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Show of 04-06-2019

Tech Talk

April 6, 2019

Email and Forum Questions

  • Email from Dave in Chantilly: Dear Tech Talk. I took your advice and replaced the hard drive in my laptop with an SSD to make it run faster. Everything seems to be working ok and the speed increase was incredible, but I’m worried that I might have possibly damaged something while I was swapping out the drives. What happened was I forgot to remove the battery from the laptop and completed the entire procedure with it still inside the laptop. Do you think there’s a chance that I damaged something enough to make it stop working later even though it still works ok right now? Dave in Chantilly
  • Tech Talk Responds: I believe your laptop will be just fine. You didn’t mention whether you had powered the machine down before swapping out the drives, but I’m sure you probably did since the lid would have almost certainly been closed.
  • If that’s the case, it’s highly unlikely that anything inside your laptop sustained any damage while you were working on its innards. However, if the laptop was powered up when you removed the hard drive and installed the SSD in its place then there is always a chance that a momentary power spike could have caused some damage.
  • While it’s always good practice to remove a laptop’s battery before removing or installing any internal components, I believe it’s very unlikely that you damaged your laptop while swapping the drives out.
  • Email from Kevin in Nokesville: Dear Doc and Jim. I occasionally download a file from the Internet and am worried that I might be introducing malware into my computer. Is there a way to scan the file before I open to make certain that it is clean? Love the podcast. Kevin in Nokesville
  • Tech Talk Responds: First, you can scan the file with the antivirus software that’s installed on your PC without having to scan your entire computer.
  • First option: Simply right-click on the file and then select Scan with your installed antivirus program.
  • Second option: You could also use a web service called VirusTotal will quickly scan any file on your system. VirusTotal inspects items with over 70 antivirus scanners and URL/domain blacklisting services. Either drag the file you wish to scan into the selection box or click Choose File and navigate to it. After all the scans have been completed you’ll be presented with a summary page containing the results of all the individual scans.
  • Web address: https://www.virustotal.com/
  • Email from Micheal in New Jersey: Dear Doc and Jim. I have a Facebook friend that is annoying and their posts are getting on my nervesThey post a hundred status updates a day filled with meaningless comments. Is there a way to block his/her posts without having to actually unfriend them. Micheal in New Jersey
  • Tech Talk Responds: You do not have to unfriend a problem friend on Facebook to keep their posts out of your newsfeed. You can simply unfollow them instead!
    • Go to your annoying friend’s Timeline page.
    • Hover your mouse over the “Following” button and select Unfollow at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
    • His/her posts will no longer show up in your news feed.
  • However, your friend will still be able to tag you in posts, post directly onto your Timeline and send you private messages unless you change your privacy settings to prevent those actions.
  • Dennis in Kansas: Dear Tech Talk. I have a large house and the basement is very far from the Wi-Fi access point. I have nearly no Wi-Fi signal in my recreation room. How can I extend my Wi-Fi to the basement is a cost effective way? Dennis in Kansas
  • There are a couple of common methods for dealing with a weak or non-existent Wi-Fi signal in a home, both of which can be problematic:
  • Tech Talk Responds: Your best option is an inexpensive Powerline Networking / Wi-Fi Extender Kit to provide fast wired and wireless connections to any part of your home without having to run any wires! You can even use one of these kits to extend your Wi-Fi network to a detached garage or other outbuilding as long as the other building is connected to your home’s primary circuit breaker panel!
  • These kits typically contains two devices: a Powerline Ethernet Adapter and a Wireless Network Extender.
    • Connect the Powerline Ethernet Adapter to your router with an Ethernet cable, then plug the device into the nearest electrical outlet directly.
    • Plug the Wireless Network Extender into any electrical outlet in the remote area of the house where you wish to extend your Wi-Fi network to.
  • After you have installed the two devices in the kit, you’ll be able to plug a desktop computer or other device with a wired Ethernet connection directly into the Wireless Network Extender. You will have a strong and fast Wi-Fi signal in that area as well.
  • I recommend is the NETGEAR PowerLINE 1000 Mbps WiFi, 802.11ac, 1 Gigabit Port – Essentials Edition Kit. It is currently $108 on Amazon.
  • Angie in Missouri: Dear Doc and Jim. I have been reading about new time-of-flight cameras on 2019 smart phone. All the manufacturers are joining the cause. What is so special about this camera? Is it worth waiting for? Angie in Missouri
  • Tech Talk Responds: A ToF camera uses infrared light to determine depth information. The sensor emits a light signal, which hits the subject and returns to the sensor. The time it takes to bounce back is then measured and provides depth-mapping capabilities. In phones, ToF camera sensors will likely be used for 3D photography, AR, and in particular Portrait mode. Theoretically, ToF cameras can better blur photo backgrounds in Portrait mode. We say “theoretically” because the process still requires software magic.
  • In photography, this idea of foreground and background is called depth of field. It’s what creates a sense of realism or focus. Objects that are nearby look sharp, with clean outlines, while far away objects look slightly blurred. With a ToF camera, photographers have more options for controlling their depth of field.
  • As of April 2019, there are only a few phones that have built-in ToF cameras, like the LG G8 ThinQ, the Honor View 20, the Huawei P30 Pro, and the Oppo RX17 Pro. These phones are marketed toward photographers and geeks, but they’re setting the standard for future phones, including Samsung and Apple’s 2019 and 2020 releases.
  • Email from April in Fairfax: Dear Tech Talk. What is the best way to back up my computer? April in Fairfax, Virginia.
  • Tech Talk Responds: Any personal documents, photos, home videos, and any other data on your computer should be backed up regularly. Your operating system, programs, and other settings can also be backed up.
  • Back Up to an External Drive: If you have an external USB hard drive, you can just back up to that drive using your computer’s built-in backup features. On Windows 10 and 8, use File History. On Windows 7, use Windows Backup. On Macs, use Time Machine. Occasionally connect the drive to the computer and use the backup tool, or leave it plugged in whenever your home and it’ll back up automatically.
    • Backing up is cheap and fast.
    • If your house is robbed or catches on fire, your backup can be lost along with your computer, which is very bad.
  • Back Up Over the Internet: If you want to ensure your files stay safe, you can back them up to the internet with a service like Backblaze, Carbonite, or MozyHome. For a low monthly fee (about $5 a month), these programs run in the background on your PC or Mac, automatically backing up your files to the service’s web storage. If you ever lose those files and need them again, you can restore them.
    • Online backup protects you against any type of data loss–hard drive failure, theft, natural disasters, and everything in between.
    • These services usually cost money and the initial backup can take much longer than it would on an external drive.
  • Use a Cloud Storage Service: Rather than just storing your files on your computer’s hard drive, you can store them on a service like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or a similar cloud storage service. They will then automatically sync to your online account and to your other PCs. This method is easy, fast, and in many cases, free, and since it’s online, it protects you against all types of data loss. Most cloud services only offer a few gigabytes of space for free, so this only works if you have a small number of files you want to back up, or if you’re willing to pay for extra storage. Depending on the files you want to back up, this method can either be simpler or more complicated than a straight-up backup program.

