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omoc writes:

A very recent firmware analysis (PDF) from the reverse engineer Eloi Vanderbeken shows that NETGEAR didn't fix the backdoor on port 32764 but instead implemented a knocking feature that is now required to unlock the service.

Summary from the slides: The knocking feature is initiated when a "packet type == 0x201" arrived at "ft_tool" that listens to the Ethernet packets. It only works with EtherType 0x8888 and the payload has to be "45d1bb339b07a6618b2114dbc0d7783e" which is the MD5-hash of the model number DGN1000. If such a packet arrives, the backdoor service /usr/bin/scfgmgr f- is launched.

Ars Technica reports:

The nature of the change, which leverages the same code as was used in the old firmware to provide administrative access over the concealed port, suggests that the backdoor is an intentional feature of the firmware and not just a mistake made in coding. "It's DELIBERATE," Vanderbecken asserted in his presentation.

mendax writes:

The New York Times is reporting that the US government continues to be interested in making it difficult for other governments to spy on their citizens while actively working to defeat this increased security.

The State Department provided $2.8 million to a team of American hackers, community activists and software geeks to develop the system, called a mesh network, as a way for dissidents abroad to communicate more freely and securely than they can on the open Internet. One target that is sure to start debate is Cuba; the United States Agency for International Development has pledged $4.3 million to create mesh networks there.

Such efforts make one wonder which side will eventually win.

lhsi writes:

A study looked at how often people cooperate in a prisoners dilemma game, finding that those who played computer games were more likely to cooperate. The authors found that this link was just with gamers, "none of the other computer time use variables (including time spent on social media, browsing internet, working etc.) are significantly related to cooperation rates."

We conclude that participants in our study who spent more time playing computer games display more prosocial behavior. It is important to note that we cannot make any claims regarding causality. It is both possible, given our results, that more prosocial people self-select into playing more computer games as it is possible that playing computer games "makes" people more prosocial.

AnonTechie writes:

50 years ago, IBM created a mainframe that helped send men to the Moon; a ground breaking computer that allowed new levels of compatibility between systems. The System/360 programs still run today.

While IBM had been making its 700 and 7000 Series mainframes for more than a decade, the System/360 "ushered in an era of computer compatibility for the first time, allowing machines across a product line to work with each other," IBM says. "It was the first product family that allowed business data-processing operations to grow from the smallest machine to the largest without the enormous expense of rewriting vital programs... Code written for the smallest member of the family had to be upwardly compatible with each of the family's larger processors. Peripherals such as printers, communications devices, storage, and input output devices had to be compatible across the family."

Papas Fritas writes:

The NYT reports that golf courses across the country are experimenting with 15 inch golf holes the size of pizzas to stop people from quitting the game amid reports that golf has lost five million players in the last decade with 20 percent of the existing 25 million golfers apt to quit in the next few years. "We've got to stop scaring people away from golf by telling them that there is only one way to play the game and it includes these specific guidelines," says Ted Bishop, president of the PGA of America. "We've got to offer more forms of golf for people to try. We have to do something to get them into the fold, and then maybe they'll have this idea it's supposed to be fun."

A 15-inch-hole event was held at the Reynolds Plantation resort last week featuring top professional golfers Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose, the defending United States Open champion. "A 15-inch hole could help junior golfers, beginning golfers and older golfers score better, play faster and like golf more," says Garcia, who shot a six-under-par 30 for nine holes in the exhibition. Another alternative is foot golf, in which players kick a soccer ball from the tee to an oversize hole, counting their kicks. Still it is no surprise that not everyone agrees with the burgeoning alternative movement to make golf more user-friendly. "I don't want to rig the game and cheapen it," says Curtis Strange, a two-time United States Open champion and an analyst for ESPN. "I don't like any of that stuff. And it's not going to happen either. It's all talk."

An anonymous coward writes:

In 2006, BioVisions and Xvivo, a team of scientists and scientific animators produced a three-minute video called "The Inner Life of the Cell." [Video]

Two years ago, they set out to upgrade their animations and make them more realistic. They wanted to cram a virtual cell with proteins at a more realistic density, and then have them jitter and collide.

The result a video called "Protein Packing." [Video]

More info, and the full article at The New York Times.

crutchy writes:

Thorium is the future of energy, so anything that comes up about thorium applications gets my attention.

From the site:

Fission of natural thorium is much easier [than natural uranium] because its absorption product (uranium-233) produces enough neutrons from collision with a slowed-down (thermal) neutron to sustain the fission reaction, given that the reactor is designed to be frugal with its neutrons. This feature, and the abundance of thorium worldwide, give thorium a profound advantage over the other nuclear fuels for sustained energy generation, for example, in cars [Video].

rjt writes:

Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have developed for the first time a process capable of producing industrial quantities of graphene, using commonly available equipment. The breakthrough is described in the journal Nature Materials.

