Tech Talk
January 9, 2015
Email and Forum Questions
- Email from Mary in Bethesda: Dear Dr. Shurtz, Google Project Sunroof has not made it to my address for this. Can you please talk about this & when the DC Metro will be included in their DB? Thanks, Mary in Bethesda
- Tech Talk Responds: Google Project Sunroof puts Google’s expansive data in mapping and computing resources to use, helping calculate the best solar plan for your home. When you enter your address, Project Sunroof looks up your home in Google Maps and combines that information with other databases to create your personalized roof analysis. Project Sunroof computes how much sunlight hits your roof in a year. It takes into account:
- Google’s database of aerial imagery and maps
- 3D modeling of your roof
- Shadows cast by nearby structures and trees
- All possible sun positions over the course of a year
- Historical cloud and temperature patterns that might affect solar energy production
- Project Sunroof recommends an installation size to generate close to 100% of your electricity use, based on roof size, the amount of sun hitting the roof, and your electricity bill. Sign up for updates and notification when they will have data for your area. Google is currently piloting a few selected areas.
- Link: https://www.google.com/get/sunroof/
- Email form Carl Tyler: Dear Dr. Shurtz: Could you do a profile of Jeff Moss (aka The Dark Tangent) on your Profiles in IT segment. Moss is the founder of DEF CON and Black Hat computer hacker conferences. I think he would make a worthy candidate. Thanks to you and Jim for a great podcast. Never miss one. Carl Tyler
- Tech Talk Responds: Great idea. We will feature Jeff of today show. I love to get suggestions for Profiles in IT. I really helps with show prep.
- Email from Arnie in Colorado Springs: Dear Doc and Jim. On 1/8/1889, Herman Hollerith was issued US patent #395,791 for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’, his punched card calculator. Wow, this predates anything I’ve read about calculators /computing. Arnie in Colorado Springs, CO
- Tech Talk Responds: We have featured Herman Hollerith on Profiles in IT. But is it fun to reminisce about his achievements. Thanks for the suggestions.
- Herman Hollerith is widely regarded as the father of modern automatic computation. He chose the punched card as the basis for storing and processing information and he built the first punched-card tabulating and sorting machines as well as the first key punch, and he founded the company that was to become IBM. Hollerith’s designs dominated the computing landscape for almost 100 years.
- After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards to record information, and designed special equipment — a tabulator and sorter — to tally the results. His designs won the competition for the 1890 US census, chosen for their ability to count combined facts. These machines reduced a ten-year job to three months, saved the 1890 taxpayers five million dollars.
- In 1911 Hollerith’s company merged with several others to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), which changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924. Hollerith’s ideas for automation of the census contained in Patent No. 395,782 of Jan. 8, 1889.
- Email from Joy in Maryland: Dear Doc and Jim. I recently set up a new computer and tried to be very clever and created a difficult password. Now I can’t remember it and am locked out of my Windows 8 HP Pavilion computer. I don’t have any CDs available. This computer was never used and I don’t have any documents that need saved. The store wants $100 to fix the problem. There must be a cheaper option. Love the show. Joy in Maryland
- Tech Talk Responds: The process of recovering your password in Windows 10 is much the same as it has been in Windows 8. If you are using a Microsoft Live Login, you can use the Microsoft Password Reset Website (https://account.live.com/resetpassword.aspx). You’ll find three choices, and for this particular case, you’ll want to follow the “I Forgot My Password” selection if you’re attempting to recover any accounts that are tied to your online identity.
- Once you make it through these steps, you’ll be greeted with the generally familiar recovery process that most major companies will use when attempting to verify that you really are who you say you are. If you’ve registered an external email or a cellphone number with your account, you can receive a code which will pop your account open without any extra hassle.
- Since you don’t have any documents that need to be saved, you can restore your machine its initial state. While the computer is booting, press F11. Select Trouble Shoot from the menu. Then select Reset Your Pc from the menu. You will be warned that this will remove all document data. Click OK and it will reset. It will take quite a bit of time. Then you will have to install all the security updates. I had 47 updates when I did it. At some point, you will be offered a free upgrade to Windows 10. I suggest you take. The whole process will take several hours.
