Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Sketchy crowdfunded privacy router gets a new corporate master (update)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/11/sochule-buys-anonabox/

Anonabox

Remember Anonabox, the internet privacy router that was outed as a rebranded Chinese device and booted off of Kickstarter for fraud before it headed to Indiegogo? Well, it's getting another lease on life. Sochule, which is best known for its social hotel app HelloTel, tells us that it has snapped up the Anonabox team. The new parent company won't say much about what's happening next until a South by Southwest event on Friday. However, it's stressing that Anonabox founder August Germar is maintaining a similar role -- it apparently doesn't mind the controversies surrounding Germar and his networking gadget.

The Anonabox crew is promising to clear the air surrounding its "issues" at the event, by explaining why Kickstarter cancelled its campaign and showing off real live demo units. Indiegogo orders are already shipping, the company says. It's good to see the company taking those concerns head-on rather than staying silent on the matter. With that said, it's not certain that you'll get straightforward answers. Germar was caught claiming to be more involved in Tor (the anonymizing network that makes Anonabox possible) than he actually was, and this was after the Kickstarter fiasco -- it's not certain that he and his team are ready to tell the whole story.

Update: We've since been in touch with Sochule, which claims that it conducted "thorough vetting" before the acquisition. It also maintains that Tor executive director Andrew Lewman confirmed Germar's role at the privacy project.

Filed under: Networking, Internet

Source: Anonabox

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Article: After 3 Years And $64M In Seed Funding, Onshape Launches The Mother Of All Products

Behind every product is a product, almost invariably a computer-aided design (CAD) software package known as Solidworks. If you are a designer and want to draft a belt buckle for a new handbag, you have to use this software to carefully extrude the metal contours so that it is ready for manufactu...

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/09/onshape-launches-mother-of-all-products/

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PayPal acquires Israeli company that can predict future malware

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/11/paypal-security-center-israel/

It's always good news when a service that processes a lot of cash improves its security measures. PayPal, for instance, has just established a security center in Israel by acquiring a local company called CyActive. The company already has a Fraud and Risk Detection Center in Tel Aviv, but CyActive is a totally different beast: it "specializes in technology that can predict how malware will develop." It's sort of like Minority Report's PreCrime, except it uses predictive analytics instead of human precogs to foresee new cybersecurity threats. The startup's employees will now be in charge of implementing technology that will protect the payment platform from future cyberattacks.

The online payment processor is far from being the first company to expand into Israel by acquiring startups. Israel, especially Tel Aviv, has a thriving tech community, many of which specialize in cybersecurity. PayPal didn't mention how much it paid to snap up CyActive, but earlier reports suggest that the acquisition cost the company $60 million.

Filed under: Misc

Source: PayPal

Monday, March 09, 2015

drag2share: Google just added something to Android that could reduce phone theft

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/NYMFrYO--RA/google-updates-lollipop-android-51-2015-3

Nexus6Motorola

Google is rolling out its first major Android update since it launched its new operating system back in November.

The most interesting improvement is a new feature that could help drive down phone theft.

With Device Protection turned on, your phone will stay locked until you sign in with your Google account — even if the phone gets reset to factory settings. If your phone gets stolen, thieves won't be able to steal your data and the phone will essentially be a brick.

Apple introduced a similar feature — which it called Activation Lock — in iOS 7 and it has driven iPhone thefts down 40% in San Francisco and 25% in New York. Device Protection will likely have the same effect for people who own Lollipop-running devices like Google's latest Nexus 6.

It also added a few new features, like support for multiple SIM cards, high-definition voice calling, and a way to make your phone more secure.

The multiple SIM-card support will be particularly useful in Android One markets, where people may want to share the same phone among multiple family members. The update also lets users join Wi-Fi networks and control Bluetooth devices through the Quick Settings menu.

The 5.1 update also improves Lollipop's performance and stability overall. When Lollipop 5.0 launched, Google called it its largest, most ambitious OS update ever, but it still had a bunch of bugs that Google has finally ironed out.

Althou gh all these improvements are nice, barely anyone will get to use them. Only 3.3% of Android devices are currently running Lollipop.

Also, Google's announcement doesn't say anything about whether or not 5.1 fixes one of the biggest gripes about Lollipop: that it changed the way Android's silent mode works.

