The 30-year-old internet backdoor law that came back to bite
News broke this weekend that China-backed hackers have compromised the wiretap systems of several U.S. telecom and internet providers, likely in an effort to gather intelligence on Americans.
The wiretap systems, as mandated under a 30-year-old U.S. federal law, are some of the most sensitive in a telecom or internet provider’s network, typically granting a select few employees nearly unfettered access to information about their customers, including their internet traffic and browsing histories.
But for the technologists who have for years sounded the alarm about the security risks of legally required backdoors, news of the compromises are the “told you so” moment they hoped would never come but knew one day would.
“I think it absolutely was inevitable,” Matt Blaze, a professor at Georgetown Law and expert on secure systems, told TechCrunch regarding the latest compromises of telecom and internet providers.
Fact is, any intentional backdoor is not going to be secure. Secrets don't remain secret. That is just the way things are, and more so if more than one person knows about it.
“There’s no way to build a backdoor that only the ‘good guys’ can use,” said Signal president Meredith Whittaker, writing on Mastodon.
The theory around backdoors comes from the same era as changing your password every 30 days. Times have changed, and we should know better in 2024.
See https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/07/the-30-year-old-internet-backdoor-law-that-came-back-to-bite
#technology #security #backdoors
Openvibe is a single iOS and Android app for Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, and Nostr decentralised networks
Often we have different friends on different social networks. This app allows you to have a single timeline to read across all these popular decentralised social networks, and to also cross post to all of them.
We've seen plenty of apps like this for X, Facebook, Instagram, and other old legacy platforms, but really not many at all for the modern decentralised platforms.
Mastodon, of course, allows your posts to be visible right across all the Fediverse social networks too.
It claims no ads, no data selling, and permissionless.
A potential downside, for any such aggregator, is going to be that it cannot support some of the more nuanced features that each platform offers. So, this will be ideal for reading a single timeline, liking, replying and posting. Still, that will save an awful lot of time for many users of these platforms.
A plus is because it signs in to each network with your existing profile at each network, you lose nothing if you decide not to use the app in future.
#technology #socialnetworks #decentralisation #openvibe
Missing Thunderbirds footage found in British garden shed
Previously unseen footage from the classic British TV show Thunderbirds has been found in a garden shed and restored – where possible – for viewing next year.
The family of a recently deceased former editor of the show found a collection of 22 rusty and cracked film cans in their Buckinghamshire shed. The film inside is currently being restored and digitized. They contain a lot of old material, but also some extended scenes and a previously-unseen new ending to one episode.
Stephen La Rivière of Century 21 Films – who is leading the restoration drive – told the BBC recovering the footage “took weeks, bit by bit.”
"Every night I'd get a link for a download of the latest one that had been scanned … you'd never know what you'd get. Eventually, listening one night … this one played out, and it was not the same as broadcast."
If you’ve never watched the show, the video in the linked article below offers a good primer and a peek at the recovered footage.
I grew up (well, when South Africa finally got TV) watching the Thunderbirds. I seem to recall it was dubbed into one of our local languages.
See https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/09/missing_thunderbirds_footage
#technology #vintage #thunderbirds
Thinking of Buying a Cheap Racing Wheel? Don't Bother
Incredibly true! I wasted money my first time around by “saving” money on a cheaper steering wheel… That 270 deg rotation, no pedals, no gear shifter option, compatibility issues, etc all broke my experience. I could not get my truck to keep on a straight line properly even.
I forked out for the Logitech G29 wheel with pedals and shifter, and what a major difference. It is by no means a pro wheel, but it does everything I need and performances well enough to really enjoy the games i use it will. It is compatible with everything (including Linux) and has a couple of useful extra buttons and paddles to make the game experience great.
This wheel cost a bit more, but I've been using it for a good many years now without any issues.
So, like the title goes, really don't bother with a wheel that does not meet the basic requirements. A Logitech G29 is probably a good minimum benchmark to work from.
See https://www.howtogeek.com/thinking-of-buying-a-cheap-racing-wheel-dont-bother
#technology #gaming
Picking out the best SD card for a Raspberry Pi just got a ton easier
It is true that many SD cards that fail in Raspberry Pi's is because they are not suited to that type of use. It is not so much about the cost of putting a replacement card it, but far more about the loss of data, especially when daily backups were not being made, and the inconvenience of a sudden failure.
"Tested and certified by Raspberry Pi to provide the best stability and performances with all Raspberry Pi boards. A2 Class micro SD card supporting DDR50 and SDR104 bus speeds and command queuing (CQ) extension. Also available as preloaded with Raspberry Pi OS."
It looks like US$9.95 for a 32 GB card.
