Microsoft Slams Google for Revealing Windows 8.1 Bug

It has been just another example of a competitive business world when Google has revealed the bug involved in Windows 8.1 by Microsoft. Both giant companies Google and Windows got on the wrong sides with each other on 11th of January 2015 when Google as a part of their Project Zero revealed a Windows 8.1 bug to the entire public. (Project Zero is a 90 day grace period that Google gives any software company compelling them to rectify or improve the flaws to improve the web or computers to be more secure to use and also to users.

Now if that is not met by the software companies, Google makes the flaws pubic). In this instance Google pre notified Microsoft of the flaw or the bug as we say on the 11th of October 2014 allowing Microsoft to get the bug fixed by 11th of January 2015 after which Project Zero would be what Google would resort to however since this was not fixed Google made the flaws pubic. Despite all this Chris Betz who is the chief of Microsoft Security Response Centre was found stating in a blog that Microsoft asked Google to hold off revealing the mistake/flaw for a couple of days more as they needed to develop a fix for the issue.

Mr.Betz also said that they have specifically asked Google to work in protecting customers by holding on to details till 13th Jan which is when a fix for the issue will be released. Mr.Betz added that they are aware with the fact that revealing flaw is consistent by Google's Project Zero guidelines, but also deliberately makes Microsoft less impressive to the security of Windows 8.1 customers' devices.

Mr. Betz criticized Google in this instance further adding that the action taken by Google is more of expressing pleasure at catching someone rather than the principles eventually leaving customers to suffer. Mr.Betz came back stating that what is right for Google may not always be the same for the customers and would want Google to make customer protection as the entire collective and primary goal.

With all this said and done Microsoft took a step ahead and notified that its Advance Security Notification System as also known as ANS will not be available for public and this step has been taken as a part of evolution from Microsoft’s side. This in future will be available only for paid premier support contracts and companies who are involved in the security programmes to access ahead of a fix.

This brought about mixed opinions in the technical communities where in a few were with Microsoft understanding that fixing a patch is not instant as they need to keep in mind various other facts like not to hamper other processes just by getting the broken patch fixed for Windows 8.1 eventually causing customers to suffer with the existing process. While on the flip side there were also customers who were on the same page with Google indicating that Microsoft is a giant but they are very slow or too dainty who could not fix the bug in time.

Whatsapp and iMessage Could Be Banned Under New Surveillance Plans

According to recent reports, Snapchat, WhatsApp and iMessage could be banned in the U.K. after the murder of Charlie Hebdo. It was the shocking event in Paris where leaders of the world prove that, how little they understand the latest technology. David Cameron, in an event in Nottingham, England, stated about how Britain has been able to access any form of communication with advanced technology and tools.

Phone calls, internet traffic, letters all can be intercepted due security and intelligence reasons, but as per the Cameron few services such as; WhatsApp, Facebook, iMessage, Snapchat and countless other smaller versions can be problem for national security. At the end of whole speech, David Cameron stated, “The first duty of government is to keep the country safe for our people, so that they can enjoy the life.”

As per another member and Mayor from Cameron’s party, Boris Johnson, “I am pretty interested in civil liberties stuff and if they are threat, so I want to listen their calls and check their emails to”. It can be alarming quote for those who have tipped to be a future British PM. No doubt, David Cameron was referring to listen only terrorists, but we all know that for this they need to keep an eye on all residents.

In the world of democracy, if you have elects those who are best according to you and later you are managing the money after paying taxes to live in better country. According to normal peoples we haven’t elect them to spy on our private life, to stop us from having basic rights and freedom, we didn’t have put them in charge, it means they couldn’t have a understanding about latest technology then our teenagers.

The argument presented by government and its officials, mobile services such as; WhatsApp, Facebook, iMessage, Snapchat are not freely accessible from their intelligence agencies. It is expected that government has approached those companies and asked to keep an eye on their messages, but their request denied. Now government has only option either to break in their security or to get a court order for further records.

