Tag: digest-golf

Sprint stops throttling heavy users to avoid net neutrality complaints

Sprint has stopped throttling its heaviest data users, even when its network is congested, to avoid potential violations of the Federal Communications Commission’s new net neutrality rules that ban throttling. Instead, Sprint will manage congestion with a policy aimed at giving all customers a solid connection to the network. “Sprint said it believes its policy would have been allowed under the rules, but dropped it just in case,”  The Wall Street Journal reported . “Sprint doesn’t expect users to notice any significant difference in their services now that we no longer engage in the process,” Sprint told the newspaper. Read 18 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Sprint stops throttling heavy users to avoid net neutrality complaints

Microsoft partners with Valve VR and Oculus, shows Minecraft for HoloLens

LOS ANGELES—At Microsoft’s pre-E3 press conference , the company announced a strategic partnership with Valve VR, complementing its partnership with Oculus, which was revealed last week at an Oculus press conference in San Francisco. In other VR news, Microsoft invited Mojang’s brand director, Lydia Winters, to the stage to demo a version of Minecraft built specifically for Microsoft’s HoloLens . Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Studios Kudo Tsunoda told the audience that Microsoft is “working closely with Valve to make Windows 10 the best platform for VR gaming.” Valve’s own SteamVR development kit is still in development, but Ars got a chance to play with it at Valve’s office in Seattle last week. Microsoft also reiterated that it would be partnering with Facebook-owned Oculus VR with the goal of getting the Xbox One controller to interoperate with the  consumer-ready version of the Oculus Rift , which will be launched in the first quarter of 2016. Users will be able to play VR games through the Oculus Rift using their Xbox One controller, and they’ll be able to stream games through Windows 10 to the headset. Oculus also announced last week that it would launch its own hand-held controllers called Oculus Touch to allow for more natural gestures and movements through virtual worlds, but Oculus Touch is still in prototype mode and won’t be available until after Oculus’ launch. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Microsoft partners with Valve VR and Oculus, shows Minecraft for HoloLens

Stuxnet spawn infected Kaspersky using stolen Foxconn digital certificates

Some of the malware that infected the corporate network of antivirus provider Kaspersky Lab concealed itself using digital certificates belonging to Foxconn, the electronics manufacturing giant and maker of the iPhone, Xbox, and other well-known products. Cryptographically generated credentials are required to install drivers on newer, 64-bit versions of Windows. Foxconn used one such certificate when installing several legitimate drivers on Dell laptop computers in 2013. Somehow, the attackers who infected the Kaspersky Lab network appropriated the digital seal and used it to sign their own malicious drivers. As Ars explained last week, the drivers were the sole part of the entire Duqu 2.0 malware platform that resided on local hard drives. These drivers were on Kaspersky firewalls, gateways, or other servers that had direct Internet access and were used to surreptitiously marshal sensitive information in and out of the Kaspersky network. Not the first time The Foxconn certificate is the third one used to sign malware that has been linked to the same advanced persistent threat (APT) attackers. The Stuxnet malware, which reportedly was developed by the US and Israel to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program, used a digital certificate from Realtek, a hardware manufacturer in the Asia Pacific region. A second driver from Jmicron, another hardware maker in the Asia Pacific, was used several years ago to sign Stuxnet-related malware developed by some of the same engineers. Like the previous two certificates, the one belonging to Foxconn had never been found signing any other malicious software. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Stuxnet spawn infected Kaspersky using stolen Foxconn digital certificates

Virgin America upgrades inflight entertainment system with Android, SSDs

Virgin America’s inflight entertainment system Red was already something of a technical marvel , at least compared to offerings from other airlines. Sporting 9-inch, 1024×600 pixel resolution touch screens, USB ports, power outlets, Ethernet sockets, and a custom Linux-based OS, Red gave the airline industry a serious kick when it launched in 2007. But the competition is heating up, and with Emirates and Singapore Airlines taking the top spots for inflight entertainment last year, Virgin America has decided that it’s time for a upgrade. Enter the latest version of Red, this time built on a new Android-based based platform, which the airline is planning to beta test on 18 aircraft by the end of the year. The Red beta makes use of Panasonic’s latest Eco V2 inflight system (the current version of Red also runs on Panasonic hardware), which pairs a 9-inch (or 11-inch) 720p capacitive touch screen with the company’s latest Android-based software. The screens will also sport integrated audio jacks, USB sockets, and a credit card reader, and decode HD video at 720p. Panasonic says it’s offering out software development kits to airlines, including a rack simulator, example code, developer tools, and a custom API. Virgin America claims that using Android will make the system easier to maintain and upgrade. With many developers already intimately familiar with Google’s OS, the airline should have an easier time adding new services to the platform. The first of those new services to hit the beta are new games, including retro classics like Atari’s Asteroids and Pac-Man , as well as an upgraded interactive map that finally recognises pinch and swipe gestures. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Virgin America upgrades inflight entertainment system with Android, SSDs

