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YouTube mad at T-Mobile for throttling video traffic

(credit: Aurich Lawson) T-Mobile USA’s recently instituted practice of downgrading video quality to 480p in order to reduce data usage now has a prominent critic: YouTube. “Reducing data charges can be good for users, but it doesn’t justify throttling all video services, especially without explicit user consent,” a YouTube spokesperson said, according to a Wall Street Journal article today . T-Mobile’s “Binge On” program automatically reduces the quality of video while allowing many video services to stream without counting against customers’ high-speed data limits. Video services that cooperate with T-Mobile by meeting the company’s “technical criteria” have their videos exempted from customers’ data caps. Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and many others worked with T-Mobile to get the exemption. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Scientists Create Injectable Foam To Repair Degenerating Bones

Researchers in France have developed a self-setting foam that can repair defects in bones and assist growth. Eventually, this advanced biomaterial could be used to quickly regenerate bone growth and treat degenerative diseases such as osteoporosis. Read more…

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Scientists Create Injectable Foam To Repair Degenerating Bones

Google Joins Mozilla, Microsoft In Pushing For Early SHA-1 Crypto Cutoff

itwbennett writes: Due to recent research showing that SHA-1 is weaker than previously believed, Mozilla, Microsoft and now Google are all considering bringing the deadline forward by six months to July 1, 2016. Websites like Facebook and those protected by CloudFlare have implemented a SHA-1 fallback mechanism. Both companies have argued that there are millions of people in developing countries that still use browsers and operating systems that do not support SHA-2, the replacement function for SHA-1, and will therefore be cut off from encrypted websites that move to SHA-2 certificates. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft bans adware that use man-in-the-middle techniques

Starting next year, Microsoft will be a lot stricter when it comes to adware. In a post on the Technet blog , Redmond has announced that it will block advertising programs “that take choice and control away from users.” The company’s talking about adware that use “man-in-the-middle” (MiTM) techniques, in particular. Those include injecting ads and promotions by proxy, as well as changing DNS settings, without your express consent . They aren’t safe, because they could be used to introduce malware into your system, or even to spy on encrypted data and communication. In order to keep those types of adware off your computer, Microsoft has made it a policy that programs that show ads on the browser can only install, disable or execute programs through the browser itself. That means any ad software that doesn’t notify you via your browser that it wants to download or install something will be blocked off and marked as malware. The company says it will enforce the new rule on May 31st, 2016 and asks developers to comply with the new policy. If all these sound vaguely familiar, it’s because Lenovo’s controversial Superfish adware worked the same way. The PC-maker shipped out laptops with the pre-installed software , which not only injected sponsored links into users’ search results, but also installed man-in-the-middle certificates that would allow third parties to see users’ sensitive data, such as their bank details. After getting a lot of flak, Lenovo eventually agreed to stop preloading its computers with Superfish and provided a tool that can remove it completely from the units that already shipped out. This change by Microsoft effectively bans the root method that Superfish used to hijack Lenovo customer traffic. — SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) December 21, 2015 Breaking: Microsoft bans all adware use of proxies/Winsock/MitM to inject ads. Violators will be marked malware. https://t.co/kVYfKYJP15 — SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) December 21, 2015 This is a problem. #superfish pic.twitter.com/jKDfSo99ZR — Kenn White (@kennwhite) February 19, 2015 [Image credit: Nils Geylen/Flickr ] Source: Microsoft Technet

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Microsoft bans adware that use man-in-the-middle techniques

