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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 17 Issue 05
Volume 17, Issue 05 Atari Online News, Etc. January 30, 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
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1705 01/30/15
~ Super-cookie Crumbles! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Facebook Goes Down!
~ Hotels Blocking WiFi! ~ Grim Fandango Re-done! ~ Pirate Bay Returns?
~ 'Reptile' Back in MK X ~ Cognitive Fingerprints ~ Ways To Ruin E-mail
~ Wikileaks Slams Google ~ Facebook Emoji Threats ~ The GHOST Bug!
-* Cuban Secret Computer Network *-
-* China Tightens Internet Control More *-
-* Facebook vs. 25,000 Users in Privacy Suit! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, it's been one helluva week as far as the weather was concerned!
After about 6 inches of snow last weekend, here in New England, we got
hit with another 2+ feet (yes, I said FEET) of snow earlier in the week!
Fortunately, one way to consider it, it was light, fluffy snow that was
easily cleared. What made things bad was the heavy winds that caused a
lot of drifting; and, naturally, having the snow blow back in your face
when trying to throw it somewhere.
Now we're all faced with trying to find a place to put all of this snow!
Out here in the 'burbs, it's not too bad compared to those in the city.
But, we're still faced with streets that weren't plowed completely, and
sidewalks that haven't been cleared yet by the town. And, it can
occasionally be difficult to see around corners because of the high piles
of snow at intersections.
And to make matters even worse, the forecast for early next week is
another foot of snow! I guess Mother Nature is trying to make up for
the past couple of winters. Life in New England, I guess!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Reptile Returns in Mortal Kombat X
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Grim Fandango Remastered!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Reptile Returns in Mortal Kombat X
Reptile, the acid spitting ninja that quickly won favor (or not thanks to
his confusing invisibility ability in MK II), will be joining the lineup
in Mortal Kombat X. This latest iteration of the Mortal Kombat series has
been building anticipation thanks to a series of tantalizing reveals, new
characters, and some of our favorite faces. Its about time too! Mortal
Kombat fans (like yours truly) have been waiting since 2011 to get
another taste of the funny and brutal combat that has made the series so
unique. Want to see what kinds of carnage we can expect from Reptile in
Mortal Kombat X? Check out the trailer below that includes some gameplay
and even features Reptile executing one of his fatalities:
So who will Reptile be battling against in the forthcoming title? The
roster currently features 13 characters (including Goro whos slated to
be a pre-order exclusive only) and is a mix of new and familiar faces.
The four new fighters who are waiting to spill blood (or spill theirs)
are Kotal Kahn, Cassie Cage, DVorah and the Ferra/Torr combination.
Reptile will be reunited with some fan favorites that include Scorpion
(obviously), Kitana, Raiden, and Kano. Reptiles inclusion in the
exciting line up of kombatants isnt the only reason why Mortal Kombat
fans are not so patiently waiting for Mortal Kombat Xs April release.
Each character will have multiple playable variants with each one
getting its own distinctive look. Every character variant will feature
unique combat abilities which means that to survive in Mortal Kombat X,
you will need to use a completely different strategy.
With so many things to look forward to in the new Mortal Kombat X, it
makes waiting for the April release all the more agonizing. PC, Xbox 360,
Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 fans will be shouting Toasty!
when its released on the aforementioned platforms on April 14th.
Grim Fandango Remastered Reanimates Some Really Funny Bones
One of the best games ever made about the afterlife has finally got one
of its own.
After lying dormant for 17 years, Tim Schafers seminal 1998 adventure
game Grim Fandango has returned to the land of the living a place where
its cast of skeletal rogues and neer-do-wells would hardly feel at home.
The games status as a masterpiece has been cemented by time. Its viewed
as a pinnacle of the adventure genre, and its one of the reasons we
rated 1998 as the greatest year in video game history. But for a long
time, its been difficult to play the game on modern systems. Thats no
way to treat a classic: Its like if it were impossible to find a
playable video recording of Rear Window or if The Great Gatsby had gone
out of print.
The new Grim Fandango Remastered ($15 for PC, Mac, PS4, PS3, and PS Vita)
redresses that injustice. It also presents two questions. First, how does
it hold up? And second, are its extra goodies enough to justify a
purchase for players whove already clocked plenty of hours in the
Department of Death?
As it turns out, Grim Fandango is still a good often great video game.
But the years have been kinder to its artistic components story, art
direction, writing, audio than to its gameplay and interface.
For those who didnt catch this classic the first time around, Grim
Fandango puts you in the shoes of Manny Calavera, a down-on-his-luck Grim
Reaper/travel agent tasked with ushering newly departed souls to their
destiny in the afterlife. When Manny falls in love with a beautiful
client, hes drawn on an adventure that will take him from the offices of
the Department of Death to the exotic port of Rubacava and beyond,
encountering various lost souls and eccentric demons along the way.
The star of the show is the visual style, which mashes together all sorts
of disparate elements Día de los Muertos costumery, art deco, Aztec
sculpture, film noir, movies like Casablanca and Vertigo yet somehow
keeps it coherent and unified. No game before or since has looked like
Grim Fandango: Its absolutely unique. Allowing for the technical
limitations of its time, it looks good enough to be a movie. This is
Pixar-quality design in a 1998 adventure game package.
The writing and voice acting are first-rate, too. Tony Plana brings a
resigned grace to the voice of Manny and is ably assisted by supporting
players like Alan Blumenfeld (gigantic mechanic Glottis) and Patrick
Dollaghan (Mannys annoyingly alpha co-worker Domino). The dialogue is
sharp, clever, and breezy, winking at genre clichés while moving the
story along briskly.
Though the graphics have been tweaked a bit (Manny looks better, the
backgrounds do not), the audio gets a much more thorough treatment, as
the games terrific score was rerecorded by a live orchestra.
Games arent all sound and visuals, though. Grim Fandango belongs to a
tradition of adventure game design that can be traced back through
Schafers equally loved Monkey Island games, Sierras seminal Kings
Quest franchise, and even Infocoms text adventures of the early 1980s
(think Zork). To say that these games are hard doesnt quite cut it.
Its more that theyre hard in arbitrary ways, requiring players to get
in sync with the designers twisted inner sense of logic.
Solving these puzzles is, as Salvador Dalí once said of painting, either
easy or impossible. Forget the slow, methodical ratcheting up that
teaches players the game mechanics. Grim Fandango is tough from the
outset and periodically gets insane. Many players will be forced to
consult a walk-through to complete some of the games head scratchers,
and that always leaves a bad taste.
The awkward interface doesnt help either. In a way, this 1998 game has a
more primitive interface than its 1980s forebears. Playing Zork, I could
type something like pick up the letter and put it on the table and the
game would understand that. But with Grim Fandango, you have to figure
out how to boil your actions down to an extremely simple vocabulary of
click options thats mostly limited to use, pick up, and examine.
Because the game was made in an era before its lavish locations could be
rendered in real-time 3D, all of the settings are static, viewable only
from predetermined angles. This can make moving around disorienting, as
the camera abruptly switches perspective (sometimes even within the same
room, depending on your location). The camera choices seem to have been
designed for visual impact more than for user convenience. And when you
enter a new area, youll likely fall into the habit of hovering your
pointer around the screen until it changes, indicating something you can
interact with. Thats playing the interface, not playing the game.
