Month: August 2016

(credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Apple hasn't updated its pro laptop lineup in well over a year, and rumors about refreshed models have been floating around for months. USB Type-C, an OLED touchscreen that replaces the row of function keys, and a thinner design are all expected at this point, and a new report from Bloomberg's well-sourced Mark Gurman reiterates all of those points while offering a couple of new details.

Past reports have suggested that the touchscreen function keys will allow Apple and app developers to offer keyboard shortcuts that change based on what you're doing or what app you're using, and the Bloomberg report offers no new details here. It does, however, say that Apple plans to bring its TouchID fingerprint sensors over to the Mac for the first time, and that "Apple has tested versions of the upcoming laptops that integrate the scanner beside the new function key display." The upcoming macOS Sierra update already allows users to unlock their Macs with their Apple Watches, but a TouchID option would offer easy authentication that didn't require separate hardware.

The report also says that the laptops will be thinner, include slightly larger trackpads, and have smaller footprints than the current MacBook Pros, though they won't switch to a tapered design like the ones used for the MacBook or MacBook Air. As expected, USB Type-C is also on tap, though it's still not clear whether those Type-C ports will also be Thunderbolt 3 ports. Finally, some models will allegedly offer a dedicated GPU option based on AMD's new Polaris architecture. Dedicated GPUs are usually confined to the larger 15-inch Pros, leaving other models to make do with Intel's integrated GPU offerings.

(credit: Avilés lab, UBC)

Spiders are notoriously antisocial, with a number of species known for making a meal out of recent mates. But there are some notable exceptions to that rule, called the social spiders. These can form groups of thousands of spiders, which cooperate to capture prey and build nests that can grow up to six meters long. Their group construction projects allow them to hunt prey that is much larger than any of them could capture individually.

For one species, Anelosimus eximius, however, these big nests appear to come with big risks. Some population surveys indicate that over 20 percent of nests end up going extinct each generation. And, since only mature females that have already mated can successfully start up new nests, this means that most of the spiders in the nest end up dying.

Now, researchers from the University of British Columbia have proposed an explanation for the population busts. It seems that the spiders are a bit too good at sharing, so that even weak and immature colony members are generally able to get something to eat. And, if food ever gets a bit short in the nest, that means that none of the spiders may get enough food to survive.

(credit: Guardian Project)

A startup on a shoestring budget is working to clean up the Android security mess, and has even demonstrated results where other "secure" Android phones have failed, raising questions about Google's willingness to address the widespread vulnerabilities that exist in the world's most popular mobile operating system.

"Copperhead is probably the most exciting thing happening in the world of Android security today," Chris Soghoian, principal technologist with the Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, tells Ars. "But the enigma with Copperhead is why do they even exist? Why is it that a company as large as Google and with as much money as Google and with such a respected security team—why is it there's anything left for Copperhead to do?"

Copperhead OS, a two-man team based in Toronto, ships a hardened version of Android that aims to integrate Grsecurity and PaX into their distribution. Their OS also includes numerous security enhancements, including a port of OpenBSD’s malloc implementation, compiler hardening, enhanced SELinux policies, and function pointer protection in libc. Unfortunately for security nuts, Copperhead currently only supports Nexus devices.

"No Gods or Kings, Only Man." No higher authority than that of reason and rationality. A place where "the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small." As videogame intros go, few are as ambitious, or as forthright, as the protagonist's descent into the murky depths that envelop Bioshock's underwater city of Rapture. Fewer still are as effective nearly a decade on. Whether players realise it or not, those words—No Gods or Kings, Only Man—plastered above the golden visage of the game's big bad, Andrew Ryan (an interesting contradiction in itself), set a tone that's carried through the entirety of the game.

It's a mighty ambitious tone too. Objectivism—a controversial political philosophy created by the Russian-American philosopher Ayn Rand in the mid-20th century—is what stands between Bioshock having a hokey sci-fi plot, and one that gives it worth well beyond its now-waning technical offerings. What is objectivism? In short, it's the idea that society flourishes if each of its members focuses on their own self-interests over the interests of others, and without heavy-handed intervention from the state. In doing so, the theory runs that each person creates a personal situation where they feel accomplished and happy. Ultimately, society rules itself, "without Gods or Kings."

Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged is a classic slice of Objectivism.

Objectivism in Bioshock is seemingly presented as a failure. When you arrive in Rapture, the city has already fallen into chaos and decay, the vast majority of its surviving inhabitants having been consumed by the gene-altering "plasmids" that instil both superpowers and insanity on its users. But the real message of the game goes deeper than this simple warning. Rapture's founder and ruler, Andrew Ryan, is Bioshock's less-than-subtle embodiment of Ayn Rand. Both Rand and Ryan grew up in the Soviet Union under strict communist governments, experiencing the kind of poverty and injustice that sometimes results from a system where individual liberty is side-lined in favour of helping the whole.