Lawsuit demands the right to resell Steam games

One of the biggest gripes about downloadable games ( unless you’re a developer ) is that you can’t typically resell them — that title is yours forever, even if you’ll never play it again. French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir is doing something about it, though. It’s suing Valve to demand resales for Steam games. Its policy violates the European Union’s right to resell legally purchased software, according to the group. As proof, it points to a 2012 Oracle case where a judge ruled that there was no difference between reselling disc-based copies and their downloaded equivalents. The outfit also blasts Valve’s self-given right to reuse user-made Steam content, and argues that it should refund any leftover credit if you close your Steam account. Whether or not Que Choisir wins the day is far from clear. A German group didn’t have any success trying a similar feat. And even if the French lawsuit leads to an EU-wide resale policy, you shouldn’t expect it to spread to the US. Downloads are typically considered licenses in the country, not sales, and wouldn’t be subject to the same scrutiny. Even so, this is a step forward for anyone hoping to thin down a massive Steam library… and make some spare cash in the process. Via: Ars Technica Source: UFC-Que Choisir (translated)

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Lawsuit demands the right to resell Steam games

Vivendi Takes Over Radionomy, Winamp Relaunch Now Possible

SmartAboutThings writes: Winamp could once again be brought back to life after Vivendi Group took over the majority stake in Radionomy, the previous owner of the app who purchased it from AOL in early 2014. AOL originally planned to discontinue both Winamp and Shoutcast, but instead the company decided to sell the software to Belgian online radio service, Radionomy. The new owners initially promised that they’ll keep Winamp alive, but no updates have been released since the takeover, which made most people think that Winamp era has ended for good. Vivendi Group, which owns or is involved in famous companies such as Dailymotion, Ubisoft, and Deezer, could help relaunch Winamp, although the press release announcing the acquisition offers no suggestion in this regard. The company, however, does mention Winamp and Shoutcast as two of the most important assets that will join its portfolio following the takeover. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Vivendi Takes Over Radionomy, Winamp Relaunch Now Possible

Tesla Model S Owners Now Get Free In-Car Spotify

Looking for some way to justify that $70, 000 Tesla Model S? Well, how about this: starting today, Model S owners in some countries will have free in-car access to Spotify Premium. At $10 saved per month, that’s only 583 years until you break even! Read more…

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Tesla Model S Owners Now Get Free In-Car Spotify

Toshiba to cut 6,800 jobs following accounting scandal

The fallout from Toshiba’s accounting scandal is hitting in force, and it’s not pretty. The Japanese company has announced that it will take a $4.5 billion loss and cut 6, 800 jobs, or about 30 percent of its total consumer electronics workforce. Although some of the losses can be chalked up to a tight market, Toshiba took a serious hit after admitting it lied about profits for nearly six years. As part of the restructuring, it will sell off its TV and washing machine factories to Hong Kong partner Skyworth. The company recently sold its image sensor business to Sony and stopped building TVs for the US market. Toshiba is still far from being out of the woods. To further streamline operations, the company wants to combine its PC operations with Fujitsu and Vaio, and may join forces with Sharp — which is also stumbling — in the appliance business. In addition, former executives may face criminal charges, and Toshiba hasn’t yet accounted for the cost of the 2011 tsunami on its nuclear business. In total, the company employees nearly 200, 000 workers. Via: BBC Source: Toshiba

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Toshiba to cut 6,800 jobs following accounting scandal

Juniper’s Backdoor Password Disclosed, Likely Added In Late 2013

itwbennett writes: In a blog post on Rapid7’s community portal Sunday, HD Moore posted some notes on the Juniper ScreenOS incident, notably that his team discovered the backdoor password that enables the Telnet and SSH bypass. Quoting: “Although most folks are more familiar with x86 than ARM, the ARM binaries are significantly easier to compare due to minimal changes in the compiler output. … Once the binary is loaded, it helps to identify and tag common functions. Searching for the text “strcmp” finds a static string that is referenced in the sub_ED7D94 function. Looking at the strings output, we can see some interesting string references, including auth_admin_ssh_special and auth_admin_internal. … The argument to the strcmp call is

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Juniper’s Backdoor Password Disclosed, Likely Added In Late 2013

The Force Awakens Has Obliterated Box Office Records In Its First Weekend

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was always destined for a huge box office debut. The question has been how much of a huge opening would it have? The answer came this weekend: A staggering $238 million in North America and $517 million globally. Read more…

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The Force Awakens Has Obliterated Box Office Records In Its First Weekend

Ken May

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