reader – Page 16 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Apple updates macOS and iOS to address Spectre vulnerability

Just a few days after Apple disclosed how it would be dealing with the Meltdown bug that affects modern computers, it’s pushed out fixes for the Spectre exploit as well. iOS 11.2.2 includes “Security improvements to Safari and WebKit to mitigate the effects of Spectre, ” the company writes on its support page, while the macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Supplemental Update does the same for your Mac laptop or desktop. Installing this update on your Mac will also update Safari to version 11.0.2. The Spectre and Meltdown CPU vulnerabilities are a wake up call for the tech industry, affecting most of the processors made over the past twenty years. While companies like Microsoft , Apple and Google have been quick to issue fixes, it will still take a while to get everyone with a personal device up to speed. Hopefully the next generation of chips that power our own devices and those we use for the cloud will find a way to bust this exploit for good. Via: Rene Ritchie Source: Apple iOS , Apple macOS

After Intel ME, Researchers Find Security Bug In AMD’s SPS Secret Chip-on-Chip

An anonymous reader writes: AMD has fixed, but not yet released BIOS/UEFI/firmware updates for the general public for a security flaw affecting the AMD Secure Processor. This component, formerly known as AMD PSP (Platform Security Processor), is a chip-on-chip security system, similar to Intel’s much-hated Management Engine (ME). Just like Intel ME, the AMD Secure Processor is an integrated coprocessor that sits next to the real AMD64 x86 CPU cores and runs a separate operating system tasked with handling various security-related operations. The security bug is a buffer overflow that allows code execution inside the AMD SPS TPM, the component that stores critical system data such as passwords, certificates, and encryption keys, in a secure environment and outside of the more easily accessible AMD cores. Intel fixed a similar flaw last year in the Intel ME. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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After Intel ME, Researchers Find Security Bug In AMD’s SPS Secret Chip-on-Chip

Acer’s latest Chromebook offers 10 hours of battery for $250

Acer has been releasing Chromebooks balancing speed with affordability. The company introduced its latest Chromebook 11 at CES as a fanless, small-form laptop with touch and non-touch screens that boasts up 10 hours of battery life. While Acer didn’t release exact specs for the models — we only know they’ll sport the ‘latest Intel Celeron processors, ‘ for example — but did note they’ll come with 4GB of memory and either 16GB or 32GB of eMMC storage. The laptops will have a pair of USB 3.1 Type-C and two USB 3.0 ports as well as a MicroSD card reader. Its 11.6-inch IPS 1366 x 768 pixel display comes in either touch or non-touch variants, though it’s unclear how much the difference will affect the price (previous Acer Chromebooks saw a $50 bump for a touchscreen). It will also have support for the Google Play store and get access to Android apps. We do know that those lower-performance options have dropped the Chromebook 11’s starting price to $250, which is slightly cheaper than the rugged Chromebook C771 that Acer introduced for students last August. But it does have double the RAM of the most recent Chromebook 15 that the company released in October, making it much more capable of multitasking through Google’s Chrome app suite. If you’re looking for an affordable solution with a decent battery life, Acer’s Chromebook 11 will hit Europe, the Middle East and Africa in March and reach North America in April. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

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Acer’s latest Chromebook offers 10 hours of battery for $250

