Tag: entertainment

Linux 4.3 Reached End of Life; Users Need To Move To Linux 4.4

prisoninmate writes: As some of you may know, Linux 4.3 was not an LTS (Long Term Support) release, so the last maintenance build is now Linux kernel 4.3.6, as announced earlier by Greg Kroah-Hartman, a renowned kernel developer and maintainer. While he’s telling users of the Linux 4.3 series to update to the 4.3.6 point release, he also urges them, especially OS vendors, to move to the most advanced stable series, in this case, Linux kernel 4.4 LTS, which just received its second point release the other day. However, it appears that Linux kernel 4.3.6 is quite an update, as it changes a total of 197 files, with 2310 insertions and 963 deletions, bringing some much-needed improvements. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Linux 4.3 Reached End of Life; Users Need To Move To Linux 4.4

Comodo Antivirus Tech Support Feature Lets Anyone Connect To Your PC

An anonymous reader writes: Google Project Zero security researcher Tavis Ormandy has discovered that one of Comodo’s tech support tools packed with many of the company’s security products leaves the door open for attackers to connect with admin privileges on the user’s PC. He discovered that to blame for this problem was a remote desktop tool called GeekBuddy, which Comodo was bundling with its security software. This tool either used no password, or used a simple system to create the password which tech support staff would use to connect to user PCs. Ormandy previously discovered a similar issue in Comodo software, related to the company’s Chromodo browser. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Comodo Antivirus Tech Support Feature Lets Anyone Connect To Your PC

Wearable Third Arm Gives Drummers Extra Robotic Rhythm

Zothecula writes: Thumping out as many drum beats in 60 seconds may get you a podium spot at the annual World’s Fastest Drummer competition, but we’ll take the full kit virtuoso playing of Cozy Powell, Philthy Animal Taylor or Mitch Mitchell any day of the week. When trying to emulate the fastest or the greatest on your bedroom bin-bashers, though, you’d be forgiven for wishing you had a third arm. Georgia Tech Professor Gil Weinberg and his research team may have the answer to your prayers. They’ve developed a drumstick-wielding wearable robotic limb that’s able to respond to both the music being played and the movements of the player. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Wearable Third Arm Gives Drummers Extra Robotic Rhythm

IRS Warns Of 400% Flood In Phishing and Malware This Tax Year Alone

coondoggie writes: There has been a 400% surge in phishing and malware incidents in this tax season alone, the Internal Revenue Service warned this week. According to the IRS, there have been thousands of phony emails aimed at fooling taxpayers into thinking these are official communications from the IRS or others in the tax industry, including from many tax software companies. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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IRS Warns Of 400% Flood In Phishing and Malware This Tax Year Alone

Intel and Micron Partnership Soon To Launch 10TB SSD For Enterprise Market

MojoKid writes: Intel and Micron have been tag-teaming various storage and memory technologies and word on the web is that the fruits of that partnership is a 10-terebyte SSD that’s right around the corner. The largest SSD in Intel’s stable at the moment is 4TB, which itself is pretty large. However, both Micron and Intel are of the opinion that typical planar NAND flash memory has gone about as far as it can go, and that 3D stacked Flash memory is the future. They’ve also developed a “floating gate cell” design – a first for 3D stacked memory – resulting in 256Gb multi-level cell (MLC) and 384Gb triple-level cell (TLC) die that fit inside of a standard package. The two companies are targeting gumstick-sized SSDs reaching 3.5TB and regular 2.5-inch SSDs hitting (and even surpassing) 10TB. Apparently that’s about to become a reality. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Intel and Micron Partnership Soon To Launch 10TB SSD For Enterprise Market

Backdoor In MVPower DVR Firmware Sends CCTV Stills To an Email Address In China

An anonymous reader writes: An IoT security research company has discovered that a DVR model manufactured by MVPower includes a backdoor-like feature in its code that takes a screenshot of your CCTV feed and sends it to an email address hosted somewhere in China. The device’s firmware is based on an open source project from GitHub that was pulled by its developer when someone confronted him about the backdoor. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Backdoor In MVPower DVR Firmware Sends CCTV Stills To an Email Address In China

