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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 17 Issue 37
Volume 17, Issue 37 Atari Online News, Etc. October 2, 2015
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2015
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
Francois Le Coat
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org
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To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE
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To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
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Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1737 10/02/15
~ Atari Search Engine! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Fixing Tony Hawk 5!
~ Prepare for El Capitan ~ No IPv4 Web Addresses! ~ Firebee News Update!
~ Lenovo Is Caught Again ~ Apple's New El Capitan ~ Vigilante Virus!
~ Twitter's New Re/code! ~ Google Goes Alphabet! ~ New Vulnerability!
-* FCC: Lock Down Wi-fi Routera? *-
-* Facebook Goes Down for Third Time! *-
-* Russia Dislikes New Same Sex Emoji Couples *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Welcome to October, and Fall-like weather! A major hurricane is
drawing near to the eastern coast of the U.S.; and it's been cold,
wet and dreary for most of this week! Fortunately, if the latest
forecast holds true, we'll miss getting hit by Hurricane Joaquin!
Certainly, eastern United States doesn't need another major storm
bearing down on it! Let's hope that it continues to track to the
north and east - and stay out with the fish!
Meanwhile, I hope you all manage to stay warm and dry!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Atari Search Engine
Francois Le Coat
The ATARI bookmarks page <http://eureka.atari.org/atari.html> was
updated. The goal consists in valid links, even if it corresponds
to sometimes dated information. Part of these bookmarks persist
since the creation of the WEB site, back to the year 1996.
The interest with those numerous bookmarks, there's about 800, is
to constitute an ATARI uptodate and dedicated search engine of the
on-line scene. It is a service provided by Google Co-op. The base
of this engine is a collection composed from time to time. It's
now quite consistent.
This is a WEB 2.0 experience, because even if I'm responsible for
its creation, the *ATARI Search Engine* can possibly be integrated
by ATARI web-masters adding its HTML code.
____________________________
<script>
(function() {
var cx = '014753128619202207476:tzogojpdahi';
var gcse = document.createElement('script');
gcse.type = 'text/javascript';
gcse.async = true;
gcse.src = (document.location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https:' :
'http:') +
'//cse.google.com/cse.js?cx=' + cx;
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(gcse, s);
})();
</script>
<gcse:search></gcse:search>
____________________________
Have a good ATARI WEB Surfing =)
--
François LE COAT
Author of Eureka 2.12 (2D Graph Describer, 3D Modeller)
http://eureka.atari.org/
http://is.gd/atarian
FireBee News Update
Fred Horvat
I came across something recently that may be of interest if you
are interested in seeing what the FireBee Operating System looks
and feels like. There is an Aranym Disk Image available. Here
is the description directly from the http://acp.atari.org/ web
site.
FireBee FreeMiNT setup for ARAnyM
Several users were very enthusiastic about Jo Even Skarsteins
FreeMiNT setup for the FireBee . The easyness and totally GEM
dedication (means no Unix Stuff at all) of the setup became
interesting for others without FireBee as well. So after "Vanilla
MiNT" - a kind of FireBee FreeMiNT Setup spin-off - a very easy
to use setup for your other Atari hardware, popped up, now an
external developer cared about an 1:1 implementation of our
FireBee setup for ARAnyM, the virtual machines, which exist for
several host systems. The MiNT setup is identical to what you
get with the FireBee, except the fact that binaries were
exchanged with the ones for Aranym. Some GEM applications are
not able to work, as they require real hardware. That setup is
available as well as a disc image, for immediate usage. First
feedback went very well, and it seems ProToS´ initiative was
just in time, to support ARAnyM users.
If interested you can download it from here:
http://the.protos.free.fr/FireBee_Aranym/FireBee-FreeMiNT-setup-Aranym-img.zip
Even though I have a FireBee I have downloaded it and am testing
on installing the Unix commands and Command Line manually because
EasyMiNT Installer fails to complete the installation on the
FireBee. In a future submission I will let you know how that
turned out.
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Activision Working To Fix Woeful Tony Hawks Pro Skater 5!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Activision Is Working To Fix The Woeful Tony Hawks Pro Skater 5
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 5 is a bad game, not least because of a
multitude of bugs and glitches.
Now, publisher Activision says its working to fix some of these
issues, and its giving players two new stages and five new
characters by means of apology. Given that the PlayStation 4
version of the skating simulator is currently sitting on a
shockingly low score of 27 on Metacritic (and a user score of
just 1.8), Activision and developer Robomodo are going to need
to work some serious magic in order to salvage the franchises
battered reputation.
We are aware of the issues that players have experienced
following the launch of Tony Hawks Pro Skater 5, said
Activision in a statement sent to Eurogamer, and are working
with the developer to address these so that we can continue to
improve the gameplay experience for all of the Tony Hawk fans
who have known and loved this franchise for more than 16
years.
Batman: Arkham Knights PC version was another recent
high-profile release that suffered from major technical issues,
and publisher Warner Bros. has pulled it from sale while it
works on a fix. Itll be interesting to see if Activision has
to take similar measures, given Pro Skater 5s critical
mauling.
Metacritic user InvasiveWaiter scored the game 0 out of 10,
saying, This game is nothing but digital waste. How any
company would dare to ask $60 for a game with minimal content
and a multitude of technical bugs, I cannot fathom.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Lenovo Caught (3rd Time) Pre-Installing Spyware on Its Laptops
Lenovo has once again been caught installing spyware on its
laptops and workstations without the user's permission or
knowledge.
