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Category Archives: Technology
What is device code phishing, and why are Russian spies so successful at it?
Researchers have uncovered a sustained and ongoing campaign by Russian spies that uses a clever phishing technique to hijack Microsoft 365 accounts belonging to a wide range of targets, researchers warned.
The technique is known as device code phishing. It exploits “device code flow,” a form of authentication formalized in the industry-wide OAuth standard. Authentication through device code flow is designed for logging printers, smart TVs, and similar devices into accounts. These devices typically don’t support browsers, making it difficult to sign in using more standard forms of authentication, such as entering user names, passwords, and two-factor mechanisms.
Rather than authenticating the user directly, the input-constrained device displays an alphabetic or alphanumeric device code along with a link associated with the user account. The user opens the link on a computer or other device that’s easier to sign in with and enters the code. The remote server then sends a token to the input-constrained device that logs it into the account.
No penalties even when deputies share a woman’s nudes after an illegal phone search
In 2019, Haley Olson’s life in Grant County, Oregon, was upended when people in town appeared to know about private nude photos that Olson kept on her phone. Worse, some of the people appeared to have seen and shared the photos. The incidents all had some relationship to the local sheriff’s department, where Olson was dating one of the deputies.
In July, for instance, a stranger in a sheriff’s office uniform approached her to say that he had “heard there’s some pretty smokin’ pictures of you going around the sheriff’s office.” Someone else saw a married couple, both of whom worked for the sheriff’s office, looking at Olson’s photos on the husband’s phone. Other people also approached Olson with knowledge of her recent out-of-state arrest. One person called her “the drug dealer that likes to f— cops.”
What was going on?
IBM and Lenovo Partnership in Saudi Arabia Could Lead to Bigger Things
This month, Lenovo and IBM announced a strategic partnership focused on helping Saudi Arabia deploy AI successfully. IBM and Lenovo are tightly coupled given Lenovo acquired both its server and its business PC business from IBM. This means that Lenovo policies and IBM policies are more closely coupled due to these mergers than would typically be the case, and both companies share the same high regard for service quality, ethics, innovation and technology advancement.
Both companies are also somewhat complementary in that IBM tends to live in tightly focused markets where its unique solutions play major roles, while Lenovo is a much broader vendor with interests ranging from consumer electronics (an area that IBM was never able to perform in) to server farms.
IBM’s focus on AI predates Lenovo’s, though Lenovo has been far more aggressive with robotics than IBM has been, suggesting that while there are still some overlaps, they are mostly minor and manageable.
This partnership has the potential to grow into something even more powerful.
A Partnership with the Potential of the Old IBM
The old IBM that existed before the 90s was a powerhouse with a technological reach extending from the desktop to mainframes. It was the majority of the tech industry in its prime, and parts were sold off by a number of CEOs over time, leaving it far smaller than it once was.
In contrast, Lenovo has been growing very rapidly over this same period. Its biggest growth spurts came when it acquired the IBM PC company and again when it acquired IBM’s x86 business. In both cases, those businesses became powerful peers to other technology companies that predated Lenovo in those spaces.
In an interesting way, Lenovo has developed a unique skill in terms of fixing the IBM businesses it acquired which largely had to do with adequately funding and focusing on them. IBM’s leadership strength is in AI with watsonx (which predated the AI wave by several decades), and with quantum computing research which is believed to be the next wave of technological advancement.
Lenovo, on the other hand, is extremely innovative with hardware, is aggressively moving into automotive and robotic space and could likely use some of IBM’s extreme focus on ethics and security to better differentiate its solutions in a variety of market segments.
The end result is that this partnership could deepen the relationship between these two firms and make both stronger as they share information and augment each other’s capabilities. It is particularly useful that both companies’ CEOs are willing to work with others, and both companies have a strong partnership care and feeding process which should assure the success of this endeavor.