Still, flaws aside, the puzzle solutions (when reached honestly) impart a
hefty dopamine drip, and youre tugged onward by a desire to see what new
locations and characters the designers have in store. You find yourself
drawn back to Grim Fandango even when you know itll bring frustration.
The Remastered version delivers some nice extras, too. The directors
commentary, featuring lead designer Schafer and several members of the
games original team, is full of interesting details about what inspired
particular design choices in the game. Its also refreshingly not
dumbed-down. These are professional game developers talking in their own
lingo and not bothering to slow down to make sure you can keep up. For
would-be game-makers and big fans of the game, its a must-listen. There
are also about a hundred pages of original concept art to flip through,
though youll need to complete the appropriate levels to unlock them.
Bottom line, its a very good thing that Grim Fandango Remastered exists,
and not only for the historical interest. If you can tolerate the
interface annoyances and occasionally obtuse puzzles, its unequivocally
worth the $15 asking price, a singular experience that fans of adventure
games shouldnt miss. Heres looking at you, Mr. Calavera.
Whats hot: Unique; impeccable design, story, and voice acting;
informative developer commentary
Whats not: Clunky interface; arbitrary puzzle logic
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Super-cookie Crumbles: Verizon Will Kill Off Hated Zombie Stalkers
Verizon has backed down over its fingerprinting of subscribers using
so-called immortal "super cookies."
In 2012, the US mobile telco started injecting unique identifying headers
(UIDHs) into every HTTP request users made to websites via the Verizon
network. This allowed sneaky ad agencies to recognize people as they
moved from site to site, and display ads tailored to individuals'
interests.
Deleting all your cookies from your web browser, or using something like
Chrome's incognito mode, will not kill off the header because it is
inserted automatically by the carrier.
Customers could "opt out" of the system, but the X-UIDH code would still
be injected, allowing smart networks like Turn in San Francisco to
follow people around the web regardless. The ad agency stopped doing that
about a week ago.
The per-subscriber headers caused a stink among privacy warriors, due to
the blanket nature of the injection and that it was impossible to remove
it.
Campaigners at the EFF objected to the mandatory nature of the headers.
AT&T was testing a similar system, and dropped that when it was exposed.
Now Verizon has said that this time "opt-out" really means opt-out: it's
going to stop injecting UIDHs into subscribers' web traffic if they
switch off the system in their account settings.
Previously, if you opted out, stats about where you've been online were
withheld from advertisers, but as we've seen with Turn, that didn't
stop determined networks.
"Verizon takes customer privacy seriously and it is a central
consideration as we develop new products and services. As the mobile
advertising ecosystem evolves, and our advertising business grows,
delivering solutions with best-in-class privacy protections remains our
focus," the company told El Reg in a statement on Friday.
"We listen to our customers and provide them the ability to opt out of
our advertising programs. We have begun working to expand the opt-out to
include the identifier referred to as the UIDH, and expect that to be
available soon. As a reminder, Verizon never shares customer information
with third parties as part of our advertising programs."
Facebook vs 25,000 Users
An Austrian court has given the go ahead to a class action lawsuit
brought against Facebook for alleged privacy violations across Europe.
Max Schrems' Europe v Facebook group, which originally filed the lawsuit
in August 2014, has had an initial hearing date set for 9 April 2015,
marking the first time that Facebook will appear in court over the
complaint.
The class action asserts that Facebook violated users' privacy in a
number of ways, including:
invalid privacy policies
the unauthorised use of data
supporting NSA spying via its PRISM surveillance program
tracking users on external websites via apps and its 'Like button'
unlawful introduction of 'Graph Search'
the passing on of user data to apps and third parties without
authorisation
the use of 'big data' to analyse and monitor users' interactions
The purpose of the hearing will be to decide whether the social
networking giant's objections to the admissibility of the case are
valid.
According to a press release put out by Europe v Facebook, the company
has claimed that "it cannot be sued" as the number of users bringing
the action would be illegal in Ireland, home of its international HQ,
because it would violate "public order."
Dr Proksch, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said:
We have reviewed all objections from Facebook in great detail and came to
the conclusion that they lack any substance. It seems that they try to
delay the procedure with partly really bizarre arguments.
The plaintiffs are demanding compensation of 500 ($565/£370) each in
respect of the alleged privacy violations. The number of claimants has
been capped at 25,000 for logistical reasons but it still represents "the
largest privacy class action in Europe," according to Schrems.
A further 50,000 users have signed up to the class action via
www.fbclaim.com and await news as to whether they will be allowed to join
at a later date.
Beyond seeking a nominal level of damages, which would collectively
amount to more than 10m, the group is also calling for a "suspension
of data usage".
Europe v Facebook believes that Facebook's business practices, which it
describes as being "questionable," may be ruled illegal under Europe's
strict privacy laws.
China Further Tightens Control Over Internet
Jing Yuechen, the founder of an Internet start-up here in the Chinese
capital, has no interest in overthrowing the Communist Party. But these
days she finds herself cursing the nations smothering cyberpolice as
she tries and fails to browse photo-sharing websites like Flickr and
struggles to stay in touch with the Facebook friends she has made during
trips to France, India and Singapore.
Gmail has become almost impossible to use here, and in recent weeks the
authorities have gummed up Astrill, the software Ms. Jing and countless
others depended on to circumvent the Internet restrictions that Western
security analysts refer to as the Great Firewall.
Lu Wei has ratcheted up Chinas sophisticated system of online
censorship.
By interfering with Astrill and several other popular virtual private
networks, or V.P.N.s, the government has complicated the lives of Chinese
astronomers seeking the latest scientific data from abroad, graphic
designers shopping for clip art on Shutterstock and students submitting
online applications to American universities.
If it was legal to protest and throw rotten eggs on the street, Id
definitely be up for that, Jing, 25, said.
China has long had some of the worlds most onerous Internet
restrictions. But until now, the authorities had effectively tolerated
the proliferation of V.P.N.s as a lifeline for millions of people, from
archaeologists to foreign investors, who rely heavily on less-fettered
access to the Internet.
But earlier this week, after a number of V.P.N. companies, including
StrongVPN and Golden Frog, complained that the Chinese government had
disrupted their services with unprecedented sophistication, a senior
official for the first time acknowledged its hand in the attacks and
implicitly promised more of the same.
The move to disable some of the most widely used V.P.N.s has provoked a
torrent of outrage among video artists, entrepreneurs and professors who
complain that in its quest for so-called cybersovereignty Beijings
euphemism for online filtering the Communist Party is stifling the
innovation and productivity needed to revive the Chinese economy at a
time of slowing growth.
I need to stay tuned into the rest of the world, said Henry Yang, 25,
the international news editor of a state-owned media company who uses
Facebook to follow American broadcasters. I feel like were like frogs
being slowly boiled in a pot.
Multinational companies are also alarmed by the growing online
constraints. Especially worrisome, they say, are new regulations that
would force foreign technology and telecom companies to give the
government back doors to their hardware and software and require them
to store data within China.
Like their Chinese counterparts, Western business owners have been
complaining about their inability to gain access to many Google services
since the summer. A few weeks ago, China cut off the ability to receive
Gmail on smartphones through third-party email services like Apple Mail
or Microsoft Outlook.
The recent disabling of several widely used V.P.N.s has made it
difficult for company employees to use collaborative programs like
Google Docs, although some people have found workarounds for the time
being.
