PewDiePie to the media: 'Nice try' and a middle finger

Found on CNet News on Thursday, 16 February 2017
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"I'm still here. I'm still making videos. Nice try, Wall Street Journal. Try again, motherfuckers," he said in the clip, before kissing his middle finger. "Old-school media does not like internet personalities because they're scared of us."

The Journal investigation resulted this week in Disney cutting its ties with Kjellberg and Google's YouTube canceling the second season of his reality show. Kjellberg's main channel, the most subscribed on YouTube by far, continues to host his videos and run ads.

Just like other "internet personalities" he too will be forgotten and vanish. Internet fame is short and does not care about personality. Or, Youtube could just turn off his channel.

New ASLR-busting JavaScript is about to make drive-by exploits much nastier

Found on Ars Technica on Wednesday, 15 February 2017
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The attack uses simple JavaScript code to identify the memory addresses where system and application components are loaded. When combined with attack code that exploits vulnerabilities in browsers or operating systems, the JavaScript can reliably eliminate virtually all of the protection ASLR provides.

Given how crucial caching is to the performance of modern CPUs, the researchers say architectural fixes are likely to be too costly to be feasible.

"We hence recommend ASLR to no longer be trusted as a first line of defense against memory error attacks and for future defenses not to rely on it as a pivotal building block."

Just your daily reminder that nothing is secure.

The Register's guide to protecting your data when visiting the US

Found on The Register on Tuesday, 14 February 2017
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In practice, tourists have been stopped in national parks and asked to show their visitation paperwork, or stopped when driving down the road.

When it comes to safeguarding your personal data on devices, CBP has considerable leeway in what it can demand and copy – basically everything is up for grabs. The CBP told The Register it reserves the right to check "computers, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones and other communication devices, cameras, music and other media players, and any other electronic or digital devices."

"All persons, baggage, and merchandise arriving in or departing from the United States are subject to inspection, search and detention," a spokesperson said.

Simple solution? Just don't fly there. Easy.

PayPal freezes Canadian media company's account over story about Syrian family

Found on CBC on Monday, 13 February 2017
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Reminder publisher Valerie Durnin said when she tried to pay the $242.95 for the paper's entries, PayPal flagged the payment as possibly not in compliance with its "acceptable use policy," which she said she hadn't been able to track down. PayPal did promise to follow up within 72 hours of its investigation, which it never did.

"You may be buying or selling goods or services that are regulated or prohibited by the U.S. government," PayPal said in an email to News Media Canada.

Within hours of The Canadian Press asking about the situation on Friday, the account was unfrozen.

Another day, another PayPal failure. Too bad for PayPal that the media joined the game and dragged them into the light; seems there was no other basis for freezing the account than to hold onto the money.

PayPal increasing several fees starting in March

Found on MLive on Sunday, 12 February 2017
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Among the increased fees is a currency conversion charge increase from 2.5 to 3 percent on top of the exchange rate established by PayPal's bank. Meaning customers will pay three percent more than the bank's currency conversion difference when exchanging money internationally.

While the half percent increases for most transactions won't impact buyers and sellers who only make a handful of transactions a year if you have a business that sells products all over the world it could result in a significant impact on business owners.

Not only that, Paypal even added an "non-discouragement clause", that would make it impossible for a seller to tell his customers just how bad Paypal really is when they hold your money hostage for totally pointless reasons and demand equally pointless "proof" from users so they can get access to their own money again. Just avoid it.

Elite: Dangerous pen-and-paper RPG stymied by intellectual property dispute

Found on Ars Technica on Saturday, 11 February 2017
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Spidermind informed Ars that the complaint was lodged by Chris Jordan, apparently acting for Ian Bell, or at least on behalf of a LLP bearing Bell's name. Bell is the co-creator of the original 1984 Elite.

Jordan's complaint appears to hinge on whether or not the Elite: Dangerous Role Playing Game uses intellectual property from the original 1984 Elite—some of which Chris Jordan states he owns on behalf of Ian Bell and Ian Bell Elite Rights LLP.

Copyrights should be tied to the original creator and inventor only; that way copyright trolling would come to a quick end and lots of useless LLC's would vanish, taking their extort business plans with them.

Internet Backbone Provider Cogent Blocks Pirate Bay and other “Pirate” Sites

Found on TorrentFreak on Friday, 10 February 2017
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Their requests are being stopped in the Internet backbone network of Cogent Communications, which has blackholed the CloudFlare IP-address of The Pirate Bay and many other torrent and streaming sites.

A Cogent spokesperson informed us that they looked into the issue but that the company “does not discuss such decisions with third parties,” while adding that they do not control the DNS records of these sites.

No provider should ever censor the traffic that runs through his pipes.

Not even Donald Trump can save Twitter

Found on CNet News on Thursday, 09 February 2017
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The company said Thursday that the number of people regularly using the service grew by less than 1 percent despite Trump's prolific and often controversial tweeting, a deal with the NFL to broadcast games, and a new push to stream live video.

Twitter's shares plummeted as much as 18 percent and were down 12.4 percent when the market closed Thursday.

Not much of a surprise. 140 overhyped characters and nothing of value to be found in the gigantic pile of useless posts. You're not searching a needle in the haystack there, but a needle in an entire planet of hay.

Windows 10 will let you watch TV as you work

Found on CNet News on Wednesday, 08 February 2017
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A test version of Windows 10 released Wednesday comes with a feature called "compact overlay window" that will always float atop your other windows. That could be handy for holding Skype video chats, keeping an eye on political hearings and yes, watching Netflix or the big game when you're supposed to be at work.

"Always on top" is now a sales argument? They must be really desperate, and bosses sure won't be amused.

British Rail Companies Plan Iris Scan And Fingerprint Biometric Ticketing

Found on Silicon on Tuesday, 07 February 2017
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The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train operators and Network Rail, said further development could see passengers identified using biometric technology in a way similar to the facial-recognition schemes used at some UK airports to speed up border checks.

“The Capability Delivery Plan is an important step in ensuring that the whole railway and its supply chain collaborates efficiently and effectively to deliver the digital railway’s wide-ranging benefits.”

Not only a very good method for tracking people, but also with a doubtful level of security. After all, some fingerprint sensors can be easily fooled with gummy bears.