program1 – Page 3 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

No more get-out-of-jail-free card for CryptXXX ransomware victims

(credit: Aurich Lawson) For the past month, people infected with the CryptXXX ransomware had a way to recover their files without paying the hefty $500 fee to obtain the decryption key. On Tuesday, that reprieve came to an end. Researchers from security firm Proofpoint said in a blog post that version 2.006 has found a way to bypass a decryption tool that has been freely available for weeks. The tool was provided by Kaspersky Lab and was the result of flaws in the way CryptXXX worked. The crypto ransomware update effectively renders the Kaspersky tool useless, Proofpoint said. It did this with the use of zlib , a software library used for data compression. The new version also makes it harder to use the Kaspersky tool by locking the screen of an infected computer and making it unusable until the ransom is paid. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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No more get-out-of-jail-free card for CryptXXX ransomware victims

FDA flexes regulatory muscles, says vaping, e-cigs now under its control

(credit: Flickr/ecig click ) The US Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it has extended its authority and will now regulate electronic cigarettes, hookah tobacco, cigars, and other tobacco products under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act . The regulatory move, first proposed in 2014, is largely aimed at protecting kids from tobacco and nicotine products. The result is that e-cigs and the other products will now be subject to the same federal regulations as regular cigarettes. These regulations include some relatively uncontroversial rules such as a ban on selling e-cigs to minors (which some states have already done), requiring a photo ID to buy e-cigs, not selling e-cigs out of vending machines, and a ban on free e-cig samples. But the regulations also require that e-cigarette manufactures register with the agency and put any new devices through a pre-market regulatory approval process. By “new,” the FDA means any novel devices put on the market after February 15, 2007. Devices released before then will be grandfathered into the regulations. However, in the relatively young e-cig market, the vast majority of current products were introduced after 2007 and will be subject to the approval process. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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FDA flexes regulatory muscles, says vaping, e-cigs now under its control

Microsoft experiments with DNA storage: 1,000,000,000 TB in a gram

Microsoft is buying ten million strands of DNA from biology startup Twist Bioscience to investigate the use of genetic material to store data. The data density of DNA is orders of magnitude higher than conventional storage systems, with 1 gram of DNA able to represent close to 1 billion terabytes (1 zettabyte) of data. DNA is also remarkably robust; DNA fragments thousands of years old have been successfully sequenced. These properties make it an intriguing option for long-term data archival. Binary data has already been successfully stored as DNA base pairs , with estimates in 2013 suggesting that it would be economically viable for storage of 500 years or more. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Microsoft experiments with DNA storage: 1,000,000,000 TB in a gram

A Comcastic miracle: Data caps will go from 300GB to a terabyte

Comcast today announced that it will boost its data cap from 300GB per month to 1TB beginning June 1, but will also charge more to customers who want unlimited data. Comcast has been trialling different caps in various cities in preparation for a potential nationwide rollout. Typically, customers would get 300GB per month and have to pay another $10 for each additional 50GB when they go over. Comcast also allowed customers to pay an extra $30 to $35 a month for unlimited data, depending on the city. After the June 1 change, fewer customers will need to buy unlimited data—but it will cost them $50 a month to do so instead of $30 or $35. Overage fees will stay the same, $10 for each additional 50GB. Thus far, Comcast has allowed customers to exceed the cap in three “courtesy months” before charging them overage fees. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

New Windows 10 build: New Start menu, notifications, and pen features

The new Pen Workspace. (credit: Microsoft) At its Build developer conference a few weeks ago, Microsoft announced the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, a major update for Windows 10 due this summer. One of its biggest aspects was substantially reworked and improved pen support (“Ink” in Microsoft terminology) intended to make pen applications easier to find and use and to make stylus use more powerful. A new Windows build that provides the first access to these new features, version 14328, has just been promoted to the fast ring . The core of this new support is the Windows Ink Workspace, a panel that provides instant access to pen-powered apps. Pressing the eraser button on a Surface Pen will show the panel instead of its current action (which opens OneNote). The Anniversary Update also comes with a trio of new pen apps: Sketchpad, a sketching app; Screen sketch, a screenshot annotation app; and a new Sticky Note app. New Sticky Notes. (credit: Microsoft) The new build contains a lot more than just Ink improvements. The Start menu has been revised to make All Apps permanently visible, and in tablet mode, All Apps is now full-screen. Also in tablet mode, the taskbar can autohide without being autohide in desktop mode. The taskbar clock now shows on all monitors on multihead systems, and the calendar now shows your appointments. The Action Center notification system has had its layout refined to show more notifications and now includes rich Cortana notifications. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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New Windows 10 build: New Start menu, notifications, and pen features

