Many recovered Clinton emails won’t go public before election

Hope you aren’t waiting for the State Department to publish every last document from Hillary Clinton’s private email server before making a voting decision — you’re going to be disappointed. A federal judge has set a schedule that will only publish 1,050 pages of recently recovered material (out of roughly 10,000 pages) by November 4th, mere days before the US presidential election on the 8th. The Department has promised to process 500 pages per month, so you won’t get the full scoop until well after the next president takes office.

There’s no guarantee that there will be any bombshells in these messages. About 9,400 of the nearly 15,000 recovered documents have already been ruled out as strictly personal, and as many as half of the remaining 5,600 files (the ones being published) may be copies of data that Clinton’s team already shared. However, there’s no way of telling the importance of these messages right now. Judicial Watch and other activist groups suing the government are already disappointed with the schedule, and are accusing the State Department of creating an “absolutely corrupt process” for publishing data. What if a crucial revelation pops up after it’s too late?

Officials might not have much choice, mind you. The judge established the timetable with consideration for the State Department’s existing trouble grappling with both those activist group lawsuits as well as thousands of data requests. Simply put, the government division might not be prepared to disclose that much data that quickly. While that’s not going to assuage Americans demanding as much transparency as possible, it may be the practical reality.

Via: Reuters

Source: Wall Street Journal

Hiroshi Lockheimer is on the Pixel hype train

OK, we get it. As the SVP of Android, Chrome and Google Play Lockheimer should be amped about the things to come. We’d go as far as saying that’s his job. So what makes this particular time a company executive praising his products worth talking about?

We announced the 1st version of Android 8 years ago today. I have a feeling 8 years from now we’ll be talking about Oct 4, 2016.

— Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) September 24, 2016

He’s comparing the coming Pixel phones (all but confirmed to be coming on October 4) to Android’s debut with the T-Mobile G1. And he’s doing it in front of all the die-hard Android nerds who are going to hold him to it.

We have limited information about what’s in store come October. We gather that the rebranding of Google’s Nexus line with the Pixel name means a more active involvement from Google in all areas — from design and software to advertising and support. Think of them as HTC phones made for someone else like HTC used to do for HP and Palm — yes, your old Treo 650 was made by HTC. This means Google is the company who will see these phones succeed or fail. And Lockheimer is betting on success.

We have to wait a few more weeks to see the Pixel phones for ourselves. And we’ll have to wait even longer to say anything about their success. In the meantime, we’ll take all the teasing you care to give us, Hiroshi.

A love letter to my Philips Wake-up Light

You know what’s easier than getting me to wake up? Raising the dead and the Titanic at the same damn time. You’d have thought that going to bed earlier each night, quitting bacon and using tech to adopt a healthier lifestyle would have altered that. But, no. The only thing that’s been able to help has been Philips’ Wake-up Light, which has been faithfully rousing me for the last eight years. But now that it’s beginning to break down, it’s time to deliver this only slightly preemptory eulogy.

I first became obsessed with wake-up lights back in the early ’90s, when a British TV program investigated the then-new-fangled gadgets. The devices are designed to replicate our exposure to dawn, allowing us to wake from sleep cycles much as our ancestors did. I wasn’t even 12 at the time, but I swore I’d buy one as soon as I grew up. At 23, I finally took the plunge, and picked up the Philips HF3745, which has lasted for eight years.

Wake-up lights are the practical implementation of the theories behind dawn simulation and how it relates to our circadian rhythms. For most of human history, we’ve worked (hunting and gathering) during the day and slept at night, rising at dawn and falling at dusk. Electric lighting (and smartphones) have messed with our sense of sleeping, but it’s believed that those primal responses are still wired into our brains. Philips’ device, along with many others like it, uses a bright yellow bulb that gradually increases in intensity during the 30 minutes before you want to get up.

I know it’s effective because I’m able to get out of my bed only 15 or 20 minutes after I’m meant to, compared to an hour when I don’t use it. If I’m in a foreign country for a trade show, I need to set my phone alarm to go off every five minutes for half an hour if I want to be up on time.

The HF3745 has a built-in FM radio, which is another great way to help you get up in the morning, at least if you pick the right channels. My personal favorite is to wake up to Radio 4 — Britain’s equivalent of NPR — and listen to the Today Programme. It’s a show in which right-wing lunatics are wheeled on to offer their mad opinions without threat of challenge or correction, and rightly boils my piss every morning. In fact, it’s this combination of dawn simulation and piss boiling that ensures I’m up and at my desk by eight o’clock every day.

