Month: August 2024
We can now watch Grace Hopper’s famed 1982 lecture on YouTube
The lecture featured Hopper discussing future challenges of protecting information.
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper on Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People (Part One, 1982).
The late Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was a gifted mathematician and undisputed pioneer in computer programming, honored posthumously in 2016 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was also very much in demand as a speaker in her later career. Hopper’s famous 1982 lecture on “Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People,” has long been publicly unavailable because of the obsolete media on which it was recorded. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) finally managed to retrieve the footage for the National Security Agency (NSA), which posted the lecture in two parts on YouTube (Part One embedded above, Part Two embedded below).
Hopper earned undergraduate degrees in math and physics from Vassar College and a PhD in math from Yale in 1930. She returned to Vassar as a professor, but when World War II broke out, she sought to enlist in the US Naval Reserve. She was initially denied on the basis of her age (34) and low weight-to-height ratio, and also because her expertise elsewhere made her particularly valuable to the war effort. Hopper got an exemption, and after graduating first in her class, she joined the Bureau of Ships Computation Project at Harvard University, where she served on the Mark I computer programming staff under Howard H. Aiken.
She stayed with the lab until 1949 and was next hired as a senior mathematician by Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation to develop the Universal Automatic Computer, or UNIVAC, the first computer. Hopper championed the development of a new programming language based on English words. “It’s much easier for most people to write an English statement than it is to use symbols,” she reasoned. “So I decided data processors ought to be able to write their programs in English and the computers would translate them into machine code.”
Apple and Nvidia in Talks to Invest in OpenAI
Led by the investment firm Thrive Capital, the new deal would value the artificial intelligence start-up at over $100 billion.
Led by the investment firm Thrive Capital, the new deal would value the artificial intelligence start-up at over $100 billion.
Telegram Founder Pavel Durov’s Indictment Thrusts Encryption Into the Spotlight
The criminal charges against Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder, raised concerns in Silicon Valley about encryption and the app’s approach to privacy and security.
The criminal charges against Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder, raised concerns in Silicon Valley about encryption and the app’s approach to privacy and security.
Save $149 on the Tineco Smart Floor Cleaner During QVC’s Flash Sale
The Tineco S3 Pro Floor One smart multisurface floor cleaner is down to a low price of $250 but only for a few hours.
The Tineco S3 Pro Floor One smart multisurface floor cleaner is down to a low price of $250 but only for a few hours.
Nintendo can’t repair your New 3DS because it ran out of parts
Nintendo has stopped offering repairs for the New Nintendo 3DS. While it’s unsurprising for a company to end support for hardware that’s a decade old, the reason in this case is that Nintendo has simply run out of parts. The news circulated in a translated social media post from the company’s Japanese support team.
Time is also running out for official repairs of the Nintendo 2DS and New Nintendo 3DS LL (known as the XL model in the US). Nintendo said it will stop offering repairs on those handhelds when they likewise deplete their stock of replacement parts.
Nintendo stopped manufacturing the entire 3DS line in 2020. The handhelds had a long and impactful run as the game company’s leading handheld. The New 3DS and New 3DS XL shipped 9.94 million units globally at the close of 2016, while the entire 3DS family’s sales reached 75.94 million by 2020.
For the time being, US customers can still take advantage of Nintendo’s repair service for late-model 3DS XLs. New 3DS owners can still attempt the DIY approach if their handhelds break. Third-party repair platform iFixit currently has a stock of replacement parts and guides for the handheld in its online catalog. But as with any piece of hardware that’s getting along in years, it might be wise to exercise a little extra care when you use it. Just like the 3DS eShop, nothing lasts forever.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-cant-repair-your-new-3ds-because-it-ran-out-of-parts-192615658.html?src=rss
Nintendo has stopped offering repairs for the New Nintendo 3DS. While it’s unsurprising for a company to end support for hardware that’s a decade old, the reason in this case is that Nintendo has simply run out of parts. The news circulated in a translated social media post from the company’s Japanese support team.
Time is also running out for official repairs of the Nintendo 2DS and New Nintendo 3DS LL (known as the XL model in the US). Nintendo said it will stop offering repairs on those handhelds when they likewise deplete their stock of replacement parts.
Nintendo stopped manufacturing the entire 3DS line in 2020. The handhelds had a long and impactful run as the game company’s leading handheld. The New 3DS and New 3DS XL shipped 9.94 million units globally at the close of 2016, while the entire 3DS family’s sales reached 75.94 million by 2020.
