Microsoft to release fix for Windows Shortcut flaw on Monday
Microsoft has announced plans to release of an out-of-band update on Monday to address the Windows Shortcut flaw revealed less than two weeks ago. The software giant has been keeping a close watch on the use of .LNK files exploiting the vulnerability and has concluded that it needs to act faster than usual.
Microsoft typically releases security patches on the second Tuesday of each month, with the next slated for August 10. Redmond is releasing this fix eight days early, at approximately 1PM EDT Monday. All currently supported versions of Windows are vulnerable, including Windows 7, so the majority of Windows users should be receiving this patch.
There have been multiple malware families that have picked up the .LNK attack vector, including a highly virulent strain named Sality.AT. Not only is Sality a very large family, but it is known to infect other files (making full removal after infection challenging), copy itself to removable media, disable security, and then download other malware. Microsoft has seen an increase in attack attempts as well as a change in the geolocation of the attack attempts across the systems it protects. In short, this new attack vector is becoming more widespread. The security team at the company believes more families will continue to pick up the technique, leading it to get the patch out as soon as possible.
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Students finally wake up to Facebook privacy issues
Students care about Facebook privacy more than the world thinks, and their use of privacy controls has skyrocketed recently, according to two researchers. Eszter Hargittai, Associate Professor of Northwestern University, and Danah Boyd, Research Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society published their findings in the online peer-reviewed journal First Monday, noting that young people are very engaged with the privacy settings on Facebook, contrary to the popular belief that their age group is reckless with what they post publicly.
The researchers surveyed first-year writing students at the University of Illinois-Chicago during the 2008-2009 academic year, and then followed up with them again in 2010. The large majority—87 percent—said they used Facebook in 2009, which went up to 90 percent in 2010. Among frequent and occasional users, more than half posted their own status updates in addition to checking up (and leaving comments) on those of friends.
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Some Say He Can Fly. All We Know Is, He’s Called The Stig Copter!
Here’s something you might have missed if you’re not in the UK. Top Gear is one of the most popular television programs in the world. With over 350 million viewers, it’s actually fairly surprising that there aren’t more licensed products out there. I guess James May could have his own line of “Captain Slow” sweaters, Hammond could sell hair products, and Clarkson.. Well, Clarkson could sell the Prius or something. At any rate, The Stig is one of the most popular (and enigmatic) cast members, and he’s finally got his own product.
Meet the Stig-Copter. Mini-helicopters are quite fun, and this product looks to be a pretty high tech version of the breed. The heli is based around an aluminum frame, it’s rechargeable, and it gives you about 8-15 minutes of flight time per charge. The body is based on the design of The Stig’s helmet, giving the helicopter almost supernatural cornering, and the ability to translate Morse code. Now for the bad news; you’ll have to order from the UK, and it’ll cost you about $60, before shipping.
iPhone 4 antenna woes “significantly worse” than competition
Apple launched the iPhone 4 in 17 additional countries today, causing another round of debate over whether or not the iPhone 4's external antenna design is flawed or not. A UK consulting firm says its tests show the "death grip" problem is real, and "significantly" worse for the iPhone 4 than other smartphones. A review from Norway is less critical, suggesting the iPhone 4 gets better signal than competing phones and may be victim to AT&T's less "robust" wireless network.
Shortly after the iPhone 4 began shipping in the US last month, users started to notice a problem: gripping the device in a certain way led to signal attenuation and, in some cases, dropped calls or poor data connections. While Apple CEO Steve Jobs was somewhat dismissive of the issue early on, testing conclusively demonstrated that the iPhone 4 had a higher signal attenuation than other smartphones when bridging a small gap on the lower left side of the device's stainless steel bezel.
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This Week in the Future: A Compendium
Our tireless This Week in the Future artist, Baarbarian, he who prognosticates so vividly with his pen here each Friday, is taking a well-deserved week off. It's a fine time to enjoy the magnificent weekly drawings he's been doing here for close to a year now.
So behold, 39 expert distillations of a week's futuristic news:
Click to launch the photo gallery
No contest this time--everyone who's won in recent weeks, you're prize is being processed.
Thanks as always for reading and have a great weekend, all.