But it’s nothing other than stupidity to stop normal people doing normal things through their instant messaging services; the latest technology is the easy medium for terrorists to communicate securely. If two or more machines are running for communications through Tor, while using 256bit encryption with the help of an IRC server so it can give same headache to government. Government can have little trouble to see those chats as the source and destination with the chat content of messages would be fairly secure throughout the process.

Ultimately, this is all what British government wants, and French government seems to follow the same route in a system as China is doing as they are routing all the traffic through government firewalls and normal people can access only approved sites and services. But the other fact is it is more difficult to stop the people from using the communication apps.

3D-printed 'Star Wars' Buddhas: Zen and the art of the Force

We all know about an epic space opera, Star Wars and its hero Zen master. If you are the fan of Star Wars, so you can easily find Star Wars movies, books, television series, and videos games, but now you can also get Star Wars Buddhas with the help of 3d printing technology. Yoda was always known to have some kind of Zen master inside him. Chris Milnes, proprietor of the muckychris storefront and Etsy seller has really put in lot of effort and brought g the Zen side of this little green person with the help of his 3D-printed Zen Yoda figurines. These 3D statues have the combination of Buddha's pleasingly plump body apart from the Yoda’s head.

So what all is in for offering? 

As far as Milnes in concerned, Zen Yoda is just one of his many creations in offering. He has also design many greek related items which includes Boba Fett (Buddha Fett?), Iron Man, Darth Vader, "Battlestar Galactica”, Stormtrooper Buddha and Judge Dredd figurines. These statues are built using the Hotei body (laugh Buddha), figure, which was originally created by Sammy Davis, Thingiverse user. After this Milnes takes the most popular 3D models of superhero and sci-fi heads and melds these two onto a base. Thus, create flawless little nerd-gods. These designs have been possible due to the modeling work of Milnes apart from Creative Commons licensing from the original 3D modelers.

According to Milnes, his art comprises of mash up of existing item and creating new items with meaning. In case of the Zen Zode, it is aiming to create and balance Creative Commons licensing from the original 3D modeler with the force and the 'Star Wars' lore. Milnes is a digital sculptor and carries out all his modeling and 3D print work himself. Apart from being busy with his Etsy Store, he has been quiyte busy with the invention of the SquareHelper, which is a 3D-printed widget capable of keeping Square card readers from spinning around in case of being attached to an iPad or iPhone. He is a Makerbot user with Replicator 2x and Replicator 2 machines in use. According to what he offers, it takes nearly an hour to print a 2-inch figure, about three to four to print a 4-inch figure and around six hours to print a a 6-inch figure. This at present is the largest size offered by Milnes. The prices of these statues ranges from $7.99 (about £5, AU$10) for the small ones and about $27.99 (about £19, AU$34) for the big statues. What catches the eye most is the chrome and shiny gold offerings.

According to Milnes, his Etsy store has a few popular geek brands in offerings but even he agrees that Darth Vader, Stormtrooper and Yoda statues are the most popular ones. Considering the fact that Jediism has a very minor religious following around the world, it is quite obvious for the Yoda-Buddha to become immensely popular and such a hot commodity.

US Military Social-Media Accounts Hacked

According to the reports, a hacker group who is claiming to be with the terrorist group ISIS and call themselves as the “Recently, Cyber Caliphate, took the complete control over the operation of Centcom YouTube channel and Twitter account that represents the United States central military command. There was a Pastebin tweeted by the hackers titles as “Pentagon account hacked with a message that, American soldiers, we are coming, now its time when you should watch your back. #CyberCaliphate”. This message included links to what is suppose to be with some confidential US Army files.

However, according to sources, it has come to light that these files might have been made available to public previously, in other words, these files cannot be deemed highly confidential. These files might not be confidential but at the end of the day, it was the files of Centcom’s social accounts that were compromised. This clearly indicates the pathetic state of the cyber security in the United States government. And if the hackers are able to get their hands on some of the most confidential files then it clearly indicates that ISIS is a more dreadful cyber-opponent than anyone can expect.

