Holdsworth

An anonymous reader shares a report: T-Mobile is opening up access to its Starlink-powered emergency texting service. The carrier announced on Wednesday that anyone with a compatible phone -- even AT&T and Verizon customers -- can sign up to text 911 over satellite for free. In July, T-Mobile launched its "T-Satellite" service to customers across the US for $10 per month, allowing both T-Mobile and non-T-Mobile customers to send messages, share their location, and access select apps over satellite. This service also includes texts to 911, but now, that's available for free.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The market for virtual and augmented reality products has developed slower than expected, but Microsoft is seeking to accelerate the sector by making it much easier for people to connect from different locations and with different kinds of devices. From a report: The ultimate goal of the new effort, dubbed Microsoft Mesh, is to allow, for example, a person in an office in New York using Facebook's Oculus VR headset to collaborate with a person in Seattle using Microsoft's HoloLens 2 glasses. Using Mesh-compatible hardware and software, the two people would be able to see virtual representations of each other appearing in their offices, talking and moving in real time as if they were present. And both would be able to see a common view of virtual charts or digital objects projected before them that they could change or manipulate. At least that's the vision that Microsoft demonstrated for the first time in public at its Ignite conference on Tuesday. Ultimately, Mesh could be used to connect users on a variety of VR gadgets, PC and Mac computers, and smartphones. But getting all the various hardware makers to agree to use Microsoft's standards may not be as easy as the company hopes. And while Microsoft's HoloLens and popular collaboration software like Teams and Office will be compatible with Mesh, other software developers also may be wary of depending on the company for such critical functionality. "This has been the dream for mixed reality, the idea from the very beginning," Alex Kipman, a Microsoft technical fellow working on the project, explained at the demonstration. "You can actually feel like you're in the same place with someone sharing content or you can teleport from different mixed reality devices and be present with people even when you're not physically together."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

U.K. authorities have launched an investigation into Apple's App Store over concerns it has a dominant role that stifles competition and hurts consumers. From a report: The Competition and Markets Authority said Thursday it was looking into "suspected breaches of competition law" by Apple. The announcement adds to regulatory scrutiny of the iPhone maker's app distribution platform, which is also the subject of three antitrust probes by the European Union's executive Commission. Apple said the App Store is "a safe and trusted place for customers" and a "great business opportunity for developers." The investigation was triggered in part by complaints from app developers that Apple will only let them distribute their apps to iPhone and iPad users through the App Store. The developers also complained that the company requires any purchases of apps, add-ons or upgrades to be made through its Apple Pay system, which charges up to 30% commission. "Millions of us use apps every day to check the weather, play a game or order a takeaway," Andrea Coscelli, the authority's CEO, said in a statement. "So, complaints that Apple is using its market position to set terms which are unfair or may restrict competition and choice -- potentially causing customers to lose out when buying and using apps -- warrant careful scrutiny." The watchdog said it would consider whether Apple has a "dominant position" in app distribution for Apple devices in the U.K., and, if it does, whether the company "imposes unfair or anti-competitive terms on developers" that results in less choice or higher prices for consumers buying apps and extra.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Wi-Fi Alliance announced the new Wi-Fi 6E terminology for 802.11ax operation in the 6 GHz band last month. At CES 2020, Broadcom announced a number of Wi-Fi 6E access point solutions. Today, Broadcom is announcing the BCM4389 client Wi-Fi 6E chipset. From a report: Consumers can expect to see the chipset in the next generation of high-end smartphones. We have already covered the advantages of Wi-Fi 6E in terms of lower latency, higher throughput, and the availability of more number of 160 MHz channels in our coverage of the Wi-Fi Alliance announcement at CES. The BCM4389 builds upon Broadcom's success with the BCM4375, which happens to be the currently leading client Wi-Fi 6 chipset in the smartphone market. In addition to the new 6 GHz support with tri-band simultaneous operation and 160 MHz channel support, the BCM4389 also brings in additional power efficiency, thanks to its 16nm process technology and architectural improvements. The BCM4375 is a 28nm chipset with 2x2 2.4 GHz and 2x2 5 GHz support, while the new BCM4389 adds 2x2 6 GHz to the mix. The scanning radio accounts for the additional radio chain. The Bluetooth 5.0 functionality has also received a boost with MIMO support. Broadcom claims that the new implementation can reduce pairing time by a factor of 2 and also alleviate glitching issues when connected to Wi-Fi at the same time (compared to the BCM4375). The icing on the cake is that the MIMO support works with implicit beamforming ensuring that legacy Bluetooth devices stand to benefit too.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes Engadget: NASA is expanding its efforts to bring 3D printing to space. The agency has given Made In Space a $73.3 million contract to demonstrate the ability to 3D-print spacecraft parts in orbit using Archinaut One, a robotic manufacturing ship due to launch in 2022 or later. The vessel will fly aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket and 3D-print two 32-foot beams on each side, with each unfurling two solar arrays. The completed arrays could produce up to five times more power than the solar panels you normally find on spacecraft this size, NASA said... If successful, it could alter how NASA and others approach building and fixing spacecraft. This could lead to building spacecraft (albeit smaller ones at this stage) in orbit, of course, but it could also let space agencies launch small satellites that receive large power collectors once they're floating above Earth. It could also lead to fewer spacewalks by having robots build items that would otherwise require human involvement.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It’s Patch Tuesday, again. That is, if you run Microsoft Windows or Adobe products. Microsoft issued a dozen patch bundles to fix at least 54 security flaws in Windows and associated software. Separately, Adobe’s got a new version of its Flash Player available that addresses at least three vulnerabilities.

