Author Archives: mea

How to permanently stop Windows 10 reboots after installing updates

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If you do not want to wait for Anniversary Update (which will be released in July 2016) or if Active Hours is not a solution for you, you can permanently stop Windows 10 reboots after updates are installed if you follow the steps below.

via How to permanently stop Windows 10 reboots after installing updates

Just bought a refurbished I7 machine with Windows 10 Home edition to use for gaming  and run VMs via Virtual Box.  The VMs need to be up 24/7 if they are an active unit.   This box has a lot of RAM so it can run many VMs.  Microsoft brought them all down last night with an update then reboot.  This is totally unacceptable.  Most of the solutions on the web using gpedit.msc or regedit do not work on Windows Home since we are the lowest OS on the MS totem pole.

The procedure in the above website worked for Windows 10 Home.   Now I just have to wait a week or so to see if it really stops the auto reboot.  I don’t mind having to queue up updates that require reboot.  VMs  need to be shutdown gracefully.  Many people use their computers for doing things other than consuming mass media.

Philae Found! Rosetta Spies Dead Comet Lander

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Now, in photographs taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera as the spacecraft zoomed within 2.7 kilometers (1.6 miles) of the comet’s surface on Sept. 2, the guesswork of Philae’s fate can be put to rest. The lander really did end up on its side, with two of its three legs awkwardly poking upwards. It seems to be jammed in a dark crack, proving why it was so hard to maintain contact with the robot after landing.

Source: Philae Found! Rosetta Spies Dead Comet Lander

Microsoft and Liebherr Collaborating on New Generation of Smart Refrigerators

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With the SmartDevice capability, future Liebherr refrigerators will help in shopping and planning meals with intelligent food management. Stored groceries can be monitored using internal cameras and object recognition technology. This process not only captures images for viewing but also recognizes individual food items inside the refrigerator. This information flows automatically into an inventory list, which lets the customer see quickly and clearly what is in the refrigerator from anywhere. Using the SmartDeviceBox voice module, additional groceries can be added to a shopping list that customers can access when on the move using an app for iOS, Android or Windows devices.

Source: Microsoft and Liebherr Collaborating on New Generation of Smart Refrigerators | Cortana Intelligence and Machine Learning Blog

Think Before You Parallelize

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The loop abstractions examined here are just one type of parallel or concurrent programming abstraction available. There is a whole universe out there, Actor Models, Async/Await, Tasks, Thread Pools, and so on. Be sure to understand what you are using, and measure whether it will really be useful, or whether you should focus on fast single threaded algorithms or look for third party tools with better performance.

Source: Think Before You Parallelize

With Windows 10, Microsoft Blatantly Disregards User Choice and Privacy

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The tactics Microsoft employed to get users of earlier versions of Windows to upgrade to Windows 10 went from annoying to downright malicious. Some highlights: Microsoft installed an app in users’ system trays advertising the free upgrade to Windows 10. The app couldn’t be easily hidden or removed, but some enterprising users figured out a way. Then, the company kept changing the app and bundling it into various security patches, creating a cat-and-mouse game to uninstall it.

Source: With Windows 10, Microsoft Blatantly Disregards User Choice and Privacy: A Deep Dive | Electronic Frontier Foundation

And while users can disable some of these settings, it is not a guarantee that your computer will stop talking to Microsoft’s servers. A significant issue is the telemetry data the company receives. While Microsoft insists that it aggregates and anonymizes this data, it hasn’t explained just how it does so.

NanoRacks To Catalyze Concepts for Deep Space Habitats

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The Ixion Team is a new addition to NASA’s NextSTEP effort, and will begin by conducting a comprehensive feasibility study evaluating the conversion of rocket upper stages into habitats. This innovative approach offers a pathway that is more affordable and involves less risk than fabricating modules on the ground and subsequently launching them into orbit.

Source: NanoRacks To Catalyze Concepts for Deep Space Habitats

GE is building America’s first offshore wind farm with turbines twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty

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GE and Deepwater Wind, a developer of offshore turbines, are installing five massive wind turbines in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. They will make up the first offshore wind farm in North America, called the Block Island Wind Farm.

Over the past several weeks, the teams have worked to install the turbines 30 miles off the coast of Rhode Island, and are expected to finish by the end of August 2016. The farm will be fully operational by November 2016.

Source: GE is building America’s first offshore wind farm with turbines twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty

Social Security Administration Now Requires Two-Factor Authentication

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Sadly, it is still relatively easy for thieves to create an account in the name of Americans who have not already created one for themselves. All one would need is the target’s name, date of birth, Social Security number, residential address, and phone number. This personal data can be bought for roughly $3-$4 from a variety of cybercrime shops online.

After that, the SSA relays four multiple-guess, so-called “knowledge-based authentication” or KBA questions from credit bureau Equifax. In practice, many of these KBA questions — such as previous address, loan amounts and dates — can be successfully enumerated with random guessing.  What’s more, very often the answers to these questions can be found by consulting free online services, such as Zillow and Facebook.

Source: Social Security Administration Now Requires Two-Factor Authentication — Krebs on Security

Disable WPAD now or have your accounts and private data compromised

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WPAD is a protocol, developed in 1999 by people from Microsoft and other technology companies, that allows computers to automatically discover which web proxy they should use. The proxy is defined in a JavaScript file called a proxy auto-config (PAC) file.

The location of PAC files can be discovered through WPAD in several ways: through a special Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) option, through local Domain Name System (DNS) lookups, or through Link-Local Multicast Name Resolution (LLMNR).

Source: Disable WPAD now or have your accounts and private data compromised | CSO Online

The researchers recommended computer users disable the protocol. “No seriously, turn off WPAD!” one of their presentation slides said. “If you still need to use PAC files, turn off WPAD and configure an explicit URL for your PAC script; and serve it over HTTPS or from a local file.”

From Slashdot comments:

To prevent Windows from tracking which network support WPAD, you need to make a simple registry change:

Click the Start button, and in the search field, type in “regedit”, then select “regedit.exe” from the list of results
Navigate through the tree to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Wpad”
Once you have the “Wpad” folder selected, right click in the right pane, and click on “New -> DWORD (32-Bit Value)”
Name this new value “WpadOverride”
Double click the new “WpadOverride” value to edit it
In the “Value data” field, replace the “0” with a “1”, then click “OK”
Reboot the computer

Rightscorp Threatens Every ISP in the United States

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While Rightscorp was expected to make the most of BMG’s victory in its future dealings with ISPs, the level of aggression in its announcement still comes as a surprise. Essentially putting every provider in the country on notice, Rightscorp warns that ISPs will now have to cooperate or face the wrath of litigious rightsholders.

Source: Rightscorp Threatens Every ISP in the United States – TorrentFreak

Whether this week’s developments will help to pull Rightscorp out of the financial doldrums will remain to be seen. The company has been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for a couple of years now, and its shares on Wednesday were worth just $0.038 each. Following the BMG news, they peaked at $0.044.