Jason E. Johnson

Here's how to see 'horned' comet 12P/Pons-Brooks in the night sky 4/21/24

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 11:58:00 +0000

A combination of five 120-second exposures taken by the Virtual Telescope Project facility in Manciano, Italy on March 5 showing comet 12P/Pons-Brooks (bottom right) and the Andromeda galaxy. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi/Virtual Telescope Project)

All you'll need to see comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, besides fair weather and a little luck are good binoculars or a telescope and sky map to help guide you to where this celestial vagabond happens to be. The comet bears the names of two of the most renowned comet hunters of all time.

https://www.space.com/comet-12p-pons-brooks-march-2024

Palantir wins $178M Army deal for TITAN artificial intelligence-enabled ground stations

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Mar 2024 16:21:00 +0000

https://defensescoop.com/2024/03/06/palantir-army-titan-ground-station-award-178-million/

The Army is moving forward with Palantir as the prime contractor for the next phase of its Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) ground station program, which aims to provide soldiers with next-generation data fusion and deep-sensing capabilities via artificial intelligence and other tools.

Palantir’s USG subsidiary was awarded a $178.4 million other transaction agreement, which calls for the delivery of 10 prototypes, the company announced Wednesday.

TITAN is considered a critical modernization component for the Army’s multi-domain operations (MDO) concept because it will integrate various types of data from numerous platforms to help commanders make sense of a fast-moving and complex battlefield.

Under the new agreement, which has a 24-month period of performance, Palantir will deliver five “basic” and five “advanced” variants of the ground station.

“Overall, it’s a software-defined solution, so it’s designed to be modular, flexible, adaptable, configurable. But currently, as envisioned, there’s two different variants — the advanced variant that is at higher echelon, and a more tactical version, which is the basic variant,” Bryant Choung, Palantir’s senior vice president for defense technology, told DefenseScoop.

Authorities Secure $2 Billion in Bitcoin from Pirate Site Operators

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 03:45:00 +0000

Authorities Secure $2 Billion in Bitcoin from Pirate Site Operators

Pirate sites can generate significant revenue streams, but they're not billion-dollar operations. With the right timing and risk tolerance, it is possible to build substantial wealth, however, as a German case illustrates. With help from the FBI, German police managed to secure nearly 50,000 bitcoin (USD $2 billion) from the operators of the defunct movie streaming portal, Movie2k.

https://torrentfreak.com/authorities-secure-2-billion-in-bitcoin-from-pirate-site-operators-240130/

CEOs Are Using Return To Office Mandates To Mask Poor Management

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 20:58:00 +0000

https://www.forbes.com/sites/qhamirani/2024/01/26/ceos-are-using-return-to-office-mandates-to-mask-poor-management/?sh=39687e0a6c2b

Louis Rossman - What pisses me off about the failed Reddit protest...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 16:36:00 +0000

Hackers threaten to leak 80GB of confidential data stolen from Reddit

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 16:34:00 +0000

https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/19/hackers-threaten-to-leak-80gb-of-confidential-data-stolen-from-reddit/

Hackers are threatening to release confidential data stolen from Reddit unless the company pays a ransom demand – and reverses its controversial API price hikes.

Apple, the company, wants to trademark images of apple, the fruit

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 16:31:00 +0000

https://www.techradar.com/news/apple-the-company-wants-to-trademark-images-of-apple-the-fruit

The Fruit Union Suisse is 111 years old. For most of its history, it has had as its symbol a red apple with a white cross—the Swiss national flag superimposed on one of its most common fruits. But the group, the oldest and largest fruit farmer’s organization in Switzerland, worries it might have to change its logo, because Apple, the tech giant, is trying to gain intellectual property rights over depictions of apples, the fruit.

“We have a hard time understanding this, because it’s not like they’re trying to protect their bitten apple,” Fruit Union Suisse director Jimmy Mariéthoz says, referring to the company’s iconic logo. “Their objective here is really to own the rights to an actual apple, which, for us, is something that is really almost universal … that should be free for everyone to use.”

While the case has left Swiss fruit growers puzzled, it’s part of a global trend. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s records, Apple has made similar requests to dozens of IP authorities around the world, with varying degrees of success. Authorities in Japan, Turkey, Israel, and Armenia have acquiesced. Apple’s quest to own the IP rights of something as generic as a fruit speaks to the dynamics of a flourishing global IP rights industry, which encourages companies to compete obsessively over trademarks they don’t really need.

