Author: kenmay

Archaeologists have new tools that make it easy to scan artifacts

A European Union-funded project called ” Presious ” could make a modern Indiana Jones’ tasks easier even if they’re operating with tiny budgets. See, the initiative is currently developing a number of software tools they can use to scan artifacts. The first one can be used to scan stone objects and estimate their erosion patterns, while the second one treats scanned fragments like 3D puzzles and pieces them together. Finally, the third tool can fill in gaps in symmetrical objects if some of their pieces couldn’t be found. According to the European Union , these tools’ capabilities are made possible by the development of predictive scanning. That technique taps into existing repositories of digitized archaeological finds to predict erosion patterns, missing pieces’ shapes and broken fragments’ fits. The best thing about these tools is that archaeologists will be able to download them for free once development is done this January 2016. Via: Popsci Source: Presious

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Archaeologists have new tools that make it easy to scan artifacts

Trend Micro Flaw Could Have Allowed Attacker To Steal All Passwords

itwbennett writes: Trend Micro has released an automatic update fixing the problems in its antivirus product that Google security engineer Tavis Ormandy discovered could allow “anyone on the internet [to] steal all of your passwords completely silently, as well as execute arbitrary code with zero user interaction.” The password manager in Trend’s antivirus product is written in JavaScript and opens up multiple HTTP remote procedure call ports to handle API requests, Ormandy wrote. Ormandy says it took him 30 seconds to find one that would accept remote code. He also found an API that allowed him to access passwords stored in the manager. This is just the latest in a string of serious vulnerabilities that have been found in antivirus products in the last seven months. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Trend Micro Flaw Could Have Allowed Attacker To Steal All Passwords

VLC Arrives on the Apple TV with Support for Multiple Streaming Options and Video Formats

VLC is one of those fantastic little apps we’ve all come to love , and today Apple TV users can finally get in on the action with the new Apple TV app. Read more…

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VLC Arrives on the Apple TV with Support for Multiple Streaming Options and Video Formats

Sunken Bronze Age Settlement Is the ‘Pompeii’ of Britain

Archaeologists in Britain have uncovered the charred remains of a 3, 000-year-old stilted wooden structure that plunged into the river after it caught fire. The remarkably well-preserved roundhouse is offering an unprecedented glimpse into what domestic life was like during the Bronze Age. Read more…

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Sunken Bronze Age Settlement Is the ‘Pompeii’ of Britain

N64’s ‘GoldenEye 007’ goes modern with Unreal Engine 4

Ah, yes. GoldenEye 007 . One of the classic Nintendo 64 titles and a memorable first-person shooter is certainly a game that I spent a lot of time with. Now we have a glimpse of what the game could look like if it was made with the tools available to developers today. YouTube user Jude Wilson recreated a portion of the Facility Map using Unreal Engine 4 , offering a bit of nostalgia for those of us who are familiar with the title. Wilson isn’t the first to do this, as Mario and Sonic have already been given the UE4 treatment. It’s an interesting take, but don’t take our word for it, go through the level yourself via the video down below. Via: Cinema Blend Source: Jude Wilson (YouTube)

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N64’s ‘GoldenEye 007’ goes modern with Unreal Engine 4

Et tu, Fortinet? Hard-coded password raises new backdoor eavesdropping fears

(credit: Fortinet) Less than a month after Juniper Network officials disclosed an unauthorized backdoor in the company’s NetScreen line of firewalls , researchers have uncovered highly suspicious code in older software from Juniper competitor Fortinet. The suspicious code contains a challenge-and-response authentication routine for logging into servers with the secure shell (SSH) protocol . Researchers were able to unearth a hard-coded password of “FGTAbc11*xy+Qqz27” (not including the quotation marks) after reviewing this exploit code posted online on Saturday . On Tuesday, a researcher posted this screenshot purporting to show someone using the exploit to gain remote access to a server running Fortinet’s FortiOS software. This exploit code provides unauthorized SSH access to devices running older versions of FortiOS. (credit: Full Disclosure mailing list ) This partially redacted screenshot purports to show the exploit in action. (credit: @dailydavedavids ) Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, a security researcher who helped uncover the innerworkings of the Juniper backdoor , took to Twitter on Tuesday and repeatedly referred to the custom SSH authentication as a “backdoor.”  In one specific post , he confirmed he was able to make it work as reported on older versions of Fortinet’s FortiOS. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Et tu, Fortinet? Hard-coded password raises new backdoor eavesdropping fears

