Hacking and Linux Go Together Like 2 Keys in a Key Pair

Ever since taking an interest Linux, with the specific aim of better understanding and enhancing my personal digital security, I have been fascinated by hacker conferences. As soon as I learned of their existence, I made a point of keeping tabs on the major conferences so I could browse through the latest videos in their archive once each one wraps up. I thought that was the closest I would get to such an event, but a couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to attend one for the first time: Chicago's THOTCON.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2sfbF1p
via

Android Creator Launches a Phone of His Own

Essential, a company founded by Andy Rubin, the "father of Android," has pulled off the wraps on a new high-end smartphone. The Essential Phone, priced at $699, includes radios for connecting to all major U.S. carriers. The unit has an almost edge-to-edge display that wraps around the 8-MP selfie camera at the front. Built around a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, the Essential Phone comes with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. For durability, the phone has a titanium and ceramic body, which allows it to survive drops with nary a blemish.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2qGqg3Z
via

MariaDB Offers a Bigger Box of Transactional Tools

MariaDB last week announced the availability of MariaDB TX 2.0, a fully functional open source transactional database solution for modern application development and enterprise use cases. MariaDB TX offers a comprehensive package of technology and services, including feature-rich new releases of MariaDB Server and MariaDB MaxScale, which close the functional gap between open source and proprietary offerings. It is part of a MariaDB's larger effort to offer complete solutions to support specific workload needs, whether transactional, analytical or developer-focused.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2sjq5fY
via

A Better World President MarySue Hansell: Getting Real With a Virtual Do-Good Game

"We saw that there was a lack of kindness, a lack of empathy ... and we thought it would be nice if we could use technology to do something about it," said A Better World President MarySue Hansell. "We thought Facebook offered a wonderful opportunity to use a large technical platform to create a virtual world that would have a big impact, with a game that emphasizes positive thinking and good habits. Basically, we wanted to combine the popularity of video games and the Facebook platform, and we were all avid followers of positive psychology."

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2rBKKji
via

Will Future Autonomous Cars Fly Like Birds or Tunnel Like Moles?

It is kind of amazing how much advancement is going on in the autonomous car space. A year ago, we were mostly talking about cars that seemed comparatively boring, because they just drove on the surface. How quaint -- how 2016. Now when we mention "boring," we may be talking about Elon Musk's new underground tunneling idea. However, a little company called "Airbus" disagrees. It plans to start testing its autonomous flying car this year in Silicon Valley -- I expect so it can buzz Musk's Tesla plant there.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2rOi2eI
via

Kaspersky to US: Check Our Source Code

Cybersecurity expert Eugene Kaspersky reportedly has volunteered to turn over his company's software source code to allay fears about possible ties with the Russian government. Kaspersky made the offer public at CeBIT Australia last week. Some U.S. officials have expressed concerns that Kaspersky Lab might have a close working relationship with the Russian government. Kaspersky five years ago replaced a number of high-level managers with people who had ties to Russia's military or intelligence services, according to reports.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2r81zis
via

Microsoft's Mixer Could Shake Up the Streaming Game

Microsoft on Thursday announced Mixer, a rebranded version of its game-streaming service previously known as "Beam." In addition to the name change, the service will include a number of new features designed to attract more gamers. The added features will unlock new possibilities for social streaming, while also helping viewers find specific content across the service, according to Microsoft. New co-streaming functionality will allow four PC streamers to combine their respective broadcasts into a single split-screen stream.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2qphZkI
via

New GitHub Marketplace Showcases Integrators, Speeds Development

GitHub earlier this week launched GitHub Marketplace, featuring apps from more than a dozen integrators, at the GitHub Satellite conference. The platform allows developers to review and purchase new tools that do everything from helping to manage projects, to automating code building, testing code quality, or monitoring the impact of code changes. The marketplace allows developers to start using the tools collected there without setting up multiple accounts or multiple payment methods. Launch partners include Waffle.io, CircleCi and others.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2r04gmj
via

