Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 17 Issue 18
Volume 17, Issue 18 Atari Online News, Etc. May 8, 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
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org
and click on "Subscriptions".
OR subscribe to A-ONE by sending a message to: dpj@atarinews.org
and your address will be added to the distribution list.
To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE
Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to
subscribe from.
To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
following sites:
http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm
Now available:
http://www.atarinews.org
Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1718 05/08/15
~ Memories of LOVE BUG! ~ People Are Talking! ~ U.S. Suspects China!
~ Kano Gets Startup Money ~ What's Up With Konami? ~ $9 CHIP Computer!
~ Steam Charging for Mods ~ Intel's "Password Day" ~ Skyrim Workshop
~ Win10: Billion or Bust! ~ ~ MS Flips The Bird!
-* London Railway Passwords Out *-
-* Adware Is Pervasive Scam on Internet *-
-* 1974 Mainframe Game First Text Adventure? *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Another long week, and another late issue! This is starting to be the
story of my life lately! Too much to do and not enough time to get it
all done! Sound familiar?
On the positive side, the weather has been absolutely beautiful this week!
The sun has been shining brightly, the temperatures have been warmer than
the seasonal average, and the flowers and trees are blooming like crazy.
I may even have to mow the lawn this weekend! What a sharp contrast to
the weather we were experiencing a month ago!
Well, so much for the New England weather report! Let's get right to
another week's issue before it's gets too late!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Steam Charging For Mods!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Removing Payment Feature From Skyrim Workshop!
Mainframe Game From 1974 May Be First Text Adventure
And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Steam Charging For Mods: For And Against
It used to be that the only way to make money from a mod was a) make a
standalone sequel or remake b) use it as a portfolio to get hired by a
studio or c) back in the pre-broadband days, shovel it onto a dodgy
CD-ROM (and even then, it almost certainly wasnt the devs who
profited). As of last night, that changed. Mod-makers can now charge for
their work, via Steam.
Its far too soon to know the long-term outcome of Valve offering the
option for mod creators to charge for their work, which went live
yesterday using Skyrim as a test case. Everyone has an opinion, and Ill
try to cover the main angles below, but first I simply want to express
simple sadness. Not fatalistic sadness Im genuinely curious as to how
this will play out, and theres high potential for excitement but End
Of An Era sadness.
Mods, free, fan-made modifications or extra content for existing games,
have been a part of PC gaming for almost as long as there has been PC
gaming. To think that this is changing, in that there may be less
availability of free mods, and in that mod teams may now embark on their
projects with a mind to earning a living from it rather than purely
enthusiasm, is bittersweet. I do want people to be compensated for their
work, and I do want people to be able to lay hands on more resources to
make their endeavours so often wilder than anything which would arise
from an established studio better still, as well as potentially
receiving more co-operation from the original games developers. I dont
resist this change, but I am misty-eyed for the potential loss of what
was. It was always delightful to gaze at all this weird, wonderful,
usually broken fare, created from pure love and determination. Mods gave
new, extended life and flair to games including Half-Life, Doom and
Skyrim, mods lead to DayZ and Team Fortress, mods are as PC gaming as PC
gaming gets. I salute them.
In all honesty, its highly unlike that free mods will go away, not least
because it can be hard to make players blindly stump up for unknown
quantities, but change is upon us. The gulf between hobbyist and
professional is shrinking, and while that means more potential for
projects to go off the rails, it also means more potential for new ideas
and new voices to reach an audience. In all honesty, I dont not
strongly for or against this move, so dont expect a tubthumping THIS IS
WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN conclusion. I do want to look at some of the major
arguments for and against this new age of paid mods, however.
FOR
Most of all, this is a motivation for people to make this stuff, to make
it better, and to be compensated for it. Potentially, it also creates yet
more routes into game development that dont involved signing your life
away to a big studio or publisher. Additionally, it removes even more
barriers from making money from truly out-there stuff: without the same
degree of risk as making a game from scratch, this can be the true test
of If You Build It, They Will Come.
Someone with a wild idea, someone from a minority background or with an
outsider perspective, no longer need necessarily make an entire game,
and all the time and financial risk that entails, to put something out
in the world. Dont focus on uncomfortable ideas of someone becoming a
millionaire from digital hat sales: creators being better able to afford
to do something adventurous or elaborate is enormously meaningful here.
We can also look at this as long-overdue tribute to an ethos which has
made PC gaming the vibrant, impossibly wide-ranging scene we have today.
