Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 18 Issue 17
Volume 18, Issue 17 Atari Online News, Etc. April 29, 2016
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2016
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 #1817 04/30/16
~ Detecting Cyber Attacks ~ People Are Talking! ~ Firebee News Update!
~ World of Warcraft News! ~ Twitter Cracking Down! ~ Samsung's Artik 10!
~ Radio Waves for Power! ~ New Nintendo NX, When? ~ Cortana Restrictions!
~ New Donkey Kong Record! ~ Dangerous Win 10 Flaw! ~ Atari 7800 Enginner!
-* Bushnell Creating Games Again *-
-* China Wants Apple's Source Code *-
-* Government Wants Your Facebook Data (Shh!) *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The presidential race is getting more interesting as time starts
to wind down, especially for the GOP candidates! Ted Cruz, in an
act of political despeation, taps Cary Fiorina as his running mate.
Will the move attract support? Perhaps the move will attract some
women voters disenfranchised with Trump, but I doubt anything will
be significant. The Cruz-Kasich "alliance" is also another move
that reeks of desperation.
And on the Democrat side, we're continually bombarded with more
of Hillary's BS. I'm really enjoying seeing Bernie Sanders take
votes away from her, winning state after state primaries even
though he's not winning enough to take the nomination. Will that
change, who knows.
However this all pans out, it's going to be a presidential election
for the history books!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
FireBee News Update (Kind of)
By Fred Horvat
Not much has been going on with me and the FireBee the past couple
of weeks. One thing I did in the last couple of months is migrate
from an older Mac Pro computer running OS X 10.7.5 to a newer Mac
Pro running the latest OS X 10.11.4. I knew from reading on
Atari-Forum.com that running Aranym would be much fussier to get
set up properly but once up and running it would be fine. Just
that I would most likely want to have a single Aranym system
running and not 5 or 6 like on the older Mac Pro.
Well I finally got around to trying Aranym out on the newer Mac
Pro. I copied my main setup to a folder off of root on the boot
drive. I then launched Aranym and the Aranym Setup Menu came up
which has never come up before for me. One of the options was to
load the Config file for Aranym. I located the Config file in the
folder and loaded it. There was no option on the Setup menu to
Start Aranym and the Reboot but was greyed out so I could not just
load the Config file and Reboot. I said Close and Aranym started
booting but the program almost immediately ended. I tried again
going through the Aranym Setup checking the options to verify that
they were correct and they appeared to be but every time I started
Aranym it quit immediately. I checked the version of Aranym I was
running and it was a couple of years old. On the new Mac Pro I am
running the latest Mac OS X so I decided to download the newest
Aranym from http://aranym.org/download.html
I downloaded and replaced the older version of Aranym with the
latest Version 1.0.2. I got the usual first time of running
Aranym prompt for my Mac Password. I believe this is for
authorizing the networking functionality on the Mac. I got the
Aranym Setup Menu and selected the Config file and selected Close.
Aranym booted up and ran fine! I ran Netsurf and Highwire and
networking also worked fine. I shutdown FreeMiNT to exit Aranym
properly. Then I ran Aranym again selecting the Config File then
Close to boot and at the TT RAM Memory testing Araynm quits. I
went back and tried again checking the Config File and it appeared
correct. But no matter how many times I try and boot Aranym it
will pass the ST RAM Memory Test but fail as the TT RAM Memory Test
starts. Just as a test I reinstalled the latest version of Aranym
and I was again prompted for my Mac OS X password and Aranym booted
and ran fine! Shut down and go and launch Aranym it will fail at
the TT RAM Memory Test. So right now I am at a loss as to why if
the Aranym binaries are fresh it will run and after the first
attempt it will not. I looked at the Crash Logs in the Console on
the Mac and so far nothing there makes any sense to me. I have not
posted my problem with Aranym yet on http://www.atari-forum.com
yet. Maybe someone has gone through this already with the latest
Mac OS X and has a solution to the problem.
Until next time.
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - When Will Nintendo Announce The NX?
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Bushnell Creating Games Again!
World of Warcraft Compromise for Fans!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
So When Will Nintendo Actually Announce The NX?
Until today, I felt pretty confident about what the near future
looked like for Nintendo: the company was going to give us our
first concrete details on their upcoming console, codenamed NX,
at E3, ahead of a holiday 2016 release date. Thatís out the window
now: the NX is coming out way March 2017 in an ostensible delay,
and Nintendo is remaining mum about the thing at the big show in
LA. Nintendo, as always, does things differently. Thereís no
reason to assume March is a terrible time to release a console ó
it gets the news cycle to itself ó but it is certainly an
unorthodox one.
It makes me wonder when weíll actually hear more about the thing.
