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Nov 4, 2020

Google fixes two more Chrome zero-days that were under active exploit

Posted by in category: mobile phones

Both desktop and Android versions are affected.

Nov 4, 2020

Google Confirms It Paid Hackers $6.5 Million Last Year To Help Keep The Internet Safe

Posted by in category: internet

Across 2019, Google rewarded hackers with a total of $6.5 Million. Here’s why.

Nov 4, 2020

Physicists: Fake Black Holes Could Be Pulling the Universe Apart

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

O,.o wut?


Cosmic Loners

The problem with the GEODE hypothesis is that the strange objects need to resemble but not act like black holes. The only way that GEODEs could expand the universe without destroying everything around them is if they were isolated in empty pockets of the cosmos. But black holes often sit smack dab in the middle of galaxies.

Continue reading “Physicists: Fake Black Holes Could Be Pulling the Universe Apart” »

Nov 4, 2020

Scientists Create True, “Star Wars”-Style Hologram

Posted by in category: holograms

Right now it looks like the graphics from Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, but the engineers want to add full color.

Nov 4, 2020

Six Russian GRU Officers Charged in Connection with Worldwide Deployment of Destructive Malware and Other Disruptive Actions in Cyberspace

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

On Oct. 15, 2020, a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh returned an indictment charging six computer hackers, all of whom were residents and nationals of the Russian Federation (Russia) and officers in Unit 74455 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

These GRU hackers and their co-conspirators engaged in computer intrusions and attacks intended to support Russian government efforts to undermine, retaliate against, or otherwise destabilize: (1) Ukraine; (2) Georgia; (3) elections in France; (4) efforts to hold Russia accountable for its use of a weapons-grade nerve agent, Novichok, on foreign soil; and (5) the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games after Russian athletes were banned from participating under their nation’s flag, as a consequence of Russian government-sponsored doping effort.

Their computer attacks used some of the world’s most destructive malware to date, including: KillDisk and Industroyer, which each caused blackouts in Ukraine; NotPetya, which caused nearly $1 billion in losses to the three victims identified in the indictment alone; and Olympic Destroyer, which disrupted thousands of computers used to support the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The indictment charges the defendants with conspiracy, computer hacking, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and false registration of a domain name.

Nov 4, 2020

Dragon’s cyber hacking operations: State sponsored game-plan

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cybercrime/malcode, economics, government, military

In the last few years, countless cyber-attacks were reported globally that were linked to the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese cyber-hackers, who target the foreign networks and websites are sponsored by the Chinese government. They are highly trained and have acquired abilities not only to exploit common vulnerabilities but also to discover and even create new vulnerabilities.

The US National Security Agency’s in-depth report of 23rd October points out that one of the greatest threats to the US National Security Systems, Defence Industrial Base and Department of Defence information networks is the “Chinese state sponsored malicious cyber activity”. The report underlines that the Chinese hackers exploit “computer networks of interest that hold sensitive intellectual property, economic, political, and military information.”

In July 2020, US had ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Huston, when it discovered that the Chinese officials there were involved in the intellectual property theft and indicted two Chinese nationals for allegedly hacking hundreds of companies and crucially had attempted to steal coronavirus vaccine research. The United States Department of Justice has charged five Chinese national for their involvement in hacking targets not only in the US governments but also the networks of the Indian and Vietnam government. They also carried out attacks on the UK government network unsuccessfully.

Nov 4, 2020

People Born Blind Don’t Develop Schizophrenia, Baffling Doctors

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Something about congenital blindness is shielding people from schizophrenia.

Nov 4, 2020

Rogue scientist attempts to make himself superhuman

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Circa 2017


Josiah Zayner, a biochemist and former NASA worker, has become the first person known to have edited his DNA after removing a protein which inhibits muscle growth mirror.

Nov 4, 2020

Nissan Leaf owner upgrades EV battery for under $A3,500

Posted by in category: futurism

An early model Nissan Leaf has been given a new lease of life with a battery upgrade for a fraction of the price it would cost if done by Nissan.

The 2011 Nissan Leaf came with a 24kWh battery, and even when new had a very modest driving range of 117km based on the US EPA ratings.

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Nov 4, 2020

The No-Code Generation is arriving

Posted by in categories: computing, economics, education, engineering

In the distant past, there was a proverbial “digital divide” that bifurcated workers into those who knew how to use computers and those who didn’t.[1] Young Gen Xers and their later millennial companions grew up with Power Macs and Wintel boxes, and that experience made them native users on how to make these technologies do productive work. Older generations were going to be wiped out by younger workers who were more adaptable to the needs of the modern digital economy, upending our routine notion that professional experience equals value.

Of course, that was just a narrative. Facility with using computers was determined by the ability to turn it on and log in, a bar so low that it can be shocking to the modern reader to think that a “divide” existed at all. Software engineering, computer science and statistics remained quite unpopular compared to other academic programs, even in universities, let alone in primary through secondary schools. Most Gen Xers and millennials never learned to code, or frankly, even to make a pivot table or calculate basic statistical averages.

There’s a sociological change underway though, and it’s going to make the first divide look quaint in hindsight.