Without mods we wouldnt have Team Fortress or Dota 2, DayZ or Return To
Castle Wolfenstein, Heroes of the Storm or Natural Selection,
Counter-Strike or Killing Floor, Dear Esther or League of Legends,
Antichamber or Garrys Mod, Red Orchestra or Stanley Parable. And thats
just the commercial stuff factor in wonderful work which never went
standalone or paid, such as Civ IV: Fall From Heaven, Action Half-Life,
XCOM: The Long War, Action Quake 2, Complex for Homeworld 2, Game of
Thrones for Crusader Kings 2, The Third Age for Medieval 2, Just Cause 2
multiplayer, the endless community patches for Vampire: The Masquerade
Bloodlines
There are so many others, and we should celebrate them
below, but in any case it only feels right to now be rewarding that
scene, to encourage it to new heights.
Potentially, money means more updates, better support, more scope and
scale, more longevity, more potential for mod teams to move onto bigger
and better things. Something as simple as being able to hire an artist,
writer or actor can make all the difference between so-so and fantastic,
for instance. All that said, there are a great many mods which have been
updated and improved for years based on nothing but dedication and
goodwill. I dont think its at all true to say there is a need to move
to a payment model, but it may open more doors for more people.
Its worth noting as we talk about money that, in the case of Skyrim,
mod-makers will receive just a 25% revenue share of whatever they sell
their creation for, so apart from in rare cases this is unlikely to be a
path to riches. While theres certainly an argument to be made that the
teams who make this stuff are getting a raw deal out of this new scheme,
at least hopefully it will prevent people getting into mods purely with
money on their mind. The option to be free remains, naturally, plus
Valve have added a particularly intriguing Pay What You Want system
(which I have little doubt will later be expanded to full games, as an
attempt to take on Humble), so were not at all looking at a paywall
being erected around mod-town.
The 25% sum is proving contentious, inevitably. I dont have a dog in
this race myself, but what I do hope is that, whatever the norm ends up
being, it leads to more publishers being more open about their games
being modded. Many big games are effectively locked down, either because
the work to include any sort of mod tools wasnt considered worthwhile
or in the recent example of GTA V concerns that the integrity of the
intended experience would be undermined. (Another way of putting that is
money-men worrying that some amateurish mod makes their companys
project look bad, or that a more popular mode would pull players out of
an intended walled garden). I wouldnt be at all surprised if some
individual developers were simply sniffily resistant to others changing
their work. If putting money on the table means more games can have more
mod support, for that reason alone Im in comfortable with this move.
Related to this is other rights-holders permitting rather than cracking
down on mods. What if all those copyright-ignoring boardgame adaptations
released for Tabletop Simulator would be legalised, either by giving a
cut to Fantasy Flight or whoever, or simply tempting Fantasy Flight or
whoever (including indie boardgame designers) to release their own
adaptations for it? What if SyFy or Lucasarts officially OKed the
Battlestar and Star Wars mods that so many people cry out for, even if
it came down to them taking every penny of profit? Theres a great deal
of potential, but its potential both to crack open the hitherto
unyielding shell of copyright and to outright fleece well-intentioned
fans.
Which brings us onto some of the reasons this mightnt be such a happy
turn of events.
AGAINST
There are potentially huge downsides to paid mods, many of which relate
to Steam itself. Valve has a propensity to hurl its new schemes into the
lions den that is its own community and see what happens, not always
taking an active hand in managing things which millions of people look
at. Though they just about fall more into helping than hindering,
Greenlight and Steam Curators still seem like cobbled-together
half-solutions to discoverability problems, Steam Tags and the Workshop
are rife with stuff which sails close to the wind, and generally theres
this sense of ramshackle lawlessness.
The mod scene is lawless enough as it is already, be it ripping off other
creators, borrowing liberally from other IP or falling apart due to
in-fighting: adding money, and a direct pipe onto the firehose that is
Steam, into the equation is a fearsome prospect. On the other hand, item
sales for Dota and Steam Workshop have successfully become their own
economy, and been very profitable for some creators. With a careful hand,
easy access and plenty of support, this is do-able: we just have to hope
that Valve has gone into it with a determination to make it work rather
than a Que Sera Sera mindset.
Theres also this concern that Valve are bringing yet more of PC gaming
under their already monopolistic roof. Mods have long been their own
weird, ungoverned splinter cell, but moving to a paid model (though
again, this is completely optional, plus theres no guarantee that many
mods will move away from their own homes or Moddb and into Steams arm)
means that the PC games ecosystem is all the more defined by Steam.
Its been happening for a little while already, of course- the Workshop
for Skyrim stole Nexusmods thunder, while dramatic tweaking of Cities:
Skylines doesnt ever require leaving Steams interface. This potential
to make a mod lucrative as well as popular may well seal the deal that
Steam is now the place to be. Other sites and providers may suffer, and
many projects fate will be at the whim of Steams discoverability
tools.