Profiles in IT: Elizebeth Smith Friedman

  • Elizebeth Smith Friedman is best known as America’s first female cryptanalyst.
  • Friedman was born August 26, 1892, in Huntington, Indiana.
  • Friedman was the youngest of nine surviving children and grew up on a farm.
  • In 1915, Friedman received a BA in English from Hillsdale College in Michigan.
  • She then became the substitute principal of a high school in Wabash, Indiana.
  • In 1918, Friedman began working at Riverbank Laboratories, in one of the first facilities in the U.S. founded to study cryptography.
  • One of here projects was to help prove that Sir Francis Bacon had written Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, by decrypting enciphered messages that were supposed to have been contained within the plays and poems.
  • She worked for the next few years with William F. Friedman on a number of cryptographic projects. They were married in 1917.
  • In 1921, the Friedmans left Riverbank to work for the War Department in DC.
  • She and her team deciphered many encoded messages throughout the Prohibition years and solved many notable cases, including some codes written in Mandarin.
  • In 1923, Friedman was hired as a cryptanalyst for the U.S. Navy. This led to a position with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Prohibition and of Customs.
  • Friedman solved the bulk of intercepts collected by Coast Guard stations in San Francisco and Florida herself.
  • In October and November 1929, she was then recruited in Houston, Texas, to solve 650 smuggling traffic cases that had been subpoenaed by the United States Attorney.
  • Friedman’s work was responsible for providing decoded information that resulted in the conviction of the narcotics-smuggling Ezra Brothers.
  • As her cryptanalytic responsibilities began to mount, Friedman sensed the need to teach other analysts cryptanalytic fundamentals, including deciphering techniques.
  • This allowed her time to attack the more atypical new systems as they cropped up. It also allowed her to stay one step ahead of the smugglers.
  • Canada sought Friedman’s help in 1937 with an opium dealer problem. Her solution to a unknown Chinese enciphered code was key to the successful convictions.
  • During WW II, her Coast Guard unit was transferred to the Navy where they solved a difficult Enigma machine code used by German Naval Intelligence.
  • After retirement, Friedman and her husband, collaboarated on the Shakespeare project and concluded that Bacon had not written any of the works.
  • Following her husband’s death in 1969, Friedman devoted much of her retirement life to compiling a library and bibliography of his work.
  • Friedman died on October 31, 1980, in Plainfield, New Jersey, at the age of 88.

