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DC5m United States software in english 20 articles, created at 2016-12-03 18:00 articles set mostly positive rate 2.5
1 4.0 How to shoot a drone out of the sky An entire anti-drone industry is emerging. These new tools will enable drone detection, tracking, identification, disabling, and even hacking and hijacking the drones as they fly. 2016-12-03 12:00 11KB www.computerworld.com
2 7.1 Lottery millionaire: 'I thought I had won £2.40' Lottery winner Jacqui Shannon didn't realise she had won the £1 million prize for three weeks 2016-12-03 11:50 1KB www.bbc.co.uk
3 7.8 Jo Cox tribute: Stars and MPs record single Music stars and MPs record a single as a tribute to the Labour backbencher Jo Cox, who was murdered in her constituency. 2016-12-03 11:12 742Bytes www.bbc.co.uk
4 4.8 HERE WeGo App for Samsung Gear S3 Goes Live in the Tizen Store
After three months of work, the app is ready for download 2016-12-03 11:06 1KB news.softpedia.com
5 3.6 Delete (cruD) Using Ruby-OCI8 As we make our way to the final letter in CRUD, see how you can use Ruby (and a handy driver) to delete data from your tables. 2016-12-03 11:01 2KB dzone.com
6 0.0 BlackBerry Addresses DTEK App Issue in Latest Update
The app has been updated with bug fixes and improvements 2016-12-03 10:44 1KB news.softpedia.com
7 1.3 Leniency vs. Severity in Performance Reviews When it comes to performance appraisals, is it better for managers to be more lenient or more severe? Read on to find out. 2016-12-03 10:31 2KB dzone.com
8 5.0 Aleppo siege: Syria rebels lose 60% of territory Close to two-thirds of rebel-held areas of east Aleppo have now fallen to Syria's government. 2016-12-03 15:28 2KB www.bbc.co.uk
9 0.0 Apple Says Some iPhone 6s Shut Down Prematurely Due to Air in Batteries
Cupertino provides more information on its faulty batteries 2016-12-03 09:41 2KB news.softpedia.com 10 6.7 Samsung Galaxy A (2018) Smartphones Could Pack Dual-Edge Curved Displays
Flagship smartphones could include OLED flexible displays 2016-12-03 09:31 2KB news.softpedia.com
11 6.0 Russia’s Central Bank Hacked, $31 Million Stolen Bank of Russia officially confirmed the attack today 2016-12-03 09:15 2KB news.softpedia.com
12 1.5 Despite losing the general election, the Pirate Party could still form Iceland's government Back in October there was a mixture of great excitement and huge worry that the controversial Pirate Party could end up winning the general election in Iceland. That didn't happen, but with no clear winner there was an attempt to create a five-way coalition that ultimately... 2016-12-03 09:02 2KB feeds.betanews.com
13 2.2 BlackBerry's Upcoming QWERTY Smartphone Leaks in Live Pictures
This would be the last in-house phone launched by Blackberry 2016-12-03 08:42 2KB news.softpedia.com
14 9.1 The twin sisters celebrating their 100th birthday Twin sisters Irene Crump and Phyllis Jones have just celebrated their 100th birthday. 2016-12-03 08:41 770Bytes www.bbc.co.uk
15 1.0 Continuous Discussions (#c9d9) Podcast Episode 57: DevOps and Docker at Scale Containers are all the rage, and their adoption rate among enterprises is on the rise. This episode has to do with DevOps and Docker at Scale. 2016-12-03 08:31 2KB dzone.com
16 0.0 Donald Trump Advised to Train 100,000 Hackers to Protect the US
Commission tells Trump that cybersecurity is critical 2016-12-03 08:28 2KB news.softpedia.com
17 1.1 Many CEOs believe technology will make people 'largely irrelevant' Although artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and other emerging technologies may reshape the world as we know it, a new global study has revealed that the majority of CEOs now value technology over people when it comes to the future of their businesses. Although artificial intelligence... 2016-12-03 08:20 2KB feeds.betanews.com 18 0.0 Performance Regression in Optimization: Part I In this example provided by Ayende Rahien, there isn’t anything that looks like it could cause much of a performance gap...so why is there a huge one? 2016-12-03 08:01 2KB dzone.com
19 1.8 Microsoft Suspends Windows 10 Builds to Prepare New Windows Update System
New PC builds no longer available in Fast and Slow rings 2016-12-03 06:52 2KB news.softpedia.com
20 4.2 Minibus licence loophole puts people at risk A loophole allowing minibus drivers to operate without criminal checks puts people at risk, councils say. 2016-12-03 17:32 2KB www.bbc.co.uk Articles
DC5m United States software in english 20 articles, created at 2016-12-03 18:00
1 /20 4.0 How to shoot a drone out of the sky An entire anti-drone industry is emerging. These new tools will enable drone detection, tracking, identification, disabling, and even hacking and hijacking the drones as they fly. By Mike Elgan
Consumer drones are gaining air superiority over our homes, schools, beaches, and parks. Not everyone is thrilled. Get ready for the backlash.
