Shameless Plug

Hackers Make a Fake Hand to Beat Vein Authentication Published on January 01, 2019 at 11:00AM Devices and security systems are increasingly using biometric authentication to let users in and keep hackers out, be that fingerprint sensors or perhaps the iPhone's FaceID. Another method is so-called 'vein authentication,' which, as the name implies, involves a computer scanning the shape, size, and position of a users' veins under the skin of their hand. But hackers have found a workaround for that, too. From a report: On Thursday at the annual Chaos Communication Congress hacking conference in Leipzig, Germany, security researchers described how they created a fake hand out of wax to fool a vein sensor. "It makes you feel uneasy that the process is praised as a high-security system and then you modify a camera, take some cheap materials and hack it," Jan Krissler, who goes by the handle starbug, and who researched the vein authentication system along with Julia...

Queen rocker Brian May used to beg his parents to stay up late, so he could learn about the stars. Now six decades later, the guitar legend turned astrophysicist has released an arena rock song composed for both the farthest away object humanity has ever visited — Ultima Thule — and the spacecraft sent to scour this distant world, NASA's New Horizons probe.  "This mission is about human curiosity — the need for mankind to go out there and explore what makes the universe tick," May said Monday at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, site of the New Horizons headquarters.  "I hope you will enjoy it," added May, who released the song two minutes after midnight local time, during the first minutes of the 2019. "I hope it's worthy of this amazing cause."  Read more... More about Space , Science , Queen , Brian May , and Ultima Thule from Mashable http://bit.ly/2AqqRhG

Stranger Things is kicking off the New Year in style.  At the stroke of midnight (East Coast time) on New Year's Day, Netflix dropped a video announcement for the next season of the series. The teaser looks like an old Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve clip, but distortion quickly sets in, and a date is revealed: July 4, 2019.  Read more... More about Stranger Things , Entertainment , and Movies Tv Shows from Mashable http://bit.ly/2VlHaVV

The EU is Banning Almost All Coal Mining on Jan 1 Published on January 01, 2019 at 08:02AM Every unprofitable coal mine in the European Union must cease production by the first day of 2019, the date on which all public funds for the mines will come to an end. From a report: In Spain, that means that 26 coal mines are about to close up shop, according to Reuters. This move away from coal is a refreshing bit of bluntness -- letting the failed remnants of a fossil fuel industry fade away -- compared to how the federal government in the U.S. is grasping at anything to keep coal alive. But it remains to be seen how much of an impact the coal closures will have in the ongoing effort to curb climate change. The deadline was set back in 2010 as the EU sought to move away from fossil fuel dependence, according to Telesur. The EU wanted to end public aid to coal mines sooner, but groups from Germany -- which shuttered its last coal mine earlier this month -- and Spain are responsible for exten...

Mozilla Says Ad on Firefox's New Tab Page Was Just Another Experiment Published on January 01, 2019 at 04:00AM Some Firefox users yesterday started seeing an ad in the desktop version of the browser. It offers users a $20 Amazon gift card in return for booking your next hotel stay via Booking.com. VentureBeat reached out to Mozilla, which confirmed the ad was a Firefox experiment and that no user data was being shared with its partners. From a report: The ad appears at the bottom of Firefox's new tab page on the desktop version with a "Find a Hotel" button that takes the user to a Booking.com page. The text reads: "Ready to schedule that next family reunion? Here's a thank you from Firefox. Book your next hotel stay on Booking.com today and get a free $20 Amazon gift card. Happy Holidays from Firefox! (Restrictions apply)." A second version reads: "For the holidays, we got you a little something just for using Firefox! Book your next hotel stay on...

2018 was a year that cried out for a simple, effervescent throwback tune we could use to forget our present troubles. No one could have guessed we'd find it in a movie that was all about the successful eradication of 50 percent of humanity .  But that's exactly what happened this May when Avengers: Infinity War topped the movie charts, and sent a 42-year-old track bouncing up the music charts in its wake. With Infinity War newly available on Netflix as of last week, we're just a-movin' and a-groovin' to it all over again. The track, of course, is "Rubberband Man" by the Detroit Spinners (full name, please, lest you confuse them with a contemporary British folk group ). It's in the movie for less than 30 seconds, but leaves a hell of an impression — partly because its 1970s bass-twanging  intro perfectly announces the Guardians of the Galaxy, but mostly because Chris Pratt so utterly throws himself into TikTok -like lip syncing.  Read more... Mor...

