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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 29 JANUARY - 03 FEBRUARY, 2024
Hello and Welcome,
***** SOMETHING HAS GONE WRONG WITH SWAY *****
Sway ERROR MESSAGE
So, we'll just have to use plain-old-email for this Newsletter.
I used Sway yesterday to finish preparing the layout, so what this ERROR message means is a mystery to me.
Am I signed in more than once? How could this be possible?
Has anyone seen an ERROR message like this before?
It has been the same all day, Friday.
Sorry about that — Ed.
Underwater Raspberry Pi (See Sway article, below.)
Meetings This Week
NO MEETINGS
Meetings Next Week
2024/02/06 — 18:00-20:00 — February, Tue — Main Meeting
Schedule of Current & Upcoming Meetings
First Tuesday 18:00-20:00 — Main Meeting
First Saturday 13:00-14:00 — Penrith Group
Second Tuesday 18:00-20:00 — Programming
Third Tuesday 10:00-12:00 — Tuesday Group
Third Saturday 14:00-16:00 — Web Design
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Go to the official Sydney PC Calendar for this month's meeting details.
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Penrith meetings are held every 2nd month on the 1st Saturday from 1-2 pm.
The next scheduled meetings are in March, May and July 2024.
ASCCA News:Tech News:
Telstra, Trans-Pacific Networks build new cable connecting US to Singapore
See the iTWire article by Kenn Anthony Mendoza | Monday, 22 January 2024 at 17:13.
Telstra global arm Telstra International has partnered with Trans-Pacific Networks (TPN) to build and operate the Echo Cable, a subsea cable to connect the US to Singapore, creating a new route and delivering connectivity in the Trans-Pacific.
Echo's subsea system route connects California, Jakarta, Singapore, and Guam. It is a network infrastructure connecting South Asia to the US.
The first Echo segments (Guam-US) will launch mid-2024, with the remaining parts in 2025.
Telstra will become TPN's operating partner. In addition, Telstra will be delivering cable landing station services for Echo in Singapore and the Network Operations Centre services.
XL Axiata is landing the cable in Indonesia and will be Telstra's partner for delivering services into Indonesia.
Telstra International CEO Roary Stasko said the geographical area where the new cable would be built was one of the more challenging regions globally regarding regulation and submarine cable cuts.
"Our subsea network scale makes Telstra International uniquely placed to successfully navigate the complexity of these environments to ensure the stability of the world's digital connectivity," he said.
According to telecommunications market research company Telegeography, demand for bandwidth in the Trans-Pacific is growing at one of the fastest rates in the world, with forecasts showing it will increase by 39% year on year until 2029.
Bandwidth is critical in supporting new digital technologies such as AI, IoT, and cloud computing.
The need for digital technologies is expected to soar as connectivity grows to serve businesses and consumers.
"TPN is thrilled to partner with industry leader Telstra to expand telecommunication access between the US and Asia. To be partially funded by the US International Development Finance Corporation, the Echo subsea cable system will be a critical element of the Indo-Pacific's digital infrastructure, ultimately strengthening networks and increasing capacity while reducing internet costs in the region," said TPN chief financial officer Aaron Knapik.
"The Trans-Pacific is a critical connection point to reach the US, and the geography of these regions means they will rely on new submarine cable routes like Echo for international connectivity," he stressed.
"Echo's cable system can allow other countries to exploit its redundancy. In addition, we've recently added 3Tbps of capacity through the SEA-US cable connecting the US mainland to Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines, which complements our existing Trans-Pacific cables like AAG, Unity, Faster, NCP, and Jupiter," Stasko concluded.
Microsoft: State-backed actors in our systems for nearly two months
See the iTWire article by Sam Varghese | Monday, 22 January 2024 at 09:53.
Attackers claimed to be backed by Russia were inside Microsoft's corporate systems for nearly two months before the company detected their presence, it says in a blog post published on Friday.
Microsoft claimed the attackers had been identified as Midnight Blizzard, aka Nobelium. This group attacked security firm FireEye in 2020 using a supply chain through the Orion network monitoring product sold by SolarWinds.
This is the second occasion in recent times that foreign actors have spent long periods within Microsoft's corporate networks without being detected.
In July last year, an intrusion into Microsoft's Azure cloud led to the breaching of email accounts belonging to American envoy to Beijing, Nicholas Burns, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, among others.
Security experts warned that the effect of the intrusion could be much broader than reported and could affect applications beyond those claimed to be impacted by Microsoft.
In November, Microsoft released a blog post claiming the company had implemented a Secure Future Initiative, described as a "new initiative to pursue our next generation of cybersecurity protection".
