Feature: Government asks: when can we shut down wireless service?
Nine months ago, a tremendous controversy began with a simple e-mail:
"Gentlemen, The BART Police require the M-Line wireless from the Trans Bay Tube Portal to the Balboa Park Station, to be shut down today between 4 pm & 8," wrote Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) construction supervisor Dirk Peter on August 11, 2011. (The Transbay Tube runs beneath the Bay, moving people to and from San Francisco; Balboa Park is a residential city neighborhood.) "Steve," the note continued, "please help to notify all carriers."
The message was addressed to Steve Dutto of Forzatelecom, a wireless project management company situated across the Bay in Oakland. BART requested the wireless network shutdown in response to an expected station demonstration that day to protest the killings of Oscar Grant and Charles Hill by BART officers a few days earlier.
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EA: The Old Republic has lost nearly 25% of its subscribers since March
It looks like the analysts were right in their suspicions that EA and Bioware's The Old Republic MMO is already losing subscribers just a few months after its late 2011 launch. In an earnings report issued today, EA announced that the game currently has 1.3 million active subscribers, down nearly 25 percent from the 1.7 million active subscribers reported in March.
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Google gets license to test drive autonomous cars on Nevada roads
On Monday, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles approved Google’s license application to test autonomous vehicles on the state’s roads. The state had approved such laws back in February, and has now begun issuing licenses based on those regulations.
The state previously outlined that companies that want to test such vehicles will need an insurance bond of $1 million and must provide detailed outlines of where they plan to test it and under what conditions. Further, the car must have two people in it at all times, with one behind the wheel who can take control of the vehicle if needed.
The Autonomous Review Committee of the Nevada DMV is supervising the first licensing procedure and has now approved corresponding plates to go with it, complete with a red background and infinity symbol.
"I felt using the infinity symbol was the best way to represent the ‘car of the future,’" Nevada DMV Director Bruce Breslow said in a statement.
"The unique red plate will be easily recognized by the public and law enforcement and will be used only for licensed autonomous test vehicles. When there comes a time that vehicle manufacturers market autonomous vehicles to the public, that infinity symbol will appear on a green license plate."
Eagle-eyed Ars readers: if you spot this car in Nevada, snap a pic and let us know!
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Attackers target unpatched PHP bug allowing malicious code execution (Updated)
A huge number of websites around the world are endangered by an unpatched vulnerability in the PHP scripting language that attackers are already trying to exploit to remotely take control of underlying servers, security researchers warned.
The code-execution attacks threaten PHP websites only when they run in common gateway interface (CGI) mode, Darian Anthony Patrick, a Web application security consultant with Criticode, told Ars. Sites running PHP in FastCGI mode aren't affected. Nobody knows exactly how many websites are at risk, because sites also must meet several other criteria to be vulnerable, including not having a firewall that blocks certain ports. Nonetheless, sites running CGI-configured PHP on the Apache webserver are by default vulnerable to attacks that make it easy for hackers to run code that plants backdoors or downloads files containing sensitive user data.
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Anti-climate science group "experiments" with billboard trolling
Prior to this spring, the Heartland Institute was a relatively obscure think tank that was primarily known for organizing an annual conference of people who take issue with mainstream climate science. That changed when an environmental researcher tricked the group into sending him internal documents, setting off a public drama that ended up leaving both parties worse off (Heartland lost sponsors, while the researcher had to resign a number of his positions).
Apparently, the experience left Heartland craving more public controversy, and it responded with what can best be described as a bit of trolling. In advance of this year's climate-skeptic conference, Heartland paid for a billboard that showed a picture of the Unabomber accompanied by the text "I still believe in Global Warming. Do You?" In a press release, Heartland said future iterations would feature Charles Manson, Fidel Castro, and possibly Osama bin Laden.
Instead, the campaign was stopped after 24 hours as prominent conference speakers threatened to cancel and a number of the Institute's financial backers threatened to depart.
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OS X plain text password flaw has been around for 3 months and counting
A security flaw in the most recent version of OS X Lion, 10.7.3, can allow anyone with access to system logs to gather passwords to decrypt legacy FileVault home directories or access remote home directories of networked users. Though the flaw was first discovered a whopping three months ago, it has been widely publicized after a security researcher posted details of the flaw to a cryptography mailing list on Friday.
While only users with admin or root access could access the passwords stored as plain text in the log files, it's possible that malware could be created to look into the file for any passwords in order to access personal data.
The security implications are even worse, though, according to security researcher David Emery. "The [system] log in question can also be read by booting the machine into firewire disk mode and reading it by opening the drive as a disk or by booting the new-with-Lion recovery partition and using the available superuser shell to mount the main file system partition and read the file," he wrote to the cryptography e-mail list on Friday. "This would allow someone to break into encrypted partitions on machines they did not have any idea of any login passwords for."
