The Linkielist

Linking ideas with the world

Amazon Alexa outage: Voice-activated devices are down in UK and beyond – yay cloud services!

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Amazon Alexa devices stopped working in the UK and reportedly in parts of continental Europe this morning, with some users still complaining of intermittent outages at the time of writing. The digital blackout began at around 0800 UK time and though it appeared to be recovering by 09.30, some folk – including Reg staffers – Read more about Amazon Alexa outage: Voice-activated devices are down in UK and beyond – yay cloud services![…]

Google is using AI to predict floods in India and warn users

Posted on by Robin Edgar

For years Google has warned users about natural disasters by incorporating alerts from government agencies like FEMA into apps like Maps and Search. Now, the company is making predictions of its own. As part of a partnership with the Central Water Commission of India, Google will now alert users in the country about impending floods. Read more about Google is using AI to predict floods in India and warn users[…]

Hadoop and NoSQL backups timed by AI

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Machine learning data management company Imanis Data has introduced an autonomous backup product powered by machine learning. The firm said users can specify a desired RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and its SmartPolicies tech then set up the backup schedules. The tech is delivered as an upgrade to the Imanis Data Management Platform (IDMP) product. SmartPolicies Read more about Hadoop and NoSQL backups timed by AI[…]

Google Chrome Is Now Quietly Forcing You to Log In—Here’s What to Do About It 

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Once again, Google has rankled privacy-focused people with a product change that appears to limit users’ options. It’s easy to miss the fact that you’re automatically being logged-in to Chrome if you’re not paying attention. Chrome 69 released to users on September 5, and you likely noticed that it has a different look. But if Read more about Google Chrome Is Now Quietly Forcing You to Log In—Here’s What to Do About It […]

Hey, Microsoft, stop installing third-party apps on clean Windows 10 installs!

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Before Windows 10, a clean install of Windows only included the bare essentials a user would need to get started using their PC. That included software built by Microsoft, such as Mail, Paint, and its web browser, and it never included “bloatware” or “trialware” that one might find on hardware purchased from a third-party OEM Read more about Hey, Microsoft, stop installing third-party apps on clean Windows 10 installs![…]

Open-source alt-droid wants to know if it’s still leaking data to Google

Posted on by Robin Edgar

/e/, a Google-free fork of Android, reached a milestone this month with its initial ROM release. It’s available for download, so you can kick the tires, with nightly builds delivered via OTA (over the air) updates. El Reg interviewed the project’s leader, Gael Duval, in the summer. Duval launched and led the Linux Mandrake project. Read more about Open-source alt-droid wants to know if it’s still leaking data to Google[…]

Zoho – GSuite competitor – pulled offline after phishing complaints by DNS registrar, millions of people couldn’t work. Love the cloud!

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Zoho .com was pulled offline on Monday after the company’s domain registrar received phishing complaints, the company’s chief executive said. The web-based office suite company, which also provides customer relationship and invoicing services to small businesses, tweeted that the site was “blocked” earlier in the day by TierraNet, which administers its domain name. In an email Read more about Zoho – GSuite competitor – pulled offline after phishing complaints by DNS registrar, millions of people couldn’t work. Love the cloud![…]

Cisco Video Surveillance Manager Appliance Default Root Password Vulnerability (again)

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A vulnerability in Cisco Video Surveillance Manager (VSM) Software running on certain Cisco Connected Safety and Security Unified Computing System (UCS) platforms could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to log in to an affected system by using the root account, which has default, static user credentials. The vulnerability is due to the presence of undocumented, default, static Read more about Cisco Video Surveillance Manager Appliance Default Root Password Vulnerability (again)[…]

2D spray on transparent wireless antennae created

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Metals are widely used for antennas; however, their bulkiness limits the fabrication of thin, lightweight, and flexible antennas. Recently, nanomaterials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, and conductive polymers came into play. However, poor conductivity limits their use. We show RF devices for wireless communication based on metallic two-dimensional (2D) titanium carbide (MXene) prepared by a Read more about 2D spray on transparent wireless antennae created[…]

Windows handwriting recognition on? Then all your typing is stored in plain text on your PC.

Posted on by Robin Edgar

If you’re one of the people who own a stylus or touchscreen-capable Windows PC, then there’s a high chance there’s a file on your computer that has slowly collected sensitive data for the past months or even years. This file is named WaitList.dat, and according to Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) expert Barnaby Skeggs, Read more about Windows handwriting recognition on? Then all your typing is stored in plain text on your PC.[…]

Quantum chicken-or-egg experiment blurs the distinction between before and after

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In the everyday world, events occur in a definite order—your alarm clock rings before you wake up, or vice versa. However, a new experiment shows that when fiddling with a photon, it can be impossible to say in which order two events occur, obliterating our common sense notion of before and after and, potentially, muddying Read more about Quantum chicken-or-egg experiment blurs the distinction between before and after[…]

