Miscellaneous Tech News
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Lina Khan: The 32-year-old taking on Big Tech
On Tuesday, 32-year-old Lina Khan was sworn in as chair of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The role is a hugely powerful one, which protects consumers from bad business practices and companies from unfair competition. And when it comes to unfair competition, there is one sector that has been singled out by Democrats and Republicans alike: Big Tech. Worryingly for technology giants, Ms Khan has been one of their most vocal critics. Ms Khan was born in the UK and moved to the US as a child. In an interview with BBC Hardtalk in January, she talked about how she started getting interested in competition law as a policy researcher after graduating. -
The relatives frozen in time on Google Street View
Social-media users are sharing Google Street View images featuring friends and relatives who have since died.
It was sparked by a post on the Twitter account Fesshole, which asks followers to submit anonymous confessions - many of which are explicit. The original poster said they had searched the map platform for images taken before their father had died. Launched in the US in 2007, Google Street View has since rolled out worldwide. The BBC's Neil Henderson shared an image of his late father at his front door. "I have literally hundreds of pics of my dad but the Google Street View is quite affecting, like he's still around," he wrote. Another tweeter showed an image of a couple holding hands in the street - his parents, he said, who had died several years ago. -
Microsoft’s Linux repositories were down for 18+ hours
The outage prevented Linux installation or upgrade of any Microsoft software.
Yesterday, packages.microsoft.com—the repository from which Microsoft serves software installers for Linux distributions including CentOS, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and more—went down hard, and it stayed down for around 18 hours. The outage impacted users trying to install .NET Core, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft SQL Server for Linux (yes, that's a thing) and more—as well as Azure's own devops pipelines. We first became aware of the problem Wednesday evening when we saw 404 errors in the output of apt update on an Ubuntu workstation with Microsoft Teams installed. The outage is somewhat better-documented at this .NET Core issue report on Github, with many users from all around the world sharing their experiences and theories. -
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Facebook tests ads in virtual reality headsets
Facebook has begun displaying ads in its Oculus virtual reality headsets, despite the founder of the platform saying it would never do so.
In what the social network described as an experiment, ads will begin to appear in a game called Balston with other developers rolling out similar ads. It said it would listen to feedback before launching virtual reality ads more widely. It also revealed it is testing new ad formats "that are unique to VR". In 2017, shortly after Facebook bought Oculus, creator Palmer Luckey told the Next Web: "We are not going to track you, flash ads at you, or do anything invasive." But in a blog on Oculus's website, the firm said: "We're exploring new ways for developers to generate revenue - this is a key part of ensuring we're creating a self-sustaining platform that can support a variety of business models that unlock new types of content and audiences." Users will be able to hide specific ads or those from a certain advertiser and Facebook promised that its privacy policy would remain the same. "Facebook will get new information, like whether you interacted with an ad, and if so, how... for example, if you clicked on the ad for more information or if you hid the ad." It encourages customers to share their feedback via the Oculus support page. -
@mlnews time to move to Steam Index for sure!
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@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Facebook tests ads in virtual reality headsets
Facebook has begun displaying ads in its Oculus virtual reality headsets, despite the founder of the platform saying it would never do so.
In what the social network described as an experiment, ads will begin to appear in a game called Balston with other developers rolling out similar ads. It said it would listen to feedback before launching virtual reality ads more widely. It also revealed it is testing new ad formats "that are unique to VR". In 2017, shortly after Facebook bought Oculus, creator Palmer Luckey told the Next Web: "We are not going to track you, flash ads at you, or do anything invasive." But in a blog on Oculus's website, the firm said: "We're exploring new ways for developers to generate revenue - this is a key part of ensuring we're creating a self-sustaining platform that can support a variety of business models that unlock new types of content and audiences." Users will be able to hide specific ads or those from a certain advertiser and Facebook promised that its privacy policy would remain the same. "Facebook will get new information, like whether you interacted with an ad, and if so, how... for example, if you clicked on the ad for more information or if you hid the ad." It encourages customers to share their feedback via the Oculus support page.If they're going to start doing that, then the prices of apps in the Oculus store need to come down a good bit -- not that I actually expect them to!
