Tag: open source

Encrypted Email Is Still a Pain in 2017

Bristol-based software developer James Stanley, who used to work at Netcraft, shares how encrypted emails, something which was first introduced over 25 years ago, is still difficult to setup and use for even reasonably tech savvy people. He says he recently tried to install Enigmail, a Thunderbird add-on, but not only things like GPG, PGP, OpenPGP were — for no reason — confusing, Enigmail continues to suffer from a bug that takes forever in generating keys. From his blog post: Encrypted email is nothing new (PGP was initially released in 1991 — 26 years ago!), but it still has a huge barrier to entry for anyone who isn’t already familiar with how to use it. I think my experience would have been better if Enigmail had generated keys out-of-the-box, or if (a.) gpg agreed with Enigmail on nomenclature (is it a secring or a private key?) and (b.) output the paths of the files it had generated. My experience would have been a lot worse had I not been able to call on the help of somebody who already knows how to use it. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Encrypted Email Is Still a Pain in 2017

Microsoft Teases Windows 10’s Upcoming ‘Project Neon’ Design Language

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Windows Central: Microsoft just gave developers a sneak peek at Project Neon, Microsoft’s upcoming design language for Windows 10 that aims to add fluidity, animation and blur to apps and the operating system. We exclusively revealed that this was in the works in late 2016, and today Microsoft has given us a first peak at what Project Neon will look like. During the Windows Developer Day livestream, an image of Project Neon was seen the background of one of the PowerPoint slides being shown off on stage. Although not much, it’s further confirmation that this is the end goal for Windows 10’s UI, and Project Neon will be bringing a fresh coat of paint to apps. Project Neon should benefit all types of Windows 10 devices, including Windows 10 Mobile, HoloLens and even Xbox. We’re still several months away from Project Neon being everywhere in Windows 10, and we’re expecting to see more at BUILD this coming May. In fact, a lot of the Project Neon APIs are available in the latest Insider Preview builds of Windows 10, meaning developers can already begin taking advantage of these new user interfaces and design language! Animations and transitions are a big deal with Project Neon, with the goal of making the operating system and apps feel like they work together. Peter Bright does a good job summarizing the looks of the screenshot via Ars Technica: “The picture shows a refreshed version of the Groove music app on a Windows desktop. The fundamentals of the app and its layout aren’t changed, underscoring that Neon is very much an iteration of the current Metro/Microsoft Design Language (MDL). The window has shed its discrete title bar and one pixel border, with the application content now extending to the very edge of the window. The search text field no longer has a box around it, and the left hand pane has a hint of translucency to it.” You can view the screenshot here and judge it for yourself. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Teases Windows 10’s Upcoming ‘Project Neon’ Design Language

Intel To Invest $7 Billion in Factory in Arizona, Employ 3,000 People

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich met with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, where the company announced it will invest $7 billion in a factory employing up to 3, 000 people. From a report: The factory will be in Chandler, Arizona, the company said, and over 10, 000 people in the Arizona area will support the factory. Krzanich confirmed to CNBC that the investment over the next three to four years would be to complete a previous plant, Fab 42, that was started and then left vacant. The 7-nanometer chips will be produced there will be “the most powerful computer chips on the planet, ” Krzanich said in the Oval Office with the Trump administration. Most Intel manufacturing happens in the U.S., Krzanich said. “America has a unique combination of talent, a vibrant business environment and access to global markets, which has enabled U.S. companies like Intel to foster economic growth and innovation, ” Krzanich said in a statement. “Our factories support jobs — high-wage, high-tech manufacturing jobs that are the economic engines of the states where they are located.”Farhad Manjoo, columnist at The New York Times, tweeted; “As far as I can tell the decision had nothing to do with Trump, but they decided to announce with Trump. Why? There was no federal subsidy or any other credit. So it’s just a marketing decision to give Trump credit.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Intel To Invest $7 Billion in Factory in Arizona, Employ 3,000 People

French Politician Uses Hologram To Hold Meetings In Two Cities At the Same Time

neutrino38 writes: The French presidential election is approaching fast. One of the candidates, Jean-Luc Melanchon, used a hologram to hold two public meetings at once. With a political program that is mostly socialist and very left leaning, some people pointed out that he used private innovation to stand out from the crowd. Reuters notes that this is “not the first politician to employ such technology, ” adding that “in 2014, then-Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan used a huge hologram of himself to attract wider support, while India’s Narendra Modi trounced the opposition with a campaign that included holograms of his speeches in villages across the country.” You can watch part of one of Melanchon’s virtual meetings here. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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French Politician Uses Hologram To Hold Meetings In Two Cities At the Same Time