One of the most popular computer manufacturers is being
criticized for selling some refurbished laptop models
pre-installed with invasive marketing software that sends users
data directly to the company.
This is not first time Lenovo has allegedly installed spyware
onto consumers PCs.
Earlier this year, Lenovo was caught red-handed for selling
laptops pre-installed with Superfish malware that opened up doors
for hackers.
In August, Lenovo again got caught installing unwanted and
non-removable crapware into part of the BIOS reserved for custom
drivers.
Now, the Chinese computer manufacturer is making news once again
for embedding tracking software into its laptops and
workstations from Lenovo ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, and ThinkStation
series.
Michael Horowitz from Computerworld has discovered a software
program, called "Lenovo Customer Feedback Program 64," that
operates daily on these systems and can be categorized as
Spyware.
The purpose of this program is to send customers' feedback data
to Lenovo servers. According to Horowitz, the company has
mentioned this in its EULA, but he "can not recall ever being
asked [for] a Customer Feedback program" while ever setting up
his Lenovo PC.
Horowitz also found that this program includes some other files,
which is as follows:
Lenovo.TVT.CustomerFeedback.Agent.exe.config
Lenovo.TVT.CustomerFeedback.InnovApps.dll
Lenovo.TVT.CustomerFeedback.OmnitureSiteCatalyst.dll
One of these files belongs to Omniture, which is an online
marketing and Web analytics company, which is included to track
and monitor users' activities and send that data to this online
marketing agency.
Lenovo does mention on its website that there may be software
program installed on its systems that connect to its online
servers, but it does not mention anything about sending your
data for financial profit.
How to Remove Lenovo Spyware?
In order to remove 'Lenovo Customer Feedback Program 64' from
your affected machines, you have to do it manually. Follow these
simple steps:
Know your System Type (whether it's a 32-bit or 64-bit
version of Windows)
Download TaskSchedulerView
Now, search your Lenovo PCs for Lenovo Customer Feedback
Program 64
Disable Lenovo Customer Feedback Program 64 daily task
from running
Additionally, you can also rename the "C:\Program Files
(x86)\Lenovo"
Hey FCC, Dont Lock Down Our Wi-Fi Routers
On the coastal edge of Tunisia, a signal bounces between
11 rooftops and 12 routers, forming an invisible net that covers
70 percent of the city of Sayada. Strategically placed, the
routers link together community centersfrom the main street to
the marketplace. Not long ago, the Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali
government censored access to the Internet. The regime is gone
now. And this free network gives the community unfettered access
to thousands of books, secure chat and file sharing
applications, street maps, and more.
The Sayada community network is part of the Open Technology
Institutes (OTI) Commotion Wireless project. The organization
works with local groups to install mesh networks in communities
across the globefrom New York to India. Commotion Wireless uses
routers that utilize and extend (among other things) OpenWRTan
open source operating system with nonstandard features that make
these unique networks possible. Reprogrammed and repurposed, the
routers become something entirely new: a hub of information, a
beacon of open access, and a symbol of freedom.
Now, the future of Commotion Wireless and countless other
programs and projects like it might be in jeopardy. Proposed
rules by the Federal Communications Commission have digital
watchdogs and open source advocates worried that manufacturers
will lock down routers, blocking the installation of third-party
firmware including open source software like OpenWRT and DD-WRT.
In March of 2014, the FCC updated its requirements for U-NII
devices operating on the 5 Ghz bandwidtha designation that
covers a wide range of Wi-Fi devices and routers. FCC regulations
arent the sort of the thing you keep on your nightstand for a
bit of light readingthey are technical and dense. And so it
wasnt until last month that Wi-Fi hobbyists pointed out some
regulatory language that might affect the open source community:
Manufacturers must implement security features in any
digitally modulated devices capable of operating in any of the
U-NII bands, so that third parties are not able to reprogram the
device to operate outside the parameters for which the device
was certified.
On its own, the language isnt a deliberate war on modding. In
this particular case, this is about safety, said William
Lumpkins, Sr. Member IEEE, IEEE Sensors Council/SMC Standards
Chair. Most modern equipmentfrom laptops to planesemits radio
frequencies (RF). And the FCC carefully orchestrates traffic to
ensure signals dont get tangled up. Devices modified to operate
beyond their intended parameters can cause interference with
important systems (the FCC cites a 2009 case where user-modified
devices were getting in the way of Doppler Weather Radars).
RF modding could also interfere with medical devices like
pacemakers, optical implants, diabetic insulin regulators, and a
slew of other medical devices, Lumpkins said. An insidious
person could also turn a radio into a white noise generator and
not allow anyone to use Wi-Fi/Bluetooth within a 1500 foot
radius, which is what a few well-intentioned theater owners
tried last year.
It isnt unusual, Lumpkins said, for the FCC to take steps to
keep devices operating within their intended parameters. What is
unusual, Lumpkins added, is for the FCC to call outby
namespecific software. But thats exactly what the FCC did.
This March, the FCC published a guideline to help manufacturers
meet the new requirements for the hundreds of new routers and
access points that hit the American market every single year.
One prompt read: Describe in detail how the device is protected
from flashing and the installation of third-party firmware
such as DD-WRT.
And thats a big red flag: DD-WRT, like OpenWRT, is a free,
Linux-based firmware for wireless routers and access points. The
two are widely used within the tinkering communityand they are
important.
So, is the FCC mandating that manufacturers lock down the whole
routerincluding its operating system? Not really. The guidance
is more what youd call (badly worded) guidelines than actual
rules. More importantly, guidances arent written by the same
people who write the actual regulations. In fact, the FCC
explicitly told TechDirts Karl Bode that its fine with mods
and open source software as long as they do not add the
functionality to modify the underlying operating characteristics
of the RF parameters. So, modding the operating system? Okay.
