Tag: techeye

Chinese snoop on iPhone protesters

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

apple fanboysThe Chinese government appears to be cracking down on Hong Kong protesters who use an iPhone or iPad.

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a computer virus that spies on Apple Inc’s iOS operating system for the iPhone and iPad, and they believe it is targeting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

Dubbed Xsser, the software can steal text messages, photos, call logs, passwords and other data from Apple gear.

Researchers with Lacoon Mobile Security uncovered the spyware while investigating similar malware for Google Android operating system last week that also targeted Hong Kong protesters.

Lacoon Chief Executive Michael Shaulov said that Xsser is the most sophisticated malware used to date in any known cyberattack on iOS users.

It is not clear what the Chinese government hopes to learn from an Apple fanboy’s account, there is just so much you can learn from a complete Coldplay collection and an undeletable U2 album.

It is unclear how iOS devices get infected with Xsser, which is not disguised as an app particularly as Apple claims that its software is super secure.

The code used to control that server is written in Chinese. The high quality of the campaign and the fact it is being used to target protesters suggests that it is coming from a sophisticated attacker in China.

“It is the first time in history that you actually see an operationalized iOS Trojan that is attributed to some kind of Chinese entity,” Shaulov said.

Lacoon said on its blog that it is possible the attackers might have deployed the Trojan in other places, in addition to spying on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

“It can cross borders easily, and is possibly being operated by a Chinese-speaking entity to spy on individuals, foreign companies, or even entire governments,” they said in their bog.

 

Backdoors save children, claims US

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

back doorUS Attorney General Eric Holder has backed police who fear that a client-side encryption in consumer devices will make their job difficult.

But Holder has a novel argument for this gross invasion of privacy – he is trying to convince people that it will save childrens’  lives.

Speaking before the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online, Holder insisted that it was possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy.

However, rapid access to customers’ phone data can help law enforcement to protect victims and combat the activities of sexual predators and kidnappers.

Holder’s comments have been prompted by security features which encrypt the data on the device based on a cipher derived from the personal security passcode that the owner generates.

His view appears to be that the American people will suffer any atrocity provided a child is able to grow up until they reach an age where they can lose all their privacy.

Police are increasingly worried that they will no longer be able to depend on desk-bound, net-based investigation and might have to get out onto the streets again.

 

Lotus 1-2-3 is dead as a dodo

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

ex-parrotLotus 1-2-3 officially ended its existence yesterday as IBM’s previously announced execution date passed with barely any attention from the tech press.

Big Blue only stopped selling Lotus 1-2-3 last year after more than 30 years of stirling work.

Lotus 1-2-3 was a spreadsheet program developed by Lotus Software, which is now part of IBM. It managed to be the “killer application” which sold the PC to business. Its first victory was kicking the first spreadsheet, Visicalc out of the market. Lotus 1-2-3 was a three-in-one, integrated program which could handly spreadsheet calculations, database functionality, and graphical charts. It needed a dongle though.

The Lotus Development Corporation was founded by Mitch Kapor, a friend of the developers of VisiCalc. 1-2-3 was originally written by Jonathan Sachs, who had written two spreadsheet programs for Concentric Data Systems.

The fact it was written for IBM’s new PCs meant that it became the software test for the new range of PC clones that flooded the market.  Because it needed large amounts of memory, 1‐2‐3 helped popularise greater RAM capacities in PCs and soon a huge 640k was required.

However its days were numbered as Microsoft had a spreadsheet called Excel. As its Windows operating environment grew in popularity so did Excel and a revamp of 1-2-3 for Windows failed to make much impact. Excel didn’t need a dongle. It had Steve Ballmer, instead.

Lotus 1-2-3’s demise was not helped by the fact that Microsoft punished IBM for its use of 1-2-3 by charging IBM higher prices, a late licence for Windows 95, and the withholding of technical and marketing support. IBM punished Microsoft by declaring OS/2 was a better window than Windows.

As a result, Big Blue wasn’t granted OEM rights for Windows 95 until 15 minutes prior to the release of Windows 95, August 24, 1995. IBM machines were sold without Windows 95, while Compaq, HP, and other companies sold machines with Windows 95 on the day of release.

Despite all that, Lotus 1-2-3 had an extremely long run with a large chunk of the world’s business carried out using it. It needed a dongle, though.

Internet Explorer still popular, shock

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

shockData gathered by Net Applications has revealed that despite the domination of press by its rivals, Microsoft Internet Explorer is still the world’s most popular browser.

Microsoft’s product accounts for almost 60 percent of the market and it does not appear to be going away anytime soon.

