Tag: fnself-program5

Windows Server 2016 coming in September, with new servicing for Nano Server

It’s not quite an exact launch date, but Microsoft has announced that both Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 will launch at its Ignite conference (the successor to TechEd) this fall. Ignite runs from September 26-30 and is being held in Atlanta, Georgia. Microsoft has also described how Windows Server 2016 will be serviced going forward. Full installations of the operating system—including the GUI and shell—will continue to be serviced on the “5+5” model that Microsoft has used for previous operating systems. That’s five years of mainstream support, during which both bug fixes and feature improvements are made, and then five years of extended support, during which only security bugs will be fixed. The slimmed down Server Core installation will also be given this 5+5 servicing. The new Nano Server option, however, will be handled in a different way. Nano Server installations will be updated more or less in tandem with the Windows 10 Current Branch for Business (CBB) release. CBB trails the main consumer branch by about six months, giving new features a bit of time to receive some real-world testing before being distributed to more conservative organizations. CBB is expected to be updated two to three times a year, and this will apply to Nano Server deployments of Windows Server 2016 just as it does to CBB deployments of Windows 10. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows Server 2016 coming in September, with new servicing for Nano Server

Posing as ransomware, Windows malware just deletes victim’s files

Scammers, via Cisco Talos Ranscam’s “ransom note”: Pay us and then we’ll make everything better. 2 more images in gallery There has been a lot of ingenuity poured into creating crypto-ransomware, the money-making malware that has become the scourge of hospitals, businesses, and home users over the past year. But none of that ingenuity applies to Ranscam, a new ransom malware reported by Cisco’s Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group. Ranscam is a purely amateur attempt to cash in on the cryptoransomware trend that demands payment for “encrypted” files that were actually just plain deleted by a batch command. “Once it executes, it, it pops up a ransom message looking like any other ransomware,” Earl Carter, security research engineer at Cisco Talos, told Ars. “But then what happens is it forces a reboot, and it just deletes all the files. It doesn’t try to encrypt anything—it just deletes them all.” Talos discovered the file on the systems of a small number of customers. In every case, the malware presented exactly the same message, including the same Bitcoin wallet address. The victim is instructed: Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Posing as ransomware, Windows malware just deletes victim’s files

In time warping study, people unconsciously controlled blood sugar levels

(credit: Dennis van Zuijlekom ) Ideas can be powerful drugs. If a person is simply convinced that a pill or treatment is going to yield real results, it can—even if that pill or treatment is completely bogus. Those results can be pretty substantial, too. Mental maneuvering, or placebo effect, can improve pilots’ vision , help people lose weight , and even up their IQ by a few points . And, according to a new study, it may also be able to help patients manage a chronic illness. In an experiment in which researchers duped participants about how much time had passed, the researchers found that participants’ blood sugar levels tracked with perceived time rather than actual time. That is, blood sugar dropped faster when the participants thought more time had passed. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, support the idea that mindsets and psychological processes, like the abstract internal representation of time, can have profound influence over what our bodies do, the authors conclude. Moreover, it raises the idea of using the mind to help manage certain chronic conditions, particularly type 2 diabetes, which causes periodic and dangerous rises in blood sugar levels. “Official standards for care and treatment of diabetes make no explicit mention of the influence of subjective cognition on diabetic metabolism, but our results indicate otherwise,” the authors argue. They suggest that mindfulness, coping strategies, and trained cognitive styles may prove useful in controlling blood sugar levels in further studies. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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In time warping study, people unconsciously controlled blood sugar levels

Virulent auto-rooting malware takes control of 10 million Android devices

Security experts have documented a disturbing spike in a particularly virulent family of Android malware, with more than 10 million handsets infected and more than 286,000 of them in the US. Researchers from security firm Check Point Software said the malware installs more than 50,000 fraudulent apps each day, displays 20 million malicious advertisements, and generates more than $300 million per month in revenue. The success is largely the result of the malware’s ability to silently root a large percentage of the phones it infects by exploiting vulnerabilities that remain unfixed in older versions of Android. The Check Point researchers have dubbed the malware family “HummingBad,” but researchers from mobile security company Lookout say HummingBad is in fact Shedun, a family of auto-rooting malware that came to light last November  and had already infected a large number of devices. For the past five months, Check Point researchers have quietly observed the China-based advertising company behind HummingBad in several ways, including by infiltrating the command and control servers it uses. The researchers say the malware uses the unusually tight control it gains over infected devices to create windfall profits and steadily increase its numbers. HummingBad does this by silently installing promoted apps on infected phones, defrauding legitimate mobile advertisers, and creating fraudulent statistics inside the official Google Play Store. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Virulent auto-rooting malware takes control of 10 million Android devices

A ZFS developer’s analysis of the good and bad in Apple’s new APFS file system

Two hours or so of WWDC keynoting and Tim Cook didn’t mention a new file system once? (credit: Andrew Cunningham) This article was originally published on Adam Leventhal’s blog in multiple parts . Apple announced a new file system that will make its way into all of its OS variants ( macOS , tvOS , iOS , watchOS ) in the coming years. Media coverage to this point has been mostly breathless elongations of Apple’s developer documentation . With a dearth of detail I decided to attend the presentation and Q&A with the APFS team at WWDC. Dominic Giampaolo and Eric Tamura, two members of the APFS team, gave an overview to a packed room ; along with other members of the team, they patiently answered questions later in the day. With those data points and some first-hand usage I wanted to provide an overview and analysis both as a user of Apple-ecosystem products and as a long-time operating system and file system developer. The overview is divided into several sections. I’d encourage you to jump around to topics of interest or skip right to the conclusion (or to the tweet summary ). Highest praise goes to encryption; ire to data integrity. Read 48 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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A ZFS developer’s analysis of the good and bad in Apple’s new APFS file system

