Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 18 Issue 29
Volume 18, Issue 29 Atari Online News, Etc. July 22, 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 Horvet
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 #1829 07/22/16
~ Cyber Grand Challenge! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Xbox One S Launch!
~ Rise of Tomb Raider! ~ That's A Clever Hack! ~ MacOS Sierra Beta!
~ KickassTorrents Seized ~ Upcoming Neo Console! ~ France vs. Win 10!
~ Blow to Tor Project! ~ ~ PS4 Leads in June!
-* KickassTorrents Resurfaces! *-
-* The Legendary Nintendo PlayStation! *-
-* Windows 10 Gets One Last Nagware Update! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
We're in the middle of a series of heat waves hear in the Northeast,
with a second round of 90+ degree days underway. It looks like this
current wave will last for 5-6 days! Other than an occasional (and
brief) thunderstorm, there really hasn't been much relief with some
much-needed rain. This past week, it was reported that my area is
now considered to be under severe drought conditions. Just take a
look at my lawn if you want to see some proof!
Speaking of heat, how about the heat in Cleveland this past week!
The Republican National Convention wrapped up Thursday, and, from
the little I was able to watch of it, was very interesting. No
real surprises from what I could tell, but interesting nonetheless.
I don't usually watch these events, but I was curious as to what
the Trump supporters (and Trump) were going to say. It will be
interesting next week to hear the "rebuttals" from the Clinton
factions.
Although it's probably no surprise to anyone, I'm not a Hillary
supporter. What little support I had for her, it was lost when
she became Secretary of State. That role was totally political,
with Obama naming her to the office as a consolation for her
failed presidential bid earlier. She failed miserably in her
role as Secretary of State. In many people's minds, she should
be held accountable for her failures and cover-ups. And, the
e-mail scandal isn't going to go away! And, supporting Hillary
means another four years of Obama-supported policies and plans.
I think that we've suffered enough!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Xbox One S To Launch in August!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Rise of The Tomb Raider PS4!
Details on Upcoming Neo Console!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Xbox One S To Launch on August 2
Microsoft will kick off sales of its new Xbox One S starting
Tuesday, August 2.
There is one catch. The Xbox One S will be available in three
different capacities and price tags - a 500GB version for $299,
a 1TB version for $349 and a 2TB version for $399. However,
only the 2TB version lifts off on August 2, Matt Lapsen,
general manager for Xbox Devices Marketing, said in a blog post
on Monday.
Microsoft will have more to share next week about the 1TB and
500GB Xbox One S consoles, which will launch later this year,
a company spokeswoman said.
All three models are currently available for preorder through
Microsoft, Best Buy, Amazon and GameStop. Anyone who preorders
the 2TB version of the console will be able to grab it come
August 2. You can also try walking into your local Microsoft,
Best Buy or GameStop store. However, "availability is limited
and demand is high," according to Lapsen, who advises
preordering the console soon.
Microsoft has tried a number of tactics to boost Xbox One sales,
including slashing the price, bundling free games and offering a
Kinect-free version of the console. But the Xbox One S represents
a new shift. The console is smaller, cheaper and throws in
support for 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray discs and 4K streaming services
as a way to do battle with both gaming consoles and Blu-ray
players.
By supporting 4K (3,820x2,160-pixel) resolution, the Xbox One S
will display more vibrant colors and darker blacks. The higher
resolution is reserved for movies and TVs and won't work with
games, however, and you'll also need a 4K compatible TV.
Those of you who have a 4K TV and are looking for a 4K Blu-ray
player may be tempted by the Xbox One S since you also get the
option to play games. The new console also supports High Dynamic
Range (HDR) for video and gaming, which means certain games will
look better due to a higher contrast ratio.
The Xbox One S will initially arrive in Australia, Austria,
Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, Turkey, UK and the US. Other regions will get dibs
on the new console later this year.
Rise of The Tomb Raider PS4 Release Date
Confirmed, Has PlayStation VR Support
Square Enix has announced Rise of the Tomb Raider will launch on
PlayStation 4 on October 11 in a new 20 Year Celebration edition.
This version of the game will feature "a completely new story
chapter entitled Blood Ties."
In addition to this, it will have new co-op Endurance gameplay,
PlayStation VR support for the new Blood Ties chapter, all
previously released DLC, extra outfits, weapons and Expedition
Cards. A limited-edition art book will also be included.
All this content will be available for free to Xbox One and PC
to players who own the season pass. This, however, won't include
VR support. The season pass will be updated to include this
content going forward.
A season pass does not exist for PS4 as all the extra content is
included in the new version of the game.
"[Crystal Dynamics] is celebrating with all Tomb Raider fans,
thanking them for being on Lara's 20 year journey with us," said
Scot Amos, co-head of the studio. "The team has packed in
surprises, new story, and the top-requested special features
into this 20 Year Celebration edition.
