IE is DEAD! GOOD!

PC World: Internet Explorer dies today, but its spirit lives on in Microsoft Edge.

The day has finally arrived:

Microsoft has killed off Internet Explorer. Or has it? The answer to that is: well, sort of.

Microsoft has said for years that it plans to replace the venerable Internet Explorer browser in favor of a more secure option: Microsoft Edge. Today, IE11 ends support for most users, which means that IE won’t receive any additional support or patches going forward.

If you're still using Internet Explorer, don't panic. Here's what you need to do.

..."Here's what you need to do..." - - - Uninstall IE and install ANY OTHER browser.

Gov. Cuomo welcomes Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation as public school overlords.

Yeah...Gates is the guy to solve defects in the educational system. He he has the "blueprint". 

The public school system can learn much from college dropout Bill Gates, who stole the DOS operating system (originally CP/M), whose vaccine killed thousands in India and whose entire lifetime of MS Win OS contained vulnerabilities inviting hacking, screen freeze, crashing and, of course, "turning it off and on again" to restore its functionality...sometimes...maybe, if the planets were all in the required alignment and high tide was at just the right amplitude.

Read through NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo thread @ NYGovCuomo:

Look, Gates is no Aristotle or Jonas Salk. He never will be. Not even close. Whatever he says on any issue, at best, can be interpreted as a casual observation and quickly dismissed; certainly nothing ever seriously considered and practiced in health, medicine and education.

Bill Gates Shills for China. "They missed some things."

Breitbart: Gates: Criticism of China Coronavirus Deception a ‘Distraction’.

During an interview that aired on Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,”  Microsoft co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates argued against a focus on China for allegations it mishandled the early stages of the coronavirus breakout and could have act early to have prevented the global pandemic.

Gates said it was not timely and it was also a “distraction.”

“I don’t think that’s a timely thing because it doesn’t affect how we act today,” Gates said. “You know, China did a lot of things right at the beginning, like any country where a virus first shows up. They can look back and say they missed some things.["]

 "[China] missed some things..."? It's like Gates is pulling an Ilhan Omar, "Some people did something."

China lied to the world about the timeline of the Coronavirus and, "they missed some things," is how Gates describes it? I guess it's not like rebooting a country would work. Turn China Off and On again? Will that fix things, Bill?

In other Gates-related news (I know he exited MS long ago), the April 14 Win Patch fixed a bunch of vulnerable stuff. Forbes:

The April 14 Patch Tuesday updates included fixes for a total of 133 vulnerabilities, including seven critical security flaws in Windows 10.
[.]
And bugs there seem to be, with one cumulative security fix[.]

Bill Gates Coronavirus Vaccine. Well, this can't be good.

BGR: Bill Gates-backed coronavirus vaccine enters human trial phase.

Digital Trends: Bill Gates will gamble billions to make a potential coronavirus vaccine.

VacTruth: (October 2014): India Holds Bill Gates Accountable For His Vaccine Crimes.

A recent report published by Health Impact News has reported that the Gates Foundation has found itself facing a pending lawsuit, due to an investigation that is being carried out by the Supreme Courts of India.
[.]
Gates Foundation, WHO, PATH, GAVI, UNICEF Behind Chad Vaccine Disaster.
[.]
The Gates Foundation and WHO Labeled Unethical by Medical Experts.
[.]
The Gates Foundation Blamed for 10,000 Vaccine-Related Deaths.
[.]
Conclusion

It is difficult to believe that, despite the mounting evidence outlining the many crimes against humanity that have been committed by the Gates Foundation, GAVI, UNICEF and PATH, Bill Gates is portrayed as a hero among many.

Yeah - the world needs a vaccine from this guy...

-
VacTruth Archived

Bloated Windows 10

Extreme Tech: Win 10 requires 32GB storage space.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it would begin using ~7GB of user hard drive space for the application of future updates. The advantage of this system is intended to be that it doesn’t break the update process halfway through by a system running out of space. The disadvantage is that it would eliminate virtually all of the storage available on small systems[.]

And more yadda yadda, blah blah the ExTech story writer goes on why Win 10 requiring 32GB storage isn't so bad...

But it's the comments at the link that are fun:

sola • 10 hours ago
What on Earth could need so much storage space for a baseline operating system?
[.]
Hard-core Linux people ridicule Ubuntu all the time for being bloated while a full blown Ubuntu x64 desktop installation is about ~8GB (1/4 of Windows) and that includes a full blown office suite, a proper web browser and a lot of usable cli and graphical tools.

ChromeOS also still works on 16GB machines and that includes a secondary partition for full-parallel, in-background OS updates.