Another contentious issue about this move is, as mentioned in the For
column, how much share the original games rights-holders will take of a
mods sales. Valve confirm that this is going to vary on a case by case
basis, so lets not get ahead of ourselves here, but for Skyrim mod-makers
get 25%, with the remaining 75% being split between Valve and Skyrim
publisher Bethesda. 75% is a lot. Too soon to say if this is a precedent,
but I doubt big publishers will want to take less if they dont have to.
Some feel this is too much to the IP owners and platform holder, given
the work was done by the modders and that in some cases mods sell games
rather than vice-versa, while others feel its only fair given that the
mods wouldnt exist were it not for the game, as well as pointing out
that, by other industries standards, those are generous licensing terms.
One more question mark hanging over this concept is whether players will
be willing to pay in the first place. The mercenary froth of DLC and
in-app purchases lying atop latter-day mainstream gaming suggests yes,
but in this case were talking about far more unknown quantities. A mod
isnt coming from an official source (though isnt the idea of developers
making new stuff for each others games very appealing?), therefore
theres no guarantee of quality, on either an artistic or technical
level. Steams trying to counter that right out the gates to some degree
by offering a 24 hour window for refunds if a mod is broken or doesnt
work as promised, but even so, some may feel theyre essentially
gambling their money. 24 hours wont cover a promised update never
happening, brokenness wont cover a mod being unspeakably awful and
theres far more scope for an amateur project to be unspeakable awful
than there is for a professionally-made game (in theory).
This is not to mention that essentially paygating a mod will, initially a
least, limit the size of its audience. Would the original DOTA or
Counter-Strike have become as huge as they did if they werent free for
anyone to suck it and see, with more players coming in as word of mouth
spread far and wide? Is this really a new age of ambitious total
conversions, or an end to it in favour of nickelndiming minor add-ons?
There also tall hurdles to leapt in terms of the mod scenes propensity
to cannibalise itself or borrow assets without permission, for the Steam
userbases broad expectation that developers will provide technical
support and communication, for what happens if a work-in-progress mod
grinds to an unfinished halt because someone lost interest or there
wasnt enough money, for how on Earth to sort out ex-team members
resurfacing and demanding a cut of a free mod thats now paid.
Fortunately, we are already seeing early signs of Valves plans for
community-led policing of problems as they arise a paid Skyrim mod which
used content from someone elses work has today been pulled. Its too soon
to know if such rapid respond will be the norm, especially given how
difficult it can be to ascertain what is and isnt original out in
modland, but at least its not a hey, whatever shrug right off the bat.
As I say, I dont incline strongly one way or another, but I am fascinated
to see how it works out, as one of the touchstones of PC games moves into
a new era. Maybe the uncertainty and contention around it is entirely in
keeping with the PC long being gamings wild west, forever heading to new
frontiers while other platforms settle down. Potentially, this is a huge
and disruptive change, and things may go horribly wrong, but change is
what makes PC gaming PC gaming. Lets see what happens.
Removing Payment Feature From Skyrim Workshop
We're going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop. For
anyone who spent money on a mod, we'll be refunding you the complete
amount. We talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree.
We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we
were doing. We've been shipping many features over the years aimed at
allowing community creators to receive a share of the rewards, and in the
past, they've been received well. It's obvious now that this case is
different.
To help you understand why we thought this was a good idea, our main
goals were to allow mod makers the opportunity to work on their mods full
time if they wanted to, and to encourage developers to provide better
support to their mod communities. We thought this would result in better
mods for everyone, both free & paid. We wanted more great mods becoming
great products, like Dota, Counter-strike, DayZ, and Killing Floor, and
we wanted that to happen organically for any mod maker who wanted to
take a shot at it.
But we underestimated the differences between our previously successful
revenue sharing models, and the addition of paid mods to Skyrim's
workshop. We understand our own game's communities pretty well, but
stepping into an established, years old modding community in Skyrim was
probably not the right place to start iterating. We think this made us
miss the mark pretty badly, even though we believe there's a useful
feature somewhere here.
Now that you've backed a dump truck of feedback onto our inboxes, we'll
be chewing through that, but if you have any further thoughts let us
know.
What Is Going on With the Business of Konami?
Konami stocks will no longer trade on the floor of the New York Stock
Exchange. The company still maintains a presence in both the London and
Tokyo Stock Exchanges, but as of last Friday, April 24, it voluntarily
delisted itself from the NYSE.
