- Joined
- Feb 23, 2016
- Messages
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Just needed a SAM, then no problemo.
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Technology News You Can Use
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
Just needed a SAM, then no problemo.
Dang things are scary now. Back in the day I've lost a couple smokeys giving me chase on my cycle.
Back around 06, 2 or 3am, running around 135 on the speedo, I blew past a state trooper. Don't know what he was thinking giving chase, I saw his lights go on but in under a 30 seconds he had faded from view, no way he'd catch me unless it was with the radio. Quick jumped off at the next exit, pulled in some burger joint a few blocks down, and hid the bike behind a dumpster. LOL Hung out having a burger for close to an hour then back on the road.
Sal R Scottfree LOL
My hero's have always been cowboys, still are it seems.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1489673381099390&id=264181933648547
Thousands of G! How much does a speaker drive unit experience?
Thousands of G! How much does a speaker drive unit experience?
Plug in some numbers and get an educated guess:
http://www.amesweb.info/SinusMotion/SinusMotion.aspx
Interesting, thanks.
A New Mexico man was arrested for allegedly beating his girlfriend and threatening to kill her — after Amazon’s Alexa called police, authorities said.
https://nypost.com/2017/07/10/alexa-calls-cops-on-man-allegedly-beating-his-girlfriend/
https://nypost.com/2017/07/10/alexa-calls-cops-on-man-allegedly-beating-his-girlfriend/
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For those of you in areas with lightning...
https://www.lightningmaps.org
Here, now:
Showing strikes in the last hour. Yellow most recent, fading to dark brown as time passes.
The gray circles (animated) are an estimate of the thunder wavefront as it expands from the strike location. It seems to be reasonably accurate - often within a second or two for closer (and audible) strikes.
There's a network of broadband RF receivers, with synchronized clocks, that detect the strokes, and report to a server, which takes the time differences and calculates a location.
1 microsecond sync accuracy (example) could locate strikes within about 982 feet.
The lines in the little movie below trace back from the strike to the detector locations.
https://www.screencast.com/t/c1BB4vfcMq7u
https://www.lightningmaps.org
Here, now:
Showing strikes in the last hour. Yellow most recent, fading to dark brown as time passes.
The gray circles (animated) are an estimate of the thunder wavefront as it expands from the strike location. It seems to be reasonably accurate - often within a second or two for closer (and audible) strikes.
There's a network of broadband RF receivers, with synchronized clocks, that detect the strokes, and report to a server, which takes the time differences and calculates a location.
1 microsecond sync accuracy (example) could locate strikes within about 982 feet.
The lines in the little movie below trace back from the strike to the detector locations.
https://www.screencast.com/t/c1BB4vfcMq7u
That's all well and good but IMHO, I think people are nuts for paying to have these BUGS and SNITCHES sitting in their homes putting everything that's spoken on the internet.
That's beyond anything I can understand.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #69
I heard the sheriff office actually doesn't encourage such use of smart devices as they get a ton of false calls from lines in movies playing through adjacent TVs! "Call the police...."
OP
- Thread Starter
- #70
Man, this is going to put a big damper on business trips to China and the subsidiary there communicating with their home office outside of China. VPNs are part and parcel of corporate platforms for secure communication between remote computers and headquarter data centers. And you might as well now assume China government can capture and watch anything you do there.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/354858/c...l&utm_campaign=securitywatch&utm_medium=title
China Will Block All VPNs by February 2018
It will be up to the state-run telecommunications companies to ensure all VPNs are blocked, but even if they don't succeed, using a VPN will be a lot harder in China next year.
The Chinese government wants complete control over what its citizens are allowed to view on the Internet. That's why the Great Firewall exists, and why many services we enjoy in the west can't be accessed from within China. But the Great Firewall is far from perfect, and a big thorn in its side is the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
The state has been attempting to clamp down on the use of VPNs by individuals for some time, but their use is still widespread. Last year Fang Binxing, known as the father of the Great Firewall, publicly used a VPN to bypass his own creation and in so doing caused embarrassment.
According to Bloomberg, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, have been given a deadline of February 1, 2018 by which time all VPN connections must be blocked. In doing so, Twitter, Facebook, and Google services will be completely off limits, as will many more China disapproves of.