Airbus unveils Adeline, its clever answer to SpaceX’s reusable rockets

Airbus, the European aerospace giant, has unveiled Adeline: its answer to SpaceX’s reusable space launch ambitions. Adeline, which stands for Advanced Expendable Launcher with Innovative engine Economy, uses a rather novel solution to get the first stage engines back in one piece: it has wings and propellers that allow the engines to follow a ballistic trajectory, and then fly like an airplane back to a runway. All current space launch systems—SpaceX’s Falcon 9, Airbus’ Ariane 5, Russia’s Soyuz, etc.—are expendable. During every single rocket launch, the rocket engines and fuel tanks fall back to Earth, usually into the ocean, never to be used again. Rocket engines are not cheap: Orbital Sciences paid around $1 billion (£600 million) to Roscosmos for 20 RD-180 rocket engines. This is why companies like SpaceX, and now Airbus, are developing technologies that can bring the rocket engines back to the launchpad, so that they can be reused. SpaceX, which is currently leading the charge in this area, says that it wants to reuse rocket engines and fuel tanks within “single-digit hours” of their return. Depending on who you talk to, and the configuration of the rocket, current space launch prices are somewhere around $250-500 million; with reusable components, SpaceX wants to get that price down below $100 million . Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Airbus unveils Adeline, its clever answer to SpaceX’s reusable rockets

County sheriff warrantlessly used stingray 500+ times, claims to have no records

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD), the largest law enforcement agency in California’s capital region, has operated a stingray at least 500 times without a warrant in the last decade. But if you asked SCSD directly, even recently they wouldn’t give you a definite figure. As part of an ongoing investigation into stingray use nationwide, Ars filed a public records request with the SCSD  this year. And at the end of April, the SCSD responded. The department claimed that “no responsive documents exist,” essentially saying that there are no  records  detailing how many times its stingray has been used. That seemed a bit odd because in 2013,  local Sacramento television station News 10  obtained a Homeland Security grant application written by the SCSD. The proposal aimed to upgrade  the department’s stingray capabilities, and as part of its justification, the SCSD claimed to know how successful its device has been: Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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County sheriff warrantlessly used stingray 500+ times, claims to have no records

Comcast issuing $5 credits after Internet outage caused by DNS failure

Comcast customers on the West Coast will be able to get $5 credits due to a multihour Internet outage that happened Monday night. Though Internet service providers might offer refunds to customers who call and complain, they aren’t generally in the habit of proactively issuing refunds after outages. But Comcast, the country’s largest cable and broadband company, has been trying to improve its reputation for awful customer service . “We are directly reaching out to those who reported problems last night to offer our apologies and a credit for lost service,” Comcast Senior VP Mark Muehl wrote in a blog post yesterday. The credit will be $5,  USA Today  reported . Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Comcast issuing $5 credits after Internet outage caused by DNS failure

Could remnants of the earliest life be preserved in volcanic glass?

You might consider volcanic activity an efficient way of destroying living tissues, but volcanic glasses are often used to study early life. Certain microbial corrosion textures in volcanic glass and in Cenozoic seafloor basalts have been interpreted as evidence of a deep biosphere, dating back to the earliest periods of life on Earth. Similarly, textures found in volcanic glass from the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa and the Pilbara Craton in Australia also suggest the presence of a deep oceanic biosphere on Earth as early as 3.35 billion years ago. But a group of researchers had challenged the idea that these traces resulted from biological activity. Now, in a strong response, another group has defended the interpretation. We seem to have a genuine scientific controversy on our hands. Is this life? Volcanic glass from Cenozoic seafloor volcanics sometimes contain what are called “biotextures.” These typically take on two major forms, either microscopic spherical cavities or tubules that extend into the volcanic glass. Biogenicity, substances produced by life processes, is the most widely accepted explanation for these features. These textures can provide us with valuable information about the types of microorganisms that existed long ago, and shed light on biological processes and how those processes may have evolved over time. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Could remnants of the earliest life be preserved in volcanic glass?

Nvidia announces G-Sync for laptops, reveals low-level tech details

The big news from Nvidia might be the release of the GTX 980 Ti , but the company has also announced some updates for G-Sync. The variable refresh rate technology, which synchronizes the refresh rate of a compatible monitor to the frame rate of a game, is finally making the jump from desktop to laptop. Upcoming laptops from Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, and Clevo are all set to support the technology, and will feature 75Hz panels from 1080p all the way up to UHD (4K). Desktop users aren’t being forgotten either: There are some new monitors—including a lust-worthy 34-inch 21:9 75Hz IPS Acer X34 panel—featuring an updated G-Sync module that finally contains more than just a single DisplayPort input. Interestingly, G-Sync for laptops makes use of the embedded DisplayPort (eDP) standard, a standardised interface for hooking up display panels directly to internal graphics cards. On the desktop, G-Sync can only be used with compatible monitors that contain Nvidia’s G-Sync module. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Nvidia announces G-Sync for laptops, reveals low-level tech details

Comcast 2Gbps fiber to launch “in a bunch of markets this month”

Comcast’s plan to launch a 2Gbps fiber-to-the-home service by the end of May didn’t come to fruition, but the company says the rollout is being delayed only briefly and will go live in numerous cities this month. Comcast originally said that its “Gigabit Pro” service would be available during May in the Atlanta metro area, Nashville, Greater Chicago, and four cities in Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Jacksonville). Rollouts in June were to follow in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Northwest Indiana; and several parts of California (Chico, Fresno, Marysville/Yuba City, Merced, Modesto, Monterey, Sacramento, Salinas, San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Barbara County, Stockton and Visalia metro areas.) Customers in Atlanta and West Palm Beach who wanted to order Gigabit Pro complained about the lack of availability on the company’s support forums . A Comcast employee originally said the service “will be available in your area [Atlanta] come early May” but amended that to May 28 and finally told customers, “The launch of this has been temporarily delayed. No tentative date has been announced yet.” Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Comcast 2Gbps fiber to launch “in a bunch of markets this month”