The low volume of Konami stocks traded on the NYSE is why Konami believes
"the continued listing on the NYSE is not economically justified."
Voluntary delisting can be a part of an internal restructuring, and anyone
who has been following Konami in the slightest knows there have been quite
a few shakeups within the company. In March, Konami rebranded Kojima
Productions to Konami Digital Productions. This spurred rumors that Hideo
Kojima would leave Konami after the release of Metal Gear Solid V.
Certain financial requirements must be met by a company for it to be
listed on the NYSE. Failing to meet these requirements would result in a
non-voluntary delisting of a stock from the exchange.
Rumors began to swirl on Sunday that the upcoming Kojima and Guillermo
del Toro Silent Hills game was being cancelled. First it was revealed
that P.T., the Silent Hill teaser, was being pulled from the PlayStation
Store. Then a comment made by del Toro during a panel at the San
Francisco Film Festival confirmed that the director would no longer be
collaborating with Kojima on Silent Hills. This was all followed by
confirmation from Konami Monday morning that Silent Hills was, in fact,
no more.
The delisting news comes at a time when outward appearances make it seem
as though Konami is shifting its focus away from game development. In its
financial report for the third quarter of 2015, digital entertainment saw
a contraction of just over 5%, while its slot machine division saw a
moderate 4.2% gain year over year. The brightest growth area for the
company was in fact its pachinko division. Pachinko, a type of Japanese
gambling machine, saw nearly 100% growth from the same period the year
earlier.
The voluntary delisting of Konami shows that the trouble of maintaining a
US stock exchange presence no longer makes financial sense, and the
company says as much in the delisting notice that it issued on Friday.
With the growth of its gambling sector shining brightly compared to its
gaming section, corporate restructuring and the will-they, won't-they
nature of Konami's relationship with Kojima, only time will tell what
this all means for the future of Konami games.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
A Rediscovered Mainframe Game From 1974 Might Be The First Text Adventure
In the 60s and 70s, IBM produced mainframe computersthe room-filling
monstrosities we chortle at today. Housed in universities, hospitals, and
businesses, these computers were also the source of many of the earliest
videogames, which today we call mainframe games. Many of them have been
lost to history, but we may be seeing something of a comeback for them.
Just last month, AMC released its recreation of 1976 text-based cave
exploration adventure game Colossal Cave Adventurecomplete with newly
designed picturesin preparation for the second season of their 1980s
computer period drama Halt and Catch Fire.
And now, Wander, a 1974 mainframe game that had disappeared over the
course of decades, has wandered its way back into the hands of the
public. It predates Colossal Cave Adventure and is often considered one
of the first text-based adventure games. Ant of Retroactive Fiction, a
website devoted to restoring interest in older 1970s and 80s games,
contacted Wander creator Peter Langston after seeing the game on a list
of lost mainframe games. Langston responded with files and multiple
versions of the game that he found in an archived email his friend had
saved of it. Its now up on GitHub for those who want to trek through
castles, explore the ruins of a library and take a trip through
spacethat is, if you know how to install the code on your computer.
The reason why some of these mainframe games disappeared from existence
primarily had to do with the hardware. Mainframe computers were
expensive, extensive and massive computing systems usually owned by large
corporations or educational facilities, like University of Illinois's
60s e-learning system PLATO (the first of its kind). Apparently, even
though NASA powered down their last one in 2012 to fully switch to
supercomputers, theyre still one of IBMs most lucrative products, with
the latest, cheapest model currently priced at $75,000. (They can reach
upwards of one million dollars). The cost and size of the mainframe was
what aided in the disappearance of many old games: Writing code for games
on these computers was usually done so illicitly, which meant games were
not shared as frequently. It seems Wander had a larger distribution,
according Jason Dyer and Ant, but still managed to disappear from the
radar.
With Langston redistributing his game to the masses, we may hopefully see
more 60s and 70s mainframe games cropping up. While newer text-based
games are being created on the regularI used to play Homestar Runners
Dungeon Man religiously, and Twine games have become a form unto
themselvesits cool to see the older code being rediscovered and
redistributed. Hopefully, one day, well have more user-friendly
variations of them to feed every piqued curiosity.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
U.S. Concerned China Behind Cyberattack on U.S. Sites
The United States voiced concern Friday over a report that China
manipulated international Internet traffic intended for a major Chinese
Web service company and used it for a cyberattack on U.S. sites.
State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke's comments follow complaints from
anti-online censorship group Greatfire.org that Chinese authorities
carried out denial-of-service attacks in late March that intermittently
shut down San Francisco-based Github, a U.S.-based computer-code sharing
site that hosts some of Greatfire's data. Greatfire.org said it was a
direct target of similar attacks earlier that month.
