Page 84 of 88 FirstFirst ... 34748283848586 ... LastLast
Results 831 to 840 of 872

Thread: Cutting Edge Technology in the news

  1. #831
    My inner Mulder wants to believe, but my inner Scully remains skeptical.

  2. #832

  3. #833
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Sunny California
    Posts
    10,228
    Blog Entries
    19
    A good (but lengthy) article that includes much Windows history.
    And the direction Windows is headed.
    While eliminating the security vulnerabilities of the past, it (coincidentally?) seems the Windows of the future will closely follow Apple's model of only allowing product purchased at "their" store to run on WIN10.


    Why Windows must die. For the third time
    Microsoft knows Windows is obsolete. Here's a sneak peek at its replacement.
    By Jason Perlow

    Last week, a key event occurred in the history of personal computing. It marks the beginning of the death of the operating system that we recognize today as Microsoft Windows.

    This euthanizing of Windows has been planned for at least five years, and Microsoft knows that it is necessary for the company's software business and for the PC industry to evolve and stay healthy.

    In order for the Windows brand and Microsoft's software business to live, Windows -- as it exists today -- must die.

    t is important we have some historical perspective of what "death" actually means for Windows, because it's already happened twice.

    The first of Windows' lives occurred in the period between 1985 and 1995. During this time, Windows was a bolt-on application execution environment that ran on top of the 16-bit DOS operating system, which was introduced with the original IBM PC in 1981.

    That OS "died" in 1995, when Windows 95 -- the first 32-bit version of the OS -- was released.

    From 1989 to 2001, on a separate track, Microsoft also developed Windows NT, a 32-bit, hardware-abstracted, full pre-emptive, protective memory, multi-threaded multitasking OS designed for high-performance RISC and x86 workstations and servers.

    The commonality that the consumer version of Windows and Windows NT had was that they shared many of the same APIs, which are collectively known as Win32.

    Largely implemented using the C programming language, Win32 became the predominant Windows application programming model for many years. The majority of legacy Windows applications that exist in the wild today still use Win32 in some form. (This is an important takeaway that we will return to shortly.)

    In 2001, Windows NT (at that time branded as Windows 2000) and the consumer version of Windows (Windows ME) merged into a single product: Windows XP.

    Thus, the second generation of Windows technology descended from Windows 95 "died" at this time.

    Shortly after the release of Windows XP, in 2002, Microsoft introduced the .NET Framework, which is an object-oriented development framework that includes the C# programming language.

    The .NET Framework was intended to replace the legacy Win32. It has continued to evolve and has been slowly adopted by third-party ISVs and development shops. Over the years, Microsoft has adopted it internally for the development of Office 365, Skype, and other applications.

    That was 16 years ago. However, Win32 still is the predominant legacy programming API. More apps out in the wild use it than anything else. And that subsystem remains the most significant vector for malware and security threats because it hosts desktop-based browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Chrome.

    A lot has changed in the technology industry in 16 years, especially the internet. Web standards have changed, as have the complexity and sophistication of security threats. More and more applications are now web-based or are hosted as SaaS using web APIs.

    Microsoft introduced a new programmatic model with the introduction of the Windows 8 OS. That framework, which is now commonly known as Universal Windows Platform (UWP), is a fully modernized programming environment that takes advantage of all the new security advancements introduced since Windows 8 and that are in the current Windows 10.

    While Windows 8 was not well-received in the marketplace because of its unfamiliar full-screen "Metro" UX, the actual programmatic model that it introduced, which was greatly improved for desktop-style windowing in Windows 10, is technically sound and much more secure than Win32 due to its ability to sandbox apps.

    In addition to including the latest implementation of .NET, UWP also allows apps to be programmed in C++, C#, Objective C, VB.NET, and Javascript. It uses XAML as a presentation stack to reduce code complexity.

    Microsoft Edge, the completely re-designed browser that was introduced in Windows 10, is a native UWP application with none of the security drawbacks of Internet Explorer. Other native UWP applications include Windows Mail, Skype for Windows 10, and some of the applications in the Windows Store.
    Story Continues
    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
    Attachment 1008

  4. #834
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Sunny California
    Posts
    10,228
    Blog Entries
    19
    Just remember folks, those "free games apps" are not really free. Pay me now, or pay me later.

    Google Just Killed What Might Be The Biggest Android Ad Fraud Ever.
    by Thomas Fox-Brewster

    Google has thrown more than 40 apps out of its Play store after it emerged they were quietly forcing Android users to click on ads. As the apps been downloaded as many as 36 million times, security researchers said it appeared to be the biggest ever case of ad fraud perpetrated via Google Play and probably the most successful malware in terms of installs from the official store.

    Security firm Check Point revealed the campaign Thursday, claiming a South Korean company, Kiniwini, hid an illegitimate ad clicking function inside 41 apps, most of which were games. Google's Bouncer, a technology designed to keep such so-called "adware" out of its store, wasn't able to pick up on the feature as it was downloaded after installation.

    Once the rogue code was added to the apps, they would secretly open webpages in the background, via software that imitated a PC browser. "Once the targeted website is launched, the malware uses the JavaScript code to locate and click on banners from the Google ads infrastructure," Check Point explained. The company would then receive funds for every ad click.