It seems likely that Nintendo will do some sort of supercharged
version of a Nintendo direct ó this is likely the biggest news the
company will have ever announced in one of those, but the system
is in place, and I canít really see why Nintendo wouldnít use it.
A full scale press conference isnít out of the question, however.
Right after E3 is a possibility: the late summer is a dead time
for games, and people might get themselves an announcement
hankering after the rush of E3. Then again, if Nintendo has
delayed this announcement because it doesnít feel it will be
ready to show at E3, thereís no saying it will be ready in time
to squeeze between June and September.
That leads us to fall, again a very strange time to announce a
console. People will have their attention turned towards a suite
of new fall releases, as well as possible new consoles from
Sony, Microsoft, or both. If Nintendo is hoping a March release
will give it access to gamersí full attention, a fall
announcement wouldnít quite work. That would nix September,
October, and November.
My best guess for a genuine announcement of the Nintendo NX
would be in December, right after the grand fall wave of
releases when the faithful are already starting to look forward
to next year. Get into 2017 and we donít really have enough time
to build excitement in the right way, but December hits a nice
little midground. Thereís really no rulebook for releasing a
modern console in March, so itís going to be interesting to see
how the big N handles this whole thing. As usual, Nintendo does
it a little different.
Forget The Nintendo NX Delay: The Real Problem Is,
Where Are All The Great New Games?
Nintendo announced that its next game console, the long-teased
NX, won't emerge until March 2017. And no one will be able to see
it at at the upcoming and increasingly less relevant E3 Expo in
Los Angeles in June. Instead, according to a Nintendo press
statement this morning, the new hardware will be unveiled "later
this year."
I don't care that the Nintendo NX is being delayed. I have a
Nintendo Wii U at home, and it's my family's favorite game
console. The Nintendo 3DS is my favorite non-phone gaming
handheld.
But I do mind, very much, actually, that Nintendo's game library
seems to be slipping. The quality, and even quantity, of games
feels like it's in decline. And for a company that's already
faced some rough times, it's not acceptable. Not for me.
Nintendo's always had weird, backwards, borderline
self-destructive hardware ideas. The first Nintendo DS with its
two screens and stylus seemed like a practical joke. The
GameCube's tiny micro-disc drive wasn't even compatible with CDs
or DVDs. I won't discuss Virtual Boy, the quasi-virtual
black-and-red 3D game system that may well have been decades
ahead of its time when it was released in 1995, but flopped
nonetheless.
With every Nintendo hardware generation, good games have made the
consoles worth buying. Fantastic DS games made that system a
massive success, with over 154 million units sold to date. The
same was true of the original Wii.
Even the Wii U ended up being something I loved playing - and my
son, too - because of the games. Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario
Maker, Splatoon. What comes next? A new Zelda, but it won't be
here till next year alongside the new NX. The recent Star Fox
Zero was something between "just fine" and a total disaster,
depending upon whom you ask. I can't see anything else on the
horizon.
New hardware, when it comes from Nintendo, is always a step
behind in some regards like graphics. But the best ideas have
been concepts several steps ahead, like motion controllers on
the Wii and second-screen gaming on the DS, 3DS and Wii U.
The Wii U, as a piece of hardware, is fine. It hasn't hit its
peak yet. The real problem is the deep lack of continual
high-quality games. The Nintendo 3DS is old, but it's not
ancient. And there are still plenty of classic Nintendo games
that never made it to the 3DS but could.
The Wii U isn't competing with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
But I don't think a Nintendo NX would be, either. I'd rather
Nintendo get its new platform right than rush it and fail.
I've always wanted Nintendo to get into mobile, but I hated
Miitomo. Its pop-up-plagued micro-transactional style is, to me,
an anti-fun anti-game. I'm not confident that either of
Nintendo's next mobile games - mobile versions of Fire Emblem and
Animal Crossing coming later this year - will be any good,
either. Will they really be games, or just marketing efforts?
I've wanted Nintendo to make mobile games for years, especially
Animal Crossing. But all of a sudden, it feels like Nintendo's
console games have gone into a dry spell while the mobile goods
haven't yet arrived.
Taking a half-step isn't the right move. I'd like great mobile
Nintendo games, or great Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games. But I
don't see much of either this year besides the new Fire Emblem.
I'd rather see no Nintendo mobile games at all if it meant one
or two more Wii U or 3DS games worth playing. Can Nintendo do
both and not make it feel strained?
I feel like I write an impassioned plea for Nintendo to
straighten up and fly right at least once a year. But for now,
the current wish list is:
I'd like the Nintendo NX to fuse handheld and console, if it
means one less thing to buy. Take 3DS and Wii U, mix together.