An entire anti-drone industry is emerging that will arm anti-drone people with anti-drone technology. These new tools will enable drone detection, tracking, identification, disabling, and even hacking and hijacking the drones as they fly.
This burgeoning industry didn't just fall from the sky. Like so many of our favorite tech gadgets, anti-drone devices will be consumerized versions of professional military and industrial gear.
The anti-drone idea started years ago with the military. And the big military contractors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Thales Group, Israel Aerospace Industries and Russia's United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (which focuses on countering U. S.-made military drones) are happy to develop expensive, powerful anti-drone technologies.
The U. S. Army is testing Raytheon's Phaser, a massive electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device that can shut down an entire drone swarm with a single blast. It's essentially a microwave radiation transmitter mounted on a 20-foot shipping container. I want one, but it's probably out of my league.
Trouble is, big-iron solutions are right for the airplane-sized drones used by major military powers. But insurgents, terrorists, and criminals are increasingly flying smaller, consumer-sized drones for delivering bombs. And these smaller drones need a smaller solution. (Surprisingly, ISIS terrorists aren't just using off-the-shelf consumer drones, but also building their own from scratch .)
The U. S. Marine Corps is working on a truck-mounted laser beam that kills smaller drones in flight. And the U. S. Air Force wants handheld drone-killing kits.
Even as military contractors develop new tech to defeat drones large and small, the need for domestic, non-military, anti-drone tech is heating up.
Prisons worldwide have a big drone problem. Accomplices on the outside are smuggling smartphones, drugs, and weapons using drones. Prison guards in Denmark last week discovered that someone used a drone to fly two mobile phones and a saw blade right through the window of a prisoner's cell. (I guess he planned to saw his way out, then call an Uber.)
The drone pilot wasn't caught. In fact, with prison drone smuggling, they rarely are. That's why The UK's Ministry of Justice wants drone-makers to hard-code prison locations into consumer drones to make prisons into no-fly zones. It's also why prisons around the world are weighing their options with anti-drone tech.
Airports also have a drone problem. Although far less likely than bird strikes, drones are a growing concern. Airport drone strikes and near strikes are way up.
The Dubai airport was closed three times this year because of drones. It recently deployed a "drone hunter," a drone that uses an infrared camera to identify drones near the airport.
A small private airplane flying about four miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport last month spotted a drone flying at an incredible 4,000-feet altitude. FAA rules say that drones are not allowed to fly above 400 feet.
Denver International Airport last month started testing "drone zappers" as part of a wider effort by the FAA to identify the best way for all major U. S. airports to deal with the drone menace.
Drones have become such a central problem for airports that airplane makers are getting into the action. Companies like Airbus and Boeing are developing anti-drone technologies, presumably to be installed in the jets themselves.
Unauthorized, unwanted or illegal drone flying is a growing problem all over the world. Celebrity-obsessed fans and paparazzi are increasingly buzzing movie and TV sets, such as The Game of Thrones set in Ireland.
Construction sites for splashy or secretive building projects get the drone treatment as well, sites like Apple's new spaceship campus in Cupertino, Calif. (Confession: I'm a big fan of the HD Apple spaceship campus videos .)
First responders are increasingly harassed and endangered by drones. Curious onlookers are using drones to check out fires, police standoffs and the damage caused by natural disasters. Such events involve fast-moving helicopters and other aircraft that are endangered by drones. Another problem is that drones make noise that can hamper search efforts.
Other hotspots for drone trouble include ports, borders, power stations, and special events.
All these scenarios and incidents are driving an explosion in anti-drone technologies.
The fast-growing anti-drone industry involves wildly different approaches and technologies.
One is the "space gun" approach, which uses special-purpose rifles designed to shoot a focused ray that jams all the frequencies that consumer drones use to communicate with their handheld controllers.
The newest anti-drone "space gun" is DroneShield's DroneGun , demonstrated on video for the first time this week. Another is Battelle's DroneDefender. DroneShield's DroneGun looks like a space rifle, but it's really a silent drone disrupter.
Both work by jamming all the radio signals that drones could use to interact with a controller. They make the drone react as if the controller is offline. (Some drones are programmed to land, others to return to the launch point.)
Because signal jammers are illegal in the United States, DroneGun and DroneDefender can't legally be used until laws change or special permission is given. They are legal for certain federal agencies, such as the Secret Service. (DroneShield is also an industry leader in drone detection and monitoring products .)
The signal jamming approach is one of the most common, and most of the products are ground- based rather than shoulder-fired.
A company called Elbit systems unveiled last month its ReDrone system , which detects drones, then identifies them, tracks them like radar, then disrupts drones by interfering with the radio connection between drone and controller. ReDrone is a white dome mounted on a tripod with an antenna on top, and it communicates with a suitcase unit and color display. Unlike the "space gun" products, which have to be aimed precisely, ReDrone monitors in 360 degrees and can track and disable multiple drones at once.
Other companies that make 360-degree, multi-drone signal disrupter systems include Blighter Surveillance Systems , Liteye Systems , Selex , SRC and Dedrone . (The Dedrone product can also disrupt by using lasers, or blind a camera on a drone, according to the company.)