Daytona 500 will be broadcast in VR

Fancy seeing the Daytona 500 from the perspective of the pit crew? Now you can, thanks to a new five-year deal signed between Fox Sports and NextVR . The pair are planning to broadcast a series of major sporting events in VR , with the deal kicking off at this year’s edition of the great American race. If you own a GearVR headset and a compatible phone, you’ll be able to watch the race from the stands, starting line, middle of the infield and the aforementioned pit lane. In addition, the VR stream will have dedicated audio commentary and pop-up graphics telling you who’s in pole position. It’s not the first time that the two companies have teamed up to share a sporting event, having previously shown a professional boxing event in the format. This deal, however, makes a big step forward for NextVR, which is quickly cementing itself as the premier VR streaming service for all of the events you want to see. After all, it was this firm that brought users the first NBA games in VR as well as the republican and democratic presidential debates . As before, the Daytona 500 will be free-to-view and will kick off at 1pm ET on Sunday, February 21st. Now, it’s not clear yet if NextVR is going to produce 360-degree footage for the event, or if it’ll stick to 180-degree video. When it broadcast the Warriors/Pelicans game at the start of the season, it didn’t bother to film the action from the stands behind you. We’ve contacted the company to find out what the situation is this time, and will let you know when they’ve told us.

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Daytona 500 will be broadcast in VR

OpenGL’s successor is ready to improve gaming graphics

Games on devices of all kinds could soon be running better because Vulkan , the successor to OpenGL, has finally been released officially. The new standard gives developers low-level access to discrete and on-chip graphics, helping them avoid the layers of hardware overhead that normally slow things down. Khronos, the open-source group behind the standard, says it also reduces CPU overhead and improves multi-threaded performance. Delayed for several months, the version 1.0 driver is based on AMD’s proprietary Mantle standard. Similar technology is used in the Xbox One and PS4 consoles to help them make the most of their relatively modest specs. On the PC side, Vulkan will support Linux and Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. So far, official drivers are available for Intel graphics and NVIDIA products. AMD has beta drivers but still hasn’t released a final conforming version, ironically. The low-level hardware support in Vulkan makes it similar to DirectX 12 , which Microsoft released in 2014. DirectX 12 will still be popular with Windows 10 game developers, but Vulkan has the advantage of working with older Windows systems. As the successor to OpenGL, it could also attract developers like Adobe, which uses OpenGL for Photoshop and other apps. For apps that don’t need maximum performance, Khronos will still support and update OpenGL. On mobile, today Qualcomm is announcing that its flagship Snapdragon 820 processor will be the first to play nice with Vulkan. More specifically, the Adreno 530 GPU inside will support both the graphics framework and compute, which means that applications that require additional processing power can tap into the GPU. The company is also pledging to add drivers for other Adrenos in the 4xx and 5xx range, and we imagine more chip-makers — not least Intel and Nvidia — will offer support soon. Apple was initially a part of the Khronos working group, but stepped away from it to develop its Metal API (it’s still a member of the Khronos consortium). Both Macs and mobile iOS devices use Metal, which offers developers a mix of low- and high-level graphics access. That said, Imagination, which designs the PowerVR cores inside the iPhone and iPad, is part of the Khronos group, so support for the standard could come at some point. The Vulkan standard is also important to Valve, who wants it to bring big performance improvements to the modest hardware in its Steam Machines . However, so far there are no Vulkan games that use Valve’s Source 2 engine, nor are there any on Unity or Unreal Engine. For now, the only Vulkan-based game to officially launch is The Talos Principal (pictured above) which should be available soon on Steam. Source: Khronos

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OpenGL’s successor is ready to improve gaming graphics

Mattel Unveils $300 3D Printer

Lucas123 writes: Perhaps in an attempt to get out ahead of the consumer 3D printing market, which has allowed popular toys such as Legos to be replicated, Mattel today announced it would begin shipping its $300 fused filament fabricator machine in October. Mattel’s ThingMaker at-home toy-making device, reinvents the company’s iconic 1960s toy by the same name. The new ThingMaker allows users to upload design files via Mattel’s proprietary Design App, which works on Android or iOS devices. The 3D printer can then print single-part toys or print hundreds of different parts to be assembled into toys using ball-and-socket joints. Mattel’s ThingMaker Design App is based on Autodesk’s Spark, an open 3D printing platform that provides extensible APIs for each stage of the 3D printing workflow. Because it’s based on an open architecture, the ThingMaker Design App also works with other 3D printers; it is available now and free to download for iOS and Android devices. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mattel Unveils $300 3D Printer

Pollen-Based Electrodes Could Boost Battery Storage

An anonymous reader writes: Bee pollen could hold the answer to next generation battery research, according to a new study led by scientists at Purdue University, Indiana. The team has been exploring how the unique microstructures found in allergen pollen grains could be used to provide a more energy efficient type of energy storage. The research explained that by turning pollen into a carbon anode with a more efficient microstructure than graphite, the team was able to create a battery which could store more energy than conventional graphite models. The scientists took the pollen from honeybees and common wetland plant cattails, and discovered that cattail pollen had more energy-storing capacity, compared to the bee pollen. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Pollen-Based Electrodes Could Boost Battery Storage