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Boeing says its 737 Max software update is complete
Today, Boeing announced that it has completed the software update to its 737 Max planes. The update is meant to correct the software flaws that contributed to the Lion Air and Air Ethiopia crashes that killed 346 people in total. The update was expected in April, but Boeing needed extra time to guarantee that it had "identified and appropriately addressed" the problems that led to those crashes.
Intel's latest Core processors have serious security flaws
Intel has confirmed previous reports that its recent PC, internet of things and server chips are vulnerable to remote hacking. The problem is with the onboard "Management Engine," which has multiple holes that could let remote attackers run malicious software, get privileged access and take over computers. The vulnerability affects sixth, seventh and eighth generation Core chips (Skylake, Kaby Lake and Kaby Lake R), along with Pentium, Celeron, Atom and multiple Xeon chips.
Google's rewards program tackles Android security flaws
The folks in Mountain View have been paying security researchers who find flaws in Google's software for years. After announcing a program that specifically targeted Chrome, the company is looking to find vulnerabilities in its mobile OS. The Android Security Rewards program will pay researchers who "find, fix and prevent vulnerabilities" that exist inside the operating system. When it comes to issues affecting Nexus devices sold through Google Play, Google will pay per step that's needed to fix the problem -- including patches and testing. Just finding a critical bug will earn you $2,000, for example. The largest rewards are available to those who figure out how to go around Android's security features like ASLR, NX and sandboxing. In 2015, Google shelled out over $1.5 million to researchers who found bugs, with the largest individual reward totaling $150,000. If you're looking to join the hunt, you can browse all the detailed info right here.
Storyboard: Nobody wants to play with you
You want to roleplay. Oh, boy, do you ever want to roleplay. You have pages and pages of character backstory, you have your character's voice down, and you can cycle through emotes like a champ. (There's no championship for that, I know. Bear with me.) Your only problem is that when you walk into the room, everyone quietly turns away and discusses how urgently he or she needs to get to the next dungeon, and well, it's late. Bye! It's just like at prom, except this time you can't assume that people were just turned off by your decision to wear Groucho Marx glasses. So why does no one want to roleplay with you? Obviously I can't tell you exactly why people don't want to roleplay with you. There are a lot of variables that I probably don't know about. But I can at least give you some ideas about why you might be encountering some problems and how you can fix them, since you deserve the same sort of fun that everyone else is having. Sit down and let's figure it out; there's no judgment here.
The Daily Grind: What game should you like but don't?
We all like different games. That's a good thing; a world where EVE Online, World of Warcraft, and Second Life co-exist is a better one for everyone. But every so often a game comes along that plays exactly to our tastes, one that everyone we like seems to think is the greatest MMO to come out in a long while, one that gets so much praise that you try it out. And you don't like it. It's not just that you can see its flaws; you actively don't like the game and don't want to play it. Today, we aren't asking just about the games you don't like but about the games you should like and yet don't. The games that seem to be designed just for you, ones that you can recognize as good, but ones you still don't actually enjoy playing. So what game do you feel that you should like when you don't? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Some Android phones fail to enforce permissions, exposed to unauthorized app access
Eight Android phones, including the Motorola Droid X and Samsung Epic 4G, were found to house major permission flaws according to a research team at North Carolina State University. Their study revealed untrusted applications could send SMS messages, record conversations and execute other potentially malicious actions without user consent. Eleven of the thirteen areas analyzed (includes geo-location and access to address books) showed privileges were exposed by pre-loaded applications. Interestingly, Nexus devices were less vulnerable, suggesting that the other phone manufacturers may have failed to properly implement Android's security permissions model. Google and Motorola confirm the present flaws while HTC and Samsung remain silent. Exerting caution when installing applications should keep users on their toes until fixes arrive. [Thanks, John]
Netflix, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and Square apps expose your data
Here's a little tip for app developers: encrypt everything, especially passwords. Security firm viaForensics fed some popular iPhone and Android apps through its appWatchdog tool and found that Netflix, LinkedIn, and Foursquare all stored account passwords unencrypted. Since the results were first published on the 6th, Foursquare has updated its app to obscure users' passwords, but other data (such as search history) is still vulnerable. While those three were the worst offenders, other apps also earned a big fat "fail," such as the iOS edition of Square which stores signatures, transaction amounts, and the last four digits of credit card numbers unencrypted. Most of this data would take some effort to steal, but it's not impossible for a bunch of ne'er-do-wells to create a piece malware that can harvest it. Let's just hope Netflix and LinkedIn patch this hole quickly -- last thing we need is someone discovering our secret obsession with Meg Ryan movies.
Storyboard: Flaw of the land
Nobody's perfect. Heck, most of us aren't even within spitting distance. That's why we spent a column starting in on a discussion of flaws as they affect characters, breaking down the broad categories of flaws that you can give a character. But as I said right then, there's a lot more to talk about when it comes to flaws, especially since your flaws can be far more important than your character's actual abilities. It's useful to understand that you could make your character profoundly incapable of understanding selfish or deceptive motives (ignorant flaw), or make him a former murderer who's adventuring as a sort of work-release program (redemptive flaw), or even just a deaf mute (functional flaw). But it's important to understand why these things matter -- in a world where everyone is telepathic, a deaf mute is only at a slight disadvantage. You need to pick out marquee weaknesses that are relevant, and you need to know when a smaller flaw is actually useful to roleplaying.
