Category Archives: Technology

Do you want to play a game? Ransomware asks for high score instead of money | Ars Technica

A new randomware was doing the rounds, but rather than paying to unlock, it’s asking for a high score in a bullet-hell (think Touhou Project) game. The game is fun anyway, but would you be willing to play it to get your files? High stakes :)

 

Creator apologizes for a “joke” that really requires expert play to unlock files.

Source: Do you want to play a game? Ransomware asks for high score instead of money | Ars Technica

TFL’s French WiFi

So, Transport for London appears to be routing WiFi traffic out to *France* on some underground stations.
 
I was passing through Marble Arch the other day and Swarm was picking me up as about 8K from L’Arc de Triomphe in France
 
and Bond Street showed me as in the neighbourhood of Sevres (11K from L’Arc de Triomphe)
 
Since I was underground, the only method of geolocation was the WiFi endpoint, meaning the traffic was going through to France. But *why* ?

Deleted your @uber account and using @lyft? Does it really make a difference? Probably not. Here’s why..

But, as this article indicates, it doesn’t really make a difference. Why? This is why:

Both Lyft and Uber actively work against the interests of their employees.

…

Although Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was widely criticized for his ties to Trump, one of Lyft’s major investors is Trump’s tech adviser Peter Thiel, who notably funded an anti-First Amendment crusade that brought down our late sister site, Gawker.

…

Meanwhile, conservatives are starting a #DeleteLyft campaign. But joke’s on them! Ethical decision-making is impossible under late capitalism, and choice is an illusion. It’s Coke vs. Pepsi, and as even as a Diet Coke enthusiast, I can recognize they’re more or less the same damn bubbles in a different shiny can.

 

Lyft successfully capitalized off this weekend’s #DeleteUber campaign, besting its biggest competitor in the App Store for the first time ever.

Source: Lyft Beats Uber for First Time in App Store, But Under Capitalism All Choice Is Meaningless

 

So, for me, at least, I’m keeping Uber installed, but going to install Lyft as well and see which ones are nearby. Take a read of the referenced article and make your own decision.

The Man Who Didn’t Invent Email Attacks Free Speech | FOSS Force

Let’s see if he comes after me now, for posting this….

The man who claims to have invented email is taking legal actions, or threatening such, against anyone who publicly disagrees with his version of history.

Source: The Man Who Didn’t Invent Email Attacks Free Speech | FOSS Force

Official Galaxy Note 7 investigation blames small battery cases, poor welding | Ars Technica

 

Samsung have finally revealed details regarding the battery explosions. It doesn’t stop me from keeping being a Samsung person – there’s not many other brands I trust out in the market at the moment. So I’ll keep with Samsung for now,

Two different production problems from two different suppliers killed the Note 7.

Source: Official Galaxy Note 7 investigation blames small battery cases, poor welding | Ars Technica

Update & Build Prep – Lineage OS – Lineage OS Android Distribution

Cyanogen’s fork is beginning to take shape. Currently my devices aren’t showing but fingers crossed it will.

Few points worth noting from their site:

  • The build roster is ever growing, but we are supporting Marshmallow and Nougat capable devices.

    • We’ll list the 80+ devices in a separate post.

  • Our release cadence will be ‘weekly’ by default (to be nice to all the donated hardware).

  • We will NOT be shipping root baked into the ROM.

    • Root will be a downloadable zip based install similar to gapps installation (only need to flash it once).
    • Home builders that want to bake su back into the ROM can use the command ‘export WITH_SU=true’ prior to building.

  • Our official builds will all be signed with a private key for authentication and signature permission control

However, also notable and I’m really happy about this:

Regarding installation, we recommend that users wipe when switching to LineageOS, and reinstall their gapps. However, we recognize that this can be time consuming, so we are offering an EXPERIMENTAL (read as, if it fails, you’ll have to wipe anyways) solution.

  • Alongside the ‘weekly’ release for your supported device, we’ll provide an EXPERIMENTAL data migration build.
  • This build will allow you to ‘upgrade’ from CM to the signed LineageOS weekly
  • This build may wipe permissions (you’ll have to re-allow app permissions), but should retain all user data
  • This build will be watermarked with an ugly banner to ensure that you don’t permanently run this EXPERIMENTAL release, and upgrade to a normal weekly after.
  • The process for this installation will be as follows:
    • Install EXPERIMENTAL migration build on top of cm-13.0 or cm-14.1 build (don’t try to install LineageOS 13.0 on top of CM 14.1, that will not work).
    • Reboot
    • Install LineageOS weekly build
    • Reboot
    • Re-setup your application permissions

Given the EXPERIMENTAL nature of this process, we are going to remove this option in two months time.

All systems operational

Source: Update & Build Prep – Lineage OS – Lineage OS Android Distribution

OpenSSL after Heartbleed | Linux.com | The source for Linux information

Despite being a library that most people outside of the technology industry have never heard of, the Heartbleed bug in OpenSSL caught the attention of the mainstream press when it was uncovered in April 2014 because so many websites were vulnerable to theft of sensitive server and user data. At LinuxCon Europe, Rich Salz and Tim Hudson from the OpenSSL team did a deep dive into what happened with Heartbleed and the steps the OpenSSL team are taking to improve the project.

Source: OpenSSL after Heartbleed | Linux.com | The source for Linux information

Cyanogen Inc. shuts down CyanogenMod in Christmas bloodbath | Ars Technica

Open source Android ROM project dies, developers launch fork.

Source: Cyanogen Inc. shuts down CyanogenMod in Christmas bloodbath | Ars Technica

So, CM is dead, but like with most things in the open source world, things will be forked, especially if there’s a disagreement between the two. In this case, rather than compete, it’s a desire to keep the project going.

Related articles

New Zealander says passport photo rejection ‘not racist’ – BBC News

Technology still has a way to go it seems.

I remember when trying to get back into Heathrow from Germany – and the automatic barriers wouldn’t let me in because I was wearing glasses :/

New Zealand man of Asian origin has “no hard feelings” after passport system said eyes were closed.

Source: New Zealander says passport photo rejection ‘not racist’ – BBC News