While encryption tech like HTTPS is already in place across much of the web, DNS is currently largely unencrypted by default, meaning it’s possible for service providers to ascertain which web sites a user is visiting and thus monetize traffic records.

Google has reportedly been integrating TLS, an additional layer of encryption, into DNS in Chrome—which the Journal notes could protect users against spoofing attacks or unauthorized snooping into their web traffic, but could also prevent the many “service providers who don’t support the new standard from observing user behavior in gathering data.” Opponents have also raised concerns that as Google controls 64 percent of the worldwide browser market and operates its own DNS system, Google Public DNS, the company could flip a switch transferring Chrome users away from service provider-operated DNS. That, the critics say, could allow Google to gain an unfair advantage over user behavior data invaluable for advertising purposes.

In a Sept. 13 letter to the company, investigators with the House committee asked Google for more information on why it is promoting DNS over TLS and whether any of the data collected or processed will be used for profit, the Journal wrote.

“Because the majority of world-wide internet traffic…runs through the Chrome browser or the Android operating system, Google could become the overwhelmingly predominant DNS lookup provider,” a coalition of service providers wrote in a letter to lawmakers this month, per the Journal. “Google would acquire greater control over user data across networks and devices around the world. This could inhibit competitors and possibly foreclose competition in advertising and other industries.”

“Right now, each internet service provider has insight into the traffic of their users, and that’s going to shift,” chief security officer Andy Ellis of Akamai, which does not support the new standard, told the Journal.

Google is planning on starting tests with the new protocol involving one percent of its user base, a less “aggressive strategy” than Mozilla’s Firefox, which the Journal wrote plans to switch users “to the new standard automatically, even if the change involves switching their DNS service providers.” Google denied that it has any plans to become “the centralized DNS provider,” while Mozilla has characterized the issue as griping by service providers who fear it will make it harder to track users for ad purposes,

[…]

Source: House Antitrust Investigators Now Scrutinizing Google’s Plans to Add DNS Encryption to Chrome

There are many problems and advantages with DNS over TLS – basically you make the browser the resolver instead of the (many) DNS providers. This means that you cannot add a private, secret, DNS provider or ISP and not let Google (or Mozilla) know. Countries where censorship exists only have to call these guys up for information on where their websurfing netizens are going. On the other hand, ISPs now have no idea where they are heading.

This happened when SSL/TLS was enforced and suddenly none of the other website statistics providers had any idea how the traffic on the site got there, with the result that almost all of them have died out. There is no real choice but Google Analytics any more for referral traffic, because such a large amount is referred from Google.

Flying Replacement Batteries Could Massively Boost a Drone’s Flight Time

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Borrowing a trick from the Air Force, whose planes can complete long-range missions thanks to in-flight refueling from tanker aircraft, researchers at UC Berkeley showed off a novel way to keep small drones in the air almost indefinitely: flying replacement batteries that can be swapped without landing.

The use of four propellers not only helps improve the stability of quadcopter drones while hovering in position, it also makes them incredibly maneuverable and fast. Drone racing has become a dizzying spectacle, but races rarely last longer than a few minutes because four propellers also require four electric motors which can quickly drain a battery. Adding more batteries adds weight, which requires stronger motors, and eventually you reach the point where the length of drone flights reaches a limit and fresh batteries are needed.

For drone racers, swapping in a new power pack between races isn’t a problem. But for other drone applications, like long-range reconnaissance missions or delivering parcels across a large city, having to land to recharge or grab a new battery can add unwanted complications and time delays. Seeking a different solution, researchers at UC Berkeley’s HiPeR Lab (High Performance Robotics Lab) came up with replacement batteries that can not only fly, but also connect to larger drones mid-flight.

To streamline the battery swapping process, which usually requires a cable to be unplugged and plugged back in, the researchers created a quadcopter with a landing pad featuring electrical contact pads on top. The replacement batteries have their own sets of propellers and motors and are designed to fly up and meet the larger drone and then touch down on the landing pad after the craft has stabilized itself. Power is then transferred through the battery’s landing legs, which feature electrical contacts.

Source: Flying Replacement Batteries Could Massively Boost a Drone’s Flight Time