Chrome, which is IE’s main rival, has been expanding its reach and has grown to 21 percent up from 19 percent just a month earlier. That growth has mainly been at the expense of Firefox, which now accounts for only 14 percent, down from around 20 per cent a year earlier. Finally, Safari is holding steady at the five percent mark while other browsers are also slowly declining in usage.

Internet Explorer IE 8, which is the default browser in Windows 7, has slowly gained users and now accounts for over 22 percent of the market.

Newer versions of the browser, such as 10 and 11 have declined in numbers. IE 11, the current browser version only accounts for 17 percent.

As Internet Explorer 12 coming as part of Windows 10, formerly known as Windows 9, Microsoft may soon find itself in a situation where it’s desperately trying to get its users to upgrade.

Also it is telling that the impact of mobile browser use is negligible – both Apple and Chrome do not seem to benefit much from a “mobile effect” on the figures.

 

Beer improves your memory, claim mice

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

4-mouse-in-beer-alternative-uses-for-beer-things-beer-is-good-for-besides-drinkingThirsty boffins at Oregon State University have discovered that doses of xanthohumol, a flavonoid found in beer improved memory and thinking.

True, the experiment was conducted on a group of mice who were not knocking back pints in the snug at the Rat and Handgun. Instead they were injected with flavonoids, found in hops.

Last year, researchers discovered that a flavonoid found in celery and artichokes could potentially fight pancreatic cancer, which is less headline worthy than anything mentioning beer.

The researchers treated the mice with dietary supplements of xanthohumol over the course of eight weeks to see if xanthohumol could affect palmitoylation, a naturally occurring process in animals  – including humans – that’s associated with memory degradation.

The mice then went through a series of tests to gauge whether or not the treatments had improved their spatial memory and cognitive flexibility. For the younger mice in the group, it worked. Tragically older mice in the group found that xanthohumol didn’t seem to have any effect and they just sat around moaning about the rodents of today and how Margaret Thatcher was a brilliant leader.

Xanthohumol is rare and hops are the only known source. The dose the mice were given could be found by drinking 2,000 litres of beer a day for six weeks.

Still, the findings suggest the compound could one day be used medicinally to treat cognitive problems in humans.  Which is ironic because we drink beer to forget.  We can’t remember what, which means that it is working.

 

Boffins design rat brain for robots

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

Rat - Wikimedia CommonsScientists at the QUT say that modelling a human eye, a rat’s brain and combining them with robots could well lead to new technology.

Dr Michael Milford, lead researcher,  said: “This is a very Frankenstein type of project.”  The study uses newly designed computer algorithms to let robots navigate intelligence.

Why a rat brain and a human eye? Milford said: “A rodent’s spatial memory is strong but has very poor vision while humans can easily recognise where they are because of eyesight.”

He said QUT already has software algorithms to model human eye’s and rat brains.

”We’ll plug in the two pieces of software together on a robot moving around in an environment and see what happens,” he said.

The research could also have implications for neuroscience because disease like Alzheimer’s rapidly degrade spatial navigation abilities in human brains, he said.

But it could all be a long way off. Milford said: “We’ve got all the ground work there but plugging them altogether is the massive challenge we have.  I don’t know exactly how it’s going to work and that’s why it’s research.”

If the research comes to anything, we may well have a stainless steel rat scurrying round out cities.

DVLA website crashes

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

Wikimedia CommonsWorried UK motorists have bombarded the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) website causing it to crush as they rushed to pay their car tax online..

From this Wednesday, drivers don’t have to display the paper discs familiar to all in the windscreen.

But that means that motorists trying to renew their car tax by Wednesday have been frustrated because the DVLA technology can’t cope with the demand.

According to the BBC, the DVLA said 30,000 people visited its web site compared to the same day in 2013.  It said that if motorists can’t get online, they should renew their car tax at UK Post Offices.

The RAC has claimed that the digital system will mean tax dodging costing £167 million a year, a claim that the DVLA rebuts.

So how is the DVLA spot the tax dodgers?  It is relying on cameras that use number plate recognition cameras.

Lenovo, IBM deal sealed

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

ibm-officeBig Blue and Lenovo confirmed they have completed the sales of IBM’s X86 server business, as expected.

Under the terms of the deal, Lenovo will buy System x, BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches, X86 based Flex integrated systems, NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers as well as software, blade networking and maintenance operations.

IBM will keep its System z mainframes, its Power Systems, Storage Systems, Power based Flex servers and PureApplication and PureData appliances.

The two companies will collaborate in a deal where Lenovo will act as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for IBM, and will also resell some products from Big Blue’s storage and software portfolio.

The change starts today in most major markets. IBM said the deal will also be completed in most other territories in the next month or two.

Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s Intel based servers means that it’s now able to offer the entire range of X86 based systems, from humble notebooks up to high end  servers.

