Month: February 2018

Enlarge / A multi-wavelength composite image of Centaurus A. (credit: NASA/CXC/SAO - Rolf Olsen - NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Thirteen million light years away, a handful of relatively small galaxies revolve in a disk around the larger elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. There's nothing unusual about a collection of small galaxies orbiting a large one. But the behavior of these particular galaxies doesn’t fit our existing models of how the Universe works. Some astronomers say that new observations could prompt a reconsideration of the standard cosmological model.

In the standard cosmological model, or λCDM, the unseen gravitational influence of dark matter provides an invisible framework for the regular matter that we can actually detect, which only accounts for 4.6 percent of the Universe's contents. The model does a good job of explaining nearly everything about the large-scale structure of our Universe, from its earliest moments to the present day, and there’s a lot of very strong evidence to support it.

But the model doesn’t seem to explain why a group of small galaxies, called dwarf or satellite galaxies, seem to orbit Centaurus A in a neat orbital plane like planets orbiting a star.

Enlarge / A multi-wavelength composite image of Centaurus A. (credit: NASA/CXC/SAO - Rolf Olsen - NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Thirteen million light years away, a handful of relatively small galaxies revolve in a disk around the larger elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. There's nothing unusual about a collection of small galaxies orbiting a large one. But the behavior of these particular galaxies doesn’t fit our existing models of how the Universe works. Some astronomers say that new observations could prompt a reconsideration of the standard cosmological model.

In the standard cosmological model, or λCDM, the unseen gravitational influence of dark matter provides an invisible framework for the regular matter that we can actually detect, which only accounts for 4.6 percent of the Universe's contents. The model does a good job of explaining nearly everything about the large-scale structure of our Universe, from its earliest moments to the present day, and there’s a lot of very strong evidence to support it.

But the model doesn’t seem to explain why a group of small galaxies, called dwarf or satellite galaxies, seem to orbit Centaurus A in a neat orbital plane like planets orbiting a star.

Enlarge (credit: Memphis CVB)

Organizers of a new botnet made up of infected home and small office routers are brazenly selling denial-of-service attacks of once unimaginable volumes for just $20 per target.

Calling itself Los Calvos de San Calvicie, the group is advertising several services on this site. Among the services are distributed denial-of-service attacks of 290 to 300 gigabits per second for $20 each. While a third the size of some of the biggest recorded attacks, 290Gbps is still enough to bring most sites down unless they seek DDoS mitigation services, which in many cases cost considerable amounts of money. Just five years ago, 300Gbps was considered enough volume to shut down the Internet's core infrastructure.

(credit: Radware)

Los Calvos de San Calvicie members have been spotted assembling a botnet in recent days that very possibly has the firepower required to deliver the potent attacks promised. According to Pascal Geenens, a researcher at security firm Radware, the group is building the botnet by exploiting two vulnerabilities: one in RealTek routers running out-of-date firmware and the other in the Huawei HG532 router, where a patch released in December has yet to be installed by many users. Both vulnerabilities are also exploited by a different Internet-of-things botnet known as Satori.

Enlarge / California State Capitol building in Sacramento. (credit: Getty Images | Bob Rowan)

The California State Senate this week passed a bill that would impose net neutrality restrictions on Internet service providers, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warns that the proposed law has a high chance of being thrown out in court.

"While well-intentioned, the legislators sadly chose an approach that is vulnerable to legal attack," EFF Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon wrote in a blog post yesterday. Falcon also provided California senators with a longer legal analysis a few weeks before the vote.

State laws can be preempted by federal policy, and the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality repeal ordered states to refrain from imposing their own net neutrality laws.

Enlarge / Licensing is not really the easiest topic to illustrate. (credit: Peter Bright)

In the olden days, Microsoft's support policy for Windows and Office was simple. Each release had five years of mainstream support, during which it received security updates, feature improvements, and stability fixes. That was followed by five more years of extended support, during which time it received security updates only.

With Windows 10 and "Windows-as-a-service," that policy got all shaken up. After a period of refining the details, Microsoft settled on the current scheme. Mainstream Windows, Office, and Windows Server users are on the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC). They get two major servicing updates each year, with each version named with a two-digit year, two-digit month; the current version is 1709 because it was built in September 2017. Its successor will be built in March 2018, hence named 1803. Each of these releases receives 18 months of security updates, and each Office SAC release is only supported on supported Windows SAC releases.

For organizations that can't or won't use the SAC, there is also a Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC). Windows, Office, and Windows Server LTSC releases are made every three years and receive the traditional five years mainstream plus five years extended support policy.

That sound you heard echoing through the walls this morning was likely other video game publishers rushing to move their release dates away from late October. That's because developer Rockstar announced this morning that Red Dead Redemption 2 is now planned to launch on October 26.

"We apologize to everyone disappointed by this delay," the company writes in the announcement. "While we had hoped to have the game out sooner, we require a little extra time for polish. We sincerely thank you for your patience and hope that when you get to play the game, you will agree the wait will have been worth it."

Enlarge / Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell applauded the Game Developers Conference for rescinding his own award, apologizing "if my personal actions or the actions of anyone who ever worked with me offended or caused pain to anyone at our companies." (credit: Flickr / CampusPartyMexico)

On Tuesday, the Game Developers Conference announced its prestigious Pioneer Award for 2017 would be going to Nolan Bushnell, who co-founded Atari with partner Ted Dabney. By Wednesday, the conference had rescinded the award amid industry outcry over stories about Bushnell's sexist behavior during the industry's formative years—stories that often originated from Bushnell himself.

Those opposed to Bushnell's award organized quickly around the #notnolan hashtag on Twitter, highlighting public stories of Bushnell's questionable behavior around women during his time at Atari in the '70s. Those stories include Bushnell's tales of business meetings in hot tubs and of "Atari board meetings [that] seemed more like fraternity parties than business meetings" (as recalled in Steven Kent's book The Ultimate History of Video Games); Bushnell wearing an "I love to fuck" T-shirt around the office (as related in a 2011 interview with Atari executive Ray Kassar); and Bushnell code-naming projects after "stacked" female employees (as recounted in a 2012 Playboy profile).

"Some ladies feel comfortable around me, and some don't," Bushnell once told The San Francisco Chronicle. "I find the aura of power and money is very intimidating to an awful number of girls."