One unfortunate result of excessive control over email and Internet
traffic is the slowing down of legitimate commerce, and that is not
something in Chinas best interest, said James Zimmerman, chairman of
the American Chamber of Commerce in China. In order to attract and
promote world-class commercial enterprises, the government needs to
encourage the use of the Internet as a crucial medium for the sharing of
information and ideas to promote economic growth and development.
Chinese authorities have long had the ability to interfere with V.P.N.s,
but their interest in disrupting such programs has mounted alongside the
governments drive for cybersovereignty, especially since President Xi
Jinping came to power two years ago. Lu Wei, the propaganda official
Mr. Xi appointed as Internet czar, has been unapologetic in promoting
the notion that China has the right to block a wide array of online
content. A co-founder of Greatfire.org, which tracks online censorship
in China, suggested the government had decided that soaring V.P.N. use
among ordinary Chinese warranted a more aggressive attack on such
software.
This is just a further, logical step, said the co-founder, who
requested anonymity to avoid government scrutiny. The authorities are
hellbent on establishing ybersovereignty in China. If you look at what
has taken place since last summer it is quite astounding. Government
officials have denied any role in blocking Google and they have
dismissed accusations that Chinese authorities were behind a
man-in-the-middle attack on Outlook two weeks ago as well as other
hacking incidents involving Yahoo and Apple. But such claims have by and
large fallen on deaf ears, especially given Beijings strident campaign
against the hostile foreign forces it says are seeking to undermine
the country through the Internet. On Tuesday, however, a senior official
at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology acknowledged that
the government was targeting V.P.N.s to foster the healthy development
of the nations Internet and he announced that such software was
essentially illegal in China.
Cuban Youth Build Secret Computer Network Despite Wi-Fi Ban
Cut off from the Internet, young Cubans have quietly linked thousands of
computers into a hidden network that stretches miles across Havana,
letting them chat with friends, play games and download hit movies in a
mini-replica of the online world that most can't access.
Home Internet connections are banned for all but a handful of Cubans,
and the government charges nearly a quarter of a month's salary for an
hour online in government-run hotels and Internet centers. As a result,
most people on the island live offline, complaining about their lack of
access to information and contact with friends and family abroad.
A small minority have covertly engineered a partial solution by pooling
funds to create a private network of more than 9,000 computers with
small, inexpensive but powerful hidden Wi-Fi antennas and Ethernet
cables strung over streets and rooftops spanning the entire city.
Disconnected from the real Internet, the network is limited, local and
built with equipment commercially available around the world, with no
help from any outside government, organizers say.
Hundreds are online at any moment pretending to be orcs or U.S. soldiers
in multiplayer online games such as "World of Warcraft" or "Call of
Duty." They trade jokes and photos in chat rooms and organize real-world
events like house parties or trips to the beach.
"We really need Internet because there's so much information online, but
at least this satisfies you a little bit because you feel like, 'I'm
connected with a bunch of people, talking to them, sharing files," said
Rafael Antonio Broche Moreno, a 22-year-old electrical engineer who
helped build the network known as SNet, short for streetnet.
Cuba's status as one of the world's least-wired countries is central to
the new relationship Washington is trying to forge with Havana. As part
of a new policy seeking broader engagement, the Obama administration
hopes that encouraging wider U.S. technology sales to the island will
widen Internet access and help increase Cubans' independence from the
state and lay the groundwork for political reform.
Cuban officials say Internet access is limited largely because the U.S.
trade embargo has prevented advanced U.S. technology from reaching Cuba
and starved the government of the cash it needs to buy equipment from
other nations. But the government says that while it is open to buying
telecommunications equipment from the U.S., it sees no possibility of
changing its broader system in exchange for normal relations with the
U.S.
Outside observers and many Cubans blame the lack of Internet on the
government's desire to control the populace and to use disproportionately
high cellphone and Internet charges as a source of cash for other
government agencies.
Cuba prohibits the use of Wi-Fi equipment without a license from the
Ministry of Communications, making SNet technically illegal. Broche
Moreno said he believes the law gives authorities latitude to allow
networks like SNet to operate. He described a sort of tacit understanding
with officials that lets SNet run unmolested as long as it respects Cuban
law its hundreds of nodes are informally monitored by volunteer
administrators who make sure users don't share pornography, discuss
politics or link SNet to illicit connections to the real Internet.
"We aren't anonymous because the country has to know that this type of
network exists. They have to protect the country and they know that
9,000 users can be put to any purpose," he said. "We don't mess with
anybody. All we want to do is play games, share healthy ideas. We don't
try to influence the government or what's happening in Cuba ... We do
the right thing and they let us keep at it."
Users who break rules can be blocked from the network by their peers for
as a little as a day for minor infractions such as slowing down SNet with
file-sharing outside prescribed hours, with lifetime bans for violations
like distributing pornography.
"Users show a lot of respect for preserving the network, because it's the
only one they have," Broche Moreno said. "But me and the other
administrators are watching things to make sure the network does what
it's meant for."
The Cuban government did not respond to a request for comment on the
network.
Before Obama moved to restore full diplomatic ties with Cuba, the U.S.
made several attempts to leverage technology against the Cuban
government. Contractor Alan Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison
after a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor sent him to
Cuba to set up satellite Internet connections. He was freed after five
years as part of the deal last month that paved the way for Obama's new
Cuba policy.
A separate USAID contractor tried to build a text message-based social
network called Zunzuneo whose brief existence was revealed in an
Associated Press investigation last year.
Joining SNet requires resources out of reach of many people in a country
where the average salary hovers around $25 a month.
Humberto Vinas, 25, studied medical technology and accounting before
finding a relatively well-paying job in the kitchen of a bar. He and nine
friends shared an SNet node for several months, running hundreds of feet
of Ethernet cable over neighbors' roofs until one demanded they take it
down, disconnecting most from the network.
"I miss SNet a lot," he said sadly. "You can find out about soccer
scores. It allows you to do so much, right from your home."
Cubans have one of the hemisphere's highest average levels of education
and years of practice at improvising solutions to scarcity, allowing many
to access and share information despite enormous barriers. For as little
as a dollar a week or less, many Cubans receive what's known as "the
package," weekly deliveries of pirated TV shows, movies, magazines and
instructional texts and videos saved on USB memory drives.
There is no obvious indication the U.S. or any other foreign government
or group had anything to do with the creation of SNet, making it by far
the most impressive example of Cuba's homemade telecommunications
engineering.
The network is a series of connected nodes, powerful home computers with
extra-strong Wi-Fi antennas that communicate with each other across
relatively long distances and distribute signals to a smaller network of
perhaps a dozen other computers in the immediate vicinity.
SNet started as a handful of connected users around 2001 and stayed that
way for a decade. More than 9,000 computers have connected over the past
five years, and about 2,000 users connect on an average day.
Many use SNet to get access to popular TV shows and movies. The system
also stores a copy of Wikipedia. It's not necessarily current, but is
routinely refreshed by users with true Internet access. There's also a
homegrown version of a social network that functions similarly to
Facebook.
Because most data passes from computer to computer in SNet, everything
takes place much faster than on the achingly slow and expensive
connections available from government servers that pass all information
through central points.
Broche Moreno estimated it costs about $200 to equip a group of computers
with the antennas and cables needed to become a new node, meaning the cost
of networking all the computers in SNet could be as little as $200,000.
Similar but smaller networks exist in other Cuban cities and provinces.
