Tag: digest

Why DNS in OS X 10.10 is broken, and what you can do to fix it

Recently, there has been a lot of  discussion about the current state of Apple’s software quality. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with development knows that bugs are par for the course, and most people aren’t bothered by small, day-to-day bugs that are fixed within a reasonable timeframe. Obviously, like everyone else, Apple’s software has its share of those. But there’s another category of bug—glaring, perplexing bugs that couldn’t possibly have escaped the attention of the software engineers in question, let alone the quality assurance department. Such issues exist, and sometimes they go unfixed for months. Or years. Or ever. Hopefully, the set of network issues with OS X 10.10 described below won’t fall into this column, but they do raise an obvious question: why? For 12 years, the mDNSResponder service managed a surprisingly large part of our Mac’s networking, and it managed this task well. But as of OS X 10.10, the mDNSResponder has been replaced with discoveryd, which does the same thing. Mostly. Here are some strange networking problems we’ve observed since installing 10.10: Read 18 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Why DNS in OS X 10.10 is broken, and what you can do to fix it

Former US cybersecurity official gets 25 years for child porn charges

On Monday, a federal judge in Nebraska sentenced the former acting director of cybersecurity for the US Department of Health and Human Services to 25 years in prison on child porn charges. Timothy DeFoggi, who was convicted back in August 2014, is the sixth person to be convicted in relations to a Nebraska-based child porn Tor-enable website known as PedoBook. That site’s administrator, Aaron McGrath, was sentenced to 20 years last year by the same judge. McGrath famously did not have an administrator password, a mistake that federal investigators were easily able to make use of. DeFoggi’s attorneys did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment, but he was almost certainly unmasked via an FBI-created malware exploit designed to expose him and other PedoBook users. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Former US cybersecurity official gets 25 years for child porn charges

North Korean defector to airdrop DVD, USB copies of The Interview

A well-known North Korean defector has announced that he will launch 100,000 DVDs and USB sticks with copies of The Interview as part of his regularly scheduled balloon launches into the Hermit Kingdom. Sony Pictures pulled the theatrical release of the film in the wake of hacks against its corporate networks . In an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, Park Sang-hak said that his next launch is planned for late January and will be in partnership with the Human Rights Foundation, which did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. “North Korea’s absolute leadership will crumble if the idolization of leader Kim breaks down,” Park told the AP, which noted that the dispatched versions will have Korean subtitles. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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North Korean defector to airdrop DVD, USB copies of The Interview

Pope to push for action on climate change

Over the weekend, The Guardian reported that Pope Francis will issue an encyclical urging Catholics to push for action on climate change. The push will coincide with the efforts to follow up on the Lima agreement in the hope that they will lead to binding agreements for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Although the Vatican has not confirmed that the document is in the works, the article quotes several authorities by name, and they speak as if it is a done deal. The document would be in keeping with the Pope’s messages on environmental stewardship; the article quotes Francis as telling an audience in Latin America, “Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness.” It’s also consistent with his general high regard for scientific findings. The Pope will join a variety of voices pushing for action next year and will undoubtedly add to the political pressure for an agreement. A more relevant question may be whether Francis can sway anyone who wasn’t already interested in seeing progress made on the climate. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Pope to push for action on climate change

California DMV will miss its deadline for driverless car regulations

This week, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced that it will miss a state Senate deadline to establish public regulations for self-driving cars by January 1, 2015. The Los Angeles Times reports safety concerns are the main motivation behind the delay. Possible regulations will now be discussed at a public workshop in Sacramento in late January, and the DMV will gather feedback from industry, academic, and consumer groups in the meantime.  The   LA Times  notes  ” there are currently no federal safety standards or independent organizations that test the safety of these vehicles.” So according to  USA Today , that leaves the state’s DMV essentially with three courses of action: follow the current US system (manufacturers self-certifying vehicles), opt for a European system (independent companies provide verification), or get into the Herculean task of providing its own testing. Despite the lack of standards for the public, 2014 was a banner year for the advancement of driverless cars. In May, Google publicly revealed the prototype for its in-house built self-driving car , which initially did not include traditional components like a steering wheel, accelerator, brakes, mirrors, or soundsystem. The cars were capped at 25mph and did not allow humans to take over piloting. (Google revealed the first genuine build of its prototype last Monday in a blog post.) Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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California DMV will miss its deadline for driverless car regulations

