Strange Facebook bug shows certain users as dead — including Mark Zuckerberg [Updated]

A strange Facebook bug spotted by Business Insider shows a memorial message sitting atop profiles that informs friends and families a user has died. The message reads:We hope people who love [User] will find comfort in the things other share to remember and celebrate his life.The message also includes a link to a Facebook form to set up an account for a deceased person as a memorial account.
It’s not affecting everyone, so it’s unclear at this time how widespread the bug is, or what’s causing it. Business Insider reports it has seen the message on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s account, but we haven’t been able to spot it ourselves. In fact, we haven’t spotted it at all — so it seems to be a problem that’s not affecting the platform globally.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for clarification.

There’s a simple solution to Facebook’s fake news problem

It’s almost as if Mark Zuckerberg could hear the sound of furious journalists pounding away on keys. Or, more likely, he read one of the countless pieces last week that sought to expose Facebook’s role in last week’s election. Either way, he’s responded to the media outcry that Facebook was directly responsible for Trump’s win.I ranted about this very thing after the election last week, but it bears repeating: Facebook isn’t responsible for Trump’s ascension to power, at least not directly.

That’s not a fair burden to place on the shoulders of a platform meant to facilitate information sharing. If you’d like an easier argument to make, blame the algorithmic timeline that forces each of us into an echo chamber of similar world views. Blame the decision to cut human editors. Blame Facebook’s decision to allow pages that deliberately misrepresent a news story (or make one up entirely) to operate with impunity.

For every argument Zuckerberg makes about being a platform to promote free speech and open views, I can make another about conscious misrepresentation and the promotion of libelous material. And his argument that “truth” is complicated is falling on deaf ears.

He’s not wrong. Truth is a complicated matter and even major publications get it wrong from time to time. But we’re not seeking perfection. Something, anything, would be a step in the right direction. A simple law of averages approach would work wonders. Once a certain percentage of your content is deemed false, the Page is suspended. Keep it up and you’ll be deleted from the platform entirely.

If Zuckerberg can make the claim that “more than 99 percent of what people see [on Facebook] is authentic,” then it’s certainly not a stretch to assume he can apply the tools used to come up with that stat on a per-Page basis.Arguing that Facebook isn’t at fault for giving a platform to the masses is fair. Arguing that it shoulders no responsibility in how they use it, well, isn’t.

Running Doom on the MacBook Pro Touch Bar isn’t ideal — but it’s pretty damn cool

I contend that Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro is a gimmicky feature. I’m also a little giddy about the prospect of playing Doom on it. Come at me.

In the hacking community, the de facto initiation centers around the ability to run software on hardware it isn’t intended to run on. Doom on Apple’s Touch Bar certainly fits the standard, although playing the classic PC shooter with 2170 x 60 resolution isn’t exactly ideal.

No matter, iOS developer Adam Bell did it anyway.

                                          

As you can see from the video, it’s a bit short on screen real estate. Still, it’s playable — but only barely.In a second video, Bell made better use of the Touch Bar by turning it into the game’s heads-up display. Granted, it’s got to be a little awkward to look down for key information about health and ammunition, but it exists, and that’s all that matters.

Microsoft says sorry for almost saying the N-word in Xbox newsletter

Microsoft had a minor mishap when it inadvertently sent out an Xbox promotional email headed with the racially dubious subject line “NNNNGGGHHHAAAA.”While the email, advertising the upcoming fourth instalment of open-world zombie apocalypse game Dead Rising, was obviously intended to be read and pronounced as a stereotypical zombie growl, it looks dangerously close to the ‘N-word.’

This has prompted  Microsoft to issue an apology before the message has insulted someone.

In the contrite, the Windows-maker clarified the email wasn’t intended to be offensive, but also took a chance to acknowledge it could’ve phrased the subject line differently to avoid the issue altogether.