"Blood Ties, a new premium DLC, beckons players to explore Croft
Manor in a new story mode; then defend it against a zombie
invasion in Lara's Nightmare. When Lara's uncle contests
ownership of the Manor, Lara must explore the estate to find
proof that she is the rightful heir, or lose her birthright and
father's secrets for good.
"Players can then test their zombie-killing skills in the
replayable Lara's Nightmare mode: a haunted Croft Manor where
players have new challenges and must rid the Manor of an evil
presence."
According to a press release, the PlayStation VR support lets
players "unlock the mysteries of Croft Manor in first-person,
while the new co-op Endurance mode lets fans team up in the
wilderness.
"Two players must team up to survive the harsh elements by day,
as well as lethal threats from enemies by night. Fire takes
fuel, food restores health, and every resource must be hunted,
collected, or crafted. Battle to the top of the leaderboards, as
others try to beat your longest survival run."
To celebrate the history of Tomb Raider, a re-envisoned version
of the cold-weather outfit and the Hailstorm pistol Lara used in
Tomb Raider 3 will be available in the mode. A classic Lara card
pack will let players play as various iterations of the
character from over the years, including the original Lara model
that started it all in 1996.
Finally, the game will have a new Extreme Survivor difficulty:
"This new difficulty level takes the toughness of Survivor and
ratchets it up several notches starting with all checkpoints
being stripped out of the game. The only way to save the game is
forage enough resources to light campfires."
PlayStation 4: Leaked 42-Page Document
Reveals Details on Upcoming Neo Console
The document contains hardware specs and tips for developers to
optimize their games for playability at a 4K resolution, multiple
reports say. Sony has not officially confirmed the consoleís
specs.
The first important information is that all PlayStation 4 games
set to release in October 2016 or later are required by Sony to
support the new console as well as the basic one. Games
optimized for the PlayStation 4 Neo are also expected to have
higher and more stable frame rate, but weíll get back to that
later.
Of course, with a new system the specifications are what
everyoneís eager to read about. According to this document
(which also explains the budget split between the game and the
PS4 system), the PlayStation 4 Neo will have a Jaguar CPU with
8 cores running at 2.1 GHz. The GPU will feature 36 Compute
Units running at 911 MHz for a 2.3X improvement in Teraflops,
while the memory will still be 8GB GDDR5 though the bandwidth
will be higher at 218 GB/s.
Of course, thereís no telling if these are the final specs or
not.
However, Sony doesnít want developers to run the games at 1440P
on 4K displays because there wouldnít be enough differentiation
from the standard 1080P game on a regular HDTV. Theyíre
encouraging game creators to experiment with checkerboard
rendering technique; if youíre a regular WCCFtech reader, you
might remember that we covered this topic when reporting
Ubisoftís success with this technique in Rainbow Six Siege.
Of course, we donít have any way to know for sure if this
document is legitimate. However, it certainly looks like it,
though it seems to be about three months old. Weíll update on
this rumor in case we get more proof of its legitimacy or
otherwise.
PS4 Leads US Console Sales in June 2016 NPDs
The NPD Group has released its monthly sales report for June
2016, and PS4 was once again the top-selling system in the
United States during the month.
Sony confirmed with GameSpot that PS4 was the top-selling
console. Beyond that, it declined to offer its usual statement
on the report for the third month in a row.
Microsoft did offer a statement, but it continues to focus on
usage numbers rather than sales figures, as it said it planned
to do.
Low code platforms are a big idea. But can they scale up to
enterprise? Read what Forrester has to say for free.
"Following a monumental E3, in June 2016, gaming hours on Xbox
One reached a new milestone with more than 1.2 billion hours
logged, which more than doubles gaming hours at the same point
in time last year and makes it the highest we've ever seen for
the platform to date," said Xbox marketing boss Mike Nichols.
"Looking ahead, there's so much more in store for our fans.
We've received a strong response to the new, highly-anticipated
Xbox One S, launching next month as the first and only console
that lets you watch Blu-ray movies and stream video in stunning
4K Ultra HD with HDR.
"We also introduced new Xbox Live features like Xbox Play
Anywhere launching this September, allowing you to buy your game
once and play seamlessly across both Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs
through Xbox Live. And we'll release a new system update this
summer and another this holiday to make gaming on Xbox even
better. With all that coupled with an unrivaled lineup of games
coming later this year and next, we're steadfast in bringing the
best gaming experiences to Xbox fans across Xbox One, Windows 10
and Xbox Live and are excited to launch new hardware and
experiences."
Nintendo shared a statement with GameSpot regarding June's
report. It focused almost exclusively on the performance of its
games but did note that the "3DS family of systems started
summer on a hot streak with an average weekly sales increase of
39 percent over May." It attributed this in part to the 2DS
price drop to $80, which happened on May 20.
Overall, hardware sales in the US dropped a dramatic 42 percent
year-over-year, from $313.1 million last June to $181.5 million
this year. NPD analyst Liam Callahan says this comes as a result
of two things: a drop in unit sales (down 32 percent, perhaps in
part because of new PS4 and Xbox hardware announcements) and a
decline in average prices (down 15 percent). This is mostly due
to a sales decline of 43 percent from eight-generation hardware,
though these system still make up 87 percent of overall hardware
spending. Handhelds combined to represent 11 percent.