AI’s ‘deep-fake’ vids surge ahead in realism

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Facebook Reality Lab are presenting Recycle-GAN, a generative adversarial system for “unsupervised video retargeting” this week at the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) in Germany. Unlike most methods, Recycle-GAN doesn’t rely on learning an explicit mapping between the images in a source and target video to perform a Read more about AI’s ‘deep-fake’ vids surge ahead in realism[…]

Solid-state battery startup secures backing from several automakers as it claims 2- 3x higher energy capacity, better safety through solid-state

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Solid Power is a Colorado-based startup that spun out of a battery research program at the University of Colorado Boulder. The company claims to have achieved a breakthrough by incorporating a high-capacity lithium metal anode in lithium batteries – creating a solid-state cell with an energy capacity “2-3X higher” than conventional lithium-ion. They have already attracted Read more about Solid-state battery startup secures backing from several automakers as it claims 2- 3x higher energy capacity, better safety through solid-state[…]

Article 11, Article 13: EU’s Dangerous Copyright Bill Advances: massive censorship and upload filters (which are impossible) and huge taxes for links.

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Members of the European Parliament voted Wednesday to approve a sweeping overhaul of the EU’s copyright laws that includes two controversial articles that threaten to hand more power to the richest tech companies and generally break the internet. Overall, MEPs voted in favor of the EU Copyright Directive with a strong majority of 438 to Read more about Article 11, Article 13: EU’s Dangerous Copyright Bill Advances: massive censorship and upload filters (which are impossible) and huge taxes for links.[…]

You know all those movies you bought from Apple? Um, well, think different: You didn’t. Didn’t you learn that from Amazon in 2009?

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Remember when you decided to buy, rather than rent, that movie online? We have some bad news for you – you didn’t. Biologist Anders Gonçalves da Silva was surprised this week to find three movies he had purchased through iTunes simply disappeared one day from his library. So he contacted Apple to find out what Read more about You know all those movies you bought from Apple? Um, well, think different: You didn’t. Didn’t you learn that from Amazon in 2009?[…]

Wow, great invention: Now AI eggheads teach machines how to be sarcastic using Reddit

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It’s tricky. Computers have to follow what is being said by whom, the context of the conversation and often some real world facts to understand cultural references. Feeding machines single sentences is often ineffective; it’s a difficult task for humans to detect if individual remarks are cheeky too. The researchers, therefore, built a system designed Read more about Wow, great invention: Now AI eggheads teach machines how to be sarcastic using Reddit[…]

Top European Court Rules UK Mass Surveillance Regime Violates Human Rights

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled this week that the United Kingdom government’s surveillance regime violated human rights laws. The matter first came to light in 2013 when NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed British surveillance practices—namely that the government intercepts social media, messages, and phone calls regardless of criminal record or suspicions of Read more about Top European Court Rules UK Mass Surveillance Regime Violates Human Rights[…]

Facebook creates an AI-based tool to automate bug fixes

Posted on by Robin Edgar

SapFix, which is still under development, is designed to generate fixes automatically for specific bugs before sending them to human engineers for approval. Facebook, which announced the tool today ahead of its @Scale conference in San Jose, California, for developers building large-scale systems and applications, calls SapFix an “AI hybrid tool.” It uses artificial intelligence Read more about Facebook creates an AI-based tool to automate bug fixes[…]

Cold Boot Attacks are back – plug a sleeping laptop into some kit and read all the memory, slurp all the passwords

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Olle and his fellow cyber security consultant Pasi Saarinen recently discovered a new way to physically hack into PCs. According to their research, this method will work against nearly all modern computers. This includes laptops from some of the world’s biggest vendors like Dell, Lenovo, and even Apple. And because these computers are everywhere, Olle Read more about Cold Boot Attacks are back – plug a sleeping laptop into some kit and read all the memory, slurp all the passwords[…]

Plants communicate distress using their own kind of nervous system

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Plants may lack brains, but they have a nervous system, of sorts. And now, plant biologists have discovered that when a leaf gets eaten, it warns other leaves by using some of the same signals as animals. The new work is starting to unravel a long-standing mystery about how different parts of a plant communicate Read more about Plants communicate distress using their own kind of nervous system[…]

Mikrotik routers pwned en masse, send network data to mysterious box

Posted on by Robin Edgar

More than 7,500 Mikrotik routers have been compromised with malware that logs and transmits network traffic data to an unknown control server. This is according to researchers from 360 Netlab, who found the routers had all been taken over via an exploit for CVE-2018-14847, a vulnerability first disclosed in the Vault7 data dump of supposed Read more about Mikrotik routers pwned en masse, send network data to mysterious box[…]

Outlook, Skype ‘throttle’ users amid storm cloud drama, can’t login. Yay cloud!

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Folks around the planet are today unable to use Microsoft Skype and Office 365’s Outlook due to a baffling “Throttled” error message. The weird text box pops up in the chat software and cloud-backed email client, preventing people from sending messages, and talking to contacts. This is, according to Microsoft, due to a botched update Read more about Outlook, Skype ‘throttle’ users amid storm cloud drama, can’t login. Yay cloud![…]