Kaspersky anti-virus update knocks PCs offline

Computer security firm Kaspersky Lab made a major blunder with its latest anti-virus update, which blocked Windows XP users from accessing the internet.

 

The update fiasco knocked one of the largest groups of computer users off the web and made it extremely difficult to fix the problem, since further updates to the code could not be downloaded.

 

Kaspersky issued a hotfix within two hours, but many people could not connect to download it. The company told them to roll back their system to before the previous update or to disable its anti-virus software so that they could reconnect to the internet again. They then had to manually download the update before re-enabling the software.

 

 

The only problem is that without the internet many users will be unaware of the possible workarounds, and may be forced to bring their computers to repair shops to figure out what the problem is, incurring unnecessary costs and eating up valuable work time.

 

It is not clear what, if any, compensation the firm plans to give to users.

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Bitcoins for Pizza service set up

The virtual currency Bitcoins can now be used to buy a pizza, thanks to a new service that acts as a middleman for conversion of Bitcoins into US dollars.

 

The service, Pizza for Coins, allows users to spend their virtual cash on pizzas from Dominos. For those who prefer Pizza Hut or Papa John's, orders for them will be coming soon.

 

There are some drawbacks to ordering in this way, however. The cost of a pizza will go up, with all orders tacking on an additional conversion fee of 0.09 bitcoins ($2.35), making each order more expensive compared to ordering directly from the fast food outlets. The creators of the service hope to eventually decrease the fee and even make it cheaper to buy pizzas with Bitcoins.

 

Another drawback is that the conversion process makes it take longer before an order is delivered, with some taking as much as 80 minutes. Fast food it is not, it seems.

 

 

Bitcoins were invented in 2009 as an experimental “crypto-currency,” employing cryptography and a peer-to-peer network for a very unorthodox approach to money. There is no central authority, and there is a hard limit to how many bitcoins are allowed in circulation. 

 

The currency is seen as an attractive alternative to traditional banking, especially by those who might want to avoid connections between their real life and what they are purchasing. However, it can also leave a public trail, and the digital nature means it is liable to cyber attacks, with millions of dollars worth stolen in various incidents.

 

Bitcoins are considered the most widely used virtual currency in the world. Each coin is worth roughly $26, and there is an estimated $200 million worth of the digital dosh in circulation.

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He did it! Felix Baumgartner breaks sound barrier...without a plane

Daredevil Felix Baumgartner has made a record-breaking leap from the edge of space, landing safely in the New Mexico desert after freefalling from more than 39 kilometres above the Earth.

The 43-year-old floated down to Earth on a red and white parachute canopy, which he had opened after reaching an unofficial speed of 1137km/h in freefall.

The skydiver's blood could have boiled if there were the slightest tear or crack in his pressurized spacesuit-like outfit, due to instant depressurization at the extreme altitude.

Mission control erupted in cheers as Baumgartner made a near-perfect jump from a capsule hoisted aloft by a giant helium-filled balloon to an altitude of 128,097 feet (39.043km).

Baumgartner broke the sound barrier during his jump, but he did not set a new record for the longest freefall, a mission spokeswoman said.

The Austrian achieved the fastest ever freefall speed during the four minutes and 19 seconds of descent, spokeswoman Sarah Anderson said.

 Leap of faith... Photo:Reuters
 

He was bidding to break records set over 50 years ago by Joseph Kittinger, now a retired US Air Force colonel who made a freefall jump from 102,800 feet (31,333 metres) in 1960. Kittinger was part of Baumgartner's back-up team.

Citing preliminary figures, she said the whole jump lasted nine minutes and three seconds, including four minutes and 44 seconds after he deployed his parachute to float down to earth in the New Mexico desert.

Baumgartner had hoped to be in freefall for more than five minutes before opening his chute, and had also expected to jump from a lower altitude - 120,000 feet. But the balloon went higher than expected.

The reason for the shorter than expected freefall was not immediately clear, although live commentary during the unprecedented leap suggested he opened his parachute at an altitude above the 5000-feet level announced in advance.

Baumgartner had taken more than two hours to get up to the jump altitude.

The Red Bull Stratos mission was the second attempt for the skydiver after an initial bid last week was aborted at the last minute due to winds.

The biggest risk Baumgartner faced was spinning out of control, which could exert G forces and make him lose consciousness. A controlled dive from the capsule was essential, putting him in a head-down position to increase speed.

More gruesomely, the skydiver's blood could have boiled if there were the slightest tear or crack in his pressurized spacesuit-like outfit, due to instant depressurization at the extreme altitude.

   
On top of the world! Photo: Red Bull
 

Temperatures of -68 degrees could also have had unpredictable consequences if his suit somehow failed.

The leap went off flawlessly, though there was a minor problem as the capsule ascended: a heater failed on Baumgartner's helmet faceplate, meaning it was becoming fogged up when he exhaled.

After considering the options they decided to go ahead with the jump.

Baumgartner's 100-strong back-up team included retired US Air Force colonel Kittinger.

"Let the guardian angel take care of you," Kittinger told Baumgartner shortly before he leapt into the void.

The giant balloon - which holds 30 million cubic feet of helium - was needed to carry the Red Bull Stratos capsule, which weighs nearly 1300kg, to the stratosphere.

It is made of near transparent polyethylene strips even thinner than a dry-cleaner bag, which are heat-sealed together. Very thin material is necessary to save weight.

The Austrian had been training for five years for the jump. He holds several previous records, notably with spectacular base jumps from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

                

Job done... Baumgartner celebrates after landing. Photo: AFP

Speaking before the launch, Baumgartner said he would be proud to be the first person to break the speed of sound in freefall.

"But really, I know that part of this entire experience will help make the next pressure suit safer for space tourists and aviators," the jumper pointed out.

