Electronic Devices

[Tonker]

So, what does everyone do (legal means) for their TV/Movie at home entertainment? Redbox, Netflix, Blockbuster, HBOGO, Hulu+ etc? Only one of these, a mixture, neither?

What have you found that is the most economical option that allows you to see the most programming?

I watch boobs on German daytime telly.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-28/amazon-unveils-199-kindle-fire-tablet.html

[PenPho]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-28/amazon-unveils-199-kindle-fire-tablet.html

taking aim at Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s bestselling iPad

iPad Killer?

it lacks a camera, microphone or a connection to a 3G wireless network.

Nope.

[Wheezer]

it lacks a camera, microphone or a connection to a 3G wireless network.

Nope.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/

A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.

The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military's most important weapons system.

"We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back," says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. "We think it's benign. But we just don't know."

Military network security specialists aren't sure whether the virus and its so-called "keylogger" payload were introduced intentionally or by accident; it may be a common piece of malware that just happened to make its way into these sensitive networks. The specialists don't know exactly how far the virus has spread. But they're sure that the infection has hit both classified and unclassified machines at Creech. That raises the possibility, at least, that secret data may have been captured by the keylogger, and then transmitted over the public internet to someone outside the military chain of command.

...

The lion's share of U.S. drone missions are flown by Air Force pilots stationed at Creech, a tiny outpost in the barren Nevada desert, 20 miles north of a state prison and adjacent to a one-story casino. In a nondescript building, down a largely unmarked hallway, is a series of rooms, each with a rack of servers and a "ground control station," or GCS. There, a drone pilot and a sensor operator sit in their flight suits in front of a series of screens. In the pilot's hand is the joystick, guiding the drone as it soars above Afghanistan, Iraq, or some other battlefield.

Some of the GCSs are classified secret, and used for conventional warzone surveillance duty. The GCSs handling more exotic operations are top secret. None of the remote cockpits are supposed to be connected to the public internet. Which means they are supposed to be largely immune to viruses and other network security threats.

But time and time again, the so-called "air gaps" between classified and public networks have been bridged, largely through the use of discs and removable drives. In late 2008, for example, the drives helped introduce the agent.btz worm to hundreds of thousands of Defense Department computers. The Pentagon is still disinfecting machines, three years later.

Use of the drives is now severely restricted throughout the military. But the base at Creech was one of the exceptions, until the virus hit. Predator and Reaper crews use removable hard drives to load map updates and transport mission videos from one computer to another. The virus is believed to have spread through these removable drives. Drone units at other Air Force bases worldwide have now been ordered to stop their use.

...

[R-V]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/

A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.

The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military's most important weapons system.

"We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back," says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. "We think it's benign. But we just don't know."

Military network security specialists aren't sure whether the virus and its so-called "keylogger" payload were introduced intentionally or by accident; it may be a common piece of malware that just happened to make its way into these sensitive networks. The specialists don't know exactly how far the virus has spread. But they're sure that the infection has hit both classified and unclassified machines at Creech. That raises the possibility, at least, that secret data may have been captured by the keylogger, and then transmitted over the public internet to someone outside the military chain of command.

...

The lion's share of U.S. drone missions are flown by Air Force pilots stationed at Creech, a tiny outpost in the barren Nevada desert, 20 miles north of a state prison and adjacent to a one-story casino. In a nondescript building, down a largely unmarked hallway, is a series of rooms, each with a rack of servers and a "ground control station," or GCS. There, a drone pilot and a sensor operator sit in their flight suits in front of a series of screens. In the pilot's hand is the joystick, guiding the drone as it soars above Afghanistan, Iraq, or some other battlefield.

Some of the GCSs are classified secret, and used for conventional warzone surveillance duty. The GCSs handling more exotic operations are top secret. None of the remote cockpits are supposed to be connected to the public internet. Which means they are supposed to be largely immune to viruses and other network security threats.

But time and time again, the so-called "air gaps" between classified and public networks have been bridged, largely through the use of discs and removable drives. In late 2008, for example, the drives helped introduce the agent.btz worm to hundreds of thousands of Defense Department computers. The Pentagon is still disinfecting machines, three years later.

Use of the drives is now severely restricted throughout the military. But the base at Creech was one of the exceptions, until the virus hit. Predator and Reaper crews use removable hard drives to load map updates and transport mission videos from one computer to another. The virus is believed to have spread through these removable drives. Drone units at other Air Force bases worldwide have now been ordered to stop their use.

...

I liked this movie better the first time, when it was called Terminator 3.

Wait, no I didn't. That movie sucked.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

A new electronic device from one of the engineers behind the original iPod...

http://www.nest.com/

[J. Walter Weatherman]

A new electronic device from one of the engineers behind the original iPod...

http://www.nest.com/

Tony Fadell isn't the only ex-Apple guy behind this thing either...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/nest_thermostat/all/1

Also... paging Gil Gunderson:

So Matsuoka changed the algorithms, shifting the Nest's personality to more of a gentle coach than a noodge with a climate-change slide show. Her model was the dashboard on the Toyota Prius hybrid car. Just as the Prius provides feedback on fuel consumption, the Nest gives owners a sense of how they're using energy — and an incentive to save, as opposed to a guilt trip when they don't. Now, when you set the energy to a temperature-saving level, the Nest awards you with a virtual leaf — a little icon that Nest hopes you will cherish. It's like a DIY carbon offset.