3D printer could build a house in a day

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

Contour CraftingA company called Contour Crafting that offers a method of 3D printing large structures direct from CAD packages, has won a prize in a design competition.

Contour Crafting claims it automates building whole structures and cuts down the time and cost of construction.

It said the 3D printing technology may lead to printing affordable high quality low income housing, quick construction of emergency shelters and “on demand housing” in response to disasters.

NASA, claimed the firm, is investigating its technology to build bases on the moon and on Mars.

Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis, from the University of Southern California invented the concept and claims it’s viable.

“Bringing 3D to construction is bringing a concept to a proven application.  For many years, building has been done in layers – concrete foundation blocks, brick laying, structural framing and the like,” he said.

Samsung tablets up, Apple iPads down

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

cheap-tabletsA report from ABI Research said that sales of branded tabets such as those from Samsung and Apple only grew by 2.5 percent in the first half of this year.

The report said that sales of Apple iPads fell by 13 percent while sales of Samsung tablets grew by 26 percent year on year.

Jeff Orr, an analyst at ABI Research, said: “The roller coaster ride from the leading two tablet vendors has market watchers looking to other vendors to create sustainable growth. All eyes are on Lenovo as it is one of the few to demonstrate consistent growth over the past year.”

But there is some good news for Intel. It is showing progress towards the goal it set itself of 40 million devices using its microprocessor in 2013. Orr described 2014 as the “tipping point” for Intel’s mobile stategy.

”Forty million units is only a minor dent in ARM’s domination of tablets, though Intel is quickly becoming a formidable applications processor architecture competitor,” Orr said.

Microsoft loses the count on Windows 9

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

Count_von_Count_kneelingSoftware giant Microsoft appears to have lost count with Windows 9 and has instead jumped to Windows 10 as the next version of its operating system.

Microsoft today skipped a number and announced Windows 10, the OS formerly known as Threshold and the successor to Windows 8/8.1.

Windows head Terry Myerson said during a press event with a small gathering of reporters in San Francisco that Windows 10 will be Vole’s most comprehensive platform ever and “it wouldn’t be right to call it Windows 9”.

We can’t see the logic of this, sure coming up with a different name is one thing, but changing the number order just says “we can’t count and Mrs “Hookjaw” Anderson is going to terrify us when we have to show up at her maths class to recite our seven times table.”

So what is really so different?  Windows 10 is designed to run on a wide range of devices with screen sizes running the gamut from four inches all the up to 80 inch surface. Microsoft will have a single application platform with one integrated Store to deliver Windows experiences across all those devices.

Unfortunately, for those of us who use real computers this means that Windows 10 has been built for a “mobile-first, cloud-first world”. This means more of all the sort of thinking that made Windows 8.1 useless to serious computer users.

However, word on the street says that Windows 10 looks a bit like Windows 7. It has a hybrid Start menu that combines Windows 7 era features with Windows 8 style tiles.

Microsoft appears to have realised that it has to think about the enterprise so that business users coming from Windows 7 or Windows 8 so they can hop right in and be productive. Microsoft’s second priority is “modern management” of lots of computers.

The “Modern UI” hacked off power users has  gone in Windows 10. In place of the Modern UI are Live Tiles integrated into the right side of the Start menu on the Desktop. On the left side are pinned and frequent apps.

There’s also a refreshed taskbar with a new “task view” that presents all of your running apps. Windows 10 allows you to tile up to four apps on the same screen.

There is a command prompt that allows you to use keyboard shortcuts, along with copy and paste, and a Charms Bar that may or may not make it into the final cut.

We expect to see a technical preview of Windows 10 next week and the launch of the OS by spring 2015, assuming that Microsoft can count that far.

 

Ellison still a draw at Oracle conference

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

Larry EllisonDespite his surprise exit from Oracle, Larry Ellison was still the main draw at Oracle’s annual conference in San Francisco.

Ellison has given up his position as chief executive of the enterprise software behemoth he co-founded 37 years ago, however he stuck to his tradition of delivering the main presentation at Oracle OpenWorld. Oracle will now depend on a two headed CEO monster based around presidents Safra Catz and Mark Hurd.

The 70-year-old Ellison is staying on as executive chairman and chief technology officer and as far as developers were concerned it was him that they had come to hear.

Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd in a football-field-sized room, Ellison mostly pitched Oracle’s newest offerings in software and cloud computing.

But he won laughter with a handful of off-script comments about his new role at the company, including one during a demonstration of a new service that lets customers easily move applications from their own data centres to Oracle’s cloud.

“I’m CTO now, I have to do my demos by myself. I used to have help, now it’s gone,” Ellison joked. “I love my new job by the way.”