For the time being, US customers can still take advantage of Nintendo’s repair service for late-model 3DS XLs. New 3DS owners can still attempt the DIY approach if their handhelds break. Third-party repair platform iFixit currently has a stock of replacement parts and guides for the handheld in its online catalog. But as with any piece of hardware that’s getting along in years, it might be wise to exercise a little extra care when you use it. Just like the 3DS eShop, nothing lasts forever.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-cant-repair-your-new-3ds-because-it-ran-out-of-parts-192615658.html?src=rss
Cable Providers Top Telecom Rivals for Internet Reliability
A new study of broadband reliability finds a top-two finish that you might not expect from recent surveys of ISP customer satisfaction: Charter’s Spectrum and Comcast’s Xfinity, the two largest cable operators in the US. From a report: Opensignal’s report, published Thursday, draws on software telemetry collected from April 1 through June 29 of downtime, consistency of service, and how well a provider meets basic thresholds for speed, latency, and other core performance metrics. Spectrum comes in first with a “Reliability Experience” score of 741 out of 1,000, followed by Xfinity with 710, Verizon with 625, AT&T with 546, and T-Mobile with 525. Opensignal chose those five companies to study because each passes more than a third of US homes.
But while Comcast and Charter employ the same basic cable architecture except for a few fiber-to-the-home pockets, Verizon and AT&T have mixed networks. That includes extensive and growing fiber service but also fixed 4G and 5G wireless from Verizon and hybrid-fiber broadband from AT&T, both of which lack fiber’s speed and capacity advantages, plus obsolete DSL connectivity. T-Mobile’s home connectivity, meanwhile, is almost exclusively fixed wireless.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A new study of broadband reliability finds a top-two finish that you might not expect from recent surveys of ISP customer satisfaction: Charter’s Spectrum and Comcast’s Xfinity, the two largest cable operators in the US. From a report: Opensignal’s report, published Thursday, draws on software telemetry collected from April 1 through June 29 of downtime, consistency of service, and how well a provider meets basic thresholds for speed, latency, and other core performance metrics. Spectrum comes in first with a “Reliability Experience” score of 741 out of 1,000, followed by Xfinity with 710, Verizon with 625, AT&T with 546, and T-Mobile with 525. Opensignal chose those five companies to study because each passes more than a third of US homes.
But while Comcast and Charter employ the same basic cable architecture except for a few fiber-to-the-home pockets, Verizon and AT&T have mixed networks. That includes extensive and growing fiber service but also fixed 4G and 5G wireless from Verizon and hybrid-fiber broadband from AT&T, both of which lack fiber’s speed and capacity advantages, plus obsolete DSL connectivity. T-Mobile’s home connectivity, meanwhile, is almost exclusively fixed wireless.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
‘Emily in Paris’: When Is Season 4, Part 2 Coming?
Plus, an official trailer teases fresh faces and a new city.
Plus, an official trailer teases fresh faces and a new city.
Hackers linked to Russian government found using some very familiar malware tools
Exploits developed by spyware companies were found to be indistinguishable from those used by Russian hackers.
Research from Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has found evidence Russian-backed threat actor APT29 used iterations of watering hole campaigns which were ‘identical or strikingly similar’ to exploits developed by notorious spyware companies NSO Group and Intellexa.
TAG found Mongolian government websites were hit by multiple campaigns earlier in 2024 after discovering hidden exploit codes embedded in the sites. The exploits meant anyone who used the sites using an iPhone or Android device may have had their phone hacked and data stolen.
APT29 is well-known for its links to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service and notable attacks on high-ranking western targets, such as US and German Government officials, as well as SolarWinds and Microsoft.
All patched up
The exploit code used in the attacks targeting iPhones shared the “exact same trigger as the exploit used by Intellexa,”, whilst the Android version used a “very similar trigger” to a code developed by NSO Group, TAG said. A patch was available for the exploits, but the attack was still effective against unpatched devices.
It’s unclear how the hackers obtained the copy of the exploit, but it could have been bought from the companies directly or stolen. TAG’s research does not indicate APT29 recreated the exploits organically, but rather somehow managed to get a hold of the spyware maker’s program.
The US government recently sanctioned the Intellexa consortium for developing and selling spyware Predator, which was used to target US government officials and journalists, and the NSO Group for its development of the Pegasus surveillance tool.
Earlier in 2024, Poland launched an investigation into the use of the Israeli-developed Pegasus spyware against opposition political figures by the previous administration.
Google recommends users and organizations apply patches quickly and keep software fully up-to-date to protect against this type of attack. We’ve listed the best malware removal tools to help you stay protected.
More from TechRadar Pro
Check out our pick of the best endpoint protection software aroundNotorious Russian hackers target government officialsTake a look at our pick of the best firewall software