Best Buy to Offer Cheaper Xbox 360 Special Edition Bundles Starting August 1st
When it comes to the special edition consoles, they aren’t cheap. Then again, they’re special, and they include more in the box than you’d normally get in just the “stock” box. So, that makes sense. So when they go on any kind of sale, you can see why we’d get pretty excited. Thanks to Best Buy, some of the two hottest special edition consoles out there are going on a nice sale, but you’ll have to act fast — it will only be around as long as units are in stock.
Beginning August 1st, Best Buy will mark down the Final Fantasy XIII and Splinter Cell: Conviction special edition Xbox 360 consoles to only $299. That’s a $50 savings of their current prices (they launched at $399). As you might expect, they’re trying to rid themselves of stock, and probably try and make some room for that new console that just launched, plus that whole Kinect thing that’s coming out soon.
Nothing else is changing with the bundles, though. You’ll still get the black or white Xbox 360 (depending on which game you want), as well as two controllers, the game itself, as well as the console and a 250GB hard drive. Considering how “not-special” the 250GB hard drive is now-a-days, we’re not sure if anyone out there would actually want to pick up either of these packages. Especially considering the new console, with all of its new looks and amenities, goes for the same price. Then again, the included game and controller may be worth it, in of itself.
[via Joystiq]
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New York City Subway To Get Wi-Fi, Cellphone Service
You’ll soon be able to use your phone in the New York City subway system.
It’s part of a $200 million renovation of the system, which, well, not to say that it’s falling apart, but it’s seen better days. There used to be a W train, for example. Memories.
The plan to wire the subway, at least parts of it, is at least several years old.
Several 14th Street stations were supposed to have been wired for Wi-Fi and cellphone service two years ago, but the company that was to do the wiring ran out of financing.
An Australian company has now stepped in with the necessary dollars.
Subway systems all over the world, including those in Berlin and Hong Kong, already have such communications capabilities.
But again, I don’t think it’s too crazy to say that you’d rather see a fully functional subway system rather than a patchy one that just so happens to let you check into FourSquare as you stand on the platform.
Prediction: The RIM BlackPad Will Crash And Burn Just Like The Storm
Sorry, BlackBerry fanboys, the BlackPad — or whatever it will be called — is going to flop in a monumental way. Remember how RIM’s last iDevice clone, the Storm, failed in such a public way? Yep, it’s going to happen all over again. RIM has no business making a consumer tablet.
We all need to give major props to Research In Motion. They were really the first major player to make smartphones relevant by offering a nearly-bulletproof mobile emailing system to business. Eventually RIM started making consumer-orientated email devices that worked with personal email accounts. RIM really showed the world that you need email while you were away from your desk.
But that’s where their claim to fame stops. Don’t misunderstand the Canadian company’s importance in consumer electronics’ history. RIM ranks up there with the best of them, but unless the so-called BlackPad is targeted solely at businesses and enterprise users — and all signs suggest otherwise — the BlackPad will fail.
I lived with a BlackBerry Storm for a year and a half. In fact, I just got rid of it for the Droid X. Before the Storm, I had a 7130e for two and a half years — my favorite phone of all time. BlackBerrys do a lot of things, but only one thing well: email. It’s still the best email device I’ve used partly because it’s clear that the OS was designed around that function and everything else was added later.
That’s where the BlackPad is going to have trouble. All the extra add-ons and capabilities take second seat to email and that’s not going to fly in a consumer-originated tablet. People are going to expect the BlackPad to be an iPad and they’re going to be disappointed. RIM’s touchscreen OS is a sorry clone of iOS.
iOS and its huge library of apps consumers were already familiar with is the iPad’s secret sauce. The BlackPad doesn’t have that. Oh, sure, there are BlackBerry apps available via RIM’s App World, but you can’t take any of those seriously. There are more fart machine apps in Apple’s App Store than there are applications in App World.
There is one way I could be wrong. If RIM totally forgoes the consumer market and instead goes after the Cisco Cius and the HP Slate, the BlackPad might be here to stay. This would require RIM to go back to its roots and target business before consumers. The thought is that because emailing — and in some industries, video conferencing — is such a big part of everyday corporate life, a large tablet kind of makes sense. This way RIM could get by without any fancy apps and rather focus on just a few areas like emailing.
Emailing on the iPad is fantastic. The form factor works well and in many ways, it’s better than using a smartphone. But many consumers can’t justify purchasing even the iPad just for one application. Its appeal is the vast range of tasks it can perform because of all the apps.
Businesses are different. They are used to spending extra cash on silly one-task devices. RIM has a fantastic opportunity to develop with just them in mind.