See https://www.xda-developers.com/best-sd-card-raspberry-pi-easier
#technology #RaspberryPi
Crypto payments explosion in South Africa as Zapper is now supported as a payment system
Cryptocurrency exchanges Luno and VALR have recently expanded the platforms their payment systems support, increasing the number of South African merchants where users can pay with digital assets.
Luno said its customers can now transact using crypto at 31,000 merchants nationwide thanks to a partnership with Zapper.
Thanks to its integration with Zapper, Luno said its customer base can make payments to vendors such as FlySafair, fuel stations, and educational institutions.
This will certainly make it a lot easier for those with Bitcoin to use it for daily transactions in South Africa. I've bought groceries with mine at Pick 'n Pay last year, but it required a special wallet to be used. This looks a lot more versatile and mainstream.
But I've ditched most of my cryptocurrency as I have no clue how it gets managed when it comes to declaring capital gains to SARS. With my other investments it is fairly easy as the institution sends the reports at the end of the year. But how does one fathom this out from Bitcoin in, Bitcoin transferred, Bitcoin used, etc on a going basis? Bitcoin values vary daily, and this is not such an issue with static cash/credit.
So I'm rather waiting to see how it all pans out from a tax perspective.
See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cryptocurrency/563843-crypto-payments-explosion-in-south-africa.html
#technology #southafrica #cryptocurrency
Banana Pi and OpenWrt’s One/AP-24.XY Router Board Hits the Market
The MediaTek MT7981B (Filogic 820) SoC is at the heart of the OpenWrt One, paired with the MediaTek MT7976C dual-band WiFi 6 chipset. The device supports WiFi 6 with dual-band capabilities, offering 3×3 and 2×2 MIMO configurations for enhanced wireless connectivity.
In terms of hardware specifications, the OpenWrt One is impressive. It boasts:
* 1 x 2.5 Gbit WAN port and 1 x 1G bit LAN port for high-speed wired connections.
* 1 GB DDR4 RAM, ensuring smooth multitasking and efficient data handling.
* 256 MiB NAND and 16 MiB NOR storage, providing ample space for firmware and user data.
* An M.2 SSD slot allows users to expand storage further.
* A USB 2.0 Type-A port for peripheral connectivity.
* A mikroBUS expansion port opens up many possibilities for adding sensors, transceivers, and other modules.
It is a router but does not contain the usual switch array of 5 or 7 Ethernet LAN ports. So it will likely need to be supplemented with a network switch device for many.
Open source OpenWRT is already quite powerful router software, and along with all this hardware capability, this device looks really interesting. Because of OpenWRT's involvement, it likely also means that there will be excellend support for features, and that it will receive ongoing support for quite a while (likely much better than Asus and other OEMs provide).
See https://linuxiac.com/openwrt-one-router-board-hits-the-market
#technology #opensource #OpenWRT #router #BananaPi
5 reasons you should replace your regular SSD with an NVMe if you haven't already
It's a pretty established fact that adding an SSD to an old PC is one of the biggest improvements to its overall performance. But what about if you already have an SSD but are tempted by the recent price drops of NVMe storage? Will that upgrade bring a similar boost to performance, or is it something you could leave until you next buy a new computer? Well, while it won't bring the super speed-up of moving from an HDD to an SSD, putting NVMe in your computer does come with some worthwhile benefits for the upgrade.
Some quite valid points made in the linked article. Something I did not think about was the SATA connector itself limits throughput speed vs a PCIe connector.
But for many of us who still have boards with only a single M.2 slot connector. In my board's case, using that slot would mean two of my SATA SSDs I think being disabled. But for my future motherboard purchase, I'll certainly be looking for multiple M.2 slot connectors on the board. Most of the clutter of cables inside my case is due to the many drives connected in there.
See https://www.xda-developers.com/5-reasons-you-should-replace-sata-ssd-with-nvme-storage
#technology #storage
FFmpeg 7.1 debuts with full Vulkan encoding pipelines, enhanced AAC decoding, MV-HEVC support, and more
FFmpeg 7.1 introduces support for the native AAC USAC decoder, a component of the xHE-AAC coding system increasingly favoured by streaming websites for its robust volume normalization metadata.
Another critical update is the inclusion of MV-HEVC decoding support. This tool, essential for processing stereoscopic content, caters to the emerging market of advanced mobile phones and VR headsets that produce such formats.
The support for cropping metadata within Matroska and MP4 formats marks an important step not only for archival purposes but also in supporting AV1 hardware encoders, which require this signalling due to the codec’s limitations.
It is all quite a big step forward for this cross-platform, open-source multimedia framework that can be used to manipulate and convert various audio and video formats.