AI used at World Cup to identify 300 making abusive online posts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 23:25:00 +0000

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37874541/fifa-identifies-300-world-cup-online-abusers-ai

A project using artificial intelligence to track social media abuse aimed at players at the 2022 World Cup identified more than 300 people whose details are being given to law enforcement, FIFA said Sunday.

The people made "abusive, discriminatory, or threatening posts [or] comments" on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, soccer's governing body said in a report detailing efforts to protect players and officials during the tournament played in Qatar.

Mercedes is adding ChatGPT to its infotainment system, for some reason

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 01:21:00 +0000

Mercedes owners in the U.S. will soon add a new luxury to their already luxurious vehicles: ChatGPT. The automaker is adding OpenAI’s conversational AI agent to its MBUX infotainment system, though what it could possibly be needed for is hard to say.

Google Domains shutting down, assets sold and being migrated to Squarespace

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 01:19:00 +0000

Squarespace announced today that it “entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement with Google, whereby Squarespace will acquire the assets associated with the Google Domains business.” This includes “approximately 10 million domains hosted on Google Domains spread across millions of customers.”

CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 May 2022 14:24:00 +0000

Newly released documents showed the CDC planned to use phone location data to monitor schools and churches, and wanted to use the data for many non-COVID-19 purposes, too.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bought access to location data harvested from tens of millions of phones in the United States to perform analysis of compliance with curfews, track patterns of people visiting K-12 schools, and specifically monitor the effectiveness of policy in the Navajo Nation, according to CDC documents obtained by Motherboard. The documents also show that although the CDC used COVID-19 as a reason to buy access to the data more quickly, it intended to use it for more-general CDC purposes.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vymn/cdc-tracked-phones-location-data-curfews

How to install Microsoft Windows 11 on VirtualBox!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 23:08:00 +0000

https://blogs.oracle.com/virtualization/post/install-microsoft-windows-11-on-virtualbox

Belgium approves four-day week and gives employees the right to ignore their bosses after work

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 19:17:00 +0000

Workers in Belgium will soon be able to choose a four-day week under a series of labour market reforms announced on Tuesday.

The reform package agreed by the country's multi-party coalition government will also give workers the right to turn off work devices and ignore work-related messages after hours without fear of reprisal.

"We have experienced two difficult years. With this agreement, we set a beacon for an economy that is more innovative, sustainable and digital. The aim is to be able to make people and businesses stronger," Belgian prime minister Alexander de Croo told a press conference announcing the reform package.

https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/02/15/belgium-approves-four-day-week-and-gives-employees-the-right-to-ignore-their-bosses

Clearview AI aims to put almost every human in facial recognition database

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 18:47:00 +0000

The controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI reportedly told investors that it aims to collect 100 billion photos—supposedly enough to ensure that almost every human will be in its database.

"Clearview AI is telling investors it is on track to have 100 billion facial photos in its database within a year, enough to ensure 'almost everyone in the world will be identifiable,' according to a financial presentation from December obtained by The Washington Post," the Post reported today. There are an estimated 7.9 billion people on the planet.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/02/clearview-ai-aims-to-put-almost-every-human-in-facial-recognition-database/

New Yorkers in high stop-and-frisk areas subject to more facial recognition tech

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 19:53:00 +0000

New Yorkers who live in areas where controversial stop-and-frisk searches happen most frequently are also more likely to be surveilled by facial recognition technology, according to research by Amnesty International and other researchers.

Research also showed that in the Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens boroughs of the city there was a direct correlation between the proportion of non-white residents and the concentration of controversial facial recognition technology.

“Our analysis shows that the NYPD’s use of facial recognition technology helps to reinforce discriminatory policing against minority communities in New York City,” said Matt Mahmoudi, artificial intelligence and human rights researcher at Amnesty International.

The research is a part of the global anti-facial recognition technology campaign, Ban the Scan, investigating increasing use of surveillance initiatives in the New York police department (NYPD).

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/15/new-york-facial-recognition-stop-and-frisk-nypd

Newegg apologises for well-documented customer service fail, says it has enacted better policies

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 19:47:00 +0000

Newegg has apologised for dealing poorly with returns and open-box product sales, in the wake of a recent video from Gamers Nexus documenting its own terrible returns experience. The online retailer has now said it has now put in place new policies to ensure a hassle-free return experience on open-box products for motherboards and CPUs, though is light on the details.

https://www.pcgamer.com/newegg-apologises-for-well-documented-customer-service-fail-says-it-has-enacted-better-policies/

Domestic abuser busted in the act of putting an AirTag on a car

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 17:54:00 +0000

Domestic abuser busted in the act of putting an AirTag on a car

A Connecticut man has been arrested after police witnessed him attempting to use Apple AirTags to track a victim's car.