"After 32 months since the launches of the PS4 and Xbox One, the
combined cumulative hardware sales for these two consoles exceed
the sales of their predecessors by 40 percent at the same point
in their lifecycles," Callahan noted.
It's not just hardware on the decline, as both software
(20 percent) and accessories (six percent) were also down in June
compared with June 2015.
During May, PS4 was the top-selling console in the US as new
hardware sales dropped 10 percent year-over-year to $153.1
million. That was largely due to a drop in portable hardware.
On the software side, Overwatch was the US' best-selling game in
June.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Ben Heck Tears Down The Legendary Nintendo PlayStation
We got a good, close look at the Nintendo PlayStation last year
and even talked to Sony veteran Shuhei Yoshida about it, but
have you ever wondered about everything inside the ill-fated
game console? Ben Heckendorn, aka Ben Heck, is happy to show you.
The homebrew gadget expert has conducted an extensive teardown
of the cancelled system (the same one we saw, even) that shows
exactly what it's made of. While it's evident that Sony had the
largest role in the machine, this was very much a collaboration
- you'll find a mix of both Nintendo and Sony chips in this
prototype, on top of the occasional third-party component.
Ben also suspects that this PlayStation wouldn't have fared well
even if Nintendo and Sony had put their differences aside.
Although it would have had a much faster CD drive than the Sega
CD (a whopping 2X!), it otherwise wouldn't have been any more
powerful than the cartridge-only Super Nintendo. That would have
put it on par with Sega's rival unit, or even slightly behind.
This isn't the end of it. Ben believes he knows enough that he
might have a shot at repairing the console (the CD drive wasn't
working when we saw it). If so, it raises the possibility that
you'll witness a fully functional device before long. You might
not ever see it play native CD titles, but it'll bring new life
to an important part of video game history.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
The Coolest US Agency Is Starting A ëRevolutioní
To Get Rid of Computer Viruses
In the world of computer security, the bad guys are always 10
steps ahead of the good guys. But next month the mad scientists
at the governmentís Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) will bring together a group of the worldís best computer
security experts to see if they can tip the scales in the good
guysí favor for once.
Dubbed the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC), the event will determine
if an autonomous program can hunt for security vulnerabilities
that hackers can exploit to attack a computer, create a fix that
patches that vulnerability and distribute that patch ó all
without any human interference.
ìThe idea here is to start a technology revolution,î said DARPA
program manager for the CGC, Mike Walker.
What does that mean for you? Well, if all goes well, the CGC
could mean a future where you donít have to worry about viruses
or hackers attacking your computer, smartphone or your other
connected devices. At a national level, this technology could
help prevent large-scale attacks against things like power
plants, water supplies and air-traffic infrastructure.
So much code, so little time
At this point, youíre probably wondering why this is such a big
deal. After all, your computerís anti-virus program finds and
fixes security holes all the time, right?
Yes and no. Itís true your own in-home anti-virus software can
find security flaws and deal with them. But it takes real-live
humans to design software to detect and fix those flaws.
Yes, people ó albeit super smart people ó are currently
responsible for finding and fixing the security problems that
make things like viruses and malware possible.
There are two ways companies can find security problems:
proactively, that is, they actually search out flaws in operating
systems or other programs; and reactively, where researchers
learn about a security issue and get to work fixing it.
According to Walker, it takes security researchers an average of
312 days to discover security vulnerabilities in computer
programs. During that time, hackers have the ability to do
whatever they please with that flaw, whether that includes
stealing Social Security information or breaking into your social
media account. Even when security researchers actually know of a
critical security flaw, Walker said, it takes up to 24 days to
patch it.
Why does it take researchers so long to find and fix this stuff?
Because the operating systems and programs youíre reading this
very article on are created using millions of lines of code. And
a single mistake in that code can be used to attack a computer
system. To say finding those flaws is akin to finding a needle
in a haystack is an incredible understatement.
And just to bring everything full circle, that means the security
software on your computer can only recognize and fix security
issues it has been programmed with. So while your security
program may say youíre protected, youíre actually only shielded
from the flaws security firms already know about.
Youíre still totally vulnerable to the untold number of flaws
that have yet to be discovered.
Thatís where the CGC comes in. The event, Walker explains, is
akin to DARPAís previous technology challenges including its
famous self-driving car Grand Challenge, which began in 2004.
Like that challenge, the CGC involves teams of researchers,
students and programmers working to complete a specific goal.
In this case, the goal is to create a program that can sniff out
software vulnerabilities, create a patch and implement it
without any human intervention whatsoever. But the teams wonít
be playing together. Instead, theyíll face off against each
other in a form of digital capture the flag.
This isnít your typical capture the flag-style game, though. In
the cyber security space, capture the flag is played with groups
of computer experts broken down into different teams. Each team
gets the same kind of computer with the same built-in security
vulnerabilities.