Unfortunately, eight years after buying it, the device is now showing its age, and things aren’t working as they should any more. The buttons, when pressed, now trigger random functions, and activating the alarm causes the time to be reset to midnight. As a stop-gap, I’ve set up the Hue Lux bulb in my bedroom to operate in a similar fashion, although I often forget that I can’t turn the bulb off at the switch if I want it to work. That also removes the radio aspect, which is a key component of my wake-up routine.

I’ve been keeping an eye on Philips’ latest generation of wake-up lights in the hope of buying a replacement. Unfortunately, the new models still come with built-in FM radios, and while the UK keeps postponing its analog switchover, it seems silly to buy a device with a soon-to-be-outdated component. If there were one with a DAB module inside, I’d probably snap one up right away, which is a reason why I haven’t bought the Lumie Active 250, which also uses FM.

I did ask Philips about this, and it said that it’s considering adding DAB radios to its future models. Which isn’t ideal, since I’m not going to be buying one of these now and then another one in a year or two’s time. If I’m going to replace this warhorse, it won’t be on a temporary basis.

I’ve also tried other styles of wake-up lights, most notably Withings’ Aura, which did so little for me that I think they harmed my sleeping. The orange light that’s designed to send you to sleep seemed to wire me permanently awake, and I spent much of that week in a terrified state of hypnagogia. Which is all the more reason to celebrate Philips’ beautiful, wonderful, useful wake-up light HF3745. It may not be the flashiest piece of tech in the house, but it’s probably one of the most important.

SpaceX thinks Falcon 9 blew up due to a helium system breach

SpaceX is still in the midst of examining every video, audio and image of the September 1st Falcon 9 explosion, but it’s already found one possible explanation for the unfortunate event. According to the private space corp’s latest update, the huge explosion might have been caused by a large breach in the rocket’s helium pressurization system. The company also clarified that what happened wasn’t a repeat of the CRS-7 incident, another failed rocket launch last year that was caused by a faulty strut.

Part of the statement reads:

“At this stage of the investigation, preliminary review of the data and debris suggests that a large breach in the cryogenic helium system of the second stage liquid oxygen tank took place. All plausible causes are being tracked in an extensive fault tree and carefully investigated. Through the fault tree and data review process, we have exonerated any connection with last year’s CRS-7 mishap.”

The September launch that went up in flames took the AMOS-6 communications satellite with it, which Facebook was supposed to use to provide free internet connection in 14 African countries. Spacecom, the satellite’s maker, is now asking SpaceX for either $50 million in compensation or a free flight.

While the helium system’s breach led to the fiery explosion, SpaceX still isn’t sure whether it was only an effect of something else. The company is determined to get to the bottom of things, though — earlier this month, SpaceX chief Elon Musk posted a call for people’s recording of the event on Twitter. That company’s internal investigators are now looking at whatever media they can find, with help from the FAA, NASA, US Air Force and various industry experts.

Via: Popular Mechanics

Source: SpaceX

Six sun-powered ships

By Cat DiStasio

The vast majority of boats rely on fossil fuels that tax the environment. Fortunately, alternative energy is on the rise in the marine world, and solar-powered ships are prepared to sail into a much cleaner future. It’s been a few years since the world’s largest (at the time) solar-powered ship completed its journey around the world, and a number of a fresh concepts are now awaiting construction. Giant multimillion dollar luxury yachts promise stellar sightseeing adventures with silent, solar-powered engines, while a unique vertical marine vessel will someday serve as a long-term base for deep sea research. Meanwhile, an autonomous solar-powered boat is currently making its way across the Atlantic. Read on to learn about all the wild and crazy solar-powered vessels just waiting to hit the waves.

PlanetSolar’s record-setting Turanor boat

At the end of its successful 18-month trip around the globe in 2012, the Turanor PlanetSolar was the largest solar-powered boat in the world. The $26 million catamaran-style vessel measured 101 feet long and 49 feet wide, with a capacity up to 50 passengers. Some 537 square meters of photovoltaic panels powered the Swiss-designed solar boat during its round-the-world journey.

The SeaOrbiter marine research vessel

French architect Jacques Rougerie designed the SeaOrbiter, a futuristic vertically oriented marine vessel that offers a round-the-clock undersea station for long-term research and observation. SeaOrbiter has multiple levels of underwater cabins and a wide skirt that offers divers a place to rest while they study oceanic ecosystems. Two years after a successful crowdfunding campaign raised nearly $388,000, the ship still hasn’t come to fruition. A key element of the design, the Eye of SeaOrbiter, was finished in May 2015 and will remain on display while project backers organize funding to build the rest of the ship, which will likely cost tens of millions to complete.