But that’s not how it’s going to go down.
Just like the Storm before it, RIM is developing a clone of an Apple device. It will likely target the same consumer group with a similar, but far less appealing, feature set. The screen size will probably be around 10 inches, it will probably have limited connectivity options although USB and SD card slots are likely, and Verizon will probably have a competitively priced data plan. All this is a recipe for public humiliation rather than a financial flop.
Remember back to before the Storm launched? It was the first device that was supposed to kill the iPhone. Verizon even had long lines reminiscent of iPhone launches. Then consumers tried the phone and found early versions to be buggy, slow, and overall gimmicky. The phone then went through a lot of criticism. It was the phone to hate and nearly everyone include myself took shots at it whenever possible. It was really that bad. But RIM kept on developing and supporting the phone. Apparently it wasn’t that big of a flop in RIM’s book, because the Storm 2 launched a few months back.
The same thing will probably happen to the BlackPad. RIM’s touchsceen OS still hasn’t evolved into something better than iOS even though it can effectively multi-task. It’s still the same core OS that puts email before everything and it simply will not translate well into tablet form. Moreover, if it isn’t the same but rather a totally different UI, then the BlackPad is in for even more hurt.
It’s not that I want RIM to crash and burn. I truly enjoy most of their products. I even came to appreciate the Storm although longed for a proper touchscreen phone with quality apps. It’s just I hate seeing consumers duped into buying clones of other products. They are rarely as good as the original. We’ll talk again after the launch, but I guarantee the BlackPad isn’t going to offer one legitimate feature over the iPad.
How Lucas Ruined Star Wars, and How to Save It
Geeks don’t agree on anything. Mac OS or Windows? PlayStation, Xbox or Wii? Peanut or plain? But there is one thing on which all geeks can agree.
George Lucas ruined Star Wars.
[Photo By Bonnie Burton -- Starwars.com]
In every way, George Lucas ruined the franchise with the three horrendous, unwatchable monstrosities that will forever taint the Star Wars brand. I’m embarrassed that my son will grow up thinking that those three ‘prequels’ (though ‘putrid mutant offspring’ is a more apt description) are part of the great trilogy that I enjoyed so much at his age. Thinking about the newer Star Wars movies actually makes me angry, in the same way that the BP Oil Spill or “Fox and Friends” makes me angry.
It didn’t have to be this way; and, believe it or not, I think Lucas could still save the franchise, though I doubt he has the will to do so. I know there have been some great critiques of the Star Wars prequels. If you haven’t watched this multi-part review of The Phantom Menace, you’re depriving yourself of one of the only great, hilarious joys to come from that movie. Here’s where I think things went wrong.
Everybody speaks English
This was the first problem I had with the new movies, and it comes up almost immediately. In the original trilogy, almost none of the aliens spoke English. And the humans didn’t speak alien tongues, at least not out loud. Everybody said what they had to say, and they were understood. The audience got subtitles.
It led to some cool moments. In the third movie, Return of the Jedi, a bounty hunter with a raspy, alien voice forces its way into Jabba’s layer with a thermal detonator. To the audience, it’s another classic Star Wars alien, until she removes her helmet and reveals Princess Leia beneath. The switch from the cold, digital alien voice to the warm, soothing Leia reinforced the action on screen, where Han Solo was being thawed from a carbonite block.
In the prequels, the characters don’t just speak English. They speak English with annoying, stereotypical and perhaps even racist accents. They use slang that is so horrible, it’s cringe-worthy. Forget about the insufferable Jar-Jar. Everyone else, from the Trade Federation lackeys to the most minor, yet memorable alien character, usually a strong suit in Star Wars films, puts on some silly accent and slogs through the worst dialogue spoken on screen since “Howard the Duck.”
Think of the problems Lucas could have solved by using alien voices again, instead. About a third of the horrible dialogue would have been washed away, especially the banal Jar-Jar. No more silly accents or horrible voice actors.
Every actor in the movie has already seen Star Wars
The problem isn’t just that they’ve seen Star Wars, the problem is that they all act as if they are in a Star Wars movie. They act like every word is canonical. Every action and plot device is important. Geeks will pore over details for decades to come. Except that the movies all suck, so we won’t.