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Subsidized Xbox 360: bad deal for consumers, missed opportunity for Microsoft
When we first heard rumors last week that Microsoft was planning to offer a cheap Xbox 360 and Kinect bundle to customers who committed to two years of a new monthly online service, we thought it had the potential to revolutionize the way game consoles are sold and positioned as full-service living room entertainment centers. Now that Microsoft has confirmed the details of its subsidy plan, however, we can't help but see it as a bad deal and a missed opportunity.
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Kim Dotcom lampoons New Zealand MP in his new rap song
Say what you will about Kim Dotcom, but if there’s something that we (and the Feds) can probably agree on, it’s that he’s entertaining. After all, what other target of an international manhunt, while under investigation, comes out with a catchy rap tune as part of a New Zealand political scandal?
On Sunday, the Megaupload magnate, who had his assets seized and site smashed earlier this year, released the "John Banks Song" on YouTube.
The new track was produced with the Black Eyed Peas' Printz Board.
Its chorus crows: "Nothing to fear / Nothing to hide / He's the majority / So he's all right. / He is John Banks / He got the vote / And that's why Key keeps him afloat / On his cabbage boat."
John Banks is the head of the ACT New Zealand political party and the current minister for Small Business and Regulatory Reform. Kim Dotcom is alleged to have donated NZ$50,000 ($38,000) to the 2010 Banks campaign for mayor of the city of Auckland, keeping it anonymous and under the radar by splitting it in two. Dotcom is now set to be questioned by local authorities over this issue.
Banks has said previously that he "didn’t come up the river in a cabbage boat." This appears to be a New Zealand English expression meaning that he’s not stupid. Prime Minister John Key is a governing coalition with Banks’ ACT party, and has publicly defended Banks.
Banks, however, has subsequently denied that he broke any elections laws, and then said that he could not remember if he’d taken a helicopter ride to Dotcom’s mansion to meet with him.
"He took that strategy to a level of absurdity," said Bryce Edwards, an Otago University political scientist, in an interview with the New Zealand Herald over the weekend. "People don't understand the whole case but they pick up on things like the helicopter. People just think the whole thing stinks."
The newspaper also reported that his poll numbers had dropped to just 10 percent in the wake of the political scandal, and reported last week that the "Crown lawyers acting for the United States knew before seizing Kim Dotcom's fortune and property that they were using an unlawful court order."
On Monday, the paper, which has been filling inquiries through the Official Information Act, also reported that "police officers who raided the mansion of Internet magnate Kim Dotcom put together a list of belongings for United States authorities to seize."
Last Friday, Prime Minister John Key denied any knowledge of Dotcom "until the day before the raids even though his senior ministers, a string of senior civil servants, and his own electorate staff were involved in matters relating to him. It has emerged that staff in the Prime Minister's own department were aware of Dotcom and his bid through the Overseas Investment Office to buy the mansion in which he lived with his family."
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Google guilty of infringement in Oracle trial; future legal headaches loom
In what could be a major blow to Android, Google's mobile operating system, a San Francisco jury issued a verdict today that the company broke copyright laws when it used Java APIs to design the system. The ruling is a partial victory for Oracle, which accused Google of violating copyright law.
But the jury couldn't reach agreement on a second issue—whether Google had a valid "fair use" defense when it used the APIs. Google has asked for a mistrial based on the incomplete verdict, and that issue will be briefed later this week.
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Sen. Al Franken to FCC: Still unhappy about Comcast-NBC merger
Another year, another complaint from Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) against Comcast and its merger with NBC Universal that was approved last year. Just as he did before, the senator—now in a letter published publicly on Monday (PDF)—is "urging [the Federal Communications Commission and the United States Department of Justice] to proactively monitor, investigate, and enforce the conditions you adopted in the merger order."
As the Minnesota senator has outlined previously, he "hates the merger." In this letter he notes that "a number of complaints regarding Comcast's compliance with the merger conditions…have languished" before the FCC.
In an e-mail sent to Ars, Comcast denied any wrongdoing.
"Comcast and NBCUniversal are fully complying with (indeed exceeding) the transaction orders as detailed in our recently filed Annual Compliance Report," wrote Sena Fitzmaurice, a Comcast spokesperson.
Specifically, Franken notes that it took the FCC 10 months to deal with a dispute involving the Bloomberg news channel, and Comcast’s refusal to put it in the same "neighborhood" as other similar channels. (The FCC ruled in Bloomberg’s favor last week). Franken also noted that a similar conflict with the Tennis Channel is also pending.
