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John McAfee Just Announced The Most Private Smart Phone Ever: Here’s How It Works 2017-04-28

McAfee, a pioneer in the realm of antivirus software, has a new product coming to market later this year that takes on the subject of personal privacy with an item that’s become a significant part of most people’s daily lives — smartphones.

“Do you think that when you power down your phone, that it’s actually powered down?” McAfee asked the Anti-Media audience Thursday. “I would say that 25 percent of you, everybody who’s listening, have malware that intercepts the software function that calls the power down.

He says it's a never ending security battle between security companies and hackers because it's software fighting software, which in most cases has flaws. That’s why encryption services like Signal are largely useless because they can be thwarted by a simple keylogger.

He's computer phone (smartphone) will have conditional access to location services and the ability to randomize your location. “Anonymizer” function that prevents search engines from snooping. Detector for Stingrays.

The price is 1100 US$ which McAfee thinks is high but hardware costs. It is however still a waiting list.

John McAfee announces the Chuck Norris of privacy phones
McAfee announced the phone on Twitter in 2017-04-25. With "The John McAfee Privacy Phone, by MGT - first prototype. World's first truly private smartphone. You gonna love it.". It got 951 likes.

John McAfee on the Privacy Phone: Why and How 2017-04-27

Eventually, every hackable function of smartphones was controlled by software switches, giving full access to hackers to control the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, geolocation, camera, microphone, the factory reset function, automatic system updates, etc. We have given the keys to the kingdom, blindly and willingly, to the world’s hackers.

Pleas from the cybersecurity community to smartphone manufacturers to fix this this horrific problem by returning to the less “cool” air gapped physical switches have fallen on deaf ears. In desperation, I decided to do it myself.

The John McAfee privacy phone contains a bank of switches on the back cover that allow the user to physically disconnect the battery, the antennas for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and geolocation, the camera and microphone, etc. It also will not allow the phone to connect to a Stingray or any other IMSI catcher device. In addition, it contains a web search anonymizer to prevent web searches from triggering an avalanche of ads

It is version 1. It is not hack proof. But it does give the user enormous power over his or her privacy and it is light years ahead of the Blackphone or any other phone claiming to be secure. It will be available in August of this year. Version 2 will be available early 2018. It will be as hack proof as humanly possible.

Front page at mgtci.com:

* Bank of switches allowing physical disconnection the battery, WiFi, Bluetooth and geolocation, the camera and the microphone, and more
  * Resistant to Stingray or any other IMSI catcher device
  * Web search anonymizer to prevent searches from triggering an avalanche of ads
  * Developed in the United States, designed in Denmark, and assembled in Europe
  * Version 2 coming in 2018

One can buy a voucher now for 200 US$ to be first in the queue.

The McAfee/MGT open positions 2017-06-23 are:
  * Talented C++ Programmer (C++ 11 application, Visual Studio, Qt 5.7, or other C++ GUI frameworks, familiarity with cybersecurity principles and practices including cryptography, exploitation, and application security, ability to work in a Linux or Windows development environment, experienced in Android, iOS, and OS X application development)
  * C++ Programmer with Bitcoin and Blockchain Knowledge Required (Knowledgeable with the basics of the Bitcoin / Blockchain protocol, Bitcoin industry dynamics and trends, including mining procedures, mining pools, as well as Cryptocurrency wallets, and exchanges, Interested in constructing a Bitcoin mining pool and wallet, Prior peer technology work for the Bitcoin network)

Intel concerned about name of John McAfee’s privacy phone 2017-05-10

Intel has told a court that MGT Capital Investments has gone ahead with the announcement of the “John McAfee Privacy Phone,” even though the company that proposes to change its name to “John McAfee Global Technologies” has previously said that it did not plan to launch products and services under the McAfee mark.

The chipmaker claims it acquired the mark when it bought McAfee Inc. in 2011,

  * So what do you think about this phone project?
  * Does it improve anything significantly?
  * Is it likely to be compatible such that it can run Android "apps" ?
  * Will the bootloader be locked down?