Modding the RF parameters? Not cool.
The real worry is that major chip manufacturers will respond by
saying the easiest thing for us to do is lock down all the
middleware rather than worry about where to draw the line. That
would potentially kill a lot of innovation and valuable uses,
wireless policy guru Harold Feld told TechDirt.
And thats a real concern. Especially as the FCC is currently
considering a proposal that would expand the rules to anything
with a software-defined radio. Which could apply to pretty much
anythingbecause everything with Wi-Fi-capability is essentially
a radio. The FCCs current Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
seeks to minimize the potential for unauthorized modification
to the software that controls the RF parameters of [a] device
by implementing well-defined measures to ensure the equipment
is not capable of operating with RF-controlling software for
which it has not been approved.
No word on what those well-defined measures actually are or
where the radio ends and the rest of the device begins but
digital watchdogs are worried that the new rules could prompt
manufacturers to lock down any computing devices with a wireless
radio. Of course, if youre technically inclined (and most
people who take the time to reflash routers are), its not hard
to pick digital locks that protect vendor programming. Its just
that breaking those locks opens tinkerers up to prosecution
under the Digital Millennium Copyright Acta distinction comes
with up to 5 years in prison and $500,000 fine. But thats a
whole other can of worms.
The primary concern is this: If manufacturers take the NPRM and
the guidance as an invitation to lock down routers and Wi-Fi
devices, it would be a huge loss to the tinkering community and
a net loss to society. Open source software gives users far
more control over devices than proprietary vendor firmware
thousands of people have used open source firmware to unlock new
functionality on cheap routers or breath new life into old
access points.
I personally use OpenWRT on my home wireless router because it
provides more capabilities than the firmware that came
pre-installed, Oakland resident Kerrick Staley wrote in a
letter to the FCC.
OpenWRT, being open source, encounters far
fewer vulnerabilities than manufacturer firmwares, and existing
vulnerabilities are fixed quicker, meaning my home network stays
more secure.
Staleys not exaggerating about the security benefits. Open
source systems are more easily audited by security researchers,
and OpenWRT has occasionally beaten the big router manufacturers
to market with security patches for their own hardware.
Its not just the the high-tech nerds who are taking issue with
the FCCs proposed rules. Wi-Fi routers are easy to repurpose as
hotspots, wireless repeaters, network storage devices, and
low-cost wireless networks; they can be cheaply and quickly
patched together as a communication stopgap after emergencies.
Which is why amateur radio operators have also stepped up to
caution the FCC on its new proposed restriction to software
defined radios.
In at least the last 5 years, Amateur Radio operators have
found new and inventive ways to use these inexpensive devices
to build broadband networks in support of community events, and
to prepare for deployment of these devices for emergency
incidents, wrote ham radio operator James Kinter, Jr.
Third
party software (OpenWRT, DD-WRT, etc) is the basis for many of
the Amateur Radio projects, that we then expand and customise
for our own projects to easily allow us to build these projects
without reinventing the wheel.
The FCC is currently asking for feedback on the NPRM before the
rules become lawso now is the time to pipe up. The FCC has
already received tons of concerned comments from citizens and
organizations around the nationmost of them extolling the
virtues of open source software and asking the FCC to make sure
consumers arent locked out of their own routers and Wi-Fi
devices.
Yes, regulating the airwaves is important especially as more
and more Wi-Fi-enabled devices explode onto the market. But
encouraging manufacturers (even unintentionally) to lock down
entire devicesmaking every part of them, as opposed to just
the radio, unmodifiableis the regulatory equivalent of using a
rocket launcher to eliminate with a rat infestation. You might
get the rats, but at what cost?
In this case, Im hoping that open source communities dont
wind up as collateral damage.
Facebook Goes Down for the Third Time in Three Weeks
Facebook's app and website appear to be slowly coming back online
after both went down for many users Monday afternoon the third
outage for the social network in as many weeks.
It's not clear how many of Facebook's users were affected by the
disruption, though it appeared to be widespread. A Facebook
spokesperson told Mashable the source of the outage was a
configuration issue, and that the company was working on getting
Facebooks services back online.
"Were currently restoring Facebook services that people had
trouble accessing earlier today due to a configuration issue.
Were working to bring things back to normal for everyone. We
apologize to those who have been inconvenienced.
While Facebook's website appeared to load very slowly for some
users, the app and website were inaccessible to many Monday
afternoon.
Facebook's platform status dashboard noted there was a "major
outage" beginning at about 12 p.m PT. The dashboard monitors the
performance of the Facebook Graph API, which is used by many
developers that integrate their services with Facebook.
A message on the dashboard confirmed the issue Monday. "A
Facebook-wide issue is causing the Facebook Graph API to be
temporarily unavailable. Were working with our core
infrastructure teams to identify the issue and will update you
when we have more information." Soon after, the performance
dashboard also went down and was inaccessible.
The outage marks the third time the service has gone down in the
last three weeks. The site previously experienced issues on
Sept. 17 and Sept. 24. Monday's issues appeared to be more
severe than those that caused the earlier disruptions.
Many took to Twitter to complain about the disruption, where
the #FacebookDown hashtag began trending.
Russia Dislikes Apples Same-sex Emoji Couples
As Much As It Hates The Real Thing
Following previous campaigns against the Eurovision Song
Contest, Lady Gaga, and Game of Thrones, anti-gay lawmakers in
Russia are targeting a new cultural threat: same-sex emoji
couples.
