Write Code, Write Life

While the computers affected by the WannaCry ransonware around the world last month are still trying to return to normalcy, a 14 year-old teenager from Japan in the meanwhile was arrested on Monday for developing a malware similar to the WannaCry malware. For those unfamiliar, WannaCry ransomware exploited a weakness in Microsoft’s Windows operating system and went on to infect more than 3,00,000 computers in 150 countries within 72 hours last month. The WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm encrypted data and demanded payment in virtual currency Bitcoin in exchange for a password to unlock data. The 14-year-old boy, who is a secondary school student in Osaka Prefecture, is accused of creating a malware designed to infect and encrypt computers to financially exploit victims. The malware in question has been uploaded by the teenager on a foreign website that included instructions and procedures for the users to download, install and use it, according to sources quoted by the...

  The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a network of about 30 satellites orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 20,000 km. The system was originally developed by the US government for military navigation but now anyone with a GPS device, be it a SatNav, mobile phone or handheld GPS unit, can receive the radio signals that the satellites broadcast. Wherever you are on the planet, at least four GPS satellites are ‘visible’ at any time. Each one transmits information about its position and the current time at regular intervals. These signals, travelling at the speed of light, are intercepted by your GPS receiver, which calculates how far away each satellite is based on how long it took for the messages to arrive. Once it has information on how far away at least three satellites are, your GPS receiver can pinpoint your location using a process called trilateration.   Trilateration Imagine you are standing somewhere on Earth with three satellites in the sky...

 T he majority of teenagers alive today weren’t alive in the 90s, meaning the oldest version of Windows they’re likely to be familiar with is Windows XP. If that tidbit makes you feel old, you might not want to watch the latest React video from Fine Brothers Entertainment, in which a bunch of teenagers are exposed to the wonders of mid-90s computing and Windows 95 for the first time in their lives. They’re not impressed. It starts with first impressions. “The fact that the monitor is bigger than the actual computer itself says a lot” said Daniel, 17 years old, who is young enough to only have vague memories of monitors and TVs that aren’t flat. “I’ve no clue what year this is from, but I feel like it was before the year I was born,” said Geneva, age 18, after seeing the mid-90s Dell. Her math checks out. The design flaws we all got used to are evident right away. When asked to turn on the computer, everyone hit the big button on the monitor and waited, somet...

Privacy and security are hot topics lately given the amount of malware that is constantly circulating throughout the internet by criminals and even government agencies with the purpose of accessing our personal and business information. At the same time, information is sometimes gathered inadvertently that could nevertheless end up making its way to nefarious parties. In many cases, issues arise where a function that is meant to make things easier for users ends up being poorly executed. One example of exactly that phenomena seems to have created by an audio driver that has shipped in a number of HP PCs. Security firm Modezero discovered code in a Conexant audio driver that supports an HP feature that enables controlling audio hardware by using keyboard combinations that toggle features on and off. One example would be a hotkey for enabling and disabling the microphone. This driver apparently intercepts and saves keyboard input in order to control the functionality...

How do you remember important things that you think you might forget? Some rely on their brain to memorize information while others prefer  writing things down on post-it notes. There are ton of digital note-taking apps – from  Evernote  to  Trello  – that can also help you remember anything with ease. There’s another interesting option from Google that you may wish to explore for remembering things. It’s called  Google Assistant , the voice assistant app that is now available on newer Android phones. If you don’t have one, you can still use Google assistant inside the  Google Allo  app that is available for both iPhone and Android. Let Google Remember Things for you To get started, say “OK Google” to launch Google Assistant on your phone and then say “Remember ..” followed by information you would like Google to remember. For instance, you could say: Remember my favorite color is blu...

In Brief    Regina Dugan, a former DARPA executive and current head of Facebook's mysterious Building 8, has released information about the work that the social media giant has been doing on brain-computer-interfaces meant to let you "communicate using only your mind." Facebook’s annual developers’ conference is in full swing this week. Ultimately, the event serves as an opportunity for the company to unveil their most innovative products and reveal key details about upcoming projects. And nothing is more promising or intriguing than what’s coming out of Facebook’s mysterious Building 8 (B8) . Currently, we know very little about B8, as none of their projects have been officially detailed, but rumors are swirling, and it’s not like we don’t know anything. We have some big, overarching information about the general work being done. It seems that B8 is working on four primary projects. These are said to include augmented reality, drones, came...

Hyderabad became the first Indian city to get 1 Gbps internet connectivity , courtesy of ACT Fibernet, making it the first time we’ve received city-wide coverage of that kind of speed anywhere in India. So who exactly were the reigning champions before then? And just how do we stand up to the rest of the world?  We’ve put together a list of the cities with the highest average internet speeds across the globe, as well as in India. Take note, we’ve measure this capability based on the average download speed in each city, pulling data from both Akamai and Ookla. Also keep in mind that all speeds here are listed in Mbps (Megabits per second). Here’s what we found out: 1. Seoul       Seoul, the capital of South Korea,  grabbed the top spot for fastest internet in 2016, measuring in at an average of 26.1 Mbps. Some of the fastest connections in the city offer up to 1.5 Gbps speeds.  2. Hong Kong Hong Kong comes in second place, with the...