"It's proof that it can be done," said Alien Garcia, a 30-year-old systems
engineer who publishes a magazine on information technology that's
distributed by email and storage devices. "If I as a private citizen can
put up a network with far less income than a government, a country should
be able to do it, too, no?"
Teen Arrested After Alleged Facebook Emoji Threats
Emojis are words too.
Indeed, some might see them as a very modern, exalted form of digital
cursive script.
That seems to be the view of the New York Police Department, after it
viewed the Facebook page of 17-year-old Osiris Aristy from Bushwick,
Brooklyn.
Aristy posted images of himself with guns and words such as: feel like
katxhin a body right now.
However, as DNAInfo reports, he also posted images of little gun emojis
pointing at little emoji heads of police officers.
Despite his young age, Aristy apparently has something of a police
record, with 12 arrests, according to DNAInfo, for alleged offenses
including criminal possession of a weapon, robbery and assault.
His Facebook page was, it seems, part of routine police surveillance.
When the emojis and other messages were spotted, Aristy became an
arrestee. And among the charges is making terrorist threats, according to
DNAInfo. The publication goes on to say that the criminal complaint
offers this: As a result of this conduct, the defendant has caused the
informant and other New York City police officers to fear for their
safety, for public safety, and to suffer alarm and annoyance.
Inspector Maximo Tolentino of the 83rd Precinct told DNAInfo: You make a
threat on the internet, were going to be watching.
I have contacted the 83rd Precinct seeking comment and will update,
should I hear.
CBS New York reported that one of the offending posts read: N**** run up
on me, he gunna get blown down. This was accompanied by the emoji of a
police officers head and then three enojis of a gun pointing in the
heads direction.
The police also told CBS New York that Aristy had posted a selfie with his
gun in the waistband of his pants. The New York Post said that Aristy had
used Facebook to brag about owning a .38 gun.
Theres surely an ever heightened awareness of social media threats to
the police after the heinous murder of two officers in New York last
month. The alleged culprit had previously made threats to the police on
his Instagram account.
Aristys lawyer, Fred Pratt, insists that his client meant no harm. He
told DNAInfo: I understand that people found what he said distasteful
and uncomfortable, but he never threatened to take action against
police.
How can the police or anyone tell whether a social media threat is real
or not? So many people use social media to vent, rant and generally
attempt to impress anyone who might be bothered to listen.
How much time must officers now spend scouring the ill-thought-out (or
not) postings of suspicious (or not) individuals in order to identify
real threats?
Pratts lawyer is using this very argument: How can the police tell?
With the hundreds of millions now posting to Facebook and many other
sites, theres an infinity of possibilities, an infinity of potential
danger.
Every word, every picture and, indeed, every emoji could mean something.
Or it could mean nothing at all.
WikiLeaks Slams Google for Handing Over Emails to U.S. Government
Whistleblowing site WikiLeaks on Monday accused Google of handing over
the emails and electronic data of its senior staff to the US authorities
without providing notification until almost three years later.
Google was apparently acting in response to warrants issued by the US
Department of Justice, which is investigating WikiLeaks for publishing
hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic files.
WikiLeaks said the allegations against it point to a far broader
investigation into its activities than the US authorities have previously
indicated.
Alleged offenses range from espionage to theft of US government property
and computer fraud and abuse, it said.
"Today, WikiLeaks lawyers have written to Google and the US Department
of Justice concerning a serious violation of the privacy and journalistic
rights of WikiLeaks staff," the site said in a statement.
WikiLeaks said that Google could and should have resisted complying with
the warrants, as well as immediately informing those whose data it handed
over.
The warrants demanded emails, contacts and IP addresses relating to the
Google accounts of investigations editor Sarah Harrison, section editor
Joseph Farrell and spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson.
"We want to know why the three journalists were not notified of being
spied (upon)," Harrison said at a press conference in Geneva.
Baltasar Garzon, a former Spanish judge who is Assanges lawyer, told
reporters at the event: We believe the way the documents were taken is
illegal.
He said that a law restricted for national security was used against
their privacy and he threatened legal action against Google and US
authorities.
The information was handed over to the US authorities on April 5, 2012,
but Google did not inform the WikiLeaks staff until December 23, 2014,
according to documents obtained by AFP.
"While WikiLeaks journalists, perhaps uniquely, do not use Google services
for internal communications or for communicating with sources, the search
warrants nonetheless represent a substantial invasion of their personal
privacy and freedom," the organisation added.
WikiLeaks has been targeted by the US authorities since its release in
2010 of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
and 250,000 diplomatic cables.
A former army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning, is currently serving
a 35-year prison term for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange also believes he is a target for
prosecution and has been holed up at the Ecuadoran embassy in London
since 2012.
He sought asylum there to avoid being sent to Sweden, where he faces
allegations of rape and sexual molestation which he denies. He says his
extradition to Sweden could see him transferred on to the United States.
"His conditions are worse than all other detainees since he can not go
outside, have a little walk in the garden for instance, without being
arrested," his lawyer Garzon said on Monday.
In a statement to AFP, Google said it did not comment on individual
cases, but said: Obviously, we follow the law like any other company.
"When we receive a subpoena or court order, we check to see if it meets
both the letter and the spirit of the law before complying.
"And if it doesnt we can object or ask that the request is narrowed. We
have a track record of advocating on behalf of our users."
It is not the first time WikiLeaks has clashed with the online giant.
In September 2014, Assange published a book, When Google Met WikiLeaks,
questioning the Internet firms close ties with the US administration.
FTC to Internet of Stuff: Security, Motherf****r, Do You Speak It?
US regulator the FTC says now is not the time for new laws on the
"Internet of Things" but security needs to be improved as we enter the
era of always-on, always-connected gadgets, sensors and machines embedded
in homes, streets and pockets.
In a report [PDF] published today, the commission's staff make a number
of policy recommendations for the wave of new devices that collect and
transmit data on our everyday lives.
From the camera that posts pictures online with a click, to automated home
lighting and heating, to FitBits and Apple Watches, the Internet of Things
(IoT) was the focus of this year's Consumer Electronic Show, as well as a
speech by FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez.
There will be 25 billion devices connected to the internet by the end of
the year, doubling to 50 billion by 2020, according to Cisco's estimates.
The problem is that many of the companies churning out these gizmos are
not properly considering the risks associated with gathering masses of
personal sensitive data, we're told.
Security, and ultimately the safeguarding of privacy, is the biggest
problem, says the FTC. And it needs to be built "into devices at the
outset rather than as an afterthought." Employees also need to be trained
up on the importance of security so there is a company-wide understanding
and approach to protecting data, both internally and with any third
parties that companies work with.
Additional measures such as good network defenses to prevent unauthorized
users from getting access to data, and keeping an eye on security holes
and providing security patches on time, should also be key considerations.
Given that, for example, home router makers are so slow to patch security
vulnerabilities in firmware, what luck does anyone have fixing critical
flaws in their IoT light switches, boilers and shoes?
As well as security, companies jumping on the IoT bandwagon should also
think about "data minimization", meaning limit the amount of information
that is gathered and only retain it for a certain period of time.
The FTC's logic of that approach is that the fewer sensitive bytes
companies hold, the less of a target their database will be (in theory)
and the less opportunity exists for it to be used in ways that customers
would be unhappy about.
Alternatively, companies could go out of their way to "de-indentify" data
so it cannot be linked to specific individuals.
What you got?
In a related point, the FTC recommends that businesses adopt a "notice
and choice" approach to data, ie: customers are informed what records the
company gathers and are given the choice to opt out of its collection.
