DA cites arrest of woman who had rape exam years ago—chief plans investigation.
Enlarge/ San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin speaks at a press conference in protest of Mayor London Breed's plan for more policing and enforcement of laws that could affect drug users in the Tenderloin neighborhood on Monday, Dec. 20, 2021. (credit: Getty Images | San Francisco Chronicle)
The San Francisco Police Department's crime lab has been checking DNA collected from sexual assault victims to determine whether any of the victims committed a crime, according to District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who called for an immediate end to the alleged practice.
"The crime lab attempts to identify crime suspects by searching a database of DNA evidence that contains DNA collected from rape and sexual assault victims," Boudin's office said in a press release yesterday. Boudin's release denounced the alleged "practice of using rape and sexual assault victims' DNA to attempt to subsequently incriminate them."
"Boudin said his office was made aware of the purported practice last week, after a woman's DNA collected years ago as part of a rape exam was used to link her to a recent property crime," the San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday. The woman "was recently arrested on suspicion of a felony property crime, with police identifying her based on the rape-kit evidence she gave as a victim, Boudin said." That was the only example provided, and Boudin gave few details about the case to protect the woman's privacy. But the database may include "thousands of victims' DNA profiles, with entries over 'many, many years,' Boudin said," according to the Chronicle.
DA cites arrest of woman who had rape exam years ago—chief plans investigation.
Enlarge/ San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin speaks at a press conference in protest of Mayor London Breed's plan for more policing and enforcement of laws that could affect drug users in the Tenderloin neighborhood on Monday, Dec. 20, 2021. (credit: Getty Images | San Francisco Chronicle)
The San Francisco Police Department's crime lab has been checking DNA collected from sexual assault victims to determine whether any of the victims committed a crime, according to District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who called for an immediate end to the alleged practice.
"The crime lab attempts to identify crime suspects by searching a database of DNA evidence that contains DNA collected from rape and sexual assault victims," Boudin's office said in a press release yesterday. Boudin's release denounced the alleged "practice of using rape and sexual assault victims' DNA to attempt to subsequently incriminate them."
"Boudin said his office was made aware of the purported practice last week, after a woman's DNA collected years ago as part of a rape exam was used to link her to a recent property crime," the San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday. The woman "was recently arrested on suspicion of a felony property crime, with police identifying her based on the rape-kit evidence she gave as a victim, Boudin said." That was the only example provided, and Boudin gave few details about the case to protect the woman's privacy. But the database may include "thousands of victims' DNA profiles, with entries over 'many, many years,' Boudin said," according to the Chronicle.
EBay is running Presidents Day sale, with savings up to $100 when you use the coupon PREZDAY15 on purchases of select items. Unlike most of the company’s coupon sales, there’s no minimum purchase required. While many of the items on sale are refurbished, all the ones I’ve listed below also come with 2-year warranties, some […]
EBay is running Presidents Day sale, with savings up to $100 when you use the coupon PREZDAY15 on purchases of select items. Unlike most of the company’s coupon sales, there’s no minimum purchase required.
While many of the items on sale are refurbished, all the ones I’ve listed below also come with 2-year warranties, some provided directly by the manufacturer, and others by Allstate.
Refurbished Lenovo Chromebook Duet 2-in-1 tablet for $160 w/coupon: PREZDAY15
The four-door coupe is based on the Polestar Precept concept car.
Enlarge/ A Polestar 5 chassis being wheeled around Polestar's R&D center. (credit: Polestar)
At some point this year, we expect to see Polestar's next electric vehicle. It will be an electric SUV built in South Carolina, and it will be called the Polestar 3. But today's news is actually about thePolestar after that SUV. This flagship will be an elegant four-door coupe called the Polestar 5.
We're not expecting the Polestar 5 until 2024, but it should put a lot of the ideas shown off in the Precept concept car into production.
And on Tuesday, we got our first look at the car's skeleton. To date, Polestar has used platforms developed by Volvo; the Polestar 1 GT shares a Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) platform with bigger Volvos like the S60 and XC90, and the Polestar 2 shares its Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform with the Volvo XC40.