It would be a system I could take on the go. My favorite Wii U
games get left behind while I play a completely different set of
3DS games. That's not great.
One Netflix-like subscription model for older games. Take all
those throwback titles and create access across the Nintendo NX,
Wii U, 3DS and maybe even mobile. One service, multiple ways to
play. I've said this for years, and it needs to happen.
VR optional. Maybe, at some point, Nintendo explores VR. I hope
it's an add-on to the NX and not an entirely new platform after
that. Nintendo needs to stay committed to NX after what's been a
short Wii U run, so extra peripherals need to stem from it.
Backwards compatible, please. I'm sure NX will play old Wii U
games, but I hope 3DS is somehow supported if it's a handheld.
There are too many good games, and they could at least be
offered as digital downloads.
And yeah, make some great mobile games. But really good ones.
Animal Crossing (a real version). Pushmo. Mario Picross. Start
with any of these. Or, any older games. The underrated Art Style
games from years ago. But don't let these games distract. Great
games on Nintendo hardware, please. And fast.
World of Warcraft Considers Compromise for Fans
The studio behind World of Warcraft has responded to a petition
asking it to run a server for the original version of the video
game.
Blizzard Entertainment no longer operates servers for the
original WoW so some gamers have set up their own.
The company said giving its blessing to pirate servers would
damage its legal rights, but was considering adding a
stripped-back realm to appease fans.
One former WoW developer called for the original game to be
"preserved".
World of Warcraft is an online multi-player game in which players
explore a vast landscape, complete quests and interact with other
gamers.
At its peak in 2010, World of Warcraft attracted almost 12
million subscribers, but the game today attracts about five
million paying customers.
The original game from 2004 has since been updated with new
instalments that some players say have materially changed the
experience of the game.
Some fans have set up their own servers to play the original,
"vanilla" WoW although the practice is technically illegal.
On 10 April, a popular fan server known as Nostalrius, with
150,000 active members, was closed after the threat of legal
action by Blizzard Entertainment. It sparked a petition which
has attracted 240,000 signatures.
"The honest answer is, failure to protect against intellectual
property infringement would damage Blizzard's rights," Blizzard
wrote in a forum post.
"There is not a clear legal path to protect Blizzard's
intellectual property and grant an operating licence to a pirate
server."
Due to the nature of intellectual property law, turning a blind
eye to pirate servers would make it difficult for Blizzard to
challenge other abuses of its franchise in the future.
The firm added that it could not operate its own server for the
original game "without great difficulty", but said it was
considering whether opening a "pristine realm" within the latest
game would appease fans.
A pristine realm would simulate some aspects of the gameplay in
the original WoW within the latest edition of the game.
"In essence that would turn off all levelling acceleration
including character transfers, heirloom gear, character boosts,
Recruit-A-Friend bonuses..." the company wrote.
"We aren't sure whether this version of a clean slate is
something that would appeal to the community and it's still an
open topic of discussion."
Image copyright Mark Kern/YouTube
Image caption Former WoW developer Mark Kern printed the 240,000
name petition
The suggestion received a mixed reaction from fans on WoW message
boards.
"I would love the idea of a pristine server updated to current
WoW that you could build a community around without being stuck
in the old game," said one player.
But other fans were critical: "From a personal stance, a pristine
realm isn't even what I want. Nothing in a pristine realm fixes
the major issues of retail WoW for me."
Another added: "When you actually start listing all the
improvements to the game since vanilla, you see why it should
stay dead... the sheer amount of people clouded by nostalgia is
staggering."
The closure of fan-run servers such as Nostalrius has highlighted
the difficulty in preserving modern video games for historical
record.
On Tuesday, game developer Mark Kern who worked on the original
WoW, said: "WoW is an important game, it's part of gaming
history, but there's no legal way for people to enjoy its
earlier versions or see where it all came from.
"Unlike the old days, they can't just boot up a floppy disk or
slip in a CD-Rom.
"The original game is gone from the world forever and legacy
servers are the only way to preserve this vital part of gaming
culture."
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Atari 7800 Engineer Reflects on Losing
The American Console Market to Nintendo
"In 1986, Atari finally decided what the hell ñ let's sell
the 7800, and it actually did quite well competing against the
Nintendo NES ñ but it was two years late. It makes me wonder what
the industry would have done if the 7800 had come out when it was
planned, and what it would have done for Atari."
- Steve Golson, veteran game designer and engineer
In 1984, before the Nintendo Entertainment System had made it to
the West, Atari announced plans to launch a brand-new console
for the holidays: the Atari 7800 ProSystem (pictured).
The 7800 was the first major Atari game system designed by an
outside company (General Computer Corporation, who also designed
arcade game enhancement kits like Super Missile Attack), and in
a recent interview with USGamer, former GCC engineer Steve
Golson describes how the console's launch wound up being delayed
long enough for the NES to beat it to market -- and how the
world might have been different if it hadn't.