BBC Confirms 50% Bitrate Savings For H.265/HEVC Vs H.264/AVC

An anonymous reader writes: A research team from the BBC has done a series of tests to confirm earlier computations showing a ~50% savings in bit rate for H.265/HEVC compared to video using H.264/AVC at comparable quality. “The subjective tests used a carefully selected set of coded video sequences at four different picture sizes: UHD (3840×2160 and 4096×2048), 1080p (1920×1080), 720p (1280×720) and 480p (832×480), at frame rates of 30Hz, 50Hz, or 60Hz. The video content was chosen to represent diverse spatial and temporal characteristics, and then coded using HEVC and AVC standards at a wide span of bit rates producing a variety of quality levels.” Here is the full published analysis. “The tests confirmed the significant compression efficiency improvements achieved in HEVC, verifying the results previously reported using objective quality metrics (PSNR based methods).” The team did not test against VP9, which is shaping up to be an impressive standard as well. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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BBC Confirms 50% Bitrate Savings For H.265/HEVC Vs H.264/AVC

Questions Linger As Juniper Removes Suspicious Dual_EC Algorithm

msm1267 writes: Juniper Networks has removed the backdoored Dual_EC DRBG algorithm from its ScreenOS operating system, but new developments show Juniper deployed Dual_EC long after it was known to be backdoored. Stephen Checkoway, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that he and a number of crypto experts looked at dozens of versions of Juniper’s NetScreen firewalls and learned that ANSI X9.31 was used exclusively until ScreenOS 6.2 when Juniper added Dual_EC. It also changed the size of the nonce used with ANSI X9.31 from 20 bytes to 32 bytes for Dual_EC, giving an attacker the necessary output to predict the PRNG output. ‘And at the same time, Juniper introduced what was just a bizarre bug that caused the ANSI generator to never be used and instead just use the output of Dual_EC. They made all of these changes in the same version update.’ Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Questions Linger As Juniper Removes Suspicious Dual_EC Algorithm

T-Mobile’s CEO does damage control, apologizes to the EFF

T-Mobile CEO John Legere has published an open letter on the company’s website, and it smells like an attempt at damage control after getting some real backlash. As you might know, he’s been making good use of his colorful vocabulary to defend his company over accusations that it’s throttling YouTube videos these past few weeks. In the process, he lambasted Google and accused the Electronic Frontier Foundation of being a paid mouthpiece. In the surprisingly expletive-free missive, he claims that Binge On is a “VERY ‘pro’ net neutrality capability, ” because you can switch it on or off whenever you want. The T-Mobile uncarrier feature allows you to stream 480p videos without eating up your data, but it can only do so for specific services like Netflix. That doesn’t sit well with net neutrality advocates who believe that it makes certain apps more appealing than others. The FCC cited that as one of its reasons when it summoned the company to talk about its data exemption scheme in December. Legere also apologizes to the EFF for posting a video asking “who the fuck” the organization is and who’s paying it. His response was triggered by the non-profit digital rights group’s question on Twitter, asking if Binge On alters the video stream in any way or limits its bandwidth: Look, by now you know that I am a vocal, animated and sometimes foul mouthed CEO. I don’t filter myself and you know that no one at T-Mobile filters me either (no, they don’t even try). That means I will sometimes incite a bit of a ‘social media riot’, but I’m not going to apologize for that. I will however apologize for offending EFF and its supporters. Just because we don’t completely agree on all aspects of Binge On doesn’t mean I don’t see how they fight for consumers. We both agree that it is important to protect consumers’ rights and to give consumers value. We have that in common, so more power to them. As I mentioned last week, we look forward to sitting down and talking with the EFF and that is a step we will definitely take. While we may never know why the CEO suddenly decided to publish this letter, he said he decided to write it up for the sake of the data exemption feature: Unfortunately, my color commentary from last week is now drowning out the real value of Binge On – so hopefully this letter will help make that clear again. . @EFF pic.twitter.com/pv6V4oOJwS — John Legere (@JohnLegere) January 7, 2016 T-Mobile’s CEO is dying to know who EFF is. Friends, please tweet at @JohnLegere with the hashtag #WeAreEFF to enlighten him. — EFF (@EFF) January 7, 2016 [Image credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images] Source: T-Mobile

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T-Mobile’s CEO does damage control, apologizes to the EFF

This New Incandescent Bulb Uses Nano Mirrors to Match LED Bulb Efficiency

Energy-saving bulbs may have some competition in the shape of an ageing technology. Scientists have developed a new kind of incandescent light bulb that uses modern science to ramp up its efficiency, almost matching that of commercial LED bulbs. Read more…

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This New Incandescent Bulb Uses Nano Mirrors to Match LED Bulb Efficiency