Instagram will start automatically translating image captions soon

(credit: Instagram) On the heels of announcing that it has reached 500 million active monthly users, Instagram says it will soon add a translation feature to its app. Through a post on the image-sharing app, the company announced that within a month, users will be able to translate image captions, comments, and profile bios using a new translate button. The Facebook-owned social media app will structure its translations similarly to its parent company. When you come across a post you want to translate into a language that isn’t your default language, you can hit the “See Translation” button to convert it into the language you’ve chosen in your profile’s language settings. Both Facebook and Twitter have translation features already, so this addition brings Instagram up to par with its competition in that respect. Considering that  80 percent of Instagram’s user base lives outside the United States, this feature will likely be welcomed by many. There’s no word on how many languages Instagram will support with the first rollout of this feature. The company does explain on its Help website that if a translation isn’t showing up, it might be because the app doesn’t currently support that language or couldn’t detect the initial language being used. It also warns users that translations may not be available for older posts. The full translation feature should be ready for most users by July. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Instagram will start automatically translating image captions soon

15 years later, new Ecco the Dolphin game leaks onto Dreamcast

The Dreamcast Ecco sequel you never expected is now available as a prototype download. (credit: Hidden Palace ) You probably thought that Sega’s official abandonment of the Dreamcast back in 2001 meant we wouldn’t see any new, Sega-produced Ecco the Dolphin games for that system. If so, you thought wrong. That’s because a newly unearthed prototype of the Dreamcast’s cancelled Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe has hit the Internet, more than 15 years after it was made. The prototype build, uploaded by the game preservationists at Hidden Palace , is dated February 19, 2001, less than a month after Sega announced it would stop supporting the Dreamcast and step away from the hardware business for good. It comes to the Internet via a large lot of Ecco Dreamcast assets acquired by Hidden Palace , and the site promises “more exciting (and long overdue) [ Ecco ] stuff in the weeks to follow.” In addition to the ripped GD-ROM version, which is fully playable on PC Dreamcast emulators, Hidden Palace also released a self-boot CDI image that can be burned to disc and played on actual Dreamcast hardware (and hopefully on a real CRT television, for that authentic 2001 console gaming experience). We can thank the Dreamcast’s extremely broken copy protection technology for that little wrinkle and for the widespread piracy that  helped doom and/or popularize the system back in its day. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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15 years later, new Ecco the Dolphin game leaks onto Dreamcast

Microsoft will use Steam to sell Windows games, not just its own store

Quantum Break : not available on Steam. While some of Microsoft’s older game titles, such as Age of Empires II HD (a 2013 update of a 1999 game) are found on Valve’s Steam platform, its latest high-profile titles, such as Forza 6 Apex and Quantum Break, are exclusive to the Windows Store. But this is going to change, with Microsoft planning to release more titles on the popular store. Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox team at Microsoft, was talking on Giant Bomb’s E3 stream , via GameSpot . When it comes to PC gaming, the Windows Store is very much an also-ran, with Steam the dominant force. As Spencer noted, “I don’t think Valve’s hurt by not having [Microsoft’s] first-party games in their store right now. They’re doing incredibly well.” Accordingly, Spencer said that Microsoft “will ship games on Steam again.” Meanwhile, Microsoft’s own experience had been more inconsistent. While some games have done well in the Windows Store, with Spencer naming both Forza 6 Apex and Killer Instinct as successful titles, he said that ” Quantum Break wasn’t our best PC release” and that Gears of War Ultimate Edition was merely “OK.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Microsoft will use Steam to sell Windows games, not just its own store

Apple announced iOS 10 for iPhones and iPads at WWDC today

(credit: Apple) Apple today announced iOS 10, a new major version of its operating system for iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. There is a redesigned control center with interactive notifications, and improvements to widgets (such as those that show calendar and weather information). 3D Touch can now do more: For example, you can press your screen to clear all notifications at once. Siri is getting improvements, with the ability to book rides on services like Uber and Lyft, the ability to start and pause workouts, and make payments to send money to friends with SquareCash and other services. Siri’s will be more intelligent in messaging. For example, if a friend asks for the contact information of another friend, Siri can automatically provide the contact. Siri can also pull up calendar availability in message threads, and let you do multilingual typing without switching the keyboard language. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple announced iOS 10 for iPhones and iPads at WWDC today

Xbox Play Anywhere: buy the game once, play on Xbox One and PC (multiplayer too)

(credit: Microsoft) When announcing  Gears of War 4 at its E3 event today, Microsoft unveiled a new gaming feature called Xbox Play Anywhere. Essentially, this initiative allows a gamer to purchase a title once but still have the option to play on console  and  PC. As perhaps the headlining feature of Xbox Play Anywhere, multiplayer across platform will become a reality. With  Gears of War 4 , for instance, the co-op modes will support this crossplay between Windows 10 and Xbox One users. Progress and achievements will be shared on Xbox Live across these platforms at no additional cost. In addition to Gears of War 4,  Microsoft announced that  Forza Horizons 3  will be another upcoming Xbox Play Anywhere title. Additionally, the game will allow for four player campaign co-op for the first time. And this version of the game will feature “the largest car roster ever seen in Horizon ,” according to Ralph Fulton from Playground Games. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Xbox Play Anywhere: buy the game once, play on Xbox One and PC (multiplayer too)