Police in the Kirov region are investigating whether the tiny
yellow couples present in Apples built-in iOS keyboard pose a
violation of the countrys widely-criticized law banning the
propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors. The
broadly-worded 2013 legislation has been used to arrest and
detain peaceful demonstrators of LGBT rights.
The emoji suit was launched in August by Yaroslav Mikhailov, a
Kirov attorney who previously made international headlines for
instigating a police investigation into an opposition journalist
who posted an Instagram photo of herself dressed up as an
Orthodox priest. Mikhailov brought the emojis to the attention
of his local police force, who agreed to open an official
investigation, according to local news site Gazeta.ru.
If found in violation of the law, Apple could face fines of
800,000 to 1 million rubles ($12,200-15,250) and a three-month
suspension in Russia.
Russias political elite have a complicated relationship with
Apple, often railing against the company as a standard-bearer of
Western cultural hegemony even while being photographed using
its products. Last year, St. Petersburg city council member
Vitaly Milonov suggested barring CEO Tim Cook from Russia for
life because he is gay.
This Vigilante Virus Protects You Against Malware Attacks
Forget about traditional PC malware: Infecting routers and other
Internet-connected devices is the new hotness among malicious
actors, given its effectiveness and relative ease. But theres a
new sort of malware swirling across the webvigilante code that
infiltrates your router and Internet of Things devices and then
actually hardens them against traditional attacks, leaving
helpful messages and homages to free software activist Richard
Stallman in its wake.
Seriously.
Symantec first became aware of the superhero malwaredubbed
Linux.Wifatchin 2014, when an independent researcher noticed
weirdness occurring on his router. As it turns out, the router
had been transformed into a zombie, thrall to a large,
sophisticated peer-to-peer botnet. He reported via Twitter that
he had identified over 13,000 other devices infected with it.
That prompted other researchers to chime in that they too had
identified it, variously nicknaming it Reincarna and Zollard
which was spotted in Internet-connected devices as far back as
2013.
The P2P network isnt used to conduct denial of service attacks
or distribute malware, however. Instead, it passes malware
threat updates between the zombies in the botnet, because
Wifatch actually eliminates any other malware on your device,
including well known families of malware targeting embedded
devices, according to Symantec.
Thats, well, pretty darn cool but the eradication of other
malware isnt a sign of a benevolent infection in and of
itself, as nefarious malware has been known to run virus scans
in the past not to protect the host device, but to muscle out
the competition. Numerous other signs point to Wifatchs
vigilante nature, however.
wifatch note
Symantec
A nice message left by the Linux.Wifatch malware.
Once installed, Wifatch hardens a device against traditional
attack channels, including killing its legitimate Telnet daemon
but when it does so, it leaves a useful tip if you try to
connect via Telnet afterward, imploring you to update the
devices firmware and change its Telnet password, as seen
above.
Furthermore, the source code contains the following plea for
law enforcement officials, which is a reference to the email
signature of GNU guru Richard Stallman:
To any NSA and FBI agents reading this: Please consider
whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,
foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowdens example.
EOF
The Wifatch malware even includes an exploit module for Dahua
DVR CCTV systems that forces them to reboot weekly. One could
speculate that because Wifatch may not be able to properly
defend this type of device, instead, its strategy may be to
reboot it periodically which would kill running malware and set
the device back to a clean state, Symantecs Mario Ballano
writes.
The author of Wifatch didnt obfuscate its code; in fact, the
malwares source code includes numerous debug messages so that
researchers can more easily dig through it, Symantec reports.
The impact on you at home: This all sounds pretty wonderful,
but Symantec warns that Wifatch infects without consent and
contains a number of general-purpose back doors that can be
used by the author to carry out potentially malicious actions.
The security firm has been monitoring the Wifatch network for
months, however, and hasnt seen a single sign of malicious
action and the back doors are cryptographically signed to
ensure commands come from the malwares genuine author, reducing
Wifatchs risk of being hijacked by a truly malicious third
party.
Simply resetting your router will kill Wifatch. To ward off
potential infection, Symantec offers the very same advice as
the malware itself: Update your devices firmware and change
its passwords.
Killer! Unpatched WinRAR Vulnerability Puts 500 Million Users at Risk
Beware Windows Users!
A new dangerous unpatched Zero-day Vulnerability has been detected
in the latest version of WinRAR affects over millions of users
worldwide.
According to Mohammad Reza Espargham, a security researcher at
Vulnerability-Lab, the stable version of WinRAR 5.21 for Windows
computers is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution (RCE) flaw.
WinRAR is one of the most popular utility program used to
compress and decompress files with more than 500 Million
installations worldwide.
The WinRAR RCE vulnerability lie under the High Severity
block, and scores 9 on CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring
System).
Lets take a look at its actions.
The vulnerability can be used by any attacker smartly to insert
a malicious HTML code inside the "Text to display in SFX window"
section when the user is creating a new SFX file.
WinRAR SFX is an executable compressed file type containing one
or more file and is capable of extracting the contents of its
own.
According to proof-of-concept video published by Espargham,
latest WinRAR vulnerability allows remote hackers to execute
arbitrary code on a victim's computer when opening an SFX file
(self-extracting file).
Successful Exploitation requires low user interaction, and
results in compromising users:
System
Network
Devic
The major disadvantage arises because of SFX files, as they start
functioning as soon as the user clicks on them. Therefore, users
cannot identify and verify if the compressed executable file is a
genuine WinRAR SFX module or a harmful one.
