Tech Today w/ Ken May

Members of Anonymous’ “Antisec” collective struck a Web server of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection early on February 17, hacking into and defacing the sites hosted on it. “The Bureau of Consumer Protection’s Business Center website and the partnership site NCPW run by the Federal Trade Commission were hacked earlier today,” FTC spokesperson Cecelia Prewett said in an official statement sent to Ars. “The FTC takes these malicious acts seriously. The sites have been taken down and will be brought back up when we’re satisfied that any vulnerability has been addressed.” The log of the hack , a cut-and-paste from a shell session on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux server, shows the server’s directories, the user account names and encrypted passwords stored in its etc/shadow file, and the MySQL databases running on the server. The contents of two of the tables posted in the log dump include the contents of a table with the account names, e-mail addresses, and hashed passwords of what appears to be the users of the server’s installations of Drupal and Wordpress. While the websites belong to the FTC, they weren’t running in a government-owned data center. According to the IP address data for the server, it was hosted by Media Temple in Culver City, California, and it appears its sites were set up for the FTC by the public relations firm Fleishman-Hilliard. Spokespeople for Fleishman and Media Temple could not be reached by Ars for comment. Based on the claims of the Anon Antisec member who posted the log of the attack to Pastebin.com, the attack was motivated by the FTC’s failure to step in to stop Google’s changes in its privacy policy , and by the US government’s support of ACTA . In the statement, the Anon threatened that “If ACTA is signed by all participating negotiating countries…We will systematically knock all evil corporations and governments off of our internet.” Read the comments on this post

Microsoft is making plenty of big changes with its Windows 8 operating system, and that has now also extended to a new logo. As explained by Microsoft’s Sam Moreau in a post on the official Windows blog, the logo was created with the help of the design agency Pentagram, which posed a simple question when it began on the project: “your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?” That discussion eventually led to the four-paned window you see above, which not only looks more like a window than the previous logos, but clearly echoes the company’s new Metro design language. Microsoft also notes that the logo is “authentically digital,” and says it will welcome you with a slight tilt and change color based on your desktop. You can see a bigger version after the break, and read the full story of its creation (along with a look back at past logos) at the source link below. Continue reading Microsoft reveals Windows 8′s new logo: ‘It’s a window… not a flag’ Microsoft reveals Windows 8′s new logo: ‘It’s a window… not a flag’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | The Windows Blog | Email this | Comments

It’s fair to say that Africa isn’t really known for its snow and ice. Indeed, that sentence could probably win several understatement of the year contests. But a few tropical glaciers can be found there. But for how much longer? More »

The gang over at BGR have allegedly acquired a bootleg copy of Apple’s next mobile operating system iteration, iOS 5.1. In doing so, they have been able to confirm two rumored adds: a new unlock-to-camera action and Japanese support for Siri . In iOS 5.0 , users can activate the camera from a locked device by double-tapping the home button and selecting the icon that appears. The new workflow? Wake the phone, then simply slide the lock screen toward the top of the handset — making this feature easier to use and find. The other major difference is the expansion of Siri’s vernacular — more specifically, the addition of Japanese. iOS users in The Land of the Rising Sun will soon be able to get a synthesized ” konnichiwa ” from their iPhone. Domo arigato , Apple. iOS 5.1 leaked, bringing new unlock-to-camera action, more cultured Siri? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | BGR | Email this | Comments

Zothecula writes “Inspired by origami and children’s pop-up books, Harvard engineers have pioneered a means of mass-producing bee-sized flying microrobots. The breakthrough mechanizes the already state-of-the art process of making Harvard’s Mobee robots by hand, by mass producing flat assemblies by the sheet which can be folded and assembled in a single movement. The technique, which cunningly exploits existing machinery for making printed circuit boards, can theoretically be applied to a multitude of electromechanical machines.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The gang over at BGR have allegedly acquired a bootleg copy of Apple’s next mobile operating system iteration, iOS 5.1. In doing so, they have been able to confirm two rumored adds: a new unlock-to-camera action and Japanese support for Siri . In iOS 5.0 , users can activate the camera from a locked device by double-tapping the home button and selecting the icon that appears. The new workflow? Wake the phone, then simply slide the lock screen toward the top of the handset — making this feature easier to use and find. The other major difference is the expansion of Siri’s vernacular — more specifically, the addition of Japanese. iOS users in The Land of the Rising Sun will soon be able to get a synthesized ” konnichiwa ” from their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Domo arigato , Apple. iOS 5.1 brings new unlock-to-camera action, more cultured Siri originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments

The days of ignoring WinZip’s incessant nagging that you actually pay its registration fee may be long gone, but that isn’t to say the file compressing firm hasn’t learned from your failure to pony up. WinZip, the Windows user’s go-to compression software since the early nineties, is now available on iOS — free of charge. The mobile utility will let users open Zip attachments from email, browse compressed files and extract encrypted archives. Actual compression of an iOS device’s files, however, will still need to be done on a desktop computer. WinZip comes to iOS, doesn’t nag you to register originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink TUAW | iTunes | Email this | Comments

In an unprecedented move, the FBI may cut off Internet access to millions of people on March 8th to try to rid the country of a Trojan. Millions of computers are infected worldwide—maybe even yours. More »

Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion brings a lot of new features to the table. It’s the future of instant messaging , for one thing, and probably more than a few other things as well. More »

Space junk is everywhere , and it’s high time that someone takes charge to clean it up. And Switzerland is that someone: the country is building CleanSpace One, the first in a family of “janitor” satellites to clean up space. To be launched as soon as three to five years from now, CleanSpace One will rendezvous with one of two defunct objects in orbit, either the Swisscube picosatellite, or its cousin TIsat, both 1,000 cubic centimeters (61 cubic inches) in size. When the janitor satellite reaches its target, it will extend a grappling arm, grab it and then plunge into Earth’s atmosphere, burning up itself and the space junk during re-entry. Think of it as the WALL-E of satellites (why it kind of looks like it, too): Link