Itís the hackers and programmersí jobs to find those flaws on
their own systems, patch them and then tell the gameís referees
the other teams might have the same flaw. If theyíre correct and
the other teams didnít patch the error on their own systems, the
reporting team gets a point.
Itís far more complicated than it sounds, though. The players
have to scour lines of code for potential flaws and then figure
out how to address them. They then have to see if they can
exploit those flaws to compromise the other playersí systems.
And they have to do all of this while trying to protect their
own systems. So yeah, itís difficult.
With the CGC, though, they have to create software that can
essentially do all of the above on its own. According to Walker,
the participating teamsí programs must be able to provide a
ìproof of vulnerabilityî in a system.
A proof of vulnerability system allows a program that a team has
created to tell a DARPA referee that ìit can control the
crashing process of an opponentís software. After making the
claim to DARPA, the bot attempts to crash software on the remote
system in a way consistent with its claim.î
The concept for the challenge kicked off in 2014, when DARPA
held a worldwide call for contestants. That year, the challenge,
Walker explained, was for competitors to develop an automated
system that could provide an input that could crash a test
system.
Of the more than 100 teams that participated in the 2014 event
only seven were up to the task ó including those with team names
like ShellPhish, CodeJitsu and ForAllSecure. The CGC competition
next month will be far more demanding.
A future without hackers?
The point of the CGC is to make the world of connected devices
infinitely safer. Instead of taking nearly a year to find and
repair software vulnerabilities, the kind of technologies these
GCG competitors are creating could cut that time down to minutes
or even seconds.
ìImagine a hacker in the future sitting at a keyboard armed with
an unknown flaw they just discovered,î Walker posited. ìThey
connect to a computer, they break in, and then 30 seconds later
their connection is cut. When they try to get into a computer
using the same hack and it wonít work.î
That kind of speed and responsiveness could drastically improve
computer security across the board.
But it will be quite some time before we see this kind of
technology implemented at the consumer level. Thatís because the
computer systems being used during the CGC are essentially
super-computers worth thousands. Thatís because the calculations
these systems are performing require an incredible amount of
horsepower that you just canít find in your everyday computer.
ìItís difficult to think of this technology anywhere in the near
term on anything but a super-computer,î Walker explained. ìIt
could be used in the cloud, because there is an enormous amount
of computing power required.î
That means, Walker said, companies like Microsoft could develop
a means to test software for security flaws. If one is found,
they could deploy a downloadable fix to users around the world
via the internet in the same day.
Until then, though, stay safe out there.
Core Tor Contributor Leaves Project;
Shutting Down Important Tor Nodes
Another blow to the Tor Project: One of the Tor Project's
earliest contributors has decided to quit the project and shut
down all of the important Tor nodes under his administration.
Lucky Green was part of the Tor Project before the anonymity
network was known as TOR. He probably ran one of the first 5
nodes in the TOR network at its inception and managed special
nodes inside the anonymity network.
However, Green announced last weekend that "it is no longer
appropriate" for him to be part of the Tor Project, whether it
is financially or by providing computing resources.
TOR, also known as The Onion Router, is an anonymity network
that makes use of a series of nodes and relays to mask its
users' traffic and hide their identity by disguising IP
addresses and origins.
The TOR network is used by privacy-conscious people, activists,
journalists and users from countries with strict censorship
rules.
Alongside a number of fast Tor relays, Green currently runs the
Tor node "Tonga," very well known as the "Bridge Authority."
Bridge Authorities are critical network components that have
their IP addresses hard-coded in the TOR apps, allowing the
anonymity network to prevent various bans and blocking attempts
at the ISP level. These nodes also hold critical data regarding
other TOR nodes.
Moreover, since all Tor servers added to the anonymity network
report back to one of the Bridge Authorities, shutting down the
Bridge Authority will need an update to the TOR code.
So, practically, Lucky Green's exit from the Tor Project is a
big deal.
Green didn't give the exact reason behind his decision to leave
the Tor Project, though he hinted that "recent events" lead to
his exit. Here's what he said:
"I feel that I have no reasonable choice left within the
bounds of ethics, but to announce the discontinuation of all
Tor-related services hosted on every system under my control. I
wish the Tor Project nothing but the best moving forward through
those difficult times."
Although it is not clear, the recent event could be the result
of the turmoil in the Tor Project, which surfaced when Jacob
Appelbaum forced to leave the Tor Project amid some serious
sexual allegations. Appelbaum strongly denies these accusations,
but still decided to step down.
Green is not immediately closing down these crucial TOR nodes. He
will shut down these nodes, as well as their associated
cryptographic keys, on August 31, giving the Tor developers
enough time to update their network.
KickassTorrents ó Domain Names Seized!
Owner Arrested! Website Goes Down!
The federal authorities have finally arrested the alleged
mastermind behind the world's largest and most notorious
BitTorrent distribution site KickassTorrents (KAT), the US
Justice Department announced on Wednesday.