The Solar Voyager is autonomous and completely solar-powered

Although many new solar-powered boats are enormous ships, there are a few exceptions. The Solar Voyager, a small vessel designed and built by Isaac Penny and Christopher Sam Soon, is one of them. Solar Voyager is a low-slung single-hulled boat with a roof covered edge to edge in solar panels. The autonomous marine vessel is currently sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, having disembarked Boston on June 1st, and it’s aiming to dock in Portugal some time next month. Penny and Sam Soon monitor the boat’s progress through remote updates, received every 15 minutes through the boat’s on-board satellite uplink. All they need to do now is find someone in Portugal to help grab the unmanned boat when it nears the shore.

Duffy London’s solar super yacht

Another concept in the making, Solaris is a $33 million luxury super yacht that generates its own clean energy from multiple renewable sources. The 144-foot-long boat features a huge rooftop solar array as well as several wind turbines. Electricity generated on the ship from solar and wind also power an electrolysis system that splits water molecules, creating hydrogen fuel. In the cabin below, five separate bedrooms house up to 10 guests, with additional lodging space for the yacht’s crew. The yacht is expected to be built by 2020, and designer Duffy London aims to target eco-tourism hotspots around the world with this unique clean energy vessel.

Soel Yachts SoelCat 12 cruiser

Dutch marine designers Soel Yachts created the concept for the SoelCat 12, a 39-foot catamaran built from lightweight, resilient materials and powered by electricity generated on-board from 809 solar panels. The pontoon-like day sailor is capable of cutting through the waves silently when operating via sun-generated electricity, and also features two 30kW battery-powered motors for a boost of speed when needed. Created for sightseeing adventures, SoelCat 12 employs special seawater-resistant materials for added durability, and Soel Yachts plans to manufacture the boat as a prefabricated flat-pack item, so that high-end tourism outlets around the world can easily order and assemble their own solar-powered cruiser.

The Helios solar sailboat

Another concept yet to be built, the Helios yacht has more in common with a sailboat than the other luxury cruisers we’ve featured, but it packs a solar-powered punch with the best of them. Rather than using sails made from canvas, Helios features flexible solar cell-clad sails made of silicon. Some 2,500 solar panels would line the sails, generating 355 kWh of clean energy. Italian designers Marco Ferrari and Alberto Franchi envision the yacht as a 180.5-foot-long vessel capable of carrying eight crew members and 10 guests, who would never be bored thanks to the included sunbathing deck, infinity pool and movie theater.

iTunes Backup Passwords ‘Much Easier’ to Crack in iOS 10, Apple Working on Fix

iOS 10 uses a new password verification mechanism for iTunes backups that makes them easier to crack, according to testing performed by Elcomsoft, a company that specializes in software designed to access iPhone data.

Encrypted iTunes backups created on a Mac or PC are protected by a password that can potentially be brute forced by password cracking software. The backup method in iOS 10 “skips certain security checks,” allowing Elcomsoft to try backup passwords “approximately 2500 times faster” compared to iOS 9 and earlier operating systems.

Obtaining the password for an iTunes backup provides access to all data on the phone, including that stored in Keychain, which holds all of a user’s passwords and other sensitive information.

At this time, we have an early implementation featuring CPU-only recovery. The new security check is approximately 2,500 times weaker compared to the old one that was used in iOS 9 backups. At this time, we are getting these speeds:

iOS 9 (CPU): 2,400 passwords per second (Intel i5)
iOS 9 (GPU): 150,000 passwords per second (NVIDIA GTX 1080)
iOS 10 (CPU): 6,000,000 passwords per second (Intel i5)

In specific terms, security analyst Per Thorsheim of Peerlyst says Apple has switched from using a PBKDF2 hashing algorithm with 10,000 iterations to using a SHA256 algorithm with a single iteration, allowing for a significant speed increase when brute forcing a password.

Image via Peerlyst
In a statement given to Forbes, Apple confirmed it is aware of the issue and is working on a fix.

“We’re aware of an issue that affects the encryption strength for backups of devices on iOS 10 when backing up to iTunes on the Mac or PC. We are addressing this issue in an upcoming security update. This does not affect iCloud backups,” a spokesperson said. “We recommend users ensure their Mac or PC are protected with strong passwords and can only be accessed by authorized users. Additional security is also available with FileVault whole disk encryption.”

As Apple points out, this security oversight is limited to backups created on a Mac or PC and does not affect the security of iCloud backups. Most users likely do not need to worry about this issue as it requires access to the Mac or PC that was used to make the backup.

Apple has updates for iOS 10 and macOS Sierra in the works, and it’s possible a fix will be included in the new versions of the software. iOS 10.1 and macOS Sierra 10.12.1 were seeded to developers and public beta testers earlier this week.

Related Roundup: iOS 10
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