In order to prevent people from being overwhelmed with approval requests,
the commission recommends that this "notice and choice" approach is
adopted for any uses that would be "unexpected", ie: not immediately
obvious to the consumer.
Obviously, this is something for lawyers to have fun with: sadly, is a
photo-sharing app monitoring your movements really "unexpected" in this
day and age?
If companies immediately de-identify data erase any way to pick out a
particular person from the information the need to offer choices is
greatly reduced, apparently.
As for legislation, the FTC report acknowledges that new laws may be
needed at some point, but that it is too early to do so "given the
rapidly evolving nature of the technology." As such, it sees
self-regulation as the best way forward.
It does note however that the commission called for broad privacy
legislation back in 2012, including breach notification laws, and that
remains its position.
It is worth noting that the report was published only after four of the
five commissioners voted in favor of doing so. The fifth commissioner,
Joshua D Wright, published a dissenting opinion [PDF] and argued that the
document is a weird hybrid between a writeup of discussions and a formal
policy statement.
He would prefer one or the other, not a seemingly rushed mix of the two.
The report itself was based on a workshop held back in November 2013, and
referred to subsequent public comments on the session. But the report as
presented includes a range of policy recommendations.
Wright argues that if the FTC's staff wishes to produce policy
recommendations, it needs to back them up with data, rather than "merely
rely upon its own assertions." A workshop report should be a report of
what people said; a formal report should "possess and present evidence
that its policy recommendations are more likely to foster competition and
innovation than to stifle it," he argues.
Hotels That Block Personal Wi-Fi Hotspots Will Get Busted, Says FCC
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) didn't mince its words:
hotels that block Wi-Fi are breaking the law.
From a warning posted on Tuesday:
In the 21st Century, Wi-Fi represents an essential on-ramp to the
internet. Personal Wi-Fi networks, or "hotspots", are an important way
that consumers connect to the internet. Willful or malicious interference
with Wi-Fi hotspots is illegal.
In fact, blocking of guests' personal hotspots violates Section 333 of
the Communications Act, according to the FCC.
In spite of the illegality of such blocking, the Commission's Enforcement
Bureau has seen a "disturbing trend" in which hotels and other commercial
establishments block wireless consumers from using personal Wi-Fi
hotspots on their premises.
The Bureau has been investigating and taking action against Wi-Fi
blocking, most notably with Marriott International Inc.
The hotel chain was investigated in 2014 and then slapped with a $600,000
fine (around £400,000).
But that didn't stop it from waging a legal and PR battle to get
permission to block personal hotspots in its conference and convention
areas.
Earlier this month, Marriott threw in the towel on the blocking, though
it said it hadn't given up trying to get the FCC's blessing on blocking
in cases of "clear cybersecurity risk".
In spite of Marriott's claims about cybersecurity, the FCC said on
Tuesday that the hotel chain had admitted that blocked customers hadn't
posed a security threat to its network.
The "we're doing it for their own good" argument was hard to swallow, in
light of how much Marriott was making from selling internet "on-ramps"
to the guests whose internet tires it had slashed: namely, between $250
to $1,000 per device to get onto the internet at one of its properties,
according to the Commission.
Or, in the words of one reader,
Security my a**......
The FCC says it will "aggressively" investigate and act upon "unlawful
intentional interference".
Stay tuned: it says its Enforcement Bureau is investigating several
complaints.
Hotels, a word to the wise: stop blocking the on-ramps, lest the FCC
steamroll you.
US Military Wants To Replace Passwords With "Cognitive Fingerprints"
Researchers at the US military's elite West Point military academy have
been awarded a multi-million dollar contract to produce a new identity
verification system based on users' behaviour.
The technology, described as 'a next generation biometric capability', is
being developed as part the active authentication programme run by DARPA
(the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency).
Authentication has traditionally relied on users producing one or more of
the following: something you know (such as a passwords or PIN), something
you have (such as a number from an RSA key) or something you are (such as
your fingerprints or face.)
The technology that West Point is working on, behaviour-based biometrics,
adds another factor to the mix: something you do.
According to DARPA the first phase of the active authentication program
will focus on biometrics that can be captured through existing
technology, such as analysing how the user handles a mouse or how they
craft the language in an email or document.
The contract document, seen by Sky News and reported by Yahoo Finance,
describes the technology as a "cognitive fingerprint":
...when you interact with technology you do so in a pattern based on how
your mind processes information, leaving behind a 'cognitive fingerprint'
The biometrics program is creating a next generation biometric capability
built from multiple stylometric/behavioural modalities using standard
Department of Defence computer hardware.
If they're effective, cognitive fingerprints could offer significant
advantages over existing forms of authentication.
Unlike biometrics they don't require specialist hardware and unlike
password authentication they doen't rely on users being good at something
they're naturally bad at.
The technology should also give systems the ability to authenticate users
continuously, keeping people logged in so long as they're present and
then logging them out as soon as they leave.
The need to replace passwords in particular is pressing.
Generating and remembering effective passwords is difficult and unnatural.
A lot of us are awful at it and there's almost no improvement in the list
of most common passwords from year to year. Meanwhile, computers improve
their ability to crack passwords by brute force and cunning every year.
Biometrics has been waiting in the wings as the Next Big Thing in
authentication for years.
While biometrics are used in household and business products, as a family
of technologies it hasn't come close to supplanting passwords.
Transparent, behaviour-based biometrics could provide the nudge that's
needed to push biometrics into the mainstream, but there are two major
obstacles to overcome before that happens.
The first is that you can't change your biometrics - so what's the
equivalent of changing your password if you're compromised?
The second is that for all the frustration that comes with remembering
(and forgetting) our passwords, we know and feel, tangibly, that they're
under our control.
Behaviour-based biometrics will happen invisibly, which will be convenient
but it will require us to be comfortable ceding that feeling of control
too.
Precursors to behaviour-based biometrics - technologies that determine
things about us based on the way we behave - are already with us.
In December 2014, Google completely reinvented it's reCAPTCHA product,
replacing the annoyingly wibbly wobbly letters and the out of focus
photos with a simple tick box.
The tick box, backed by Google's trove of user data and a hat full of
artificial intelligence, determines if you're a human based on what it
knows about you and how you tick the box.
CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and
Humans Apart) are tests used to tell whether an action performed is
carried out by a human or a computer (normally so that the activity of
computers can be ignored.)
Over time computers have got better at solving CAPTCHA puzzles, forcing us
real humans to contend with increasingly frustrating and difficult to
disentangle puzzles.
What Google realised was that advances in Artificial Intelligence that
make it easier for unfriendly computers to guess "what number is in this
photo?" also make it easier for friendly computers to solve difficult
puzzles like "is this computer user behaving like a computer or a human?"
I think the Google reCAPTCHA change gives a hint at just how dramatic a
shift to behaviour-based biometrics could be for both security and user
experience.
We'd better get used to our new robot overlords.
The GHOST Vulnerability - What You Need To Know
The funkily-named bug of the week is GHOST.
Its official moniker is the less catchy CVE-2015-0235, and it's a
vulnerability caused by a buffer overflow in a system library that is
used in many, if not most, Linux distributions.
A buffer overflow is where you assume, for example, that when you handle
a four-byte network number written out as decimal digits, you will never
get anything longer than 255. 255. 255. 255.
That takes up 15 characters, so you may decide that you'll never need
more than 15 bytes of memory.
