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Free Winders

Microsoft will allow users of PCs and tablets running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 - along with users of Windows Phone running 8.1 - to upgrade to the new Windows 10 OS free of charge for the first year after Windows 10 launches. It's a radical change from the way Microsoft's operated in the past; none of this Windows Home, Windows Professional, and varying upgrade costs - it's just going to be one free upgrade per device.

The idea seems to be to encourage widespread and rapid adoption of their new OS while reducing support costs associated with the various flavors of the current Windows OS milleu. Of course, folks running Windows 7 on older systems may encounter some hardware issues, although if they've updated some of their hardware over time, they should find migration relatively painless. For users of Windows 8.1, the upgrade's expected to be simple and straightforward.

If anyone's still dinking around with Windows 8.0, I suggest upgrading to version 8.1, which is also pretty easy. And you'll like the interface as well.

That OBDII Port On Your Car Is Wide Open

The port's what DEQ connects to when running diagnostics to determine whether or not your ride meets emission standards, and it's also what U.S.based insurer Progressive connects to with its "Snapshot" dongle that monitors your driving habits and "may qualify you for a lower rate". Therein lies a problem: once plugged into the port, a dongle can access the CANbus network which controls a number of kind of important things, such as steering assist, braking, acceleration, and other stuff because the network's wide open. Modifying a dongle is trivial because there are no secure communications protocols built into the car's network.

Heck, there's not even a secure cellular authentication protocol; many cars just automatically synch to your smartphone as a "hands-free calling" feature, so technically, a hacker doesn't even need to access the dongle port. What this means is that it's quite possible, should you happen to tick them off, for a hacker or government agency to remotely assume control of your vehicle at an inconvenient time, causing it to accelerate or the brakes to "fail" when you're driving down that steep hill.

You may remember the June 2013 Hollywood car wreck in which investigative reporter Michael Hastings, 33, was killed. According to reports at the time, his brand-new Mercedes inexplicably accelerated, and then exploded after colliding with a tree.

Hastings' groundbreaking reporting on Gen. Stanley McChrystal's candid criticism of the Obama administration is credited with ending McChrystal's military career and earned him a 2010 George Polk Award.

I'm not saying it was an assassination, just that it appeared to be an assassination.

Hopped-Up Stud-Finders Vs. Fourth Amendment

That we know of, at least 50 police agencies have been quietly purchasing and fielding stud-finders on steroids; hand-held Range-R radar devices capable of detecting movement - even breathing - as far as fifty feet inside buildings. And they aren't limited by the type of construction, as concrete, brick, and other materials are no barrier.

Other radar devices have far more advanced capabilities, including three-dimensional displays of where people are located inside a building, according to marketing materials from their manufacturers. One is capable of being mounted on a drone. And the Justice Department has funded research to develop systems that can map the interiors of buildings and locate the people within them.

Back in 2001, the US Supreme Court ruled that cops can't use thermal cameras to scan homes without a warrant, and they included in that ruling radar systems such as these. Last year, they also ruled against warrantless use of drug-sniffing dogs outside of homes. It appears, however, that your Constitutional rights are just so yesterday.

AOL Is Restructuring

Subscription services and dialup internet access remain the company's most profitable revenue sources, but a number of their properties are in serious decline. As a result, AOL will likely shed workers and shut down sites such as KitchenDaily - a recipe site that's seen a 50% traffic drop during the past year - and Pawnation, which has seen traffic declines of nearly 60% despite its emphasis on cute animals.

Even AOL's Huffington Post property has lost 20% of its traffic, although that site is likely to remain untouched during the restructuring process.

Aol, owner of TechCrunch, is gearing up for some housekeeping. TechCrunch has learned that the company is preparing to lay off staff and close or fold up underperforming titles as part of a bigger restructuring, aimed at simplifying the company around ad tech, stronger content operations and video. Or, as one source put it to TechCrunch, “stopping things that are not moving the needle while investing in things that are.”

Verizon is reportedly talking with AOL corporate about acquiring the company, though it seems unlikely to occur at this time.

Also in the world of tech, today is the last day you can buy Google Glass, although why you might want to do that is anybody's guess, as there will be no further software updates to the eyewear-mounted system. The product's being pulled from the market in its current iteration and is being spun out of the Google X Skunkworks and overseen by the founder of Nest Home Connectivity as a standalone project. 

Glass never gained popularity in the consumer market, but future iterations are anticipated, and will likely focus upon three main issues: price, capability, and compatibility - many consumers found the cyborg-look of Glass 1.0 intrusive and off-putting.

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More Interference

Wielding his mighty pen, Obama plans to impose regulations on methane emissions. So far, he's not planning to regulate the cattle ranchers or the dairies; he's going after his favorite villains: the oil and gas industries. It must really irk him that despite his best efforts to lock up leasing on public lands, private industries have been breaking production records for oil and natural gas on private lands. Therefore, they must be punished through executive order. Unsurprisingly, the greenies are thrilled at the prospect, as it may afford another venue for them to litigate.

“This is the biggest opportunity to curb climate change pollution that they haven’t already seized,” said David Doniger, director of the climate and clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group.

Of course, they completely ignore the fact that oil and gas producers have strong motivation already to capture methane rather than allow it to leak into the atmosphere from their wells; it's highly combustible, and it burns hotter than propane, as noted here in the discussion of Maasai methane production. For oil and gas producers, by-product methane represents yet another lucrative commodity. Can't have that!