Storyboard: Flawed premise
If there's one major element I've been coming back to over the course of this year (which isn't quite a year of this column, but close enough for government work), it's character creation. This is not by coincidence -- a lot of roleplaying consists of just throwing the right mix of characters in a closed space to encourage interaction and then letting them play off one another. So it seems fitting to close off the year by talking about what I consider one of the most vital elements in creation: making your character an incompetent mess with severe emotional issues. Yes, I'm talking about flaws, which are one of the best ways to add definition to a character that might otherwise be lackluster. Like sculpting from marble, flaws cut away the edges of a character and help bring everything into greater definition. But it's a delicate balance between making an interestingly flawed character and making an execrable lump of flesh useful only as monster bait (or a virtual infallible deity whose flaws are all non-starters such as "well, he can't play the oboe"). You want a character just flawed enough to be interesting, but not so flawed as to drag others down.
iPhone 4 Bluetooth issues reported
While testing out the Jawbone Icon wireless Bluetooth headset recently, the parties I called complained of diminished sound quality on their end. They talked about overly compressed muffled sound, with decreased dynamic range. Over at the Jawbone end-user forums several threads have been discussing exactly that. Plantronics forums are reporting issues as well. Informal testing here at TUAW central with a couple of Jawbone units on both an iPhone 3GS as well as the iPhone 4 showed that the 3GS displayed none of the problems that the iPhone 4 is demonstrating.
The Gaming Iconoclast: Whither Shortcomings?
Many MMO aficionados cut their roleplaying teeth on one of the many pencil-and-paper titles that formed the early generation of multi-player gaming. In addition to rolling (and rolling, and rolling, and rolling) some dice to come up with their basic stats and traits, character generation involved a lot of "wet work" when it came time to acquire skills. Often, players would bargain with their Game Master to get special dispensation for pushing the envelope.Player: I want to run this adventure as a zombie elf with three arms.GM: Okay, but if you do that, none of the other characters will trust you. Also, you will spend 50% more on shirts and body armor. Still want to do it?Thus, the mechanic of trading character flaws for enhanced abilities was born. One of the hallmarks of tabletop gaming is this trade-off -- saddling yourself or your character with a shortcoming in order to obtain an advantage elsewhere, either as a skill, or a talent, or just another way to go about Min/Maxing. The huge number of available options in some games (Vampire: The Masquerade, for instance) ensures that any player, with only a few minutes' consideration, will have an almost absolutely unique character, fully their own creation.And yet, almost without exception, the online iterations we all enjoy seem to have omitted this altogether. We are an immense legion of perfectly-formed, mentally-stable, socially-adept übermensch. Even the so-called "ugly" races -- World of Warcraft's Forsaken or Tabula Rasa'sHybrids -- don't explore the depth and breadth of this concept too deeply. Racial traits and differentiation are the merest tip of this particular iceberg.Why does this rich milieu, this fecund ground of roleplay fodder and character diversity, languish? (And who left this thesaurus on my desk?)
DS Daily: It's great, but ....
Even the best games sometimes have flaws, though we often gloss over them when trying to sell our friends on our favorites. But today is a day for honesty (because, uh, we said so), so we thought we might discuss those flies in the ointment. From issues with "blue" in Brain Age to Trauma Center adding even more difficulty when arbitrarily deciding you've done something wrong, we've seen dark spots in even the best of what the DS has to offer. Of course, that leads to another question: could that explain why, despite all of the great games on our favorite handheld, the reviews often seem a little lower, on average, than games for other systems? Or is there another reason that you suspect?
DS Daily: What do you hate about the DS?
Yesterday's topic over on Wii Fanboy inspired us to ask a similar question here: what bugs you about the DS? Sure, we know you love it as much as we do, but nothing's perfect, right? Friend codes, hinge cracks, buttons that sometimes just stop working -- c'mon, lay it on us. Let's talk about our handheld's faults. Then we can appreciate the good moments -- like an overabundance of nicely-priced games -- that much more.
10 things to hate about the PSP and DS
Why spread the love when you can spread unbiased hate? Portable gaming site Modojo has released a list of 10 things to hate about the PSP and DS, sharing the slander equally between the two. The DS loses points for quirky games, boxy system design, friend codes, a flimsy d-pad, and half-assed touchscreen implementation. The PSP gets trashed for the analog nub, load times, price, firmware updates, and dead pixels.Sounds like a good start to us. How about adding "poor battery life" for the PSP and "mysterious cracked hinge" for the DS? Any other flaws worth mentioning about the systems?
OS X riddled with "ancient" security flaws
Blergh. If you've heard it once you've heard it a thousand times: OS X isn't the impenetrable fortress of computerdom everyone makes it out to be. You really don't have to keep reminding us. Continually ranting on about this is like fanning the flames of a fire in Hell. It's there. We get it. Move on.But very few take my words to heart, and thus we have a story by ZDNet Australia claiming that our beloved Mac OS X isn't just vulnerable to future flaws -- but has a whole mess of flaws that should've been eliminated years ago. The article basically quotes one fear-monger, a senior researcher at security firm Suresec, who sadistically claims, "The only thing which has kept Mac OS X relatively safe up until now is the fact that the market share is significantly lower than that of Microsoft Windows.... If this situation was to change, in my opinion, things could be a lot worse on Mac OS X than they currently are on other operating systems, regarding security vulnerabilities."Of course, his opinion is wrong. Small market share is obviously a contributing factor in OS X's rock-solid security track record, but there are also other components, like the fact that root is disabled by default, anything that makes any global changes to your machine requires a password, etc. Besides, even if the market share thing is monumentally important, it's not like OS X is going to be the most-used platform overnight. So we're still safe (for now).[via MacObserver]
