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Probe Of Leaked US NSA Hacking Tools Examines Operative’s Mistake

Joseph Menn and John Walcott, reporting for Reuters: A U.S. investigation into a leak of hacking tools used by the National Security Agency is focusing on a theory that one of its operatives carelessly left them available on a remote computer and Russian hackers found them, four people with direct knowledge of the probe told Reuters. The tools, which enable hackers to exploit software flaws in computer and communications systems from vendors such as Cisco Systems and Fortinet Inc, were dumped onto public websites last month by a group calling itself Shadow Brokers. The public release of the tools coincided with U.S. officials saying they had concluded that Russia or its proxies were responsible for hacking political party organizations in the run-up to the Nov. 8 presidential election. On Thursday, lawmakers accused Russia of being responsible. Various explanations have been floated by officials in Washington as to how the tools were stolen. Some feared it was the work of a leaker similar to former agency contractor Edward Snowden, while others suspected the Russians might have hacked into NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Probe Of Leaked US NSA Hacking Tools Examines Operative’s Mistake

Nazi Time Capsule Opened In Poland, But It’s Missing a Movie From 1934

Researchers in Poland have uncovered a time capsule, dating from 1934. But this isn’t some ordinary time capsule with the run of the mill items you might expect. Sure, it has newspapers, coins, and books—common items for any time capsule. But these items were buried by Nazis. The books inside? Two copies of Hitler’s Mein Kampf , in perfect condition . Read more…

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Nazi Time Capsule Opened In Poland, But It’s Missing a Movie From 1934

Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented—and worth taking seriously

Enlarge / Jeff Bezos, founder and Chief Executive of Amazon.com, in May, (credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images) We can say this much for Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com and Blue Origin—he does not lack ambition. First Bezos founded an online bookstore that became the largest retailer in the western world, and now he plans to self-fund a New Glenn rocket that is nearly as tall as the Saturn V launch vehicle and more than half as powerful. As wild as Bezos’ idea sounds, Blue Origin might be able to get the job done. And if Bezos and Blue Origin can fly their massive orbital rocket in the next three to four years, it would be a remarkable, unprecedented achievement in a number of ways that could radically remake spaceflight. Proof of concept First, a few words about why this might really be viable. It is true that all Blue Origin has flown so far is a propulsion module, powered by a single BE-3 engine, and a capsule on a suborbital flight. The company’s New Shepard spacecraft is designed to carry six passengers on 10- to 15-minute hops up to about 100km before bringing them back down to Earth. This is not dissimilar to the first Mercury flights in the early 1960s, hence the moniker New Shepard, named after pioneering astronaut Alan Shepard. Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented—and worth taking seriously

Univision Executives Vote to Delete Six Gawker Media Posts

In a vote carried out on Friday night, Univision executives voted to remove six posts published by former Gawker Media properties that are involved in ongoing litigation. The vote took place just hours before the close of Univision’s purchase of Gawker Media’s assets, and was carried out under a provision in Gawker’s existing collective bargaining agreement. That provision states that “once a story has been posted it can only be removed by a majority vote of the Executive Editor, the CEO, and the General Counsel, unless required by law.” Read more…

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Univision Executives Vote to Delete Six Gawker Media Posts

Torrenting Showdown: Transmission vs qBitorrent vs µTorrent 

There are more BitTorrent clients than we could possibly compare, but some of the most popular—and best—have been under the spotlight lately for sleazy ads and bad behavior. It’s time to check in on a few of our favorites to see how they fare, which deserves your downloads, and which you can trust. Read more…

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Torrenting Showdown: Transmission vs qBitorrent vs µTorrent 

Why You Definitely Need to Calibrate Your TV

When you drop hundreds on an HDTV, you expect it to work out of the box. Yet somehow, in 2016, we still have to tweak color settings, adjust brightness, and make other changes to get the best picture. How is it possible that with all the technical leaps televisions have made over the years, TVs still require calibration? Read more…

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Why You Definitely Need to Calibrate Your TV

The Thinnest Laptop in the World Needs a Touchscreen Keyboard

At IFA in Berlin Lenovo announced a nice array of refreshed laptops and tablets, updating great devices like the Lenovo Yoga 900 series (now the Lenovo 910) with 7th generation Intel processors, but one device stood out among the rest. It’s the tiniest laptop Lenovo has on display, so tiny the company is classifying it as a tablet. The Lenovo Book is just 0.38-inches thick, which makes it the thinnest laptop currently available, and makes ultra slims like the half-inch thick Samsung Notebook 9 and Apple Macbook look positively chunky. Read more…

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The Thinnest Laptop in the World Needs a Touchscreen Keyboard