And he's not done; he also plans to wield his mighty pen to force Internet Service Providers to increase broadband speeds while cutting costs - which should work out at least as well as Obamacare has in terms of cutting costs and increasing mandated services. Under his plan, which he refers to, ironically enough, as "Affordable Broadband Internet for America" providers will receive subsidies (where have we heard that before?) to string fiber and cable everywhere in the country. Just as with health insurance, government interference will ensure lower costs and improved service for everyone.

President Obama today outlined an upcoming executive action to increase US broadband speeds and reduce its cost, something he intends to announce at a speech tomorrow in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and again in his sixth State of the Union address next week.

"You know what it feels like when you don't have a good internet connection. Everything is buffering, you're trying to download a video, you got that little circle thing that goes round and around. It's really aggravating," Obama said.

Just like health care, he's really got a handle on technology, and his grasp of complex terminology such as "that little circle thing that goes around and around" is truly astounding. These are really exciting times.

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Cameron: Want Privacy? You're Probably A Terrorist.

We've discussed Tor here on occasion; it's essentially a reconfigured Firefox browser that's designed to anonymize your internet useage by passing through multiple routers on your way to your target destination. Unlike most browsers, which are able to access only about 10% of the internet, Tor users can also access the dark web (which, contrary to popular belief, isn't all pedophiles and drug sites - there are a huge numberr of research materials down there).

Presently, I'm looking at Aviator as well, which is built by California's White Hat Security with an eye toward ensuring your privacy:

With every website you visit, you’re vulnerable to malicious hackers out to steal your surfing history, passwords, email access, bank account numbers, medical info, and more. And the “big browsers” don’t do enough to stop it.

Let's face it: it's a lot easier to stop the bad guys up front than it is to clean up after they've done their damage.

Britain's prime minister wants to change all that; his view is that if you want privacy, you're likely up to no good. So David Cameron has announced that he's prepared to ban all encrypted communications apps unless they provide his government with a back-door that allows them to decode what's being said:

"Are we going to allow a means of communications which it simply isn't possible to read?" Cameron said Monday while campaigning, in reference to apps such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, and other encrypted services. "My answer to that question is: 'No, we must not.'"

Basically, the hot new trend among so-called western democracies is to criminalize communications security in the name of Homeland Security. Apple and Google have implemented encryption by default on their newest phones, much to the distress of governments:

Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director James Comey are urging industry to give the US government backdoor access to their encrypted wares.

Holder claims that such such communications "embolden criminals", although he's stopped short of threatening outright bans. His position on the matter is rather amusing, given the volume of criminal activity emanating from his own DoJ, the IRS, and the EPA. Apparently, they can't find their own data, encrypted or not.

Wanna Work For Google?

Great! You'll just need to answer a few of their job interview questions, to see if you're a good fit. If you don't make it to at least internship level, that's okay - Microsoft's hiring.

The first two questions are easy to answer; it gets way trickier after that. Oddly enough, I seem to fit even though I missed their version of "the perfect Saturday".

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Technical Note

Ads served up on AOL's network last week hosted malware; affected sites included Huffington Post and Houston Press, among a number of others. Called Kovter, it's a strain of ransomware, and users didn't even have to click on the ad as the code launched silently. It's unknown how many Windows PCs were affected, but the package launched when it detected an older browser - including IE8, which is the version of Internet Explorer  presently in widest use.

Kovter disables input devices and brings up the above screen, telling the user that in order to unlock the computer, they have to pay a $300 "fine" via MoneyPak - making it clearly a scam.

Lessons here: always, always upgrade your browser. Do not use Internet Explorer unless you enjoy inviting trouble (the next iteration of IE, by the way, shipping with Windows 10, incorporates Cortana - Microsoft's voice-command answer to Apple's Siri). It's also wise to run an ad-blocker.

Fortunately, Kovter's pretty easily defeated: all that needs to be done is reboot into safe mode and run an up-to-date antimalware program.

Nick Bilogorskiy, Cyphort's security research director, said this malvertisement targeted every single visitor to HuffingtonPost.com.

"These criminals really turned up the exposure and tried to compromise lots of people," he said. "It's unprecedented. We've never seen it at this scale."

Bilogorskiy's team, which scans the Internet for malware, is now reviewing records to see how far back the campaign goes.

They Used To Be A Pretty Good Band, Too

Kraftwerk turned out some pretty interesting sounds back in the 70s, taking electronic music into previously uncharted terrain. But now there's a new Kraftwerk, and it has nothing to do with music.

It looks and acts like a battery pack but kraftwerk is actually the first hand-held fuel cell generator that can regenerate energy in less than 3 seconds. And it can power all your mobile devices for weeks.

The name, it turns out, is German for "power station", and it looks really cool. One quick spray from an inexpensive butane cannister, and you've got power. 

Evidently Not Very Good At His Job

In government, "cybersecurity" seems to be kind of a loose term.

A former acting director of cybersecurity at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who said he was interested in the rape and murder of children has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for child pornography charges.

Really, they ought to start with background checks, at a minimum. They've been sticking some really sick puppies into positions of responsibility, and we really deserve better. It's just a matter of time before they start stealing peoples' identities and ruining them financially.

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