As well as the demands put on ISPs in the country, the Ministry of Industry and Information technology plans to clamp down on unauthorized VPNs operating within China. Businesses can continue to operate them, but only internally.
Whether the government is capable of achieving its goal of no VPN use is unclear, but one thing is for sure, using a VPN will become much more difficult in China next year. Anyone visiting should assume many services will be unavailable and plan for that.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/354858/c...l&utm_campaign=securitywatch&utm_medium=title
China Will Block All VPNs by February 2018
It will be up to the state-run telecommunications companies to ensure all VPNs are blocked, but even if they don't succeed, using a VPN will be a lot harder in China next year.
The Chinese government wants complete control over what its citizens are allowed to view on the Internet. That's why the Great Firewall exists, and why many services we enjoy in the west can't be accessed from within China. But the Great Firewall is far from perfect, and a big thorn in its side is the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
The state has been attempting to clamp down on the use of VPNs by individuals for some time, but their use is still widespread. Last year Fang Binxing, known as the father of the Great Firewall, publicly used a VPN to bypass his own creation and in so doing caused embarrassment.
According to Bloomberg, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, have been given a deadline of February 1, 2018 by which time all VPN connections must be blocked. In doing so, Twitter, Facebook, and Google services will be completely off limits, as will many more China disapproves of.
As well as the demands put on ISPs in the country, the Ministry of Industry and Information technology plans to clamp down on unauthorized VPNs operating within China. Businesses can continue to operate them, but only internally.
Whether the government is capable of achieving its goal of no VPN use is unclear, but one thing is for sure, using a VPN will become much more difficult in China next year. Anyone visiting should assume many services will be unavailable and plan for that.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2016
- Messages
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- 37,715
A more handy version is the Weatherbug app on your phone. It includes the Spark lightning detector. It will alert you to strikes that get close and map them around wherever you and the phone are located. It also lists the nearest lightning strike in the last 30 minutes. For instance right now that is 60.9 miles from me. I'll surely get some at less than a mile later this afternoon.
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OP
- Thread Starter
- #72
This is a rather long and boring video but the start of it says it all: this is *real-time* generated photo realistic view of an apartment designed by an architect firm. It is all rendered inside Xbox and you can fully navigate it as he shows later. Two things are mind boggling: 1) how far we have come in power of computer graphics and 2) how the tools have advanced to allow creation of such a complex scene:
Look at the textures in fabrics, floor, etc. It is incredible considering it is all rendered in real-time. Even offline rendering would have been impressive with this level of detail.
Look at the textures in fabrics, floor, etc. It is incredible considering it is all rendered in real-time. Even offline rendering would have been impressive with this level of detail.
So, with a comfortable VR headpiece... I'm thinking something like half a ping-pong ball on each eye...
You map important parts of your real surroundings into something like the above. Make sure the faucet and door handles line up.
Raining outside? No, look, its sunny!
Who would you like that to be, knocking at the door?
Scary.
A Personal Matrix.
You map important parts of your real surroundings into something like the above. Make sure the faucet and door handles line up.
Raining outside? No, look, its sunny!
Who would you like that to be, knocking at the door?
Scary.
A Personal Matrix.
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Really impressive, I've not been keeping up with such stuff. The use of shadow is amazing, and the mimicking photography's flaws is fascinating, the depth of field, the blown highlights, it looks more real on the screen because it looks how we expect it to, not as it would in reality.
Don Hills
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Impressive indeed. The only immediate giveaway for me was where the tree meets the lawn. It doesn't look natural.
The Smokester
Active Member
Sorry. Been away so this is a bit late.
Not all sunshine and roses for Tesla. They are having problems getting repair parts and qualified repair shops for damaged Tesla's. Plus, minor cosmetic damage can be quite costly to fix because of the complexity under the skin.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...my-tesla-model-s-has-been-an-utter-night.aspx
https://www.google.com/amp/jalopnik.com/teslas-potential-body-shop-backlog-nightmare-1793269803/amp
And, their high crash safety rating is being called into question.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bu...ds-to-model-s-crash-test-findings-iihs-2017-7
Wondering how this will effect sales as the Model 3 trickles out.
