newsletters – Page 19 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Netflix is paying Verizon for network connection to speed up video

Netflix today confirmed that it reached an interconnection agreement with Verizon, similar to the one it recently struck with Comcast. “We have reached an interconnect arrangement with Verizon that we hope will improve performance for our joint customers over the coming months,” Netflix spokesperson Joris Evers told Ars. “It is a paid interconnect agreement.”Word of the deal first leaked on Twitter when analyst Walter Piecyk wrote , “Verizon CEO [Lowell McAdam] confirms they have signed direct connection deal with Netflix like Comcast’s.” When contacted by Ars, Piecyk said that “McAdam confirmed a deal with Netflix in answer to our question at a group investor meeting [today]. No further details were provided on the financial terms.” Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Netflix is paying Verizon for network connection to speed up video

Bank robbers use KVM switch and 3G router to steal money

The networked KVM switch and 3G router used to rob a Barclays Bank branch remotely. Metropolitan Police, London Nine members of a London-based gang have been convicted and three others are scheduled for sentencing in June for a series of electronic bank robberies. Using social engineering to install a remote-controlled keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) switch on bank PCs, the gang managed to transfer millions to outside accounts in two separate jobs in April and July of 2013. They were caught attempting to rob a third bank in September. Dean Outram, 32, entered all three banks claiming to be from a tech support contractor and saying he was there to repair computers. At each bank branch robbed, Outram installed a KVM switch and a 3G wireless router . From a “control center” in central London, others then used the KVM switches to gain access to the PCs of bank employees, remotely logging keystrokes and monitoring screen activity to get the information necessary to transfer funds from customers’ accounts to accounts controlled by the group. In the first attempt, the group managed to make 128 fund transfers totaling £1.3 million (about $2 million) in one day from a branch of Barclays Bank. The bank detected the fraud the same day and recovered about £600,000 ($1 million) of the funds before the gang drained the accounts. In its second attempt at another Barclays branch, the group was able to make off with £90,000 (about $150,000). Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Bank robbers use KVM switch and 3G router to steal money

Review: Gigabyte’s AMD Brix gives Intel’s mini PC a run for its money

Gigabyte’s AMD Brix (top) is, if anything, even smaller than Intel’s latest NUC (bottom). Andrew Cunningham When AMD sent us the Brix Gaming for review, it wasn’t alone in its box. We were also sent another, smaller Brix with an AMD processor, and it’s the antithesis of its big loud cousin. It’s basically the AMD take on the NUC : a small, quiet, unobtrusive little box that still tries to deliver the features and performance of a full-size entry-level desktop. We originally planned to review both in one shot, but there was so much to say about the Brix Gaming that the GB-BXA8-5545 (say that three times fast) got edged out. Rather than bury it, we’ve decided to give it its own evaluation. It’s the only AMD-powered desktop in the same size category as the NUC that doesn’t use a wimpy netbook-class processor. And as much as Intel’s integrated GPUs have improved in recent years, the name “AMD” still means something when it comes to graphics performance. Surprise, it’s a tiny cube! Like most other mini PCs, the Brix is a tiny box with a small external power supply. Andrew Cunningham Specs at a glance: Gigabyte Brix GB-BXA8-5545 OS Windows 8.1 x64 CPU 1.7GHz AMD A8-5545M, Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz available with proper BIOS settings RAM 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 (supports up to 16GB) GPU AMD Radeon 8510G (integrated) HDD 128GB Crucial M500 mSATA SSD Networking 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet Ports 4x USB 3.0, 1x mini DisplayPort 1.2, 1x HDMI 1.4a, audio Size 4.24” x 4.5” x 1.18” (107.6 x 114.4 29.9 mm) Other perks Kensington lock, VESA mounting bracket Warranty 1 year Price $249.99 (barebones), $494.97 with listed components and software The other Brix boxes we’ve reviewed have been larger and more powerful machines, but the smaller Intel and AMD-based Brixes are a lot more like the original Intel NUC. This one’s a short, square little device that’s actually a little shorter than the NUC. It’s an understated all-black system with matte metal sides and a glossy plastic top, and while it has an external power brick it doesn’t add much to the total size of the package. With the adapters, it’s roughly the size you’d get with standard PC laptops and Ultrabooks, since the Brix uses low-voltage mobile parts rather than full-fledged desktop chips. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Review: Gigabyte’s AMD Brix gives Intel’s mini PC a run for its money