"Atari did this huge unveiling ñ here's our next-generation base
unit for Christmas of '84," recounts Golson, who in addition to
his work on the 7800 and other projects is well-known in the game
industry as the engineer behind Ms. Pac-Man.
"If it's for Christmas, you've got to have it out in spring time
so all the toy retailers can put in their orders, so it was going
to be the huge big thing for Christmas of '84. We had 14
cartridges that we had designed, and a high score cartridge which
was a really cool way of saving your high score from one day to
the next, and there was going to be a computer keyboard
peripheral, and it was going to be amazing."
Trick is, Atari's computer and console divisions were sold by
parent company Warner later that year to Commodore founder Jack
Tramiel, who made significant cutbacks that included cancelling
the 7800's launch.
Atari eventually brought it out anyway, in 1986, and reportedly
saw decent sales - but by then the NES had established a foothold
in the U.S. market and Atari was outpaced in the console game
business.
"I think so many in the industry didn't realize that a new
generation of gamers was going to appear. The toy industry is so
driven by fads, that in 1984 they thought the gaming fad was
over, and they did not see it was going to come back," says
Golson. "So kudos to Nintendo for bringing out the NES. But you
look back and think, if only the 7800 had actually come out on
time."
For more of Golson's thoughts on how the game industry (and GCC's
role within it) was shaped in the '80s and '90s, as well as some
good anecdotes about taking Atari to court, check out the full
USGamer interview.
http://www.usgamer.net/articles/steve-golson-interview-the-
story-of-ms-pac-man-the-atari-7800-and-the-hyperdrive/page-2
New World Record For Donkey Kong Arcade
We donít cover world record attempts very often (with streaming
there are too many to keep track of unless you made a job out of
it) but some are higher profile than others, especially when one
in particular had a documentary made about it almost 10 years ago,
that being Nintendoís Donkey Kong. Since the King of Kong made
headlines, various other attempts have been made at the world
record, big tournaments have been organized surrounding the game,
drama has occurred between players with accusations flying over
various things that I donít care to get into, all in the effort
to push that top score higher. Last night the bar was raised once
again with gamer Wes Copeland coming away with the new record of
1,195,100 points (the screen doesnít show the digit for million
since the score rolled over after 999,999):
The attempt was streamed on Twitch and I imagine it will be
posted to Wesís Youtube channel soon. Congrats on the new score,
that is not an easy feat.
Upcoming WR Attempt on Centuriís The Pit (thanks to Casey G. for
the tip on this) ñ I received a link about an upcoming world
record attempt on May 1st for a game that is vastly more obscure
than Donkey Kong, Centuriís The Pit. While not many people are
familiar with the game, they are familiar with the concepts that
it pioneered in subsequent games like Digger, Dig Dug or Boulder
Dash. It is a very challenging game and currently has a world
record of 165,000 points. More info can be found on this thread
at the KLOV Forums. James Hudson will be making the attempt,
which you can watch live on Youtube on May 1st.
Atari Founder Bushnell Jumps Into Mobile With Spil Games
Forty years after Atari founder Nolan Bushnell tapped Steve Jobs
to create arcade game "Breakout," a mobile games publisher is
returning the favor.
Bushnell is collaborating with Spil Games, a publisher located
near Amsterdam, to create five to eight mobile apps. The first
one is expected in early 2017, and the rest will likely hit over
the course of the next year or so, Bushnell said in an interview
with CNBC.com.
Since leaving Atari in 1978, Bushnell has helped start or been
involved with numerous tech businesses focused on robotics,
education and anti-aging games. Bushnell said that over the past
15 years, he's designed about 30 games, both single player and
player to player, but without ever looking to get them on the
market.
That changed when he noticed recently that Supercell's "Clash of
Clans" generates millions of dollars in revenue a day thanks to
its popularity on smartphones. The global digital games market
grew 8 percent last year to $61 billion, according to SuperData
Research.
Bushnell started looking for the right team to help turn his
ideas into apps and landed on Spil, which has over 100 million
monthly active users and focuses on casual games.
"I talked to them and decided that they had a corporate culture
that was very similar to Atari when I was leaving ó great people
with a fun attitude," Bushnell said. "They've got really good
stuff, great analytics and a really good understanding of
marketplaces."
Bushnell said he's been stealthily working with Spil for about
six months and plans to visit the company every other month. The
rest of his input will come over Skype and in helping fine-tune
apps after the Spil team develops prototypes.
Spil's titles include"Operate Now," "Sara's Cooking Class" and
"Crash Drive 2," and are available on Apple's iOS platform as
well as Android devices and the web.