"The one complaint by an outside party regarding the NBCUniversal FCC Order has been brought by another very large media company, Bloomberg LLP - and it has been preliminarily adjudicated," Fitzmaurice added. "We respectfully disagree with the Media Bureau’s interpretation believe the full Commission will agree on appeal to enforce conditions as they were originally negotiated and intended."
Franken took the FCC to task too, noting that "at least one online video distributor (OVD) has encountered problems negotiating programming deals with Comcast." This resulted in Comcast arguing that it needs a "full, unredacted copy of the underlying peer agreement before it can provide its programming." CBS, News Corporation, Sony Pictures, Time Warner, Viacom, and Disney argued earlier this year (in their own letter to the FCC) this was "overbroad and will harm competition…[as it would allow] one entity to possess detailed nonpublic information about its competitors' business dealings—which would appear to be counter to relevant competition laws."
Franken concludes: "I am concerned that these sorts of delays always inure to the benefit of Comcast and give Comcast further incentive to challenge any aspect of its compliance with the merger order." He's also "very concerned" about Comcast’s announcement last month that its Xbox Live television streaming would not count against existing data caps. Comcast argues the video is "being delivered over our private IP network and not the public Internet."
However, Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice added that the On Demand service, is "indisputably part of our Title VI cable service which is not subject to the FCC's Open Internet Rules - and we are not aware of anyone who has taken a contrary view."
But Senator Franken does appear to have a differing opinion.
"I am not yet prepared to say that this appears to be a technical violation of the Commission's merger order or DOJ's final judgment, but I urge both of your agencies to investigate this conduct immediately," Franken wrote. "Even if this does not amount to a technical violation, it certainly raises serious questions about how Comcast will favor its own content and services to the detriment of its competitors."
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Apple improves AirPlay playback, iPad network switching, HDR with iOS 5.1.1
Apple has released an update to iOS that fixes a number of minor (but annoying) bugs within the operating system. The update was just released on Monday afternoon (at least for those of us on the eastern half of the US) and includes fixes for iPads and iPhones.
According to Apple, iOS 5.1.1 improves the reliability of the HDR photo option when you try to take photos using the Camera app's shortcut from the lock screen. (This one drives me the most crazy). It also fixes some AirPlay video bugs that affected playback "in some circumstances," improves the reliability of syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List, and fixes a bug that caused iTunes or the App Store to display an error saying "Unable to purchase" when the purchase was successful after all. The one fix that specifically affects the iPad is one that prevented third-gen iPads from switching easily between 2G and 3G networks.
There may be other minor bug fixes or feature changes buried within iOS 5.1.1, but those will be left for users to discover. When iOS 5.1 was released in March alongside the new iPad, the company also increased its over-the-air file download limit and free trials for subscriptions alongside the OS's bug fixes and feature additions. Although 5.1.1 isn't likely to address any of the ongoing frustrations we have with iOS, we're still eager to update and see if there are any other easter eggs. You can update either through iTunes or by going to Settings > General > Software Update within your iOS device—though when I checked on my iPhone just now, it had not yet seen the OTA update.
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Free 20GB cloud storage for MobileMe subscribers extended to Sept. 30
MobileMe users who transition their accounts to iCloud will be able to keep their free 20GB of extra storage for an additional three months after MobileMe's shutdown, according to Apple. The company has updated its FAQ page on the MobileMe-to-iCloud transition (hat tip to MacOtakara), explaining that MobileMe users who want complimentary iCloud storage upgrades will be able to take advantage of the upgrade through September 30, 2012. That deadline has been moved back from June 30, when MobileMe shuts down, most likely in an attempt to lure more users into transitioning their accounts instead of letting them die.
When Apple introduced iCloud in October of 2011 along with iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S, the company explained that the cloud service was meant to replace MobileMe—itself a successor of Apple's old iTools service launched in the year 2000. iCloud's services are somewhat similar to those offered through MobileMe; users who transition their accounts to iCloud can still use their MobileMe e-mail accounts, Back To My Mac, and Find My iPhone, but will also gain a handful of new services, like Find My Mac, iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream, and document syncing services over iOS devices.
MobileMe users will also lose a few services when they transition. As noted by Apple last year, iWeb publishing, iDisk storage and file sharing, and MobileMe's photo/video gallery feature will all only exist until MobileMe is shut down in June of this year. Apple was quick to give some benefits to its paid MobileMe subscribers, though, offering them 20GB extra cloud storage for free when they migrate their accounts to iCloud—normal users signing up for a new iCloud account receive 5GB of free storage automatically.