Kevin Beaumont, Director of Emerging Threats, cyber weatherman, says:
Microsoft staff use Microsoft 365 for email. SEC filings and blogs without details on Friday night are significant, but they must be followed with facts. The Age of Microsoft doing tests, incident code words, CELA'ing things and pretending MSTIC sees everything (threat actors have Macs, too) is over — they need radical technical and cultural transformations to retain trust.
In Friday's blog post, Microsoft said the attacker had used password-spraying — or random guesses — to com[promise] what it called "a legacy non-production test tenant account" and then used this access to enter "a tiny percentage of Microsoft corporate email accounts".
There was no explanation for how a non-production test account provided a path to corporate email accounts.
Microsoft's statement also made it plain that two-factor authentication, now an article of faith to protect email accounts, was not used for these corporate accounts.
The company said that the corporate email accounts accessed by the attack included "members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cyber security, legal, and other functions".
The attackers "exfiltrated some emails and attached documents. The investigation indicates they initially targeted email accounts for information related to Midnight Blizzard itself. We are in the process of notifying employees whose email was accessed".
The company claimed the incident had "highlighted the urgent need to move even faster". We will act immediately to apply our current security standards to Microsoft-owned legacy systems and internal business processes, even when these changes might disrupt existing business processes.
"This will likely cause some disruption while we adapt to this new reality, but this is a necessary step and only the first of several we will be taking to embrace this philosophy".
"We are continuing our investigation and will take additional actions based on the outcomes of this investigation and will continue working with law enforcement and appropriate regulators".
"We are deeply committed to sharing more information and our learnings [sic] so that the community can benefit from our experience and observations about the threat actor. We will provide additional details as appropriate".
Former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos said on social media: "Microsoft just announced that they were breached by the SVR, the same Russian intelligence agency that broke into SolarWinds".
"This is a big deal, and Microsoft owes us a much more detailed description of what happened".
Ace British security researcher Kevin Beaumont agreed with this. "I agree with @alex here. Microsoft needs to do a much more public disclosure," he wrote. Microsoft staff use Microsoft 365 email with Exchange Online. E.g. I was gossi @ microsoft.com.
"MS must explain to M365 customers how mailboxes were accessed via password spraying".
Google Introduces "Circle" Searches
See the InfoPackets article by John Lister on January 24 2024, at 02:01 pm EST.
Google has come up with a new twist when searching on mobile devices. Users of some Android handsets can draw a circle around text or images on their screen to search.
The "Circle to Search" feature will also let users ask specific questions about what they have selected.
Unlike many search tools, this will work directly in any app, not just the Chrome browser or other Google applications. Google gives the example of searching for information relating to a video or social media posts. (Source: blog.google)
The search results will then appear in a pop-up window. Users can tap through to see full details on the web or close the window and return to the app they used.
Scribbling Also Works
Google says the tool works as a three step-process:
1. Hold down ("long press") the phone's home button or navigation bar.
2. Draw a circle around the text or image.
3. Wait for search results or type or speak a specific question.
Despite the name, demonstration videos show users can draw a circle without drawing a circle. Simply "scribbling" or swiping over the text or image will do the trick. Videos will be paused to make selecting the required section of the picture easier.
The Google system will then analyze the text or carry out image recognition to get more details of what the user is looking for.
Shopping Links Likely
Google gives several examples of possible uses:
1. Identifying the brands worn by somebody in a video. (The answers and results will include "shoppable links", which sounds like an advertising opportunity for Google's income).
2. Asking why a particular food item shown in social media posts has suddenly become popular.
3. Explaining an unfamiliar term such as "thrift flipping"..
.
The tool will initially only be available on "select premium" phones, specifically Google's Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, plus Samsung's Galaxy S24. Google hasn't said if it plans to keep this as a premium feature, is giving advanced access to buyers of its handsets as a marketing ploy, or is using this as a test run before rolling it out to all Android users. (Source: techradar.com)
What's Your Opinion?
Will this feature be useful? Do you trust Google to give valuable results rather than be driven by ad partnerships? How easy would it be to circle something on your phone screen accurately?
Fun Facts:
Yuval Noah Harari, Philosopher, Talks about the Real-World Consequences of AI
See the (long) 1:46:09 YouTube interview of modern-day philosopher Yuval Noah Harari.
He analyses modern-day trends of the human race and gives startling opinions.
Yuval Noah Harari
Humans will eventually merge with machines, Professor says
See the FoxNews article by Christopher Carbone | Fox News | Published July 10, 2019, 11:16 am EDT.
In a not-so-distant future, humans will merge with machines.