While IBM has been instrumental in discovering new technologies in a variety of markets thanks to IBM Research, IBM’s current focus is narrower, suggesting it can’t make the greatest use out of a number of the technologies it has discovered or developed. But Lenovo, through the partnership, is far broader, suggesting that if the partnership extends to IBM Research, Lenovo should be able to bring many of these otherwise languishing concepts to market. More important, it could complete solutions that IBM lacks the breadth to complete, and Lenovo lacks the scale to achieve, for instance, an autonomous robotaxi deployment with a secure automated mainframe based on a highly secure control hub.
Wrapping Up: Two Companies Building for a Stronger Future
It is always exciting to see a partnership between two natural partners. IBM and Lenovo, thanks to Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM assets, are natural partners because Lenovo has what IBM lacks in breadth and IBM has what Lenovo lacks in depth. The combination is very close to the same capabilities as the old IBM that once led the technology market. These two firms are capable of working together very closely. If they pull this off, the future should be significantly enhanced for both firms.
Measles outbreak in undervaccinated Texas area doubles—again
A measles outbreak in an area of Texas with abysmal vaccination rates continues to mushroom, with cases doubling since Tuesday and expanding into additional counties.
A week ago, officials reported nine confirmed cases in Gaines County, at the border of New Mexico, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates among kindergartners in the state at just about 82 percent. On Tuesday, the cases climbed to 24, all in Gaines. In Friday’s update, the state health department reports that the case count has now reached 48 and spread to three nearby counties, which also have vaccination rates below the 95 percent threshold that prevent vaccine-preventable diseases from spreading onward.
Gaines now reports 42 cases. There’s one case reported in Lynn County to the northeast, which has a 91 percent vaccination rate. Terry County, with a vaccination rate of 94 percent, reports three cases, and Yoakum County, with a vaccination rate of 92.5 percent, reports two cases. Terry and Yoakum are both directly north of Gaines.
Man offers to buy city dump in last-ditch effort to recover $800M in bitcoins
James Howells, the IT pro who lost about 8,000 bitcoins in a landfill more than a decade ago, thinks he has one last chance to dig up his buried treasure before it’s lost forever.
He wants to buy the landfill.
In January, Howells lost a court battle with Newport City Council in Wales, which many expected would be his last shot at excavating the dump. But soon after, the Newport council revealed that it would be closing the landfill, arousing in Howells a new hope that the bitcoins—today worth nearly $800 million—might still be found.
Asahi Linux lead resigns from Mac-based distro after tumultuous kernel debate
Working at the intersection of Apple’s newest hardware and Linux kernel development, for the benefit of a free distribution, was never going to be easy. But it’s been an especially hard couple of weeks for Hector Martin, project lead for Asahi Linux, capping off years of what he describes as burnout, user entitlement, and political battles within the Linux kernel community about Rust code.
In a post on his site, “Resigning as Asahi Linux project lead,” Martin summarizes his history with hardware hacking projects, including his time with the Wii homebrew scene (Team Twiizers/fail0verflow), which had its share of insistent users desperate to play pirated games. Martin shifted his focus, and when Apple unveiled its own silicon with the M1 series, Martin writes, “I realized that making it run Linux was my dream project.” This time, there was no jailbreaking and a relatively open, if tricky, platform.
Support and donations came quickly. The first two years saw rapid advancement of a platform built “from scratch, with zero vendor support or documentation.” Upstreaming code to the Linux kernel, across “practically every Linux subsystem,” was an “incredibly frustrating experience” (emphasis Martin’s).
After 50 years, Ars staffers pick their favorite Saturday Night Live sketches
The venerable late-night sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live is celebrating its 50th anniversary season this year. NBC will air a special on Sunday evening featuring current and former cast members.
I’ve long been a big fan of the show, since I was a kid in the late 1980s watching cast members such as Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, and Jan Hooks. By then, the show was more than a decade old. It had already spawned huge Hollywood stars like Chevy Chase and Eddie Murphy and had gone through some near-death experiences as it struggled to find its footing.