Unfortunately, there is no patch yet available to fix this
vulnerability. However, Windows users are advised to:
Use an alternate archiving software
Do not click files received from unknown sources
Use strict authentication methods to secure your system
As for any exe file, users must run SFX archives only if
they are sure that such archive is received from a trustworthy
source. SFX archive can silently run any exe file contained in
an archive, and this is the official feature needed for software
installers, WinRAR developer team at RARLAB quoted.
Uh-oh! North America Runs Completely Out of IPv4 Internet Addresses
Two months ago, THN reported about a similar announcement made by
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), which said
that the agency is no longer able to produce IPv4 addresses in
North America.
Within a time frame of few months, ARIN, which handles Internet
addresses in America, has announced the final exhaustion of
their free pool of IPv4 addresses has reached zero...
...i.e. the availability of IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4)
addresses no more exists.
Meanwhile, they are going to accept requests for IPv4, which
will be approved via two ways:
Wait List for Unmet IPv4 Requests - Join the waitlist for
unmet requests in the hopes that a block of the desired size will
be available in the future.
IPv4 Transfer Market - Can be purchased from another
organization that has more than it needs.
So, in the future, IPv4 address space will be allocated to the
approved requests on the Waiting List for Unmet Requests, if ARIN:
receives any IPv4 address space from IANA (Internet Assigned
Numbers Authority),
recovers from cancellations, or
returns from organizations.
They say, "The source entity (-ies within the ARIN Region (8.4))
will be ineligible to receive any further IPv4 address
allocations or assignments from ARIN for a period of 12 months
after a transfer approval, or until the exhaustion of ARIN's IPv4
space, whichever occurs first."
These changes will impact the organizations existing in Transfers
between Specified Recipients within the ARIN Region
(Transfer 8.3) and Inter-RIR Transfers to Specified Recipients
(Transfer 8.4).
RIR refers to Regional Internet Registry, like ARIN, which is one
of the RIRs.
Also, if they are successful in allotting IPv4 address pool to
the waiting list entities and are still left with IPv4 addresses,
then they will open the free pool for IPv4 addresses and add them
there for future use.
We see this is just the start of an era (IPv6).
IPv6 was invented in about two decades ago in 1998, and it
features much longer addresses, such as
FE80:0000:0000:0000:0202:B3FF:FE1E:8329. This means that IPv6
will offer a total available pool of 340 Trillion Trillion
Trillion addresses, providing capacity for a very long term.
Prepare Your Mac For the OS X 10.11 'El Capitan' Upgrade
Apple is scheduled to release the next version of OS X -
OS X 10.11 'El Capitan - later today, which means that you
still have time to carry out some last-minute preparations ahead
of the upgrade.
Will your Mac run El Capitan?
Before you go all hog wild excited, first make sure that your Mac
can run El Capitan.
The simple rule of thumb is that if youre running OS X 10.9
Mavericks or OS X 10.10 Yosemite then youre good to go, although
not all features will be available to those running older
hardware. Upgrades to El Capitan are possible from OS X versions
going back to Snow Leopard (10.6).
If youre running OS X 10.5 Leopard then youll have to upgrade
to Snow Leopard first via the old-school method of using a DVD.
The privilege of upgrading to Snow Leopard just so you can
download the free El Capitan upgrade will cost you $20.
Here is a complete list of compatible Macs:
iMac: Mid 2007 or newer
MacBook: Aluminum Late 2008 | Early 2009 or newer
MacBook Air: Late 2008 or newer
MacBook Pro: 13-inch, Mid 2009 or newer | 15-inch, Mid/Late
2007 or newer | 17-inch, Late 2007 or newer
Mac Mini: Early 2009 or newer
Mac Pro: Early 2008 or newer
Xserve: Early 2009
What about disk space?
Youre going to need around 10GB of free space to carry out the
upgrade. If you know your way around OS X then youll know some of
the places to look for detritus that you can delete (think the
Downloads or MobileSync folders, or that folder on your desktop
where you keep all the funny memes and cat videos youve found).
If youre not that familiar with the OS X file system then there
are apps that can help you do this, such as DaisyDisk or Clean My
Mac.
Its a good idea to upgrade any and all apps (those downloaded
from the Mac App Store and those that have come directly from the
vendor) that you use before shifting up to El Capitan. But bear a
few things in mind:
Some developers may not have released El Capitan-compatible
apps yet, so things that used to work might not work the same once
youve upgraded.
Some apps will require a paid upgrade, so factor that cost
into the equation.
Abandoned apps wont receive upgrades, so if the upgrade to
El Capitan breaks something, well, youre then the proud owner
of a broken app.
RoaringApps has an excellent resource for checking out application
compatibility.
Backup. Backup! BACKUP!!!
Picture this scenario. Youve tried to upgrade your Mac but
something catastrophic happened, and now all your data is gone?
Would you be sad? Angry? Upset? Paralyzed with fear over
everything youve lost?
Well, fear not. Realize that none of this has yet happened and
MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE YOU CARRY OUT THE UPGRADE!
Not really vital but I like to do this for peace of mind because
OS upgrades put quite a strain on storage.
To do this go to Applications > Utilities and fire up Disk Utility.
Select your startup partition in the left column (located under
your storage devices name) and then click Verify Disk.
If you discover any problems then youd be foolhardy to perform
an upgrade before fixing those issues.
If youre using any third-party disk encryption software, youd
be wise to disable this before the upgrade, because if things go
wrong, youre going to be in a world of pain (and more than
likely reaching for that backup you just made).