Techutante @ sola • 5 hours ago
Eh, 2 TB hard drives are as cheap as 14-40 dollars. Get over it. Back when I started I ran my entire computer with Dos and Windows 3.1 on a 426 meg hard drive, of which windows took up approximately 35-50 megs[.]

John Galt @ Techutante • 4 hours ago
Sure thing, I'll just pop open that ultra slim laptop or tablet and de-solder the SSD and pop that 4TB drive in there... See the problem yet?

adamrussell @ sola 39 minutes ago
32 GB is pretty deep into the low end.

Uh, yeah - it sure as heck is deep in the low end.

@ Techutante, "Back when I started..." - - - then return to the days of DOS, Win 3.1, a 9.6 modem and those lovely, techno-gray dot-matrix printers. There's probably a good, used pre-owned horse and buggy for sale in Amish Country that may be of interest to you.

Fcuk...some people who defend Win and MS no matter how sub-par the OS. I do not understand.

 Ink well with Quill and Eight - and ONLY EIGHT- Crayons for you!

4Sysops: Windows 10 1903: defer upgrades in all editions, SAC-T removed, new reboot option:

After a lot of negative feedback about Windows 10 1809, which the manufacturer had to withdraw due to serious errors[.] ("A lot"? AYFKM? - DD)
[.]
Officially, the next release bears the version number 1903, but it will not be released until the end of May. Therefore, Microsoft also refers to it as the May 2019 update.

Well, MS has until midnight Tuesday to roll out their April patches. As for their May release being released during May, I wonder what Vegas odds are on that?

Tech News

Technocracy: GMO Food Will Stock Grocery Shelves Within 5 Years.

While ethicists [sic] debate the applications of blockbuster gene-editing tool Crispr in human healthcare, an inventor of the tool believes it has a more immediate application: improving our food.

I have one, essential question for those in the pro-GMO industry. If GMO food is as safe as Big GMO says, why then do they fight so diligently against their food being labeled as such? They'll reply with, "doing so presents a negative perception of our products, thus negatively affecting our sales." And? That's our problem?

Asbestos? Nah. Perfectly fine and safe, we were told for decades. Thalidomide? Perfectly safe, especially for pregnant mothers. Tobacco? Recommended by Doctors and dentists alike.

Now, here comes the GMO Train. We're just human guinea pigs for tech and science, aren't we?
- - -
TechNewsWorld: Samsung suspends launch of Galaxy Fold.

Samsung pumped the brakes on release of the US$1,980 phone after several reviewers reported problems with their units.
[.]
Reviewers for Bloomberg and YouTube reported their units began malfunctioning after they removed an integral part of the display, mistakenly thinking it was a plastic screen protector.

CNBC reviewer Todd Haselton wrote that he left the plastic film intact, but the display still started acting buggy. The left side of the flexible screen began to flicker consistently.

- - -
TechSpot: Screen time not recommended for infants, says World Health Organization.

Infants under the age of one shouldn’t be exposed to electronic screens of any type according to guidelines recently published by the World Health Organization.

The United Nations agency further notes that sedentary screen time (watching TV / videos or playing computer games) is not recommended for infants.

Was anyone aware of this? Who knew?
- - -
TechCrunch: Tesla reports $702 million loss in first quarter.

Tesla reported April 9 that it delivered 63,000 electric vehicles in the first quarter of the year, nearly a one-third drop from the previous quarter.
[.]
“Everyone expected a first quarter loss for Tesla, but nobody expected it to be this big,” Karl Brauer, executive publisher at Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader said in an emailed statement.

- - -
Ars Technia: Windpower-Turbines come to Massachusetts.

Turbines? What turbines? They blend in so well! And appear to be well-protected from vandalism or other acts of sabotage
- - -
Beta News: Samsung Galaxy View2 Android 2 tablet: It's "Colossal."

What we don't know at the moment is just when the Galaxy View2 will be released, or how much it will cost.

But at least we know it's Colossal.
- - -
BGR: Spoiler-free review of "Avengers: Endgame."
- - -
C|Net: Facebook facing fine that could exceed $5 Billion Dollars.

The FTC is looking into Facebook's privacy practices and determining if the company violated a legal agreement to keep user data private.
[.]
Still, Facebook's scandals didn't scare away advertisers or users. The company posted a better-than-expected $15.08 billion in sales in the first quarter and reported the number of users who logged on every month increased by 8%, to 2.38 billion.

- - -
TechTalks: What is ethical AI?

Human oversight means that no AI system should be able to perform its functions without some level of control by humans. This means that humans should either be directly involved in the decision-making process or have the option to review and override decisions made by an AI model.

- - -
Computer World: Where are the April Windows patches?