Kaspersky Lab Promises New Backup Tool To Help Unhappy Social Media Users Quit

Kaspersky Lab surveyed 16, 750 people and concluded that often negative experiences on social experience overpower their positive effects — and they’re doing something about it. JustAnotherOldGuy pointed us to their latest announcement. 59% have felt unhappy when they have seen friends’ posts from a party they were not invited to, and 45% revealed that their friends’ happy holiday pictures have had a negative influence on them. Furthermore, 37% also admitted that looking at past happy posts of their own can leave them with the feeling that their own past was better than their present life. Previous research has also demonstrated peoples’ frustration with social media as 78% admitted that they have considered leaving social networks altogether. The only thing that makes people stay on social media is the fear of losing their digital memories, such as photos, and contacts with their friends. To help people decide more freely if they want to stay in social media or leave without losing their digital memories, Kaspersky Lab is developing a new app — FFForget will allow people to back up all of their memories from the social networks they use and keep them in a safe, encrypted memory container and will give people the freedom to leave any network whenever they want, without losing what belongs to them — their digital lives. The FFForget app will be released in 2017, but there’s already a web page where you can sign up for early access. Kaspersky plans to monetize this by creating both a free version of the app — limited to one social network — and a $1.99-per-month version which automatically backs up social content from Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Instagram in real-time with a fancier interface and more powerful encryption. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Kaspersky Lab Promises New Backup Tool To Help Unhappy Social Media Users Quit

LibreOffice 5.3 Released, Touted As ‘One of the Most Feature-Rich Releases’ Ever

An anonymous reader shares a report: A new month, and a brand new version of open-source office suite LibreOffice is now available to download. And what a release it is. LibreOffice 5.3 introduces a number of key new features and continues work on improving the look and feel of the app across all major platforms. The Document Foundation describes LibreOffice 5.3 as “one of the most feature-rich releases in the history of the application.” One of the headline features is called MUFFIN interface, a new toolbar design similar to the Microsoft Office Ribbon UI. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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LibreOffice 5.3 Released, Touted As ‘One of the Most Feature-Rich Releases’ Ever

Touch Bar MacBook Pros Are Being Banned From Bar Exams Over Predictive Text

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: When it launched late last year, the new MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar was largely reliant on first-party applications to show off what it could do. Since then, a number of other companies have jumped on board, helping the secondary screen grow into something more than novelty. Of course, as with any new technology, there’s going to be some unanticipated downside. Test taking software company Examsoft, for one, believes the input device could help facilitate cheating among students taking the bar exam. What’s perhaps most interesting here, is that the company’s calling out one of Touch Bar’s more mundane features: predictive text. “By default, ” the company writes, “the Touch Bar will show predictive text depending on what the student is typing, compromising exam integrity.” It’s hard to say precisely how the company expects a standard feature on mobile devices to help students pass one of the more notoriously exam out there, but The Next Web notes that some states have already taken action. North Carolina, for one, has required test takers with the new model MacBooks to disable the Touch Bar, while New York is banning the machines altogether. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Touch Bar MacBook Pros Are Being Banned From Bar Exams Over Predictive Text

LG’s UltraFine 5K Display Becomes Useless When It’s Within Two Meters of a Router

The LG UltraFine 5K Display was designed in part by Apple to work with the New MacBook Pro and as a replacement for the Thunderbolt Display, which was discontinued late last year. According to 9to5Mac, the display apparently wasn’t designed to work next to routers as it will flicker, disconnect, or freeze computers when it’s within two meters of a router due to electromagnetic interference. The Verge reports: In emails to 9to5Mac, LG acknowledged the problem — which LG says isn’t an issue for any of its other monitors — noting that routers “may affect the performance of the monitor” and that users should “have the router placed at least two meters away from the monitor” to avoid issues. Once the monitor was moved into a different room away from the router, 9to5Mac says the issues subsided. Despite the fact that it’s insane to require a router to be far away from what is likely the main computer in your home, there’s been no indication that LG is working on a fix for the issue, which may be more troublesome. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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LG’s UltraFine 5K Display Becomes Useless When It’s Within Two Meters of a Router

Server Runs Continuously For 24 Years

In 1993 a Stratus server was booted up by an IT application architect — and it’s still running. An anonymous reader writes: “It never shut down on its own because of a fault it couldn’t handle, ” says Phil Hogan, who’s maintained the server for 24 years. That’s what happens when you include redundant components. “Over the years, disk drives, power supplies and some other components have been replaced but Hogan estimates that close to 80% of the system is original, ” according to Computerworld. There’s no service contract — he maintains the server with third-party vendors rather than going back to the manufacturer, who says they “probably” still have the parts in stock. And while he believes the server’s proprietary operating system hasn’t been updated in 15 years, Hogan says “It’s been extremely stable.” The server will finally be retired in April, and while the manufacturer says there’s some more Stratus servers that have been running for at least 20 years — this one seems to be the oldest. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Server Runs Continuously For 24 Years

Ransomware Infects a Hotel’s Key System

An anonymous reader writes: A luxury hotel “paid “thousands” in Bitcoin ransom to cybercriminals who hacked into their electronic key system. The “furious” hotel manager says it’s the third time their electronic system has been attacked, though one local news site reports that “on the fourth attempt the hackers had no chance because the computers had been replaced and the latest security standards integrated, and some networks had been decoupled.” The 111-year-old hotel is now planning to remove all their electronic locks, and return to old-fashioned door locks with real keys. But they’re going public to warn other hotels — some of which they say have also already been hit by ransomware. UPDATE: The hotel’s managing director has clarified today that despite press reports, “We were hacked, but nobody was locked in or out” of their rooms. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Ransomware Infects a Hotel’s Key System