Hadi Partovi, (archived) Code.org CEO, reports on ANYBODY CAN LEARN (archived) that his site has been compromised. He regretfully informs us that twelve thousand volunteer email addresses were captured in the attack. A technical freelancing firm based in Singapore took credit for the breach in an unsolicited email sent to one of the effected volunteer engineers. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: March 2016
Counterpoint: Fuck Them All To Death – Complete Mosquito Eradication Overdue
This is a response to a news item by danielpbarron
It is time for the flying syringes to die. Continue reading
Point: Washington Thugs Testing GM Mosquitos
This Editor in Chief has filed an Op-Ed in response to piece of news.
The assembly of hoodrats headed by Hussein Bahamas in Washington D.C. requests public comment regarding a field trial of genetically modified mosquitoes (archived) in Key Haven, Florida. Such trials have already been conducted in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Panama, and Malaysia. The variation of Aedes aegypti engineered by Oxitec, Ltd. (archived) is supposed to breed with existing populations, and pass on a fatal alteration its genetic code. Notably this fatal alteration merely has a suppressive effect on populations creating a need to continually shell out for more bezzle bugs. Continue reading
Bug In libotr Threatens To Compromise Systems
A memory corruption vulnerability in libotr, a c implementation of off the record encryption commonly used in chat clients, allows for remotely executing code on vulnerable machines and crashing applications using libotr (archived). Large messages sent to libotr can cause an integer overflow which then spills into the heap.
Bharara And Goons Move Artifacts From Unsanctioned To Sanctioned Looters
In a press release federal goons reporting to Preet Bharara announced that through shenanigans surrounding the provenance of two artifacts they created cover for seizing them. This scheme is a common means by which agents of various governments transfer art and relics from unfavored looters to favored looters. Through this magic rare items are able to be auctioned more than once laundering the wealth and creating more opportunities for taxing the transactions.
"Honest" Soap Scandal Deepens: A Chemist Speaks
Personal care products manufacturer Honest Co. has recently been exposed as dishonestly labelling their products, as reported in The Wall Street Journal (paywall) (archived). Qntra's chemistry correspondent is here to set the deception straight. Continue reading
F-35 Software Requiring Hard Reboots While Airborne
Jane's reports that the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Developed by and for the armed forces of the United States and its allies has a new quirk gathering public attention (archived). Well, several quirks but the most notable is a software glitch that interferes with the aircraft's mission readiness by requiring hard reboots during flight to restore functionality to the radar. So far the F-35's ability to hemorrhage funds printed for the United States Department of Defense has lead to the early end of production for the more capable F-22 fighter, threatened the end of life for the more capable A-10 ground attack aircraft, and ended or hindered an uncountable other number of other things which may have been less embarrassing ends to direct the United States Government's money printing machine than the F-35. Sorry for your loss and peace in our time.
Microsoft Bundles Adware With Security Update
Microsoft has by its own admission bundled adware with a security update for Windows. The update to the Internet Explorer component of Microsoft Windows pulls in another update containing the adware. The adware creates a banner in Internet Explorer badgering users to upgrade their version of Windows to Windows 10. In order to avoid angering their institutional customers who actually pay for software licenses, this new Microsoft adware checks to see if the machine it is installed on is part of a Microsoft domain before badgering the end user. This move suggests that Microsoft itself is surrendering its own overt actions in the Windows ecosystem to match the the rest of the spammers that dominate the space.
US May Accuse Iran Of Office Computer Infection
There are murmurings that the United States may loudly accuse Iran of being involved in the infection of several office computers with malware. Substantial noise is being attached to the otherwise mundane infection of these office computers because of their physical proximity to systems affecting the operations of a dam in New York State (archived). The incident in question happened in 2013, three years after Microsoft released their first patch against the Stuxnet vulnerability.
Mainstream Media Hyping US Legacy In Iraq: Iraqi Made Chemical Weapons
Numerous stories are saturating mainstream media today heralding the capture of and Iraqi chemist aligned with ISIS/ISIL (archived). A substantial strain of hopium embedded in this coverage is optimism that this might lead to a reduction or perhaps even the end of chemical weapons deployments by ISIS/ISIL. Back in 2003 United States president George W. Bush made the state of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons manufacturing in Iraq a cornerstone of his case for invading Iraq and deposing their government. Thirteen years later Iraq is no longer a country which has gone more than a decade without fielding chemical weapons in anger. There isn't any serious discussion of biological or nuclear weapons being produced any of the new regimes in Iraq yet, but one out of three isn't bad.