The show most definitely does not appeal to some people. When I asked the Ars editorial team to share their favorite sketches, a few writers told me they had never found Saturday Night Live funny, hadn’t watched it in decades, or just did not get the premise of the show. Others, of course, love the show’s ability to poke fun at the cultural and political zeitgeist of the moment.
Dream of the Desert
Akihabara News — Saudi Arabia is preparing to introduce “Dream of the Desert,” a luxury train service that will connect Riyadh to Al Qurayyat, near the Jordanian border. Scheduled to start in late 2026, this venture is a collaboration between Saudi Arabia Railways and Italy’s Arsenale hospitality group.
The train will feature fourteen carriages with 34 suites, accommodating up to 82 passengers. It will travel a 1,300-kilometer route, showcasing some of the country’s most significant cultural and natural landscapes.
Technologically, the train is equipped with advanced climate control systems to manage the desert environment, offering personalized temperature settings in each suite. Solar panels are installed to supplement the train’s energy needs, aiming for a lower carbon footprint.
Digital interfaces within the suites allow for control of lighting, entertainment, and room service via touch panels or mobile devices. High-speed Wi-Fi is available throughout the journey, ensuring passengers remain connected.
Safety measures include a collision avoidance system, real-time track monitoring, and biometric security for access to suites. Interactive displays will educate passengers about the regions and cultures along the route, integrating live exterior views.
The train will operate on enhanced existing railway lines, which have been modified to provide a smoother, quieter ride. This project is part of Saudi Arabia’s broader Vision 2030 initiative, which includes promoting tourism and cultural engagement through sustainable means.
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The post Dream of the Desert appeared first on Akihabara News.
Job-Search Sites Try Shaming Companies That ‘Ghost’ Job-Seekers
An anonymous reader shared this report from Fortune:
More than 14 million job seekers’ applications went completely ignored in a single quarter last year, according to one hiring platform. Now, sites like Greenhouse and LinkedIn are experimenting with new ways to hold companies accountable for making the hiring process so miserable for applicants. Three of the biggest job search sites — LinkedIn, Indeed and Greenhouse — have put tools in place to highlight which companies frequently respond to applicants in a timely manner… According to Greenhouse, half of applicants say they’ve been ghosted after an interview.
Meanwhile, new artificial intelligence tools have made it easier for candidates to play a numbers game, generating tailored resumes for hundreds of roles. But that’s led to an increasingly overwhelming flood of applications for companies, making it nearly impossible to process the deluge and respond to every hopeful in a timely manner — let alone find their perfect match… [LinkedIn is] refining its “job match” feature that uses AI to see how well qualified a candidate is for a given listing. The feature is designed to help cut down on the flood of applications companies are receiving by nudging users to focus their efforts on jobs where they actually have a good shot at hearing back. That, in theory, should make the hiring process more efficient for both parties…
Indeed chose to focus on encouraging employer responsiveness after the issue showed up as the biggest pain point for job seekers in a recent survey. While the platform has issued “responsive employer” badges since 2018 to recognize companies that consistently reply to more than half of all messages, it started releasing even more detail in 2023, including labels that share the employer’s median response time with candidates… Greenhouse, meanwhile, is testing a set of four badges that would verify an employer meets the platform’s respectful, communicative, prepared and fair hiring process standards for a given job posting… For “communicative,” they’re expected to clear out active candidates on closed jobs and send out rejection emails.
LinkedIn is also adding “responsiveness insights,” according to the article, which “show applicants which listings are being actively reviewed by employers.
“It’s testing the insights on a small number of job postings before rolling them out sitewide in the coming months.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Thunderbolts*‘ New Trailer Promises Quippy Chaos and Questionable Heroics
The Marvel team-up film starring Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Sebastian Stan hits theaters May 2.
New How to Train Your Dragon Footage Takes to the Skies
Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Nick Frost, and Gerard Butler star in the live-action remake opening June 13.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Continues to Look Bonkers
New footage from the Tom Cruise action sequel just debuted during the Super Bowl.