After The Pirate Bay had suffered copyright infringement
hardship, KickassTorrents (KAT) became the biggest and most-used
pirate site on the Internet, attracting millions of daily unique
visitors.
However, the site appears to be offline after its alleged owner
Artem Vaulin, a 30-year-old Ukrainian national was apprehended
in Poland today, and the US government has requested his
extradition.
Although some proxy sites seem to be currently up and running,
its main site, https:///kat.cr, appears to be down worldwide and
most of the other KAT domains, including kickasstorrents.com,
kastatic.com, thekat.tv, kat.cr, kickass.cr, kickass.to, kat.ph,
have been seized by the authorities.
According to criminal complaint [pdf] filed in US District Court
in Chicago, Vaulin faces:
Two counts of criminal copyright infringement.
One count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright
infringement.
One count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The United States federal authorities say that KickassTorrent has
caused damages of more than $1 Billion to copyright holders.
Hereís what Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell stated
in a press release issued by the Department of Justice:
"Vaulin is charged with running todayís most visited illegal
file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well
over $1 billion of copyrighted materials. In an effort to evade
law enforcement, Vaulin allegedly relied on servers located in
countries around the world and moved his domains due to repeated
seizures and civil lawsuits. His arrest in Poland, however,
demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot
hide from justice."
In addition to the KATís domain names seizure, the Chicago court
has also ordered the seizure of bank accounts related to the
notorious pirate website, as well as servers located in Chicago,
USA, and Canada.
KickassTorrents has been blocked in many countries in the past
including the UK, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, and Malaysia.
How KickassTorrents Team Responds to Copyright Infringement
Complaints:
According to the court affidavit, Vaulin claimed that his
BitTorrent site KAT did not violate the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA), but they did.
When any film studio filed a notice-and-takedown for a potential
DMCA violation, KAT responds like this:
KickassTorrents
Hereís How Authorities get their hands on the KAT Owner:
An IRS agent went undercover to buy and advertise on the
notorious site for five days, at the price of $300 per day.
This revealed Vaulin's e-mail account, trim@me.com, hosted by
Apple, who provided a copy of his email inbox to authorities
after being requested for help.
With the help of the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), US
officials were easily able to obtain information about the KAT's
operations from the bank accounts used to collect payments for
advertisement slots.
"Records provided by Apple showed that tirm@me.com conducted
an iTunes transaction using IP Address 109.86.226.203 on or about
July 31, 2015," reads the complaint. "The same IP Address was
used on the same day to login into the KAT Facebook."
An analysis of this account later disclosed the presence of KAT's
servers in Chicago.
After the arrest of KickassTorrentís owner and seizure of primary
KAT domain, a mirror of the original KAT website with identical
design has been made available online in less than 24 hours.
The mirror for KAT website has been hosted by another popular
torrent site, IsoHunt, at kickasstorrents.website, hosting
everything from the last year, to year-and-a-half.
However, the mirror lacks forums, community, and support of KAT
ó the biggest draws to the original KAT website.
KickassTorrents Resurfaces Online, As All Piracy Sites Do
The alleged founder and operator of the most popular torrenting
site in the world, KickassTorrents (KAT), has been apprehend by
the US authorities and the site's domains seized. However, as we
learned with the campaign to stop The Pirate Bay, you just can't
keep a good pirate site down. We've already spotted at least two
clones of KAT, including one created by IsoHunt
(KickassTorrents.website ó a fairly limited mirror), and a second
located at KAT.am.
""hosted on multiple cloud servers to prevent blockade.""
A statement emailed to The Verge from the creators of KAT.am
claims the site is "hosted on multiple cloud servers to prevent
blockade, and the hosting information is well hidden behind
Cloudflare." The anonymous contact said they'd improved on the
original KickassTorrents site by adding a mobile version, and
noted (with the original, ambiguous, wording retained here) that
the site "will has the complete torrent database of KAT,
including the comments, user information intact." We're not sure
whether that means KAT.am has this complete log of comments,
etc., or will have it at some point in the future. At the time
of writing this article, access to KAT.am was spotty.
All this shows what we already knew: that you can't completely
remove piracy sites from the internet, but you can discourage
those who want to run them. The Department of Justice's statement
on KAT's alleged founder and operator, 30-year-old Artem Vaulin,
charges him with "unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of
copyrighted materials," and claims that he collected roughly $16
million in advertising revenue a year. KickassTorrents may be
back (sort of), but Vaulin's future is about get a lot tougher.
That's A Clever Hack! How Anyone Could
Make Money from Google and Microsoft
Smart hackers could exploit a loophole that could allow them to
steal a significant amount of cash from Google, Microsoft and
Instagram using a Premium rate phone number.
Security researcher Arne Swinnen from Belgium has discovered an
ingenious way to steal money from big tech companies like Google,
Microsoft, and Instagram using their two-factor authentication
(2FA) voice-based token distribution systems.
