A write up on Alternet on the DFCON 25 hack attack on American Electronic Voting with an attached video showing the hacks done live. The attacks took from minutes to hours, but all where hacked and altered with little or no traces left behind. Another warning on using technology before it is ready for the use you intend. The safety in electronic voting has always been questioned, here is further argumentation against using the technology for elections until it is fault proof.
Brexit: The impact on London House Prices
An article on Bloomberg shows the Brexit impacts on the housing prices in London. to quote the article “In 2015, for example, 10,000 homes would be sold in a typical month. In London’s desirable borough of Islington, just 87 sales have been recorded so far in May, compared with 139 in May 2016 or 259 in two years before that”. Some of this can be attributed to the overpriced market, but there is no doubt that Brexit has had an impact.
Bitcoin Hard Fork – What Now?
There has been a serious amount of unrest in the Bitcoin community over how to address the block chain constraints and increase the processing efficiency of Bitcoin. The initial conflict around “Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 91” was initially addressed and closed. The current argument over Segwit2x has however not been resolved, and the argument has now led to a hard fork of bitcoin and the creation of Bitcoin Cash for those that wanted to changes in the block chains. Turmoil on conversions, who will support what, and how to move forward with Bitcoin. I am sure the other digital currencies are happy about this chaos!
Amazon Echo as an illegal monitoring device
The woes of IOT and the very basic security features supported keeps on giving gifts to hackers. An article on help net security reports on MWR InfoSecurity research showing that an Amazon Echo can be HW hacked to have microphones “always on”. Only for 2015 and 2016 editions, only with physical access. Never the less, the first stumbling steps in attacking our connected homes.
Roger Waters & Eric Clapton – Lunatic Rave
As Roger waters was touring in 1984 with his “The Pro’s and Con’s of Hitchhiking ” he was supported by Eric Clapton on guitar. This bootleg is the only known soundboard recording from the tour. First disc is all Pink Floyd, the second the promoted album. This was around the wars on the rights to Pink Floyd. Continue reading “Roger Waters & Eric Clapton – Lunatic Rave”
Baaba Maal: Djam Leeli (The Adventurers)
I was revisiting some of the world music that caught my attention in the late 80’s and early 90’s when I “rediscovered” the Djam Leeli album by Baaba Maal. As Chris Blackwel (from Island Records) was trying to find an African Bob Marley Baaba Maal was the first choice. It was initially between Baaba Maal and Youssou N”Dour as to being Senegals greatest musical export, Continue reading “Baaba Maal: Djam Leeli (The Adventurers)”
Finally: battery levels on connected Bluetooth devices in Android
It looks like there will finally be a general introduction in Android of being able to see the battery status of any connected Bluetooth devise. This has been available in custom and manufacturers for a while, and plenty of options in the app store, but up until now this has been the landscape. An article on XDA finds that “we can see that Google will add a new method in the Bluetooth Device class called getBatteryLevel() ” in the proposed new Android Open Source Project (AOSP) release.
Brickerbot claims to brick 60K Modems/Routers in India
An interesting article on Bleeping Computer on a claim from a Brickerbot Dev that hey have bricked 60.000 modems and routers in Indian blocking subscribers on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) form accessing the internet. The obvious path of attack: default usernames / passwords exposed to internet. The joy of our IOT world continues!
Ernest Cline: Ready Player One
As the pending new Spielberg movie based on Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One is rapidly approaching launch I picked up my copy of the book to re-read and see if I can remember why I liked the book so much. I remember lying on a beach and reading it in one session, and loving the whole thing.
It is a more PC take on the core of Cyperpunk, as originally crafted by William Gibson. A dysfunctional world ruled over by a corrupt company (IOI in Player One) with only a virtual reality world as an escape. This time there is a way out, the creator and owner of the virtual world dies and lays down a 3 part riddle / challenge with the ownership of the company as the prize to the winner. Continue reading “Ernest Cline: Ready Player One”
“168 million will watch connected TV in the US this year”
eMakerter analyst Paul Verna has had a look at this years trends and volumes in the connected TV space in the US. He highlights the impact of a higher than expected sales figures, and also looks at the current HW clients and their prospects. Apple TV in particular is given a dim future, again highlighting the price combined with very little exclusive content being offered by Apple.