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@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Facebook tests ads in virtual reality headsets
Facebook has begun displaying ads in its Oculus virtual reality headsets, despite the founder of the platform saying it would never do so.
In what the social network described as an experiment, ads will begin to appear in a game called Balston with other developers rolling out similar ads. It said it would listen to feedback before launching virtual reality ads more widely. It also revealed it is testing new ad formats "that are unique to VR". In 2017, shortly after Facebook bought Oculus, creator Palmer Luckey told the Next Web: "We are not going to track you, flash ads at you, or do anything invasive." But in a blog on Oculus's website, the firm said: "We're exploring new ways for developers to generate revenue - this is a key part of ensuring we're creating a self-sustaining platform that can support a variety of business models that unlock new types of content and audiences." Users will be able to hide specific ads or those from a certain advertiser and Facebook promised that its privacy policy would remain the same. "Facebook will get new information, like whether you interacted with an ad, and if so, how... for example, if you clicked on the ad for more information or if you hid the ad." It encourages customers to share their feedback via the Oculus support page.Great... so they're reducing it to another ad slinging paltform.
I guess that's all FB is. A place to go to see ads and maybe argue with strangers. -
@dafyre said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Facebook tests ads in virtual reality headsets
Facebook has begun displaying ads in its Oculus virtual reality headsets, despite the founder of the platform saying it would never do so.
In what the social network described as an experiment, ads will begin to appear in a game called Balston with other developers rolling out similar ads. It said it would listen to feedback before launching virtual reality ads more widely. It also revealed it is testing new ad formats "that are unique to VR". In 2017, shortly after Facebook bought Oculus, creator Palmer Luckey told the Next Web: "We are not going to track you, flash ads at you, or do anything invasive." But in a blog on Oculus's website, the firm said: "We're exploring new ways for developers to generate revenue - this is a key part of ensuring we're creating a self-sustaining platform that can support a variety of business models that unlock new types of content and audiences." Users will be able to hide specific ads or those from a certain advertiser and Facebook promised that its privacy policy would remain the same. "Facebook will get new information, like whether you interacted with an ad, and if so, how... for example, if you clicked on the ad for more information or if you hid the ad." It encourages customers to share their feedback via the Oculus support page.If they're going to start doing that, then the prices of apps in the Oculus store need to come down a good bit -- not that I actually expect them to!
What SHOULD happen is people start buying something else. Vote with your wallet, it's the only real voice you have. If you buy an Oculus now, you are voting with your wallet that you want the ads.
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Snapchat removes controversial speed filter
Snapchat is removing a feature that displays how fast a user is travelling when taking a picture or video footage.
Parent company Snap said it was because the speed filter was "barely used". But the company is being sued by the parents of two young men, who allege the filter encouraged their sons to drive at dangerous speeds and three deaths were due to "negligent design". Snap said it had already "disabled the filter at driving speeds", capping it at 35mph (56km/h), and added a warning. "Nothing is more important than the safety of our Snapchat community," a representative added. -
Even creepier COVID tracking: Google silently pushed app to users’ phones
Massachusetts launched a COVID tracking app, and uh, it was automatically installed?!
Over the weekend, Google and the state of Massachusetts managed to make creepy COVID tracking apps even creepier by automatically installing them on people's Android phones. Numerous reports on Reddit, Hacker News, and in-app reviews claim that "MassNotify," Massachusetts' COVID tracking app, silently installed on their Android device without user consent. Google gave the following statement to 9to5Google, and the company does not deny silently installing an app. -
Now that China has all but banned cryptocurrencies, GPU prices are falling like Bitcoin
https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/22/as_china_shutters_cryptomining_plants/
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Monero emerges as crypto of choice for cybercriminals
Untraceable "privacy coin" is rising in popularity among ransomware gangs.