Swinnen argues that any attacker with malicious intent could create
fake Google, Microsoft or Instagram accounts, as well as premium
phone services, and then link them together.
The attacker could then request 2FA voice-based tokens for all
fake accounts using an automated scripts, placing legitimate phone
calls to his service to earn him quite a nice profit.
Swinnen created accounts on Google, Microsoft Office 365 and
Instagram and then tied them to a premium phone number instead of
a regular one.
As a result, whenever one of these three services would call the
account's phone number to send the user their account access code,
the premium number would register an incoming call and bill the
companies.
"They all offer services to supply users with a token via a
computer-voiced phone call, but neglected to properly verify
whether supplied phone numbers were legitimate non-premium
numbers," Swinnen says in his blog.
"This allowed a dedicated attacker to steal thousands of
EUR/USD/GBP/... Microsoft was exceptionally vulnerable to mass
exploitation by supporting virtually unlimited concurrent calls to
one premium number."
Although the Swinnen reported the loophole to all the three
companies, he calculated that he could have stolen Ä432,000 per
year from Google, Ä669,000 per year from Microsoft and Ä2,066,000
per year from Instagram.
You can learn more technical details about the hack in Swinnen's
blog post.
Although no customer data was being put at risk through his hack,
Facebook (who owns Instagram) and Microsoft rewarded Swinnen
with $2000 and $500 via their bug bounty programs, while Google
mentioned his name in the company's Hall of Fame.
Apple MacOS Sierra Beta
Apple has gone public with the beta version of macOS Sierra, the
new version of the Mac operating system formerly known as OS X.
Anyone with an Apple ID can sign up and get a sense of how Sierra
will be different from the current version, OS X El Capitan. As
with Apple's previous public betas, you'll get almost all the
features, but not all the speed and stability you can expect when
Sierra is released as a free upgrade sometime in the fall. Should
you download the macOS Sierra beta right now? It really depends
on how much risk you can tolerate. It's certainly not for
mission-critical business systems, but the average early adopter
will find it a worthy download. If it sounds right for you, you
can get it at beta.apple.com. Still not sure? Don't worry: I
downloaded the beta and have worked with it extensively. Read on
for the details.
Here's a quick summary of what Sierra offers. Like all recent OS X
versions, Sierra is a smooth update, with a flat learning curve and
a host of clever new features slotted into a familiar, easy-to-use
environment. As in Windows 10 with Cortana, Apple has built digital
assistant Siri into macOS Sierra, responding to spoken (but not
written) questions and coming up with movie times, sports scores,
stock prices, files on your disk, and laconic answers to questions
about the meaning of life. You can drag and drop images and Web
locations from Siri's answers into anything else or use a button in
Siri's window to pin an answer to the Sierra Notifications Center.
You can also tell Siri to put your Mac to sleep.
Cloud integration includes an option to store old photos and
documents on the Web to save disk space. Sierra recommends that you
choose an option that saves to the cloud all the files in your
Documents folder or on your Desktop and downloads them to any other
Mac you use. This option quickly used up my free iCloud Drive
storage space, so I turned it off rather than get extra space by
paying a monthly fee. Windows' equivalent online storage and
syncing service OneDrive,Free at Microsoft by comparision, works
on all major platforms (including Apple platforms), whereas iCloud
is restricted to Apple ecosystem devices.
As always, Apple has tightened integration with the rest of the
Apple ecosystem, so you can share the clipboard with your iPhone
or iPad or unlock a Mac simply by wearing an Apple Watch within
three meters of your Mac laptop or desktop. Apple Pay will come to
Safari, so you'll be able to make a purchase on your Mac and pay
by authenticating yourself via the Apple Watch or touch ID on your
phone. (This is one of the few features that won't go live until
after Sierra is officially released.)
You've probably heard about the gee-whiz features in Sierra that
Apple demonstrated at its Developer Conference in June.
Picture-in-picture is available from almost any video, including
anything on YouTube. A two-finger-click on a video selects PIP
mode from a pop-up menu; with YouTube, though, you'll need to
click twice, once to bring up the familiar YouTube pop-up menu
and then again to bring up Sierra's PIP menu.
Maps, Mail, TextEdit, and other apps now get the same tabbed
interface already available in the Finder and Safarióand any
existing third-party application that now opens multiple windows
can also use tabs. The Dock control panel in System Preferences
lets you decide whether your apps should use tabs or new windows
by default. In one of Sierra's many subtle enhancements, when you
click and hold the plus-sign button in Safari that normally opens
a new tab, you get a pop-up menu of recently closed tabs. Under
the name of a folder icon in the Finder or the Desktop, a
subtitle shows the number of items in the folder. Icons for
images have a subtitle showing the dimension of the picture.
Icons for files show the file size.
Other under-the-hood improvements include the return of RAID
support in Disk Utility, an option to remove items from the Trash
after thirty days, and a menu called Reduce Clutter that lets you
find large and unused files and delete them. You'll also be
prompted to delete the installers for previous OS X
installations, saving many gigabytes of space. I haven't tested
this, but Apple claims that Sierra uses a more efficient method
of storing Mail attachments so that you'll save space by
upgrading.
