Tag: reprints

Sleeping spacecraft Rosetta nearly ready to wake up for comet landing

ESA The Rosetta spacecraft is due to wake up on the morning of January 20 after an 18-month hibernation in deep space. For the past ten years, the three-ton spacecraft has been on a one-way trip to a 4 km-wide comet. When it arrives, it will set about performing a maneuver that has never been done before: landing on a comet’s surface. The spacecraft has already achieved some success on its long journey through the solar system. It has passed by two asteroids—Steins in 2008 and Lutetia in 2010—and it tried out some of its instruments on them. Because Rosetta’s journey is so protracted, however, preserving energy has been of the utmost importance, which is why it was put into hibernation in June 2011. The journey has taken so long because the spacecraft needed to be “gravity-assisted” by many planets in order to reach the necessary velocity to match the comet’s orbit. Rosetta’s path through the inner Solar System. When it wakes up, Rosetta is expected to take a few hours to establish contact with Earth, 673 million km (396 million mi) away. The scientists involved will wait with bated breath. Dan Andrews, part of a team at the Open University who built one of Rosetta’s on-board instruments, said, “If there isn’t sufficient power, Rosetta will go back to sleep and try again later. The wake-up process is driven by software commands already on the spacecraft. It will wake itself up autonomously and spend some time warming up and orienting its antenna toward Earth to ‘phone home.’” Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Sleeping spacecraft Rosetta nearly ready to wake up for comet landing

Critical Microsoft, Adobe, and Oracle updates: Like dental floss for your PC

drueckert.com I was still wiping the sleep from my eyes this morning when the nagging voice kicked in: before trawling the Internet for news, you better install yesterday’s security updates. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, given the raft of patches released yesterday by Microsoft, Adobe, and Oracle for a variety of products. But as someone who has covered computer security for eight years, I’ve come to make updating a top priority. And for good reason. A large percentage of the booby-trapped websites that surreptitiously install malware on visitors’ machines exploit vulnerabilities that have already been patched. The recent hack on Yahoo’s ad network , for instance, targeted two security flaws in the Java software framework that Oracle had fixed 17 and 24 months ago, Trend Micro reported in a blog post . Those who visited compromised Yahoo servers with up-to-date systems were immune to those attacks. By contrast, people using unpatched software were exposed to malicious payloads that installed the Dorkbot and Gamarue trojans, as well as malware that turned visitors’ machines into Bitcoin miners. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Critical Microsoft, Adobe, and Oracle updates: Like dental floss for your PC

DoS attacks that took down big game sites abused Web’s time-sync protocol

69 percent of all DDoS attack traffic by bit volume in the first week of January was the result of NTP reflection. Black Lotus Miscreants who earlier this week took down servers for League of Legends, EA.com, and other online game services used a never-before-seen technique that vastly amplified the amount of junk traffic directed at denial-of-service targets. Rather than directly flooding the targeted services with torrents of data, an attack group calling itself DERP Trolling sent much smaller-sized data requests to time-synchronization servers running the Network Time Protocol (NTP). By manipulating the requests to make them appear as if they originated from one of the gaming sites, the attackers were able to vastly amplify the firepower at their disposal. A spoofed request containing eight bytes will typically result in a 468-byte response to victim, an increase of more than 58 fold. “Prior to December, an NTP attack was almost unheard of because if there was one it wasn’t worth talking about,” Shawn Marck, CEO of DoS-mitigation service Black Lotus , told Ars. “It was so tiny it never showed up in the major reports. What we’re witnessing is a shift in methodology.” Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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DoS attacks that took down big game sites abused Web’s time-sync protocol

Researchers warn of new, meaner ransomware with unbreakable crypto

Security researchers have uncovered evidence of a new piece of malware that may be able to take gigabytes’ worth of data hostage unless end users pay a ransom. Discussions of the new malware, alternately dubbed PrisonLocker and PowerLocker, have been occurring on underground crime forums since November, according to a blog post published Friday by Malware Must Die, a group of researchers dedicated to fighting online crime. The malware appears to be inspired by CryptoLocker, the malicious software that wreaked havoc in October when it used uncrackable encryption to lock up victims’ computer files until they paid hundreds of dollars for the decryption key. PowerLocker could prove an even more potent threat because it would be sold in underground forums as a DIY malware kit to anyone who can afford the $100 for a license, Friday’s post warned. CryptoLocker, by contrast, was custom built for use by a single crime gang. What’s more, PowerLocker might also offer several advanced features, including the ability to disable the task manager, registry editor, and other administration functions built into the Windows operating system. Screen shots and online discussions also indicate the newer malware may contain protections that prevent it from being reverse engineered when run on virtual machines. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Researchers warn of new, meaner ransomware with unbreakable crypto

AT&T turns data caps into profits with new fees for content providers

Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock AT&T today confirmed a long-rumored plan to monetize wireless data caps by charging content providers for the right to serve up video and other media without chewing up consumers’ monthly data limits. Sometimes called 1-800-DATA, AT&T billed the plan as “a new way for eligible 4G customers to enjoy mobile content and apps over AT&T’s wireless network without impacting their monthly wireless data plan.” Basically, the price of data is being charged to content providers instead of consumers. The rates for consumers and business will be similar. “We will offer AT&T Sponsored Data providers a wide range of options,” an AT&T spokesperson told Ars. “Customers will be billed according to usage, with costs varying by amounts of usage. Rates are comparable to consumer rates.” Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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AT&T turns data caps into profits with new fees for content providers