Sunday's launch coincided with the 65th anniversary of American pilot Chuck Yeager breaking the speed of sound.

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Sony Vaio Tap 20 and E-Series 14P Fall 2012 delayed until November

Earlier this month, Sony unveiled the two updated VAIO models that would support the new Windows 8 OS, the VAIO Tap 20 and the VAIO E-Series 14P Fall 2012 version. However, a recent announcement in Japan has revealed that the release dates for the two new product lines are to be extended, at least until November to December 2012. Sony officially stated that the cause of the release date extension was due to certain manufacturing delays.

Both the VAIO Tap 20 and E-Series 14P Fall 2012 version feature hybrid options that combine the functionality of regular PC's with mobile tablets, which was largely inspired by the dual OS-type functionality presented by Windows 8 (using both the standard and modern UI). The Tap 20 features an all-in-one "slab" type PC, while the E-Series 14P Fall 2012 version is a step-up from its earlier incarnation, updated with the Windows 8 OS and a touchscreen for easy access of its modern UI.

The models that are included in the release date extension are as follows:

For the Sony VAIO Tap 20:

• SVJ20217CJW
• SVJ20218CJW
• SVJ20219CJW
• SVJ2021AJ

For the Sony VAIO E-Series 14P Fall 2012 version:

• SVE14A29CJS
• SVE14A2AJ

Sony has previously announced that these models are to be released at the same date as the official release of Windows 8 (October 26, 2012). With the extension announced, it is expected that the date will most likely move to November (Tap 20) or by the start of December (E-Series 14P). Japanese consumers won't have to wait that long though, because the exact release date will be announced soon.

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Cuba's Fiber-optic Cable Is Officially Operational

Renesys, which monitors Internet traffic around the globe, stated that until recently the nation’s Internet connection was much slower due to being stuck with satellite feed.  In February 2011 Cuba successfully connected their Island to Venezuela via an underwater fiber-optic cable, but it remained un-operative for nearly 2 years.  

Doug Madory who writes for Renesys said that they immediately observed the Caribbean nation’s trace route path going through the Spanish owned, Telefonica.  This new connection, coupled with lower latencies, led them to the conclusion the system was up and running, albeit less than 100%. Madory writes:

We believe it is likely that Telefonica's service to ETECSA is, either by design or misconfiguration, using its new cable asymmetrically (i.e., for traffic in only one direction), similar to the situation we observed in Lebanon in 2011. In such a configuration, ETECSA enjoys greater bandwidth and lower latencies (along the submarine cable) when receiving Internet traffic but continues to use satellite services for sending traffic.

Named the "Alternativa Bolivariana para los Pueblos de nuestra América" or ALBA-1, the submarine fiber-optic cable was a product of the both Cuba and Venezuela’s state-owned media agencies.  The cable cost approximately 70 million U.S. dollars and would have gone on-line much earlier, however, numerous political problems caused its delay. According to the Associated Press, there were also rumors of a possible embezzlement by government officials that hindered its progress.

Cuba is the last country in the western hemisphere to connect to the Internet by a fiber-optic line. Even with this new connection Akamai Technologies Inc. says the nation has the 2nd lowest connectivity to the Internet in the world.

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SpaceX to fly humans to space by 2015

Commercial space firm SpaceX will send humans into space by 2015, according to a company executive, marking another major leap forward in the private space exploration industry.

 

The California-based company hopes to send astronauts into space in a currently planned demonstration mission in 2015, and while the aim is to secure additional contracts with US space agency NASA, SpaceX will be sending up its own staff first.

 

One of the potential candidates for the initial flights is Garrett Reisman, an ex-NASA astronaut who is now serving as project manager at SpaceX. He said that flight safety is very important to him and he will help ensure that the trips will be safe.

 

The announcement was made by Reisman during a news conference at the Kennedy Space Centre. He joked that SpaceX is not selling tickets, a reference to several space tourism ventures, including the well-known Virgin Galactic plans, backed by numerous celebrities.

 

 

The SpaceX mission will involve sending humans into orbit for three days, a change from its existing cargo supply missions to the International Space Station (ISS). We can likely expect a further manned test flight to the ISS before NASA agrees to send its own astronauts.

 

SpaceX's plans are being encouraged by NASA, which lost the ability to fly astronauts into and out of space with the retirement of its shuttle programme in 2011. Since then astronauts have relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

 

The commercial space industry is a quickly growing arena, with a number of rivals to SpaceX popping up, including Orbital Scienes and aircraft maker Boeing, which is working on reusable unmanned spacecraft. With national space agencies receiving budget cuts due to the global economic downturn the private space sector could be just what is needed to ensure space exploration gets the support it needs.

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Apple opens official eBay store for refurbished products

Apple is testing a new eBay store that sells refurbished products, according to sources close to 9to5Mac.

 

The store, simply called Refurbished Outlet, was discovered around a month ago, selling revamped MacBooks, iPods, and iPads, but there was no indication that this was an official store run by Apple until 9to5Mac got its hands on some as yet unconfirmed information.

 

“We discovered that this is in face an Apple-run Store within eBay,” the site reads. “It is in trial, and it could open the door to much bigger things. No one would go on the record at eBay, however.”

 

 

The store also has a few giveaways that Apple might be in charge, including similar conditions for refurbished products, such as a one-year warranty and new battery, the same prices as refurbished products sold by the company elsewhere, and the overall design of the Store. Of course, it could just be an elaborate mimicry of Apple's style, but 9to5Mac claims to have information that suggests otherwise.

 

If this is Apple's first foray into selling outside its own stores, it could pave the way for the sale of new devices on eBay, and will give the technology giant an even larger audience and the option to pay by PayPal.

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