Answer: Due sometime in June. Maybe July.
- - -
Extreme Tech: Sony's 98-inch, 8K OLED TV.

The cutting edge of television technology will cost you[.]
[.]
This will be the 2019 flagship of the Sony television line and it ships in June. The Z9G measures 86.75 inches wide by 55.0 inches tall by 4.38 inches deep. For a cleaner look, it can be bracket-mounted to any wall that can support 208 pounds.

The price? $69,999.99.

- - -

ZD Net: Is your body hacker-proof?

Increasing numbers of implantable medical devices are now gaining internet connectivity, giving doctors the ability to monitor patients health remotely, and even update the devices to tweak a treatment plan. Unfortunately, that flexibility offers a way for hackers to hijack that hardware, and even potentially make changes to the way the devices work. While so far no attacks have been successful, proof-of-concept attacks have been available for years.

And while it might be tempting to hope that cybercriminals might see corrupting life-sustaining devices as a step too far, they haven't historically shown much of a conscience, cheerfully extorting money away from hospitals, for example, and putting patients at risk.

Tech News

Gizmodo: Big Tech is automating the climate crisis.

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all struck lucrative arrangements—collectively worth billions of dollars—to provide automation, cloud, and AI services to some of the world’s biggest oil companies, and they are actively pursuing more.

- - -
Geek: Hot Abe Lincoln statue goes viral.

Someone recently discovered a shirtless Abraham Lincoln statue in California, and the Twitter community can’t handle it.
[.]
Zack Stentz posted a picture of the steamy statue on his Twitter account. “Reminder that the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse has a statue of Abraham Lincoln where he’s a shirtless young stud"[.]

 "Hot" Abe Lincoln statue; Photo Credit: Zack Stentz/Twitter

- - -
Technocracy: Pepsi massive layoffs sparked by automation.

By PepsiCo’s own estimates, the company’s layoffs are expected to be a multimillion-dollar project in 2019.

- - -
Tech Dirt: Google fesses up to hidden microphone in Nest.

The problem: more privacy-conscious Nest owners weren't aware that the Nest home security base stations had a microphone in the first place, raising questions about whether Google was using the microphone for data collection and monetization in some capacity.

- - -
Extreme Tech: Audi cars tell you what speed to drive to hit all green lights.

Audi is revving up its slick Traffic Light Information (TLI) system. Now Audi TLI can tell you the best speed to drive in order to hit a string of green traffic lights, without having to suddenly speed up to make a light on yellow, or brake hard if you can’t speed up enough.

- - -
19 Years Ago...Win2000 updates appear. Beta News:

Microsoft has announced a slew of updates for Windows 2000, just one day after their next flagship operating system hit store shelves.

And...MS has been releasing endless series of patches ever since then.
- - -
Gizmodo: Once thought extinct, world's giant bee found ALIVE.

[Since 1981], no one had documented any encounters with the huge bee.

That all changed when a search team visiting the North Moluccas last month laid eyes on the bee for the first time in 38 years.

More - C|Net: HUGE BEE alert.

The report describes the bee as being about the size of an adult thumb, with a wingspan of about 2.5 inches (6.35 centimeters). That means it's four times larger than the European honey bee.

BFB; Photo: Clay Bolt

- - -

Gizmodo: Ong's Hat got too real.

Ong’s Hat was once home to secret experiments led by the Dobbs Twins, a pair of Princeton scientists who’d been forced to build a secret lab out in the Pine Barrens after their work in “Chaos Studies” got them booted from the academy.
[.]
...Ong’s Hat has become a site of pilgrimage for fans of the supernatural.

- - -
Tech News World: JP Morgan-Chase issues dollar backed digital token.

JPMorgan Chase on Thursday announced that it has created and successfully tested a digital coin. Each JPM Coin represents US$1 in funds held in designated accounts at JPMorgan Chase N.A.

Tech News

TechDirt - Students charged with terroristic threats for posting video of fictional school shooting.

Three students face felony charges of making a terroristic threat for posting online two brief videos where they act out a school shooting in someone’s house.
[...]
Content disturbing to others is present in a lot of content. Just because this dramatization happened to be produced by students and distributed by Instagram doesn't somehow entitle it to less First Amendment protection than a motion picture released by a major studio.
[...]
Sheriff Craig Apple's speech -- as moronic as it is -- is also protected by the same First Amendment he won't extend to these students.

    “There’s been enough shootings going on around the country. This is despicable artistic expression, if that’s what it was.”

Is the video protected under the First Amendment or is the sheriff's interpretation of the video consistent within the context of preventing a potential threat?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
- - -
Business Times: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says it will fix years to FB's problems.

Who...knew?