Same goes for Snow Leopard users with FileVault enabled. Disable
this, carry out the upgrade, and then switch to FileVault 2.
Dont rush!
I know that new stuff is cool, and its doubly cool when its
free, but theres no reason to rush into upgrading to El Capitan.
If your system is critical, then it might be a good idea to hold
back on upgrading. After all, its not like El Capitan is a
limited resource. If you dont upgrade today, itll still be
there when you decide youre ready, complete with patches and
bug-fixes.
To be honest with you, if my job wasnt partly to feel the pain
of newly released stuff so you dont have to, Id probably give
El Capitan a few weeks more to mature before installing it, and
I wont install it on my main workhorses until Ive seen what
mayhem its going to cause on non-vital 'sacrificial systems
first.
Sometimes you gotta slow down to go fast.
Ready to upgrade?
Hit the Mac App Store, click that button, and wait for the update
to roll in.
Apples OS X El Capitan: Speed and Small Touchups, Free of Charge
You know how Apple redesigns the iPhone in every even-numbered
yearand then comes out with a slightly tweaked s version in
odd-numbered years? (iPhone 4s, 5s, 6s
)?
Well, they do the same thing with the Macs operating system.
Last year, it was a major redesign called OS X Yosemite. And
tomorrow, its a slightly tweaked version called Yosemite S.
Sorry, waitthats what it should be called. Its actual name is
El Capitan.
Why is it called El Capitan? Most non-Californians may not
realize that El Capitan is a rock formation within Yosemite
National Park. (Past annual successions of OS X versions were
called Lion and then Mountain Lion, Leopard and then
Snow Leopard.) Kinda makes sense.
El Capitan doesnt look any different from the last version;
instead, its a representation of all the little nips and tucks
that Apple engineers wished theyd had time to put into the last
version.
The big-ticket item, Apple says, is speed. Programs open up to
1.4 times as fast. Switching programs is twice as fast. Opening
a PDF document is four times as fast. Animationsfor example,
when you switch between virtual monitors in full-screen mode
feel smoother and faster. Thanks to huge improvements in Metal,
Apples developer toolkit for 3-D graphics, games and graphics
apps can enjoy great acceleration (if updated accordingly).
There is no circumstance, Apple says, where your Mac will feel
slower after installing El Capitan. (Thats a happy bit of news
for anyone who remembers iOS 8 slowing down their iPhones, for
example.)
Ive found that to be true: You notice the speedup right away,
and speed is good.
As a handy bonus, you wont need to upgrade your Mac to run
El Capitan. It runs on almost any Mac that can now run Yosemite,
or Mavericks before it, or Mountain Lion before that.
A system-software version that still runs on 8-year-old machines?
Nicely done, Apple.
If youre in a hurry, heres the bottom line: Download and
install El Capitan. Theres zero reason not to. Everything runs
just as it did before. I couldnt find a single app that didnt
run perfectly after the installation. (Well, one: My favorite
calendar program, BusyCal, went black during the calendar page
turns, where thered normally be an animation. An update fixed
the problem.)
If you have a little more time, heres a list of what else is
new in El Capitan. (Its adapted from my preview writeup from
June.)
This time around, Apple isnt boasting, over 200 new features.
Over 20 new features would be more like it. Theyre subtle.
Theyre grace notes. Theyre motley. Theyll be welcomed by
people already using Macs, but wont do anything to sway someone
who already loves Windows:
Wiggle the cursor to magnify it. Whenever you cant find
your cursor, a lot of people rapidly scrub the trackpad (or
wiggle the mouse), just so you can find the cursor on the
screen. (Especially if its a big screen.) In El Capitan,
whenever you wiggle the cursor that way, the cursor momentarily
becomes gigantic to draw your eye.
Notes. After years of boringness, Apples Notes program has
suddenly sprouted an array of formatting features that practically
turn it into OneNote or EverNote. Now theres full type
formatting, bulleted lists, checklists, Web links, and pasted
graphics, videos, or maps. All of this gets synced automatically
to your iPhone or iPad, too, if it has iOS 9 on it. The new
Attachments Browser lets you view a palette of all the photos,
videos, maps, and Web links youve added in all your notes, which
is surprisingly handy. A new New Note option appears in the Share
menu of Safari and other apps.
Maps. Apples Maps takes a timid step toward overcoming
Google Maps overwhelming superiority by adding
public-transportation directions for four U.S. cities (San
Francisco, New York, Baltimore, and Washington DC). Google Maps,
by contrast, has transit schedules and directions for every major
city around the worldand offers walking directions, too.
Split screen in full-screen mode. In full-screen mode, your
document window fills the entire monitor, and the menu bar and
window edges are hidden. In El Capitan, you can now split the
screen between two full-screen apps, displaying them
side-by-side, or move the dividing line between them. (Where
have we seen this sort of thing before? Oh yeahWindows 8.)
Redesigned Mission Control. Misson Control is a special view
that helps you find one lost window among your ocean of them. It
shrinks all of your open windows to miniatures, all
simultaneously visible. In El Capitan, theyre no longer clumped
by program; you can see them all spread out. (Mac veterans will
recognize this effect as the old Exposé.)
Redesigned Spaces. Spaces is a somewhat confusing power-user
feature that lets you create several side-by-side virtual
monitors, each with its own programs and windows. In
El Capitan, the Spaces bar is more compact and easier to operate
(you can see it above)you dont have to open System Preferences
to make changes. You can just drag a windows title bar to the
top of your screen to add it to an existing Space or put it into
a new one.
