Passwords

Most people just use dumb passwords (see above). Other people try to come up with clever, short passwords that they can easily remember. They replace certain letters with numbers or use mixed case letters (e.g. using “P455w0rd” instead of the more common “password”). Unfortunately, most password breaking algorithms have already incorporated schemes to look for this. Maybe they’ll use information like their birthdays or addresses. That may be a little better, but not much. The key is to use longer passwords because they will be inherently more difficult to break. Think of using passphrases like this: “Lorenzo is my first name” (Lornz0izMi1stNm). Or better yet, don’t include any easily verifiable information: “The Lord of the Rings is my favorite book” (DaLrdOdRngzIzMiFavBuk).

Two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA or 2-Step Verification) is a method of confirming a user's claimed identity by utilizing a combination of two different components. These components may be something that the user knows, something that the user possesses or something that is inseparable from the user. A good example from everyday life is the withdrawing of money from a cash machine. Only the correct combination of a bank card (something that the user possesses) and a PIN (personal identification number, something that the user knows) allows the transaction to be carried out. 2FA is ineffective against modern threats, like ATM skimming, phishing, and malware etc. Two-factor authentication is a type of multi-factor authentication.

Worst Passwords in 2017

1. 123456 2. password 3. 12345678 4. qwerty 5. 12345 6. 123456789 7. football 8. 1234 9. 1234567 10. baseball 11. welcome 12. 1234567890

13. abc123 14. 111111 15. 1qaz2wsx 16. dragon 17. master 18. monkey 19. letmein 20. login 21. princess 22. qwertyuiop 23. solo 24. passw0rd 25. starwars

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Judge Declares Trump Can't Ban Critics from Following him on Twitter

President Donald Trump can't block Twitter users critical of his policies from following him on the social network, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Seven Twitter users sued Trump in July after the president blocked them for criticizing or mocking him on the social network. The group argued the practice violates the First Amendment. US District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald agreed with the seven, ruling that a public official may not block people from his or her Twitter account in response to the political views the people have expressed, even if that official is the president of the United States. "We hold that portions of the @realDonaldTrump account -- the 'interactive space' where Twitter users may directly engage with the content of the President's tweets -- are properly analyzed under the 'public forum' doctrines set forth by the Supreme Court, that such space is a designated public forum, and that the blocking of the plaintiffs based on their political speech constitutes viewpoint discrimination that violates the First Amendment," the judge wrote in her ruling.

The case raised First Amendment issues related to the president's use of Twitter to make prolific and often controversial statements about public policy. The blockages suppress free speech by limiting users' ability to view his tweets and comment on them, the group said in a previous letter seeking to be reinstated as followers of Trump on Twitter. One of the users blocked by Trump, according to the letter, was Holly O'Reilly, whose @AynRandPaulRand account was blocked in May 2017 after posting a GIF of Pope Francis glancing at Trump with a troubled expression, above which she wrote, "This is pretty much how the whole world sees you." The letter says that while Trump might have been offended by the post, and others critical of the president, the tweets are a protected form of free speech, and the users shouldn't be punished by the government for their content.

Click here for the video.
Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/news/trump-cant-block-twitter-users-from-following-his-account-judge-rules/

TeenSafe -- Parents Snooping, er, Protecting their Kids

An app called Teensafe that lets parents keep an eye on their teens' online activity may have leaked the private data of tens of thousands of youngsters. The Apple ID passwords and usernames were stored without encryption on an unsecured server, meaning anyone could access the information without a password, a report has revealed. The app is designed to let parents access their youngsters' web browser history, text messages, call logs and device location. Ironically TeenSafe, which bills itself as a 'secure' monitoring app, requires two-factor authentication to be disabled, so anyone could access the Apple ID accounts using login credentials from leaky servers.

At least one of the app's servers, which was hosted by Amazon's cloud service, could be accessed without a password, according to the report by ZDNet. British security researchers Robert Wiggins who searches for public and exposed data found two servers had been compromised. The database includes the child's device name - which is often just their name - and their unique identifier. Shortly before the server went offline, more than 10,200 records containing customer data were exposed. None of the records contained photos, messages or the locations of either parents or children, the report revealed. However, some of these were duplicates so the actual number would have been less. The passwords for the Apple IDs were stored in plain text although it is not clear why, according to the report.