Another way to stop a drone is to throw a net over the drone to bring it down. These can be shoulder-fired nets, as with the Skywall 100 , a bazooka that can bring down a drone from up to 100 yards away. It uses a computer-controlled targeting system that shows distance, and displays a green light when aim is correct.
The Skywall 100 launches a canister that explodes before reaching the drone, deploying a net that tangles up the rotors. Once a drone is ensnared, a parachute brings it gently down to earth. (The parachute protects people below from falling drones.)
Theiss UAV Solutions' EXCIPIO also launches a net out of a cannon, but does so from another drone. This approach has a longer range than the cannon approach, but you get only one shot.
Michigan Tech is also working on a " Drone-Catcher " system involving a drone that shoots a net to capture another drone.
Malou Tech has demonstrated its Drone Interceptor system that hangs a net from the bottom of a drone. You catch the other drone by flying over it. The spinning rotors get tangled in the net, and the drone can be carried back to the operator.
Another approach is to hack drones.
The hilariously named security company Pwnie Express claims to have developed the first drone malware. First introduced in January and called Maldrone , Pwnie Express uses Wi-Fi to infect other drones with a payload that, among other things, disables the autopilot, causing the drone to fall out of the sky. The company demonstrated this being delivered from another drone.
A company called Department 13, funded by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), hacks drones by injecting packets of code into the radio protocol used for communication between the drone and its handheld controller. When the product, called the Mesmer , successfully cracks a radio protocol, it can take command of the drone.
Defeating drones by hacking them sounds like fun, and you can do it yourself. Make: magazine has posted step-by-step instructions on how to do it.
Technology is great, but there's always Darwin's way. Security specialists in the UK, the Netherlands and France are training eagles to grab drones in mid-flight and carry them in their talons back to the handlers.
All these technologies and methods were designed for professional use. But like so many of our favorite gadgets, some of them will surely be introduced to the consumer marketplace.
If you think anti-drone tech for consumers sounds farfetched, you should know that apps for tracking drones already exist. Apps like DeTect's Drone Watcher App and Drone Detector Free are available now on the Google Play store.
DroneWatcher is free, but it's on a freemium model. A full-featured version that includes a locator "beacon," crowdsourced coverage and a running history of drone detection will show up in the Play Store "after the first of the year," according to a DeTect representative.
I think it's only a matter of time before consumer versions of products that actually disable, catch, or destroy drones come on the market.
The biggest consumer anti-drone products might come from drone companies themselves. In other words, defense or self-defense against other drones might become an optional feature when you buy drones.
I predict that drone hunting will become a popular hobby. The hobby will emerge like this: First, small businesses will emerge that specialize in capturing drones, and people who feel victimized by drones will hire them.
Then, inevitably, we'll see two kinds of reality TV shows. The first will be like "Dog, the Bounty Hunter" but will focus on drones. They'll be called "Drone Hunter" or "Drone Busters. "
A second type will be an aerial version of "BattleBots" or "Robot Wars. " Expect show names like "Drone Wars" or "Battle Drones," featuring either drone-to-drone dogfighting combat, or battles between drones and drone hunters on the ground.
These shows will help mainstream drone hunting as both a profession and a hobby.
If you love drones, buy a drone. But if you hate drones, just wait. Anti-drone tech is coming to the consumer marketplace. Happy hunting!
2016-12-03 12:00 Mike Elgan www.computerworld.com
2 /20 7.1 Lottery millionaire: 'I thought I had won £2.40' A lottery winner nearly missed out on a £1 million prize because she thought she had only won £2.40 on a EuroMillions draw. Jacqui Shannon, a charity worker for the NSPCC, was a regular player online and only realised she was a millionaire three weeks later when she went to top up her account with credit.
She told BBC Radio 5 live : "I genuinely believed, when I saw the email, that'll be another £2.40 because that's all I ever won. "
Jacqui then went to buy another ticket when she was greeted with a message saying "congratulations, you've won a million pounds! "
"I was at work and I was going 'is that six zeros? Is that 1,000? Is it real?!' Once it's happened you don't quite believe it. I carried on my week as though nothing happened. "
2016-12-03 11:50 www.bbc.co.uk
3 /20 7.8 Jo Cox tribute: Stars and MPs record single Music stars and MPs have recorded a single as a tribute to the Labour backbencher Jo Cox, who was murdered in her west Yorkshire constituency.
Sales from a cover version of the Rolling Stones classic, You Can't Always Get What You Want, will raise money for a charity set up in her name.
Lizo Mzimba reports.
2016-12-03 11:12 www.bbc.co.uk
4 /20 4.8 HERE WeGo App for Samsung Gear S3 Goes Live in the Tizen Store True to their promise , the team at HERE launched WeGo app for Samsung Gear S3 in the Tizen store, and as many of you probably guess, it's available for free. HERE WeGo is one of the best navigation apps, alongside Google Maps and Waze. That’s a very short amount of time considering the number of variables we deal with,” said Tamer Nassif, senior engineer manager responsible for product development at HERE.
Having put their apps inside the original Gear S and Gear S2, the team at HERE have decided to make the new version for the Gear S3 much better in terms of functionality.