With the free storage expiration date extended for another three months after MobileMe goes dark, we're willing to guess that Apple hasn't yet seen as many MobileMe accounts transition to iCloud as it would like. It's possible that some MobileMe users are aware of the June 30 deadline but are planning to just let their accounts expire along with it. The extension to September could mean more MobileMe customers making the jump after all and giving iCloud a try, though the rest of MobileMe's services will still be going away in June.
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A near-future prognosis for television: surprisingly strong, driven by more control
Television remains at the center of American life, and whatever threats exist from outside the realm of the Great BoobTube, those threats (including the Internet) are not making huge dents in TV consumption patterns. In fact, technologies like the DVR and on-demand services appear to be gaining momentum, largely making up for declines in live TV consumption.
This is hardly a surprise. Television isn't dying—it's continuing to post strong viewership numbers (and we know that Nielsen and the like capture only a portion of the real audience). The data we have, however, makes it clear that audiences are changing the way they relate to TV. Companies that figure out the best way to service viewers' various demands—better content, served up when they want it, and viewable where they want it—will reap the profits.
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Google+ Hangouts on Air live broadcasting is now out of beta
Google+ users can now broadcast live public video feeds and video conferences via webcams through its Hangouts on Air feature, which was previously only available to a select number of accounts. Google announced today that Hangouts on Air is now out of beta and will be rolled out to all of its users worldwide.
Google implemented videoconferencing via its Hangouts feature when it released Google+, though at the time the broadcasting was limited to those users who were joining in the video conference (there’s a limit to 10 per session). Hangouts on Air now lets users broadcast their own version of a television channel publicly. The application provides similar functionality to competing services such as UStream, Livestream, and Justin.tv by opening video webcam streams for public viewing. In Hangouts on Air, anyone can watch a video session. Google+ is also encouraging users to browse and casually join these hangouts via Google+’s revamped hangouts page, where users can find sessions that are currently taking place. Live broadcasts are automatically recorded to the host user’s YouTube channel for later viewing or embedding. Users can also embed their live broadcasts on other websites, effectively expanding the reach of the Google+ platform beyond registered users of its service.
Hangouts on Air does require users to enable the new feature, and they must also review and agree to its terms of service. Doing so will also link the user’s Google+ account to their YouTube channel. In some cases, users may also need to upgrade Google’s voice and video plugin for Web browsers. Google says the feature is rolling out to users starting today, so it may take some time to see it enabled in users’ individual accounts.
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LA smog: more cows than cars?
Much to the chagrin of California tourism promoters, smog is likely one of the things you picture when you think about the city of Los Angeles. The haze of pollutants that often hangs over the region is more than just an eyesore; it's a source of considerable respiratory stress. And where does that air pollution come from? Smokestacks, tailpipes, and cows. You read that right—cows. In fact, a new study estimates that cows contribute at least as much as automobiles.
There are two main factors that control the formation of smog. The first is the air pollution. This includes a range of volatile organic compounds, as well as oxides of nitrogen (referred to as NOx compounds. These pollutants react in sunlight to produce the ground-level ozone that triggers asthma advisories. The second necessary condition is stagnant air. A stiff breeze moving through the city will clear away pollution before it can collect. Areas that experience smog typically have the right topographical and meteorological conditions for air masses to hang around for a while.
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DocTrackr offers file tracking, analytics, without the paranoia
In the physical world, when you share a record or a book with a friend, it's still technically yours. But in the digital world, where documents aren't so much shared as they are copied, it's difficult for content creators to maintain control.
Sharing a Word document chock-full of sensitive information isn't like lending out your beloved old copy of Paul's Boutique, after all. You can forward that document to multiple people, edit its contents, and print out as many copies as you want. And in most cases, the content creator is likely none the wiser. Clément Cazalot believed there had to be a better—and easier—way to keep such crucial documents in check.
Rather than create a paranoid tool for paranoid people, Cazalot and his cofounder Alex Negrea created DocTrackr, a file tracking service that also gathers usage analytics. The service tracks how and where documents are being viewed and shared—and boasts a handy kill switch to revoke access altogether, if needed—with the hopes of giving creators a better idea of how their content is being used.
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Future U: Classroom tech doesn't mean handing out tablets
A couple of decades ago the most advanced technology to appear in an average classroom was a mini-cassette recorder and a calculator. For most students, however, typical classroom technology ran the gamut from yellow legal pads to theme books, from pencils to ballpoints.
Computers were restricted to the computer lab. There, the green blinking DOS cursor would excite and intimidate. Most of the thrill of the computer lab, aside from a few basic computer games, came from the fact that you could type up a paper without using Wite-Out.
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