As he filled in a webpage as part of the same demonstration, he joked, “They took away my CEO title, they took away my name. It’s been a rough few weeks.”

In an IT world which has lost Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Steve Jobs over the last few years, Ellison was one of the few left who could still rustle up a good show.

Close to 60,000 people were enrolled for this year’s OpenWorld, which includes technical courses, cocktail parties and a concert by Aerosmith

Ellison apologised to the assorted throngs for skipping his keynote speech at last year’s OpenWorld to be on the water with his Oracle Team USA sailing team during the final neck-and-neck races of the America’s Cup regatta.

It was the second presentation in three days that Ellison devoted to talking up the progress Oracle has made in cloud computing, which accounts for just five percent of his company’s revenue.

Hong Kong protestors use Mesh

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

hong kong protestHong Kong’s activists are relying on a free app that can send messages without any mobile phone connection.

The move comes about because of fears that the Chinese government would block local phone networks to stop protestors organising.

However activists have turned to the FireChat app to send supportive messages and share the latest news. The app was downloaded more than 100,000 times in Hong Kong, its developers said.

FireChat uses “mesh networking,” that allows data to zip directly from one phone to another via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Ordinarily, if two people want to communicate this way, they need to be close together. However, as more people join in, the network grows and messages can travel further.

Mesh networks were designed for people who are caught in natural disasters or, like those in Hong Kong, protesting under tricky conditions. FireChat came in handy for protesters in Taiwan and Iraq this year.

However Hans-Christoph Steiner at The Guardian Project, which helps activists circumvent censorship, warns that Firechat has no built-in encryption, so messages can be read by anyone within range.

FireChat has said it aims to add encryption in the future. Bluetooth communications come with an identifier called a MAC address, which could also be used to track down protest ringleaders.

Chinese authorities could also use radio jamming to shut down mesh networks in a local area, or prevent more people from joining by cutting off access to app stores.

Tame Apple Press claims Bendgate is a conspiracy theory

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

truthDesperate to keep Apple afloat after it released a phone which was easy to bend and break, the Tame Apple Press is actually releasing stories claiming it is all a conspiracy theory “on a par to 9/11.”

BGR  insists that all the videos  you see where the phone is being bent are all doctored, just like the moon landings.  If you are dumb, enough to think that Americans walked on the moon then you are stupid enough to think an iPhone bends, apparently.

It was especially sure that this video, which bends the iPhone 6 Plus so easily that we actually do have a hard time believing the device wasn’t doctored somehow beforehand.

Another video made by Lewis “Unbox Therapy” Hilstenteger’s original video was a fake because of time discrepancies. The time shown from earlier in the video before the phone was bent is later than the time shown in the video after the phone was bent.

However Hilstenteger said that he had to reshoot part of the video because of glare problems, but that is just what “they want you to think.”

BGR reports that fans think that Samsung has hatched an international conspiracy so vast that it’s paid lots of YouTube users to fake bending their iPhones in the exact same way.

To be fair, BGR does say that “obsessing over the nuances of the bent iPhone 6 Plus [videos] in the same way conspiracy theorists obsess over grassy knolls and moon landing videos” is nutty. However, the question is why are the Tame Apple Press unable to accept that Jobs’ Mob made a design flaw?

Why would respectable technology magazines actually try to bury the news that a phone is faulty instead of warning its readers about the problem. So far there is a lot of empiratic evidence that the iPhone6 and iPhone 6+ is structurally weak and susceptible to bending.  It is fairly clear that the conspiracy is not to tell lies about Apple, but to bury the truth which is already out there.

German watchdog barks at Google

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

AnubiA German data protection watchdog has snarled at the search engine Google for the way it creates data profiles from its various services.

The data protection commissioner for the German city state of Hamburg has ordered Google to take the necessary technical and organizational measures to guarantee that their users can decide on their own if and to what extend their data is used for profiling.

Commissioner Johannes Caspar growled that Google had refused to grant users more control over how it aggregates data across its services including Gmail, Android and the web search engine.

The Hamburg watchdog said it represented Germany as part of a European task force evaluating Google’s privacy policy.

Processing data that reveals financial wealth, sexual orientation and relationship status, among other aspects of private life, is unlawful in Germany unless users give their explicit consent, it added.

Google is not saying anything about the comments, although the Financial Times earlier quoted a company spokesman as saying Google was studying the order to determine its next steps.

European data privacy regulators last week handed Google a list of guidelines to help it bring the way it collects and stores user data in line with EU law.

Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands, have opened investigations into Google after it consolidated its 60 privacy policies into one and started combining data collected on individual users across its services, including YouTube, Gmail and Google Maps.