Tech News

SOYLENT GREEN

ArsTechnia: Soylent is here.
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Computer World: How many patches did MS issue in August?  Take a guess.
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This is why you delete SPAM without ever opening it. Security Week:

A Paris-based malware researcher known as Benkow has discovered more than 700 million records used by the Onliner spambot on a misconfigured server. The records comprise a large number of email addresses, passwords and SMTP configurations.
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The email target lists used for malware campaigns are not random, but methodically built. The spammer uses the spambot to send out apparently harmless emails. Benkow gives this example:

"Hello, Champ {friend|champion\enthusiast}! How {are you|is your day}?

{My name is|I'm} Natalia. Do you believe in {fate|destiny}?

Love is inseparable fellow of hope. {Sorry for|Pardon} my English, but I hope you'll {understand|get} that..."

However, the email contains a single pixel, invisible gif used to fingerprint the recipient device.

You're not going to find fate, destiny, love, romance, a fling or bad Engel-eesh in your SPAM. Well, maybe the bad Engel-eesh.
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Technocracy on-board about Google censorship.
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ZD Net: What to expect from this fall's Windows 10 update. Umm - lemme guess; more patches?
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Technocracy: Machines should never be granted "Rights". Right?

But no machine will ever ”think like a human.” Our thought processes are not solely computations. They involve the unquantifiable aspects of being alive[.]

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Some of teh funny-Give it Love: Technically correct incorrect answers.

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Venture  Beat:  Pay for things... With your mouth.  (No...noooo...get your mind outta the gutter😎).
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BGR: For $25, this device claims to double your online speed.
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UberGizmo: You no longer have to teach your dog to fetch a can of beer for you because...this refrigerator will bring it to you. And it's voice activated.
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Extreme Tech: Sharp's new, 70-inch television. Available 2018.
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And there was much rejoicing! For the Linux crowd; Beta News: Manjaro Gellivara distro now available...final 32-bit release.

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C|Net: How wireless networks held-up during Hurricane Harvey. Surprisingly solid, though more needs to be done. Great article.
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Geek: FRB. Fast Radio Bursts. 

Breakthrough Listen, a project that scans the skies for possible signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, observed 15 FRBs in a repeating pulse just Monday.
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What makes them odd is that they repeat, but without any recognizable pattern[.]

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No poison darts needed. This would make for a great high-tech, James Bond, assassination plot. Hacking Goldfinger's pacemaker? Security Week: 465,000 St. Jude Pacemakers recalled. Vulnerable to being hacked.

...the pacemaker’s authentication algorithm, [can] be compromised or bypassed to allow a nearby attacker to issue unauthorized commands to the pacemaker.

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ZD Net: Bitcoin ATMS. 
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TechCrunch: Heir Cook supports "Dreamers".

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Wired: The secrets of FEMA. (Good stuff, no conspiracy theories.)

The cornerstone of FEMA’s secret world is a bunker in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains that has served as the civilian government’s primary emergency hideaway since the 1950s.

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Fixed link to C\Net story. 8/5/2017