Gadgets Now: India law misunderstood by FB moderators. 

[Facebook moderators are advised] that any post degrading an entire religion violates Indian law and should be flagged for removal.

[Another instructs moderators] to "look out for" the phrase "Free Kashmir" - though the slogan, common among activists, is completely legal.

- - -
Ars Technia: Residential home battery (power) not energy efficient in most cases.

"There may be good reasons to decentralize the grid through ubiquitous installation of small RES [Residential Energy Storage], but cost-effective emissions control is not one of them at the moment," the researchers write.

- - -
Caution - story contains AI created "scary" names (I'm looking out for the easily frightened Libs, here.); Ars Technia:

AI invents New Year fireworks names that sound more like the end of humanity.
[...]
Flaming Thundersplont Box
Red flashing cake
Machine Blinking Display
Black Moo
Original Cat Pix Budget 2 Boom

Yikes! Machine Blinking Display and Original Cat Pix Budget 2 Boom. Run Away ! Run Away !
- - -

Coffee? Tea? Lots of room?

Technology: What happens when almost no passengers show up for their flight?

- - -

Technology: Wind turbines hurting robins. 

...wind turbines are rather loud and robins have to adapt. In these areas where wind turbines are present, robins drop their lower pitch and go for the trademark puffed up red chest instead. Little birds cannot compete against the low hum of the wind turbine blades.

- - -
TechRadar: MS 2018 retrospective.

...the October 2018 Update has been the most problematic and buggy update ever released for Microsoft’s OS, outdoing even the infamous Anniversary Update.
[.]
Another major development for Microsoft in 2018 was that the firm finally admitted that it had got things wrong with the default web browser for Windows 10. The company has been pushing hard with Edge for a good while now, but to no avail[.]

WccfTech: Here comes Win 10 forced update v 1809.

We are still waiting for user reports to see if they have experienced any Windows 10 forced updates over the last few days. But, if you want to avoid Windows 10 version 1809, it would be wise to block it to avoid any surprises.

- - -
Gadgets Now: Elon Musk needs people to beta test Tesla's autonomous-driving cars.

Earlier this year [Tesla] reportedly sought hundreds of employees to test its full-driving system and offered free Autopilot upgrade with new purchases.

- - -

The Drive - Ford's 2019 preview and 2020(?) Bronco.

Ford "Super Duty"

Tech News

Slashgear - Washington Redskins nix Huawei deal over privacy concerns:

...a new report claims [the deal was killed] due to government prodding. According to sources, officials were concerned about Huawei installing WiFi service in Washington, DC. 

- - -
SC Mag: 15 DDoS-for-hite sites shut down by FBI:

Authorities charged Matthew Gatrel, 30, of St. Charles, Ill, and Juan Martinez, 25, of Pasadena, Calif., with conspiring to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act through the operation of their DDoS-for-hire services sites known as Down them and Ampnode.

According to the release, Downthem’s database showed over 2000 customer subscriptions, and had been used to conduct, or attempt to conduct, over 200,000 DDoS attacks which were carried out between October 2014 and November 2018.

- - -
Slashgear: Win 10 fix hurting Lenovo lap tops.

BetaNews: A generally positive review of Win 11.

Jolt: Chrome exploit causing crashes in Win 10.
- - -
Nextgov: Cali court finds First Amendment Rights not necessarily protected in social media.
- - -
The Next Web: 2018: year of the fabled Linux desktop.

It's Foss: Why Linux hasn't succeeded as a desktop, by Linux creator Linus Torvalds.

Tech News

C|Net: The Rivian: an all-electric, luxury, 400-mile pick-up truck.

Its design is as futuristic as anything from a sci-fi film, with a full-width bar on the nose that serves as the daytime running light, while oval "stadium lights" house the actual LED headlights. With no need for a traditional grille, the truck's face is unusually flat and plain.

The Rivian

- - -

WIRED: "Firebait" cities. 

THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA city of Paradise is gone—the Camp Fire, by far the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, has reduced home after home to ashes.

[.]

Curiously, though, trees still stand between burned-out homes.

“If they're still there and they didn't burn and they're even green, then clearly those trees didn't contribute to the ignition of the houses,” says fire expert Jack Cohen, formerly of the US Forest Service.

- - -
U.S. Postal system exposes data of 60 million users. TechCrunch: 

[The] US Postal Service API exposed from over 60 million users and allowed a researcher to pull millions of rows of data by sending wildcard requests to the server.

- - -

Computer World: MS promotes crash-prone Office fix.

"After you install this update, you may experience crashes in Microsoft Access or other applications. To resolve this issue, uninstall the update by following the instructions in the "More information" section.

