Poker Game at CES Shakes up OSX

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Very bad things happen to Macs, being tasered will be caught on camera, computers take the pot in Texas hold-em, and the highlights of CES, which doesn’t stand for Computer Electronics Show anymore. All of this and more on this episode of GeekSpeak.

Thunderstrike Apple Mac OS X Firmware Bootkit Unveiled | Threatpost | The first stop for security news

A vulnerability at the heart of Apple’s Mac OS X systems—one thus far only partially addressed by Apple—opens the door to the installation of malicious firmware bootkits that resist cleanup and give hackers persistent, stealthy control over a compromised Mac.

The LAPD is ordering more than 3,000 smart Tasers that will activate body cams.

The Los Angeles Police Department has ordered 3,000 Taser X26P Smart Weapons that, when discharged, will activate body cams, also made by Taser.

This Robot Is the Best Limit Texas Hold'Em Player in the World | Motherboard

​The best limit Texas Hold’Em poker player in the world is a robot. Given enough hands, it will never, ever lose, regardless of what its opponent does or which cards it is dealt.

Linear Digressions

A Podcast About Data Science and Machine Learning Hosted by Ben Jaffe and Katie Malone.

CES 2015: Coolest 3D Printers from MakerBot, 3D Systems, Formlabs, XYZPrinting, and More : PERSONAL TECH : Tech Times

For now, XYZPrinting’s new food printer is limited to unbaked desserts, but the company will eventually turn out an improved machine that can print pizza in the future.

USB C

The USB Type-C Specification 1.0 defines a new small reversible-plug connector for USB 3.1 devices. The Type-C plug will be used at both host and device side, replacing multiple Type-B and Type-A connectors and cables with a future-proof standard similar to Apple Lightning and Thunderbolt.

Samsung Unveils First PCIe 3.0 x4-based M.2 SSD, Delivering Speeds Of Over 2GB/s – Techgage

Meet the SM951. It’s an unassuming gumstick SSD, no skulls or anything besides a regular spec label. The big news is that the SM951 is an actual 3rd Gen PCie x4 slot SSD, making it the first one to hit the market. So it should be no surprise that Samsung is quoting SATA-cable-melting sequential read speeds of 2,150MB/s and 1,550MB/s for writes.

Following Tesla's Lead, Toyota Makes Fuel Cell Patents Free

Toyota is making thousands of its hydrogen fuel cell patentsavailable royalty-free, the car company announced this week at CES 2015 in Las Vegas.

How the ‘Beast Quake’ is helping scientists track real earthquakes | UW Today

Scientists with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network will install instruments this Thursday to provide real-time monitoring of the stadium’s movement during the 2015 NFL playoffs.

Glitch in OS X search can expose private details of Apple Mail users | ITworld

A glitch in the search software in Apple’s OS X Yosemite can expose private details of Apple Mail users, revealing their IP address as well as other system details to spammers, phishers and online tracking companies.

We covered a similar story on “Tesla’s High Pressure Ads Fall from Space”: http://geekspeak.org/episodes/2014/10/25/ episode of GeekSpeak.

Leap second: French time lords add one second to 2015 - Telegraph

On June 30, dials will read 11:59:60 as clocks hold their breath for a second to allow the Earth’s rotation to catch up with atomic time.

Only 25Mbps and up will qualify as broadband under new FCC definition | Ars Technica

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler today is proposing to raise the definition of broadband from 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream to 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up.

Archive.org adds DOS games

Software for MS-DOS machines that represent entertainment and games. The collection includes action, strategy, adventure and other unique genres of game and entertainment software. Through the use of the EM-DOSBOX in-browser emulator, these programs are bootable and playable.

Tell us your favorite DOS game

Text Editor in Minecraft

Word processor that can load files from memory. Has uppercase, lowercase, numbers & symbols. Not the fastest of word processors but every single bit of data comes through a single line of redstone

Correction: The ASCII was coded in 8bit not 4bit.

Gogo issues fake HTTPS certificate to users visiting YouTube | Ars Technica

Gogo has been caught issuing a fake digital certificate for YouTube, a practice that in theory could allow the inflight broadband provider to view passwords and other sensitive information exchanged between end users and the Google-owned video service.

Sorry iPhone Users: Apple’s Dev Agreement Means No EFF Mobile App for iOS | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Sadly, though, we had to leave out Apple devices and the folks who use them. Why? Because we could not agree to the outrageous terms in Apple’s Developer Agreement and Apple’s DRM requirements.