Author: kenmay

Apple automatically patches Macs to fix severe NTP security flaw

Most OS X security updates are issued alongside other fixes via the Software Update mechanism, and these require some kind of user interaction to install—you’ve either got to approve them manually or tell your Mac to install them automatically. Apple does have the ability to quietly and automatically patch systems if it needs to, however, and it has exercised that ability for the first time to patch a critical flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP) used to keep the system clock in sync. This security hole became public knowledge late last week . When exploited, the NTP flaw can cause buffer overflows that allow remote attackers to execute code on your system. If you allow your system to “install system data files and security updates” automatically (checked by default), you’ve probably already gotten the update and seen the notification above. If not, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, and Yosemite users should use Software Update to download and install the update as soon as possible. The flaw may exist in Lion, Snow Leopard, and older OS X versions, but they’re old enough that Apple isn’t providing security updates for them anymore. While this was the first time this particular auto-update function has been used, Apple also automatically updates a small database of malware definitions on all Macs that keeps users from installing known-bad software. That feature, dubbed “XProtect,” was introduced in Snow Leopard in response to the Mac Defender malware and has since expanded to include several dozen items . Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Apple automatically patches Macs to fix severe NTP security flaw

This Start-to-Finish Tutorial Helps You Build Your First iPhone App

When you’re learning to code, it’s best to start with small projects. This tutorial, for example, will get you started with a simple to-do list app, and it walks you through the whole process, from start to finish. Read more…

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This Start-to-Finish Tutorial Helps You Build Your First iPhone App

North Korea’s Internet Is Totally Screwed Right Now 

Following several days of continuous connectivity problems , an internet researcher is reporting that North Korea’s internet has gone dark . Whether it’s a cyber attack or a routine outage remains unclear. Read more…

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North Korea’s Internet Is Totally Screwed Right Now 

Here’s Google’s First Fully Functional Self-Driving Car Prototype

Google is a front runner in the autonomous auto future. Back in May , Google showed off an early prototype, a hack together little car with an exposed roof sensor and non-functioning headlight stickers. Today, in a short blog post , the team revealed the first fully functioning model. Read more…

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Here’s Google’s First Fully Functional Self-Driving Car Prototype

California’s Grid May Soon Store Energy in Giant Ice Packs 

California wants better batteries, which is why t he electric company Southern California Edison is planning a set of, let’s say, unconventional energy storage solutions, including huge 450-gallon ice packs. Why? It all has to do with a little-known problem with California’s wind-reliant electric grid. Read more…

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California’s Grid May Soon Store Energy in Giant Ice Packs 

Lens-free microscope lets almost anyone spot cancer

High-powered microscopes are useful for spotting cancer and other diseases in cells, but they’re expensive and complicated. Your local physicians probably won’t have a microscope on hand, and you’ll probably need at least some skill to use one. However, UCLA scientists have developed a lens-free microscope that could put this tissue scanning power in the hands of many more people. The device creates a holograph-like image of your sample using a CCD or CMOS sensor (like that from your camera) to detect shadow patterns cast by a light source, and reconstructs them in software to present what you’d actually see. The result is a microscope that’s just as effective as its conventional optical brethren, but should also be much cheaper and simpler. The tech won’t be truly ready for a while. As senior author Aydogan Ozcan tells the LA Times , there’s a lot of spit-and-polish necessary before the software is truly easy to use. Should everything go according to plan, though, it could do a lot to make cancer detection more accessible. At a minimum, it would let medical staff in small or remote offices get a snapshot of your cells, rather than having to send you to specialists. And ideally, the lensless telescope will help both in education and “citizen-science” activities — you might not diagnose yourself, but you could contribute data to a large research project without leaving home. [Image credit: Aydogan Ozcan] Filed under: Cameras , Science Comments Via: LA Times Source: UCLA , Science

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Lens-free microscope lets almost anyone spot cancer

Forget Drugs, Darknet Markets Are Selling Counterfeit Christmas Gifts 

Receiving luxury Christmas presents is great. Giving them, however, has one major downside: Luxury Christmas gifts are expensive as shit. Perhaps that’s why the business of peddling counterfeit items like fake iPhone 6 smartphones and knockoff Louis Vuittons is flourishing on darknet markets like Evolution . Read more…

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Forget Drugs, Darknet Markets Are Selling Counterfeit Christmas Gifts 

NASA wants to build airship cities in the Venus sky

Since Venus is closer to Earth than Mars — both in size and distance — it would be a much more convenient candidate for manned exploration . There’s just a slight hitch: the average temperature is 850 degrees F, and the atmosphere is 90 times denser than ours. In other words, you’d die in the opposite way that Quaid nearly did in Total Recall . Probes have been sent to the planet’s surface, but the Russian Venera 13 survived the longest at just 127 minutes in 1982. As it does, NASA has figured a way around all that. In IEEE Spectrum , it outlined a study called HAVOC to build a floating “city” of astronaut-manned zeppelins that would hover 30 miles above the planet. At such an altitude, the pressure would be the same as Earth’s at sea level and the temperature would be a still scorching, but manageable 165 degrees F. What’s more, radiation levels would be much less than those on Mars — about the same as Canada gets. The travel length would also be much shorter, solar power would be plentiful, the atmosphere is extremely buoyant for blimps and there would be an option to abort the mission early and return home. After a risky arrival, where the goal is most definitely to not land, astronauts would be able stay for 30 days in 400-foot blimps powered by 10, 000 square feet of solar panels. Venus remains one of the least studied planets in our solar system, so scientists could learn about the planet’s runaway greenhouse effect and study its highly acidic atmosphere. The airships could also bring robotic landers to study the soil and other factors on the surface. So far, there’s no plan to turn the study into an actual manned mission, particularly since NASA is focused strictly on Mars . But the space agency’s Dale Arney said “given that Venus’ upper atmosphere is a fairly hospitable destination, we think it’s… probably no worse than the second planet you might go to behind Mars.” Filed under: Science Comments Via: CNET Source: IEEE Spectrum

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NASA wants to build airship cities in the Venus sky

Revert.io Backs Up Your Evernote, Tumblr, and Other Cloud Data

When your data is in the cloud, you’re relying on someone else to back up your stuff. If your account gets hacked or the service glitches, your data could go up in a puff of smoke. Revert.io automatically backs up your Evernote, Tumblr, and other data online. Read more…

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Revert.io Backs Up Your Evernote, Tumblr, and Other Cloud Data