North Korea suffers another Internet outage, hurls racial slur at Pres. Obama

With its latest response in the country’s on-going flap with the US, Agence France-Presse reports North Korea called President Barack Obama a “monkey” today. The racial slur comes after a recent double blow to North Korea: the country suffered yet another Internet outage Saturday and  Sony officially released The Interview , its fictional Kim Jong-Un assassination film, on Thursday. North Korea has fingered Washington for the outages and insists President Obama encouraged US theaters to re-embrace  The Interview.  “Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest,” a spokesman for North Korea’s National Defence Commission said in a statement published by the country’s official KCNA news agency. “If the US persists in American-style arrogant, high-handed, and gangster-like arbitrary practices despite repeated warnings, the US should bear in mind that its failed political affairs will face inescapable deadly blows.” An apparent DDoS attack knocked North Korea off the ‘net earlier this week, and it experienced another mass outage Saturday evening. This one even affected North Korea’s telecommunication networks, according to Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency (via AFP ). Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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North Korea suffers another Internet outage, hurls racial slur at Pres. Obama

Watching lava fight with snow in Kamchatka

Depending on the context, volcanic eruptions are either terrifying or transfixing—sometimes both, but rarely neither. The opportunity to safely view the otherworldly spectacle of lava rarely fails to ignite a child-like, giddy wonder. The damage currently being done by a lava flows in the Cape Verde Islands , on the other hand, is heart-breaking. We study these things because they are both lovely and terrible. We want to see a lava flow spill across a snowfield out of curiosity, and we want to better understand the hazards surrounding snow-capped volcanoes out of caution. Benjamin Edwards of Dickinson College and Alexander Belousov and Marina Belousova of Russia’s Institute of Volcanology and Seismology got the opportunity to witness one of these events last year in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. For nine months, Tolbachik spewed basaltic lava flows that ultimately covered 40 square kilometers, reaching as far as 17 kilometers from their source. The lava flows came in two flavors , known to geologists by Hawaiian names. (While frozen Kamchatka doesn’t exactly evoke coconuts and grass skirts, these lavas are similar to those of the Hawaiian volcanoes.) First there’s ‘a’a (pronounced as a staccato “AH-ah”), which ends up a chunky, blocky crumble of basalt. The other is pahoehoe (roughly “puh-HOY-hoy”, which is how volcanologists answer the phone), which flows more like thick batter and can solidify into a surface resembling a pile of ropes. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Watching lava fight with snow in Kamchatka

NASA just e-mailed a wrench to space

When International Space Station  Commander Barry Wilmore needed a wrench,  NASA  knew just what to do. They “e-mailed” him one. This is the first time an object has been designed on Earth and then transmitted to space for manufacture. Made In Space, the California company that designed the 3D printer aboard the ISS, overheard Wilmore mentioning the need for a ratcheting socket wrench and decided to create one.  Previously, if an astronaut needed a specific tool it would have to be flown up on the next mission to the ISS , which could take months. This isn’t the first 3D-printed object made in space , but it is the first created to meet the needs of an astronaut. In November astronauts aboard the ISS printed a replacement part for the recently installed 3D printer. A total of 21 objects have now been printed in space, all of which will be brought back to Earth for testing. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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NASA just e-mailed a wrench to space

T-Mobile gives up fight over cramming fees, will pay $90M back to customers

T-Mobile US has given up its fight against a lawsuit filed by the US government, agreeing  today to refund $90 million or more to customers who were charged premium text message fees without their consent. The Federal Trade Commission alleged that T-Mobile made hundreds of millions of dollars off the practice of passing along third-party charges to customers without their authorization and taking a commission on each charge. T-Mobile could end up paying much more than $90 million. “The settlement requires that they provide full refunds to consumers, with a total of ‘at least’ $90 million,” an FTC spokesperson explained. “The $90 million is a floor. If they receive refund requests of more than that, they have to provide them.” In addition to everything it pays back customers, T-Mobile will pay $18 million in fines and penalties to state attorneys general and $4.5 million to the Federal Communications Commission. If T-Mobile receives less than $90 million worth of refund requests, the extra fines can be counted toward the minimum payment of $90 million. If the payment is still under $90 million, “the balance must be remitted to the FTC for additional consumer redress, consumer education, or other uses,” the FTC said. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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T-Mobile gives up fight over cramming fees, will pay $90M back to customers

FBI claims North Korean involvement in Sony Pictures attack

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington press office has issued an update on the investigation into the cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, including the conclusion that North Korea was behind it. “As a result of our investigation, and in close collaboration with other US government departments and agencies, the FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions,” the office said in a statement. However, the information cited by the FBI’s update may not be as conclusive as many would like. Other hints at the attribution were provided to news organizations off-the-record, but the FBI’s public statements are far from definitive. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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FBI claims North Korean involvement in Sony Pictures attack