So, if you add a spare byte for luck and allocate 16 bytes, you're bound
to have enough space.
And then, one day, a malicious user decides to see what happens if he
ignores the rules, and uses a network number like, say, 1024. 10224.
102224. 1022224.
That network number is nonsense, of course, but your program might not
hold out long enough to reject it.
Your code will probably crash right away, because the attacker's 25 bytes
will overflow your 16 bytes of available memory.
As it happens, the GHOST vulnerability is connected with network names
and numbers.
The spooky name comes from the system functions where the vulnerable code
was found.
The functions are called gethostbyname() and gethostbyname2(), and they
do what the names suggest.
They find the computer-friendly network number of a host (e.g. 93. 184.
216. 34) from its human-friendly name (e.g. example.com).
In other words, these functions do a DNS (domain name system) lookup for
you, so your program doesn't need to deal with the intricacies of the DNS
protocol.
By the way, even if your program doesn't directly call gethostbyname(),
you may end up calling it indirectly as a side-effect of doing something,
anything, involving a computer name.
For example, if your software looks up email addresses, calls home for
updates, retrieves postings from online forums, plays podcasts, or any of
a number of perfectly unexceptionable network-related activities, it
almost certainly triggers name-to-number lookups at some point.
And if those lookups are based on data received from outside, such as a
sender's email address in received email headers, then attackers may very
well get to choose what data gets passed to your Linux computer's
gethostbyname() function.
It turns out that gethostbyname() has a clever feature, where it works
out whether you called it with name that is already a network number
(digits-dot-digits-dot-digits-dot-digits).
In that case, it would be a waste of time to do a DNS lookup, so it
doesn't bother.
Unfortunately, the code that runs through the name to see if it's really
a network number has a buffer overflow, and if you deliberately send a
super-long number laid out just right...
...poof the GHOST strikes!
So an attacker may be able to rig up messages or network requests that
crash your program; and with a bit (or, more likely, a lot) of trial and
error, they might be able to trigger that crash in a way that gives them
control over your computer.
That's known as a Remote Code Execution (RCE) exploit, similar to the bug
recently found in the super-secure Blackphone, though in that case it was
a text message that caused the phone's software to trip over itself.
The good news is that this bug doesn't exist on every computer.
It actually exists only in some versions of a software module called
glibc, short for GNU C library.
In fact, most computers in the world don't have glibc installed, because
it's not used by default on Windows, OS X, iOS or Android.
The bad news is that many, if not most, computers running Linux do use
glibc, and may be at risk.
In short, therefore, if you have any Linux-based systems, including home
firewalls and routers:
Check with your vendor, or the maker of your distribution, to see if you
need a patch.
If you do, make plans to apply the patch as soon as you can.
Oh, and if you are a programmer, you shouldn't really be using the
gethostbyname functions anyway.
They were superseded many years ago by the much more flexible and useful
function getaddrinfo(), which you should use instead.
Facebook: Oi, Lizard Squad We Can Take Down Our Own Site, Ta
A technical cockup rather than hostile hacker action is apparently
the reason Facebook, Instagram and other Web 2.0 sweethearts fell off the
internet on Monday.
Prankster hacking crew Lizard Squad was gloating over the downtime;
Tinder also disappeared for a while during the outage of Facebook and its
photo-sharing sister site Instagram.
Security experts were unconvinced it was caused by a distributed
denial-of-service assault. Facebook also dismissed any suggestion it was
DDoSed; its techies blame technical problem for the hour-long outage:
Facebook and Instagram experienced a major outage tonight from 22:10
until 23:10 PST. Our engineers identified the cause of the outage and
recovered the site quickly.
You should now see decreasing error rates while our systems stabilize. We
don't expect any other break in service. I'll post another update within
30 mins. Thank you for your patience.
It's understood a dodgy configuration change was pushed to Facebook's API
servers, which caused them to fall over.
Hipchat blamed "database issues", while Tinder joked by making a reference
to snow storms ravaging the north-eastern United States, and the recent
Sony megahack. "EVERYBODY PANIC! ?#Blizzard?? North Korea?
?#TindernetApocalypse?," it said on Twitter.
Staffers behind AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service are yet to comment on
the incident. A trusted El Reg contact told us MySpace wasn't down, as
Lizard Squad claimed, which suggests it was nothing but a dig by the
miscreants at the unfashionable service.
The mass outage incident, which is rare but not unprecedented,
illustrates the brittleness of social media services. A haiku El Reg's
back-bench staff put together to mark a previous ?#facebookdown? day
last June can be found here.
Security expert Professor Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey said
that Lizard Squad's boasts underline how easy it is for jokers to get
publicity through unsubstantiated claims.
"The recent outage of Facebook and the subsequent speculation that it may
be a cyber-attack demonstrates the difficulty in reporting
cyber-attacks," Professor Woodward said. "Facebook has confirmed that the
downtime was caused by an engineering mistake.
"However, the Lizard Squad had only to mention the problem on Twitter and
it caused instant speculation that it was they who had caused the
problem. In the same way that it is very difficult for law enforcement
agencies to attribute blame for cyber-attacks, it is very easy for
hacking groups to plausibly claim any significant online incident as
their work," he added.
Lizard Squad is best known for launching the denial of service attacks
that took down the XBox Live and PlayStation Networks at Christmas,
shortly before launching a DDoS-for-hire service.
Over the weekend it ran a DNS redirection attack that hijacked surfers
trying to reach the website of Malaysia Airlines and presented them with
a defacement page instead.
The hacktivists claimed they hacked the main servers, swiping corporate
emails and other sensitive information in the process. However, as with
the latest attack there is nothing to substantiate this claim.
When Facebook's Down, Thousands Slow Down
An outage that took Facebook and Instagram off the air for an hour Monday
affected 29 locations where Facebook operates servers. Curiously, its
massive Prineville, Ore., data center complex appears to have remained in
operation throughout the outage.
That means a problem arose in the content distributing sub-data centers
that Facebook has scattered around the US and around the globe, in both
its own and colocation data centers. A map produced by an Internet metrics
collecting firm, Dynatrace, indicates 29 such locations had their
operations interrupted for an hour, starting about 9:10 p.m. Pacific time.
As a result, at least 7,500 Web sites that depend on a JavaScript response
from a Facebook server had their operations slowed or stalled by a lack of
response from Facebook. Of course Facebook users, who could access the
service, couldn't get it to respond or do anything for them during the
hour.
That's just one of the conclusions an observer can make after examining
data from Dynatrace, which tracks website performance for major
retailers, financial services ecommerce systems, and online operations
for hundreds of enterprises.
Dynatrace has 100 computers around the globe collecting data from "tens
of thousands" of headless users, real-world end-users who allow their
computers to periodically fire off stored queries to Nike, Netflix, and
thousands of other online destinations. The client machines capture the
response time and report it to Dynatrace. That allows it to report on
application performance to their customers, which include Wells Fargo,
LinkedIn, Cisco, Thomson Reuters, and Intuit.
Another conclusion is that the outage was not caused by a cyberattack,
even though a group that wanted to claim credit started issued tweets
claiming responsibility. Instead, Facebook 'fessed up to a configuration
change gone awry.
"This was not the result of a third-party attack but instead occurred
after we introduced a change that affected our configuration systems,"
according to Facebook's statement.