"Our team has the right skills and track record working on
multimillion-dollar franchises," Spil CEO Tung Nguyen-Khac said
in an e-mailed statement. "We're stoked to be working with
Nolan and feeding off his energy and creativity."
Bushnell, 73, has come a long way since Atari created electronic
tennis game "Pong" in 1972 and distributed it to bars and
bowling alley arcades. Four years later, a 21-year-old Steve
Jobs, who had joined Atari in 1974, was tasked with developing
"Breakout," described as "`Pong' turned on its side," but with
the added flare of colored blocks that players tried to hit with
a virtual ball.
For help, Jobs turned to his future Apple co-founder Steve
Wozniak, who at the time worked for Hewlett-Packard. Jobs earned
$5,000 for his efforts and paid Wozniak $350.
"I would gladly have designed the `Breakout' game for Atari for
free, just to do it," Wozniak later wrote on his website. "I
thought that Atari was one of the most important companies in
the world and it was an honor to be close to them."
Later that year, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications,
and in 1978 Bushnell was fired over disagreements with
management regarding the direction of Atari.
In developing mobile games for the first time, Bushnell is
angling to avoid the drama of corporate life. He's not an
employee ó just a collaborator. The way Bushnell sees it, this
partnership presents a fun challenge, and he doesn't currently
have a company to run.
"I had a little bit of time," he said. "A lot of times I make
decisions because things just seem right."
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
MIT Builds Artificial Intelligence System
That Can Detect 85% of Cyber Attacks
What if we could Predict when a cyber attack is going to occur
before it actually happens and prevent it? Isn't it revolutionary
idea for Internet Security?
Security researchers at MIT have developed a new Artificial
Intelligence-based cyber security platform, called 'AI2,' which
has the ability to predict, detect, and stop 85% of Cyber Attacks
with high accuracy.
Cyber security is a major challenge in today's world, as
government agencies, corporations and individuals have
increasingly become victims of cyber attacks that are so rapidly
finding new ways to threaten the Internet that it's hard for
good guys to keep up with them.
A group of researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are working with machine-learning
startup PatternEx to develop a line of defense against such cyber
threats.
The team has already developed an Artificial Intelligence system
that can detect 85 percent of attacks by reviewing data from more
than 3.6 Billion lines of log files each day and informs anything
suspicious.
The new system does not just rely on the artificial intelligence
(AI), but also on human input, which researchers call Analyst
Intuition (AI), which is why it has been given the name of
Artificial Intelligence Squared or AI2.
The system first scans the content with unsupervised
machine-learning techniques and then, at the end of the day,
presents its findings to human analysts.
The human analyst then identifies which events are actual cyber
attacks and which aren't. This feedback is then incorporated
into the machine learning system of AI2 and is used the next day
for analyzing new logs.
It's simple:
"The more data it analyzes, the more accurate it becomes."
In its test, the team demonstrated that AI2 is roughly 3 times
better than similar automated cyber attack detection systems
used today. It also reduces the number of false positives by a
factor of five.
According to Nitesh Chawla, computer science professor at
Notre Dame University, AI2 "continuously generates new models that
it can refine in as little as a few hours, meaning it can improve
its detection rates significantly and rapidly. The more attacks
the system detects, the more analyst feedback it receives, which,
in turn, improves the accuracy of future predictions ñ that
human-machine interaction creates a beautiful, cascading effect."
The team presented their work in a paper titled, AI2: Training a
big data machine to defend [PDF], last week at the IEEE
International Conference on Big Data Security in New York City.
So, let's see how AI2 helps create The Internet the safer place
and how long it will take to be implemented into large-scale
security platforms in the near future.
US Government Wants Your Facebook Data - Without You Knowing
The government wants to get more and more information out of
Facebook, but they don't want you to know about it.
The social network's latest "Global Government Requests Report,"
released Thursday, documented a 13 percent rise in government
requests for Facebook user data in the second half of 2015 over
the previous period. In total, governments asked for Facebook
user data a total of 46,763 times in the last six months of 2015.
The report also shed light on government gag orders, with
Facebook revealing that 60 percent of requests from US
authorities came with a "non-disclosure order" prohibiting
Facebook from notifying the user in question.
Facebook also receives requests to block material for violating
local laws in particular countries. One photo related to the
November 2015 Paris terror attacks was subject to more than
32,000 block requests from the French government.
Facebook said in a statement it doesn't provide "back doors or
direct access to people's data." The company added: "We
scrutinize each request for user data we receive for legal
sufficiency, no matter which country is making the request. If a
request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back
hard and will fight in court, if necessary."