Lucasfilm makes it official: New Star Wars films ignore Expanded Universe

Fan favorite Mara Jade is now consigned to the Star Wars Legends non-canonical label. Derek Herring / Sony A post on Starwars.com officially confirms what fans have been hearing for the past three months: the complex and detailed future history of the Star Wars universe that has been slowly accreting since the 1990s will be completely ignored by the new trilogy of films. Per the post, ” Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post- Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe.” The confirmation is being met with a mixed reaction from fans over on Star Wars uber-site TheForce.net . “Thank you for wasting 20 years of my life,” said one poster . “I honestly may be done with Star Wars at this point.” “The simple truth is that canon is whatever the license holder says it is. Fans need to wrap their heads around that,” responded another . Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Lucasfilm makes it official: New Star Wars films ignore Expanded Universe

Next-gen Thunderbolt doubles speeds but changes the connector

The leaked slide that purports to out the next-generation Thunderbolt controller. VR-Zone Thunderbolt 2 just started showing up in devices late last year, but a new slide leaked by VR-Zone is giving us our first glimpse at what the next version is going to look like. Dubbed “Alpine Ridge,” the new Thunderbolt controllers will double Thunderbolt 2’s bandwidth from 20Gbps to 40Gbps, will reportedly support PCI Express 3.0, and will reduce power usage by 50 percent compared to current controllers. The downside is that the new version will require the use of a new connector—it supports charging for devices that use up to 100W of power and it’s 3 mm shorter than current connectors, but adapters will be required to maintain compatibility with older Thunderbolt accessories. Doubling the available bandwidth will enable next-generation Thunderbolt controllers to drive two 4K displays simultaneously, where current controllers can only drive one. The new controllers will allegedly be compatible with a variety of other protocols as well, including DisplayPort 1.2, USB 3.0, and HDMI 2.0. Intel will offer two different versions of the controller—a version that uses four PCI Express lanes to drive two Thunderbolt ports and an “LP” (presumably “Low Power”) version that uses two PCI Express lanes to drive one port. This is consistent with the current controllers. High-end devices like the Mac Pro and Retina MacBook Pro use two-port controllers, while lower-end, lower-power devices like the Mac Mini and MacBook Air use the one-port version. Thunderbolt 2 gave the specification a performance boost but didn’t change all that much about the protocol. It combined the original Thunderbolt’s two 10Gbps channels to allow for higher maximum speeds, but it didn’t increase the total amount of bandwidth available or introduce any new protocols. The upside is that it maintained full compatibility with all of the original Thunderbolt cables and accessories, something that this next-generation Thunderbolt controller won’t be able to do without adapters (though to be fair, USB 3.1 and the new Type-C USB connector have the same problem). Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Next-gen Thunderbolt doubles speeds but changes the connector

75-year-old human cloned for the production of stem cells

sharyn morrow Several years ago, as the therapeutic potential of stem cells was first being recognized, the only way to create them was to harvest cells from an early embryo. That embryo could come from the large collection of those that weren’t used during in vitro fertilization work. But to get one that was genetically matched to the person who needed the therapy, researchers had to create an embryo that’s a genetic duplicate of that individual—meaning they had to clone them. With the development of induced stem cells, work on this approach largely fell by the wayside—induced cells were easier to create and came without the ethical baggage. But there are some lingering doubts that the induced cells are truly as flexible as the ones derived from an embryo, leading a number of labs to continue exploring cloning for therapeutic purposes. Now, a collaboration of US and Korean researchers have succeeded in creating early embryos from two adult humans and converted the embryos to embryonic stem cells. The method used is called somatic cell nuclear transplant. It involves taking an unfertilized egg and removing its nucleus, thereby deleting the DNA of the egg donor. At the same time, a nucleus from the cell of a donor is carefully removed and injected into the egg. After some time, during which the environment of the egg resets the developmental status of the donor’s DNA, cell division is activated. If the process is successful, the end result is a small cluster of cells that starts along the path of forming an embryo. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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75-year-old human cloned for the production of stem cells