Israeli researchers prove headphones can be used as covert listening device by BRYAN CLARK — 2 days ago in SECURITY Israeli researchers prove headphones can be used as covert listening device Credit: Andrey Kucheruk/Shutterstock 15 596 SHARES https://tnw.to/2foaQ1y Millions of us don headphones each day. Few, if any, have ever given much thought to the possibility of someone listening on the other end. Researchers at Ben Gurion University in Israel have created a piece of code designed to prove it’s possible to hijack a user’s headphones and turn them into a covert listening device. Dubbed ‘Speake(a)r,’ the malicious code utilizes our existing earbuds (or headphones) to capture vibrations in the air and convert them to electromagnetic signals able to capture audio. Mordechai Guir, lead researcher at Ben Gurion’s Cyber Security Research Labs told Wired: People don’t think about this privacy vulnerability. Even if you remove your computer’s microphone, if you use headphones you can be recorded. This isn’t new. Many a YouTube hack has demonstrated the ability to use headphones as a microphone in a pinch. What’s clever is in how the malware manages to switch an output jack on your laptop — running either Windows or MacOS — to an input and capture the audio without a dedicated microphone channel. Using a little-known feature of RealTek’s audio codec chip, the malware secretly “retasks” outputs on a laptop and turns them into inputs capable of recording audio behind the scenes. In this case, it really is a feature, not a bug. Speake(a)r, at this point, is a proof of concept. It’s a scary thought that someone could be monitoring a room without your knowledge, but it’s probably not worth getting worried about just yet. We’ve yet to encounter any proof of this being used in the wild, and the simple truth is: most of us just aren’t interesting enough to warrant covert listening. Still, it’s worth noting what’s possible, and as this concept video proves: even your headphones aren’t entirely safe from hackers. Great. Now Even Your Headphones Can Spy on You on Wired Read next: New battery concept could charge in seconds, last for days TECH SHARE ON FACEBOOK (207) SHARE ON TWITTER (263) TNW's West Coast reporter covering all the comings and goings in the SoCal tech scene and elsewhere. Connect via Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. CONTACT Mail Tweet LOCATION San Diego, CA POSTS 1081 POSTS / MO. 58.23 All posts by Bryan > More from The Next Web This baby stealing its parents' phone is absolutely terrifying Juan Buis1 day ago 5 ways to deal with expenses and reimbursements TNW with Expenditure Twitter suspended CEO Jack Dorsey's account by mistake Abhimanyu Ghoshal2 days ago These omnidirectional conveyor belts are a total trip Juan Buis2 days ago You can now learn the basics of coding with Disney's Moana Matthew Hughes2 days ago I can't stop mashing up Twitter accounts with this hilarious website Juan Buis2 days ago Comments SHOW 15 COMMENTS

Millions of us don headphones each day. Few, if any, have ever given much thought to the possibility of someone listening on the other end.

Researchers at Ben Gurion University in Israel have created a piece of code designed to prove it’s possible to hijack a user’s headphones and turn them into a covert listening device. Dubbed ‘Speake(a)r,’ the malicious code utilizes our existing earbuds (or headphones) to capture vibrations in the air and convert them to electromagnetic signals able to capture audio.This isn’t new. Many a YouTube hack has demonstrated the ability to use headphones as a microphone in a pinch. What’s clever is in how the malware manages to switch an output jack on your laptop — running either Windows or MacOS — to an input and capture the audio without a dedicated microphone channel.

Using a little-known feature of RealTek’s audio codec chip, the malware secretly “retasks” outputs on a laptop and turns them into inputs capable of recording audio behind the scenes. In this case, it really is a feature, not a bug.

Speake(a)r, at this point, is a proof of concept. It’s a scary thought that someone could be monitoring a room without your knowledge, but it’s probably not worth getting worried about just yet. We’ve yet to encounter any proof of this being used in the wild, and the simple truth is: most of us just aren’t interesting enough to warrant covert listening.

Still, it’s worth noting what’s possible, and as this concept video proves: even your headphones aren’t entirely safe from hackers.

New battery concept could charge in seconds, last for days

Scientists at University of Central Florida (UCF) have developed a supercapacitor battery prototype that lasts 20 times longer than a conventional lithium-ion cell. It charges in seconds.“If they were to replace the batteries with these supercapacitors, you could charge your mobile phone in a few seconds and you wouldn’t need to charge it again for over a week,” said Nitin Choudhary

Better still, the battery doesn’t degrade. After around 18 months, the typical lithium-ion battery cell starts a slow process of degradation where each charge cycle leads to fractionally smaller amounts of overall capacity. The prototype doesn’t experience the same levels of degradation and still works like new after being recharged 30,000 times.

Supercapacitors charge quickly due to the way they store energy: statically, on the surface of a material. Batteries, on the other hand, rely on chemical reactions to store and discharge energy. Using graphene, researchers created a large surface area to hold more electrons and increase a battery’s life span.It’s early, but the research is promising.If successful, supercapacitor research could lead to weeks-long battery life for mobile devices, an increase in range for electric vehicles, and better storage capacity for power derived from alternative energy sources.

Google isn't happy about how some Android phones do fast charging

In the race for the fastest-charging battery in the Android world, Google just declared its own role in the competition: It will be the one to set the rules and control the playing field.The latest version of Google's Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD), which outlines the requirements hardware makers must follow to keep devices compatible with Android OS, included some interesting new language . David Ruddock of Android Police was the first to note the final bullet point of the section regarding USB peripheral mode, which is buried on page 70 of the 85 page report:  While the first all-capped suggestion that sticking to the default levels of voltage are "STRONGLY RECOMMENDED" really jumps off the page, the real news comes with the insinuation made by the second one and what exactly it means to "REQUIRE."

Essentially, this means that Google is declaring the definitive voltage level and manner of delivery for the charging of Android devices. If a manufacturer dares to go beyond that threshold in pursuit of speedier charge times, like those promised by proprietary tech like Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0, they'd better think twice — or they might be locked out of the OS entirely. If that's the case, the fast-acting chips and chargers would go from an added perk to the handset to a death sentence. 

The defaults and methods Google references are set by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) in order to better standardize "all of the functional benefits of USB that form the basis for this most popular of computing device interconnects." Importantly, this move is made for greater uniformity, not over any concerns of unstable batteries and over-powering. This is not what caused Samsung Galaxy Note7 battery woes. Instead, look at this as Google tightening its grip on Android and telling manufacturers that they're free to innovate with their hardware... just as long as they do it in the Google way.