According to the tweets of Politico reporter Hadas Gold at 9:46AM PST, Twitter is aware of the cyber attack on Centcom and taking necessary steps to work on the issue. According to the update at 10:05AM PST, Twitter was able to remove the cover image and the profile image from Centcom. This was followed by the suspension of the Centcom account at 10:10AM PST. At 10:15AM PST, there was an update posted indicating one of the defense officials has confirmed these attacks to Fusion reported Brett LoGiurato. Brett LoGiurato tweeted that, defense official have confirmed that the United States Central Command Twitter account has been compromised. At 10:35AM PST another update followed indicating that even YouTube has suspended the hacked account of Centcom from YouTube. Around 11:55AM PST, The Next Web’s Matt Navarra tweeted that there has been a request received from Pentagon pertaining to an account security issue and they are working on the issue to resolve it.

Before the accounts could be shut, the following tweets were released from the account: 

1. Pentagon network hacked: Korean scenarios.
2. American soldiers, we are coming to you, now it’s time when you should watch your back.
3. We will not stop; we know everything about you, your wife, and your children.
4. ISIS is already here, we are in your computers, in each of your military base

While the US and its satellites kill our brothers and soldiers in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, then we broke into your networks and personal devices and know every information about you. The Cyber-Caliphate has also claimed to have taken control over the US media affiliates of CBS News and Fox in Tennessee. According to one of the Anonymous post left out in Pastebin, “In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the Cyber-Caliphate under the auspices of ISIS will continues with its Cyber-Jihad.

Gogoro, the Electric Scooter Could Make Battery-Swapping Work

We all know that technology is growing day by day and now one more chapter in the world of advanced technology as after smartphones, smartscooters are ready to hit the market globally. Recently, Gogoro launched as smartscooter by occupying the stage at CES. Gogoro is electric scooter and work on the zero-emissions policy. This smartscooter is designed to get power from batteries and in present it is available in all over the world through the subscription from a wide range of network vending machines.

Technology on wheels: 

Gogoro is smartscooter, which is equipped with cloud connectivity, an integrated mobile app and in an addition 30 onboard sensors. It allows all the users to take an advantage of premium features like; customized regenerative braking, adaptive throttle control, to find the battery-vending GoStation and detailed scooter diagnostics. Apart from these extra features, riders can also track the driving details such as; top speed, time and they can also analyze the driving patterns in order to energy consumption to optimize power.
According to the Megan Zaroda, spokesperson of company, it is expected that Gogoro will ship its first product this year as they are targeting the megacities on worldwide level.


The more he added that other devices will integrate into this smartscooter and it is kind of portable power. Before four years, Gogoro raised US $150 million, when they was looking for funding to start its operations, but the price plan for Gogoro smartscooter is still surprise. In present, Gogoro's Smartscooter is targeting the teenagers and young people, who are in the age of 18 to 28 years. While coming to its component, it is consist of ultracompact G1 electric motor, which drive performance. This smartscooter is made up of Aeroframe monocoque chassis, which is light in weight with inbuilt programmable LEDs. You can drive it with maximum speed of 95 km/hour as it can reach to 50 km/hour in just 4.1 seconds.

This smartscooter is designed for customizability and it allows riders to choose any specific throttle acceleration, lock-and-unlock audio, lighting themes and the dashboard-screen color spectrum. According to officials of Gogoro, If user will take the monthly subscription plan, so he will be free to use unlimited battery swaps and this process will take only six seconds, apart from that use will get the free roadside maintenance for the time period of two years. Each full battery will provide a chance to run the scooter up-to to 100 km. Battery is consist of automotive-grade lithium-ion, which is cylindrical with a 18650-size of energy cells from Panasonic. It also provides near field communication connectivity, which is of 256-bit security encryption.

When it comes to looks, so no doubt it looks great with sleek lines as it is so common in most of the scooters and motorcycle in these days. As per the company officials, If user will handle the batteries carefully with regular diagnostics, so it can work till several years, as regular diagnostics is one of the key element.