So, the latest version of HERE WeGo for the Samsung Gear S3 is expected to offer a comprehensive mapping experience with places search and route planning by car, on foot and public transit.
HERE WeGo for the Gear S3 is a standalone application that allows users to navigate towns, cities and other locations. The developers even plan to add bike navigation for those using this traveling method.
More importantly, the new HERE WeGo app is backwards-compatible with the older Samsung Gear S2 smartwatches. Among the features that will eventually be part of the app, developers mentioned offline navigation.
Those of you who already purchased the Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch can go ahead and download the new HERE WeGo app for free, which is now available in the Tizen store.
2016-12-03 11:06 Andrei Vlad news.softpedia.com
5 /20 3.6 Delete (cruD) Using Ruby-OCI8 My helper function get_all_rows() encapsulates a select statement used to verify that the deletes worked. The select functionality is covered in the R part of this series, so I won't go into the details here.
Add this function to the top of your file.
To keep the examples clean and precise, I will reset the data at times.
Create a new file called reset_data.rb with the following code and run it whenever you would like to reset the data. (Notice this version adds people and pet data not included in other sections.) The template we will be using is:
For each exercise, replace the "# Your code here" line with your code.
First, let's run reset_data.rb to set up our data.
We will perform a simple delete that removes a single record from the lcs_people table. These are the steps performed in the code snippet below.
When I run this code in my Ruby session, I see:
Delete all the birds.
Your results should be:
Answer:
Now is a good time to run reset_data.rb.
Change the boilerplate get_all_rows statements to get people and pet data.
In our design, we have a Foreign Key constraint in lcs_pets that ensures if a pet has an owner, that owner exists.
If we attempt to delete a record in lcs_people that is referenced in lcs_pets (Person has a pet,) we get an error.
When I run this code in my Ruby session, I see:
Before deleting the person you have to handle the pet (watch out for claws and teeth).
There are a few options here, depending on your database design:
In either of the above scenarios, you can update the pets and set their owner to another person.
Bob is moving out of our area and his new apartment doesn't allow pets, so he's giving them to Kim. Let's use that last option here.
When I run this code in my Ruby session, I see:
When you change data it's a good idea to verify the number of affected rows. This is covered in the R part of this series.
Due to a zoning change, snakes are no longer allowed in our area. Stacey has decided to move and take Sneaky with her.
Let's fix our data.
Your results should be:
Answer:
Initial Setup Create records
Retrieve records
Update records
2016-12-03 11:01 Parent Linkdate dzone.com
6 /20 0.0 BlackBerry Addresses DTEK App Issue in Latest Update And that's exactly what happened with the DTEK app about two weeks ago. If you're not familiar with the DTEK app's issue here are a few things that you should know.
Last month, many BlackBerry users reported that the DTEK application incorrectly displays the status of their smartphones. Although it wasn't a widespread issue, the problem started to affect some smartphones immediately after that latest DTEK update BlackBerry uploaded to Google Play store.
At that time, the issue was acknowledged by BlackBerry, but the Canadian company did not offer an ETA on the fix solution.
Fast forward two weeks and we're happy to inform all those affected by this issue that a fix has finally been released and it's now available for download.
As part of its monthly BlackBerry apps updates, the Canadian company delivered a new update for the DTEK application, which is supposed to address this problems as well.
The official changelog notes the update brings some improvements and bug fixes, but there's no mention of the problem described above.
However, many of those who have been affected by the DTEK app issue report that after applying the update the application correctly displays the status of their smartphones.
The new version of DTEK app should already be available in Google Play store in all regions, so we strongly recommend everyone to download the latest update.
2016-12-03 10:44 Andrei Vlad news.softpedia.com
7 /20 1.3 Leniency vs. Severity in Performance Reviews The performance review has to be one of the more studied aspects of modern working life, with the general consensus being that they are unloved by both managers and employees alike. Yet the fact that so many organizations continue to use them suggests that we cannot hold out for an ideal world where feedback is an ongoing and constant part of working life, and should perhaps instead focus on how to make this institution more effective.
A major criticism of performance reviews is that they’re often wholly subjective affairs, and if you are on the wrong side of your boss or indeed they’re simply having a bad day, then it can flavor the review you receive.
Many reviews seem to revolve around perceived effort levels and a recent study explores the impact this can have on employees. It analyzes the impact of being treated leniently or harshly in your review.
The lab-based experiment asked participants to carry out a task for which they were given a performance target. They were given three types of contracts.
The results are certainly interesting in that those in the overly severe scenario tended to react far worse than those in the overly lenient one, as participants revealed they impacted on their sense of fairness and justice in the organization.
This manifested itself in a number of ways. Whilst both over-rewarding and under-rewarding tended to result in a reduction in effort by the participants, it appeared that under-rewarding them had a much bigger impact. Indeed, this was found to contribute to as much as a 100% swing in output.
The results clearly show the sizeable impact the humble performance review can have on employee performance and should hopefully provide managers conducting these reviews with a degree of guidance on how they conduct themselves (especially when the things you’re judging employees against can be intangible). In such an environment, there is really no such thing as a perfect performance review, so the results suggest it’s better to err on the side of leniency.