Main Surface Pro Improvements Are Beneath the Surface

Microsoft on Tuesday announced a refresh of its Surface Pro tablet-laptop computer. Although Microsoft said the fifth generation of the unit has been redesigned from the inside out with more than 800 new custom parts, the Surface Pro looks similar to its predecessor. "If you were looking for a major redesign of Surface, this isn't it," said Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research. Nevertheless, Microsoft has made some significant improvements in the tablet cum laptop. Battery life has been boosted to 13.5 hours.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2rV1DRO
via

Getting Serious About Teen Smartphone Addiction

Parents don't need a poll to tell them their teenagers are addicted to smartphones. After all, smartphones are a permanent fixture rather than accessories for kids of all ages these days. Even so, polls move these everyday observances from anecdotal to official problem when the numbers tilt in that direction -- and a Common Sense Media poll hit full tilt. The fact that 59 percent of parents said their teens were addicted to mobile devices was not surprising. However, the fact that 50 percent of teens admitted they were addicted was shocking.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2qbrZ5W
via

Leaked Docs Spotlight Complexity of Moderating Facebook Content

The public this weekend got a rare view into how Facebook tries to keep offensive and dangerous content offline. Leaked confidential documents exposed the secret rules by which Facebook polices postings on issues such as violence, hate speech, terrorism, pornography, racism and self-harm, as well as such subjects as sports fixing and cannibalism. More than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts were leaked. Facebook has defended its moderation efforts, saying that its primary goal is keeping people on Facebook safe.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2q7dS1v
via

How Deep Learning Could Fix Trump and Healthcare

Nvidia earlier this month launched a massive new push for intelligent machines, including what is likely the most expensive volume workstation in the world designed for this purpose. IBM, which has a tight relationship with Nvidia, launched a quantum computing processor that has a good chance of massively increasing the speed and intelligence of thinking systems. IBM also has been the most aggressive in promoting the concept that systems such as these could have a dramatic effect on the performance of people who use them.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2rLIzWi
via

Nvidia Is Off to the Autonomous Car Races

Nvidia recently announced that Toyota will use its Drive PX AI car computer platform for advanced autonomous vehicles slated for introduction over the next few years. Nvidia is combining breakthroughs in AI and high-performance computing to build Nvidia Drive PX, the brain of the autonomous car, said CEO Jensen Huang. "It's also noteworthy that the [partnership] announcement states that it is to deliver artificial intelligence hardware and software technologies," noted Ian Riches, Strategy Analytics' global automotive practice director.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2qFVlbs
via

Report: Cybersecurity Dangerously Lax at Mar-a-Lago

Internet security at Mar-a-Lago -- the private club President Trump owns and has dubbed the "Southern White House" -- is weak, based on a recent investigation. Trump has used the resort to meet with staffers and foreign heads of state on official business. In February, he took a call about a North Korean ballistic missile launch in Mar-a-Lago's dining room, with members and waiters present and able to overhear the conversation. In April, he tracked an attack he ordered on Syria from a makeshift situation room at Mar-a-Lago.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2r1hnpZ
via

Data Watchdog Cautions Google and UK Health Partner

A British data watchdog has raised questions about whether it was appropriate for a healthcare trust to share data on 1.6 million patients with DeepMind Health, an AI company owned by Google. The trust shared the data in connection with the test phase of Streams, an app designed to diagnose acute kidney injuries. However, the sharing reportedly was performed without an appropriate legal basis. The UK's National Data Guardian addressed the issue in a letter to Stephen Powis, the medical director of the Royal Free Hospital in London.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2q15Umf
via

Feren OS: A Linux Desktop Game-Changer

Feren OS is a polished and well-stocked Linux distro that comes close to being an ideal replacement for Microsoft Windows and macOS. In fact, this impressive Linux OS is a very attractive replacement for any Linux distro. The only impediment to this assessment is dislike of the Cinnamon desktop. Feren OS does not give you any other desktop options. However, it comes with a wide assortment of configuration choices that let you tweak the look and feel into almost any customized appearance you could want.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2rwAg1f
via