China Wants Apple's Source Code, But The Company Refused
Apple officially confirmed that the Chinese government has asked
Apple twice in the past two years to hand over the source code
for its operating system, but the company refused in both the
cases.
In a Tuesday hearing entitled "Deciphering the Debate Over
Encryption: Industry and Law Enforcement Perspectives," the police
officials put allegations on Apple for handing over user data to
Beijing while refusing the authorities at its home in the US.
However, speaking under oath at the congressional hearing,
Apple's General Counsel Bruce Sewell denied the claims, saying
"We have been asked by the Chinese government" for the source
code behind the iPhone. But, "we refused."
The response came just after Indiana State Police Captain
Charles Cohen accused Apple of providing its source code to
China.
Neither Captain Cohen presented any evidence of his allegation,
nor he claimed to know whether this was accurate. Instead, he
cited media reports to prove his point.
"I saw several news stories that said Apple provided the
source code for the iOS [operating system for iPhone and iPads]
to China," Cohen said without pinpointing the publications.
The allegations on Apple have continued due to the company's
refusal to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) gain
access to the iPhone used by the San Bernardino shooter Syed
Farook.
The law enforcement officials have started accusing Apple of
handing over its users information to the Chinese government for
business purpose while refusing to cooperate with U.S.
authorities for access to private data in criminal and terror
investigation.
However, Apple's Swell apparently said: "We have not provided
source code to the Chinese government. We did not have a key 19
months ago that we threw away. Those allegations are without
merit."
On one hand where authorities want Apple to provide them access
to valuable data in serious crimes, like terror, deaths, and
rapes. On the contrary, technical experts argue that if the
company creates a hole in its security, it will open all its
customers to not just the government but also the potential
hackers.
However, when it comes to complying with government request in
serious crimes, Apple has provided data in 80 percent of cases
originating from law enforcement in North America and 66 percent
from China.
It was previously reported that in the wake of its legal battle
with the US Department of Justice, Apple was working on
encrypting iCloud backups that only the account owner would have
access.
However, Mr. Sewell denied the reports, saying the company had
made no such announcements about iCloud encryption plans.
Moreover, such moves would further frustrate law enforcement
agencies, who now can obtain iCloud data with a court warrant.
Twitter Takes Another Step to Crack Down on Abuse
Itís just the last effort to curb harassment.
Twitter has added a way for users to report multiple abusive
tweets at the same the time, marking one more incremental step
by the microblogging service to crack down on harassment.
Until now, Twitter users could only report tweets individually,
which made it difficult to fully convey an abusive situation.
ìThis update makes it easier for you to provide us with more
information about the extent of abuse and reduces the time it
takes to do so,î Twitter safety engineer Hao Tang said in a blog
post. ìThat added context often helps us investigate issues and
get them resolved faster.î
Users were already able to report an abusive account, although the
new feature makes it faster. Previously, users couldnít attach any
tweets when reporting an account, which meant that Twitterís
safety team had to ask for additional information after a report
was submitted or look for the abusive tweets themselves, a Twitter
spokeswoman explained to Fortune. The new ability to attach
multiple tweets as part of the initial reporting process will make
it faster. But even with the new system, all the tweets reported
at once must be from the same account.
Twitter has long been criticized for failing to aggressively
police harassment on its service. Last year, then-CEO Dick
Costolo acknowledged and took full responsibility for the
companyís shortcomings in an internal memo.
Get Flash Player
ìWeíre going to start kicking these people off right and left
and making sure that when they issue their ridiculous attacks,
nobody hears them,î he wrote.
But so far, Twitterís improvements have been slow and
incremental, and still lack any significant means for users to
protect themselves such as prohibiting others from including
their user handle in their tweets, for example. Mondayís update
is a small step, but itís a step.
Dangerous Windows 10 Flaw Lets Hackers
Secretly Run Any App on Your PC
A newly identified Windows 10 security flaw lets hackers install
malicious apps on any machine, without business owners being
made aware anything out of the ordinary is happening. The issue
lets anyone familiar with Windows security bypass its defenses
without leaving any trace on the machine.
Discovered accidentally, the issue is significant, and Microsoft
is yet to issue a patch.
Found by Casey Smith, the Windows vulnerability doesnít affect
only Windows 10 machines. Malicious hackers could take advantage
of the security flaw on enterprise versions of Windows dating
back to Windows 7.
The issue concerns a program called Regsvr32 (and Regsvr64 for
64-bit machines), which lets anyone execute code on a Windows
computer from remote network locations. The flaw doesnít trigger
the AppLocker security software, which is supposed to only let
users run apps from trusted sources, and it doesnít leave any
traces in the registry, as it doesnít need administrator access.