Sierra also features the first glimpse of the first new major
file system update in more than 30 years. The new system, which
is called the APFS, promises better and faster storage features,
as well as improved encryption features. There's not much you can
do with it yet; most of the new features probably won't be
implemented for a while, possibly to coincide with an update to
iOS and a new batch of mobile devices to go with it. Still, the
new system is already in place.
I don't personally expect to use a few features that loom large in
Apple's publicity materials for Sierra. Photos has a Memories
feature that automatically builds animated videos from photos and
videos that the app decides are related to each other, but I don't
want an algorithm sorting out my memories for me.
More useful features include one that creates photo albums sorted
by the people in the pictures, selected via face recognition, and
one that shows you your photos on a world map, which each photo
linked to the place where it was taken.
In Messages, emoji now appear at three times their earlier size,
so you don't have to wonder whether your friend is smiling or
frowning. A Tapback feature lets you tap on a menu of heart,
thumbs-up, and other icons to respond to a message, bringing us
all closer to a world without any words at all.
Some new security features are probably worth having, but
experienced users may find them annoying. The old option in
System Preferences that allowed you to open apps downloaded from
anywhere, whether or not they were written by registered
developers, has disappeared. (You can make it reappear by
entering an obscure terminal command: "sudo spctl
--master-disable" which you may not want to do, because it may
compromise other security features.) Fortunately, this is a
minor inconvenience, because you can still Ctrl-click a
downloaded app and choose Open from the pop-up menu.
A more complicated and puzzling feature called Gatekeeper Path
Randomization will prevent some existing apps from working
correctlyóuntil you perform the unintuitive step of moving the
app out of the folder into which you downloaded it. You can
immediately move it back into the same folder, but you have to
move it once. The problem seems to occur with downloaded apps
that access external files. I had to rewrite a few of the
AppleScript-based apps that I've written over the years so that
they detect the problem and prompt the user to move the app. If
you come across an app that seems to have stopped working under
Sierra, try the trick of moving the app out of its folder and
back in again, and it may start working again.
One general point about both macOS Sierra and Windows 10. As
these operating systems mature, I've learned to rely on their
built-in features instead of third-party features from Google and
others that I used to rely on. Recently, I wanted to visit a
gardening store called the Green Thumb in rural Jonesboro, Maine.
I made the mistake of asking directions first from Google Maps ó
which sent me on a wild goose chase to a dirt road in the middle
of nowhere. When I tried again with Apple Maps, I was led to the
exact locationóand Bing Maps in Windows 10 also got the location
right. I later had similar experiences with other locations and
routes. A few years ago, it looked as if Apple's and Microsoft's
built-in services would be left behind by Google's Web services,
but at least in some instances, it hasn't worked out that way.
Sierra is compatible with all Macs released in 2010 or later and
MacBook and iMac models from late 2009. I found the public beta
reliable and speedy enough, but with a few glitchesófor example,
slow performance in Sierra's Safari with some sites that work
smoothly in El Capitan. I found at least one old app (an
AppleScript helper app called AsObjC Runner) that Sierra refused
to open; there are probably others.
I'm impressed with Sierra's combination of consistency and
innovation. It's exactly the kind of OS update that Apple
specializes in and that Microsoft may finally be learning to
achieve in its frequent incremental updates of Windows 10. We'll
find out with the imminent Windows 10 Anniversary Edition update.
I keep a Mac laptop and a Windows desktop running almost all the
time, and Apple's OS is the reason I sit down most often to the
Mac. When the final version of macOS Sierra is available, I'll
give the operating system a full review and score. In the
meantime for more details, check out 10 Things You Need to Know
about macOS Sierra.
Windows 10 Gets One Last, Desperate Nagware Update
Today is Wednesday, July 20th. Microsoftís free upgrade offer for
Windows 10 expires in nine days. Chances are, you already know
that. Chances also are youíve already decided whether or not
youíre going to spring for that upgrade before the window closes
forever.
BUT JUST IN CASE YOU HAVENíT: Microsoft has one more nagware
update for you. As InfoWorld reports, this is an update to the
previous full-screen nagware update. Now you get a countdown
clock (the exclamation point is free) and a yellow exclamation
point in the system tray, just in case you havenít noticed the
unusual Windows icon thatís been yammering for attention and
trying to stealth-upgrade your system for the past 12 months.
Other new features include a hamburger menu. And speaking of
hamburger menusÖ
The image above is from an old computer game called Space Quest 3.
The point of the joke, of course, is that you canít actually opt
out of the option to buy additional food. Microsoft, similarly,
canít bring itself to accept that a user might actually have
declined to upgrade to Windows 10.
Hereís what really confuses me, though. Over the past 12 months,
Microsoft has steadily amped up its Windows 10 push. It changed
the free upgrade from an optional update to a recommended update.