Greatfire.org, which has received U.S. government funding, produces mirror
websites that let Chinese users see information normally blocked by
government censors.
Citizen Lab, a research unit based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at
the University of Toronto, attributed the attack to an offensive system it
dubbed the "Great Cannon" that manipulates the traffic of systems outside
China, silently programming their browsers to create a massive denial of
service attack.
"We are concerned by reports that China has used a new cyber capability to
interfere with the ability of worldwide Internet users to access content
hosted outside of China," Rathke told reporters. He said the U.S. has
asked Chinese authorities to investigate and provide the findings.
"We view attacks by malicious cyberactors, who target critical
infrastructure, U.S. companies and U.S. consumers, as threats to national
security and to the economy of the United States," Rathke said.
In its own report, Greatfire.org alleged that Chinese authorities carried
out the attacks by installing malicious code on the computers of users
visiting the popular Chinese search engine Baidu and related sites and
used those computers to overwhelm Github and Greatfire.org websites with
service requests.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a
request for comment Friday.
When Greatfire.org initially reported the denial of service attack in
mid-March, embassy spokesman Zhu Haiquan, described as "unfounded
accusation" any suggestion of Chinese government involvement. He said
China was making great efforts to combat cybercrimes and safeguard
cybersecurity.
China's government blocks thousands of websites to prevent what it deems
politically sensitive information from reaching Chinese users. That is
known as the "Great Firewall."
Greatfire.org doesn't reveal where it's located or who runs it. The Open
Technology Fund, a U.S. government-backed initiative to support Internet
freedom, says on its website that it provided Greatfire.org with
$114,000 in 2014.
Google Research Reveals How Pervasive Adware Is on Your Computer
Adware continues to be one of the most pervasive scams on the Internet,
according to Google, which found more than five million computers infected
with the malware.
The scam works by infecting a computer and then serving advertisements on
new websites in an additional window that can more often than not be a
pain to close. Scammers are able to exploit the scheme by collecting
revenue for any ads that have been served.
Working with the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara,
Google looked at computers visiting the search engine from June to October
2014 to see if adware was being locally injected.
What they found were approximately 5.5 percent of the unique users
accessed Google sites that included some version of the advertising
malware.
"We pursued this research to raise awareness about the ad injection
economy so that the broader ads ecosystem can better understand this
complex issue and work together to tackle it," a Google post said.
Google said eradicating adware is important because it not only undermines
the integrity of online advertising but it can also put users' computers
at risk of a "man in the middle" attack and hijack their personal
information.
London Railway System Passwords Exposed During TV Documentary
One of London's busiest railway stations has unwittingly exposed their
system credentials during a BBC documentary. The sensitive credentials
printed and attached to the top of a station controller's monitor were
aired on Wednesday night on BBC.
If you think that the credentials might have been shown off in the
documentary for a while or some seconds, then you are still unaware of the
limit of their stupidity.
The login credentials were visible for about 44 minute in the BBC
documentary "Nick and Margaret: The Trouble with Our Trains" on Wednesday
night, which featured Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford the two
business experts, both famous for their supporting role on The Apprentice.
The documentary was available on the YouTube, but have now been removed
due to security concerns.
While talking about the concerns of the British railway network, the duo
walked into London Waterloo's control room where these sensitive
credentials were seen stuck to a monitor of a system.
A screenshot of the offending monitor with the machine-produced login was
captured and shown. The screenshot points to a particular workstation
signaller's control desk seems to be running a type of software that
controls signals and trains over the final approach to Waterloo station.
Now this is going to be a great idea to keep passwords. Isnt this? I mean
if it is, then whats the need of putting passwords for the devices if you
stuck it on the top of that device.
This shows that we are just humans. Remembering so many personal passwords
of our different online accounts and then to remember the passwords of
others Ahh! Quite a tough Job.
Okay, now lets come to another security concern. What would you expect
next?
I mean, at least keep a strong password that take some time to guess and
crack. Password3 could be in the list of top ten weakest passwords.
The incident occur few days after the news came that the computer systems
controlling the railway signalling system in the United Kingdom could
potentially be hacked by cyber criminals to cause oncoming trains to
crash into one another at highest speeds.
However, this security blunder of revealing passwords mistakenly in an
interview, video or news channel is not new at all.
Last year, the World Cup security centres internal Wi-Fi passwords for
the FIFA World Cup 2014 were broadcast live. Also, French TV network
TV5Monde failed to keep its passwords secret and revealed a collection of
the TV stations usernames and passwords live on TV.