Bill Gates Remembers LSD Trips, Smoking Pot, and How the Smartphone OS Market ‘Was Ours for the Taking’
Fortune remembers that in 2011 Steve Jobs had told author Walter Isaacson that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates would “be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”
But The Indendepent notes that in his new memoir Gates does write about two acid trip experiences. (Gates mis-timed his first experiment with LSD, ending up still tripping during a previously-scheduled appointment for dental surgery…) “Later in the book, Gates recounts another experience with LSD with future Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and some friends… Gates says in the book that it was the fear of damaging his memory that finally persuaded him never to take the drug again.”
He added: “I smoked pot in high school, but not because it did anything interesting. I thought maybe I would look cool and some girl would think that was interesting. It didn’t succeed, so I gave it up.”
Gates went on to say that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who didn’t know about his past drug use, teased him on the subject. “Steve Jobs once said that he wished I’d take acid because then maybe I would have had more taste in my design of my products,” recalled Gates. “My response to that was to say, ‘Look, I got the wrong batch.’ I got the coding batch, and this guy got the marketing-design batch, so good for him! Because his talents and mine, other than being kind of an energetic leader, and pushing the limits, they didn’t overlap much. He wouldn’t know what a line of code meant, and his ability to think about design and marketing and things like that… I envy those skills. I’m not in his league.”
Gates added that he was a fan of Michael Pollan’s book about psychedelic drugs, How To Change Your Mind, and is intrigued by the idea that they may have therapeutic uses. “The idea that some of these drugs that affect your mind might help with depression or OCD, I think that’s fascinating,” said Gates. “Of course, we have to be careful, and that’s very different than recreational usage.”
Touring the country, 69-year-old Gates shared more glimpses of his life story:
The Harvard Gazette notes that the university didn’t offer computer science degrees when Gates attended in 1973. But since Gates already had years of code-writing experience, he “initially rebuffed any suggestion of taking computer-related coursework… ‘It’s too easy,’ he remembered telling friends.” “The naiveté I had that free computing would just be this unadulterated good thing wasn’t totally correct even before AI,” Gates told an audience at the Harvard Book Store. “And now with AI, I can see that we could shape this in the wrong way.” Gates “expressed regret about how he treated another boyhood friend, Paul Allen, the other cofounder of Microsoft, who died in 2018,” reports the Boston Globe. “Gates at first took 60 percent ownership of the new software company and then pressured his friend for another 4 percent. ‘I feel bad about it in retrospect,’ he said. ‘That was always a little complicated, and I wish I hadn’t pushed….'” Business Insider adds that according to his memoir, Gates “eventually gave his additional 4% stake to [Steve] Ballmer to convince him to quit business school for Microsoft. ‘He joined in 1980 and became the 24-hour-a-day partner I needed,’ Gates wrote.” Benzinga writes that Gates has now “donated $100 billion to charitable causes… Had Gates retained the $100 billion he has donated, his total wealth would be around $264 billion, placing him second on the global wealth rankings behind Elon Musk and ahead of Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.” Gates told the Associated Press “I am stunned that Intel basically lost its way,” saying Intel is now “kind of behind” on both chip design and fabrication. “They missed the AI chip revolution, and with their fabrication capabilities, they don’t even use standards that people like Nvidia and Qualcomm find easy… I hope Intel recovers, but it looks pretty tough for them at this stage.” Gates also told the Associated Press that fighting a three-year antitrust case had “distracted” Microsoft. “The area that Google did well in that would not have happened had I not been distracted is Android, where it was a natural thing for me. I was trying, although what I didn’t do well enough is provide the operating system for the phone. That was ours for the taking.” The Dallas News reports that in an on-stage interview in Texas, Mark Cuban closed by asking Gates one question. “Is the American Dream alive?” Gates answered: “It was for me.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Civilization 7 is coming to Meta Quest 3 and 3S this spring
Civilization VII is getting a VR port soon, but it’ll be exclusive to Meta’s most recent headsets. Meta, 2K and Firaxis Games announced this weekend that the franchise’s latest entry will be available on Meta Quest 3 and 3S in Spring 2025. Players will have the option to “freely switch” between virtual and mixed reality as they wish. Per the release:
In virtual reality, players are transported to an ornate museum as they look out onto a vista personalized to their leader; in mixed reality, the Command Table adapts to its placement in a player’s physical space. Detailed dioramas can be viewed in The Archives, a room in your museum dedicated to your gameplay achievements displayed in both virtual and mixed reality.