From its position astride the Internet, Dynatrace said the slowdown of
sites that use the familiar Facebook link "Like this page," or are
otherwise dependent on Facebook interactions, illustrates the
vulnerability of businesses that rely on third-party links to their
websites.
Vincent Geffray, a senior product manager at Dynatrace, said its Outage
Analyzer service is a big data application sitting on top of the data
routinely captured by its application performance management monitoring.
Outage Analyzer spotted a slowdown Monday that was simultaneously
occurring at the websites of Dynatrace customers and traced it back to
their ties to Facebook. In some cases, a site allows a visitor to log in
using his Facebook identity. In others it responds to a "like" recorded
on the Dynatrace customer's site.
Dynatrace has 5,800 customers around the globe. Geffray said the Facebook
slowdown occurred simultaneously around the globe. That suggests that the
Facebook configuration change, the cited cause, may have been attempted
to be implemented rapidly at several sites, spreading to other sites, or
even implemented globally at the same time. The Dynatrace monitoring
shows a sharp spike.
"We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible,"
Facebook spokeswoman Charlene Chian told CNN. Facebook visitors were not
totally cut off from their favorite social media. "Sorry, something went
wrong," they were told as they tried to access the site.
For retail and enterprise sites that use Facebook as a third-party
service, however, the incident took on serious consequences. According to
Dynatrace, the short delays that started to show up around 9:10 p.m. PT
grew into 39-second delays before a "server not available" or other
message was returned to users. The retailers and other businesses were
available, but their full pages couldn't move to the next user
interaction until the Facebook link finished loading its JavaScript.
In some cases, the inability of the end user's computer to finish
building a full page meant that his or her interaction with a target site
would be very slow or stall completely.
"Let's say Nike is slow because of Facebook. The customer doesn't know
that the degradation is due to Facebook. He just says, 'Nike is slow,'"
Geffray said.
The problem exists with any social media service or other third party tied
into a website's operation. If the full document object model called for
by the download can't be built, due to absent JavaScript, the download may
fail. Most websites are built with such interdependencies today. Their
owners aren't always aware of the ways a third party might be slowing down
the site.
Whatever the cause, Facebook rectified the issue within the hour, and
sites began to recover normal operations. Facebook has had a strong
reliability record on the whole. Its last major outage was five years ago
and lasted for 2.5 hours.
Other social media provided a springboard to commenting on the situation.
Twitter quickly spawned the hashtag, #facebookdown, where tweeters mocked
themselves for not knowing what to do without being able to post selfies
to Instagram or personal news to Facebook.
"are you kidding me? east bay emergency dispatch says 5 people called 911
during #facebookdown today!" tweeted Kristen Sze (@abc7kritensze).
Reports that people were roaming the streets of Berkeley, shoving photos
of themselves into strangers' faces, and asking if they "liked" them,
were probably exaggerated.
Mark Your Calendars: The Pirate Bay Returns on February 1st
Torrent downloads fans anxiously waiting for The Pirate Bay service to be
resurrected will surely be happy to hear the team behind it has updated
the site to add definitive proof that The Pirate Bay is coming back in
some form.
After posting a countdown timer on the site in early January alongside a
pirate flag, the team a few days ago replaced it with what looked like a
functioning website, though users were still unable to access any of
their precious downloads.
The team decided once again to change the appearance of the site and
posted an image of a Phoenix on Monday, a symbol of rebirth The Pirate
Bay used in previous relaunches of the site, as The Guardian reports.
Other visual elements present on the site include the countdown timer on
top and an animation showing a battleship
traveling towards an island
harbor named welcome home. The non-functioning menu is also still
present, suggesting the site will soon be back to regular business.
The Pirate Bay was taken offline by Swedish police in early December, and
the team behind it having not resumed the sites activity ever since.
Amazon Ramps Up Enterprise Push with Email Service
Amazon.com Inc accelerated its efforts to win over corporate clients on
Wednesday by announcing an email and scheduling service that will compete
with Microsoft Corp and Google Inc.
The service, dubbed WorkMail, will launch in the second quarter and has
been developed by the company's cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services
(AWS). It highlights Amazon's efforts to convince deep-pocketed
companies, called enterprises in tech parlance, to shift more of their
work to AWS.
Launching an email and scheduling service is likely the first step toward
a broader suite of Amazon tools to gain corporate clients, analysts said.
For example, Google's Gmail offers many other services beyond email and
calendars including file-sharing and video conferencing.
AWS has spent the last couple of years trying to get corporate clients on
board because big businesses spend more on data centers than startups,
who were the initial focus of its business. But there are concerns that
Amazon is spreading itself too thin, given its other sizeable investments
in areas like Hollywood-style production and consumer devices.
"Email is a Trojan Horse into the enterprise," Baird analyst Colin
Sebastian said. He added that email is a $1 billion opportunity for
Amazon given the popularity of AWS and Amazon's willingness to sacrifice
margins for volume.
If Amazon adds more services for companies, it could bring in about $10
billion more in extra revenue, Sebastian said.
Microsoft Clarifies How the Spartan Browser Will Support Legacy Sites and Apps
Microsoft answered a few questions about its leading-edge Spartan Web
browser on Tuesday.
The new browser, code-named "Project Spartan," is being built for
Windows 10, although it isn't part of the latest Windows 10 preview
release (build 9926). Spartan will exist alongside IE 11 when the
finished Windows 10 product gets released, which is expected to occur
sometime in the latter part of this year. A preview of Spartan is
expected to arrive in a coming Windows 10 preview release.
Many of Microsoft's answers about Spartan were at the technical level for
developers in a Twitter #AskIE thread on Tuesday. However, Jacob Rossi, a
senior engineer on the Microsoft Web platform team, provided more general
details in a Smashingmagazine.com post this week.
Spartan and Legacy Support?Rossi shed more light on how Microsoft plans to
deliver a new Spartan Web browser while also permitting organizations
dependent on older Internet Explorer technologies to retain compatibility
with their legacy Web apps and intranet sites.
The Spartan browser will have a new rendering engine, called "EdgeHTML,"
which is the result of Microsoft forking of the Trident engine code used
for Internet Explorer. Spartan will contain both engines, the new
EdgeHTML one as well as the legacy Trident engine called "MSHTML".
Organizations will be able to use the Spartan browser even if they have
legacy IE support issues to address. When legacy support needs arise,
Spartan will be capable of running the old IE Trident engine via
Enterprise Mode. Microsoft's Enterprise Mode technology is an IE 11
solution that emulates earlier IE browser technologies all of the way
back to IE 5 for compatibility purposes.
"We want enterprises to be able to use Spartan too," Rossi explained. "For
them, Trident compatibility (e.g. with legacy line of business sites) is
critical. So Spartan can load Trident through Enterprise Mode for those
sites. That helps keep their mission critical stuff working while the web
gets the latest modern engine, EdgeHTML."
Rossi added that "we will not be getting rid of Trident." It'll be around
to support legacy enterprise sites. "This dual-engine approach enables
businesses to update to a modern engine for the web while running their
mission critical applications designed for IE of old, all within the same
browser."
IE also will contain both rendering engines, so the natural question is,
Why would Microsoft be planning to sustain two browsers? Why not just
stick with Spartan, going forward? Microsoft's engineers did not answer
that question directly, although the heavy suggestion in their comments
is that Spartan will let Microsoft jettison a lot of old IE code,
producing a more lightweight browser. A Microsoft blog post pointed to a
blog post by Justin Rogers, a developer on the Spartan project, who
highlighted that idea. Rogers suggested that Spartan will allow Microsoft
to remove so-called "undead code" that can lead to browser crashes.
Rossi explained that the launch of Spartan will highlight Microsoft's
efforts in supporting Web standards. IE tends to remind developers of
Microsoft's older and quirky implementations, he added. Spartan does away
with the old document-mode support approach in IE, for instance. Spartan
also drops support for VBScript, X-UA-Compatible strings, currentStyle
and attachEvent legacy coding, he added. Spartan comes with a "new user
agent string" that results in "surprisingly positive results in
compatibility," according to Rossi. He put in a familiar Microsoft plug
that Web site developers should just avoid using user agent sniffing
approaches to enable browser compatibility "at all costs." Microsoft's
engineering team is aiming to "ensure that developers don't have to deal
with cross-browser inconsistencies" with the new Spartan approach, Rossi
added.
Developers won't have issues in dealing with two browsers for Windows 10
since Microsoft's next IE version for Windows 10 has "the same
dual-engine approach as Spartan," Rossi assured. They both also use
Microsoft's Chakra JavaScript engine.
Microsoft is planning to expand standards support with Spartan "in the
near future" with support for "Web Audio, Image srcset, @supports,
Flexbox updates, Touch Events, ES6 generators, and others," Rossi
stated. More distant plans include support for "Web RTC 1.1 (ORTC) and
Media Capture (getUserMedia() for webcam/mic access)."
Questions and Answers?Additional Spartan plans were described in
Microsoft's Twitter session today. For instance, the dev team confirmed
that it plans to add support in Spartan for browser extensions (also
called "plug-ins").
"Yes, we're working on a plan for extensions for a future update to
Project Spartan," the team stated.
The team was asked, "What are exactly and precisely the rules to trigger
the old IE engine?" It's based on Enterprise Mode in IE ("EMIE"),
according to the team.
"Will only honor custom docmodes for intranet sites, sites on Enterprise CV
list, and when in EMIE," the team stated. "EdgeHTML will be default for the
Internet and X-UA-Compatible will be ignored on internet sites."
The team was asked how frequently Spartan's engine will get updated,
answering that the "exact cadence is still TBD, but our intent is to keep
regularly updated along with Windows 10 as a whole."
The team was asked if Spartan would be made available for Windows 7.
"Spartan is currently targeted at Win10," the team stated. "We're focused
on getting ppl [people] upgraded (free) but will watch Win7 demand."
One questioner asked if Spartan would "replace" IE on Windows 10
machines." Consumers on Windows 10 will get Spartan by default," the
team stated. "IE will be available for Windows 10 and can be enabled by
the user."
6 Ways To Ruin an Email
Continuing with my January series on feigned self-improvement, I dive
deeper into the familiar and exhausting practice of email writing, an art
and an affliction.
If you are an overworked human like most of us, your inbox is probably an
abyss of unanswered messages, relentless promotions, and forwarded chain
messages from your Aunt Kathy. In fact, it is probably very rare that you
get an email you actually enjoy reading.
Perhaps, you, too, have been the culprit of writing a garbage email. Its
not entirely your fault. It may be our general disenchantment with the
inbox, but many of us have become mediocre email writers, people we
prefer not to be.
We do not expect greatness in our virtual mail bin, and therefore we do
not deliver it either.
But your mediocrity ends in 2015. Below are some of the most typical
email offenses to avoid. Take notes, people; youll need them.
As New York Magazine's Science of Us recently observed, the exclamation
mark, once reserved for expressing joy or excitement, now simply marks
baseline politeness. This is unfortunately true, due to the fact that
(as research suggests) its much harder to convey emotion via text.
Still, theres a fine line between showing good intentions and sounding
like youre on speed.
As a rule, limit an email to two exclamation points at most. Dont use
one after a salutation or a farewell, because thats just unnecessary.
Reserve them for statements that might otherwise be misinterpreted as
demanding, cold, or unfeeling (see this for reference). Never use two
or more in a row unless you are intentionally mocking your preceding
statement.
You might be thinking, what does this girl know about punctuation? Barely
anything! But I do spend at least eight hours every day being annoyed by
the Internet.
A cruel lingual disease grabs hold after you enter the workforce. Phrases
like please advise, going forward, looping in X, or lets circle
back on this seep into our lexicon and therefore our emails. They are
the bane of the email-buried thought workers existence, the equivalent
of staring at a screen full of 0s and 1s for hours at a time.
This language can be easily avoided and/or made fun of, depending on
your superiors sense of humor. Next time you catch yourself writing a
phrase that sounds like something out of an episode of The Office, take
a moment to translate whatever phrase you were about to write down.
Please advise can become What do you think? Looping in X can
become Im including X in this conversation, because shed be a helpful
person to have on this project.
Mostly, dont abandon your personality for the sake of brevity. Make
jokes. Be real. Point out the absurdity of Americas standard workplace
communication practices. People will answer your emails (and like you
more) if theyre fun to receive.
Theres a reason that old fancy people like Jean-Paul Sartre used to
start his letters to Simone de Beauvoir with My dear little girl
(aside from being tragically French). Its because those letters took
time to arrive. He needed to convey tenderness and longing between
postage deliveries.
Now it takes, at most, a few seconds to send an email. Which means its
acceptable to drop some of the typical conventions you might find in an
IRL paper letter.
So, if youre reaching out to someone, you should definitely start with
Hi X or, if they are a considerable pay grade above you and youve
never come close to an introduction, Dear X. You should also finish
off the message with a Thanks, or Best, again depending on your
professional distance.
But as soon as the conversation gets going, theres no need to continue
with the greetings and farewells. If an adult human is using email to
communicate, they will not be offended by your lack of pleasantries in a
fast-paced digital conversation. This is a chance for brevity. Take it.
When it comes to signature farewells, please remain conservative. Dont
try to be a hero. Sincerely, for instance, is kind of dated. Yours
truly, or As ever, are weirdly intimate and trying too hard. Cheers
feels imposter-y and British. Best is bland but fine, the equivalent
of putting a blank space before a comma. Usually your best bet is
Thanks. Its appropriate because you just made a person read an email,
and they deserve gratitude for that. It could also be THANKS if
someone actually did you a huge favor.
Remember, there is no one right sign-off. Adapt your tone based on the
recipient. My goodbyes to Beyoncé versus, say, Donald Trump, would be
entirely different.
Its wonderful that youve figured out to permanently stamp every email
you write with your name and title. But that does not give you the
authority to write a small biography on your life. Please keep the list
of accomplishments and social handles short. At most, you should have
your name, title, company, two phone numbers, and ONLY one social
handle.
Do not include a quote from Gandhi or Mother Teresa or anyone, really.
If you email often with a person about mundane things, ultimately the
content of your messages will look ridiculous alongside an inspirational
quote. Nothing says Im a jerk like a gossipy email about Jill from
HRs outfit followed by a quote that says My life is my message.
Fonts have connotations. Like, if I sit down at a restaurant whose menu
is written in Comic Sans, I pretty much expect to get food poisoning. The
same judgment applies to the words in your emails. Unless you are a
graphic designer whose font judgment is sought after, do not stylize the
default text on your emails. Or enlarge it. Or make it colorful. Dear
God, dont make it colorful.
Follow these easy tips, my dear desk-chained employees, and your digital
existence might just get better. If it doesnt, consider more extreme
measures.
=~=~=~=
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