Tag: entertainment

APT Speed For Incremental Updates Gets a Massive Performance Boost

jones_supa writes: Developer Julian Andres Klode has this week made some improvements to significantly increase the speed of incremental updates with Debian GNU/Linux’s APT update system. His optimizations have yielded the apt-get program to suddenly yield 10x performance when compared to the old code. These improvements also make APT with PDiff now faster than the default, non-incremental behavior. Beyond the improvements that landed this week, Julian is still exploring other areas for improving APT update performance. More details via his blog post. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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APT Speed For Incremental Updates Gets a Massive Performance Boost

Microsoft bans adware that use man-in-the-middle techniques

Starting next year, Microsoft will be a lot stricter when it comes to adware. In a post on the Technet blog , Redmond has announced that it will block advertising programs “that take choice and control away from users.” The company’s talking about adware that use “man-in-the-middle” (MiTM) techniques, in particular. Those include injecting ads and promotions by proxy, as well as changing DNS settings, without your express consent . They aren’t safe, because they could be used to introduce malware into your system, or even to spy on encrypted data and communication. In order to keep those types of adware off your computer, Microsoft has made it a policy that programs that show ads on the browser can only install, disable or execute programs through the browser itself. That means any ad software that doesn’t notify you via your browser that it wants to download or install something will be blocked off and marked as malware. The company says it will enforce the new rule on May 31st, 2016 and asks developers to comply with the new policy. If all these sound vaguely familiar, it’s because Lenovo’s controversial Superfish adware worked the same way. The PC-maker shipped out laptops with the pre-installed software , which not only injected sponsored links into users’ search results, but also installed man-in-the-middle certificates that would allow third parties to see users’ sensitive data, such as their bank details. After getting a lot of flak, Lenovo eventually agreed to stop preloading its computers with Superfish and provided a tool that can remove it completely from the units that already shipped out. This change by Microsoft effectively bans the root method that Superfish used to hijack Lenovo customer traffic. — SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) December 21, 2015 Breaking: Microsoft bans all adware use of proxies/Winsock/MitM to inject ads. Violators will be marked malware. https://t.co/kVYfKYJP15 — SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) December 21, 2015 This is a problem. #superfish pic.twitter.com/jKDfSo99ZR — Kenn White (@kennwhite) February 19, 2015 [Image credit: Nils Geylen/Flickr ] Source: Microsoft Technet

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Microsoft bans adware that use man-in-the-middle techniques

Toshiba to cut 6,800 jobs following accounting scandal

The fallout from Toshiba’s accounting scandal is hitting in force, and it’s not pretty. The Japanese company has announced that it will take a $4.5 billion loss and cut 6, 800 jobs, or about 30 percent of its total consumer electronics workforce. Although some of the losses can be chalked up to a tight market, Toshiba took a serious hit after admitting it lied about profits for nearly six years. As part of the restructuring, it will sell off its TV and washing machine factories to Hong Kong partner Skyworth. The company recently sold its image sensor business to Sony and stopped building TVs for the US market. Toshiba is still far from being out of the woods. To further streamline operations, the company wants to combine its PC operations with Fujitsu and Vaio, and may join forces with Sharp — which is also stumbling — in the appliance business. In addition, former executives may face criminal charges, and Toshiba hasn’t yet accounted for the cost of the 2011 tsunami on its nuclear business. In total, the company employees nearly 200, 000 workers. Via: BBC Source: Toshiba

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Toshiba to cut 6,800 jobs following accounting scandal

Court says ridesharing for flights is illegal

If you had hopes that the FAA’s ban on ridesharing flights would be reversed… well, you’re in for a disappointment. A Washington, DC court has ruled that pilots need commercial licenses for these services to work. You’re a carrier in that case, not just splitting expenses like the plaintiff (Flytenow) claimed — and that means you need the “experience and credentials” to ferry passengers. If you want to fly cross-country without resorting to big airlines, you’ll have to either charter a private flight or hope that a pilot friend will take you. [Image credit: Gordon Chibroski/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images] Source: Bloomberg

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Court says ridesharing for flights is illegal

Israeli Firm Creates a Device That Can Hack Any Nearby Phone

An anonymous reader writes: Israeli startup Rayzone created a device that can hack any smartphone that has its WiFi connection open. The device can steal passwords, files, contact lists, photos, and various others. Called InterApp, the device is dumb-proof (comes with a shiny admin panel), works on hundreds of devices at the same time, and leaves no forensics traces behind after the hack. The company says it will only sell it to law enforcement agency. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Israeli Firm Creates a Device That Can Hack Any Nearby Phone

