Author: admin

Break out your computers. Rebuilding post-pandemic requires more than hammers and bulldozers

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As we start to emerge from the pandemic, it’s tempting to daydream about all the ways our lives will go back to normal. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. Too many lives were lost. Too many businesses were disrupted or bankrupted. Too many aspects of the infrastructure that we take for granted every day, and which were already weak, have been fundamentally transformed or even destroyed by the impact of COVID-19. What we need to focus on is rebuilding that infrastructure. I’m not talking about bridges, roads, and power plants (although we certainly need to focus on physical infrastructure too). I’m talking about the basic foundation of trust, communication, and interaction in our modern world. I’m talking about code. Online overnight A year ago companies had to reconfigure overnight for a socially-distanced reality that requires connecting in new ways. OK, maybe it took three nights. But it was either that, or shutting down — quite possibly forever. Retailers, including big name-brand chains , got crushed if they weren’t prepared for a rapid transition to digital. In the midst of the crisis, businesses didn’t have the luxury of gradually plotting out and implementing a long-term strategy. They had to restructure their business-critical communications — immediately. Retailers who thought they had years to fend off Amazon suddenly had hours to figure out how to become delivery-only. Bankruptcy filings for businesses with $50M or more in assets soared 194% . Schools who had dabbled with technology found themselves 100% online over a weekend, while 93% of U.S. Read More …

Break out your computers. Rebuilding post-pandemic requires more than hammers and bulldozers

Posted onAuthoradmin

As we start to emerge from the pandemic, it’s tempting to daydream about all the ways our lives will go back to normal. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. Too many lives were lost. Too many businesses were disrupted or bankrupted. Too many aspects of the infrastructure that we take for granted every day, and which were already weak, have been fundamentally transformed or even destroyed by the impact of COVID-19. What we need to focus on is rebuilding that infrastructure. I’m not talking about bridges, roads, and power plants (although we certainly need to focus on physical infrastructure too). I’m talking about the basic foundation of trust, communication, and interaction in our modern world. I’m talking about code Read More …

This smart ring lets you remote-control Zoom and PowerPoint

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In the age of remote work, a smart ring for productivity such as the Genki Wave seems like a clever idea. Instead of making you search for the right keyboard shortcuts to unmute yourself on Zoom or turn your laptop’s volume down, the Genki Wave for Work  ($149, with a launch price of $99) lets you wear those same shortcut buttons and more right on your index finger. And since you’re not working in an actual office, no one’s going to judge you for wearing an unashamedly dorky accessory. [Photo: courtesy of Genki] But the more I used the Genki Wave myself, the more disappointed I became by all the things it wouldn’t let me do. While the idea of wearable computer shortcut buttons has some promise, Genki’s approach doesn’t live up to its potential yet. Not your typical ring The Genki Wave is technically not a new product. It debuted last year as a wearable MIDI controller for musicians, the kind you’d use to quickly trigger a drum fill or dial down the volume. But during the pandemic, Genki Instruments saw a chance to pivot to a broader audience by using the Wave to help people deal with an onslaught of Zoom calls and remote PowerPoint presentations. To that end, the ring is decidedly utilitarian, with one half containing its eight-hour battery and electronics, and the other half comprised of a Velcro loop. You wear the ring on your index finger, and the chunkier half is supposed to stick out to the side, letting you easily press its three rubberized buttons with your thumb. The Wave uses Bluetooth to connect with your computer, and it has a companion app to control what its buttons do. Despite its bulk, I found the Wave to be fairly comfortable. I wore it loosely enough to pull on or off without undoing the Velcro strap, and at one point I forgot that I was still wearing it after getting up from my computer. [Photo: courtesy of Genki] Out of the box, the ring is most helpful for video calls in apps such as Zoom or Google Meet. Read More …

PayPal now lets you spend cryptocurrency at millions of U.S. merchants

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PayPal now allows payment for goods and services with cryptocurrency, with a twist: Merchants receive cold, hard, American cash, less PayPal’s standard merchant fee. Starting with U.S. customers and merchants, the global payment-processing firm’s new “Checkout with Crypto” provides the most mainstream conduit to convert value in bitcoins and three other digital currencies into government-backed dollars to complete purchases. “What I love about this for the consumer is that their crypto holdings are just like any other funding instrument inside the PayPal wallet, whether it be your credit card, your debit card, your balance that you may have. . . . You just select whatever funding source you want,” says PayPal CEO Dan Schulman Read More …

Hackers put a back door in a code library that powers 79% of websites

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On Sunday some malicious actors tried to install a back door into the PHP code library, a server-side programming language that powers 79% of sites on the internet, including Facebook and Wikipedia. The attack recalled one of the worst government hacks in history , on SolarWinds, the IT management software used by many government agencies and large U.S. companies. The SolarWinds attackers—widely thought to be employed by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service—planted malware in the SolarWinds system that sends out updates to end users. As in the SolarWinds attack, the PHP hackers targeted the code base of a widely used library so that the changes they made would impact instances of the software run by end users. The hackers attempted to install a back door that would have allowed them to remotely execute changes to the PHP code after it was put into use by websites. Since they might have activated malware, the hackers may have been able to take control of websites, freeze them, or take them offline. The PHP exploit was first reported by the BleepingComputer blog. The hackers made two additions to the PHP Git repository on Sunday. The attackers signed the first addition using the name of the PHP library’s creator, Rasmus Lerdorf, and the second was made using the name of well-known PHP maintainer Nikita Popov, likely to avoid suspicion. They also tried to disguise the major change to the code base they proposed as something trivial by labeling the additions “Fix Typo.” The work of the hackers was discovered and reversed during a standard review process on Sunday. Still, this was no trivial event. Popov said in an email to the PHP developer community that Sunday’s incident was likely the result of the git.php.net server being compromised, rather than just a single Git account. The PHP maintainers have now decided to migrate the official PHP source code library over to GitHub. “We have decided that maintaining our own git infrastructure is an unnecessary security risk, and that we will discontinue the git.php.net server,” Popov explains in the email. Read More …