This update is no longer available. "

Patch, patch, patch. Spackle, spackle, spackle. Crash, crash, crash.
- - -
Something "hot" is under Antarctica.  Live Science:  

This melt isn't related to climate change, which causes intense melting at the fringes of the continent; it's an old, and separate, warm spot in the ice, insulated and kept far away from the atmosphere. Scientists were able to detect it thanks to a survey using specialized, ice-penetrating radar.

- - -
Coming soon to the U.S.? Behavioral monitoring of every Chinese resident.  Technocracy:

Beijing announced an “action plan” this week for monitoring residents’ behavior, adding that the city expects to have its social credit system fully implemented by the end of 2020.

- - -
ExtremeTech: Wheeled VR Shoes, from Google!

[W]hat you really want is the sensation of walking without actually going anyplace. 

Sure, why not?
- - -
Geek: A piano. Made entirely of LEGOS.

The only thing it can’t do is actually make music; you just have to imagine the sounds.

If the sounds have to be imagined, why do we need the piano?
- - -
Gizmodo: When time-capsules outlast the Apocalypse.

Conventional time capsules are rubbish, as they can end up becoming decidedly soggy and ruined within decades. Any that do survive over the longer term are liable to get destroyed by the inexorable march of plate tectonics.

- - -
Aren't you glad you didn't RSVP? 15 year ago - Invitations sent to beta test Win XP. BetaNews:

Microsoft is gearing up to release a beta version of Windows XP Service Pack 2. An e-mail sent out Thursday invited testers to install and evaluate the pre-release code when it becomes available within the next several weeks.

Patches already in the works.
- - -
Because original ideas and screenplays are hard. Disney remakes "The Lion King". Ubergizmo:

[Disney] released the first teaser for the remake of this classic which came out back in 1994. 

- - -
MIT Tech Review:  Autonomous trucks will haul stone in a Norway mine.

Volvo has also been involved in autonomous-truck projects involving mining, sugarcane harvesting, and refuse collection.

- - -
Only in France...for now - Tax officials to scour social media for tax-cheaters. TechDirt:

France’s tax administrators will start searching through social media accounts in early 2019, a pilot project in the fight against tax avoidance, Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin told weekly business TV show Capital. 

Tech News

Data breach at Amazon - ITPro Portal:

Amazon may have suffered a data breach that saw customer names and email addresses leaked.
[.]
...users confirmed on Twitter that they had gotten an email from Amazon, which the retailer later confirmed to be genuine, notifying them that the data has been shared, accidentally.

We don't know how it happened, exactly when it happened, or who the information was shared with / to. 

Who knew? No one saw this coming.
- - -
No one saw this coming either: Is your CPAP machine spying on you? ArsTechnia:

Tony Schmidt discovered something unsettling about the machine that helps him breathe at night. Without his knowledge, it was spying on him.

- - -

TechCrunch - Facebook an accomplice in 16-year-old girl sold for marriage in South Sudan.

A multimillionaire businessman from South Sudan’s capital city reportedly won the auction after offering a record “price” — of 530 cows, three Land Cruiser V8 cars and $10,000 — to marry the child, Nyalong Ngong Deng Jalang.

Disgusting. FB needs to be held accountable.
- - -
C|Net: Leather clad, luxury laptop:

Instead of taking a slim laptop and sticking it in a leather sleeve, as one might do with any other similar system, the leather case here is built right in. No, it's not Corinthian leather, but it's still pretty nice.

- - -
ZD Net - Everything you need to know about the cannabis industry:

...marijuana is one of the most exciting growth industries in the US as it becomes legal in some states, attracts investment, and becomes a vertical that can utilize multiple technologies ranging from the internet of things to cloud to analytics.

- - -
When to hire a cyber security expert? Tech News World:

[Cyber security] itself is increasing in importance, it remains a truism that many smaller organizations (and in fact, some mid-sized ones) don't have specialized security expertise on staff.

Is is too late for Amazon?
- - -
Time-travel into the past. 13 years ago, Microsoft trashes Linux. BetaNews:

Linux bashing is nothing new for Microsoft, which has set up a dedicated Web site to detail why customers should choose Windows Server over the open source operating system. This week at the IT Forum, Microsoft announced the results of a new study that shows Windows as more reliable and easier to manage than Linux.

What a joke. Keep releasing "patches", MS, for your wonderful OS.
- - -

'Smart Watch' tracker of children easy to hack. TechDirt: 

A location-tracking smartwatch worn by thousands of children has proven... you guessed it... rather trivial to hack. The MiSafes Kid's Watcher Plus is a "smart watch for kids" that embeds a 2G cellular radio and GPS technology, purportedly to let concerned helicopter parents track their kids' location at all times. But security researchers at UK's Pen Test Partners have issued a report calling the devices comically unsecure.