Not all sunshine and roses for Tesla. They are having problems getting repair parts and qualified repair shops for damaged Tesla's. Plus, minor cosmetic damage can be quite costly to fix because of the complexity under the skin.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...my-tesla-model-s-has-been-an-utter-night.aspx
https://www.google.com/amp/jalopnik.com/teslas-potential-body-shop-backlog-nightmare-1793269803/amp
And, their high crash safety rating is being called into question.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bu...ds-to-model-s-crash-test-findings-iihs-2017-7
Wondering how this will effect sales as the Model 3 trickles out.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #78
Looks like they are taking action though: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thr...acement-part-delays.87179/page-4#post-2004525
OP
- Thread Starter
- #79
After a long hiatus to the determinant of PC consumers, AMD is back to compete with Intel at the high-end. If you are into video encoding and such, you now have dual choices with high-core CPUs: https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/13/amd-threadripper-price/
"AMD didn't have many details to share about its 16-core Ryzen Threadripper CPU when it was announced back in May, but now it's ready to spill the beans. The chip, officially known as the Threadripper 1950X, will sell for $999, the company announced today. It'll feature a base speed of 3.4GHz with a boost clock of 4GHz. But that's not all: AMD also revealed a $799 12-core Threadripper 1920X CPU, for extreme PC users looking to save a couple hundred bucks. Both chips, along with new motherboards, should be available in August.
While the 16-core Threadripper seemed like the fastest chip on the block when it was first announced, Intel quickly one-upped AMD at Computex with its 18-core i9 Extreme Edition. As usual, though, AMD holds the price advantage. That Intel CPU will run you $1,999, while its 16-core version is a slightly less crazy $1,799. Intel's chips sport base speeds of 3.3Ghz, with boost clocks up to 4.3GHz. If you're looking to get the most multi-threaded computing bang for your buck, AMD still looks like your best option.
Switching from extreme high-end to low-end computing, AMD also offered up a few details about its upcoming Ryzen 3 chips. Both models will be quad-core/quad-threaded processors based on their Zen architecture. The Ryzen 3 1300X will sport speeds between 3.5Ghz and 3.7Ghz, while the Ryzen 3 1200 will clock between 3.1Ghz and 3.4Ghz. The company isn't talking about pricing details yet, but you can expect the new chips to be cheaper than the mid-range Ryzen 5 and high-end Ryzen 7 CPUs."
"AMD didn't have many details to share about its 16-core Ryzen Threadripper CPU when it was announced back in May, but now it's ready to spill the beans. The chip, officially known as the Threadripper 1950X, will sell for $999, the company announced today. It'll feature a base speed of 3.4GHz with a boost clock of 4GHz. But that's not all: AMD also revealed a $799 12-core Threadripper 1920X CPU, for extreme PC users looking to save a couple hundred bucks. Both chips, along with new motherboards, should be available in August.
While the 16-core Threadripper seemed like the fastest chip on the block when it was first announced, Intel quickly one-upped AMD at Computex with its 18-core i9 Extreme Edition. As usual, though, AMD holds the price advantage. That Intel CPU will run you $1,999, while its 16-core version is a slightly less crazy $1,799. Intel's chips sport base speeds of 3.3Ghz, with boost clocks up to 4.3GHz. If you're looking to get the most multi-threaded computing bang for your buck, AMD still looks like your best option.
Switching from extreme high-end to low-end computing, AMD also offered up a few details about its upcoming Ryzen 3 chips. Both models will be quad-core/quad-threaded processors based on their Zen architecture. The Ryzen 3 1300X will sport speeds between 3.5Ghz and 3.7Ghz, while the Ryzen 3 1200 will clock between 3.1Ghz and 3.4Ghz. The company isn't talking about pricing details yet, but you can expect the new chips to be cheaper than the mid-range Ryzen 5 and high-end Ryzen 7 CPUs."
OP
- Thread Starter
- #80
Pretty interesting development in security world. For a while now researchers/hackers have been examining subcomponents in computers/phones that heretofore have thought to be just pieces of hardware with no vulnerability. Op to now the focus has always been to break the operating system and have it do something on behalf of a third party. This latest breach however, successfully goes after a WiFi controller inside countless iPhones and Android phones by Broadcom (leader in wireless silicon such as Wifi and Bluetooth).