2016-12-03 10:31 Parent Linkdate dzone.com
8 /20 5.0 Aleppo siege: Syria rebels lose 60% of territory Close to two-thirds of rebel- held areas of east Aleppo have now fallen to the Syrian government after another district was seized.
A UK-based monitor said the Tariq al-Bab district fell on Friday, opening up a link between government- held areas and Aleppo's airport.
Swathes of east Aleppo held by rebels have been seized by government troops and militiamen in the past three weeks.
Some 250,000 people remain trapped in besieged areas of the city.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced. The United Nations this week said conditions in east Aleppo were now so dire that medical operations were being conducted without anaesthetics.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Tariq al-Bab was recaptured more than four years after falling into rebel hands.
Clashes in the district left tens of fighters on both sides killed or injured, it said.
At least 300 people have been killed since the government-led offensive on east Aleppo,
The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, who is in west Aleppo, said the seizure of Tariq al-Bab meant that 60% of the areas formerly held by rebels was now in government hands.
Heavy shelling of the east continued throughout the night, she said.
Thousands of people fled Tariq al-Bab into neighbouring areas as fighting intensified.
Earlier this week, Stephen O'Brien, the UN's humanitarian affairs chief, said besieged areas of the city risked becoming "one giant graveyard".
He said some people inside opposition-controlled areas were so hungry they were reduced to scavenging.
On Thursday, Russia, that supports President Bashar al-Assad's government, indicated it was ready to discuss opening four safe corridors for humanitarian access.
Aleppo was once Syria's largest city and its commercial and industrial hub before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.
It has been divided in roughly two for the past four years. But in the past 11 months, Syrian troops have broken the deadlock with the help of Iranian-backed militias and Russian air strikes. In early September they reinstated a siege of the east, and launched a large-scale offensive later that month to retake full control of the city.
The Syrian Observatory says more than 300 civilians have been killed in rebel-held districts since the offensive was stepped up in mid-November.
2016-12-03 15:28 www.bbc.co.uk
9 /20 0.0 Apple Says Some iPhone 6s Shut Down Prematurely Due to Air in Batteries In an advisory posted online today, Apple explains what exactly is happening with these phones, pointing out that this is not a safety issue that could lead to more serious incidents, such as fire. “It's important to note, this is not a safety issue,” Apple explains in its statement, clearly trying to make sure that this recall doesn’t lead to a new global craze over exploding batteries, as it was the case with rival Samsung.
Specifically, Apple says that batteries cause an unexpected shutdown because of what it describes as too much air in batteries, pointing out that this leads to premature degradation that eventually causes the iPhones to turn off despite the indicator that shows there’s still nearly half of battery left.
“We found that a small number of iPhone 6s devices made in September and October 2015 contained a battery component that was exposed to controlled ambient air longer than it should have been before being assembled into battery packs. As a result, these batteries degrade faster than a normal battery and cause unexpected shutdowns to occur,” Apple says in its statement, which you can read in full at the end of the article.
Apple goes on to explain that the iPhone is anyway configured to shut down automatically at very low temperatures because this prevents damage caused by low voltage that could impact other parts as well.
The firm emphasizes that it already looked into other factors that could cause such an unexpected shutdown and points out that beside the faulty batteries and the low-temperature protection, no new factors have been identified.
If you’re not sure if your iPhone is eligible for a battery replacement or not, head over to this Apple Support page and input your iPhone serial number, which you can find in Settings > General > About.
2016-12-03 09:41 Bogdan Popa news.softpedia.com
10 /20 6.7 Samsung Galaxy A (2018) Smartphones Could Pack Dual-Edge Curved Displays The costs of producing dual-edge displays is not low enough to enable companies to include them in mid-range or even low-end smartphones.
The good news is many display makers like Samsung have decided to upgrade their manufacturing lines for the mass production of flexible OLED displays .
Both Samsung Galaxy S8 and iPhone 8 are rumored to pack flexible OLED displays, whereas most of today's flagships are still packing rigid dual-edge curved displays. A new report coming from South Korea claims Samsung Display is now testing various new technologies at its lines for flexible OLEDs, in order to cut productions costs and increase the output.
Once the company achieves these goals, it will start using the rigid OLEDs in mid-range smartphones as well.
It's also worth mentioning that once the iPhone 8 with flexible OLED will be released next year, Chinese smartphone makes will start packing rigid OLEDs into their mid-range smartphones.
Sources in the smartphone industry claim Samsung is already working on bringing rigid OLEDs into its devices and has decided to use dual-edge OLED panels, which are exclusively used inside flagships, for the Galaxy A series.
Obviously, that will not happen this year, so the next mid-range smartphones that could pack dual-edge curved displays could the Galaxy A (2018) series, which is expected to be unveiled at the end of the next year.
As Samsung Display and other manufacturers in the mobile display industry will bolster production of flexible OLED panels, rigid dual-curved displays could become pretty common for mid-range and even low-end smartphones.