FFmpeg is actually built into many other applications, so many users won't even know they are using it. I recently did a video about how to use it to overcome some of the lack of H.264 and H.265 encoding/decoding in DaVinci Resolve for Linux. I certainly hope that DaVinci Resolve could build this into their Linux version in future.
See https://linuxiac.com/ffmpeg-7-1-promises-major-improvements-in-video-processing
#technology #video #FFmpeg
World Wide Web Foundation to close, as Berners-Lee shifts focus to Solid Protocol to take on centralised social media
n a surprising announcement, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the web, and Rosemary Leith, co-founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, revealed that the organization is ceasing operations. The decision comes after 16 years of advocating for a safe, trusted, open web.
However, Berners-Lee is not giving up on the Foundation's goals; instead, he's just redirected his efforts to the Solid Protocol.
From where they sit, the top threat to users' rights is dominant, centralised social media platforms, such as Facebook, X, and Reddit. This dominance has led to the commoditization of user data and a concentration of power that's contrary to Berners-Lee's original vision of the web.
I've mentioned before that I was very concerned about some great ideas that came out of the Solid Protocol, but the momentum was dismally slow. There was a proof of concept and then not a lot heard. So this move is probably a very good thing to get some momentum and help shake things up.
Big businesses running a centralised social media platform, some selling the data, others exploiting it for their own gains, some giving into political interferences, etc is just not good for end users (the public).
On the other hand, decentralised platforms need to work cohesively, profiles need to survive hosting changes, users need to be found (if they wish to be), and they need to interconnect. This is what the Solid Protocol was tackling.
So, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with this going forward.
#technology #decentralisation #socialmedia #solidprotocol
Cloudflare beats patent troll so badly it basically gives up: Patents will go Public
"Sable is a patent troll. It doesn’t make, develop, innovate, or sell anything. Sable IP is merely a shell entity formed to monetize (make money from) an ancient patent portfolio acquired by Sable Networks from Caspian Networks in 2006."
Lately, these patent profiteers have targeted the open source community. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation and Linux Foundation last month strengthened ties with United Patents, a company focused on defending against predatory patent claims.
"In the end, Sable agreed to pay Cloudflare $225,000, grant Cloudflare a royalty-free license to its entire patent portfolio, and to dedicate its patents to the public, ensuring that Sable can never again assert them against another company," said Terrell and Nemeroff.
Well, this is a big win for the small guys and open source projects, as patent trolls can put these guys out of business and stifle innovation.
Unfortunately, it takes a Big Tech company to use its finances to fight such patent trolls. Obviously the win benefits Cloudflare, but the positive benefits will flow far wider than for themselves.
See https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/03/patent_shakedown_fails_as_troll
#technology #patents #patentrolls
Pebblebee's new Universal trackers can switch between Google's and Apple's networks on the fly
When buying a Bluetooth tracker, you typically need to make certain you're getting the model tailored to either the Google Find My Device or Apple Find My network. Pebblebee recently became the first company to release models that support either, and they come in all three form factors: card, keychain, and ultra-compact tag.
I like the no vendor lock in approach as I moved back to Android a year ago but am still stuck with my AirTags, and get daily warnings from my Android phone that an unknown tracker is following me.
These tags are probably ideal for those who are not 100% locked into one phone ecosystem. Hopefully it encourages other manufacturers to also provide this functionality.
See https://www.androidpolice.com/pebblebee-universal-bluetooth-tracker-switchable-apple-google-network
#technology #trackers
Mozilla Thunderbird Lands On Android With New Beta Release
The popular open-source email client, Mozilla Thunderbird, has just launched a beta version of its Android app. This release, version 8.0b1, is available as a pre-release with a range of new features and improvements.
This beta release introduces the official Thunderbird for Android branding, moving away from its previous identity as K-9 Mail. For those already using K-9 Mail or a previous Thunderbird for Android build, migrating settings to the new version is now a seamless process.
See https://ostechnix.com/thunderbird-lands-on-android-with-new-beta-release
#technology #opensource #email
South Africa’s first electric minibus taxi to hit the road in Cape Town
Christened the eKamva (kamva is the Xhosa word for future), the 15-seater battery-powered minibus is supported by a cluster of dedicated “taxi-rank adjacent” charging stations to support the taxi industry’s transition to electric mobility.
Coetzee said the DC charging hubs to support its electric taxis provide 60kW and are able to charge the eKamva to 80% capacity in an hour, with a full charge taking 75 minutes. eKamva delivers cost savings of between 40% and 70% on running costs compared traditional internal combustion engine vehicles of a similar build, he said.
According to Coetzee, much of the cost savings promised by eKamva relate to the fact that the vehicle has only eight moving parts compared to the complexity of a traditional petrol- or diesel-powered taxi. “There are no oil filters and air filters, spark plugs or oil to change, so it is much easier to maintain. There are also fewer points of [possible] failure.