It made the upgrade notifications pushier. It even took a page
from malware authors and upgraded people whether they actually
wanted the operating system or not. Twelve months after launch,
Iíd be willing to bet that there are only four groups of Windows
users not using Windows 10:
People who disabled automatic updates long ago and have never
been offered the OS.
People who use a third-party app, like GWX Control Panel, to
turn off GWX.exe.
People who keep refusing the upgrade manually.
People who canít upgrade due to enterprise restrictions or
compatibility issues.
Technically, yes, there will be a handful of people who have been
planning to get around to upgrading for a year, never quite
managed it, and will now lose that option. The vast majority of
non-users, however, will fall into one of the four groups above.
This means that Microsoftís ìUpgrade Now!î policy is
overwhelmingly targeting people who either wonít upgrade or canít
upgrade. In short, this does nothing but piss people off.
Whatís disturbing about all this is that Microsoft canít seem to
stop. Itís like watching a meth-addicted rat punching levers in a
Skinner box, except in this case the rat only gets its fix if it
hits another download milestone. Someone, somewhere, only gets to
eat today if Microsoft manages to convince another 5,000 people to
install Windows 10. Really, thatís the only thing that makes sense
at this point. A year after Windows 10 launched, weíre nearly at
the end of this incredibly annoying journey ó and Microsoft canít
resist cavorting around the finish line, punching people in the
head and trying to set their pants on fire.
Microsoft Given 3 Months To Fix Windows 10 Security and Privacy
Franceís privacy watchdog has declared that Windows 10 is gobbling
up too much data and snooping on usersí browsing without their
consent.
The National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) has given Microsoft
3 months to get its act together and to get compliant with the
French Data Protection Act.
That means that Microsoft has to stop collecting ìexcessive dataî
and tracking browsing by users without their consent. CNIL
Director Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin is also demanding that
Microsoft ìtake satisfactory measures to ensure the security and
confidentiality of user data.î
The CNIL sent Microsoft a formal notice on 30 June.
The commission didnít make that letter public until Wednesday.
The CNIL has been concerned about Windows 10 since Microsoft
released it a year ago.
The new operating systemís release sparked a storm of controversy
over privacy: Concerns have risen over the Wi-Fi password sharing
feature, Microsoftís plans to keep people from running counterfeit
software, the inability to opt out of security updates, weekly
dossiers sent to parents on their kidsí online activity, and the
fact that Windows 10 by default shares a lot of your personal
information ñ contacts, calendar details, text and touch input,
location data, and more ñ with Microsoftís servers.
Amid the past yearís furor, the CNIL carried out its own tests of
the operating system to see what was really going on and whether
Windows 10 was compliant with the Act.
It conducted a total of 7 tests in April and June. As well, the
watchdog questioned Microsoft about its privacy policy.
Those tests revealed ìmany failures,î the CNIL said, includingÖ
Irrelevant or excessive data collected: Microsoft is
collecting diagnostic and usage data via its telemetry service,
which uses such data, among other things, to identify problems and
to improve products. But that also includes what the CNIL calls
extraneous data, including data on all the apps downloaded and
installed on the system by a user and the time spent on each one:
data thatís not necessary for operation of the service.
Lack of security: Microsoft doesnít limit the number of
attempts that can be made to enter a 4-character PIN for
authentication with online services, including to access a userís
Microsoft account, which lists sensitive data such as store
purchases and payment details.
Lack of individual consent: An advertising ID is activated by
default on installation, without usersí consent, enabling Windows
apps and other partiesí apps to monitor user browsing and to
target advertising at users.
Lack of information and no option to block cookies:
Microsoftís sticking advertising cookies on usersí terminals
without properly informing them in advance or enabling them to opt
out.
Data still being transferred outside EU on a ìsafe harbourî
basis: Microsoftís transferring account holdersí personal data to
the US on a ìsafe harborî basis, in spite of the Safe Harbor
agreement having been ruled invalid by the top EU court in October
2015.
Microsoft has until 30 September to comply with the CNILís
demands. If it fails to do so, it could face a fine of up to Ä1.5
million (US$1.66 million) for the poor PIN security, and lesser
fines for the other measures, the commission said in its formal
notice to the company.
The CNIL said that itís not the only data protection authority in
Europe thatís concerned about Windows 10 privacy and security.
Investigations by other watchdogs are ongoing.
The CNIL also said that it decided to make the notice public
because of the seriousness of the privacy/security breaches and
the fact that they affect so many French users: the commission
said that there are more than 10 million users in French
territory.
Microsoft isnít the first US tech company to get one of these
notices from the CNIL: In June 2015, it ordered Google to scrub
search globally in right to be forgotten requests.
In February, it also gave Facebook 3 months to stop tracking
non-users in France.
In a statement provided to Reuters, Microsoft vice president and
deputy general counsel David Heiner said that the company will
work with CNIL to develop ìsolutions that it will find
acceptable.î
=~=~=~=
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.