    Check Point also noted that various Kiniwini apps would display "a large amount of advertisements, which in some cases leave users with no option but clicking on the ad itself." And it claimed the oldest version of the malware, which it dubbed "Judy", dated from April 2016, indicating it avoided detection for at least a year.

    Kiniwini, which also goes by the name ENISTUDIO corp, did not return a request for comment. A post on the company's website reportedly recognizes Google's action to remove the apps. But the company plans to re-release their games once the code has been updated.

    Google had not returned a request for comment at the time of publication.

    Growing Android fraud problem

    According to Android security expert Sergio de los Santos, Judy was symptomatic of a wider problem with such ad fraud targeting Google's platform. "This clicking malware hides very well. They have been undetected for years now, and even now anti-virus products are still not detecting them," said de los Santos, a researcher with Telefonica's ElevenPaths Android security team.
    Story Continues
    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
    Attachment 1008

  5. #835
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Sunny California
    Posts
    10,228
    Blog Entries
    19
    Intel announces new desktop i9 chip with up to 18cores/36threads.

    With Core i9, the Intel vs. AMD battle rages anew. Announced Tuesday at Computex in Taipei, Intel’s answer to AMD’s 16-core, 32-thread Threadripper is an 18-core, 36-thread monster microprocessor of its own, tailor-made for elite PC enthusiasts.

    The Core i9 Extreme Edition i9-7980XE, what Intel calls the first teraflop desktop PC processor ever, will be priced at (gulp!) $1,999 when it ships later this year. In a slightly lower tier will be the meat of the Core i9 family: Core i9 X-series chips in 16-core, 14-core, 12-core, and 10-core versions, with prices climbing from $999 to $1,699. All of these new Skylake-based parts will offer improvements over their older Broadwell-E counterparts: 15 percent faster in single-threaded apps and 10 percent faster in multithreaded tasks, Intel says.
    Story continues
    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
    Attachment 1008

  6. #836
    Quote Originally Posted by CasperParks View Post
    I can't wait to see those out over the lake and up at the islands.
    HTML Code:
    For it is in giving that we receive.
    ~ St. Francis of Assisi

  7. #837
    Quote Originally Posted by calikid View Post
    Intel announces new desktop i9 chip with up to 18cores/36threads.

    With Core i9, the Intel vs. AMD battle rages anew. Announced Tuesday at Computex in Taipei, Intel’s answer to AMD’s 16-core, 32-thread Threadripper is an 18-core, 36-thread monster microprocessor of its own, tailor-made for elite PC enthusiasts.

    The Core i9 Extreme Edition i9-7980XE, what Intel calls the first teraflop desktop PC processor ever, will be priced at (gulp!) $1,999 when it ships later this year. In a slightly lower tier will be the meat of the Core i9 family: Core i9 X-series chips in 16-core, 14-core, 12-core, and 10-core versions, with prices climbing from $999 to $1,699. All of these new Skylake-based parts will offer improvements over their older Broadwell-E counterparts: 15 percent faster in single-threaded apps and 10 percent faster in multithreaded tasks, Intel says.
    Story continues

    http://www.pcworld.com/article/31984...siast-pcs.html
    Thanks for the info. Need to do more research on this one to find out more about it than what's in that article.
    Last edited by A99; 05-30-2017 at 03:58 PM.
    HTML Code:
    For it is in giving that we receive.
    ~ St. Francis of Assisi

  8. #838
    The Core i9's speeds and feeds

    As clock speeds have plateaued at slightly above 4GHz, the challenge has been to find a use for all of the additional cores silicon manufacturers are building into their chips. As we’ve pointed out previously, many games still rely heavily on a single processor core. Intel has turned its attention to a new generation of “streamers” who not only use cores to play the game, but ask other cores within the system to encode the stream to Twitch or YouTube, and perhaps play some music in the background. Intel calls all of these simultaneous activities “megatasking” and sees it as a fantastic way to maintain the demand for ever-greater numbers of cores.
    “Even gamers are becoming content creators,” Tony Vera, the X-series marketing manager, told reporters.
    Very impressive! Gotta check that out! wow!
    HTML Code:
    For it is in giving that we receive.
    ~ St. Francis of Assisi

  9. #839
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Sunny California
    Posts
    10,228
    Blog Entries
    19
    The last batch SB released resulted in approx. 355,000 infected machines in 150 countries (per McAfee report I received on Wannacrypt Ransomware). Wonder what new havoc this release will cause?

    Group linked to NSA leaks says will release more data in July
    Reuters/Larry Downing

    A group that published hacking tools that security experts believe were stolen from the U.S. National Security Agency said on Tuesday it plans to sell a new batch of stolen code in July to customers willing to pay more than $22,000 for it.

    The Shadow Brokers group said in an announcement on the internet that it has not yet determined what files will be in the collection. It has previously said it has access to tools for hacking into web mobile handsets and Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Windows 10 operating system, web browsers and network routers.
    Story continues
    or Mobile Link here.
    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
    Attachment 1008

  10. #840
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Sunny California
    Posts
    10,228
    Blog Entries
    19
    Useful webiste: https://haveibeenpwned.com/

    Determine if YOUR email address has been compromised.
    Over 4 million addresses in the database.
    A listing of info regarding WHO/WHAT/WHEN your confidential account info may have been published or sold online
    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
    Attachment 1008

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •