Virus analysts are having a nightmare with this one as it self destructs when it detects efforts at analysis. “Security researchers at Cisco have published new research on a malware, named Rombertik, which will go out of its way to avoid getting analyzed by deleting essential data in the Windows system file called the Master Boot Record (MBR) sending the computer into an endless reboot loop. The malware also attempts to fool the researchers' sandboxing tools by writ...
MS stopped developing WMC back in 2009. Many were hoping for a rebirth/upgrade for Windows 10. “The software giant is planning to kill off Media Center in Windows 10, meaning any PCs upgraded from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will lose the feature. Microsoft confirmed the plan in a recent interview with ZDNet.”- The Verge It’s kind of sad, because I’ve enjoyed it since 2001, using it on large TVs. I really don’t understand why they’re killing it, either. Oh yes I do: Xb...
Phones are getting larger and larger screens…it’s clear from usage and service stats provided by Flurry (Yahoo owned data analytics firm) that’s what’s happening and has been for years, when you think about it. Flurry tracks 1.6 billion devices (yes, ‘b’ as in billion) focusing on the top 875 devices which account for 87% of the sessions in March 2015 to look at global active device usage by screen size and found that phablets have more than tripled their share of usage sin...
AVG has just launched “Crumble” which is an extension for Chrome that blocks third-party behavior tracking on the web when it is active. As you all know, cookies (hence the name ‘Crumble’) can be good/bad or both. Functionally they can be necessary to enable site functionality…but are often abused to create tracking profiles for your browsing on the net. Some domains can plant hundreds of cookies on your computer just to do that bit of data merchandising. To find out how ma...
Sometimes you’re looking for a better/snazzier/cooler font for a project and *poof* it appears online right in front of you… BUT…what’s its name? How can you search for it without that? A few ways: 1) If you’re using an iOS device, WhatFont can be a huge help… 2) WhatTheFont Mobile app is another. 3) For non-iOS devices, www.whatfontis.com , TypeDNA at http://fontedge.matton.se and the WhatTheFont feature on www.MyFonts.com . Each site exam...
Privacy vs. security…that’s at the core of the newest effort to secure us and US corporations from the cyber criminals/spies/hackers. Supposedly it’s better than CISPA and CISA. It protects your security by enabling corporations to share your data and the government as well. “The Protecting Cyber Networks Act enables private companies to voluntarily share cyber threat indicators with one another and to voluntarily share these indicators with the federal government so lo...
In the world of AV software, there are two varieties: The first, based on signature which can’t hope to keep up with the variants emerging all the time, and the second based on behavior which is supposed to detect/identify any suspicious behavior and quarantine/delete the offending software and notify you to decide what you wish to do. There are other software types (one of which will ship with Windows 10) which will lock down target areas (files, etc.) which viuses/trojans target. ...
So you thought 21 patches were enough? Think again. MS is releasing another 34 later today. The majority of patches apply to Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Server 2012. In fact, there are only five patches for Windows 7 and four for Windows Server 2008 R2 while the remaining patches are all for Windows 8 or later on the client side and Windows Server 2012 or later on the server side. You can read more here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/894199 All t...
So…while yesterday’s thread was fun, I came across this article . What bothers me about this is that they’re using Numenta’s AI software because it’s closer to human thinking. That alone should scare the crap out of you. Would a non-human like AI algorithm/s be better? Is the devil we [don’t] know better than the devil we know even less? How could one produce a program complex enough to encompass Asimov’s three laws of robotics? A...
Yeah…ok. I’m an older guy. Not old. Older. [Shut up, Smedley] and I worry. About a lot of things but especially about this mad race to develop AI…and just why the hell it’s all necessary. I say love – hate because while I love making Photoshop and Lightroom sit up and wag their tails, I’m scared of AI…and worry about ninja super computers, the internet of things and lazy assed people ending all of us with a misplaced line of code , or som...
1. NASA - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/ 2. CIA - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ 3. Library of Congress - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html 4. National Park Service - http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/imagebase.html%20 5. Life Magazine 1860s – 1970s - http://images.google.com/hosted/life 6. List of resources – U.S. Government Image Portal - http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml 7. Hubble Telescope ...
Well, that’s ok in most situations…but not when it comes to cancer. Cells communicate with the world around them via signals they receive through their membranes which are conducted to their nuclei by various pathways…15 at last count. One is especially important: MAPK/ERK (not the Mod from Oz)…and that cancer cells grown in culture (mouse cancer cells) have dysregulation of this pathway in 85% of all cancer types. In the cancerous cells, it turns out that...
So happy this is happening to the “We’re making changes to help you tag photos even though you didn’t ask” folks. Apparently, the “social network” violated Illinois privacy laws: Not providing written notification that his biometric data was being collected or stored. It is also unlawful to collect biometric data in the state without clearly stating the purpose for which that data is being collected, along with notification of how long it would be stored for. ...
Through State Dep’t. emails, Russian sources were able to obtain confidential material on the President’s schedule and calls. It is unclear what else they might have obtained, and I doubt the White House will be very forthcoming as to details. This isn’t the first time either, and it’s generally through an unclassified system and then crosses over to the classified systems. Beyond that, security people who have been trying to extricate the Russian hackers from t...
I’m also betting it’s a development that isn’t far off at all…because Opera very recently acquired SurfEasy which provides an easy to use VPN for mobile devices and desktops. Why would Opera acquire such a company if it didn’t intend to integrate it with its browser somehow? There were hopes that Mozilla would integrate Tor anonymity software into Firefox…but Mozilla declined. Well, it really wouldn’t have been a hard thing to do since Tor already uses a version (ESR) of Fi...