Although that seems like something cooked up by a science fiction writer, according to a prominent historian, it's a reality that's not very far away — especially given how much Big Tech has disrupted everything from commerce (Amazon) to relationships (Facebook) and media (Google and Facebook).
"It's increasingly hard to tell where I end and where the computer begins," Yuval Harari, a professor of history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told the audience at the Fast Company European Innovation Festival this week. "In the future, it is likely that the smartphone will not be separated from you at all. It may be embedded in your body or brain, constantly scanning your biometric data and emotions."
During his keynote address at the conference, Harari placed the possibility of humans physically merging with machines as distinct from previous advances that have harnessed technological innovation to improve our lives. The difference? Humans will be able to manipulate themselves.
"Humanity has always remained constant — with the same bodies, brains, minds — through the Roman Empire, Biblical times, and the Stone Age," said Harari, who has authored several bestselling books that are beloved in Silicon Valley, including "21 Lessons for the 21st Century".
Harari continued: "If we told our ancestors in the Stone Age about our lives today, they would think we are already Gods. But the truth is that even though we have developed more sophisticated tools, we are the same animals. We have the same emotions and the same minds. The coming revolution will change that. It will change not just our tools but the human being itself."
According to Fast Company, which sponsored the event, Harari believes that we will inevitably manipulate ourselves in the coming years and points out that we've already manipulated animals. At the same time, advances like in vitro fertilization can shape the creation of human life.
The Israeli historian also threw cold water on the dreams of tech CEOs who see humans setting up colonies on other planets.
"Not even the toughest bacteria on earth can survive on Mars," he said. "Homo sapiens cannot colonize other planets or galaxies."
Harari, who speaks regularly with technologists and held a public conversation in April with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has suggested in this work that humans must proceed cautiously in the digital age. He also warned about Silicon Valley's ability to "capture and hijack" our attention in his speech.
"This is the basis of their business model. [It is hard for them] to now say this is a bad idea," he said. "What will their shareholders think about that? With the best intentions, they are now captivated by the machines they have created. They are trapped."
Meet our Club's "Legends" with over 20 years of continuous membership:
Our dedicated Legends:
Our Club's Legends
Our Legends have all seen many changes over the years of their membership and keep returning for more. They enjoy the club's activities, hospitality and belief in members helping members.
Many of our Legends have also served on committees, led various SIGs, organised meeting rooms, maintained equipment, produced weekly newsletters, and more. Some Legends have also been awarded Life Membership for outstanding service to our club.
We offer them our sincere thanks and salute them all.
Necessary: Any member who does not want their name and membership details to appear on the Legends page, please email our Webmaster at "website@sydneypc.com" to have them removed.
— John Lucke.
Raspberry Pi Weekly Issue #457 — An underwater Pi, Report from CES, Las Vegas
See the Raspberry Pi Newsletter from Ashley Whittaker — 19th Jan 2024.
Whew, the desert is cold at this time of year. We have just returned from CES in Las Vegas, US, and we were thrilled to see so many innovative products using Raspberry Pi technology.
Water rippling
One of our favourites is this Raspberry Pi 4, running perfectly underwater. Not only that, but the submerged board is running the video reel for HZO's CES booth, and they've toured it around the country at various events for almost ten years now. The Raspberry Pi is connected to USB C power and micro HDMI video, which feeds a monitor on dry land.
How is it running underwater, you ask? Well, HZO is a company that specialises in thin-film and nanocoating solutions. To prove the durability of their products, they coated a Raspberry Pi in one of them and chucked it in a tank full of water, where it stayed alive for the duration of the conference. Keeping one of our tiny computers going in very wet conditions for just a few days is impressive enough. Still, our jaws hit the floor when we learned that a Raspberry Pi had been running underwater in the lobby of HZO's building for 525 days and counting. I definitely could not hold my breath for a year and a half.
HZO's mission is to free electronics from the constraints imposed by dust and humidity, making them accessible to people living and working in more rugged environments. They also work for the aerospace, defence, life science, automotive, and mobility industries.
We're unsure which treatment our tiny green computer got — HZO produces many specialised coatings. Perhaps the Raspberry Pi has a parylene layer, as that seems to be a highly water-resistant and submersible option. They also offer plasma-applied coatings that are an excellent low-cost option if you're not going to be chucking your tech into the deep regularly.
Meeting Location & Disclaimer
Bob Backstrom
~ Newsletter Editor ~
Information for Members and Visitors:
Link to — Sydney PC & Technology User Group
All Meetings, unless explicitly stated above, are held on the
1st Floor, Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney.
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