Femto Fairy Lights – Touchable Holograms

mikejuk writes with this story about a Japanese team working on creating touchable holograms. I Programmer reports: “One method of creating a volumetric, i.e. true 3D, display, is to use a high power laser and focus it on a small spot in space. The air in that spot will be heated to the point where it ionizes and glows with a bright blue light. Scan the laser really fast and you can make a full 3D arrangement of glowing points of light — not exactly a hologram but as good as. Of course, the big problem is that you have a lot of energy being focused on small areas and human interaction could be a problem. You might well get burned by the laser if you attempted to touch or interact with the display. The solution is to use a really fast laser, a femtosecond laser, that heats a small spot to a high temperature but only for a very short time. This is much safer because the total energy involved is smaller. This is the reason you can touch sparks without getting burned.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Femto Fairy Lights – Touchable Holograms

Wine 1.8 Released

An anonymous reader writes: Wine 1.8.0 is now the latest stable release of Wine Is Not An Emulator and available from WineHQ.org. Wine 1.8 features include support for DirectWrite, Direct2D support, very limited Direct3D 11 support, simple application support of DIrect3D 10, support for process jobs, 64-bit architecture support on OS X, networking updates, and over 13, 000 other individual changes. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Wine 1.8 Released

Sony Creating Sulfur-Based Batteries With 40% More Capacity Than Li-Ion

MojoKid writes: Since the original iPhone was released in 2007, we have seen some incredible advances in smartphone processing power along with a wealth of feature improvements like faster Wi-Fi and cellular speeds and larger, higher resolution displays. However, battery technology, for the most part, hasn’t kept up. There are a few major battery suppliers but Sony is currently an underdog, commanding just 8 percent of the market for compact lithium-ion batteries. Its three largest competitors — Samsung (SDI), Panasonic and LG Chem — each command around 20 percent of the market. In an effort to change that, Sony is developing a new type of battery chemistry that can boost runtimes by 40 percent compared to lithium-ion batteries of the same volume. Sony’s batteries use a sulfur compound instead of lithium compounds for the positive electrodes, reportedly allowing for much great energy density. Sulfur batteries can also supposedly be made 30 percent smaller than traditional lithium-ion cells while maintaining the same run times. The company is now working to ensure that the new battery chemistry is safe enough for commercial use. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Sony Creating Sulfur-Based Batteries With 40% More Capacity Than Li-Ion

LifeLock Agrees To Pay $100 Million Fine In Settlement With FTC

New submitter dasgoober writes: Lifelock has agreed to pay $100 million to settle charges that it failed to properly protect user data, the F.T.C. announced on Thursday. This is the second settlement between the company and federal authorities. In 2010, the F.T.C. charged the company with failing to provide strong security measures for personal data. “This settlement demonstrates the Commission’s commitment to enforcing the orders it has in place against companies, including orders requiring reasonable security for consumer data, ” F.T.C .Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in a statement. “The fact that consumers paid Lifelock for help in protecting their sensitive personal information makes the charges in this case particularly troubling.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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LifeLock Agrees To Pay $100 Million Fine In Settlement With FTC

Pandora has to pay higher royalties starting in 2016

Pandora and similar services like iHeartRadio and SiriusXM will have to give a bigger part of their earnings to music labels starting January 1st next year. The Copyright Royalty Board has ruled that online radio stations have to pay labels 17 cents per 100 song plays by non-subscribers and 22 cents per 100 plays by subscribers. Pandora’s rate used to begin at 14 cents per 100 plays, and even then it was never profitable — in fact, it had to pay over $400 million in royalties in 2014, which was already 44 percent of its revenue. Pandora’s chief executive Brian McAndrews seems to be OK with the price increase, though. In a statement, he said : “This is a balanced rate that we can work with and grow from. This decision provides much-needed certainty for both Pandora and the music industry.” The ones who sound unhappy with the decision are the music labels, which wanted a much, much higher royalty hike. Record label representative SoundExchange was pushing for a heftier 25 cents per 100 song plays, causing Pandora investors to panic. The company’s stocks plummeted before the Royalty Board’s decision came out, and then it rose by 22 percent during after-hours trading. SoundExchange’s spokesperson told The New York Times : “It’s only fair that artists and record labels receive a market price when their music is used. We believe the rates set by the C.R.B. do not reflect a market price for music and will erode the value of music in our economy.” The group says it will review the decision and consider its options, which means it’ll likely continue to demand a higher royalty rate. Hopefully, that doesn’t translate to more expensive monthly fees for Pandora One in the future. [Image credit: Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Pandora Media] Source: The LA Times , TechCrunch , Copyright Royalty Board , The Washington Post

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Pandora has to pay higher royalties starting in 2016