Like many subcomponents these days, processors have been put in them which execute software. By examining the leaked source code for this processor, a bug was found that allows the capability to make it do anything from another Wifi device. The last step of causing the WiFi controller to control the operating system was not done but it seems pretty feasible.
FYI there are even attempts to go after mundane things like the analog digital converter which exist in every phone and computer! The idea would be through radio frequencies to cause it to do things it would normally not do. One example would be to create an audio sequence that triggers a bug in some audio player and with it, take control of the machine. No longer would you click on an audio file sent to you to take over your machine! This is one is long ways from being there but the level of scrutiny of computer/phone components is unprecedented. And is taking the manufacturers of these components by surprise because they have not had to worry about such things before.
Make sure you update your phones. My update from Samsung came yesterday for my S8+. Be sure to do this as I am sure countless hackers are going after this now they know it can be done.
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https://www.wired.com/story/broadpwn-wi-fi-vulnerability-ios-android/
IF YOU HAVEN'T updated your iPhone or Android device lately, do it now. Until very recent patches, a bug in a little-examined Wi-Fi chip would have allowed a hacker to invisibly hack into any one of a billion devices. Yes, billion with a b.
[...]
Over the last weeks, both Google and Apple have rushed to patch that bug, which Artenstein calls Broadpwn. Without that fix, it would have allowed a hacker who comes within Wi-Fi range of a target not only to hack a victim's phone, but even to turn it into a rogue access point that would in turn infect nearby phones, quickly spreading from one device to the next in what Artenstein describes as the first Wi-Fi worm.
[...]
Broadpwn
Artenstein, a researcher for the security firm Exodus Intelligence, says he has suspected for years that Broadcom's Wi-Fi chip might offer new avenues into the guts of a smartphone. After all, the "kernel" of a modern phone—the core of its operating system—is now protected by measures like address space layout randomization, which randomizes code's location in memory to prevent a hacker from being able to exploit it, and data execution prevention, which prevents hackers from planting malicious commands in data to trick a computer into running them. They're locked down tight.
But Broadcom's Wi-Fi controllers have no such protections. And they're found across manufacturers and operating systems, from the latest Samsung Galaxy devices to every single iPhone. "Obviously, this is a much more interesting attack surface," Artenstein said in his Black Hat talk. "You don’t have to repeat your work. If you find one bug, you can use it plenty of places."
So about a year ago, Artenstein began the painstaking process of reverse-engineering the obscure firmware of Broadcom's chips. He was aided, he says, by an unexpected leak of the company's source code he found on Github, which Artenstein suspects was accidentally published by one of Broadcom's partners. And as he dug through the code, he quickly found opportunities for trouble. "If you look at these systems you find bugs like you used to in the good old days," Artenstein said.
He eventually spotted one crucial bug in particular, hidden in Broadcom's "association" process, which allows phones to search for familiar Wi-Fi networks before they connect to one. One part of the beginning of that handshake process didn't properly constrict a piece of data sent to it by the Wi-Fi access point back to the chip, a bug known as a "heap overflow." With a carefully crafted response, the access point could send data that corrupts the module's memory, overflowing into other parts of the memory to run as commands.
"You malform it in a special way that gives you the power to write anywhere in memory," Artenstein explains. That sort of overflow is vastly harder to exploit when a hacker is remotely attacking randomized, protected memory of modern operating systems, but worked perfectly in the memory of Broadcom's Wi-Fi module on smartphones. "It’s a pretty special bug," Artenstein says.
Because the flaw existed in the part of the Broadcom code that handles automatic communications between the phone and an access point, the entire process of taking over a Wi-Fi chip could occur without the user noticing anything at all amiss. To make matters worse, the attack could repurpose Wi-Fi chip as an access point itself, broadcasting the same attack to any vulnerable phones within range to exponentially spread through the smartphone world.
Artenstein notes, however, that he didn't go so far as to write the part of the attack that would spread from the Wi-Fi chip to the phone's kernel, though he believes that final step would be possible for motivated hackers. "For a real attacker with resources, it would not be an issue," Artenstein says.
Google pushed out an update for Android phones in early July, and Apple followed with an iOS fix last week, well before Artenstein revealed the full details of his findings in a blog post Wednesday.