There’s no exact release date or price just yet, but you can wishlist it on the Meta Horizon Store. Civilization VII became available for Advanced Access buyers on PC and consoles a few days ago, and reviews have so far been pretty rough. It opens up for everyone else on February 11.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/civilization-7-is-coming-to-meta-quest-3-and-3s-this-spring-221250061.html?src=rss
How to watch Super Bowl 2025 on Tubi for free: Chiefs vs. Eagles
Chris Graythen via Getty Images
The big day has arrived, and Super Bowl LIX is imminent. The Kansas City Chiefs are shooting for an unprecedented (for the NFL) third championship win in a row, while the Philadelphia Eagles are looking to play the spoiler — and avenge their narrow 38-35 loss to the Chiefs in the 2023 Super Bowl. The kickoff for the big game will be today — Sunday, February 9 — at 6:30PM ET at Caesars Superdome. It’s the eighth time the storied New Orleans venue has hosted. The Kendrick Lamar, riding high on the five new Grammys he snagged just last Sunday, headlines the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show, where he’ll be joined by SZA. Taylor Swift is expected to be at the game to cheer on beau Travis Kelce, but the cameras pointed at the luxury boxes will be splitting time between her and President Trump, who is also slated to attend the game in person.
The championship game will be broadcast nationally on Fox this year and will be available on platforms like DirecTV Stream and Fubo. Looking for a free way to tune in? The Super Bowl will also be livestreamed on Tubi — in 4K, no less!
Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch the Super Bowl.
When is Super Bowl LIX?
The 2025 Super Bowl will be held today — Sunday, Feb. 9.
What time does the Super Bowl start?
Super Bowl LIX kicks off at 6:30PM ET/3:30PM PT, but the pregame show is already well underway.
How to watch the Super Bowl live
Super Bowl LIX is airing nationally on Fox and streaming live on Tubi.
How to stream the Super Bowl for free this year
Tubi is livestreaming Fox’s coverage of the Super Bowl this year — the first time the free platform has done so. It will also be available in the Fox Sports app on mobile platforms. Beyond that, you can also sign up for free trials of DirecTV Stream, Fubo, YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, each of which carry Fox in most locations. Two important caveats: Verify that your locality includes a Fox stream by inputting your ZIP code on their respective sites. And make sure to set a reminder to cancel before the trial subscription before you get billed if you don’t want to keep these paid services.
How to watch the 2025 Super Bowl without cable
The Tubi option above is the easiest go-to starting point for free Super Bowl streaming — but no one knows how the service will hold up under what’s certain to be its most intensive influx of concurrent users. There are plenty of worthwhile backups, each of which offer more comprehensive options for cordcutters beyond the game itself — say, watching SportsCenter on ESPN before or after the game. And most of our picks for best live TV streaming services offer free trials, so you can check them out risk-free. If you time it right, your free trial can include the Super Bowl broadcast, too.
Where is the 2025 Super Bowl?
The 2025 Super Bowl will be held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The venue has been host to seven previous Super Bowl games.
Who is performing in the Super Bowl 59 halftime show?
Kendrick Lamar is headlining Super Bowl LIX, with a guest appearance by SZA.
Who is playing in the Super Bowl 2025?
AFC champions the Kansas City Chiefs will play NFC champs the Philadelphia Eagles.