Office up, Surface up, cloud booming in Microsoft’s $20.5 billion quarter

Microsoft posted revenue of $20.5 billion in the third quarter of its 2016 financial year, down 6 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Operating income was $5.3 billion, a 20 percent drop, net income was $3.8 billion, down 25 percent, and earnings per share were $0.47, a 23 percent decline. Over the past few quarters, Microsoft and other tech companies have reported significant impact from the high value of the US dollar, and have offered equivalent financial figures that show what their numbers would have been had the value of foreign earnings not been eroded by this conversion. This currency impact was estimated as reducing revenue by about $0.8 billion. The company also reports that there was a $1.5 billion impact from a combination of revenue deferrals due to Windows 10 upgrades and restructuring charges. Excluding this impact, and assuming constant currency values, the company says that its revenue was $22.1 billion (up 5 percent), operating income was $6.8 billion (up 10 percent), and net income was $5.0 billion (up 6 percent). The commercial cloud annualized revenue run rate—the forecast number that former Steve Ballmer dismissed as ” bullshit “—crept up to $10.0 billion; three months ago, it was estimated at $9.4 billion. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Volkswagen makes it official—it’s buying back 500,000 2.0L diesels

(credit: Spanish Coches ) In San Francisco this morning, US District Judge Charles Breyer said Volkswagen Group would buy back nearly 500,000 2.0L diesel vehicles which were discovered in September to have software that illegally disabled the emissions control system during normal driving conditions. VW Group is facing some 600 lawsuits that Judge Breyer is overseeing collectively, and the German automaker was compelled by court order to present a plan for fixing the faulty vehicles by today. Specifics of the plan will be hammered out in the coming months. Volkswagen will also set up a fund for people who bought certain diesel Jettas, Golfs, Passats, Beetles, and Audi A3s after 2009. Breyer said this would offer customers “substantial compensation,” on top of the car buyback . Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Volkswagen makes it official—it’s buying back 500,000 2.0L diesels

Help save 17 years of PC game modding history

The FileFront logo, as it existed before the 2010 renaming to GameFront. One of the Web’s oldest and largest repositories for classic and current PC gaming mods will be shutting down for good later this month. GameFront announced today that its servers will be going offline on April 30 and that “any files not downloaded by that time will no longer be accessible.” “Since our founding as FileLeech almost 20 years ago, we have always strived to offer the best file hosting alongside quality gaming content,” former GameFront staffer Ron Whitaker wrote. “To all of our fans who have supported us throughout the years, we thank you for making us your destination for gaming files. Despite name changes, ownership changes, and staff changes, you have always made our jobs rewarding and fun.” The shutdown is a blow to those who rely on GameFront for access to tens of thousands of mods, demos, patches, tools, maps, skins, and add-ons for PC games dating back to the mid-’90s. It’s especially significant to those looking for mods and patches for older games with smaller communities or defunct publishers, which can be hard or impossible to find elsewhere. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Help save 17 years of PC game modding history

Netflix quietly rolls out HDR content, starts with first season of Marco Polo

(credit: Netflix ) Netflix is bumping up the video quality of one of its original shows in an effort to get ahead of the high dynamic range (HDR) streaming game. According to a report by FlatPanelsHD , Netflix released the first season of Marco Polo in HDR as well as 4K, and more HDR-capable shows will come soon. Season two of the show has been confirmed for release in June 2016. Netflix’s corporate communications manager Yann Lafargue confirmed that certain programs will support HDR streaming now but was cryptic about shows to come in the future. “We are indeed live with HDR. It works with compatible TVs, both in HDR10 and Dolby Vision,” Lafargue told FlatPanelsHD. “We have season one of Marco Polo for now, but much more content should be available shortly, so stay tuned.” HDR improves picture quality by making blacks darker and whites brighter, resulting in an image sharper and crisper than that of regular HD. Netflix appears to be embracing HDR more than 4K at the moment, although the company has been streaming some 4K content since 2014. At that time, Netflix’s 4K content was limited not only by the number of shows available but also by the few TVs that could support the resolution. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Netflix quietly rolls out HDR content, starts with first season of Marco Polo

Windows 10 roadmap: Control everything remotely

As Microsoft continues to court businesses and encourage them to upgrade to Windows 10, the company has taken the novel step of publishing a roadmap of Windows 10 features . This roadmap describes business-oriented features that are coming to Windows 10. Some, such as biometric authentication in the Edge browser, have already been announced as part of the forthcoming Anniversary Update and are currently available in the Insider Preview . But others are not. While some are so vague as to tell us nothing—the Passport API used for biometric authentication is being “enhanced” to improve enterprise functionality—other features are rather more concrete. Microsoft plans to add device-based PC unlocking, wherein Windows and Android phones can be used to store authentication credentials, and the feature can be used to both unlock the PC and authenticate apps and services that use Windows Hello and the Passport API. The same is also being enabled for what Microsoft calls “Companion devices” that integrate with a new API called the “Companion Device Framework.” The Microsoft Band 2 fitness device will plug into this framework, and third-party devices will also be able to join in. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows 10 roadmap: Control everything remotely