- - - 
Technology.Org - 64 SpaceX satellites ready to launch:

...the U.S. kicked around the idea of putting large reflectors in orbit during the Vietnam war, effectively abolishing night over southeast Asia. There have also been ideas to put advertising in space… though for now, you won’t have to worry about Pepsi or McDonald’s logos drifting through your astrophotos.

- - -
Five songs that could make you a dangerous driver. The Drive:

British car loan financier Moneybarn recently released a study outlining how our choice in music can affect our driving. It found that songs with tempos that exceed 120 beats per minute (bpm) can make people subconsciously drive faster, which makes them more liable to draw negative attention from law enforcement.
[.]
...the 12th most common song on driving (or riding) playlists, AC/DC's "Back In Black" has the misfortune of being the cliche soundtrack for Baby Boomers on Harley Davidsons. Again, it doesn't tip the scales for high-energy lyrical content, but its tempo of 188 bpm is eclipsed by just one song on the chart.

Make it so loud that my ears bleed! 
- - -
Bleeping Computer - Firefox 65 improvements in Content Blocking settings:

Firefox 65, Mozilla is overhauling how users can configure the Content Blocking settings. With this version, the previously confusing configuration is replaced by three different modes that a user can select that offer varying degrees of blocking and customization.

 - - -
Technocracy - Are Smart-Meters spying on you?

“What limits have been placed on data collection and permissions for data collection beyond monthly billing cycle totals?” [asks Smithfield Township supervisors in a] letter dated Nov. 14, to FirstEnergy’s president, regional president, state president, the state Office of Consumer Advocates and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. “The notice sent to our residents makes no mention of this, yet is it is of prime concern to us in order to protect and secure data of our residential households.”

- - -
Ubergizmo - Future Apple watches may monitor UV exposure.

Apple has filed for a patent that describes how future Apple Watches could come with a built-in UV sensors that are embedded around the frame of the Apple Watch. These sensors will alert the wearer when they’ve been exposed for too long.

Because...everything is dangerous and we need Apple to save us.

Tech News

Non-high-tech voting; circa 1994...

ArsTechnia: High-speed voting tabulator vulnerable to hacking.

One vulnerability they discovered—in a high-speed vote-tabulating system used to count votes for entire counties in 23 states—could allow an attacker to remotely hijack the system over a network and alter the vote count, changing results for large blocks of voters. "Hacking just one of these machines could enable an attacker to flip the Electoral College and determine the outcome of a presidential election," the authors of the report warned.

- - -
SEC Sues Elon Musk. From C|Net:

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to bar Elon Musk from serving as an executive or director of any publicly traded company.

More on Elon Musk.  From Gizmodo:

[Elon Musk is]  accused of tweeting on LSD, sued for defamation by a cave diver he called “pedo guy,” given a “weepy” interview to the New York Times, and admitted that this whole going private thing just isn’t going to work out.

Among other things, the SEC wants Musk to pay civil penalties and be “prohibited from acting as an officer or director of any issuer that has a class of securities registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Exchange Act.”

 I dunno...seems like the SEC is overreacting and over-reaching.
- - -
ZD Net: New AI can identify guns in crowds and alert authorities about an active shooter.

The trick during development was to create a computer vision algorithm that continuously monitors cameras without reporting too many false positives, a weakness of past attempts at AI gun detection technology.

- - -
And "they" say there's no way to meet new people these days. More than you care to know about fecal transplants. Geek:

The process involves collecting feces from a healthy donor, processing it, and delivering it into the colon of the recipient.

What a fun way to meet new people.

Image credit: Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay

So this is the one time in life when, if it comes to it, you can actually say to the donor person, "Hey, thanks for the shit,"...and mean it literally.
- - -
Any gamer on top of their game already knows this, but Gamer Alert anyway. From BetaNews:

- - the new season of Fortnite has arrived! With the arrival of Fortnite Season 6: Darkness Rises and the V6.00 patch, Epic Games put its servers into maintenance mode in preparation.

- - -
And in that good-ole, reliable, stable, high-standard, secure platform of MS Win 10 (snicker, snicker), a Fourth set of Win 10 cumulative updates patches issued in two weeks. Computer World:

In the past 15 days, we’ve had four cumulative updates for Win10 version 1803[:]
[.]
Apparently, KB 4458469 v2 is a Wednesday fix for a botched Thursday kitchen-sink cumulative update, which followed a Monday cumulative update that specifically fixed a bug introduced in the Patch Tuesday patch. Got that?
[.]
But wait. The weirdities don’t end there.