Google Pushes AI, Machine Learning to the Front

Addressing thousands of developers at the annual Google I/O conference on Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai outlined the company's new strategy to transition from mobile first to artificial intelligence and machine learning. The goal is to equip the company's line of digital assistant products and services to anticipate the needs of users, and comprehend sights and sounds in ways never before possible on a massive scale. Google's deep learning and computer vision capabilities have advanced dramatically, according to Pichai.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2qXckXX
via

Wearable Tech Can Detect Life-Threatening Heart Problems

Cardiogram last week announced that it has developed a preliminary algorithm to use with the Apple Watch and Android Wear devices to detect atrial fibrillation with higher accuracy than previously validated detection methods. Atrial fibrillation, or AF, affects about 2.7 million Americans, and increases the risk of stroke by five times. Overall, it causes about 15 percent of strokes. Cardiogram trained a deep neural network using heart rate readings taken from Apple Watches. The company sent 200 AliveCor mobile electrocardiogram devices to people diagnosed with AF.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2pOICE9
via

Crate.io Packs New Features, Services Into DB Upgrade

Crate.io has announced an upgrade to its open source CrateDB, and introduced a commercial version. The database now is available as a managed service as well. CrateDB 2.0 features clustering enhancements and SQL improvements. The enterprise edition adds authentication and authorization features for enhanced security, which are not provided in the open source version. It also includes performance-monitoring tools and support for user-defined query functions to enable more advanced in-database analytics, said Andy Ellicott, CMO at Crate.io.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2rganWe
via

HPE Unveils Huge Single-Memory Computer Prototype

HPE on Tuesday introduced the world's largest single-memory computer as part of The Machine, its research project into memory-driven computing. The computer has 160 T-bytes of memory, and HPE expects the architecture to allow memory to scale up to 4.096 yottabytes. The memory is spread across 40 physical nodes that are interconnected using a high-performance fabric protocol. The computer runs on an optimized Linux-based operating system running ThunderX2, Cavium's flagship second-generation dual socket-capable ARMv8-A workload optimized SoC.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2pWM3nB
via

Google's New Mobile OS Will Have a Distinctly Non-Linux Hue

Google has been developing a new open source OS called "Fuchsia" for smartphones, tablets and other devices, which could be unveiled as early as this summer. Little has been revealed about the new OS since it first came to light last year. However, new details that surfaced last week have been making the rounds. Fuchsia apparently will move Google away from its long association with Linux, as it is based on a new microkernel called "Magenta." Google plans to dump not only the Linux kernel, but also the General Public License, it appears.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2rdACN4
via

Nintendo Readies Mario for E3 Spotlight

Nintendo will provide numerous activities and spotlight its in-development titles at next month's E3 in Los Angeles. However, it once again has decided not to host a traditional press event, despite the fact that Nintendo was one of the first companies to establish the tradition of holding a pre-show briefing for institutional investors, analysts and the media. Competitors including Sony and Microsoft soon followed suit, and third-party publishers, including Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, recently joined in.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2qt5fv1
via

Dell's 'Alice' Will Guide Women Through VC Wonderland

One of the interesting things at Dell EMC World last week came from Karen Quintos, the most powerful woman at Dell. Karen is responsible for its Entrepreneur in Residence program, which, among other things, focuses on equipping and helping woman entrepreneurs. Dell Technologies apparently has created "Alice," a female-focused artificial intelligence focused on helping support and drive innovative firms backed by women. This is important, because it appears that only 3 percent of venture capitalist-funded new firms are founded by women.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2qoscQ5
via

Nvidia Embraces Deep Neural Nets With Volta

At this year's GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia's premier conference for technical computing with graphic processors, the company reserved the top keynote for its CEO Jensen Huang. Over the years, the GTC conference went from a segment in a larger, mostly gaming-oriented and somewhat scattershot conference called "nVision" to become one of the key conferences that mixes academic and commercial high-performance computing. Jensen's message was that GPU-accelerated machine learning is growing to touch every aspect of computing.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2pGKHNJ
via