Rechargeable Battery Can Last 400 Years

  • In 2016, a battery that lasts a whole lifetime was created by Mya Le Thai, the former PhD from UC Irvine.
  • She made the discovery while studying the properties of gold nanowire for commercial batteries. Typically, the gold filaments lose their integrity (and the battery dies) after 5,000 to 6,000 recharge cycles.
  • Nanowire is thousands of times thinner than a human hair; the increased surface area of the microscopic wire allows greater storage and transferring capacity for electrons. Researchers have been trying to use the material for a long time.
  • By coating the gold nanowire in a type of electrolyte gel, Thai was able to create a circuit that withstood an unprecedented 200,000 charge cycles in the span of three months of testing, during which time there was no loss in performance, nor were any nanowires fractured by repeated use.
  • Mya had just been “playing around” when she made the discovery by applying the gel.
  • Thai’s invention could eventually lead to a commercial battery that never requires a replacement. They could be used to power everything from computers to phones, from cars and appliances to spacecraft.
  • The researchers at UC Irvine still don’t know why the electrolyte gel preserves the gold nanowire even under so much use.

MIT Cuts Ties with Chinese Tech Firms Huawei and ZTE

  • The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has severed ties with Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp.
  • MIT is the latest top educational institution to unplug telecom equipment made by Huawei and other Chinese companies to avoid losing federal funding.
  • In addition, collaborations with China, Russia and Saudi Arabia would face additional administrative review procedures.
  • Britain’s Oxford University stopped accepting funding from Huawei this year.
  • S. sanctions forced ZTE to stop most business between April and July last year after Commerce Department officials said it broke a pact and was caught illegally shipping U.S.-origin goods to Iran and North Korea. The sanctions were lifted after ZTE paid $1.4 billion in penalties.
  • In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry referred questions to the two companies, but said Chinese firms were required to abide by local laws.
  • Chinese telecoms equipment makers have also been facing mounting scrutiny, led by the United States, amid worries Beijing could use their equipment for spying. The companies, however, have said the concerns are unfounded.

Should Humanity Merge with Robots?

  • Renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku believes that it is the logical next step.
  • Accourding to Kaku. Robots are pretty stupid now. However, by the end of the century, they may be as smart as a monkey and they could become self-aware. At that point they’re dangerous.
  • Kaku was referring to the alarming predictions about AI expressed by Elon Musk, who that feels artificially intelligent machines could threaten the human race in the future.
  • Mark Zuckerberg, however, has differing views on AI. He’s more optimistic, saying they’ll be a boon for business in the near future.
  • Kaku believes Zuckerberg is right initially, in the short-term, because AI will give us prosperity, jobs, will reinvigorate the economy. In the long-term, however, we have to realize that we can’t be naïve.
  • And if robots become self-aware in the next hundred years, as he predicts, then being naïve could make humans go the way of the dinosaurs.
  • Kaku believes that, at that point in the 22nd century, we should merge with them.”
  • It makes sense that when we merge with robots, we’ll still pretty much look like we do today. We just might have superhuman powers. Researchers are already working on developing super-strong synthetic muscles, a bionic lens that could give you superhuman vision, and a brain implant that could let you translate thoughts into computer code. And once the Human Connectome Project maps the human brain in its entirety, Kaku predicts we may be able to transfer our entire consciousness into powerful mechanical avatars.
  • If you think this all sounds like science fiction, then Kaku agrees with you.
  • “However, we will have this technology in a hundred years,” he says.
  • And even if we don’t have that technology quite yet, he’s pretty confident that aliens already do.

Facebook Let Cybercrime Groups Operate in Plain Sight

  • Researchers at Cisco’s Talos security division revealed on April 5, 2019, that they had uncovered 74 Facebook groups devoted to the sale of stolen credit card data, identity info, spam lists, hacking tools, and other cybercrime commodities.
  • The researchers say those groups sat in plain sight, with names like Spam Professional and Spammer and Hacker Professional, attracting 385,000 members in all.
  • Anyone could find them with a site search for basic terms like “carding” or “CVVs,” a reference to the security codes on the back of credit cards.
  • Screenshots that Cisco published in a blog post summarizing its findings capture Facebook users publishing pictures of purportedly stolen credit cards and IDs, offering lists of CVVs priced at $5 each, as well as collections of thousands of emails ripe for spamming and phishing—the type of data usually sold on dark-web markets or password-protected, invite-only hacker forums.
  • Some of the posts that Cisco researchers found selling credit card data, including CVV security codes, as well as counterfeit credit cards and IDs.CISCO
  • Once Cisco’s researchers identified a handful of them, Facebook’s recommendation algorithm offered them other groups with similar black market focuses.
  • The cybercrime markets infesting the site are only the latest example of the company’s negligence when it comes to moderating and policing its billions of users.