Memories of The LOVE BUG - 15 Years Ago
Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the infamous LOVE BUG virus.
It just about conquered the world's email servers back in May 2000
because each infected computer would email everybody in its address book.
Actually, it didn't just email every body, it emailed every address book
entry, including mail groups with multiple members.
The silver lining in the LOVE BUG malware attack is that it became really
obvious really soon, being the very antithesis of subtle.
But the bad news is that by the time it was obvious, the world's email
infrastructure had already suffered huge collateral damage, and the
malware was everywhere.
The author, Onel de Guzman from the Philippines, was quickly identified
and questioned by law enforcement.
But even though the LOVE BUG not only created damage by spreading, but
also tried to download and install a password stealing program, de Guzman
evaded prosecution.
What he'd done wasn't strictly illegal at the time (unless prosecutors had
been able to show intent to break other, non-malware-related laws).
The Philippines legislature quickly moved to change that, presumably
fearing that without more teeth in the legal code, malware disseminators
could continue to shrug their shoulders and get off.
So de Guzman may have brought about a tightening of cybercrime regulations
in The Philippines, but he himself slipped the knot and got off scot free.
If you weren't around at the time, LOVE BUG looked like this:
Subject line: ILOVEYOU
Body text: kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me
Attachment: LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT
Many people opened the attachment out of innocent curiosity, presumably
assuming that a .TXT file ought to be harmless, even if it later turned
out to come from a crook.
But the filename was actually LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs, abusing what's
now known as the "double extension" trick.
Many operating systems, including Windows and OS X, helpfully suppress the
characters after the last dot in a filename, figuring that they just take
up space on the screen to convey information that is already obvious in
other ways, such as the icon assigned to the file, or the application
suggested to open it.
On Windows, if removing the real extension leaves what looks like another
extension, the fake extension does get shown, giving you a false sense of
safety.
So, LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU looked like a plain old text file, but was
actually Visual Basic Script (VBS) program.
In those days, opening the file from Outlook would run the program instead
of displaying it, and if your anti-virus didn't kick in to protect you,
the damage was done.
Modern cybercrooks still use this sort of trick, "hiding" the fact that
attachments are really EXEs (programs) or various other sorts of file of
which we have learned to be suspicious.
And cybercrooks still rely on the simple but effective trick of choosing
plausible or intriguing attachments.
They don't go for love letters so much any more, for which we probably
have to thank Onel de Guzman in a backhand sort of way, but they get
great mileage from files such as:
Fake invoices. (You'd better look or else you may get stuck with a bill
you don't owe.)
Bogus courier deliveries. (You'd better reply or you might miss a
delivery.)
News items in your field of interest. (Crooks can often work out what
makes you tick simply from your job title or your Facebook page.)
Don't fall for the modern equivalent of the bogus love letter.
Block suspicious attachment types (e.g. double extensions) at your mail
gateway, just in case.
Don't open attachments out of fear or because you're inquisitive.
Scan outbound emails as well as incoming, to look for information that
shouldn't be leaving.
Always show file extensions, because you can.
Outbound scanning for LOVE BUG back in 2000 could have helped you contain
the virus so it didn't keep blasting itself out from your network and
thereby advertising your security troubles.
In 2015, outbound email scanning can protect you from much worse, such
as: spam sent by zombies or bots in your network (which might be stealing
passwords and data as well); accidental data leakages through incorrectly
chosen email recipients; and even deliberate attempts to bypass your
security rules to embarrass your organisation.
Fifteen years ago, there was so much ILOVEYOU going around that to be
publicly identified as one of the many victims wouldn't have made you
stand out, and would probably have ended up as an easily-forgiven
mistake.
Today, data breaches and infected networks aren't so readily excused, not
least because of regulatory changes that are leaning on all of us to take
security and privacy ever more seriously.
DIY Computer Startup Gets $15 Million
Dude, youre getting a
Kano.
Thats right. Your kids first computer might be one she builds herself.
For $149, kids (or adults) can build a computer and learn basic coding
skills to program it.
Kano is a new type of PC, said co-founder Alex Klein at TechCrunch
Disrupt on Monday. One that is creative, low-cost, physical, fun. We
think that can be mainstream, mass market.
It appears investors agree. Klein announced $15 million in funding, in a
Series A round led by Breyer Capital Collaborative Fund and other
investors, including British economist Jim ONeill.
Kano previously raised $1.5 million on Kickstarter in December 2013,
surpassing its $100,000 campaign goal which it hit in just 16 hours.
