Author: kenmay

Huge malware campaign used Yahoo’s ad network

You’ve probably heard of malware-laden ads causing havoc on the web, but rarely on this scale. Malwarebytes has discovered a malware campaign that was using Yahoo’s ad network to target legions upon legions of visitors — Yahoo’s main site racks up 6.9 billion visits per month. While it’s not clear what would happen if you fell victim to an attack, the Flash-based exploit kit linked to the campaign typically includes both ad fraud and ransomware . In short, there’s a real chance that you could have been locked out of your PC simply by checking on your fantasy sports league . Notice the emphasis on the past tense, though. Yahoo was quick to take this “malvertising” campaign down, so you’re not at risk as I write this. Even so, it’s not exactly comforting that malware writers could even slip their code into such a large ad network. Yahoo’s still investigating what happened, but it appears that online ad giants may need stricter filters on what gets through. [Image credit: AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez] Filed under: Internet Comments Via: New York Times Source: Malwarebytes Tags: ads, advertising, flash, internet, malvertising, malware, ransomware, security, web, yahoo

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Huge malware campaign used Yahoo’s ad network

Red hot nickel ball burning through foam breaks the color spectrum

The colors! The colors! Holy cow, the colors. The world destroyer that is the red hot nickel ball got put to task on floral foam and the result is an awesome burn through that unleashes so many colors and then creates scales and pretty much topples the entire foam tower. Always a pleasure, red hot nickel ball. Read more…

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Red hot nickel ball burning through foam breaks the color spectrum

Researchers inject oil into cells and create little lasers

The Massachusetts General Hospital research team that lit up human cells with the help of jellyfish genes a few years ago are back with a more advanced version of the technology. This new version forgoes the complicated external mirror setup in favor of injectable oil droplets impregnated with fluorescent dye. This is the same basic idea as what a team from St Andrews University recently created, except that the plastic bead that served as the their laser’s resonating chamber is now an oil droplet. While the technology isn’t ready for therapeutic applications just yet, it does hold a great deal of promise. The problem with conventional cellular markers and dye is that they have a broad emission spectrum which can make it difficult to spot the marked cells amidst the rest of the tissue. But with these miniature lasers, doctors will be able to mark and track individual cells no matter where they are in the body. The team recently published their findings in Nature Photonics . a dye-impregnated fat cell – Massachusetts General Hospital [Image Credit: Top – Arbi Babakhanians, inline: Matjaž Humar/Seok Hyun Yun] Filed under: Science Comments Source: Nature Photonics

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Researchers inject oil into cells and create little lasers

DJs can buy remix-friendly ‘Stems’ music files starting today

Back in March, Native Instruments — the company behind the ubiquitous Traktor DJ software — announced Stems : a music format that lets DJs and remixers to control individual parts of a track. Today Stems launches to the buying public on a number of popular music stores including Beatport and Traxsource have them listed already, Bleep, Juno, whatpeopleplay, and Wasabeat will also be selling them. For years DJs and producers’ only chance of finding a cappella versions of songs was to hope a vocal-only recording existed. The advent of the internet made finding these a little easier, but they were still rare. Expensive software can sometimes help you surgically remove parts or a track, or isolate vocals, but the results aren’t always very clean. Stems makes all that a thing of the past. The new file-format allows DJs to turn the separate parts of a track on and off at will. Importantly, Stems is open, so anyone will be able to export music as a compatible file (Native Instruments will release tools for this later in the year), and big artists and labels are already on board. A Stems file will break a song into four parts; usually drums, vocals, bass and lead, each of which can be manipulated independently with compatible hardware (Native Instruments’ Kontrol S8 , D2 , and F1 for example). Beatport, will even let you audition tracks as separate parts in the browser (as seen below). It’s unlikely most casual listeners need to worry about Stems — it’s definitely more for performers — but, if there’s a killer track, with a really annoying vocal , there might just be a workaround at last. An update for Traktor that adds Stem compatibility is available via NI Service Center today. Filed under: Misc , Home Entertainment Comments Source: Stems , Beatport

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DJs can buy remix-friendly ‘Stems’ music files starting today

Everything You Can Ask Cortana to Do in Windows 10

Cortana is easily one of the coolest new features of Windows 10. You’re probably already familiar with personal assistants like Google Now and Siri, but now you have one built right into your desktop! Here’s how to get information, manage your schedule, and even run a few Google commands. Read more…

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Everything You Can Ask Cortana to Do in Windows 10

