Month: September 2017

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

While Microsoft continues to invest and expand its PowerShell scripting environment—and pushes new GUI-less Windows environments such as the Nano Server configuration—the graphical user interface isn't going away. GUI tools retain advantages for certain tasks, such as visualizing data and comparing multiple systems. They also tend to be much easier to use for ad hoc configuration and troubleshooting tasks that depend more on exploration and investigation rather than automation.

Most of Windows' GUI management tools are built around MMC, first introduced in Windows 2000 all those years ago. MMC is clumsy in a number of ways; for example, different MMC plug-ins handle remote system administration in different ways. MMC also does not provide any easy bridge to task automation. It's often useful to use the GUI to configure one system and then replicate those settings against other systems.

To that end, the company announced Thursday "Project Honolulu," a new browser-based graphical management tool that'll be available as a preview for Windows Server 2016 version 1709, along with certain (currently unspecified) other versions of Windows Server. Microsoft also promises that it will require no additional cost beyond that of Windows Server.

Enlarge / The Trusted Execution Environment means that even if the application and operating system are compromised, the green code and data can't be accessed. (credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft announced Thursday a new feature coming to its Azure cloud platform named "Confidential Compute." The feature will allow applications running on Azure to keep data encrypted not only when it's at rest (in storage) or in transit (over a network) but when it's being computed on in-memory. This ability to encrypt data when it's in use means that it can be kept secure even from Microsoft's administrators, government warrants, and hackers.

Confidential Computing will have two modes: one is built on virtual machines while the other uses the SGX ("Software Guard Extensions") feature found in Intel's recently introduced Skylake-SP Xeon processors. Both modes will allow applications to ringfence certain parts of their code and data so that they operate in a "trusted execution environment" (TEE). Code and data that are inside a TEE cannot be inspected from outside the TEE.

The virtual machine mode uses the Virtual Secure Mode (VSM) functionality of Hyper-V that was introduced in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016. With VSM, most parts of an application will run in a regular virtual machine atop a regular operating system. The protected, TEE parts will run in a separate virtual machine containing only a basic stub operating system (enough that it can communicate with the regular VM) and only those parts of the application code that need to handle the sensitive data.

Enlarge / An Uber driverless Ford Fusion drives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Google's self-driving car spinoff, Waymo, filed a lawsuit in February accusing Uber of acquiring its trade secrets from a former Google employee named Anthony Levandowski.

The lawsuit is quickly approaching its scheduled trial date of October 10. Now, one of Uber's last-ditch attempts to head off the impending courtroom showdown has failed.

Uber has been asking (PDF) to move the case into arbitration since shortly after it was filed. Uber argues that Google's real dispute is with Levandowski, a former Google employee who allegedly took more than 14,000 confidential files on his way out the door. Uber doesn't dispute that took place, and Levandowski has asserted his Fifth Amendment rights rather than answer questions about it. Levandowski isn't a defendant in this lawsuit, but Google has a separate arbitration against him, which is ongoing.

Enlarge (credit: IBM)

Every time we discuss quantum computers, the headline tends to be that someone, somewhere is going to use the quantum to break your encryption and steal your student loan. If only that were true. But it is probably more realistic to think about quantum computers being used to solve quantum problems. And this has been demonstrated with recent chemistry calculations using a tiny quantum computer.

If solving quantum problems with quantum computers sounds a bit circular, well, it is, but it is also practical. Think of it like this: every protein in your body has the structure it has because of quantum mechanics. And a physicist who is clever, but not intelligent, can write down an exact equation that describes that protein. But not even the most intelligent can solve that equation.

Understanding molecules is hard

A lazier physicist would write a computer script to solve the equation. But that won't work either, because the time it takes to solve an exact description of the molecule will take longer than it takes to go from Big Bang to Heat Death. So we live with approximations. Approximations that are mostly pretty good but sometimes fail spectacularly. And, for some molecules, those approximations don't speed up calculations very much at all.

Enlarge (credit: Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images)

The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it has opened an investigation into the Equifax data breach, which resulted in the data of as many as 143 million consumers being exposed to hackers.

If past is prologue, the outcome of any investigation or legal action from the FTC won't equate to any fines being levied against the Atlanta-based credit bureau. The agency doesn't have any power to do that. Instead, the probe likely will conclude with a legal settlement where Equifax promises to shore up its tech and agree to auditing. Earlier this month, for example, the FTC announced the conclusion of its look into Lenovo's conduct of pre-installing man-in-the-middle adware. In the end, the agency ordered the company to disclose to consumers if it was going to install the software on new computers, and the organization ordered outside monitoring of Lenovo's compliance. Lenovo, of China, admitted no wrongdoing.

In the Equifax mess, the agency also issued a warning Thursday to consumers to be wary of nefarious and fake Equifax employees calling to verify your stolen data. Don't give it to them, the FTC says, as it's not Equifax calling—scammers are randomly calling people and posing as Equifax employees "to verify your account information."

Enlarge / $45,000 seems a small price to pay for scenes like this... if that game ever actually comes out, that is.

Children that were born when Star Citizen was first announced are now approaching Kindergarten, but the extremely ambitious space simulation is currently struggling to get its third alpha version into backers' hands. Rather than continuing to wait, one group of impatient players has requested and apparently received a $45,000 refund for three of the game's $15,000 "completionist" packages, which included access to dozens of optional ship designs among other extras.

An anonymous representative of the player group, going by the handle Mogmentum, posted about the refund on the Star Citizen Refunds Reddit group, which includes stories from hundreds of other posters seeking smaller refunds for the oft-delayed game. "We sidelined many other great games and commercial opportunities waiting for Star Citizen, but in the end we can't wait any longer, and a new generation is joining also who have absolutely no interest," Mogmentum writes, alongside photo and video evidence of forum discussions confirming the refunds. Getting the money back took five weeks of persistent requests with support staff, the player said, alleging that the staffers "definitely try to delay you as much as possible in the hope you'll forget or give up."

A $45,000 refund is a drop in the bucket compared to the over $159 million Star Citizen has raised from over 1.8 million paying customers as of press time. That itself is a far cry from the $2 million Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts initially sought for the game in his 2012 crowdfunding effort.

Enlarge (credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

In October of 1997, nearly 20 years ago, NASA launched the last of its great probes to the outer planets. A joint mission with the European Space Agency, a single rocket sent Cassini and Huygens on a meandering path through the Solar System. Huygens plunged into the atmosphere of the moon Titan well over a decade ago, but the Cassini orbiter has been looping around Saturn for over 13 years. But in less than 24 hours, its time at the ringed planet will come to a close as Cassini plunges into Saturn's atmosphere.

This was the end that NASA had always planned for its hardware. Some of Saturn's moons are thought to be capable of harboring life. So, rather than risk contaminating those moons with life from Earth, Cassini and any microbes it harbors will burn up on entry into Saturn's atmosphere.

The decision to do this now is based on the dwindling supply of fuel for the probe's maneuvering engines, which will eliminate NASA's ability to make further adjustments in its orbit. With the chaotic gravitational interactions of a giant planet and multiple moons, there'd be no way to determine where Cassini would end up. So NASA is acting while it still manages the hardware's destiny.