Tag: lucky-modern

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

Cable lobby says Google Fiber doesn’t need Title II to get pole access

The top cable lobby group says Google is blowing smoke when it comes to Title II and pole attachment rights. Google told the Federal Communications Commission that reclassifying broadband providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act would help Google and other companies gain access to infrastructure controlled by utilities. Section 224 of Title II covers pole attachments, and Google urged the FCC to enforce this section if it does move broadband under Title II. But that isn’t even necessary, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA)  argued in a filing today , saying that “Google already can avail itself of pole attachment rights under Section 224, notwithstanding its assertions to the contrary. Google’s letter states that Google Fiber ‘lacks federal access rights pursuant to Section 224’ because it offers an ‘Internet Protocol video service that is not traditional cable TV.’ But as NCTA has explained on numerous occasions… the law is clear that facilities-based providers of Internet Protocol television (‘IPTV’) services do qualify as cable operators under the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (‘the Act’). The Act defines ‘cable operator’ as one who ‘provides cable service over a cable system,’ without any reference to the technology (IP-based, QAM-based, or otherwise) used to provide such service.” Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Cable lobby says Google Fiber doesn’t need Title II to get pole access

The 100 billion frames per second camera that can image light itself

High-speed cameras produce some of the most fascinating imagery in the world. They reveal hidden details and turn the everyday into the extraordinary. But these cameras, which generally top out at around 100,000 frames per second, have nothing on a camera reported last month in Nature . This beast can manage a massive 100 billion frames per second . If you want a high frame rate, you generally use stroboscopic imaging. In normal filming, the illumination is always on, and the camera shutter is operated as fast as possible. However, as the frame rate increases, the shutter time reduces and less light falls on the sensor. The result is a noisy image. In the embedded video, you can see the difference between normal filming and stroboscopic imaging. Stroboscopic imaging builds up an image by pulsing the light source while the camera shutter remains open. Using it, you can capture single images from an event that repeats periodically. The temporal resolution is now given by the duration and timing of the light pulse. Light pulses can be less than a femtosecond (10 -15 s) in duration, while timing can be controlled with femtosecond precision. This allows stop-motion photography with frame rates of trillions per second. Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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The 100 billion frames per second camera that can image light itself

Bitcoin investor who renounced US citizenship now can’t get back in

A well-known entrepreneur, often dubbed “Bitcoin Jesus”—who famously renounced his American citizenship last year—was denied a visa on Tuesday to re-enter the United States to attend an upcoming Bitcoin conference in Miami. According to Roger Ver’s tweets, it was his third attempt to re-enter in eight days. Ver, who on occasion wears a T-shirt that reads “borders are imaginary lines,” lambasted consular officials at the US Embassy in Barbados, where he made his application. @iamsunbird , The @USEmbassyBbdos staff specifically told me it was because I didn’t prove I have strong enough ties outside of the USA. — Roger Ver (@rogerkver) January 7, 2015 @tom_sharkey the most recent rejection was this morning. It was my third attempt in 8 days. They claim I secretly intend to live in the USA — Roger Ver (@rogerkver) January 6, 2015 In or out? Ver has been a citizen of the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis since February 2014. For the last 30 years, St. Kitts has offered citizenship through its “Citizenship by Investment” program. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Bitcoin investor who renounced US citizenship now can’t get back in

Only 25Mbps and up will qualify as broadband under new FCC definition

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler today is proposing to raise the definition of broadband from 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream to 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up. As part of the Annual Broadband Progress Report mandated by Congress , the Federal Communications Commission has to determine whether broadband “is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” The FCC’s latest report, circulated by Wheeler in draft form to fellow commissioners, “finds that broadband is not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion, especially in rural areas, on Tribal lands, and in US Territories,” according to a fact sheet the FCC provided to Ars. The FCC also gets to define what speeds qualify as broadband, or “advanced telecommunications capability,” as it’s called in policy documents. The FCC last updated that definition in 2010 , raising it from 200Kbps to the current 4/1 standard. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 said that advanced telecommunications capability must “enable users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video telecommunications using any technology.” Wheeler’s proposed annual report says the 4/1 definition adopted in 2010 “is inadequate for evaluating whether broadband capable of supporting today’s high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video is being deployed to all Americans in a timely way.” (Despite the annual requirement, this would be the first such report since 2012 .) Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Only 25Mbps and up will qualify as broadband under new FCC definition

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

Comcast just upped its cable modem rental fee from $8 to $10 per month

Comcast users in various parts of the country have already gotten (or may soon get) a lovely holiday present from their ISP—a seemingly inexplicable increase in the cable modem rental fee, from $8 to $10 per month. Eric Studley, of Boston, who posts on reddit as Slayer0606, first pointed out the increase on Tuesday. After reading Studley’s post, Ars encouraged readers who rent Comcast modems to check their bills and found that the increases seem to have taken place as far back as October 2014, while others took effect as of December 20, 2014 and January 1, 2015. The company did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. Read 18 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Comcast just upped its cable modem rental fee from $8 to $10 per month

HP sells Palm trademarks; brand could be resurrected with new smartphones

Palm, the legendary smartphone and PDA company, might seem dead and gone, but it’s now looking like the name “Palm” will rise again as a zombie brand. For a quick refresher:  HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion in 2010. HP killed the Palm brand after about a year of ownership and stopped making WebOS devices entirely about a year-and-a-half after the acquisition. Since then, Palm has been pretty dead. Lately, though, the brand has started to stir. The diehards over at WebOS Nation have been keeping a close eye on  Palm.com , which recently stopped redirecting nostalgic visitors to hpwebos.com  and started sending people to mynewpalm.com . The page shows a looping video of a Palm logo along with the text “Coming Soon” and “Smart Move.” No one was sure who was behind the site resuscitation until this document was found, which shows the transfer of the Palm trademark from Palm, Inc (still a subsidiary of HP) to a company called Wide Progress Global Limited. Wide Progress Global Limited doesn’t seem to be a company with any kind of real purpose—it’s just a shell meant to hide the true buyer. The person signing the paperwork for Wide Progress Global Limited is Nicolas Zibell, who also  just happens to hold the title “President Americas and Pacific” at Alcatel One Touch. Couple that with the fact that the “Smart Move”—the text that appears on the new Palm site—is Alcatel One Touch’s slogan, and it’s pretty clear that Alcatel One Touch bought the Palm brand. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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HP sells Palm trademarks; brand could be resurrected with new smartphones

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