Putting Windows and Android on the same PC doesn’t solve anyone’s problems

PC makers at CES may announce Windows PCs that run Android apps. But should you do something just because you can? Andrew Cunningham CES begins in just a few short days, but rumors about what we’ll be seeing there are already in full-swing. It’s a fair bet that the usual suspects will show up—phones, tablets, PCs, maybe even a Linux-powered gun or two—but the things that stick out usually end up being the Flavors of the Year. These are often technologies that are cool in theory but fail to light the world on fire in practice. Netbooks, 3D TVs, and the first run of Android tablets are all members of this illustrious group, and so far baubles like 4K TVs and smartwatches look like worthy heirs to the throne. One such upcoming flavor, according to a report from The Verge , is an Intel-backed initiative that combines Windows 8.1 and Android on the same device. Rather than combine an Android tablet with a Windows PC like Asus’ Transformer Book Trio , these computers will seamlessly run Android apps within a Windows environment, probably by way of a virtualization layer like Bluestacks . This idea is in no way new, though the report suggests that a larger push is imminent. The initiative makes some sense for Intel and the OEMs. For Intel, it’s a way to offer tablet makers something that they can’t get from ARM chips like those from Qualcomm or Nvidia: the ability to provide full Windows 8.1 app compatibility combined with Android app compatibility. For the OEMs, it’s (theoretically) a way to patch gaps in Windows 8.1’s improving-but-spotty app store by giving consumers Android tablet apps that they (theoretically) know and love. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Putting Windows and Android on the same PC doesn’t solve anyone’s problems

Windows 8.x breaks 10 percent, Internet Explorer 11 makes a splash

Net Market Share In 2013, Internet Explorer reversed some of its historic losses, Google released of Chrome for Android, and Windows 8 surpassed OS X and Windows Vista to become the third most widely used desktop operating system. Net Market Share Net Market Share Compared to last month, Internet Explorer actually fell slightly, declining by 0.45 points. Firefox, Safari, and Opera also fell, down 0.19, 0.08, and 0.06 points, respectively. The month’s winner was Chrome, which picked up 0.78 points. Over the course of the entire year, Internet Explorer was up 3.14 points on 2012. Firefox was down 1.47 points. Chrome was also down by 1.82 points. Safari rose 0.58 points. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows 8.x breaks 10 percent, Internet Explorer 11 makes a splash

GOG’s managing director: Gamer resistance to DRM is stronger than ever

GOG.com’s Guillaume Rambourg giving Jenga advice. Digital games distribution site GOG (Good Old Games) has spent the last five years offering classic videogame titles DRM-free to its customers. Earlier in 2013, the site launched an indie publishing platform which allowed independent developers to submit their games for sale through GOG—an alternative to Steam’s contentious Greenlight initiative . Wired.co.uk spoke to Guillaume Rambourg, managing director of GOG.com, to discuss DRM, anti-sales, and why exactly the site was offering the original Fallout games free of charge. Wired.co.uk: What was the story behind setting up the GOG.com website? Rambourg: It all began in the mid-90s, when friends Marcin Iwinski and Michal Kicinski started their business as retail distributors in Poland. Back then, Poland was a very highly pirated market, with most gamers using outdated hardware and not having too much money to spend on games. That’s a tough market to break into: one where people aren’t used to paying for games. Read 32 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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GOG’s managing director: Gamer resistance to DRM is stronger than ever

Apple’s incremental 2013—and what to expect in 2014

The trouble with the Apple beat is that everyone wants it to be as exciting and newsworthy as it was in 2007 when Apple announced the iPhone, or in 2010 when the original iPad dropped. Among both the tech press and enthusiasts, Apple is a victim of its own success—every year that the company doesn’t redefine a product category, the pundits get a bit more bored. In 2013, almost every one of Apple’s new hardware and software releases refined something that came before. While that might seem boring to early adopters, Apple continues to be a master of iteration, improving its products in noticeable and useful ways every single year. Here, we’ll look back at everything Apple has put out this year—and what we might expect in 2014. The iPhone Apple put a whole lot of marketing muscle behind the iPhone 5C, which is essentially a year-old phone. Andrew Cunningham In the strictest sense, Apple actually delivered two new iPhones this year: the iPhone 5S and the  iPhone 5C . The 5S was the only truly new one, though—it delivered the expected improvements to the SoC and the camera while introducing a new hardware feature in the form of the TouchID fingerprint sensor. In contrast, the 5C is just an iPhone 5 with slightly upgraded cellular hardware and some colorful plastic. Read 21 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple’s incremental 2013—and what to expect in 2014

Efficient set-top boxes to save $1 billion on energy annually by 2017

Today, the US Department of Energy announced an agreement with a diverse group of NGOs that would see significant improvements to a poorly recognized energy sink: the set-top box that receives and controls TV programming. The agreement, while voluntary, commits service providers to using more efficient hardware through to 2017. Although the individual savings will be small, the cumulative impact is massive: a billion dollars in electricity saved by consumers and five million fewer metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. The agreement, brokered by the EPA, brings together a diverse coalition of groups. On the environmental side, we have the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. Representing industry are the Consumer Electronics Association and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, which gets its funding from a variety of sources (including utilities), was also at the party. The standards they’ve developed will cover all existing delivery methods: telecom, cable, and satellite. It won’t be written into legislation, but an independent third party will verify that hardware meets the agreement’s specifications each year between now and 2017. The exact details of the energy-saving changes aren’t specified in the announcement , but the electronics in the devices can get quite hot, and statements made by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) suggest that they often remain active even when the television is off. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

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Efficient set-top boxes to save $1 billion on energy annually by 2017