Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests spur growth for secure messaging apps

Social media and civil unrest have long gone hand-in-hand, from coordinating revolution during the Arab Spring to repressing corruption in Turkey. Amid pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, locals have taken to the location-based messaging app FireChat to communicate with each other. 100,000 local users signed into the off-the-grid messaging app for the first time last weekend after a student activist recommended the app for communication should authorities switch off cellular networks. The app creates a mesh network between nearby users using WiFi, cellular data, or Bluetooth, allowing them to communicate with people even when strict firewalls are in place. For now, it looks as though we’re a long way away from the heavy-handed tactics of other governments, but FireChat’s sudden popularity shows locals are keen to stay one step ahead when it comes to communication.

Filed under: Mobile

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Source: The Wall Street Journal

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New web service prevents spies from easily intercepting your data

The encryption that protects your email and social updates is far from flawless — it’s relatively easy for spies to intercept your data using spoofs and hacked servers. If Greg Slepak has his way, though, there will soon be a safer way to send your info. His okTurtles project uses blockchains (the transaction databases you see in virtual currencies like Bitcoin) to let you communicate over the web without the risk of a man-in-the-middle attack. Rather than rely on website security certificates that could easily be compromised, it gives individual users public keys that unlock data within blockchains. There’s no centralized authority, and you can even run one of the necessary servers yourself if you don’t trust others. When complete, okTurtles will have a browser add-on that lets you use this authentication on virtually any site. You could talk to a fellow okTurtles user through Gmail without worrying that someone besides your recipient could easily read the message, for example.

The underlying technology (DNSChain) is already available, but you’ll have to wait a while for something that’s easy to use; Slepak is launching a crowdfunding campaign “soon” to help get things moving. He’s also quick to acknowledge that the system works only so long as both the software and keys aren’t compromised. If either of those are cracked, you’re just as vulnerable as anyone else. As long as they remain safe, though, okTurtles could easily reduce the chances that snoops and thieves will pry into your business.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: okTurtles, GitHub

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Mathematician tries to predict the next two ‘Game of Thrones’ books

Tired of waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire series? So is the University of Canterbury’s Richard Vale: he’s created a statistical model based on the series’ previous tomes to predict what might be in the next book. Don’t worry though, it’s mostly spoiler free. Vale’s analysis of Game of Thrones doesn’t account for plot or foreshadowing — it’s strictly a numbers game.

Martin’s epic is known for telling each chapter from the perspective of a different starring character, rotating protagonists throughout the series. Vale’s mathematical is focused on finding out who the final two books will be about, but not what those characters will be doing. It does prod a few lingering mysteries, however — predicting that a character left to an ambiguous fate not only has a 60% chance of survival, but may be the starring character of the series’ conclusion.

It’s a neat experiment, but Vale admits that it relies on a relatively small set of parameters — new characters, settings or deaths could muck up the results, and the predictions really shouldn’t be relied on as a sure thing. That doesn’t mean it’s not a neat experiment though, and besides: the project’s resulting chart puts some of our favorite characters front and center. Check out Vale’s full write up (and feel free to check his math) at the source link below.

Filed under: Science

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Via: Medium

Source: Cornell University Library

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DU Speed Booster review

Like trying to eat a ketchup Popsicle while wearing white gloves, downloading apps and customizing your device is bound to leave its mark on your phone’s processing power and memory capacity. Many of today’s most popular apps, games, and utilities embed themselves into your device’s background processes, leeching away your precious system power. While there are more task managers available than you can shake a stick at, I jumped right in by trying DU Speed Booster on for size. I was very pleased with their Battery Saver app and hoped for more of the same. Spoiler alert: it didn’t disappoint.

The first thing I was confronted with upon installation was the beautiful GUI. The purple-hued space theme is smooth, tranquil, and well designed for folks, like me, that appreciate minimalism in design. What was interesting was the presence of a floating spaceship-esque icon that hovers atop your home screen and wallpaper pages. I was initially put off at the idea of an un-nested piece of clutter but quickly found myself enjoying the convenience of having the Speed Booster so easily at hand.

The things this app does best are cleaning and optimization. It’s nice to have control over system processes, auto-start apps, and the ability to truly rid yourself of junk files and unwanted data. With a simple touch, you can instantly boost your device’s speed without compromising the integrity of your Android OS. While I wasn’t super blown away by the speed increase, I attribute that to having a very lean and modern device to begin with. I can only imagine that folks with older or slower devices will have their socks blown off at the shot in the arm that this will provide. Gamers will rejoice to find the Game Booster functionality that monitors which games are installed and optimizes them for peak performance. I don’t do much heavy gaming so I wasn’t able to take advantage of it but it’s certainly nice to know that it’s there.

The control that DU Speed Booster affords you over things such as app permissions, un-installations, cache and trash would be reason enough to download this. Factor in the cost, FREE, and the built-in Antivirus scanner and you have yourself a powerhouse program that definitely belongs in your My Apps list.

Check out DU Speed Booster on Google Play

The post DU Speed Booster review appeared first on AndroidGuys.

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