Lavabit held in contempt of court for printing crypto key in tiny font

Image by Rene Walter A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a contempt of court ruling against Ladar Levison and his now-defunct encrypted e-mail service provider, Lavabit LLC, for hindering the government’s investigation into the National Security Agency leaks surrounding Edward Snowden. In the summer of 2013, Lavabit was ordered to provide real-time e-mail monitoring of one particular user of the service, believed to be Snowden, the former NSA contractor turned whistleblower. Instead of adequately complying with the order to turn over the private SSL keys that protected his company’s tens of thousands of users from the government’s prying eyes, Levison chose instead to shut down Lavabit last year after weeks of stonewalling the government. However, Levison reluctantly turned over his encryption keys to the government, although not in a manner that the government deemed useful, and instead provided a lengthy printout with tiny type, a move the authorities said was objectionable. “The company had treated the court orders like contract negotiations rather than a legal requirement,” US Attorney Andrew Peterson, who represented the government, told PC World . Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Fingerprint lock in Samsung Galaxy 5 easily defeated by whitehat hackers

SRLabs The heavily marketed fingerprint sensor in Samsung’s new Galaxy 5 smartphone has been defeated by whitehat hackers who were able to gain unfettered access to a PayPal account linked to the handset. The hack, by researchers at Germany’s Security Research Labs , is the latest to show the drawbacks of using fingerprints, iris scans, and other physical characteristics to authenticate an owner’s identity to a computing device. While advocates promote biometrics as a safer and easier alternative to passwords, that information is leaked every time a person shops, rides a bus, or eats at a restaurant, giving attackers plenty of opportunity to steal and reuse it. This new exploit comes seven months after a separate team of whitehat hackers bypassed Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner less than 48 hours after it first became available. “We expected we’d be able to spoof the S5’s Finger Scanner, but I hoped it would at least be a challenge,” Ben Schlabs, a researcher at SRLabs, wrote in an e-mail to Ars. “The S5 Finger Scanner feature offers nothing new except—because of the way it is implemented in this Android device—slightly higher risk than that already posed by previous devices.” Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Fingerprint lock in Samsung Galaxy 5 easily defeated by whitehat hackers

After Netflix pays Comcast, speeds improve 65%

Netflix’s decision to pay Comcast for a direct connection to the Comcast network has resulted in significantly better video streaming performance for customers of the nation’s largest broadband provider. Netflix has bemoaned the payment, asking the government to prevent Comcast from demanding such interconnection ” tolls .”But there’s little doubt the interconnection has benefited consumers in the short term. Average Netflix performance for Comcast subscribers rose from 1.51Mbps to 1.68Mbps from January to February, though the interconnection didn’t begin until late February. In data released today, Netflix said average performance on Comcast has now risen further to 2.5Mbps , a 65 percent increase since January. Comcast’s increased speed allowed it to pass Time Warner Cable, Verizon, CenturyLink, AT&T U-verse, and others in Netflix’s rankings. Comcast remains slower than Cablevision, Cox, Suddenlink, Charter, and Google Fiber. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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After Netflix pays Comcast, speeds improve 65%

FBI to have 52 million photos in its NGI face recognition database by next year

The EFF Jennifer Lynch is a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and works on open government, transparency and privacy issues, including drones, automatic license plate readers and facial recognition. New documents released by the FBI show that the Bureau is well on its way toward its goal of a fully operational face recognition database by this summer. The EFF received these records in response to our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for information on Next Generation Identification (NGI) —the FBI’s massive biometric database that may hold records on as much as one-third of the US population. The facial recognition component of this database poses real threats to privacy for all Americans. Read 21 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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FBI to have 52 million photos in its NGI face recognition database by next year