The colorful Kano kit must be assembled (pieces are manufactured in
China). It contains twelve components, including: Raspberry Pi board (the
brains of the computer), build-your-own speaker, wireless orange
keyboard, transparent case, WiFi connector and two illustration books
(kid-friendly manuals that read like stories). Youll need your own
monitor, as its not included.
The recent funding will go toward Kanos new computer kit, which features
an upgraded Raspberry Pi 2. This will make the computers six times
faster. The new kit also includes additional updates, like new code
blocks and challenges.
For the 40,000 people in 86 countries who already possess the Kano,
theres a also Powerup Kit, which lets users repurpose the Pi 1 into the
Pi 2.
Even as it enters the big leagues, Kano isnt forgetting its crowdfunding
past.
Kano also launched a campaign on equity crowdfunding platform Quire to
raise $500,000 that will go toward the round. That way, the community can
get more than just a computer kit they can take equity in the firm.
We feel the more participatory this company is, the more accessible the
final product will be, Klein said, noting that theyll leverage the
platform to solicit feedback and ideas, much as they did with Kickstarter.
Though the average age of a Kano user is 9.5 years old, Klein said theres
no one-size-fits-all when it comes to customers: 45-year-old veterans of
Operation Desert Storm, 81-year-old grandmothers
artists, painters.
Its beautiful.
Klein said they want to democratize the ability to make technology, not
just consume it, he said.
Thats the reason Kanos products ship for free so theres no impediment
for users in certain parts of the world.
Were trying to put that creative, experimental, improvisational power
back into the hands of the people, Klein said.
The Next Thing Unveils $9 Computer, CHIP
CHIP is a $9 computer that comes with a 1GHz processor, 512 MB or RAM and
4 GB of storage. But any accessories to make it suitable for work, like a
screen or keyboard, cost extra.
People may soon be able to buy a computer with a $20 bill and still have
change left over for a cup or two of coffee.
An Oakland, Calif.-based company has unveiled its $9 CHIP computer on
Kickstarter.
CHIP, which is about as tall as a AA-battery and smaller than a floppy
disk, packs some power with a 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of
storage. The device connects to any screen using a composite, VGA or HDMI
cable.
Users can save documents to the computer's storage, surf the web over
Wi-Fi or play games with a bluetooth controller. The little computer
comes pre-loaded with games and apps, as well as Scratch, a language
that teaches the basics of programming.
The company says the computer is intended with everyone in mind. It's "a
computer for students, teachers, grandparents, children, artists, makers,
hackers and inventors," the company says. They built the device "to make
tiny powerful computers more accessible and easier to use."
Despite its low cost, consumers will have to pay extra for everything they
need to do the work they want on CHIP: a screen and a cord to connect the
two, a keyboard and mouse, or a bluetooth controller.
For $49, the company offers CHIP with a device to make the computer
portable. PocketCHIP houses CHIP in a device that looks like a smartphone
and has a nearly 11 centimetre touchscreen, keyboard and battery that
lasts up to five hours.
Next Thing Co. launched the project on Kickstarter Thursday. The only way
the company can produce such an inexpensive computer is by purchasing
components in large quantities, an employee says in a video posted on the
crowdfunding page.
By Friday afternoon the company had well surpassed its original $50,000
US goal. Nearly 5,00 backers had pledged more than $220,000 total for the
little computer, the PocketCHIP package or another product bundle.
The company projects they'll start fulfilling orders between September
this year and May 2016, depending on what people ordered.
Anyone who pledges $150 will receive an early model of CHIP in September
before receiving their actual device later on. People who back the
project for $9, ordering only the CHIP, will receive their order in Dec.
Microsoft's Big Windows 10 Goal: One Billion Or Bust
For Windows 10, Microsoft is aiming for a 10-digit installed base.
That's a 1 followed by 9 zeroes: 1,000,000,000. One billion devices
running Windows 10.
At the Build developers' conference in San Francisco earlier this month,
Microsoft's Terry Myerson declared that the company's goal was to reach
the billion-device milestone "within two to three years after launch."
Now a billion might not be what it used to be, but it's still a big
number. How realistic is it?
If you do the math, it's not hard to get to that number and even beyond.
That math is, unfortunately, fuzzy, because we don't really know how many
PCs and tablets and phones are out there to a fine level of precision,
nor what the owners of those devices have done with them since they were
purchased.
But there are enough reliable sales figures out there, some in official
reports from companies, others supplied by trustworthy market research
firms, to make some educated guesses. Even with wide-ranging assumptions
and allowing very broad margins of error, there are plausible paths to a
billion.
With those caveats, let's survey the Windows 10 landscape as it might
look in 2018.