In other words, pretty much anyone could use it to install and
run any application on an unsuspecting employeeís Windows
machine. Microsoft has not yet provided a fix for the issue, but
users can disable the Regsvr program using Windows Firewall.
More details on Smithís findings are available at the source
links, including proof of concept scripts to demonstrate the
security issue.
Samsung's Artik 10, A Challenger to Raspberry Pi 3
Samsung will start shipping its eight-core Artik 10 board
computer next month, a challenger to the Raspberry Pi 3.
The Artik 10 was first announced last year and could be a PC
replacement if you don't mind building out your own system. It
could also spawn the development of smart appliances, drones,
robots and other gadgets. Like the Raspberry Pi, its components
are crammed onto a small circuit board.
The Artik 10 will be available from online retailer Digi-Key
starting in May, Samsung officials said.
Pricing wasn't immediately available, but the Artik 10 could end
up being more expensive than the $35 Raspberry Pi 3, and even the
$99.99 Artik 5, a smaller Samsung board for wearables and small
gadgets that started shipping in February.
The Artik 10's eight-core, 32-bit ARM CPU has some horsepower, but
it still seems dated compared to the 64-bit quad-core ARM CPU on
the Raspberry Pi 3. Samsung's latest smartphones have 64-bit
processors, but it still opted for older technology on the
Artik 10.
The CPU has four Cortex-A15 cores, which handle the most demanding
tasks, and four lower-power Cortex-A7 cores for lighter use.
The Artik 10 has better graphics than the Raspberry Pi 3. Its
Mali T628 MP6 graphics processor can show HD video at 120 frames
per second, while the Raspberry Pi 3 can handle HD video at
60 frames per second.
The new Artik board has 16GB of flash storage and 2GB of LPDDR3
memory, both greater than on the Raspberry Pi 3. It also has USB
ports.
Artik also has wireless capabilities and expansion ports to
connect external sensors, cameras, displays and other
components. Key features include 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Zigbee and
Bluetooth. It has GPIO, UART, I2S, I2C and SPI connectors. The
Raspberry Pi 3 does not have Zigbee, which is used for
point-to-point communication between sensor devices.
With Artik, Samsung wants to tap into the fast-growing Internet
of Things market. Gartner late last year predicted 6.4 billion
connected devices will be used worldwide in 2016, and that number
will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. Samsung wants to get its memory,
processors and other components in more of those connected
devices.
Samsung also has a grand plan to equip homes with
Internet-connected appliances like refrigerators, ovens, washing
machines and bulbs starting next year. The Artik boards will
help enthusiasts develop and test products that could fit in
such environments, said Curt Sasaki, vice president of
ecosystems at Samsung, in an interview.
The Artik boards will also connect to the Artik Cloud service,
an open platform through which a wide range of devices will be
able to talk to each other. Artik Cloud was announced at the
Samsung Developer Conference being held in San Francisco this
week.
The Artik Cloud could be used for applications in security,
health, driver assistance, and home and industrial automation.
For example, users could store information in the Artik Cloud
about the temperature at which their air-conditioner should turn
on and off.
Last year, Samsung also announced a small development board
called the Artik 1, but it won't be sold to enthusiasts. It'll
she directly to manufacturers looking to make products such as
smart bulbs, Sasaki said.
Artik will come with a version of Linux for embedded devices.
This Tiny Computer Has No Battery,
Powered Wirelessly from Radio Waves
No matter how smart and fast your devices would be, the biggest
issue is always with the battery technology.
Whenever you go to buy any electronic gadget ó smartphone,
laptop, or any wearable ó the most important specification isnít
its processor speed or its camera quality but its Battery Backup,
which is not getting better any time soon.
What if you could eliminate the very thing entirely?
Well, that's exactly what the electrical engineers from the
University of Washington has developed.
A team of researchers from the University of Washingtonís Sensor
Lab and the Delft University of Technology has developed a new
gadget that doesnít need a battery or any external power source
to keep it powered; rather it works on radio waves.
So, this means you have to turn on your radio every time to keep
this device charged. Right?
No, you donít need to do this at all, because the device sucks
radio waves out of the air and then converts them into
electricity.
Dubbed Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP), the
device is a combination sensor and computing chip that uses a
standard off-the-shelf RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
reader to suck in radio waves and convert them into electricity.
Though the WISP is not designed to compete with the chips in your
computer or even your smartphone, it has as much processing power
as the Fitbit, which is enough to run sensors and transmit data.
The discovery could highly transform the Internet of Things (IoT)
world as the WISP is even more low maintenance compared to
Bluetooth Low Energy sensor chips being used today.
The next step in making the WISP usability even more convenient
and easy is to create Wisent that would allow for wireless
programming of the WISP. For this, the team has recently
collaborated with the Delft University of Technology.