Seems that when applying for a FCC permit all applicant parties must never been convicted for possession or distribution of drugs:

The applicant must certify that neither the applicant nor any party to the application is subject to a denial of Federal benefits, that include FCC benefits, pursuant to Section 5301 of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, 21 U.S.C. § 862 because of a conviction for possession or distribution of a controlled substance. See 47 CFR 1.2002(b) for the definition of a "party" for these purposes.

So drugs equals no FCC service for you and thus can't sell any electronic equipment in the US market. But maybe there's a time limit? It does however really mix unrelated matters.

Venezuelans flock to BTC, the digital currency as inflation has spiraled to the triple digits, debasing the the venezuelan currency, the bolivar (VEF) and depleting savings. Citizens struggle to find everything from food to medicine on store shelves. Ryan Taylor, chief executive officer of crypto currency Dash Core says "If you're going to be in something volatile, you might as well be in something that's volatile and rising than volatile and falling,". Crypto currency Dash Core is the third-largest digital coin by number of transactions. Bitcoin (BTC) trading volume in Venezuela jumped to 1.3 million US$ this week, about double the amount that changed hands two months ago, according to LocalBitcoins.com.

Venezuela's currency has become nearly worthless in the black market, where it takes more than 6000 bolivars (VEF) to buy 1 US$, while bitcoin surged 53% in May-2017 alone. But it's not just about shielding against the falling bolivar, as some Venezuelans are using crypto currencies to buy and sell everyday goods and services, according to Jorge Farias, the CEO of Cryptobuyer.

For those desiring a faster transaction time the crypto currency Ethereum exists with an average block settling time of 14 seconds since April 2016 according to themerkle.com.

Venezuela has 47e9 m³ in proven oil reserves, more than any other nation in the world. So now the only thing missing is to start the sale of oil using crypto currencies so that a military intervention can be justified..
All this happens while since at least 2014, hundreds of thousands of citizens have protested high levels of criminal violence, corruption, hyperinflation, and chronic scarcity of basic goods, arrest of opposition leaders, laws to force citizens to work in agricultural fields and farms for 60 days or longer, 40 inmates dismembered and consumed three fellow inmates, 200 prison riots in Venezuela in 2016 and so on. Tourist hotels probably have an all time low now for that super bargain..

Some videos on Xerox Alto from 1972:
Seminal Xerox Alto arrives for restoration (video)

Alto restoration in text.

Quick specification:
CPU: TTL-based, 4x 74181 ALU chips. User programmable microcode (1-3 kB), big-endian. @ 5.88 MHz.
RAM: 96-512 kB
Graphics: 606×808 pixels
Storage: 2.5 MB one-platter cartridge

In a break from my usual interests of business and geopolitics... Culturally we are still not above paying people anywhere from $50 to in this case, more than $100m for punching each other for the sake of entertainment.

Unbeaten boxer Floyd Mayweather will fight UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor in a much-discussed boxing match on Aug. 26 in Las Vegas, a well-placed source told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday.

Mayweather and McGregor both confirmed the fight on social media on Wednesday.

[...] It is a stunning development given that Mayweather, the greatest boxer of his era, had said he was retired after compiling a 49-0 pro record from 1996 through 2015. But with a fight which could pay each man in excess of $100 million, he reconsidered.

Mayweather is considered the greatest boxer of his generation and among the best of all-time. The fight with McGregor, in addition to paying him in excess of nine figures, will give him the opportunity to improve to 50-0.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

Samsung computer phones used to have a stock app called S Suggest. Then Samsung didn't renew the domain that control it. And made it possible for villains to register the domain and malware infest millions of computer phone users had they spotted the opportunity.

On parity in severity with CVE-2015-2865 from 2015-06-17 which will not crypto sign computer code sent in clear text.

That is unless the phone goes into mission impossible flight mode of self destruction as in 2016-09-08.

Germany is planning a new law giving authorities the right to look at private messages and fingerprint children as young as 6, the interior minister said on Wednesday after the last government gathering before a national election in September 2017. Ministers from central government and federal states said encrypted messaging services, such as WhatsApp and Signal, allow militants and criminals to evade traditional surveillance. "We can't allow there to be areas that are practically outside the law," interior minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters in the eastern town of Dresden.