On a side note, research company Ubi Research estimates that the percentage of flexible OLED panels will reach about 70% in all of OLED smartphones in 2021, as many companies will invest into this type display.
2016-12-03 09:31 Andrei Vlad news.softpedia.com
11 /20 6.0 Russia’s Central Bank Hacked, $31 Million Stolen The Bank of Russia has already confirmed the attack and said that it’s investigating, but no other details as to who might be behind the hack were provided.
Central bank official Artyom Sychyov said in a public briefing that hackers previously wanted to steal approximately 5 million rubles, but the bank’s security team managed to partly block the attack and reduce damages to 2 million rubles.
“We were lucky to return some of money,” a central bank spokesperson was quoted as saying by CNN , adding that some of the funds were quickly redirected after hackers launched the attack.
It appears that cybercriminals targeted not only the central bank, but also private banks and customers, attempting to transfer funds, but it’s not yet clear if these attacks were successful or not.
Since very little is known about the hack against Russia’s central bank, experts believe that the attack can be linked to similar attempts launched in the last couple of years and targeting other banks across the world.
Only this year, a group of hackers managed to steal no less than $101 million from the central bank in Bangladesh after they managed to break into SWIFT, which is the worldwide interbank communication network that controls transactions. Just like it happened in Russia’s case, hackers attempted to steal more money - $951 million, but they were blocked before the transactions completed.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (also known as FSB), has already warned of attacks that might be aimed at local banks, revealing that it discovered computer servers in the Netherlands that were set up to compromise the country’s financial system and help steal money.
Russian authorities, however, haven’t provided details regarding the hacking group behind the attack or the date when it occurred.
2016-12-03 09:15 Bogdan Popa news.softpedia.com
12 /20 1.5 Despite losing the general election, the Pirate Party could still form Iceland's government Back in October there was a mixture of great excitement and huge worry that the controversial Pirate Party could end up winning the general election in Iceland. That didn't happen, but with no clear winner there was an attempt to create a five- way coalition that ultimately failed after weeks of talks, paving the way for the radical party made up of poets, hackers and online freedom activists.
The Pirate Party -- which says it would offer exile to Edward Snowden and also embrace Bitcoin -- could still end up in power after being invited to form part of the government by Iceland's president. But even if the controversial, anti-establishment party does end up wielding power, it's unlikely that its more radical policies would come to fruition. The founder of the Pirate Party, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, was invited on Friday by President Gudni Johannesson to form a government. He said: "Earlier today I met with the leaders of all parties and asked their opinion on who should lead those talks. After that I summoned Birgitta Jonsdottir and handed her the mandate".
Jónsdóttir, whose party managed to win a surprising 10 out of 63 parliamentary seats in the election, said: "I am hopeful that we will find a way to work together". As well as founding the party, she is also known for working with Julian Assange to expose civilian killings by the US military.
In addition to looking to offer Edward Snowden Icelandic citizenship, the Pirate Party also welcomes the decriminalization of drugs, and a loosening of copyright laws. Part of its proposed democratic process would involve the use of online polls to help decide government policies.
2016-12-03 09:02 Mark Wilson feeds.betanews.com
13 /20 2.2 BlackBerry's Upcoming QWERTY Smartphone Leaks in Live Pictures The company is already in talks with two major companies in China and India, which seem to compete head-to-head for the right to build and sell BlackBerry smartphones in the next year.
A decision hasn't been taken yet, but we're expecting an official announced by the end of the year or in early 2017.
Until then, BlackBerry plans to launch one more smartphone developed in-house, the long-rumored Mercury .
Before the DTEK60 made it to market, the Canadian company promised to release a QWERTY smartphone and even if in the meantime it decided to change its smartphone business model, that device will still make it to the shelves.
BlackBerry's CEO John Chen confirmed last month that the QWERTY smartphone that his company promised to its fans will be eventually announced and released on the market.
Today, a few live pictures of the unannounced QWERTY smartphone leaked in China. This could very well the Mercury that many fans are waiting for since it comes with the traditional BlackBerry keyboard.
Unfortunately, the pictures don't come with any details about the phone's specs. According to previous rumors, the Mercury should come with an unusual 4.5-inch display that supports full HD (1080p) resolution.
Also, the smartphone is said to pack an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, coupled with an Adreno 506 graphics processing unit and 3GB of RAM.
Other highlights of the phone could include an 18-megapixel rear-facing camera, a secondary 8-megapixel camera in the front and a 3,400 mAh battery. Keep in mind though that none of the info has been confirmed yet. 2016-12-03 08:42 Andrei Vlad news.softpedia.com
14 /20 9.1 The twin sisters celebrating their 100th birthday Twin sisters Irene Crump and Phyllis Jones have just celebrated their 100th birthday – and have witnessed a century of change.
They were born on 20 November, 1916, and still live together in Worcestershire.
BBC Radio 5 live’s Phil Mackie visited them at their home to ask them about their long lives.
This clip is originally part of 5 live’s coverage the BBC’s 100 Women season.