Like many subcomponents these days, processors have been put in them which execute software. By examining the leaked source code for this processor, a bug was found that allows the capability to make it do anything from another Wifi device. The last step of causing the WiFi controller to control the operating system was not done but it seems pretty feasible.
FYI there are even attempts to go after mundane things like the analog digital converter which exist in every phone and computer! The idea would be through radio frequencies to cause it to do things it would normally not do. One example would be to create an audio sequence that triggers a bug in some audio player and with it, take control of the machine. No longer would you click on an audio file sent to you to take over your machine! This is one is long ways from being there but the level of scrutiny of computer/phone components is unprecedented. And is taking the manufacturers of these components by surprise because they have not had to worry about such things before.
Make sure you update your phones. My update from Samsung came yesterday for my S8+. Be sure to do this as I am sure countless hackers are going after this now they know it can be done.
-------
https://www.wired.com/story/broadpwn-wi-fi-vulnerability-ios-android/
IF YOU HAVEN'T updated your iPhone or Android device lately, do it now. Until very recent patches, a bug in a little-examined Wi-Fi chip would have allowed a hacker to invisibly hack into any one of a billion devices. Yes, billion with a b.
[...]
Over the last weeks, both Google and Apple have rushed to patch that bug, which Artenstein calls Broadpwn. Without that fix, it would have allowed a hacker who comes within Wi-Fi range of a target not only to hack a victim's phone, but even to turn it into a rogue access point that would in turn infect nearby phones, quickly spreading from one device to the next in what Artenstein describes as the first Wi-Fi worm.
[...]
Broadpwn
Artenstein, a researcher for the security firm Exodus Intelligence, says he has suspected for years that Broadcom's Wi-Fi chip might offer new avenues into the guts of a smartphone. After all, the "kernel" of a modern phone—the core of its operating system—is now protected by measures like address space layout randomization, which randomizes code's location in memory to prevent a hacker from being able to exploit it, and data execution prevention, which prevents hackers from planting malicious commands in data to trick a computer into running them. They're locked down tight.
But Broadcom's Wi-Fi controllers have no such protections. And they're found across manufacturers and operating systems, from the latest Samsung Galaxy devices to every single iPhone. "Obviously, this is a much more interesting attack surface," Artenstein said in his Black Hat talk. "You don’t have to repeat your work. If you find one bug, you can use it plenty of places."
So about a year ago, Artenstein began the painstaking process of reverse-engineering the obscure firmware of Broadcom's chips. He was aided, he says, by an unexpected leak of the company's source code he found on Github, which Artenstein suspects was accidentally published by one of Broadcom's partners. And as he dug through the code, he quickly found opportunities for trouble. "If you look at these systems you find bugs like you used to in the good old days," Artenstein said.
He eventually spotted one crucial bug in particular, hidden in Broadcom's "association" process, which allows phones to search for familiar Wi-Fi networks before they connect to one. One part of the beginning of that handshake process didn't properly constrict a piece of data sent to it by the Wi-Fi access point back to the chip, a bug known as a "heap overflow." With a carefully crafted response, the access point could send data that corrupts the module's memory, overflowing into other parts of the memory to run as commands.
"You malform it in a special way that gives you the power to write anywhere in memory," Artenstein explains. That sort of overflow is vastly harder to exploit when a hacker is remotely attacking randomized, protected memory of modern operating systems, but worked perfectly in the memory of Broadcom's Wi-Fi module on smartphones. "It’s a pretty special bug," Artenstein says.
Because the flaw existed in the part of the Broadcom code that handles automatic communications between the phone and an access point, the entire process of taking over a Wi-Fi chip could occur without the user noticing anything at all amiss. To make matters worse, the attack could repurpose Wi-Fi chip as an access point itself, broadcasting the same attack to any vulnerable phones within range to exponentially spread through the smartphone world.
Artenstein notes, however, that he didn't go so far as to write the part of the attack that would spread from the Wi-Fi chip to the phone's kernel, though he believes that final step would be possible for motivated hackers. "For a real attacker with resources, it would not be an issue," Artenstein says.
Google pushed out an update for Android phones in early July, and Apple followed with an iOS fix last week, well before Artenstein revealed the full details of his findings in a blog post Wednesday.
