If you’ve been pining for the Start button since Windows 8 arrived on the scene, perhaps some good news: sources who’ve spoken to the Verge claim that it will reappear in Windows 8.1. More »
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The Start Button Is Coming Back to Windows
When Google announced it was rolling out a fiber network in Provo, Utah, it wasn’t clear how or why it had chosen the city. Turns out, Google has managed to secure a deal to buy its entire municipal fiber network—which cost $39 million to build—for just a single dollar. More »
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Google’s Buying Provo’s Entire Fiber Network, Worth $39m, For $1
The Amerithrax case of 2001, in which letters harboring Anthrax spores were delivered to media outlets and a pair of US Senators’ offices, killed five people and sickened another 17. In the wake of these attacks, the US Postal Service (USPS) installed a system of electronic noses in mail processing facilities around the country designed to sniff out the deadly bacteria before someone else does. More »
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How the Post Office Sniffs Out Anthrax Before It Hits Your Mailbox
Though we’ve seen plenty of our beautiful blue marble from space before, here’s what Earth looks like from a hundred million miles away. That’s roughly the same distance from the Earth to the Sun. More »
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What Earth Looks Like from a 100 Million Miles Away
ATM skimming isn’t limited to ATMs! There are lots of terminals that ask you to swipe your card and/or enter a PIN, and many of them are less well-armored and -policed than actual cashpoints. Skimmers have been found on train-ticket machines, parking meters and other payment terminals. Once a crook has got your card number and sign-on data, they can use that to raid a your account at an ATM. Brian Krebs has a look at some of these devices, including a full-on fascia for a cheapie ATM discovered in latinamerica. The organization also is tracking a skimming trend reported by three countries (mainly in Latin America) in which thieves are fabricating fake ATM fascias and placing them over genuine ATMs, like the one pictured below. After entering their PIN, cardholders see an ‘out-of-order’ message. EAST said the fake fascias include working screens so that this type of message can be displayed. The card details are compromised by a skimming device hidden inside the fake fascia, and the PINs are captured via the built-in keypad, which overlays the real keypad underneath. This reminds me a little of the evolution of payphones — the armadillos of the device world! — and the look-alike COCOTS (customer-owned coin-operated telephones) that presented very soft targets if you could scry through their camouflage. Cash Claws, Fake Fascias & Tampered Tickets
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ATM skimming comes to non-ATM payment terminals in train stations, etc
Cary Walkin , an accountant in Toronto, knows a thing or two about Excel. So great is his expertise that he was able to create a full-fledged RPG inside of its scripting environment, called Arena.Xlsm. I couldn’t get it to run in LibreOffice, but it sounds like it’s very featurful and fun, provided that you’re willing to use Microsoft products: * Random enemies: Over 2000 possible enemies with different AI abilities. * Random items: 39 item modifiers result in over 1000 possible item combinations and attributes. * An interesting story with 4 different endings depending on how the player has played the game. * 8 boss encounters, each with their own tactics. * 4 pre-programmed arenas followed by procedurally generated arenas. Each play-through has its own challenges. * 31 Spells. There are many different strategies for success. * 15 Unique items. Unique items have special properties and can only drop from specific enemies. * 36 Achievements. * This is all in a Microsoft Excel workbook. Arena.Xlsm Released! ( via Digg )
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RPG inside an Excel workbook
The new BlackBerry ecosystem has failed the UK government’s high security testing. James Bond isn’t getting a Z10 any time soon. More »
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BB10 Fails the UK Government’s High Security Testing
The Verge is reporting that Amazon is in talks with record labels to create a new subscription music service. More »
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Is Amazon in Talks to Create a Subscription Music Service?
Google has just announced that it’ll be killing off Google Reader in its latest ‘spring cleaning’, which is a euphemism for getting rid of products that not enough people use (even if they still love using it). So yes, that means many people’s favorite RSS reader will be turned off for good on July 1, 2013. You have a little over three months to figure out where to get your feed fix next. More »
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Google Is Killing Google Reader
Buildings made of ice. We’re not talking about that novelty bar you visited on a trip to Vegas. We’re talking incredible, impressive, complete structures built in the grand tradition of Ice Palaces all over the world. More »