- - -
Tech News World - Poorly designed websites no excuse for Terms of Agreement "fine print".

...legally valid sales agreements need to demonstrate clearly that both vendors and consumers are aware of -- and consent to -- the terms of the agreements. It is especially important for vendors to ward off expensive class action suits by including contract terms that prohibit such suits and instead rely on arbitration to resolve any issues with consumers.

Yet recent federal court cases indicate that poorly presented Internet contracts can result in the nullification of arbitration provisions and class action prohibitions -- thus giving consumers greater leverage in legal disputes with vendors.

Image: Damon Day

 - - -

Extreme Tech - NASA determines why earth wobbles on Axis:

NASA says it has now pinned down three causes for this shift. As expected, the loss of polar ice is a major contributor.

The other two "wobbly Axis" contributing factors are, oddly, the same: The Lard Lad Michael Moore's  spatial relationship at any moment and point on the earth in relation to the specific location to the rest of the world's 99% human population.

Tech News

Three members of You Tube Channel High on Life die in tragic accident. C|Net:

[Megan Scraper] ...  slipped and fell from the top of the falls into the water below[.]
[.]
[Ryker Gamble and Alexey Lyakh] jumped in after her in an attempt to save her, but no one survived.

- - -
Will your financial institution survive a tech meltdown? BBC Tech:

UK banks have been told to explain how they would cope with a technology failure or cyber-attack.

The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority have given financial firms three months to detail how they would respond if their systems failed.

Does this really matter since...The Illuminati controls everything?!?!?!
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Gadgets Now: Over 50% of smartphones not password protected.

[A Kaspersky Lab survey] showed that less than 48 per cent of people password-protect their mobile devices and just 14 per cent of people encrypt their files and folders to avoid unauthorized access.

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Do we have a say in this? Amazon wants Alexa EVERYWHERE.  PC Mag:

[We caught up with Zain Gulamali who manages the $100 million Alexa Fund] and [posed]  a few questions about the personal digital assistant and its future.

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Extreme Tech: Self-driving Acura steers driver into oncoming traffic:

...the camera that peers ahead through the windshield needs to be re-aligned when the windshield is replaced.

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eWeek: WordPress had some security vulnerabilities:

A new version of open-source content management system WordPress, 4.9.7, was released on July 5 that patches a pair of security vulnerabilities that could expose WordPress sites to risk.

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Mobile Syrup - Canada is having a tough time retaining cyber talent:

...Canadian demand for cyber talent is increasing by seven percent annually.
[.]
Deloitte says addressing cybersecurity risks is critical because they could slow the pace of global technological innovation by as much as $3 trillion USD in lost economic value in 2020.

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Having issues with Win 10? ZD Net: Some free tech and trouble shooting tips:

Windows 10 upgrade: Survey finds half of users experience problems[.] (Win users...experiencing...problems? Really?-DD)

Dump Win; Covert to Linux.
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Beta News: The NSA is deleting millions of files.

The NSA...has announced that it is deleting hundreds of millions of call and text records because of "technical irregularities".
[.] While full details of the reasons for the deletion are not given, the NSA notes that it collected data it was not authorized to collect.

..."because of technical irregularities." Anyone buying this? It's reassuring that the NSA collects info they're not authorized to collect, isn't it?
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Tech Explore - Bandages go high-tech.

[Engineers] led by Tufts University developed a prototype bandage designed to actively monitor the condition of chronic wounds and deliver appropriate drug treatments to improve the chances of healing.

Credit: Tufts University

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Engadget - Pot In a Blender:

The Rosinbomb Rocket is a $600, 13-pound tabletop rosin extractor designed to squeeze and melt the THC crystals present on the surface of the flower into a solventless dabbable hash similar to shatter. Think of it as a panini press for weed.

[.]...tokers can get stonier than a rock garden.

I don't know what any of it means. Is this about rock gardens...comments,  anyone?
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File Hippo - Free data recovery software for Windows that boasts a 96% recovery rate.

Recoverit retrieves your data from all data loss scenarios including emptied recycle bin, accidental deletion, disk formatting, partition loss, external device corruption, virus attack, system crashes...[.]

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Have you ever wondered why cruise ships and yachts are painted white? Technology.Org:

Container ships and all other kinds of cargo and fishing ships are all kinds of colours...[while] cruise ships and luxury yachts are usually white. Why?

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And because I know you've been waiting on this news: Pokémon Quest downloaded 7.5 million times.  Mobile Syrup:

The game launched on May 30th for the Nintendo Switch and was followed on June 27th with a mobile release across iOS and Android. Pokémon Quest has been climbing the charts[.]