Ultima Thule — an uncharted world over 4 billion miles away — is coming into view. On Monday, planetary scientists released a fuzzy image of Ultima Thule, snapped the day prior by the New Horizons exploration spacecraft from some 1.2 million miles away. Previously, New Horizons swooped by Pluto in 2015, capturing the icy, mountainous world in unprecedented detail. Increasingly rich, detailed images of Ultima will start arriving on January 2, but already the deep space object looks elongated, not round, said New Horizons deputy project scientist John Spencer from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Maryland headquarters of the New Horizons program. The program is a collaborative effort between NASA, the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where scientists navigate and control the spacecraft. Read more... More about Space , Nasa , Science , New Horizons , and Ultima Thule from Mashable http://bit.ly/2Vljr...

FCC To Suspend Most Operations Thursday if the Partial Government Shutdown Continues Published on January 01, 2019 at 02:44AM The Federal Communications Commission will suspend most operations in the middle of the day Jan. 3 if the partial government shutdown continues, the agency has announced. "In the event of a continued partial lapse in federal government funding, the Federal Communications Commission will suspend most operations in the middle of the day on Thursday, January 3. At that time, employees will have up to four hours to complete an orderly shutdown of operations. However, work required for the protection of life and property will continue, as will any work related to spectrum auctions, which is funded by auction proceeds. In addition, the Office of the Inspector General will continue operations until further notice. The Commission on Wednesday will release a Public Notice detailing the effects the suspension of operations will have, including on electronic filing ...

Fox News Breaking News Alert Stocks end December, 2018 sharply lower, despite day's gains 12/31/18 1:07 PM

Taylor Swift was the most influential person on the platform, according to Brandwatch. Here's how the singer pulled it off, as well as who else on Twitter was highly influential this year.  Read more... More about Twitter , Mashable Video , Taylor Swift , 2018 , and Influencers from Mashable http://bit.ly/2EZrcvE

Google is Working on a Fix For Laggy Tablet Mode on Chrome OS Devices Published on January 01, 2019 at 01:42AM An anonymous reader shares a report: Chrome OS was originally a laptop platform, but slowly it's being reworked for tablet form factors. However, as that goes on, there have been some hiccups. Most recently, many have noted the poor performance of tablet mode especially on Chrome OS products like the Pixel Slate, but it seems a fix for that lag is incoming. If you tuned into any hands-on or review coverage of Google's Pixel Slate, you're likely familiar with the performance issues many have described. In tablet mode, Chrome OS has a lot of issues with lag. This is especially evident in the multitasking screen, and it seems that is the first thing Google is looking at to fix these problems. ChromeUnboxed notes a recent bug tracker which reveals how Google plans to start fixing Chrome OS tablet mode lag in the multitasking screen. Somewhat hilariously, it seems a b...

2018 was a pretty eventful year. Despite all the ups and downs, these are 5 things we are sure to look back on with nostalgia.  Read more... More about Mashable Video , Beyonce , Ariana Grande , World Cup , and 2018 from Mashable http://bit.ly/2SwNQPe

China Gets on the Bandwagon To Provide Global Satellite Internet Published on January 01, 2019 at 12:43AM Over the weekend, China launched a satellite into low-earth orbit, the first step of a plan to provide global satellite internet to people who still don't have reliable access. From a report: Nearly 3.8 billion people are unconnected to the internet, and women and rural poor are particularly affected. The satellite, called Hongyun-1, took off at China's national launching site Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Saturday (Dec. 22). Hongyun-1, or "rainbow cloud," is the first of 156 satellites of the same name developed by state-owned spacecraft maker China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). CASIC intends to launch all the Hongyun satellites by around 2022 to form a constellation that will improve internet access in remote parts of China, and eventually in developing countries, a plan first announced in 2016. Most of the satellites will operate 1,...

As the holidays wrap up, so, too, do the constant deliveries. But not before one Reddit user got quite a surprise: Amazon's picture-proof alert for his delivery captured his package in mid-air, flying toward his front door.  That's quite a toss, to be honest, and even better photo-capturing skills. SEE ALSO: UPS delivery driver spots a doorbell camera and busts out a little dance And for those skeptical that maybe the package is just wedged into the door for a unique perspective that simply makes it look like it's been thrown, well, the same Reddit user shared this video to support his claim. Read more... More about Amazon , Reddit , Package Delivery , Culture , and Web Culture from Mashable http://bit.ly/2s1krkL

Netflix's new horror movie Bird Box has taken the internet by storm, which is a little surprising considering horror is really not for everyone. It's especially not for us, two scaredy-cats who do not like to watch horror movies for the simple fact that we don't like to be scared.  But with so much fervor swirling around Bird Box ( over 45 million users have watched so far), we decided to give in to the hype for the sake of all the other wimps out there and see if Bird Box is actually too spooky. Here are our impressions of Bird Box , which we both watched on a bright Monday morning. SEE ALSO: Netflix's 'Bird Box' is blind to the issue of stigmatizing mental illness Read more... More about Movies , Netflix , Bird Box , Entertainment , and Movies Tv Shows from Mashable http://bit.ly/2s467rG