Gamers: It’s safe to upgrade to Windows 10

While the IT managers of the world stress about Windows 10’s buggy mail client , default browser , and dodgy domains, for the gamer, Microsoft’s latest and greatest OS is an exciting proposition. Windows 10, if you didn’t know, comes with DirectX 12 , which promises significant performance increases (particularly for AMD graphics card users), thanks to its new low-level API features. The trouble is, right now, there aren’t actually any games out there that use DX12. While Nvidia and AMD have both launched new drivers to bring DX12 support to a range of their current GPUs, there’s not a single DX12 game to play. 3DMark has a neat draw call benchmark that gives us some idea of how much faster DX12 will be, but it’s entirely synthetic. One of the first games to actually use DX12 will be StarDock’s upcoming RTS Ashes of the Singularity , with an early beta build showing a significant uplift in performance. We were hoping to check out a special benchmark build of the game this week, but sadly it’s been pushed back. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Gamers: It’s safe to upgrade to Windows 10

Apple reportedly wants to turn Siri into your receptionist

Apple is testing a service that will let Siri take your calls, record them and transcribe them to text, according to Business Insider . The company is reportedly referring to it as iCloud Voicemail, and it’s similar to the existing visual voicemail service. However, instead of playing a pre-recorded message to your caller when you can’t pick up, Siri will take over the chore. It can then let certain contacts know where you are and why you can’t take the call, provided you give permission. The voice message will then be shunted over to Apple’s servers and transcribed into text. It works in much the same way that Siri transcribes your voice commands, but it’s unclear if the system would require carrier support. Currently, Apple’s visual voicemail service (which can also back up messages to iCloud) only works with select operators. It’s also not clear if it’d be free, as certain carriers charge extra for that. Nevertheless, it sounds like a good idea — as BI pointed out, lots of folks aren’t fond of voicemail, but the less tech-inclined still prefer to leave them. Employees of the company are reportedly testing the service, and if it’s reliable enough, it’ll be launch next year along with iOS 10. As always, however, take such rumors with a large chaser of skepticism. Filed under: Cellphones , Internet , Apple Comments Source: Business Insider Tags: apple, Siri, transcription, voice to text, Voicemail

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Apple reportedly wants to turn Siri into your receptionist

Microsoft’s HoloLens headset will reach developers within a year

When Microsoft said that its HoloLens headset would arrive ” in the Windows 10 time frame , ” what did it mean, exactly? Thanks to a BBC interview with Satya Nadella, we now have a better sense of when this augmented reality eyewear will show up. The company chief expects developers and enterprise users to get the first version of HoloLens “within the next year” — you won’t be getting one as a holiday gift, folks. It’s not certain just when a personal version will launch, but Nadella describes the overall technology as a “5-year journey” that will eventually branch out to other fields. While that doesn’t necessarily leave you high and dry until 2020, it does suggest that you’ll have to be patient if you want to play some holographic Minecraft . Filed under: Displays , Wearables , Microsoft Comments Via: Piptell , The Verge Source: BBC

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Microsoft’s HoloLens headset will reach developers within a year

Uber reaches $50 billion value thanks (in part) to Microsoft

Uber is getting richer and richer. It’s now valued at $51 billion after raising another $1 billion in funding, and it got to this stage two years faster than Facebook did. As always, the ride-sharing service has attracted an assortment of investors during its latest funding round — one of them’s none other than tech juggernaut Microsoft, according to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal . While neither company has admitted it yet, Bloomberg says Microsoft has agreed to back Uber to the tune of around $100 million. It’s unclear whether this means they’re pursuing a deeper relationship or if they’re working together on a project or two, at least. If you recall, though, Uber’s snapped up a portion of Bing’s mapping tech back in June, along with a hundred of Redmond’s employees. Microsoft is neither the first nor the only tech corporation/personality that has invested in the ride-hailing service. Chinese internet giant Baidu jumped in weeks after it was announced that Uber was already valued at $40 billion with an investment that could’ve been as big as $600 million. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos put his money in the company way back in 2011, while Google Ventures backed it with $258 million in 2013. That was years before both companies announced their intentions to develop self-driving taxi services, making them future competitors. In all, Uber now has $5 billion to spend on the aggressive expansion it’s planning in India , China and Southeast Asia. [Image credit: Getty Images] Filed under: Transportation , Microsoft Comments Source: The New York Times , Bloomberg , The Wall Street Journal

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Uber reaches $50 billion value thanks (in part) to Microsoft