It's not even sure that messages will be obvious to be.. well anything like they don't want to. A quick look how this can be done is "The Saint" from 1997 where the contractor gets jobs that way. The hard quote is "where authorities install software on phones to relay messages before they are encrypted" suppose the phone knows nothing. Not even the destination because another unit tells it via junk voice modulated with actual bits what to do. This is so incredible stupid technology wise and dangerous design of society. The last time themes like this were current. Neighbors told people in uniform that so and so did bad things. So they could snatch their belongings like a house for themselves. And the whole society went down the drain. Oh wait, actually it was repeated after the mustache times with the sickle times. Both failed. This also shows why bootloader locked phones is detrimental to real security.

Another way to do it is like this:
"is planning new law planning giving"
Lexicon:
r - law
s - is
t - giving
e - planning
c - new
It would be trivial to get the encoded meaning. But now suppose something like base64 etc is added on top with input data being something true binary etc.

For some mysterious reason Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech, Slovakia, and Hungary almost all of them seem to have been spared the latest string of violent attacks. How can that be, Nobel prize awaits! ;)

China plans to send a 3 kg miniature ecosystem biosphere to the surface of the moon by using Chang’e 4 mission, incorporating a robotic lander and rover. When it departs in 2018.

The container will send potatoes, arabidopsis seeds and silkworm eggs to the surface of the moon. The eggs will hatch into silkworms, which can produce carbon dioxide, while the potatoes and seeds emit oxygen through photosynthesis. Together, they can establish a simple ecosystem on the Moon, says Zhang Yuanxun, chief designer of the container. The whole event with the development of plants and insects on lunar surface will be live-streamed to the world, says the project’s chief designer Xie Gengxin.

Suitable temperature for plants and insects to survive and thrive is between +1 .. +30 ⁰C. But the moon’s surface temperature ranges between -170 ⁰C at night to +120 ⁰C in the day. To get around this problem, the container will be equipped with a insulation layer and light pipes to ensure the growth of the plants and insects inside. Specially designed batteries will be used to provide a consistent energy supply.

Meanwhile researchers at the International potato center (CIP) and UTEC, Peru technical university in Lima, investigates if it's possible to grow potato on the planet Mars.

In the future all you base are owned by China?

Winston Churchill said in 1943: "We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us,".

Now neuroscientists and psychologists have found the connections. Specialized cells in the hippocampal region of our brains are attuned to the geometry and arrangement of the spaces we inhabit. But this is something architects seems to ignore at the peril of those forced to live in their creations.

Researchers has made use of wearable devices such as bracelets that monitor skin conductance which is a marker of physiological arousal. To gauge the impact of environments.

It has been found that if a façade is complex and interesting, it affects people in a positive way; negatively if it is simple and monotonous. Access to green space such as woodland or a park can offset some of the stress of city living. People feel better in rooms with curved edges and rounded contours than in sharp-edged rectangular rooms – though, tellingly perhaps is that design students preferred the opposite.

Objects and artefacts in public spaces nudges people physically closer together and makes it more likely they would talk to each other, a process called “triangulation”. An example is the Rockefeller Center in New York City there by placing benches alongside the yew trees in its basement concourse instead of the people-repelling spikes the management had originally wanted, transformed the way people behaved.

To make people feel connected to a place they need to know how things relate to each other spatially. In other words, there needs to be a sense of direction. This applies both outdoors and indoors.

One visible rebellion against prescribed routes of architects and planners are the paths across grassy curbs and parks marking people’s preferred paths across the city.

Adopt to human scale, making sidewalks, bike lanes, parks and public access water.

A number of studies have shown that growing up in a city doubles the chances of someone developing schizophrenia, and increases the risk for other mental disorders such as depression and chronic anxiety. The main trigger appears to be what researchers call “social stress” – the lack of social bonding and cohesion in neighborhoods.

These are probably examples of good architecture:
Jakriborg (New Urbanism)
Art Nouveau

And there is also bad..

Thought that Apple iPod was groundbreaking or new? MPman beat them at mp3. But here's the 1974 version of "iPod": Retro-Tech: The 1972 Desktop 'iPod'

The mechanics, inventiveness, control without computer etc. Fascinating.

(year of manufacture can be seen at 9:11 on the motor)