Man müsse Gemeindevertretern die Angst nehmen, dass alternative Verlegemethoden nur Klebstoff auf der Straße bedeuteten. Die neue Bundesregierung nahm Stellung zu Gigabit. (Buglas, Glasfaser)
Man müsse Gemeindevertretern die Angst nehmen, dass alternative Verlegemethoden nur Klebstoff auf der Straße bedeuteten. Die neue Bundesregierung nahm Stellung zu Gigabit. (Buglas, Glasfaser)
Why bother with state-of-the-art hacking when easier methods work just fine?
Enlarge/ Warning: Data transfer in progress (credit: Yuri_Arcurs/Getty Images)
Researchers on Tuesday revealed a new threat actor that over the past five years has blasted thousands of organizations with an almost endless stream of malicious messages designed to infect systems with data-stealing malware.
TA2541, as security firm Proofpoint has named the hacking group, has been active since at least 2017, when company researchers started tracking it. The group uses relatively crude tactics, techniques, and procedures, or TTPs, to target organizations in the aviation, aerospace, transportation, manufacturing, and defense industries. These TTPs include the use of malicious Google Drive links that attempt to trick targets into installing off-the-shelf trojans.
Tenacity and persistence
But what the group lacks in sophistication, it makes up for with a tenacity and persistence that allows it to nonetheless thrive. Since Proofpoint began tracking the group five years ago, it has waged an almost unending series of malware campaigns that typically deliver hundreds to thousands of messages at a time. A single campaign can impact hundreds of organizations all over the world, with an emphasis on North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
When the New York Times purchased viral daily word game hit Wordle for a "low seven figures" price late last month, the new owner promised that "no changes will be made to its gameplay." But while Wordle's basic guessing system remains unaltered, it turns out that the Times has made some minor changes to the five-letter word lists that help define the game.
Since its public launch last October, Wordle has relied on two basic lists of five-letter words. The first, which defines which words players are allowed to guess, encompasses nearly 13,000 words—pretty much every such word in the English language. The second, a list of daily answers, contains a more limited set of about 2,300 of those words, originally chosen based on whether they were familiar to Wordle creator Josh Wardle's partner, Palak Shah (that second list should last the game into October of 2027).
Microsoft is rolling out the first major update to Windows 11, bringing improvements to the Taskbar, new Media Player and Notepad apps, and support for running Android apps – something that’s only been available for members of the Windows Insider program up until now. The official way to run Android apps is to install the […]
Microsoft is rolling out the first major update to Windows 11, bringing improvements to the Taskbar, new Media Player and Notepad apps, and support for running Android apps – something that’s only been available for members of the Windows Insider program up until now.
The official way to run Android apps is to install the Amazon Appstore Preview from the Microsoft Store and use it to find Android apps to install. But unofficially? You can also sideload Android apps from other sources or even install the Google Play Store.
Android apps
That’s because Android app support comes courtesy of a new optional feature called the Windows Subsystem for Android, which basically installs a full-blown Android operating system on your Windows 11 computer and then allows it to communicate with the host operating system so that apps show up in the Start Menu, Taskbar, Snap layouts, app switcher, among other things.
So sideloading is relatively easy, and more advanced users can also modify the entire subsystem for Android to do things like gain root access and install Google Play Services.
Then again, maybe you don’t need to do those things to interact with Android apps on a Windows PC. It looks like Google may be bringing support for streaming apps from your phone to Windows, Mac, or Chrome OS devices with Android 13, which is set to launch later this year.
Other changes in the latest build of Windows 11 include:
Taskbar
The date and time are now visible on all monitors when using multi-display setups.
There’s a weather icon in the left corner of the Taskbar. Hover over it to open the Widgets board.
When in a Microsoft Teams call, you can mute, unmute, or share any window from the Taskbar
New apps
Microsoft’s new Media Player app replaces Groove Music (and the classic Windows Media Player before that) with a modern-looking video and music player and manager featuring keyboard shortcuts, playlist management, and more.
The new Notepad app has a Windows 11-style user interface, Dark Mode support, simplified menus, and support for emojis, an updated find-and-replace experience, and multi-level undo.
The new Media Player and Notepad apps aren’t installed by default though – Windows 11 users can download them from the Microsoft Store.
