Oct 01
This floral fabrication may look luxurious, but in fact it has a rather down-to-earth aim: to take renewable energy and warm water to remote, off-grid communities.
Oct 01
We’ve all seen the movies where computer hard drives and electronics will self-destruct when the right codes are entered, thus preventing anyone else from seeing the information on it. Well if you’re after something similar, you might be interested to learn that British company Secure Drives has announced the Autothysis128s and the Autothysis128t.
Both of these devices are solid state drives with 128GB of storage, and for the most part will act like solid state drives. However their main selling point here is that they have a built-in self-destruct feature that allows users to delete their data remotely just by sending an SMS to a special self-destruct phone number.
Now if you’re thinking that this is just a data wipe, you’re wrong. Not only is the data wiped, but the drive itself will be physically destroyed, like the NAND flash chips and the security controller being broken inside the device itself. Now there are other ways to self-destruct the drive, such as removing it from the PC and failing to enter the right PIN are just some of the other ways.
Unfortunately these drives are not cheap even as far as SSDs are concerned. They are priced starting at around $1,567 for the drive itself, not to mention you’ll have to pay about $180 for each touchscreen token linked to the drive, and a $47 annual subscription for its GSM capabilities.
Secure Drives Unveils Self-Destructing SSDs, Will Cost A Tiny Fortune
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Oct 01
With Cortana being Microsoft’s voice assistant feature for Windows Phone, there has been some speculation that Microsoft could be bringing that feature to its other products and services, like Windows for example. Early rumors have suggested that was the case although oddly enough Microsoft failed to mention that feature when they announced Windows 10 yesterday.
However according to The Verge’s Tom Warren, he claims that Cortana will be part of Windows 10 and that he has seen a very early version of the feature running on the platform, although like he said given its early nature, perhaps some of the features could change upon its release.
According to Warren, he states that Microsoft is currently testing Cortana internally. The voice assistant is also said to reside in the taskbar above the new search button that Microsoft introduced in Windows 10. It will act like the Windows Phone version and will be able to do all sorts of things, such as search the web, set up reminders, and so on.
Cortana will exist not as a separate app but will replace the current existing search feature in Windows 8. There is no telling when Microsoft will officially announce Cortana for Windows 10, but with the operating system pegged for a mid-2015 release and with a BUILD conference in April, perhaps we will learn more then.
Cortana Rumored To Be Included In Windows 10
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Oct 01
Four Hackers Charged With Stealing $100 Million Worth Of Intellectual Property
Posted in: Today's Chili
There are a variety of reasons as to why people hack. It could be because there is a thrill in obtaining information that you’re not supposed to, or it is the thrill of bypassing security, or it could simply be for the money. Well whatever the case, when you’re caught you tend to go down pretty hard.
That’s pretty much what happened with four hackers. According to the reports, four men have been charged with breaking into the computer systems of companies like Microsoft, Valve, Epic Games, and even the US Army, thus stealing intellectual property in the process which has been valued to be around $100 million.
This includes titles such as Gears of War 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and the Apache helicopter simulation which they took from the US Army. The hackers also reportedly obtained information about the Xbox One console. The hackers are aged 18 to 28 and according to assistant US attorney, Ed McAndrew, “These were extremely sophisticated hackers … Don’t be fooled by their ages.”
Two of the hackers have since pleaded guilty to the charges, which include conspiracies to commit computer fraud, copyright infringement, wire fraud, mail fraud, identity theft and theft of trade secrets. The hack was reported as far back as 2011, so safe to say that this case has been under investigation for a pretty long time.
Four Hackers Charged With Stealing $100 Million Worth Of Intellectual Property
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Oct 01
The problem with owning the rights to Twilight is that the story eventually ends, meaning that there’s no more massively profitable movies with glitter guy, mumbling girl and the shirtless one with all the teeth. It’s a problem that Lionsgate knows…
Oct 01
While Amazon tends to release new e-reader and tablet hardware in the UK and US simultaneously these days, we’re still not top priority when it comes to new services. That being said, the UK has caught up significantly in the past week with the…
Oct 01
HONG KONG (AP) — Student leaders of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong warned Wednesday that if the territory’s leader doesn’t resign by the end of Thursday they will step up their actions, including occupying several important government buildings.
By raising the stakes in the standoff, the student leaders are risking another round of confrontation with the police who are unlikely to allow government buildings to be stormed. It also puts pressure on the Chinese government, which has so far remained silent and preferred to let Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying deal with the crisis. The student leaders, who have played a key role in organizing the protests to press for greater electoral reforms, would welcome an opportunity to speak to a Chinese central government official, Lester Shum, vice secretary of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, said at a news conference.
“However, we ask them to come to the square and speak to the masses,” Shum said. “This is a movement of Hong Kongers and not led by any specific group.”
Shum demanded that Leung resign by the end of Thursday, and that the student leaders had no interest in talking to him.
“Because the government ordered police to fire 87 rounds of tear gas at protests, there is no room for dialogue. Leung Chun-ying must step down. If he doesn’t resign by tomorrow we will step up our actions, such as by occupying several important government buildings,” he said, but added that demonstrators won’t occupy “essential” government offices, such as hospitals and social welfare offices.
The protesters oppose Beijing’s decision in August that candidates for the territory’s top post in 2017 elections must be approved by a committee of mostly pro-Beijing local elites similar to the one that picked Leung for the job. The protesters don’t want any such restrictions and see China as reneging on a promise that the chief executive will be chosen through “universal suffrage.”
The demonstrations pose the stiffest challenge to Beijing’s authority since China took control of the former British colony in 1997.
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Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenbach, Louise Watt and Wendy Tang in Hong Kong and Aritz Parra in Beijing contributed to this report.
Oct 01
Although rumored to still take place next year, eBay has now made the expected announcement. The online retailer will be spinning off PayPal into its own independent company. This is being poised as a strategy to keep the two brands separate and more lucrative in 2015, when its board predict that the association between the two would start to become … Continue reading
Oct 01
No, it isn’t a combination of the popular microcontroller and Final Fantasy VII. Arduino Materia 101 is, instead, an almost foreseeable and completely expected merging of two of the hobbyist world’s most popular toys: microcontrollers and 3D printing. That Arduino would be getting into 3D printing is almost a no-brainer, as the whole world that has evolved around it extols … Continue reading
Oct 01
In order to relieve ourselves of the burdens of mobile batteries, we burden our bags or even pockets with the bulk and heft of chargers and external batteries. Enter Chargerito, a charger that goes the other way and aims to be the world’s smallest wall charger. Let’s get one thing straight. Chargerito is a wall charger, not an external battery … Continue reading
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