Every quarter, Gartner and IDC report their estimates of worldwide PC
sales for the previous three months. They also publish projections of
that the market will look like a few years into the future.
The most recent numbers show steady declines in sales of traditional
desktop and laptop PCs, with steady growth in the (currently much smaller)
segment of what Gartner calls "premium ultramobiles" like Apple's latest
MacBook and Microsoft's Surface Pro series.
Consensus estimates of Windows PC and tablet sales for the next few years
are flat, at roughly 300 million annually.
Not all them will be running Windows 10, of course. Microsoft has yet to
announce an end to sales of Windows 7 PCs, and there are plenty of
enterprises that will exercise downgrade rights to maintain their
Windows 7 deployments.
Even if only half of those 300 million new PCs each year are running
Windows 10, that's nearly half a billion after three years. Given
Microsoft's willingness to deal on the cost of Windows 10 and its ability
to end sales of Windows 7 PCs, the actual percentage of new devices
running the new OS will probably be much higher.
Microsoft First To Support 'Middle Finger' Emoji
Microsoft has dared to go where Apple and Google have so far feared to
tread, becoming the first big consumer OS vendor to add the "middle
finger" emoji to its software platform.
Flipping the bird in emoji form has been around since the middle of last
year, rolled out as part of the Unicode 7 update. But "Reversed Hand With
Middle Finger Extended Emoji" wasn't supported in Windows 8 or 8.1. The
emoji, which also goes by the names "Middle Finger," "Rude Finger," and
"Flipping The Bird," will be available in Windows 10, according to
Emojipedia.
The middle finger symbol still isn't supported by Apple's iOS and Mac OS
platforms or Google's Android and Chrome software. So Microsoft will be
first out of the gate with this one, though Redmond has been slower than
some to get on the emoji bandwagon in recent years.
Emojipedia has a nice chronology of emoji availability in Windows,
detailing how Windows 8 was the first Microsoft OS to support the popular
textual symbols, but only in black-and-white versions. It wasn't until
Windows 8.1 that Redmond got around to supporting color emoji.
With Windows 10, Microsoft is looking to take the lead in some
emoji-related areas. Per Emojipedia, the next-gen OS will set the
default skin tone of emoji people to a race-neutral gray, breaking from
the bright yellow skin tone used by Apple and Google. Emoji people in
Windows 8.1 have a default skin tone of light pink, making them white
folks, essentially.
You can adjust the skin tones of many of the available emoji people in
Windows 10. Emojipedia said there are five skin tone options in addition
to neutral graypale, cream white, moderate brown, dark brown, and black.
Microsoft has also tinkered with some of the emoji in its stable for
Windows 10, for example adding an emoji woman's face to its Haircut Emoji
and making some changes large and small to an assortment of emoji faces.
Meanwhile the Information Desk Person goes from a blocky silhouette in
Windows 8.1 to a winking, animated woman much like the same emoji in
iOS and Mac OS.
Intel Asks The World To Be More Secure on 'Password Day'
First, theres Star Wars Day, then weve got Cinco de Mayo, and now if
Intel gets its way, the first week of May could have its next big
holiday Password Day!
The effort is being launched as part of a partnership between Intel
Security, Microsoft, Asus, and the Cybersecurity Alliance. As more
database hacks reveal that one of the most common passwords in use today
is password123, these companies are beginning to realize that if we
want to get serious about credential security its time to break out
the hash-tags.
Intel is relying on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to get
the word out, with a number of share buttons attached to every tip and
tile on the front page. By retweeting under #PasswordConfession,
thousands of users are sharing their most embarrassing password
stories. Some are humiliating, while others are just downright sad, but
all are entertaining glimpses into the kinds of passwords people use in
the real world.
You can even test the strength of your own password using a tool
provided by Microsoft on the main site. However, somewhat ironically it
seems the home page hasnt been totally secured itself, with warnings
popping up for users that Intels portal isnt configured with
up-to-date security settings under the HTTPS protocol. This probably
means its security certification is out of date, or not properly
registered.
While its definitely good practice to get into the habit of changing
your passwords at least once a year, at the bare minimum you should
probably do it on a site that has all its security certificates in
order first.
=~=~=~=
Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire
Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted
at the beginning of any article, to Atari user groups and not for
profit publications only under the following terms: articles must
remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of
each article reprinted. Other reprints granted upon approval of
request. Send requests to: dpj@atarinews.org
No issue of Atari Online News, Etc. may be included on any commercial
media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service or
internet site, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without
the expressed consent or permission from the Publisher or Editor of
Atari Online News, Etc.
Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All
material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.