The updates from Microsoft concern many of the usual program groups that seem to need monthly security fixes, including Windows, Internet Explorer, Edge, Office, .NET Framework and Exchange.

According to security firm Qualys, the Windows update that is most urgent for enterprises tackles a critical bug in the Windows Search Service that could be exploited remotely via the SMB file-sharing service built into both Windows workstations and servers.

Qualys says the issue affects Windows Server 2016, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 as well as desktop systems like Windows 10, 7 and 8.1.

“While this vulnerability can leverage SMB as an attack vector, this is not a vulnerability in SMB itself, and is not related to the recent SMB vulnerabilities leveraged by EternalBlue, WannaCry, and Petya.” Qualys notes, referring to the recent rash of ransomware attacks which leveraged similar vulnerabilities.

Other critical fixes of note in this month’s release from Microsoft include at least three vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s built-in browser — Edge or Internet Explorer depending on your version of Windows. There are at least three serious flaws in these browsers that were publicly detailed prior to today’s release, suggesting that malicious hackers may have had some advance notice on figuring out how to exploit these weaknesses.

As it is accustomed to doing on Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, Adobe released a new version of its Flash Player browser plugin that addresses a trio of flaws in that program.

The latest update brings Flash to v. 26.0.0.137 for Windows, Mac and Linux users alike. If you have Flash installed, you should update, hobble or remove Flash as soon as possible. To see which version of Flash your browser may have installed, check out this page.

The smartest option is probably to ditch the program once and for all and significantly increase the security of your system in the process. An extremely powerful and buggy program that binds itself to the browser, Flash is a favorite target of attackers and malware. For some ideas about how to hobble or do without Flash (as well as slightly less radical solutions) check out A Month Without Adobe Flash Player.

If you choose to keep Flash, please update it today. The most recent versions of Flash should be available from the Flash home page. Windows users who browse the Web with anything other than Internet Explorer may need to apply this patch twice, once with IE and again using the alternative browser (Firefox, Opera, e.g.).

Chrome and IE should auto-install the latest Flash version on browser restart (users may need to manually check for updates in and/or restart the browser to get the latest Flash version). A green arrow in the upper right corner of my Chrome installation today gave me the prompt I needed to update my version to the latest.

Chrome users may need to restart the browser to install or automatically download the latest version. When in doubt, click the vertical three dot icon to the right of the URL bar, select “Help,” then “About Chrome”: If there is an update available, Chrome should install it then.

As always, if you experience any issues downloading or installing any of these updates, please leave a note about it in the comments below.

It’s kind of a pain to get out of the pool just to use the bathroom, plus chlorine is a disinfectant so it is fine to pee in the pool, right? Well, it turns out that might give you some health issues.