Cyber-attacks ‘damage’ national infrastructure

  • A survey of security professionals in six countries, including the UK, by the Ponemon Institute found 90% had been hit by at least one successful attack.
  • Staff in the utilities, energy, health and transport sectors were questioned.
  • Staff tasked with keeping critical infrastructure systems running often kept details secret for security reasons.
  • The Ponemon Institute, which specialises in cyber-security and privacy issues, used an anonymous poll to quiz more than 700 security professionals in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, Mexico and Japan who work to protect critical infrastructure.
  • Of those responding, nine out of 10 said the organization they worked for had been damaged by a successful cyber-attack in the last two years.
  • Many reported being hit by between three and six such incidents.
  • Respondents said around half of the successful attacks had resulted in downtime of critical systems. This was because essential systems were knocked out as part of the attack or operators had to turn off systems to repair the damage done.
  • That is a really big change and that’s why the risk isn’t just theoretical any more. The reason behind it is increased connectivity to industrial control systems.
  • What can companies do to protect themselves?
    • Assume attacks will be made. Prepare with the right people, processes and technology, or risk long-term damage
    • Realize the attacks will not stop. Many organizations are now successfully attacked several times a year
    • Guard against human failings. An attack may succeed because just one employee clicks on a phishing email
    • Share intelligence with similar organizations. National cyber-defense organizations often run online forums where experiences can be shared

Troubling: Google’s Ethics Board Shut Down

  • An independent group set up to oversee Google’s artificial intelligence efforts, has been shut down less than a week after it was launched.
  • The Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) was due to look at the ethics around AI, machine learning and facial recognition.
  • One member resigned and there were calls for another to be removed.
  • Google told the BBC: “It’s become clear that in the current environment, ATEAC can’t function as we wanted.
  • There had been an outcry over the appointment of Kay Coles James, who is president of conservative thinktank The Heritage Foundation. Thousands of Google employees signed a petition calling for her removal, over what they described as “anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigrant” comments.
  • At the weekend, board member Prof Alessandro Acquisti resigned with a treet.
  • The panel had been announced at a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and had planned to meet four times in 2019.
  • One of the eight members, Joanna Bryson, a professor from Bath University, expressed anger at Google’s decision to pull the plug.

Project Kuiper: Amazon’s Satellite High Speed Internet

  • com plans to build a massive network of 3,000+ satellites to provide high-speed internet for the masses.
  • The project is intended to give a big boost to broadband speeds, connectivity and low-latency internet for people who still lack basic access to it worldwide.
  • The constellation is planned as a network of 784 satellites at the lowest altitude (590 kilometres), 1,296 satellites at the next-highest altitude (610 kilometres) and the remaining 1,156 floating at the highest (630 kilometres) orbit above the Earth.
  • If all goes to plan, Project Kuiper will have a reach, with its broadband coverage area, that spans roughly 95 percent of the global population.
  • Project Kuiper gets its name from a region of the Solar System that exists beyond the eight major planets. The Kuiper belt is similar to the asteroid belt, in that it contains many small bodies, all of which are remnants from the solar system’s formation.
  • In November, Amazon announced that it would build 12 ground stations to transmit data to and from satellites, indicating grander space ambitions.
  • With this project, Amazon will join many other big and small names in the race to provide global, affordable broadband access. SpaceX and Airbus-backed OneWeb have already announced similar projects to provide inexpensive for the masses.

AI Can Predict Premature Death

  • The team of healthcare data scientists and doctors have developed and tested a system of computer-based ‘machine learning’ algorithms to predict the risk of early death due to chronic disease in a large middle-aged population.
  • They found this AI system was very accurate in its predictions and performed better than the current standard approach to prediction developed by human experts.
  • The team used health data from just over half a million people aged between 40 and 69.
  • They found machine learned algorithms were significantly more accurate in predicting death than the standard prediction models developed by a human expert.
  • The AI machine learning models used in the new study are known as ‘random forest’ and ‘deep learning’. These were pitched against the traditionally-used ‘Cox regression’ prediction model based on age and gender.
  • The Nottingham researchers predict that AI will play a vital part in the development of future tools capable of delivering personalized medicine, tailoring risk management to individual patients.
  • Further research requires verifying and validating these AI algorithms in other population groups and exploring ways to implement these systems into routine healthcare.