Credits: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5753349/App-lets-parents-spy-teens-leaked-private-data.html

How to fight Climate Change

Los Angeles, like so many other modern cities, is encased in thousands of miles of asphalt. And dark-colored asphalt absorbs between 80 and 95 percent of the sun's rays, heating up not just the streets themselves but the entire surrounding area. So when temperatures in Southern California rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, surface temperatures on its asphalt roads can climb to 150. It exacerbates a phenomenon known as the "urban heat island effect," which the EPA says can add up to 22 degrees Fahrenheit to the average air temperature in a city, compared to the surrounding area.

CoolSeal helps to reflect solar rays off asphalt so that less heat is actually absorbed. And according to the Bureau of Street Services, the L.A. streets that have been rendered lighter in color with CoolSeal are 10 to 15 degrees cooler on average. That, in turn, keeps the neighborhood from heating up quite as much. Buildings in the area don't need to use quite as much air conditioning, which can curb costs, benefiting residents' wallets and the environment.

By cooling the ambient air, lighter-colored asphalt can also help prevent heat-related illnesses and deaths. Its higher reflectivity can save on energy needed to illuminate streets and parking lots when the sun starts to set. And according to the EPA, the air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and water quality depletion driven by heat islands can be mitigated by cool pavements as well. The innovative sealcoat is admittedly very pricey, with L.A. reportedly footing a $40,000 bill for every mile it "paints." But advocates say its benefits may far exceed this.



Credits:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/los-angeles-is-painting-some-of-its-streets-white-and-the-reasons-why-are-pretty-cool/

How to make a 747

https://youtu.be/tpUdd29wnzY

US Senate Votes to Undo FCC's Decision to Repeal Net Neutrality

In a surprising vote Wednesday, the Senate voted to restore the Net neutrality policies previously repealed by the FCC, thanks to a handful of Republicans joining Democrats in a last-ditch effort. Three Republicans, Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Kennedy (R-LA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) proved instrumental in the Senate's 52-47 vote. Senate Democrats had pushed for a vote to enact the Congressional Review Act, or CRA, to halt the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of Obama-era rules governing the open internet. Well, they got the vote Wednesday, and it went their way.

That means the FCC has a new hurdle in its efforts to abolish the rules. The agency has said the 2015 net neutrality rules will finally come to an end on June 11, after they voted last year to abolish the rules against heated opposition from Democrats and numerous tech companies. After the vote, the FCC showed little indication the Senate vote will change its thinking on net neutrality. The Senate vote marked one of the last chances to save net neutrality, but its success doesn't mean the battle is over. Beyond the Senate, the CRA needs approval from the House of Representatives and President Donald Trump. Considering that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who spearheaded the repeal of the rules, is a Trump appointee, it's unlikely Trump will support the CRA.



Credits:

App or Crap

Cry Translator

Kissing rater

Carr Matey

NASA Will Send a Helicopter to Mars

NASA announced on Friday, the rover will be carrying something a bit more familiar that also happens to be a major feat of engineering: a helicopter. The craft is called the Mars Helicopter, but it’s really more like a drone. It’s also not guaranteed to work. The goal is to test the viability of drone exploration of an alien world rather than conduct a scientific assessment of the planet. At first, the helicopter will make very, very short flights, hovering just 10 feet in the air. But even one short flight will be an impressive engineering achievement, and the first time a helicopter has taken off on a world that is not our own. Already, prototypes of the Mars Helicopter have been tested in a facility that mimics the atmospheric conditions on Mars. Mars’s atmosphere is less than 1 percent as dense as Earth’s. Flying on the surface of Mars is equivalent to flying 100,000 feet above sea level, NASA reported. To compensate for the thin air, the helicopter’s wings will spin at 10 times the rate of a typical earthbound copter to achieve lift.

Mars 2020 is slated to launch in July of that year on United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and the mission should arrive at Mars in February 2021. The six-wheeled rover will hunt for signs of habitable environments as well as sites that may have once hosted microbial life, examining the Red Planet with 23 cameras, a microphone and a drill to collect samples. The helicopter will ride to Mars attached to the rover's belly pan, officials said. Once the rover reaches the planet's surface, it will place the helicopter on the ground and move to a safe distance to relay commands; controllers on Earth will direct it to take its first autonomous flight.