2016-12-03 08:41 www.bbc.co.uk
15 /20 1.0 Continuous Discussions (#c9d9) Podcast Episode 57: DevOps and Docker at Scale Containers are all the rage, and their adoption rate among enterprises is on the rise. This episode has to do with DevOps and Docker at Scale and answers questions like:
How do containers power DevOps?
What are some of the challenges that come with containers?
How do you successfully incorporate Docker into Enterprise pipelines alongside legacy and traditional apps?
How do you go from a local Docker engine or a single-node setup to production?
How do you do it all at scale?
Helping bringing #DevOps to the enterprise. Analyst @fixateio.
@HoardingInfo | devops.com/author/chrisriley/
Software Developer at Code Authority. DevOps Specialist. Involved in Startup Strategy, Agile Culture, Cloud Infrastructure, Continuous Delivery. @okcompuder | www.codeauthority.com/Blog
Founder at Nirmata; DevOps practitioner.
@JimBugwadia | www.nirmata.com/author/jim/
In this episode of #c9d9, we’ll talk about best practices for scaling DevOps across the enterprise with standardization of processes and consolidation of tools and environments.
Industry analyst with @VDC_Research – covering software and systems development solutions and trends, Agile, DevOps, IoT, ALM, PLM.
@AndreAtVDC | www.vdcresearch.com/News-events/blog/
Author of book Managing Software Debt, Principal Product Manager for Spring Cloud Services @pivotal.
@csterwa | blog.pivotal.io
Works as software developer. A Certified Scrum Master and Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert. Ride horses and write blogs during his free time.
@hellodanielfoo | danielcoding.net
A passionate Agile and DevOps Change Agent trying to make Software Delivery a more humane place to be.
@MircoHering | notafactoryanymore.com
Continuous Discussions (#c9d9) podcasts air every other Tuesday. See all episodes here.
2016-12-03 08:31 Parent Linkdate dzone.com
16 /20 0.0 Donald Trump Advised to Train 100,000 Hackers to Protect the US The panel of security experts pointed out that cybersecurity should become a priority during Donald Trump’s tenure at the helm of the United States, and recommended the President-elect not only to train hackers and be prepared for any cyber threat, but also to propose international norms for hacking that would guarantee better protection. The Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity strongly pointed out that the United States should increase their efforts on training security experts that would work for the country and not leave for the private sector, which has become a dramatic problem in the last few years.
Salaries offered by private companies are substantially bigger than those offered by the United States, and Donald Trump is advised to tackle this issue in his first year as President of the US.
Furthermore, Trump must closely control all training programs because this could lead to lower skills and quality, and the President is also recommended to create a so-called “national cybersecurity workforce program” to prevent such issues.
Donald Trump has also been advised to hire a cyber adviser and a cyber ambassador and work together on a national cybersecurity strategy in the first months of his term, with the panel explaining that the President must involve security experts currently working for the largest companies in the United States, but also professors and researchers.
At the same time, the panel is advising Donald Trump to offer incentives to companies in order to build more secure products in the United States, which is somehow in opposition with what the President-elect was aiming for during his campaign.
Trump called several times for Apple to hack its devices and help the FBI collect criminal information from an iPhone, so such a proposal can be adopted only if a backdoor is installed on these devices. Otherwise, making devices harder to hack would not align with Trump’s plans of giving authorities more power to unlock devices involved in criminal activities.
Donald Trump hasn’t yet commented on these proposals, but the President-elect is likely to take several steps to boost cybersecurity of the United States.
2016-12-03 08:28 Bogdan Popa news.softpedia.com
17 /20 1.1 Many CEOs believe technology will make people 'largely irrelevant' Although artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and other emerging technologies may reshape the world as we know it, a new global study has revealed that the majority of CEOs now value technology over people when it comes to the future of their businesses.
The study was conducted by the Los Angeles-based management consultant firm Korn Ferry that interviewed 800 business leaders across a variety of multi-million and multi-billion dollar global organizations. The firm says that 44 percent of the CEOs surveyed agreed that robotics, automation and AI would reshape the future of many work places by making people "largely irrelevant". The global managing director of solutions at Korn Ferry Jean-Marc Laouchez explains why many CEOs have adopted this controversial mindset, saying: "Leaders may be facing what experts call a tangibility bias. Facing uncertainty, they are putting priority in their thinking, planning and execution on the tangible -- what they can see, touch and measure, such as technology instruments".
According to Korn Ferry's study, a number of CEOs have allowed technology to occupy anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of their priorities when it comes to strategic focus, financial investment and their time. The firm also compiled a list of the top five assets of companies according to these CEOs which did not even list human talent as an asset and instead included Real Estate, Brand, Product / Service, R&D/ Innovation and Technology as the number one asset.
Laouchez offered his view on why human talent was not considered an asset by the CEOs surveyed, saying: "Putting an exact value on people is much more difficult, even though people directly influence the value of technology, innovation and products".
While artificial intelligence and robotics will play a huge role in the future of business, Korn Ferry believes that CEOs should not undervalue the creativity and influence that people can bring to a business.
Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Future plc Publication. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: pockygallery / Shutterstock
2016-12-03 08:20 Anthony Spadafora feeds.betanews.com
18 /20 0.0 Performance Regression in Optimization: Part I PageTable is a pretty critical piece of Voron. It is the component responsible for remapping modified pages in transactions and is the reason why we support MVCC and can avoid taking locks (for the most part). It has been an incredibly stable part of our software, rarely changing and pretty much the same as it was when it was initially written in 2013. It has been the subject of multiple performance reviews in that time, but acceptable levels of performance from our code in 2013 are no longer acceptable today. PageTable came up recently in one of our performance reviews as a problematic component. It was responsible for too much CPU and far too many allocations.
Here is a drastically simplified implementation that retains the salient points:
I wrote the following code:
This relies on allowing stale reads from concurrent readers, which we don’t care about since they wouldn’t be able to make use of the data anyway, and it was able to reduce the allocations to just 320 MB, but the runtime actually went up to 32 seconds.
That is quite annoying, as you can imagine, and much cursing enthused as a result. I then pulled my trusty profiler ask it kindly to figure out what piece of code needs to be hit with a rolling pin and have a stern talking to about what is expected from code after it has been laboriously and carefully optimized. It is expected to sit nicely and be fast, or by Git, I’ll revert you.
What the hell?! Here are the original implementation costs, and you can clearly see how much time we are spending on garbage collection.
The implementation is pretty much the same and there isn’t anything else that looks like it can cause that much of a performance gap.
I’ll leave this a riddle for now, because it drove me crazy for two whole days, and give you the details on what is going on in the next post.
2016-12-03 08:01 Ayende Rahien dzone.com
19 /20 1.8 Microsoft Suspends Windows 10 Builds to Prepare New Windows Update System Dona Sarkar, head of the Windows Insider program, said they are planning to internally test the new UUP system internally before shipping it to users who are part of the Insider program, so it’s not clear how long this is going to take.
What’s important to know is that users can no longer download new builds in the Fast and Slow rings for PCs. Mobile users are not affected.
“We are getting ready to start releasing PC builds to Insiders using UUP. To prepare for this, we are going to pause all PC builds for both the Fast and Slow rings starting this evening (Friday 12/2). We will begin flighting the latest builds via UUP starting with our internal rings first then to Insiders based on each ring’s promotion criteria. We’re excited to be able to release builds for PC to Insiders using UUP! Mobile builds are not impacted by this,” Dona explained.
For those who missed Microsoft’s original announcement on the Unified Update Platform, this is a new updating system that speeds up update checks and dramatically cuts the size of updates by only downloading the bits that you need, and not full new builds.
The delivery of large OS updates would thus be significantly faster, Microsoft says, as your computer would have to get only the files that have changed since the previous version, and not a complete image of the OS. Furthermore, the update checking would be performed server-side, so it would be faster. “Because more processing is being done by the service, this will lead to faster checks for update operations. It’s important to note that with UUP, nothing will look or behave differently on the surface, UUP is all underlying platform and service optimization that happens behind the scenes,” Microsoft says.
The UUP system would be tested with help from insiders in the coming months, while everyone else would get it with the Creators Update in early 2017.
2016-12-03 06:52 Bogdan Popa news.softpedia.com
20 /20 4.2 Minibus licence loophole puts people at risk A legal loophole that allows minibus drivers to operate without undergoing a criminal record check is putting passengers in danger, councils say.
Drivers of "public carriage vehicles", which seat 9-16 people, are not subject to a criminal check - unlike hackney carriage and private taxi drivers.
This allowed "unscrupulous drivers" to work even if councils have banned them, the Local Government Association said.
A Department for Transport spokesman said it was planning immediate action.
Under the current rules, drivers of public carriage vehicles are licensed by the DVLA, whereas councils license taxi drivers.
Taxi drivers require an up-to-date enhanced criminal record check to be issued with a licence.
The LGA said a loophole meant drivers who have been refused a taxi or minicab licence - or whose licence has been revoked by councils - could instead obtain a minibus licence and continue to operate in the same area.
Some had continued working with the same company, the LGA added.
It urged the government to change the law to ensure vehicles seating nine to 16 people were instead licensed by councils.
Simon Blackburn, from the LGA, said the majority of minibus drivers were "people who the public can trust".
However, he added: "This loophole provides an opportunity for unscrupulous drivers to continue to work in close proximity to passengers, even when a council has determined that they are not safe to do so. "Larger minibuses are often sent in place of a regular taxi to pick up individuals or small parties, purely because they are nearest to the pick-up point rather than because there is a requirement for such a large vehicle.
"They are used to take groups of children to school, or to drive groups home after nights out.
"It is therefore extremely worrying that councils' proactive work to protect taxi passengers from harm - and particularly those who may be most vulnerable - is being undermined by this loophole. "
A Department for Transport spokesman said public safety remained "our first priority".
It said: "It is the responsibility of councils to meet their legal requirements to ensure all drivers are 'fit and proper' persons before issuing a taxi or private hire driver's licence.
"We are taking immediate action to provide the same level of protection for passengers in minibuses as they receive in taxis. "
2016-12-03 17:32 www.bbc.co.uk
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Created at 2016-12-03 18:00