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Hosted by: Stefan Chin
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Sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/chemists-decree-dont-pee-in-the-pool/359659/
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es405402r
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12817713
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=167&contentid=uric_acid_urine
http://www.pahlen.com/users-guide/ph-and-chlorine
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcsneng/neng1053.html
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/molecule-of-the-week/archive/t/trichloramine.html
http://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i31/chemical-reactions-taking-place-swimming.html
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/2014/mar/pool-pee/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22739682
https://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_257450.html
https://www.analytic-news.com/press/2015/124.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-asthma-swimmers-idUSKBN0MT2I620150402
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750039.html

Image Sources:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Uric_acid#/media/File:Uric_acid3D.png
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Urea_3D_spacefill.png
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Purine#/media/File:Purine_structure.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_trichloride#/media/File:NCl3_dimensions.svg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanogen_chloride#/media/File:Cyanogen-chloride.png

chicksdaddy shares this report from The Security Ledger: The healthcare sector in the U.S. is in critical condition and in dire need of an overhaul to address widespread and systemic information security weakness that puts patient privacy and even safety at risk, a Congressional Task Force has concluded... On the controversial issue of medical device security, the report suggests that the Federal government and industry might use incentives akin to the "cash for clunkers" car buyback program to encourage healthcare organizations to jettison insecure, legacy medical equipment... The report released to members of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Friday concludes that the U.S. healthcare system is plagued by weaknesses, from the leadership and governance of information security within healthcare organizations, to the security of medical devices and medical laboratories to hiring and user awareness. Many of the risks directly affect patient safety, the group found. It comes amid growing threats to healthcare organizations, including a ransomware outbreak that affected scores of hospitals in the United Kingdom. Joshua Corman, the Director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at The Atlantic Council, argues that currently "Healthcare is target rich and resource poor," adding a special warning about the heavy usage of internet-connected healthcare equipment. "If you can't afford to protect it, you can't afford to connect it."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes CNBC: The so-called "big five" -- Apple , Alphabet Class A shares, Microsoft , Facebook and Amazon -- lost more than $97.5 billion in market value between the close on Thursday and the close on Friday, according to FactSet, dragging the Nasdaq to its worst week of the year. Shares of Apple fell nearly 4 percent on Friday, while the other four companies fell more than 3 percent. For most of the day, only 3 stocks in the S&P 500 tech sector were in the green: IBM , Teradata and Western Union . Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet all traded more than 2 times their 30-day average volume... "They're just plain overbought," said David Bahnsen founder, managing director and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, a private wealth management firm. "They are extremely stretched from a valuation standpoint." CNN notes the drop occurred "after a Goldman Sachs analyst questioned this year's run-up in the industry's five biggest names." They also added that "The top five techs today account for 13% of the market value weighting in the S&P 500, even though they are only 1% of the companies in the index."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares an article: Official today, the ARM Cortex-A75 is the new flagship-tier mobile processor design, with a claimed 22 percent improvement in performance over the incumbent A73. It's joined by the new Cortex-A55, which has the highest power efficiency of any mid-range CPU ARM's ever designed, and the Mali-G72 graphics processor, which also comes with a 25 percent improvement in efficiency relative to its predecessor G71. The efficiency improvements are evolutionary and predictable, but the revolutionary aspects of this new lineup relate to artificial intelligence: this is the first set of processing components designed specifically to tackle the challenges of onboard AI and machine learning. Plus, last year's updates to improve performance in the power-hugry tasks of augmented and virtual reality are being extended and elaborated. [...] ARM won't just be powering machine learning with its new chips, it'll benefit from ML too. The new designs benefit from an improved branch predictor that uses neural network algorithms to improve data prefetching and overall performance.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In a case which could affect other app-based startups, Uber will seek to convince Europe's top court next week that it is a digital service, not a transport company. The outcome could determine whether app-based startups should be exempt from strict laws meant for regular companies. From a report on Fortune:The European Commission is trying to boost e-commerce, a sector where the EU lags behind Asia and the United States, to drive economic growth and create jobs. The U.S. taxi app, which launched in Europe five years ago, has faced fierce opposition from regular taxi companies and some local authorities, who fear it creates unfair competition because it is not bound by strict local licensing and safety rules. Supporters however say rigid regulatory obligations protect incumbents and hinder the entry of digital startups which offer looser work arrangements to workers in the 28-country European Union looking for more flexibility, albeit without basic rights.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Don't forget to check out: How To Evaluate Magic: The Gathering Cards: https://youtu.be/MXeh2SYAHuA
and The Magic: The Gathering CD-ROM Adventure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeZE3UWNoOE

Special thanks to my amazing guest AshlenRose! Be sure to check out all her awesome on Twitter: @AshlenRose

Shadows Over Innistrad Preview / Spoiler Video: https://youtu.be/k9jR4_23GTo
An Old Man Doesn't Want To Be Spoiled! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiWbzAOyQzI
Ludevic Laboratories Inc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbZUVL4wXeM

Come hang out and play Magic with me on Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/tolariancommunitycollege

TCC Shirts! Playmats! - http://www.tolariancommunitycollege.com/

Support The Professor - Patreon -https://www.patreon.com/tolariancommunitycollege

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Music Courtesy Of:
"Vintage Education" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Have you ever wondered how customers could slide their cards through and enter their PINs on a compromised payment terminal without even noticing? While some skimming schemes involve Bluetooth transmitters and require disassembling the device, installing a skimmer can be as simple as snapping an identical part over an existing card reader.