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Apple has invented a new kind of gold (AAPL)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-watch-special-gold-ceramic-alloy-2015-3

king tut gold ancient egypt

On Monday, Apple is finally going to tell us a lot more about the long-anticipated Apple Watch. Namely: how much it costs.

Predictions for the price of the coveted gold "Edition" version of the Apple Watch are ranging as high as $10,000 (or even higher!) — but there are suggestions it could cost significantly less. Why? Because, as Dr. Drang points out on Leancrew, Apple says it has invented a new kind of gold.

We know the watch is going to be 18-karat gold. But 18K gold isn't pure gold — it's an alloy of three parts gold to one part other material.

What Apple has done is produce a new patented alloy that contains less gold per volume while retaining the same 3:1 ratio and 18K classification. The other material isn't one of the standard metals used in alloys; it's ceramic, which is less dense. Dr. Drang on Leancrew explains this in more detail (emphasis ours):

How can this be? It’s because Apple's gold is a metal matrix composite, not a standard alloy. Instead of mixing the gold with silver, copper, or other metals to make it harder, Apple is mixing it with low-density ceramic particles. The ceramic makes Apple's gold harder and more scratch-resistant — which Tim Cook touted during the September announcement — and it also makes it less dense overall.

As developer Marco Arment points out on his blog, this reduced gold content opens the door ! to a sig nificantly cheaper Apple Watch Edition than people are speculating. "The uncomfortable issue of an extremely expensive watch that's completely obsolete in a few years would all be significantly less problematic if the Edition was priced closer to $2,000-$3,000," he writes. "We don't know yet if Apple will do that, but it sure looks like they can."

Apple design chief Jony Ive also talked about Apple's special gold in a recent profile in the Financial Times. He explained how Apple's new gold methods made it "twice as hard as standard gold."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's How The Apple Watch Works

This simple flow chart illustrates how low oil prices seep through the global economy (USO, OIL)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/effects-of-low-oil-prices-chart-2015-3

Some analysts have described the oil crash of late 2014 as the most important economic event since the financial crisis.

In February, Citi's Ed Morse said West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices could fall as low as $20 per barrel from its triple-digit level we saw last summer.

To help us understand how all this fits into the big picture, Morse's team offers this flowchart that shows all the effects that low oil prices continue to have on the global economy.

citi oil

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 9 animated maps that will change the way you see the world

'Minecraft' no longer risks opening a big security hole on your PC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/09/minecraft-reduces-java-risks/

As a matter of course, Minecraft has required that you install Java's run-anywhere code base -- a big problem when that tends to introduce security exploits and annoying adware. However, the construction game should be considerably safer thanks to a low-key update in recent weeks. The Windows edition of Minecraft (OS X is coming later this year) now installs a standalone version of Java that's used only while you're playing. If you want, you can scrub the full version of Java without losing access to your blocky masterpieces. And the kicker? If you haven't been keeping on top of your software updates, the game may run smoother at the same time. It's not urgent that you get the upgrade, but it's definitely worth considering if you only bother with Java for the sake of living in Mojang's virtual world.

Filed under: Gaming, Internet, Software, Microsoft

Source: Minecraft, How-To Geek

Friday, March 06, 2015

That Decades-Old FREAK Security Flaw Affects Every Version of Windows

Source: http://gizmodo.com/freak-attack-a-dangerous-security-flaw-caused-by-us-go-1689331567/1689842048/+ericlimer

A few days ago, computer scientists revealed a wide-spread security exploit called FREAK. At first it was thought to be a vulnerability confined to Android devices and Macs, but it turns out that it affects Windows machines too.

This Origami Donut's Hole Stays the Same Size However Much You Squash It

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-origami-donuts-hole-stays-the-same-size-however-mu-1689807749

A structure whose internal dimensions remain the same regardless of the external forces applied to it sounds fanciful—but that's exactly what this high-tech piece of origami does.

Thursday, March 05, 2015

A Perfume That Smells Like RosesâBut Is Actually Made from Yeast

Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-perfume-that-smells-like-roses-but-is-actually-made-f-1689526675

A rose is a rose is a rose, except when it's actually a yeast. A company called Gingko BioWorks in Boston is partnering with French fragrance company Robertet to create a genetically-modified yeast that makes the rose oil used in perfumes.