I'm blown away that the usual 40% tax on EV imports will also apply to these vehicles (South Africa really needs to sort this out, as these are not "luxury vehicles").
I just dread to think what could happen though when drivers discover the acceleration that an EV motor has. It could be great for safer overtaking, but we'll really have to see how this pans out.
The last paragraph in the linked article s very interesting about future plans for driver safety monitoring. As far as any public transport drivers go, this is probably a good thing.
See https://techcentral.co.za/south-africa-first-electric-minibus-taxi/252746
#technology #southafrica #EV #taxis #environment
Working with MP4 H264 in DaVinci Resolve on Linux
DaVinci Resolve for Linux free edition does not import or export any H.264 or H.265 codec files (whether in a MP4, HKV, or MOV container) nor does it work with AAC at all (The $299 Studio version only handles the H.264 and H.265 video codecs but not the AAC audio codec). This is said to be a Linux licensing issue, so will not be receiving support on the free version of DaVinci Resolve.
I explain in this video how two batch files will help convert any MP4 from cameras or other sources into ready to import straight into DaVinci Resolve on Linux. The second batch files transcodes the massive Quicktime file that DaVinci Resolve renders, into a smaller, universally compatible, and easier to MP4 file to share or upload to YouTube.
The video ends off by explaining how to otherwise import the DaVinci Resolve woking project into a Windows version of DaVinci Resolve, to render it using the free Windows edition which will render to H.264 or H.265.
Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaeF-tdMP5A
#technology #DaVinciResolve #HowTo #Linux
Yes, You Can Get the Epic Games Store on Your Linux PC. Here's How
The Linux gaming community has grown rapidly over the past few years, thanks to open-source game development and compatibility layers. With all these games, Epic games are also making headlines in the Linux community. It's now easier than ever to run Epic games on Linux.
Yes, you can play Epic Games titles on Linux, but it requires a workaround since the Epic Games Store doesn't officially support Linux. Instead of the official Epic Games launcher, you can use alternative tools like the Heroic Games Launcher to access Epic Games on Linux. Another option is Lutris, a game management platform for Linux, which uses programs like Wine that allow you to run Windows games on a Linux system (including the Epic Games launcher).
Steam Games does a pretty good job of running many Windows games quite seamlessly using the one-click compatibility software, but it is great to also have all these alternatives as well. I started using Steam Games mainly when I was still dual booting between Windows and Linux, and did not want to pay twice for the same game (I imagine cloud logins makes this mostly redundant nowadays).
See https://www.howtogeek.com/get-the-epic-games-store-on-your-linux-pc
#technology #gaming #linux
Dog Poop Drone Cleans Up The Yard So You Don’t Have To
Yes, you probably really don't NEED this, but some people may well think they do.
The video in the linked article below, from a lightning talk at a conference, gives a pretty good overview of how it works, and some of the thought process involved in getting it to where it is now. And while Caleb’s PoopCopter is clearly still a prototype, it’s easy to get the gist. Combining data from the previous poop-adjacent efforts, Caleb has built a quadcopter that can (or will, someday) be guided to the approximate location of the offending package, home in on it using a downward-looking camera, and autonomously whisk it away.
See https://hackaday.com/2024/09/28/dog-poop-drone-cleans-up-the-yard-so-you-dont-have-to
#technology #drone
12 Best Free and Open Source Steganography Tools
Steganography is the art and science of concealing messages in other messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message. It’s a form of security through obscurity. Steganography is often used with cryptography. Plainly visible encrypted messages, no matter how unbreakable they are, arouse interest. This weakness is avoided with steganography.
In most cases, no-one would even know there was a hidden message, so such means are not usually subjected to attempts to crack them.
See https://www.linuxlinks.com/best-free-open-source-steganography-tools
#technology #privacy #steganography #opensource
Japanese orgs now paying salaries direct into e-wallets
Ten subsidiaries of Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank Group have begun paying employees' salaries into SoftBank's own PayPay digital wallet.
PayPay is the largest mobile payment app in Japan and is owned by LY Corporation – a Softbank subsidiary.
"This initiative aims to enhance payment employee benefits by increasing salary options and to promote the expansion of the PayPay economic sphere across the entire group," explained the fintech business back in August, when it announced it would eventually issue digital salary payments.
This is quite interesting as we often needed banks in the earlier days if "credits" needed to be transferred to employees, but with digital wallets this could actually be directly done. The big thing to ensure is that such digital wallets can be easily used to purchase any services or pay for anything that needs to be paid for. And, yes, provision needs to be made for any problems experienced with a digital wallet.
It's an interesting development though to watch.
See https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/softbank_digital_salary
#technology #banking #digitalwallets