Microsoft Debuts Smarter Cloud at Build

Microsoft executives, led by CEO Satya Nadella, introduced a series of enhancements to the company's critical data and cloud services at the kickoff of its annual Build conference on Wednesday, demonstrating new ways to expand adoption of artificial intelligence, personal digital assistants and other innovations. Nadella told conference attendees that there will be more than 25 billion intelligent devices in the world by 2020, and the role of developers will be to extend new technologies to meet that challenge.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2q8peRj
via

The IoT's Scramble to Combat Botnets

With shadowy botnet armies lurking around the globe and vigilante gray-hat actors inoculating susceptible devices, the appetite for IoT security is stronger than ever. "If you throw IoT on a con talk, you've got a pretty good chance to get in," remarked information security professional Jason Kent, as he began his presentation at Chicago's Thotcon conference last week. While the vulnerabilities he described may not have been the ones researchers find the most thrilling, they served to illustrate just how much work remains to be done.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2qYrOdG
via

Gadget Ogling: Amazon Gives Fashion Advice, Snacks Get Musical, and Coffee Tables Get Smart

Amazon's Echo system, which brought Alexa to tables and countertops as a hub for your home, now has evolved into something a little more visually minded. I don't mean the brand new Echo Show -- it's the Echo Look that has caught my eye. The Echo Look has a built-in camera that captures both audio and video. That might prove incredibly valuable for parents who can't grab their phone and open its camera in time to record whatever a young 'un is doing. Amazon has different ambitions for its Echo Look, though -- to help you choose your outfits.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2qXMEtH
via

Amazon Adds Show to Echo's Tell

Echo isn't just for sound anymore. Amazon on Tuesday announced Echo Show, a new version of its popular smart speaker that comes with a 7-inch color touchscreen, 5-inch front-facing camera and dual 2-inch Dolby speakers. The unit is priced at $230 -- or two for $330 -- and will start shipping June 28. With its screen, it can show YouTube videos, access home security cameras, display photos and scroll lyrics as you listen to songs from streaming services like Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeartRadio and others.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2qUkC2f
via

Flaw in Intel Chips Could Open Door to Botnet Armies

A 7-year-old flaw in Intel chips could enable hijackers to gain total control of business computers and use them for malicious purposes. The Intel AMT vulnerability is the first of its kind, according to Embedi, which released technical details about it last week. Attackers could take advantage of the flaw to get full control over business computers, even if they were turned off, provided they were plugged into an outlet, according to the firm, which makes security products for embedded and smart devices.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2pwFR6d
via

Raspberry Pi Fans Can Build Their Own AI Voice Assistant

Google and AIY Projects have launched an open source DIY artificial intelligence Voice Kit for Raspberry Pi hobbyists. The AIY Voice Kit includes hardware for audio capture and playback, connectors for the dual mike daughterboard and speaker, GPIO pins to connect low-voltage components such as micro servos and sensors, and an optional barrel connector for a dedicated power supply. The Voice Kit can use cloud services such as Google Assistant SDK, which is enabled by default, or it can use the Cloud Speech API or run completely on-device.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2q1sCxJ
via

The Massive Unintended Consequences of Self-Driving Cars

Car residual prices are collapsing, based on an alert that crossed my desk last week, and it struck me that we haven't considered much the secondary impacts of having self-driving cars, and the changes that will result from turning automobiles into four-wheeled elevators. Many industry players are treating self-driving cars much like cruise control: a nice-to-have option that will make driving much easier and safer. There are a lot of industries that will be impacted by this, though, both positively and negatively.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2pXjwSD
via

BlackBerry KEYone's Success Hinges on Physical Keyboard Longing

The first reviews of the new KEYone BlackBerry handset appeared this week, and the early consensus is that this device will appeal to BlackBerry fans who want its familiar physical QWERTY keyboard coupled with the functionality of Google's Android OS. This handset technically is not a true BlackBerry -- it is the first device from TCL since it entered a licensing agreement with BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion. TCL's license agreement covers the name and hardware patents, including the QWERTY keyboard.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2pRlsvR
via