From the press release:

Until now, researchers have been unable to produce graphene of high quality in large enough quantities. The subject of on-going international research, the research undertaken by AMBER is the first to perfect a large-scale production of pristine graphene materials and has been highlighted by the highly prestigious Nature Materials publication as a global breakthrough. Professor Coleman and his team used a simple method for transforming flakes of graphite into defect-free graphene using commercially available tools, such as high-shear mixers. They demonstrated that not only could graphene-containing liquids be produced in standard lab-scale quantities of a few 100 millilitres, but the process could be scaled up to produce hundreds of litres and beyond.

lhsi writes:

Responding to a consultation of the EU Commission, various music industry groups are warning against a right for consumers to sell their MP3s. IFPI notes that people should be barred from selling their digital purchases because it's too convenient, while the quality of digital copies remains top-notch.

mendax writes:

If it wasn't already clear, the face of warfare has changed. The Russian anexation of Crimea is a case in point according to the New York Times.

From the article:

Secretary of State John Kerry has accused Russia of behaving in a '19th-century fashion' because of its annexation of Crimea. But Western experts who have followed the success of Russian forces in carrying out President Vladimir V. Putin's policy in Crimea and eastern Ukraine have come to a different conclusion about Russian military strategy. They see a military disparaged for its decline since the fall of the Soviet Union skillfully employing 21st-century tactics that combine cyberwarfare, an energetic information campaign and the use of highly trained special operation troops to seize the initiative from the West.

Appalbarry writes:

Recently I discovered that my bank (Scotiabank in Canada) still does not have case sensitive passwords. They also do not allow "special" characters.

They do have "Multi Factor Identification question functionality" in other words a bunch of annoying questions like "What was the name of your childhood pet?" and "Who was your third grade teacher?" You know, the kind of information that most people have out in public on their Facebook or LinkedIn profiles.

I finally wrote them and asked when they were planning to bring at least the password function into the 21st century. Here, in part, is what I got back:

AnonTechie writes:

ExtremeTech informs us of a new wireless charging system.

Rim and his team have developed an inductive wireless charging system than can beam power up to five meters away. Like the inductive charging systems in Qi and PMA, the KAIST wireless power system relies on transmitter and receiver coils, but those standards have nowhere near the range or power demonstrate here. The team managed to get this astounding range out of its coils by developing a new mechanism called the Dipole Coil Resonant System (DCRS). This technology was designed specifically to solve the problems with MIT's Coupled Magnetic Resonance System (CMRS) for wireless charging at a distance. CMRS was able to beam power up to 2.1 meters away when it was developed in 2007, but it was woefully complicated and inefficient.

Sir Garlon writes:

The Washington Post is reporting that the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the Obama administration to disclose its legal rationale for killing American citizens with drone strikes.

If I'm reading this correctly, the ruling applies only to drone strikes that kill American citizens like Anwar Al-Awlaki, not the entire broader campaign of drone attacks in Pakistan and other countries. It doesn't require the strikes on Americans to stop, but it does appear to open the door to legal challenges to the justification for such attacks.

The Court's ruling does allow the administration to redact the documents before release. The full 52-page PDF of the ruling is available here.

AnonTechie writes:

Ars Technica reports on Intellectual Ventures latest activies in the courtroom.

Intellectual Ventures (IV) is the world's biggest patent-licensing company and boasts of having collected tens of thousands of patents since it was founded in 2000. It's raised about $6 billion from investors over the years, and to recoup that money, it started filing lawsuits over patents a few years ago. In 2013, it launched a new salvo, filing 13 lawsuits against major US banks, including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Capital One.

The Capital One case ended last Wednesday, when a Virginia federal judge threw out the two IV patents that remained in the case. It's the first IV patent case seen through to a judgment, and it ended in a total loss for the patent-holding giant: both patents were invalidated, one on multiple grounds. (An IV case against Motorola went to a jury, but it ended in a mistrial, and no new trial has been scheduled.)

carguy writes:

This appears to be a legitimate effort to build a car to race at Le Mans. Unlike every other team currently in pro racing, they are opening up their design information to the 'net. Another interesting page is their public budget, combined with request for sponsorship. Racing is not cheap, although I believe their budget to be significantly lower than the major manufacturers that race at Le Mans.

Perrinn myTeam claims to be the world's first open-source race team, and it plans to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015 with an all-wheel-drive hybrid LMP1 car, which means the team would be competing against the likes of Audi, Porsche and Toyota. Everything about the car--from CAD drawings to its maker's financials--will be available online for anyone to scrutinize.