Google’s Chrome OS is a lightweight, secure operating system that was originally built around Google’s Chrome web browser, but which has become more versatile over the years with a built-in file manager, media player and other tools… and optional support for running Android and Linux apps. Most folks who use Chrome OS probably bought a […]
Google’s Chrome OS is a lightweight, secure operating system that was originally built around Google’s Chrome web browser, but which has become more versatile over the years with a built-in file manager, media player and other tools… and optional support for running Android and Linux apps.
Most folks who use Chrome OS probably bought a Chromebook with the operating pre-installed. But now Google is making it easy to turn pretty much any PC into a Chromebook with the release of Chrome OS Flex. It’s unclear if all Chrome OS features will be available though.
In a nutshell, Chrome OS Flex is a version of Google’s operating system that you can download and install on virtually any PC or Mac. The operating system is free to use and receives automatic feature updates and bug fixes on the same schedule as Chromebooks that ship with the operating system.
Chrome OS Flex is currently available as an “early access” project, and Google notes that users may notice some instability or other problems. But if that doesn’t scare you off, you can sign up to get a download link and installation instructions for preparing a bootable flash drive that you can use to take Chrome OS for a test drive on your computer before deciding whether to install the operating system to local storage.
Google is positioning Chrome OS Flex as a solution for folks with older hardware that might have dated specs or compatibility issues with the latest versions of Windows or macOS. And Google’s timing seems particularly good for folks who may be hanging onto older Windows PCs, since many of them won’t officially support Windows 11 (although Windows 10 will continue to be supported through 2025).
Sure, there are other options – if your old computer can run Chrome OS, it can probably run Ubuntu or another GNU/Linux distribution. But Chrome OS is simple, fast, and fairly familiar for millions of users who may not be comfortable learning an operating system that works as differently as most desktop Linux distros.
There’s also an option for a Chrome Enterprise Upgrade, which will bring support for network administrator features including advanced security services, controlled updates, and granular device controls. This could come in handy for business, government, or educational institutions that want to repurpose old hardware rather than investing in new Chromebooks or other computers.
In fact, the enterprise and education markets are probably Google’s main target for Chrome OS Flex, but it’s available for anyone to use.
One thing to keep in mind though, is that while many Chrome OS features including Google Assistant and Phone Hub are coming to Chrome OS Flex, it’s unclear if support for Android or Linux apps will follow suit. As Android Police points out, neither was supported by CloudReady, the software that Chrome OS Flex is based on. And Google says Android apps are not supported by Chrome OS Flex either, while Linux apps are only supported on some fully certified computer models.
Chrome OS Flex isn’t an entirely new product. It’s the Google-branded version of CloudReady, a service that has allowed you to turn an old PC into a Chromebook since 2015. Google acquired CloudReady maker Neverware in 2020 and last summer it became clear that the company was planning to release its own version of the software.
If you’re intrigued by the idea of Chrome OS Flex, but don’t want to risk running “early access” software, Google says a stable version of the software should be available within months.
Google says when Chrome OS Flex goes stable, folks using CloudReady will automatically be upgraded to Flex, although there are some features that power users may not consider an “upgrade.” For example, CloudReady Home Edition currently supports command line access via a shell or TTY, as well as the ability to disable rootFS verification. Chrome OS Flex does not.
Some other differences between CloudReady and Chrome OS Flex include:
There’s just one version of the OS, which means there are no separate Home and Education & Enterprise editions.
Chrome OS Flex uses the official Chrome browser rather than the open source Chromium browser
The update cycle matches Chrome OS
Google Assistant, Family Link, and Nearby Share are supported
Google also notes that Chrome OS doesn’t officially support some hardware that may be included on your old Mac or PC. If you have a computer with a fingerprint reader, IR camera for face recognition, stylus and active pen support, CD or DVD drives, or Firewire or Thunderbolt ports, for example, those features may not be fully supported.
Man müsse Gemeindevertretern die Angst nehmen, dass alternative Verlegemethoden nur Klebstoff auf der Straße bedeuteten. Die neue Bundesregierung nahm Stellung zu Gigabit. (
Virgin Galactic macht Ernst: In diesem Jahr sollen die kommerziellen Raumflüge starten. Der Ticketschalter wird geöffnet. (
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