That’s what independent security reporter Brian Krebs saw recently: a skimmer pulled from a payment terminal at a Safeway store. You’ve probably used dozens of Verifone brand terminals just like it in your shopping life. The skimmer is very simple: it looks exactly like the parts of the device that it snaps over, only it captures users’ card numbers and PINs almost invisibly.

Payments still go through fine, and a retailer would only notice that something was amiss while checking their equipment, if a customer complained, or if the scammer were caught in the act while placing or removing the skimmer.

How can you protect yourself from invisible skimmers? The simplest way may be to use the chip reader instead of the magnetic stripe reader, as long as your bank has issued chip cards and the retailer has activated EMV payments. When that isn’t an option, try simply pulling on the device: a temporary cover will snap off.

Safeway Self-Checkout Skimmer Close Up [Krebs on Security]

An anonymous reader writes: Unfortunately the hard disk drive industry is not ready to go live with Heat-assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR). The technology is yet not reliable enough for mass production. Over the years, producers of hard drives, platters and recording heads have revealed various possible timeframes for commercial availability of drives with HAMR technology. Their predictions were not accurate. The current goalpost is set to year 2018. While solid state disks based on Flash memory keep seeing rapid improvements as well, HDDs still kick butt in scenarios where high areal density is more important than ripping transfer speeds. The areal density of HAMR products is predicted to exceed 1.5 Tb per square inch.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It’s not a very sexy thing to talk about, but sex ruts happen. Maybe something awkward happened to put you and your partner off of sex. Maybe you just got too comfortable with not doing it. Whatever the reason, this video (which is mildly NSFW, by the way) tells you how to get out of a rut with the Sensate Method.

Read more...

We’ve heard of people finding rare baseball cards hidden inside photo albums, a $3 piece of pottery at a tag sale that’s worth $.2. million, or otherwise happening upon other valuable artifacts when buying other items at rummage and garage sales. But the dream of finding hidden treasure came true in a very literal way for one surprised estate sale buyer.

A Texas antiques and collectibles buyer bought a dresser for less than $100 over the weekend at an estate sale in Missouri City, and noticed something odd and jangly, like a “metallic waterfall,” as he was loading it onto the truck to take it home.

“He asked for help loading it,” a member of the estate sale team told ABC News. “As soon as we laid it down, it started making all this racket on the inside.”

“And we opened it up and three of us looked in and it was like the Hardy Boys. Holy smokes, jackpot!” he told KHQ.com.

Holy smokes, jackpot indeed: A hidden drawer in the chest contained jewelry, diamonds, emeralds, gold and silver coins, paper money, stamps, Civil War medals, and lots of family valuables.

“When you look at the front of it, it looks like it has three obvious drawers with molding on the base, but the bottom has a secret drawer that opens up,” the buyer explained.

He won’t be able to hoard his treasure however — the estate sale company contacted the original owners, who were clueless as to the dresser’s contents. They were excited, to say the least.

In any case, the buyer says he’s just fine giving the treasure back.

“I bought the chest drawers. I didn’t buy those things,” he told ABC. “If I kept them, I would never feel right about it. There would be a cloud over the whole thing. It’s a feeling more than anything else.”

MAN FINDS TREASURE IN DRESSER BOUGHT AT TEXAS ESTATE SALE [ABC News]
Man finds hidden treasure in estate sale dresser [KHQ.com]

Whether you're sharing the holiday spirit or looking for a year-end deduction, lots of folks give to charity around this time of year. Before you donate, check with your employer to see if they'll match the donation.

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The best time to buy airplane tickets is Wednesday morning at 1am , but if that specific slot doesn't work for you, then stay up late and purchase airfare when everyone else is sleeping so you get a great deal.

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Joby's GorillaPod, the tripod that goes anywhere, is a nifty accessory to stabilize your camera. You could even make your own for cheap . Well, now you can attach magnets to it so it can stick to metallic surfaces, all for $5.

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He has chosen you, and you will be hunted.

Flickr user Skarjoko's Linux desktop looks great, and has us excited to spend a little more time outside now that the weather is turning warm in this half of the world. Here's how you can make your computer look like this.

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