More ways to watch Super Bowl LIX
Thanks to the wide array of streaming options detailed above, you’ll be able to watch the Super Bowl on nearly any current device with a screen. There are plenty of Super Bowl TV deals ahead of the game if you need to upgrade that aging 40-inch screen with the dead pixels in the corner. Live close to a broadcast tower of a Fox station? Attach a good old-fashioned over-the-air antenna (like the Channel Master linked above), and you can get the game for free.
Have a fast Internet connection but don’t have access to the latest and greatest streaming apps on your TV? For as little as $25 or less, a new Roku or Fire TV device will ensure that you have all of these apps (including Tubi). See our list of best streaming devices for the full range of options.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/how-to-watch-super-bowl-2025-on-tubi-for-free-chiefs-vs-eagles-214817888.html?src=rss
How To Make Any AMD Zen CPU Always Generate 4 As a Random Number
Slashdot reader headlessbrick writes: Google security researchers have discovered a way to bypass AMD’s security, enabling them to load unofficial microcode into its processors and modify the silicon’s behaviour at will. To demonstrate this, they created a microcode patch that forces the chips to always return 4 when asked for a random number. Beyond simply allowing Google and others to customize AMD chips for both beneficial and potentially malicious purposes, this capability also undermines AMD’s secure encrypted virtualization and root-of-trust security mechanisms.
Obligatory XKCD.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Dang, a Lotta People Watched the Fantastic Four Trailer
If the trailer hype is any indication, Fantastic Four: First Steps may be another big event movie for Marvel.
Punch-Out’s Mike Tyson has been defeated in under two minutes for the first time
Since Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out was first released on the NES in 1987, millions of players have undertaken millions more digital matches against one of the hardest video game bosses ever—Tyson himself (or, later, the reskinned “Mr. Dream”). Only a small percentage of those players could survive Tyson’s flurry of instant-knockdown uppercuts and emerge victorious with the undisputed World Video Boxing Association championship. Even fewer had fast enough fingers to take out Tyson in the first round.
In all this time, no one has been able to register a TKO on Tyson in less than two minutes on the ever-present in-game clock (which runs roughly three times as quickly as a real-time clock). At least, that was true until this weekend, when popular speedrunner and speedrun historian Summoning Salt pulled off a 1:59.97 knockout after what he says was “75,000 attempts over nearly 5 years.”
Summoning Salt’s record-setting sub-2:00 run
Incredibly good and incredibly lucky
Breaking the storied 2:00 barrier on Tyson is a matter of both incredible skill and incredibly unlikely luck. As Summoning Salt himself started documenting in a 2017 video, getting the quickest possible Tyson TKO requires throwing 21 “frame perfect” punches throughout the fight, each within a 1/60th of a second window. Punch too early and those punches do slightly less damage, making the fight take just a bit longer. Too late and Tyson will throw up a block, negating the punch entirely.
This Was CS50: Crying Poor, Yale To Stop Offering Harvard’s Famed CS50 Course
Slashdot has been covering Harvard’s legendary introductory programming course “CS50” since it began setting attendance records in 2014.
But now long-time Slashdot reader theodp brings some news about the course’s fate over at Yale. From Yale’s student newspaper:
After a decade of partnership with Harvard, Yale’s CS50 course will no longer be offered starting in fall 2025…. One of Yale’s largest computer science courses, jointly taught with Harvard University, was canceled during a monthly faculty meeting after facing budgetary challenges. [Yale’s endowment is $40+ billion]… Since Yale started offering the course in 2015, CS50 has consistently seen enrollment numbers in the hundreds and was often the department’s largest class…. According to [Yale instructor Ozan] Erat, the original [anonymous] donation that made CS50 possible ended in June 2024, and the cost of employing so many undergraduate learning assistants for the course had become unsustainable.
theodp reminds us that CS50 and its progeny “will continue to live on in all their glory in-person and online at Harvard and edX.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.