- By the way, you can reset the password by booting on a utility like Hirens Boot CD. However, the files will still be encrypted and not readable. Without the password, the OS will not have the correct key to decrypt the files.
- Moral of the story. Don’t forget your password or else link your password to your Microsoft account so it can be reset.
Profiles in IT: Jeff Moss
- Jeff Moss, also known as The Dark Tangent, is an American hacker who founded the Black Hat and DEF CON computer Hacker conferences.
- Jeff Moss was born January 1, 1975 in California
- Jeff received his first computer at the age of 10. He became fascinated because he could engage in adult conversation with people all over the country.
- In 1992, Moss received a BA Gonzaga University in Spokane in Criminal Justice.
- Moss hosted the main U.S. hub of Platinum Net, a hacking network out of Canada.
- In December 1992, he was helping the Platinum Net organizer plan a closing party for all the member BBS systems and their users. He was going to shut down.
- When he disappeared, Jeff decided to still have the party and expand it to include all the other networks his BBS system including Cyber Crime International, Hit Net, Tired of Protection, and other hacking groups.
- That became first DEF CON. DEF CON is one of the oldest continuously running hacker conventions. DEF CON is short for Defense Condition.
- In 1994, Moss enrolled in the University of Dayton, School of Law, but dropped out to continue to cybersecurity business.
- He dropped out in 1996 to start Black Hat Briefings, Inc. He wanted to bring cybersecurity knowledge another market. The Black Hat Briefings are held around the world a many exotic locations.
- In 1997, he briefly joined Ernst & Young, Information System Security Division.
- In 1998, he was hired as Director of Professional Services by Secure Computing Corporation. He grew the professional services group, helped design product offerings, and ultimately supported services in the Asia Pacific rim region
- In December 1999, he left this position to focus exclusively on growing Black Hat Briefings and DEF CON.
- In 2005 Jeff Moss sold Black Hat to CMP Media, a subsidiary of UK-based United Business Media, for a reported US$13.9M. The sale did not include DEF CON.
- After selling Black Hat, he served as Director of Black Hat. He integrated it with other business units and was responsible for conference content selection. He resigned from this position in July 2011, but continues to help with Black Hat.
- On 28 April 2011 Jeff Moss was appointed ICANN Chief Security Officer
- Moss is currently based in Seattle, where he works as a security consultant for a company that is hired to test other companies’ computer systems.
- Moss is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
- In 2009 Moss was sworn into the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
- In 2013, Jeff was appointed as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, associated with the Cyber Statecraft Initiative within the Brent Scowcroft Center.
- In 2014, he joined the Georgetown Law Cybersecurity Advisory Committee.
Tip of the Week: Defogging Windows
- What is the fastest way to defog windows?
- Former NASA engineer Mark Rober has figured out a few easy tricks that will help removed the fog off the inside of your windshield in half the time. Here is his formula.
- Defroster fan on highest setting (to evaporate the water)
- Temperature control on its hottest (to evaporate the water)
- A/C turned on (to remove humidity)
- Recirculate turned off (to bring in cold low humidity air)
- Crack your windows (to bring in more cold low humidity air)
CES 2016 Trends
- The Internet of Things
- Every product will become smart and connected, giving the tech companies an inroad for taking over other industries. The show featured: connected lightbulbs, smart pet feeders, teddy bears with health sensors, self-watering flowerpots, smart toothbrushes, and more.
- These devices will connect to the Internet and have their own IP addresses. They’ll get smart enough to capture data from sensors and process it in a way that can be delivered in an understandable way to our smartphones or the web.
- The car is the new supercomputer
- Nvidia brought this point home as it introduced two new computers for the car, one for the information you’ll see on your dashboard and another for the autopilot system in a self-driving car.
- Tasks such as learning to drive safely take a huge amount of learning, and that means artificial intelligence technologies such as “deep neural networks” have to be used to perform real-time tasks such as identifying pedestrians, making the driver aware of fast-moving cars that are coming up behind, or finding the best parking space at your destination.