Spotlight updates
Apple has put quite a bit of work into Spotlight, the Macs
built-in search feature:
More kinds of Web info. Into the Spotlight search bar, you
can now type search terms for weather, sports, stocks, athletes,
public transportation, and online videos. You can type, for
example, yankees schedule, lebron james, weather Tuesday
London, or goog (to find out Googles stock price). You can
type jimmy fallon to see the latest YouTube, Vimeo, or Vevo
clips from that show. Or type GrandCentral or 7th ave subway
to see the current schedules for those trains. In each case, the
search-results panel offers a tidy display of information on
your query.
Resize or move the Spotlight window. You can now make the
Spotlight window tallerbut not, weirdly, wider. You can also
drag it around your screen. For example, if you like to use
Spotlight as a calculator (yes, you can type, for example,
37*12 into it to get the result), you can now park the window
at the edge of your screen so you can keep working in your main
program. (Undocumented tip: To restore the Spotlight window to
its original size and position, hold the cursor down on the
Spotlight iconthe magnifying-glassat the top right of your
screen.)
Prose (natural language) searches. One more Spotlight
upgrade: You can now type out queries that describe what youre
looking for like files I worked on in January, or slides
from 2013 containing WidgeTech, or images from last year. In
general, the kinds of information Spotlight understands here are
file types (documents, movies, images, presentations,
email and so on), the words and phrases inside each file,
dates and times, and the names of email senders or recipients.
Mail updates
Mail, the built-in email program, received just a touch of love
from Apple this year:
Speed boost. Apple reworked the way Mail checks IMAP email
accounts to make it feel faster, especially over slow connections.
Gestures. You can now swipe to the right (two fingers on your
trackpad) to mark a message as read or unread, and swipe to the
left to delete it. This trick works even on messages in a
background list, while a different messages window is open in
front.
More natural-language searching. As with Spotlight, prose
queries have now come to Mail. You can search for, for example,
mail from Chris I havent read, or messages with attachments
from last week.
Calendar suggestions. If Mail detects that a message contains
the details for an appointment or a flight, it offers to add it
to your calendar, saving you a bunch of copying and typing (just
as iOS 8 does now).
Full-screen improvements. In Yosemite Mails Full-screen
mode, if you were reading a message, it commandeered your screen;
you couldnt click another message in the list, or refer to
another message, without closing the first one. But in
El Capitan, if you click outside an open message, its window
shrinks down into a tab at the bottom of the screen. You can
accumulate a bunch of these tabs, just as you can in a Web
browser: remove them, rearrange them, or drag attachments onto
them. Obscure, but welcome to full-screen aficionados.
Instant reminders. If you select some text in a message that
should be a reminder (Caulk the living room tomorrow), you can
right-click it, choose Share->Reminders from the shortcut menu,
and presto: a new to-do item in your Reminders app. (You can
click the Mail icon in that to-do item later to open the original
Mail message.)
Safari updates
Apple has brought a couple of new features to its Safari browser,
too. For example:
Pinned tabs. If you drag an open tab all the way to the left,
it becomes a compact square pinned tab, one that will always be
there, in every window (like the similar feature in Google
Chrome). Handy for social-media sites or Web-based email or chat
services.
Mute audio. Dont you hate it when some Safari window or tab
is playing sound, but you cant figure out which one? Now,
whenever audio is playing, a Mute button appears at the top of
the Safari window. Click it to shut up all browser windows
(while preserving sound from the rest of your Mac, like alert
tones and your music player). Or hold your cursor down on it to
see a list of browser windows, so that you can mute just the
one you dont want.
Instant answers. Certain things you type into the Search
bar produce answers right there among the autocomplete
suggestions. For example, you can type in a stocks
abbreviation to see its latest position, or someones Twitter
name for a link to that persons Twitter page.
The features youve just read about arent any surprise, because
Apple showed them off onstage in June. But the developer release
of El Capitan actually has a huge list of tiny tweaks that Apple
didnt mention:
Option to show the toolbar in Safaris full-screen mode.
>From the View menu, choose Always Show Toolbar In Full Screen.
Keyboard shortcuts for tabs. In Yosemite, the keystrokes
Command-1 through Command-9 opened the first nine Favorites
(bookmarks). In El Capitan, you can, if you prefer, have those
keystrokes open your various open tabs instead.
iCloud Drive transfer progress indicator. In a Finder
windows sidebar, you now see a progress wheel, so youll know
when your local copies of whats on your iCloud Drive have been
backed up to the Web.
Silent clicking option. If you have a MacBook with one of
the new force touch trackpads, theres a new option in System
Preferences that lets you click completely silently. (On these
trackpads, the actual click you feel is an audio fakeout
anyway.)
Auto-hide menu bar. If you like, you can make the Macs menu
bar disappear until you move your mouse to the top of the screen.
Its the way the menu bar works in full-screen mode nowbut in
El Capitan, you can have it work that way even when youre not in
full-screen mode, for a little extra screen space.
Disk Utility. Apple gave its 800-year-old disk-maintenance
program, Disk Utility, its first overhaul in ages. Not only does
it now show whats eating up your disk space, but it no longer
has a Fix Permissions button (a time-honored troubleshooting
button in times of glitchiness). Apple says that OS X now fixes
permissions automatically every night, and every time you install
a program.
New Color Picker. The Color Picker dialog box, a
longstanding element of many visually oriented programs, has had
a makeover, too. The Crayon picker, for example, is now the
Colored Pencils picker. And the most often-used colors get their
own swatches right at the top, so you dont have to keep
remembering the blue Ive been using is three down and four
across in the color grid.