As Pennsylvania works to become the first state with specific AirTag legislation, police have arrested a Connecticut resident has been charged with felonies including first-degree stalking.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/02/02/connecticut-man-caught-placing-an-airtag-for-stalking

Google Taken to Court by Washington DC & Three States Over “Deceptive” Location Tracking Practice

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 17:47:00 +0000

Google Taken to Court by Washington DC & Three States Over “Deceptive” Location Tracking Practice

Google will be facing a legal challenge from the District of Columbia and the states of Texas, Washington and Indiana over its privacy settings. The coalition of states claims that settings that ostensibly turned off location tracking did not actually disable it fully, allowing Google to continue collecting user location data through other methods.

https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/google-taken-to-court-by-washington-dc-three-states-over-deceptive-location-tracking-practice/

Plugins for Notepad ++

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 17:20:00 +0000

Notepad++ is a free (as in “free speech” and also as in “free beer”) source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GNU General Public License.

Based on the powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size. By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendliness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment.

How To Install Plugins

https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/plugins/

There are two ways to install plugins for NPP. First is Plugin Manager in Plugins menu that lists all the available plugins. You can check the ones you want to download and press Install. But this manager doesn’t have search functions.

To install plugins downloaded from other locations ( .dll extension), download the file and paste it into C:\Program Files(x86)\Notepad++\plugins. Restart the app to complete the installation process.

1. Snippet Plugin

The snippet plugin comes in handy when you want to save the code in a snippet. In short, if you are bad at remembering the codes, you can save the code to use them later. Using this plugin, you can also execute the code that is being kept in the snippet. The snippet plugin thus shows the results.

2. Explorer

This is one of the most famous Notepad++ plugin. You have to peek through several files while coding, and a coder knows that very well.

You can open in a separate window and can see on which file you are working right now. You can also get the file location and can open the file directly using the explorer plugin.

3. Compare

Compare plug-in helps in comparing two text files side by side to grasp the difference in the code.

4. Spell Checker

This plug-in check for spelling errors in the source code. It can pinpoint errors manifesting in our code and allows those errors to be fixed on the fly.

The plug-in gives us the privilege to customize the toolbar by adding, removing or altering the menu items.

6. Snippet Plugin

The snippet plug-in allows developers to add various code snippets used often to make their coding experience a hobby.

US govt reveals three more ransomware attacks on water treatment plants this year

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 19:55:00 +0000

Water Treatment therecord.media

Ransomware gangs have silently hit three US water and wastewater treatment facilities this year, in 2021, the US government said in a joint cybersecurity advisory published today by the FBI, NSA, CISA, and the EPA.

The attacks —which had been previously unreported— took place in March, July, and August and hit facilities in Nevada, Maine, and California, respectively.

The attacks led to the threat actors encrypting files, and in one case, even corrupting a computer used to control the SCADA industrial equipment deployed inside the treatment plant.

The three new incidents [see below] were listed as examples of what could happen when water treatment facilities ignore and fail to secure their computer networks.

In August 2021, malicious cyber actors used Ghost variant ransomware against a California-based WWS [water and wastewater system] facility. The ransomware variant had been in the system for about a month and was discovered when three supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) servers displayed a ransomware message.
In July 2021, cyber actors used remote access to introduce ZuCaNo ransomware onto a Maine-based WWS facility’s wastewater SCADA computer. The treatment system was run manually until the SCADA computer was restored using local control and more frequent operator rounds.
In March 2021, cyber actors used an unknown ransomware variant against a Nevada-based WWS facility. The ransomware affected the victim’s SCADA system and backup systems. The SCADA system provides visibility and monitoring but is not a full industrial control system (ICS).

https://therecord.media/us-govt-reveals-three-more-ransomware-attacks-on-water-treatment-plants-this-year/

Don’t worry, Oracle VirtualBox VMs actually will run Windows 11

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 19:53:00 +0000

Oracle has confirmed it is working on a new version of its VirtualBox VM software that will adhere to the new Windows 11 requirement

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/don-e2-80-99t-worry-oracle-virtualbox-vms-actually-will-run-windows-11/ar-AAODqmU

Update: You won’t be able to run Windows 11 on Oracle VirtualBox VMs anymore, Yet

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 14:12:00 +0000

Update here: https://www.jasonejohnson.com/2021/10/dont-worry-oracle-virtualbox-vms.html

You won’t be able to run Windows 11 on Oracle VirtualBox VMs anymore, Yet.