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The Rosinbomb Rocket-Image: Marijuana Retail Report.com

Tech News

The Revered Cone of Silence

And I thought the Cone of Silence was awesome...well it is, but check out...

...Science Daily - Spectral Cloaking:

Most current cloaking devices can fully conceal the object of interest only when the object is illuminated with just one color of light. However, sunlight and most other light sources are broadband, meaning that they contain many colors. The new device, called a spectral invisibility cloak, is designed to completely hide arbitrary objects under broadband illumination.

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Ars Technia - 1990 Technology For 2018:

I decided to enroll the Macintosh IIsi as my main computing system for a while. A 1990 bit of gear would now go through the 2018 paces. Just how far can 20MHz of raw processing power take you in the 21st century?

So how does 20MHz fare in 2018? You'll have to read the story.
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You've seen it, you've perhaps interfaced with it without even knowing. So, WTF is Dark Pattern Design? TechCrunch:

Manipulative timing is a key element of dark pattern design. In other words when you see a notification can determine how you respond to it. Or if you even notice it. Interruptions generally pile on the cognitive overload — and deceptive design deploys them to make it harder for a web user to be fully in control of their faculties during a key moment of decision.

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Remember this story when the U.S. - some day - thinks that this is the panacea to everything. ZD Net: India's digital Universal ID program is deeply flawed[.]

When the Indian government embarked on the plan to issue a compulsory nationwide universal identification (UIDAI) and accompanying digital payment system, the idea was that technology would act as an efficient tool for service delivery as well as a panacea for rampant corruption.

Well..how do you think it worked out?

A: Just as planned
B: It tanked, sucked and made things worse
C: It caused Pennywise  to appear

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Computer World: Win 10 1803 needs...

.

.

.

...wait for it...

.

.

.

...wait for it...

.

.

.
... Security patches. MS is stuck in 1992.

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ATTN GAMERS - Geek: Hitman 2 and an interview with Sven Liebold.
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All ECommerce: Study shows online retail experience embarrassingly slow.

* The Average Score This Year Was 45% - Retailers did not do well in this evaluation. In fact, the highest score this year was only a 63% - down from a D+ last year.
[.]
* Mobile Performance Is “Embarrassingly Slow”
* Third Party Requests Are Slowing Down Sites

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Is this fake news? Splinter News: White house want to enact FART Act.

...the White House wants Congress to pass a bill that “provides Trump a license to raise U.S. tariffs at will.” The bill is called the United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act.

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Extreme Tech: Facebook Files Patent For Exactly the Kind of Spying It Claims It Doesn’t Do.

In a patent application filed on June 14 and first discovered by the UK publication Metro, Facebook requested a patent on exactly the kind of system it has sworn that it never uses. 

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Technocracy: It's okay to hate Hungary because they don't kowtow to EU values. 

Hungary Refuses To Bow To the EU’s Imperial Technocracy[.]
[.]
The Hungarian government and in particular the prime minister, Viktor Orban, are continually denounced for their alleged violations of EU values. The mainstream Western media have picked up the message that it is okay to hate Hungary.

"What are EU Values?", has to be the answer/question to a Jeopardy Daily Double under the category "Extreme and Laughable Oxymorons."
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BGR: Consumer Reports investigates Comcast's hidden fees.

With the proliferation of add-on fees, it’s nearly impossible for consumers to find out the full cost of a cable package before they get locked into a contract[.]

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TechDirt: Some of their Comments of the Week. Kinda hard to give you a preview or snippet, ya just gotta go there and read it.
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NextGov: There is no White House Cyber Coordinator.

White House National Security Adviser John Bolton eliminated the cybersecurity coordinator position soon after taking office in May.

The elimination was greeted with consternation by many cyber analysts who believed [...] U.S. cyber policy, was too complex to be subsumed into broader White House operations.

This is a very valid concern.
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Security Week: Facebook app exposes data of 120 million: 

...privacy bug on Nametests.com resulted in the data of over 120 million users who took personality quizzes on Facebook to be publicly exposed.

Patched as part of Facebook’s Data Abuse Bounty Program, the vulnerability resided in Nametests.com serving users’ data to any third-party that requested it, something that shouldn’t normally happen.

I have such a hard time believing that the numerous data breaches of Facebook are "accidental."
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UberGizmo: Camera explodes on the foot of a man trying to take videos up women's skirts.

...a 32-year old man from Wisconsin, [attempting to take] upskirt photos and videos [using] a camera he had attached to his shoe blew up on him. Thankfully this happened before he managed to get any actual footage because according to the reports, he was testing out the camera at home when the battery exploded.
[.]
He had to be taken to the hospital for his burns[.]
The action of upskirting is considered a felony under Wisconsin state law[.]