- Smart appliances need ecosystems and standards
- Smart homes, cars, and appliances are coming. But they won’t take off if they can’t work together. We need standards to make the devices interoperable. Companies are jockeying for position now. Companies give lip service to this idea, but they all jockey to create a standard that includes their own favorite technologies.
- Qualcomm is pushing AllSeen and AllJoyn alliances for smart home devices and smart lighting, respectively. Those standards will compete with the Open Interconnect Consortium devices being promoted by Intel and Samsung.
- Virtual reality
- Oculus virtual reality goggle maker was acquired last year by Facebook for $2 billion. It is the leading VR device company. Oculus Rift’s competitors were plentiful. Sulon’s Cortex headset, Razer’s Open Source Virtual Reality platform, and other VR vendors also made appearances at the show. VR is expensive now, but time will make it more competitive.
- 4K TV Goes Mainstream
- UltraHD TVs were in every major booth, and they were the most talked-about product at the show. These TVs have a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, or four times as detailed as the 1920 x 1080 pixels of high-definition TV. They’re all inherently connected. And many of the screens are curved. Costs are coming down.
- Samsung talked about its SUHD TVs that will have resolution just shy of 8K TV, or 16 times the number of pixels in a high-definition TV.
- Wearables Are Still Featured.
- While the explosion of creativity and devices is fun to watch, it is also a time for consumers to be wary. We know that the Apple Watch 2 is coming soon, and I didn’t see or hear about any device that is going to be much better than that one. New and more affordable sensors will come out that will make today’s wearables obsolete
- Tech helping the disabled.
- Eye-tracking control mechanisms from companies such as Tobii can help people who can’t control a mouse or touchscreen. That’s just one example of how incredibly liberating technology can be for the disabled. The same eye tracking can be useful to gamers, too.
- Asian companies are emerging as the strongest
- CES is now home to some huge Chinese tech companies, from smartphone provider Xiaomi to Changhong, which occupies the booth that Microsoft once had in the Las Vegas Convention Center.
- Drones and robots are multiplying
- There were hundreds of drones on display at CES. The market is still small, but the variety of drones is huge, with applications ranging from entertainment to selfies.
- 3D printers will be a bonanza for creators
- MakerBot showed off faster and easy-to-use 3D printers. HP also showed its Sprout computer, which allows you to visualize prototypes in 3D and then print them out on HP’s industrial-size Fusion 3D printer
NYC Pay Phones Will Become Wi-Fi Hotspots
- The first of at least 7,500 planned hot spots are due to go online early in 2016.
- NYC is promising fast and free Wi-Fi service, new street phones with free calling, ports to charge personal phones and revenue for the city.
- The first hot spot is still being tested and sits under a gray cover.
- Some New Yorkers worry about linking their devices to a public network as they stroll down the street, though the city has said data will be encrypted and any information harvested for advertising will be anonymized.
- The city experimented with providing Wi-Fi from a few pay phones in 2012, then developed the current, eight-year “LinkNYC” plan.
- A consortium of companies, including wireless technology player Qualcomm Inc., is to pay the estimated $200 million installation cost and take half the revenue from the kiosks’ digital advertising, projected at $1 billion over 12 years.
- The city gets the other half, more than doubling the $17 million a year it gets from pay phones now.
- Each hot spot covers about a 150-foot radius with what’s pledged as one-gigabit-per-second service, about 20 times the speed of average home Internet service.
- Officials have said the service is intended for outdoor use; it’s not clear whether it might extend inside some businesses and homes.
- Many U.S. cities strove to cover themselves in Wi-Fi in the early 2000s. But a number of the plans foundered as home access proliferated, usage and ad revenues disappointed and some Internet service providers complained the city networks were unfair competitors.
- But some cities have recently recast and reinvigorated their efforts. Boston is working to expand a “Wicked Free WiFi” network with over 170 hot spots, and Los Angeles is encouraging private companies to provide free basic wireless to all homes and businesses, with outdoor coverage as a goal.