Credits:
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/5/14/17351802/nasa-mars-helicopter-atmosphere

Google Lens Combines AI and AR in a phone

During Google’s I/O developer conference keynote, artificial intelligence was once again the defining theme and Google’s guiding light for the future. AI is now interwoven into everything Google does, and nowhere is the benefits of CEO Sundar Pichai’s AI-first approach more apparent than with Google Lens. The Lens platform combines the company’s most cutting-edge advances in computer vision and natural language processing with the power of Google Search. In doing so, Google makes a compelling argument for why its way of developing AI will generate more immediately useful software than its biggest rivals, like Amazon and Facebook. It also gives AI naysayers an illustrative example of what the technology can do for consumers, instead of just for under-the-hood systems like data centers and advertising networks or for more limited hardware use cases like smart speakers.

Lens is effectively Google’s engine for seeing, understanding, and augmenting the real world. It lives in the camera viewfinder of Google-powered software like Assistant and, following an announcement at I/O this year, within the native camera of top-tier Android smartphones. For Google, anything a human can recognize is fair game for Lens. That includes objects and environments, people and animals (or even photos of animals), and any scrap of text as it appears on street signs, screens, restaurant menus, and books. From there, Google uses the expansive knowledge base of Search to surface actionable info like purchase links for products and Wikipedia descriptions of famous landmarks. The goal is to give users context about their environments and any and all objects within those environments.

Click here for a video

Credits:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/8/17333154/google-lens-ai-ar-live-demo-hands-on-io-2018

NASA's plan to land on Mars

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/langley/surviving-the-inferno-of-entry-descent-and-landing/

Alabama HS Hacked and Grades Changed. No Valedictorian

The Alabama Board of Education has launched an investigation after a high school in Escambia County discovered discrepancies in the grades of a number of students, apparently the result of a hack. W.S. Neal High School in East Brewton, Alabama found the inconsistencies in some grades while finalizing a “Top 10" list of the best-performing students. The school is putting off naming a valedictorian and salutatorian for this year’s graduating class, who are scheduled to receive their diplomas on May 22nd.

At the risk of questioning the methods of the superintendent and school board, it seems like they don’t have a great grasp of the situation. While the Board of Education isn’t releasing any details until the investigation is complete, the school has apparently forgone digital forensics in favor of trying to get a student to rat out the supposed hacker. Students have reportedly been called into the principal’s office and pressed if they know who is responsible for changing grades, which is either an attempt to make the kids crack under pressure or part of a desperate search for leads.

For the students, the primary concern seems to be how the apparent hack will affect their position on the Top 10 list. Some students may have been bumped out of the top slots by someone who changed their grades and losing that position may affect their hunt for scholarships, which should probably make us reconsider how scholarships are awarded.



Credits:
http://www.wkrg.com/news/local-news/state-investigates-grade-changes-at-local-high-school/1159762292

Video Games Use AR

Check out @CNET’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/CNET/status/992373276369338369?s=09

ESA and NASA Join to Bring Mars Soil to Earth

Sophisticated laboratories aboard probes like the Curiosity Rover and the upcoming Insight Mars Lander can tell us much, but samples of Martian soil in terrestrial laboratories would open new worlds of exploration for scientists. To that end, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) just revealed a bold plan to retrieve soil samples from the surface of the red planet and transport them back to Earth. In a statement of intent released last week, the two agencies outlined their proposal, which would require multiple missions and some tricky maneuvering in orbit around Mars.

The Mars 2020 rover, which has already begun assembly at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, California, will land on Mars via a rocket-powered sky crane. It will collect about 30 soil samples in small test-tube-sized containers and place them in a location for later retrieval. The next mission will utilize a “fetch rover” to collect the samples and then return to its lander, which will launch the small payload into orbit using a Mars Ascent Vehicle. Such a launch has never been done before, and it will require extensive coordination between the agencies to pull it off.



Credits: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/nasa-esa-bringing-mars-soil-to-earth/ https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/21666/bringing-mars-back-to-earth/