The best dishwasher

By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter , reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After putting more than 100 hours of research into 210 models over three years, we’ve learned that most dishwashers are good cleaners. But getting one that’s quiet, reliable, and easy to load is also worth paying a little more. That’s why we think the new Bosch 300 Series SHEM63W55N is the best dishwasher for most people right now. How we picked Dating back to 2014, we’ve investigated 210 dishwasher models. To find the best, we considered only models with the must-have features that experts told us to look for: Nylon-coated racks A soil sensor. Also known as a turbidity sensor, it tells your dishwasher to extend or end the cycle depending on how much gunk is floating in the wash water. A stainless steel tub We also prioritized dishwashers with these features: Flexible racking. We looked for height-adjustable racks, folding tines, and a third rack for utensils and cooking tools. Quiet operation (ideally less than 45 decibels) A good reputation for reliability and customer service Some features or performance metrics seem important—like capacity, energy efficiency, or cleaning performance—but are actually so similar from model to model that they’re not worth fussing over. We also didn’t pay much attention to drying style: both heat-dry and condensation models have their advantages, and we have recommendations for both types. Our pick: Bosch 300 Series SHEM63W55N Photo: Bosch We think the new Bosch 300 Series SHEM63W55N is the best dishwasher for most people. Its racks are more spacious and easier to load with all shapes and sizes of dishes than other models at this price. Bosch makes some of the most reliable dishwashers, and the customer service is more helpful than average. Operating at 44 dB, it’s so quiet that most people will barely be able to hear it running. The one-hour wash-and-dry option is unique at this price. It also has an extra-dry option, which is supposed to help dry plastic, a common shortcoming of condenser-dry dishwashers. The racks are the 300 Series’s biggest advantage over its competitors. They’re larger, more adjustable, and easier to load than the others, thanks largely to the V-shaped third rack tucked at the top of the tub. It also has a handy height-adjustment feature on the middle rack that can create space for taller items. Also great Photo: KitchenAid The KitchenAid KDTM354ESS is another great dishwasher that’s better at drying plastic than our main pick. Some people also think it’s better at neatly holding cereal bowls. And at 44 dB, the KDTM354ESS is the same volume as our main pick. However, it might be less reliable than the Bosch 300 series. Its racks aren’t quite as versatile, either, and it’s missing the third rack entirely. The KDTM354ESS has a heat-dry option, which is its most obvious difference from our main pick. If you have a lot of plastic dishes and want them to be bone-dry right at the end of a cycle, the heat-dry option (labeled as ProDry on the control panel) can do that. On the downside, it uses more energy than just letting moisture evaporate and drip off the dishes. Budget pick: Maytag MDB4949SD Photo: Maytag The Maytag MDB4949SD is a basic but effective dishwasher that costs a lot less than our other picks. It has no third rack, runs noticeably louder, and may leave more leafy debris on your dishes. But it’s usually the cheapest dishwasher with all the basic, must-have specs, including a stainless steel tub for relatively low noise and faster drying, nylon-coated racks for gentle handling, and a soil sensor to ensure that cycles run until they’re finished. However, unlike our main pick, the Maytag MDB4949SD has no third rack or a height-adjustable upper rack. Upgrade pick: Miele Classic Plus G4976SC Photo: Miele If you’re willing to pay more for an extra-durable dishwasher from a premium brand, check out the Miele Classic Plus G4976SC . Miele dishwashers are known to last about twice as long as typical dishwashers. The G4976SC in particular is the most affordable Miele model with a stainless finish, a third rack, and a short-cycle option. It also has an adjustable middle rack, a few sets of folding tines, and a short-cycle option. It runs at 46 dB, slightly louder than our top pick but still quiet enough that it’ll be hard to hear it from one room away. It’s a condenser-dry model, though it actually draws in cold air from outside the dishwasher to speed the process. However, some people find that the racks struggle with some American-style dishes, and it’s expensive compared to our top pick. An also-great 18-inch dishwasher: Bosch 300 Series SPE53U55UC Photo: Bosch We scoped out about 20 compact dishwashers and think that the Bosch 300 Series SPE53U55UC is the best bet if you need an 18-inch dishwasher. It’s a lot like a narrower version of our main pick, just without the third rack. It does have the great nine-position adjustable upper rack, and some folding tines, which makes it more flexible than most compact dishwashers. Overall, it holds about half as much as a full-size model can, and uses a bit less water and energy. It’s a condenser-dry model with a filter. We expect the cleaning performance to be just as effective as the standard, wider version. This guide may have been updated by Wirecutter . To see the current recommendation, please go here . Note from Wirecutter: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.

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The best dishwasher

New measurement confirms: The ozone is coming back

Enlarge / Each year’s ozone hole is a little bit different. (credit: NASA ) The Montreal Protocol, which went into effect in 1989, is a rare instance of a global agreement to solve a global problem: the release of vast quantities of ozone-destroying chemicals into the atmosphere. In the decades since, however, changes in ozone have been small and variable, making it hard to tell whether the protocol is making any difference. But evidence has been building that the ozone layer is recovering, and a new paper claims to have directly measured the ozone hole gradually filling back in. CFCs and ozone During the 1970s and ’80s, evidence had been building that a class of industrial chemicals, the chloro-flurocarbons (CFCs), were damaging the ozone layer, a region of the stratosphere rich in this reactive form of oxygen. Ozone is able to absorb UV light that would otherwise reach the Earth’s surface, where it’s capable of damaging DNA. But the levels of ozone had been dropping, and this ultimately resulted in a nearly ozone-free “hole” above the Antarctic. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

As of today, no US airlines operate the mighty Boeing 747

Mike Kane/Bloomberg/Getty Images On Wednesday, Delta Airlines flight 9771 flew from Atlanta to Pinal Airpark in Arizona. It wasn’t a full flight—just 48 people on board. But it was a milestone—and not just for the two people who got married mid-flight—for it marked the very last flight of a Boeing 747 being operated by a US airline. Delta’s last scheduled passenger service with the jumbo was actually late in December, at which point it conducted a farewell tour and then some charter flights. But as of today, after 51 long years in service, if you want to ride a 747 you’ll need to be traveling abroad. Way back in the 1960s, when the white heat of technological progress was burning bright, it looked for a while as if supersonic air travel was going to be the next big thing. France and Britain were collaborating on a new kind of airliner that would fly at twice the speed of sound and shrink the globe. But there was just one thing they hadn’t counted on: Boeing and its gargantuan 747 jumbo jet. The double-decker airliner wouldn’t break the sound barrier, but its vast size compared to anything else in the skies helped drop the cost of long-haul air travel, opening it up to the people in a way Concorde could never hope to do. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

