Month: June 2020

Enlarge (credit: Brian Stansberry)

The City of Knoxville, Tennessee, shut down large portions of its computer network on Thursday after being hit overnight by a ransomware attack, it was widely reported on Thursday.

The attack was first noticed by members of the Knoxville Fire Department around 4:30 am Thursday, The Knoxville News Sentinel reported. Shortly after that, Knoxville’s Chief Operations Officer David Brace sent employees an email notifying them of the breach.

“Please be advised that our network has been attacked with ransomware,” he wrote. “Information Systems is currently following recommend[ed] protocols. This includes shutting down servers, our internet connections and PC’s. Please do not log in to the network or use computer applications at this time.”

Enlarge / Replacements for outdated master/slave terminology tend to be considerably more accurate, as well as less offensive. (credit: Aurich Lawson)

On Wednesday evening, ZFS founding developer Matthew Ahrens submitted what should have been a simple, non-controversial pull request to the OpenZFS project: wherever possible without causing technical issues, the patch removed references to "slaves" and replaced them with "dependents."

This patch in question doesn't change the way the code functions—it simply changes variable names in a way that brings them in conformance with Linux upstream device-mapper terminology, in 48 total lines of code (42 removed and 48 added; with one comment block expanded slightly to be more descriptive).

But this being the Internet, unfortunately, outraged naysayers descended on the pull request, and the comments were quickly closed to non-contributors. I first became aware of this as the moderator of the r/zfs subreddit where the overflow spilled once comments on the PR itself were no longer possible.

Enlarge (credit: Android)

Android 11's first "beta" release is finally out after numerous delays. The beta release works on the Pixel 2, 3, 3a, and 4, and enrolling for the beta OTA at google.com/android/beta. is super easy. Previously, the Android beta has launched simultaneously on plenty of third-party devices, but that's not the case this year. So far, OnePlus has also shipped the beta, and that's about it. Google says that more devices are coming "in the coming weeks."

The Android 11 Beta has gone through a wild ride. First, it was supposed to debut at the Shoreline Amphitheater for Google I/O in May 12, but the physical event was canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak. Then it was supposed to debut in an online version of Google I/O, but that was canceled, too, as everyone was still trying to deal with the logistics problems the new shelter-in-place requirements. With no release in May, a surprise fourth preview release of Android 11 was created, and the Beta was delayed until June 3, when Google would hold an online event for "The Android 11 Beta Launch Show." The online Android 11 launch show was delayed, too, due to the ongoing nationwide protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd. In its latest blog post, Google says the online launch show is also canceled entirely, and, surprise, the company is pressing the launch button now with zero fanfare. Not since Google canceled the launch of the Nexus 4 due to Hurricane Sandy in 2012 has a Google launch been such a hot, hot mess.

With the Android 11 Beta finally go for launch, we're still seeing a bit of a mini I/O, even though every event is canceled. Google posted two blog posts, lots of documentation, and 12 videos covering new aspects of Android 11. The company is also planning "11 weeks of Android," a series that will see new developer talks posted each week. So far, the lack of fanfare seems appropriate for Android 11, which seems like a smaller release than we've gotten in previous years. This beta only has two new standout features we can point to.

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  Now we know what PlayStation 5 looks like...

Shortly after Sony's hour-long reveal of new video games slated to launch on PlayStation 5, the company took the wraps off of a major component of its new console: the hardware itself.

What's more, fans learned that Sony had a secret up its sleeve on the hardware side, unannounced until today: a "Digital Edition" version of the hardware. Though the video reveal didn't include any narration to confirm, this version of PlayStation 5 will ship without a disc drive—perhaps to drive down the console's cost, as Microsoft attempted to do with last year's All-Digital Xbox One S.

The console's reveal did not include a price point or release date. This leaves us wondering exactly how much PlayStation 5 Digital Edition might drive the price down—especially with reports suggesting that the console's build price will be no lower than $450. Removing a Blu-ray disc drive may very well help in that respect, for those consumers who prefer buying their games digitally anyway.