For cybercriminals looking to launder illicit gains, bitcoin has long been the payment method of choice. But another cryptocurrency is coming to the fore, promising to help make dirty money disappear without a trace. While bitcoin leaves a visible trail of transactions on its underlying blockchain, the niche “privacy coin” monero was designed to obscure the sender and receiver, as well as the amount exchanged. As a result, it has become an increasingly sought-after tool for criminals such as ransomware gangs, posing new problems for law enforcement. The rise of monero comes as authorities race to crack down on cyber crime in the wake of a series of audacious attacks, notably the hack on the Colonial Pipeline, a major petroleum artery supplying the US east coast. -
Ahoy, there’s malice in your repos—PyPI is the latest to be abused
Open source repositories can be vectors for badness, so look before you run.
Counterfeit packages downloaded roughly 5,000 times from the official Python repository contained secret code that installed cryptomining software on infected machines, a security researcher has found. The malicious packages, which were available on the PyPI repository, in many cases used names that mimicked those of legitimate and often widely used packages already available there, Ax Sharma, a researcher at security firm Sonatype reported. So-called typosquatting attacks succeed when targets accidentally mistype a name such as typing “mplatlib” or “maratlib” instead of the legitimate and popular package matplotlib. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Ahoy, there’s malice in your repos—PyPI is the latest to be abused
Open source repositories can be vectors for badness, so look before you run.
Counterfeit packages downloaded roughly 5,000 times from the official Python repository contained secret code that installed cryptomining software on infected machines, a security researcher has found. The malicious packages, which were available on the PyPI repository, in many cases used names that mimicked those of legitimate and often widely used packages already available there, Ax Sharma, a researcher at security firm Sonatype reported. So-called typosquatting attacks succeed when targets accidentally mistype a name such as typing “mplatlib” or “maratlib” instead of the legitimate and popular package matplotlib.Same as with closed source. No news.
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US tycoon McAfee found dead in Spanish prison
Anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been found dead in his cell at a Barcelona prison.
Just hours earlier, Spain's National Court had agreed to extradite him to the US to face tax evasion charges.
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@hobbit666 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
US tycoon McAfee found dead in Spanish prison
Anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been found dead in his cell at a Barcelona prison.
Just hours earlier, Spain's National Court had agreed to extradite him to the US to face tax evasion charges.
wow
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The final years of John McAfee's controversial life
In 2012, the game appeared to be up for John McAfee.
After going on the run in Belize, he had been arrested in Guatemala after his neighbour was found dead. The police described him as a "person of interest" in the case. However, as in many situations in his life, he somehow managed to wiggle free. McAfee shot to fame in the 1980s, after launching an anti-virus software company he named after himself. His success brought with it money - but throughout his life, McAfee seemed almost as good at losing money as he was at generating it. In 2008, he had moved to Belize, where he ended up living next to man called Gregory Faull. -
Dell SupportAssist bugs put over 30 million PCs at risk
Security researchers have found four major security vulnerabilities in the BIOSConnect feature of Dell SupportAssist, allowing attackers to remotely execute code within the BIOS of impacted devices.
According to Dell's website, the SupportAssist software is "preinstalled on most Dell devices running Windows operating system," while BIOSConnect provides remote firmware update and OS recovery features. The chain of flaws discovered by Eclypsium researchers comes with a CVSS base score of 8.3/10 and enables privileged remote attackers to impersonate Dell.com and take control of the target device's boot process to break OS-level security controls. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
The final years of John McAfee's controversial life
In 2012, the game appeared to be up for John McAfee.
After going on the run in Belize, he had been arrested in Guatemala after his neighbour was found dead. The police described him as a "person of interest" in the case. However, as in many situations in his life, he somehow managed to wiggle free. McAfee shot to fame in the 1980s, after launching an anti-virus software company he named after himself. His success brought with it money - but throughout his life, McAfee seemed almost as good at losing money as he was at generating it. In 2008, he had moved to Belize, where he ended up living next to man called Gregory Faull.And those are just the final years. In his youth he made that evil trainwreck of a company that is named after him that still dogs the industry with its terrible "borders on malware" products. His name is more associated with bloatware and being a total creepoid than anything else.