With the help of Wisent, the WISP can be programmed wirelessly
and uses the very same radio waves to communicate.
"So far WISP required cables to reprogramme it, nullifying
the advantage of battery-less-ness. Therefore, we present Wisent,
a protocol that allows WISP to be reprogrammed wirelessly," said
Przemyslaw Pawelczak, assistant professor at the TU Delftís
Embedded Software group.
"Our vision is to have truly wirelessly reprogrammable
software-defined battery-less computers wherever and whenever we
want."
For more details, you can head on to the research paper. Though
the ultimate aim of WISP is in fully realizing the Internet of
Things and giving "dumb" objects some smartness, it might even
find its way into smartphones as a sort of emergency backup
calling module that works even when your phoneís battery is dead.
However, there is no detail on when the WISP will be made
available for purchase, or how much it will cost.
The Digital Assistant Cortana Has a One-Track Mind: Microsoft
You can ask the latest desktop version of Cortana, Microsoft
Corp.ís digital assistant, to find the nearest Pizza Hut ó but
donít expect it to use any search engine but Microsoft Bing or
present the results in any browser but Microsoft Edge.
Cortana no longer can use non-Microsoft browsers or search
engines in fulfilling user requests on Windows 10, the software
giant said in a blog post Thursday. The restrictions are
reminiscent of earlier company moves that once led the U.S.
Department of Justice to sue Microsoft for violating antitrust
violations.
Cortana uses Bing and Edge by default. However, browser
extensions offered by third parties have allowed users to force
the Windows 10 version of Cortana to use the browser or search
engine of their choice. In addition, Alphabet Incís Chrome
browser and Mozilla Foundationís Firefox search engines let
users bypass Edge and Bing.
An update of Windows 10 released Thursday locked in Cortanaís
default choices.
ìUnfortunately, as Windows 10 has grown in adoption and usage,
we have seen some software programs circumvent the design of
Windows 10 and redirect you to search providers that were not
designed to work with Cortana,î Ryan Gavin, the general manager
of search and Cortana, wrote in the blog post. ìThe result is a
compromised experience that is less reliable and predictable.î
Cortana offers a better user experience when used with Edge and
Bing, the company said. For instance, a search for ìPizza Hutî
in the Cortana box displays not only the food vendorís website
but also the nearest locations. A search for ìBest Buyî in the
Cortana box yields not only the electronics retailerís website
but also discount coupons for items it sells.
Microsoft canít deliver such extra features "if Cortana canít
depend on Bing as the search provider and Microsoft Edge as the
browser,î Mr. Gavin wrote.
Tying Edge and Bing to Cortana could disadvantage Microsoftís
rivals in browsing and search, most notably Google and Mozilla
Foundationís Firefox. Google recently added to Chrome a feature
that lets users redirect Windows 10 desktop searches, including
those from Cortana, to Google. Firefox, too, has a feature that
shunts Cortanaís Bing searches to another search engine.
Microsoftís update disabled those features.
Google declined to comment. Officials from Mozilla didnít
immediately respond to a request for comment.
Similar workarounds have been available in the form of browser
extension software. Theo Browne, a junior at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, created one such program, Chrometana. The
Windows 10 update disabled that, too.
ìIím outraged that Microsoft can act this way without blowback,î
Mr. Browne said.
He compared the decision to restrict Cortana to Microsoftís
services to moves the company made in the 1990s, when it first
bundled its Internet Explorer browser into Windows and crushed
the upstart Netscape Navigator browser. In 2000, a federal judge
ruled that Microsoft was a predatory monopolist that violated
antitrust laws.
Microsoft ultimately settled the dispute, which included a
consent decree that, in part, barred the company from
retaliating against PC makers that installed non-Microsoft
programs. The consent decree expired in 2011.
Much has changed since then. Microsoft is battling rivals that
have at least as much market firepower in the emerging market of
virtual assistants. Google can use its dominant search engine to
bolster Google Now. At the same time, Apple has put Siri in the
palms of iPhone users. Google Now and Siri, which predate
Cortana, rely solely on their companyís browser.
Such differences in the marketplace may trump concerns about
Microsoftís monopoly status.
ìThe mere fact that there is a new kid on the block with a lot
of horsepower is not enoughî to conclude that Microsoftís actions
are anticompetitive, said Herbert Hovenkamp, a professor at the
University of Iowa College of Law. ìThis is more a fight among
giants rather than Microsoft going against Netscape.î
While Windows remains the dominant operating system for personal
computers, Google and Apple dominate in operating systems for
mobile devices. That is why Microsoft offered versions of
Cortana for Googleís Android and Appleís iOS last fall. But even
on those devices, Cortana uses Bing to answer queries.
=~=~=~=
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.