You too, PenFoe:

The Nest Labs folks realize that it will take a long time for people to move away from traditional thermostats. For one thing, there's the cost: At $249, the Nest is five times the price of a Honeywell Round.

Even though Nest Labs can provide data that says the device will pay for itself very quickly, it's probably the Whole Foods crowd that will adopt it at first, either buying their own or being delighted when their new-home contractors present it to them along with the Sub Zero fridge and mesquite flooring.

[R-V]

A new electronic device from one of the engineers behind the original iPod...

http://www.nest.com/

Tony Fadell isn't the only ex-Apple guy behind this thing either...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/nest_thermostat/all/1

Also... paging Gil Gunderson:

So Matsuoka changed the algorithms, shifting the Nest's personality to more of a gentle coach than a noodge with a climate-change slide show. Her model was the dashboard on the Toyota Prius hybrid car. Just as the Prius provides feedback on fuel consumption, the Nest gives owners a sense of how they're using energy — and an incentive to save, as opposed to a guilt trip when they don't. Now, when you set the energy to a temperature-saving level, the Nest awards you with a virtual leaf — a little icon that Nest hopes you will cherish. It's like a DIY carbon offset.

You too, PenFoe:

The Nest Labs folks realize that it will take a long time for people to move away from traditional thermostats. For one thing, there's the cost: At $249, the Nest is five times the price of a Honeywell Round.

Even though Nest Labs can provide data that says the device will pay for itself very quickly, it's probably the Whole Foods crowd that will adopt it at first, either buying their own or being delighted when their new-home contractors present it to them along with the Sub Zero fridge and mesquite flooring.

Mesquite flooring? Is that an actual thing?

[BBM]

it is and it's delicious.

[PenPho]

A new electronic device from one of the engineers behind the original iPod...

http://www.nest.com/

Tony Fadell isn't the only ex-Apple guy behind this thing either...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/nest_thermostat/all/1

Also... paging Gil Gunderson:

So Matsuoka changed the algorithms, shifting the Nest's personality to more of a gentle coach than a noodge with a climate-change slide show. Her model was the dashboard on the Toyota Prius hybrid car. Just as the Prius provides feedback on fuel consumption, the Nest gives owners a sense of how they're using energy — and an incentive to save, as opposed to a guilt trip when they don't. Now, when you set the energy to a temperature-saving level, the Nest awards you with a virtual leaf — a little icon that Nest hopes you will cherish. It's like a DIY carbon offset.

You too, PenFoe:

The Nest Labs folks realize that it will take a long time for people to move away from traditional thermostats. For one thing, there's the cost: At $249, the Nest is five times the price of a Honeywell Round.

Even though Nest Labs can provide data that says the device will pay for itself very quickly, it's probably the Whole Foods crowd that will adopt it at first, either buying their own or being delighted when their new-home contractors present it to them along with the Sub Zero fridge and mesquite flooring.

Mesquite flooring? Is that an actual thing?

This is news to me, I thought it was all about cork or bamboo for sustainability.

But this sounds much tastier, assuming it's not too smoky.

[Yeti]

HOLD YOUR ELECTRONIC DEVICES TO YOUR HEAD: https://www.gojohandsfree.com/

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Staying in a hotel with keycards?

Better use the deadbolt.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/all/

In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was broken into, and my hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.

In many ways, this was all my fault. My accounts were daisy-chained together. Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to Twitter. Had I used two-factor authentication for my Google account, it's possible that none of this would have happened, because their ultimate goal was always to take over my Twitter account and wreak havoc. Lulz.

Had I been regularly backing up the data on my MacBook, I wouldn't have had to worry about losing more than a year's worth of photos, covering the entire lifespan of my daughter, or documents and e-mails that I had stored in no other location.

Those security lapses are my fault, and I deeply, deeply regret them.

But what happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several customer service systems, most notably Apple's and Amazon's. Apple tech support gave the hackers access to my iCloud account. Amazon tech support gave them the ability to see a piece of information — a partial credit card number — that Apple used to release information. In short, the very four digits that Amazon considers unimportant enough to display in the clear on the web are precisely the same ones that Apple considers secure enough to perform identity verification. The disconnect exposes flaws in data management policies endemic to the entire technology industry, and points to a looming nightmare as we enter the era of cloud computing and connected devices.

...

Ugly details within (many of which were shared directly with the victim by one of the hackers responsible via Twitter DM).

[Yeti]

I currently have a model extremely similar to this one. It worked pretty well, but it recently bit the dust after 3 years, plus times falling on my hardwood floor. I've been thinking of upgrading to something of this regard.

Two questions: Have any of you used both or either of these remotes from Logitech? And, should I look at any certain brands beyond Logitech?