List of Major Linux Desktop Problems Updated For 2016

An anonymous reader writes: Phoronix reports that Artem S. Tashkinov’s Major Linux Problems on the Desktop has been updated for 2016. It is a comprehensive list of various papercut issues and other inconveniences of Linux on the PC desktop. Among the issues cited for Linux not being ready for the desktop include graphics driver issues, audio problems, hardware compatibility problems, X11 troubles, a few issues with Wayland, and font problems. At the project management side, there is also cited a lack of cooperation among open source developers and fragmentation of desktops. Let’s discuss. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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List of Major Linux Desktop Problems Updated For 2016

Google Glass For Work Is Sleeker, Tougher and Foldable

An anonymous reader writes: FCC filings published today are offering a glimpse of the “Enterprise Edition” of Google Glass. According to Engadget: “…The work-focused eyepiece touts a much slicker (and likely more durable) design with both a larger display prism and a hinge that lets you fold it up for travel. The test photos also reveal a spot for a magnetic battery attachment and what looks to be a speedier Atom processor. There’s still no word on when Google will announce this headset, although the FCC presence hints that it might not take long.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google Glass For Work Is Sleeker, Tougher and Foldable

Giant Squid Filmed At Japanese Marina

overThruster writes: The Wall Street Journal reports: “The rare sight of a giant squid swimming inside a marina was captured on video on the coast of the Sea of Japan. According to a manager at the Mizuhashi Fisherina in Toyama prefecture, about 250 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, one fisherman found a 3.7-meter (12.1-foot) giant squid swimming beneath fishing boats docked at the marina on the morning of Dec. 24.” The extraordinary close up video taken by divers shows the giant squid’s natural coloration as well as the action of its siphon propelling it through the water. Additional footage here. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Giant Squid Filmed At Japanese Marina

HAMR Hard Disk Drives Postponed To 2018

An anonymous reader writes: Unfortunately the hard disk drive industry is not ready to go live with Heat-assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR). The technology is yet not reliable enough for mass production. Over the years, producers of hard drives, platters and recording heads have revealed various possible timeframes for commercial availability of drives with HAMR technology. Their predictions were not accurate. The current goalpost is set to year 2018. While solid state disks based on Flash memory keep seeing rapid improvements as well, HDDs still kick butt in scenarios where high areal density is more important than ripping transfer speeds. The areal density of HAMR products is predicted to exceed 1.5 Tb per square inch. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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HAMR Hard Disk Drives Postponed To 2018

North Korea’s Operating System Analyzed

Bruce66423 points out an analysis at The Guardian of North Korea’s Red Star Linux-based OS, based on a presentation Sunday to the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin : The features of their Fedora based OS include a watermarking system to enable tracking of files — even if unopened. The operating system is not just the pale copy of western ones that many have assumed, said Florian Grunow and Niklaus Schiess of the German IT security company ERNW, who downloaded the software from a website outside North Korea and explored the code in detail. … This latest version, written around 2013, is based on a version of Linux called Fedora and has eschewed the previous version’s Windows XP feel for Apple’s OS X – perhaps a nod to the country’s leader Kim Jong-un who, like his father, has been photographed near Macs. The OS, unsurprisingly, allowed only tightly fettered access to web sites, using a whitelist approach that gives access to government-controlled or approved sites. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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North Korea’s Operating System Analyzed

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

Analyzing the US Air Force’s New "Portable Hobby Drone Disruptors" Solicitation

Lauren Weinstein writes: The U.S. Air Force has just issued a solicitation for a radio-based ‘Portable Anti Drone Defense’ system — essentially a remote drone disruption device that can be easily used by someone familiar with — well — shooting guns. The Air Force wants three units to start with. Delivery required 30 days after awarding of the contract. It does indeed make for interesting reading, and I thought it might be instructive to dig into the technical details a bit … Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Analyzing the US Air Force’s New "Portable Hobby Drone Disruptors" Solicitation

Vivendi Takes Over Radionomy, Winamp Relaunch Now Possible

SmartAboutThings writes: Winamp could once again be brought back to life after Vivendi Group took over the majority stake in Radionomy, the previous owner of the app who purchased it from AOL in early 2014. AOL originally planned to discontinue both Winamp and Shoutcast, but instead the company decided to sell the software to Belgian online radio service, Radionomy. The new owners initially promised that they’ll keep Winamp alive, but no updates have been released since the takeover, which made most people think that Winamp era has ended for good. Vivendi Group, which owns or is involved in famous companies such as Dailymotion, Ubisoft, and Deezer, could help relaunch Winamp, although the press release announcing the acquisition offers no suggestion in this regard. The company, however, does mention Winamp and Shoutcast as two of the most important assets that will join its portfolio following the takeover. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Vivendi Takes Over Radionomy, Winamp Relaunch Now Possible

Juniper’s Backdoor Password Disclosed, Likely Added In Late 2013

itwbennett writes: In a blog post on Rapid7’s community portal Sunday, HD Moore posted some notes on the Juniper ScreenOS incident, notably that his team discovered the backdoor password that enables the Telnet and SSH bypass. Quoting: “Although most folks are more familiar with x86 than ARM, the ARM binaries are significantly easier to compare due to minimal changes in the compiler output. … Once the binary is loaded, it helps to identify and tag common functions. Searching for the text “strcmp” finds a static string that is referenced in the sub_ED7D94 function. Looking at the strings output, we can see some interesting string references, including auth_admin_ssh_special and auth_admin_internal. … The argument to the strcmp call is

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Juniper’s Backdoor Password Disclosed, Likely Added In Late 2013

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