11,000-year-old child’s skeleton tells tale of Native American origins

Enlarge / Excavations at the Upward Sun River site. (credit: Ben Potter) Where did Native Americans come from? Over the years, lots of ideas have been considered, but genetic data eventually came down decisively in favor of one of them. Native Americans are most closely related to East Asians and must have come across a land bridge that was present between Siberia and Alaska during the last glacial period. But that big-picture answer has raised all sorts of additional questions about the details. There has been a long-running argument over their mode of travel, which only recently seems to have been decided in favor of boats . There are still arguments over how many waves of migration took place. And a weak genetic affinity for Eurasian populations, strengthened by an ancient Siberian genome , raises questions about how that DNA ended up in Native American genomes. Now, a large team of researchers is saying they have data that clarifies a lot of these questions. It comes in the form of a genome obtained from a child’s skeleton found in Alaska. The skeleton has been dated to 11,500 years ago, and the genome now suggests it represents a member of a now-lost population that occupied the Beringian land bridge at the peak of the last glacial period—and gave rise to Native Americans. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws threaten PCs, phones and servers

By now you’ve probably heard about a bug Intel is dealing with that affects processors built since 1995. But according to the people who found “Meltdown” and “Spectre, ” the errors behind these exploits can let someone swipe data running in other apps on devices using hardware from Intel, ARM and AMD. While server operators ( like Amazon ) apply Linux patches to keep people from accessing someone else’s information that’s being executed on the same system, what does this mean for your home computer or phone? Google’s Project Zero researchers identified the problems last year, and according to its blog post, execution is “difficult and limited” on the majority of Android devices. A list of potentially impacted services and hardware is available here , while additional protection has been added in the latest Android security update . In a statement, Microsoft said: “We are in the process of deploying mitigations to cloud services and have also released security updates to protect Windows customers against vulnerabilities affecting supported hardware chips from Intel, ARM, and AMD.” In a blog post directed towards customers on its Azure server platform, the company said its infrastructure has already been updated, and that a “majority” of customers should not see a performance impact. Apple has not publicly commented on the issue, however security researcher Alex Ionescu points out that macOS 10.13.2 addresses the issue and said that the 10.13.3 update will include “surprises.” According to AMD, “Due to differences in AMD’s architecture, we believe there is a near zero risk to AMD processors at this time, ” however it has promised further updates as the information comes out. As for ARM, it says most processors are unaffected but it has specific information on the types that are available here . So what does this mean for you? On your devices the prescription is the same as always — make sure you have the latest security updates installed and try to avoid malware-laden downloads from suspicious or unknown sources. Source: MeltdownAttack.com

Intel says it will patch 90 percent of recent chips by next week (updated)

A little more than a day since Google Project Zero went public with its findings regarding a major security flaw in Intel ( and others ) chip designs, the company announced that it is already is pushing out patches to eliminate the vulnerability. Intel has “already issued updates for the majority of processor products introduced within the past five years, ” per the company press release, and expects to have 90 percent of affected chips produced within the past five years patched by the end of the week. The flaw, which afflicts chips made over the past decade, enables ordinary processes to determine the layout of protected kernel memory. This “software analysis method”, as Intel describes the flaw, allows a pair of exploits, dubbed “Meltdown” and “Spectre, ” to swipe data from other apps on vulnerable devices — be they PCs, servers or mobile phones — running Intel, ARM or AMD chips. The solution cooked up by Intel and its partners so far entails severing the link between the kernel and these processes, though that could have a dramatic impact on a patched chip’s operating speed. The company asserts that the impacts will be “highly workload-dependent” and not particularly noticeable by the average consumer. Update: Microsoft says it will release an update for Surface devices to protect them against the chip vulnerability. The company also explains that it “has not received any information to indicate that these vulnerabilities have been used to attack customers at this time.” You can check the list of Surface gear that will receive the patch at the link above, but Microsoft says the updates will be available devices running Windows 10 with Windows Update or through the Microsoft Download Center. Source: Intel

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Intel says it will patch 90 percent of recent chips by next week (updated)

When Designers Can’t Get Their Way: Photographs of a Mega-Library in China

In Tianjin, China is this massive Tianjin Binhai Library, designed by Dutch architecture firm MVRDV and the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode The massive structure is some 363, 000 square feet and houses over a million books. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode The sphere you see in the center of the space is an auditorium. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode The structure is intended to serve not only as a library, but as a social and cultural community center. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode The five-level building contains extensive educational facilities, arrayed along the edges of the interior and accessible through the main atrium space. The public program is supported by subterranean service spaces, book storage, and a large archive. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode One thing you’ve got to be wondering is how the heck the patrons access those books on the upper tiers. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode The designers came up with a clever way to do this, but, disappointingly, the idea could not be realized due to time constraints: The library is MVRDV’s most rapid fast-track project to date. It took just three years from the first sketch to the opening…. The tight construction schedule forced one essential part of the concept to be dropped: access to the upper bookshelves from rooms placed behind the atrium. This change was made locally and against MVRDV’s advice and rendered access to the upper shelves currently impossible. The full vision for the library may be realised in the future, but until then perforated aluminium plates printed to represent books on the upper shelves. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode Fake upper books aside, it’s still a magnificent structure! Via PetaPixel

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When Designers Can’t Get Their Way: Photographs of a Mega-Library in China