New title-bar option. You can now specify what happens when
you double-click a windows title bar: either zoom (enlarge) it
or minimize it.
Light sensor. In Displays preferences, a new Ambient light
compensation checkbox controls whether or not your laptops
screen brightness adjusts with the room brightness.
Rename in the shortcut menu. When you right-click a file
or folder icon, the Rename command is now one of the choices.
Choice of font in Reader. In Safaris Reader mode (no ads
or blinkingjust pure type on a clean background), you now have
a choice of typefaces.
Strikethrough in Mail format bar. In addition to icons for
Bold, Italic, and Underline, theres a new one for Strikethrough.
San Francisco font. Apple has now designed a single typeface
family for all of its products: Mac, iOS, Apple Watch. It looks
a lot like the Lucida Grande the Macs been using for years, but
Apple says its even more readable.
Photos editing extensions. Photos, the photo-management app,
can now accept plug-ins from other companies. Already, various
third-party editing extensions are in the worksfor noise
reduction, portrait retouching, funhouse effects, and so on.
Live Photos. The Photos app can play back Live Photos (the
three-second video clips that accompany pictures taken with the
iPhone 6s and 6s Plus). Point to the icon in the lower-left
corner of a photos thumbnail to play back the video one time.
Batch editing. In Photos, you can now change the names,
times, or locations of whole groups of photos at once, via their
Get Info boxes.
New Recently Deleted folder in Notes. Youve got a safety
net now.
3-finger drag moved. The option to drag an icon by swiping
your trackpad with three fingers is now in System Preferences >
General > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad Options.
Find my Friends widget. The old Dashboard is still in
El Capitan; in fact, theres a new widget there that lets you
find your friends (if theyve permitted you to track them).
File copy resume. If you were copying some files, but had to
shut down your Mac or put it to sleep, OS X is now smart enough
to resume the copying next chance it gets.
A redesigned spinning beachball of death cursor. Apple
haters, insert your own joke here.
At every press event, Apple boasts about how many of its
customers have already adopted Apples latest phone or Mac
operating system. Why is the speed of customer adoption so
important?
For three reasons. First, the more people who are using a new
OS, the more software companies will feel compelled to update
their own apps to exploit the new goodies.
Second, because each new version brings new weaponssecurity
standardsin the eternal arms race against hackers and
evildoers.
And third, because in Apples case, its software releases are
linked. This new Mac OS comes out simultaneously with the new
iPhone/iPad OS, and some of their features are designed to work
together (like the new Notes format).
Anyway, the changes in El Capitan are, as youre figuring out,
very subtle. This new OS X wont throw anyone for a loop.
It is, however, a big speedup with a lot of touch-upsfor free.
Thats what I call a very good deal.
Twitter Looking Beyond 140 Characters With New Product: Re/code
Micro-blogging website operator Twitter Inc is working on a product
that will allow users to share content longer than 140 characters,
technology website Re/code reported on Tuesday.
It's unclear what the product will look like, Re/code said.
The company's executives are also discussing changes to how the
140-character limit is measured, such as excluding links and user
handles from the count, Re/code reported, citing people familiar
with the matter.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company removed the 140-character limit from its direct
messages last month.
Increasing the limit has been discussed at Twitter for years,
more so in recent months under interim Chief Executive Jack
Dorsey as the company looks to grow its user base, sources told
Re/code.
Twitter shares were up 1 percent at $25.52 in afternoon trading
on the New York Stock Exchange. Up to Monday's close, the stock
had fallen nearly 30 percent this year.
Good-bye, Google As We Know It. Hello, Alphabet
This is the last day that Google is operating without a parent
company.
After the close of markets Friday, the company officially will
become Alphabet and will trade as such on Monday. Google will
become a business unit running under the Alphabet umbrella and
will focus on core Internet-related businesses, including search,
YouTube and Android.
The company announced the official change on its investor
relations page.
"Long-term, this could be a big deal, but it must be more than a
name change," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor
Insights & Strategy. "Non-Google companies under Alphabet need to
show a few things like they need to enable innovation and
autonomy."
Google announced in August that it was creating a parent company
and that Google would become one of its wholly owned subsidiaries.
Alphabet is set to replace Google as the publicly traded entity
and shares of Google will be the same number of shares of
Alphabet. The company will still trade under the ticker symbol
GOOG.
Google won't be the only subsidiary under the Alphabet umbrella.
Google X, the company's secretive research arm that came up with
the autonomous car, will become its own business, as will Capital
and Ventures, which will concentrate on funding startups.
Before the reorganization, everything the company was working on
search, Android, Chrome, Google Glass, robotics, driverless
cars, drones and even smart contact lenses fell under the Google
corporate umbrella. With this move, Google will shed all of its
research projects, which aren't money makers, and will
concentrate on its Internet-based businesses, like search, which
is a huge money maker.
Similarly, the company, which has become known for its "moon
shots" or outrageous-sounding research, should be able to put even
more muscle behind new projects.
Google's research projects, like smart contact lenses that can
read blood sugar levels for diabetics, will have its own
executives overseeing the work.
With less attention split between money makers and big dreams,
Alphabet is expected to be able to do a better job at both.
"This is a big deal because if they can accomplish what they're
looking to
this puts in place a future operating model for a
large company to truly innovate," said Moorhead. "I think this
puts a meaningful separation between businesses generating cash,
and research and science projects. For the company, it could
mean they can keep driving profits today and invest in the far
future."
=~=~=~=
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