technology – Page 265

Unreal Engine 4 Is Now Free

jones_supa writes In 2014, Epic Games took the step of making Unreal Engine 4 available to everyone by subscription for $19 per month. Today, this general-purpose game engine is available to everyone for free. This includes future updates, the full C++ source code of the engine, documentation, and all sorts of bonus material. You can download the engine and use it for everything from game development, education, architecture, and visualization to VR, film and animation. The business scheme that Epic set in the beginning, remains the same: when you ship a commercial game or application, you pay a 5% royalty on gross revenue after the first $3, 000 per product, per quarter. Epic strived to create a simple and fair arrangement in which they succeed only when your product succeeds. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

20-Year-Old Military Weather Satellite Explodes In Orbit

schwit1 writes A 20-year-old U.S. military weather satellite apparently exploded for no obvious reason. The incident has put several dozen pieces of space junk into orbit. From the article: “A 20-year-old military weather satellite apparently exploded in orbit Feb. 3 following what the U.S. Air Force described as a sudden temperature spike. The “catastrophic event” produced 43 pieces of space debris, according to Air Force Space Command, which disclosed the loss of the satellite Feb. 27 in response to questions from SpaceNews. The satellite, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13, was the oldest continuously operational satellite in the DMSP weather constellation.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Pharming Attack Targets Home Router DNS Settings

msm1267 (2804139) writes Pharming attacks are generally network-based intrusions where the ultimate goal is to redirect a victim’s web traffic to a hacker-controlled webserver, usually through a malicious modification of DNS settings. Some of these attacks, however, are starting to move to the web and have their beginnings with a spam or phishing email. Proofpoint reported on the latest iteration of this attack, based in Brazil. The campaign was carried out during a five-week period starting in December when Proofpoint spotted phishing messages, fewer than 100, sent to customers of one of the country’s largest telecommunications companies. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Pharming Attack Targets Home Router DNS Settings

Blu-Ray Players Hackable Via Malicious Discs

An anonymous reader writes: Some Blu-Ray disc interactive features use a Java variant for UIs and applications. Stephen Tomkinson just posted a blog discussing how specially created Blu-Ray discs can be used to hack various players using exploits related to their Java usage. He hacked one Linux-based, network-connected player to get root access through vulnerabilities introduced by the vendor. He did the same thing against Windows Blu-Ray player software. Tomkinson was then able to combine both, along with detection techniques, into a single disc. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Golden Age of Jailbreaking Is Over

Your smartphone may be as powerful as a computer, but it’s also hobbled. You can only install apps on it from the walled garden of the official app store. Your options are limited to the small, vetted collection of “approved” apps as opposed to the unlimited options available for PCs. That’s where jailbreaking comes in. Read more…

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The Golden Age of Jailbreaking Is Over

Google Now Automatically Converts Flash Ads To HTML5

An anonymous reader writes “Google today began automatically converting Adobe Flash ads to HTML5. As a result, it’s now even easier for advertisers to target users on the Google Display Network without a device or browser that supports Flash. Back in September, Google began offering interactive HTML5 backups when Flash wasn’t supported. The Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tools for the Google Display Network and DoubleClick Campaign Manager created an HTML5 version of Flash ads, showing an actual ad rather than a static image backup. Now, Google will automatically convert eligible Flash campaigns, both existing and new, to HTML5.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google Now Automatically Converts Flash Ads To HTML5

Only Twice Have Nations Banned a Weapon Before It Was Used; They May Do It Again

Lasrick writes: Seth Baum reports on international efforts to ban ‘killer robots’ before they are used. China, Israel, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are apparently developing precursor technology. “Fully autonomous weapons are not unambiguously bad. They can reduce burdens on soldiers. Already, military robots are saving many service members’ lives, for example by neutralizing improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and Iraq. The more capabilities military robots have, the more they can keep soldiers from harm. They may also be able to complete missions that soldiers and non-autonomous weapons cannot.” But Baum, who founded the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, goes on to outline the potential downsides, and there are quite a few. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Only Twice Have Nations Banned a Weapon Before It Was Used; They May Do It Again

Save yourself from your OEM’s bad decisions with a clean install of Windows 8.1

Crapware is a fact of life for Windows PC buyers. Most of the time, it’s relatively harmless: limited anti-virus subscriptions you don’t want, WildTangent games, and demoware you don’t need, and Microsoft Office demos you can’t use without spending more money. Sometimes, as we’ve seen with today’s “Superfish” news , it can be actively harmful, putting users’ security at risk. With some effort, this unwanted and unsafe software can usually be uninstalled. If you have an affected Lenovo PC, we’ve outlined the multi-step process for removing the software and the root certificate here . If you want to be sure that everything is completely removed (and if you’re willing to do the work), the more comprehensive solution is to completely reinstall Windows yourself. It’s not for everyone, but there are benefits to doing it this way—you get a totally clean PC that you’re in full control over. Read 38 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Save yourself from your OEM’s bad decisions with a clean install of Windows 8.1

NVIDIA To Re-Enable GeForce 900M Overclocking

jones_supa writes: One week after NVIDIA disabled overclocking on their GeForce 900M mobility lineup, a representative of the company has reported that NVIDIA will be bringing back the disabled feature for their overclocking enthusiasts on the mobility front. On the GeForce Forums, he writes, “We heard from many of you that you would like this feature enabled again. So, we will again be enabling overclocking in our upcoming driver release next month for those affected notebooks. If you are eager to regain this capability right away, you can also revert back to 344.75.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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NVIDIA To Re-Enable GeForce 900M Overclocking

Snow-Melting, No-Shovel Sidewalks and Driveways Sound Amazing

Yesterday in snowy Manhattan I fell on the sidewalk, like some kind of freaking invalid. Half of the sidewalk was covered in that blue-colored chemical salt. Since that burns my dogs’ paws, I was walking with them on the snow-covered half of the sidewalk—unaware that there was a layer of slippery ice underneath the powder. I went down like a soccer player trying to get a flag thrown. As my dogs stared at me with big eyes, I sat there in the snow, infomercial-style, thinking There’s got to be a better way! When it snows on my block, it’s up to whichever store owners are afraid of getting sued to shovel off the sidewalk in front of their businesses. Most do a feeble job and instead prefer to throw chemical salt. We residents then track this stuff inside our buildings, creating a disgusting slurry on our lobby floors. But there is a better way. Heated sidewalks! They have them in places like Iceland , Chicago , Utah , and in New York some businesses and luxury buildings pay top dollar to have them installed around their buildings. Couple years ago we even caught wind of a snow-melting footbridge in Sweden , and Holland has considered installing geothermal-powered snow-melting bike lanes. Geothermal power is probably what Iceland is using as well. But according to the links above, the heated sidewalks in use in Chicago and New York are fiendishly expensive to install and expensive to run, and probably not eco-friendly; some work by heating electrical wires beneath the sidewalks, others by running hot water through embedded pipes, like outdoor radiant-floor heating. Even more mind-blowing is that out in the suburbs, there are folks with heated driveways . Can you imagine? It snows, they flip a switch, and the driveway melts its own snow while the owner’s snowshovel sits untouched in a closet. Still, I know my building and my block will never get this technology. And as I wrote in the original post on the Swedish bridge, heated sidewalks would be impractical in New York, even aside from the cost. Because they’d be covered in sleeping homeless people. So for now, here’s my $17.29 solution:

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Snow-Melting, No-Shovel Sidewalks and Driveways Sound Amazing

Ken May

Tag: technology