Insiders that will now attempt to update their Windows 11 builds on VMs that do not have TPM support will get an error. However, Oracle developers are working hard, trying to find a plausible solution for this whole mess, according to the company.

New tolling systems are poised to hit highways

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 18:46:00 +0000

Electric vehicles might be good for the environment, but they're terrible for state budgets, which depend on fuel taxes to pay for road maintenance. So states like Oregon and Utah are experimenting with new road user fees — known as "vehicle mileage taxes" or VMTs — that reflect changing mobility trends.

What do you think of this new "taxing" system.

https://www.axios.com/road-user-fees-vehicle-mileage-tax-03421b13-7d66-4565-adf4-158960e9eaa5.html

Average length of workweek has increased 10% during pandemic

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 18:26:00 +0000

Microsoft remote work study: Average length of workweek has increased 10% during pandemic

A Microsoft study examining technology usage by its employees has revealed a decrease in cross-company communication, and sparked a lively discussion about the long-term impact of remote work on collaboration, productivity, and innovation.

But the peer-reviewed study, published last week in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, includes another notable finding that could also resonate beyond Microsoft’s virtual walls: The length of the average workweek inside the company increased by about 10% after the shift to remote work.

However, the researchers say that doesn’t necessarily mean employees are working more hours within the span of that longer workweek.

They explain, “The increase in workweek hours could be an indication that employees were less productive and required more time to complete their work, or that they replaced some of their commuting time with work time; however, as we are able to measure only the time between the first and last work activity in a day, it could also be that the same amount of working time is spread across a greater share of the calendar day due to breaks or interruptions for non-work activities.”

https://www.geekwire.com/2021/microsoft-remote-work-study-average-length-workweek-increased-10-pandemic/

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 03:19:00 +0000

How to secure data on your external hard drives and USB peripherals

https://protonmail.com/blog/usb-encryption/

Jason E. Johnson

Here's how to see 'horned' comet 12P/Pons-Brooks in the night sky 4/21/24

Palantir wins $178M Army deal for TITAN artificial intelligence-enabled ground stations

Authorities Secure $2 Billion in Bitcoin from Pirate Site Operators

Authorities Secure $2 Billion in Bitcoin from Pirate Site Operators

CEOs Are Using Return To Office Mandates To Mask Poor Management

Louis Rossman - What pisses me off about the failed Reddit protest...

Hackers threaten to leak 80GB of confidential data stolen from Reddit

Apple, the company, wants to trademark images of apple, the fruit

AI used at World Cup to identify 300 making abusive online posts

Mercedes is adding ChatGPT to its infotainment system, for some reason

Google Domains shutting down, assets sold and being migrated to Squarespace

CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders

How to install Microsoft Windows 11 on VirtualBox!

Belgium approves four-day week and gives employees the right to ignore their bosses after work

Clearview AI aims to put almost every human in facial recognition database

New Yorkers in high stop-and-frisk areas subject to more facial recognition tech

Newegg apologises for well-documented customer service fail, says it has enacted better policies

Domestic abuser busted in the act of putting an AirTag on a car

Domestic abuser busted in the act of putting an AirTag on a car

Google Taken to Court by Washington DC & Three States Over “Deceptive” Location Tracking Practice

Google Taken to Court by Washington DC & Three States Over “Deceptive” Location Tracking Practice

Plugins for Notepad ++

How To Install Plugins

1. Snippet Plugin

2. Explorer

3. Compare

4. Spell Checker

5. Customize Toolbar

6. Snippet Plugin

US govt reveals three more ransomware attacks on water treatment plants this year

Don’t worry, Oracle VirtualBox VMs actually will run Windows 11

Update: You won’t be able to run Windows 11 on Oracle VirtualBox VMs anymore, Yet

You won’t be able to run Windows 11 on Oracle VirtualBox VMs anymore, Yet.

New tolling systems are poised to hit highways

Average length of workweek has increased 10% during pandemic

Microsoft remote work study: Average length of workweek has increased 10% during pandemic

How to secure data on your external hard drives and USB peripherals