Google Neutralizes Docs Phishing Scam

A phishing scam that surfaced earlier this week used Google Docs in an attack against at least 1 million Gmail users. However, that amounted to fewer than 0.1 percent of Gmail users were affected, according to the company. Google last year put the number of active monthly Gmail users at more than 1 billion. Google shut down the phishing scam within an hour, it said, through both automatic and manual actions. It removed the fake pages and applications, and it pushed updates through Safe Browsing, Gmail and other anti-abuse systems.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2piA5VA
via

A Taste of Linux From a Sample Disk Platter

Since Linus Torvalds developed the Linux kernel, there has been an explosion of distributions that can be categorized into several broad classes. The ecosystem is truly expansive. There are hundreds of distributions out there, but each category has some that have become emblematic. Here's a brief look at a few. My hope is that by showcasing some of these Linux standouts, you will appreciate what makes them special, and get inspired to take a deeper dive yourself. Ubuntu is one of the most iconic distributions of Linux, period.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2pESy1k
via

Hulu Aims to Reinvent Live TV Experience

Hulu on Wednesday announced a new live-streaming television service for $39.99 per month, which will place the company in direct competition with newly launched services from DirecTV Now, YouTube and other OTT content providers. The Hulu with Live TV beta will offer 50 channels of live-streaming television -- including sports, news, entertainment, children's programming and local network affiliates -- along with the existing Hulu on-demand video, without set-up costs or hidden fees.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2p1G9G7
via

Ultimate Edition Linux: Rough Road to a Nice Destination

Ultimate Edition has a lot going for it. However, the latest release, version 5.4, also reflects numerous missteps that developers of a seasoned Linux distro should avoid. Ultimate Edition is a fork of two popular Debian-based Linux families -- Ubuntu and Linux Mint -- that aimed to take the best of both Linux entities and blend in a fresh mix of visually stimulating features. Ultimate's developers took a path that diverged somewhat from the two new desktop environments that were the hallmarks of its forked heritage.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2oZ1mjM
via

Apple May Be Prepping Siri for Smart Home Duty

Odds appear good that Apple will be joining Amazon and Google in the smart speaker competition with a Siri-powered device it plans to introduce at WWDC next month. The new home-AI product reportedly will have excellent acoustics with one woofer and seven tweeters, and the processing power of an iPhone 6. Its price tag likely will be higher than Amazon's Echo, which sells for $179. The speaker may have a camera, and it likely will control other devices -- locks, lights, appliances, curtains and such -- by voice commands issued through Siri.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2pFN98B
via

Study Finds Gender Bias in Open Source Community

Gender bias affects contributions to the open source community, according to a paper published Monday. Female programmers' suggestions for code changes in open source projects -- called "pull requests" -- were accepted more often than those of their male counterparts when gender was unspecified. However, that changed when the gender of a pull request's author could be identified. Authors who could be identified by name or a profile picture as women had lower pull request acceptance rates than those who could be identified as men.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2pFggej
via

Nintendo Drops New Portable on Market as Switch Sales Take Hold

Nintendo last week introduced a new contender in the increasingly hot portable gaming competition. The New Nintendo 2DS XL will make its debut on July 28 at a mid-range price of $149.99. It will slot in as the company's third portable gaming system, right between its entry-level 2DS and more robust 3DS XL. The 2DS XL has the same large screen as the 3DS XL and can play all the games made for the Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS; however, it will display them in 2D. The device is smaller than the 3DS XL, but it has the same amount of power and provides built-in NFC support for amiibo cards as well as figures.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2quz6ml
via

What People Don't Get About Tesla

Tesla is like Apple in that it represents a revolution in thinking. Although everyone seems to focus on the electric power plant, that is really a small part of the Tesla revolution, and I'm convinced that if Musk were to launch an almost-identical company but with gas engines, it would cut through the market like a hot knife through butter. In terms of volume, the electric part isn't as much a sales accelerant as it is an impediment. Although Tesla's valuation exceeds GM and Ford at times, old-time car company executives believe it will fail.

from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2oYB0cX
via