In the first movies, nobody had a clue what was going on, but boy did it feel like a good time! Everybody is having fun, even at the most serious moments. They trade barbs and take jabs. They steal kisses and swing from the rafters . . . literally. They call each other “nerf herder,” “fuzz ball,” “laser brain,” and it all sounds natural. In the prequels, there is too much gravitas. Perhaps because they were really long, boring movies about a trade dispute and a power grab in the senate, the actors decided to take themselves very, very seriously.
George Lucas is a horrible director
A long time ago, George Lucas directed a great movie called Star Wars. He was an unproven director in his early thirties. He had no children yet, and not a lot of money. It was a prime opportunity to make a break-out film, and he managed to come through.
Lucas did not direct the next two movies in the trilogy. He produced the movies and provided all of the financial backing, which undoubtedly gave him final say. But he didn’t direct, and he didn’t even write the screenplay, just the story.
The directors he chose were not experienced, nor did they go on to great things. But between the other directors, the screenwriters and everyone else involved, there was at least some input. There were other people to say “You know, George, this kind of sucks. I don’t think the swimming jackass alien should have a Jamaican accent.”
More than 20 years later, George Lucas got behind the camera again and directed all three of the prequels. He wrote them, adapted the screenplay and directed them. He did everything, and nobody had the power to tell him how horrible the films were turning out.
Too much explaining
I knew The Phantom Menace was a bad movie when I saw Jar-Jar for the first time. I knew it was unsalvageable when they discuss the midi-chlorians. Midi-chlorians are the technical, scientific and objective explanation for the force. In the original movies, nothing was overly explained. What’s the force? It’s all around us, it flows through us. What’s a Jedi? A knight protector; a good guy. Why is Darth Vader dressed that way? Shut up, kid, you ask too many questions.
In the prequels, Lucas answers every single question I did not ask. I do not care about any of those explanations. Where does C-3PO come from? How did Darth Vader hurt his hand? What did the Emperor look like before he became the Emperor, and what was his day job? WHO CARES?!?
The entire trilogy should have started where “Revenge of the Sith” ended. Start with Anakin Skywalker getting disfigured in a battle with Obi Wan, and then spend the next three movies chasing Jedis across the galaxy. The Clone Wars is a good plot device, but Lucas didn’t need to spend half a movie explaining where the clones came from and who made them. We get it, they’re clones. Move on.
It’s like Lucas didn’t realize what made the first trilogy so cool. Instead, he read about the things everybody liked, and decided to make three movies explaining where cool came from.
How to save the day
There is a way to save Star Wars. All we need is one more movie. Bring back the original cast. Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamil, even Kenny Baker. Give us a real sequel showing what’s going on now in the Star Wars universe, 30 years later. I don’t even care what it’s about, because it will have to be something new, instead of explaining what we already know.
Keep the aliens speaking alien languages. In fact, George Lucas shouldn’t have any say in the dialogue whatsoever. Let someone else write the screenplay. Lucas can come up with the story and name the funny looking characters in the background.
“That guy looks like a Hammerhead shark, so we’ll call him Hammerhead. And that guy looks like he should be called Greedo, so Han Solo will shoot him in the crotch.”
Keep George Lucas away from the director chair. Let Joss Whedon direct. With Serenity and Firefly, Whedon has provided a great new vision for science fiction movies that fits well with the Star Wars universe. The Star Wars galaxy is a grimy place, full of beaten-up old ships covered in scars and dirt. Whedon not only shares this vision, but he also has some new ideas and techniques on how to film action in space. Handing him the final Star Wars movie would be a dream come true for fans of the original films and Whedon fans alike. Best of all, Joss Whedon knows how to have fun.
It isn’t going to happen, of course. Star Wars is dead, strangled and beaten by a sixty-year-old serial killer, who then went and committed horrible, unspeakable acts against my dear old friend, Indiana Jones (seriously? Indiana Jones and the Flying Saucer? George, what were you thinking?). My only hope is that in six months, I won’t be sitting down to write a column about how Disney ruined Tron, because Tron might be all I have left to hand down to my children.
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World Population to Hit 7 Billion Next Year
The Population Reference Bureau has projected that in 2011, the planet Earth will be home to more than seven billion living humans. At current growth rates, we'll top 9 billion in 2050. By that year, the population of Africa is expected to double, and that of Asia to grow by 1.3 billion.
The world's population is growing unevenly too, the projection states. In a continuing trend, economically developing countries are growing faster, while the populations of developed nations are aging, and their workforces diminishing relative to their elderly populations.