Article: Stephen Wolfram writes nifty IoT data store for his nifty software stack

One of the challenges associated with the internet of things is figuring out where to put all that data. If you have dozens of connected devices talking to the cloud (and that is a big if) you've got to think about where that data lives, how to normalize it and how to grant others access to it so...

https://gigaom.com/2015/03/04/stephan-wolfram-writes-nifty-iot-data-store-for-his-nifty-software-stack/

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Wednesday, March 04, 2015

HTC Vive: Virtual Reality That's So Damn Real I Can't Even Handle It

Source: http://gizmodo.com/htc-vive-virtual-reality-so-damn-real-that-i-cant-even-1689396093

I saw the future today. I mean that. I got the chance here at MWC to try the new VR headset that Valve and HTC are developing. Is it good? It's absolutely incredible. This thing is just...my god you guys I can't even.

Government finds the FAA is vulnerable to hacks

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/04/the-faa-is-vulnerable-to-hacks/

UPGRADES TO DIA

On the scale of extremely disconcerting government revelations, this isn't PRISM, but damn if it isn't alarming. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a scathing report on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) air traffic control systems. The FAA is basically just asking to be hacked thanks to its lackadaisical approach to security and software updates. Things are so bad, that relying on servers that have past their "end-of-life" date is probably the least concerning revelation made by the GAO. The government also found that FAA employees were sharing passwords through unencrypted communications channels, and had failed to patch out of date software with three-year-old security flaws.

The GAO report states right off the bat that, despite the FAA's efforts to improve security "significant security control weaknesses remain, threatening the agency's ability to ensure the safe and uninterrupted operation of the national airspace system." Any effort to prevent, detect or combat an intrusion by hackers is basically undermined by the agency's failure to fully implement a security program required under a law passed in 2002.

If you're not alarmed by all this, you should be. Think about it: This is the agency in charge of directing traffic for over 2,000 planes in the air at any given moment. (Planes, you know, the metal tubes hurtling through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour, each filled living human beings.) And they're relying on hardware that isn't supported by the manufacturer and left security flaws with simple fixes go unpatched for three years.

Senators John Thune and Bill Nelson were among those who quickly demanded answers from the FAA and the Transportation Department. So far the response has been disappointing, with the FAA saying its working on the problem, but offering little in the way of concrete solutions.

Filed under: Transportation

Via: Ars Technica

Source: GAO

Article: Watch Mozilla preview WebGL 2, the first major update to plugin-free 3D graphics in the browser

There were a lot of announcements at Game Developer Conference in San Francisco today, but one flew under the radar: a preview of WebGL 2. Mozilla gave us a sneak peek of what will one day power games and other intensive applications in the browser. WebGL, which stands for Web Graphics Library, i...

http://venturebeat.com/2015/03/03/watch-mozilla-preview-webgl-2-the-first-major-update-to-plugin-free-3d-graphics-in-the-browser/

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Tuesday, March 03, 2015

drag2share: Stratos' all-in-one payment card should work anywhere in the US

source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/03/stratos-universal-payment-card/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

Stratos Bluetooth payment card

Many "universal" payment cards... well, aren't. They either don't work everywhere or only hold a limited number of cards, which leaves you out of luck when you're trying to add one more loyalty program. Stratos thinks it has this problem licked, though. Its new Bluetooth Connected Card promises "100 percent compatibility" with payment systems in the US, and it can hold an unlimited number of cards that you control through a mobile app. You also shouldn't have to worry about a thief going on a shopping spree if you lose your card, since you can tell it to automatically lock down if it's not close to your phone for a while.

The pricing model is different, to boot. Instead of buying the card outright, you pay for subscriptions ($95 for one year, $145 for two). This will let you get a new card every year, whether it's a replacement or an upgrade. Eventually, you should also get perks like virtual card downloads and location-based recommendations. You might not relish the idea of paying more on top of whatever fees your existing cards carry, but Stratos might be worthwhile if you really can leave most of your cards at home. And unlike some of its rivals, it's not stuck in development limbo -- shipments start as soon as April.

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