Email existed before the world wide web:

You probably don't even think before composing a one-line email message and sending it. But it wasn't always so easy. There's an interesting clip on YouTube: "How to send an Email – Database – 1984". This was from a tech TV show called Database and the presenters demonstrated what it took to actually send an email back in those days.

You had to use a computer and a rotary telephone to connect to a service called Micronet. This was pre-WWW, so there were no URLs, just numbered webpages. For emails, the webpage number was 7776.

QWERTY was designed to slow you down :

Here are actually two theories to this. The first one starts to make sense when you look at manual typewriters. If someone typed too fast, the keys would jam. QWERTY placed common alphabets at a distance from each other and slowed typists down.

Another theory is that telegraph operators designed the QWERTY layout because it was easier (and faster) to decipher Morse code.

Either way, there was no reason to keep using the layout, but it stuck and there was resistance to change. You can actually change your keyboard layout to the faster Dvorak layout in the language settings (or just buy a new Dvorak keyboard).

Fact About Firefox Browser :

 A red panda is native to the Himalayas and southwestern China. Translated, the English word for red panda is "Firefox," which is where the browser gets its name.

First VCR Size:

Created in 1956, the first ever VCR was the size of a piano.

In 1956, 5 megabytes (5MB) of data weighed a ton

It was 1956 when IBM launched RAMAC, the first computer with something like a hard drive that we use today.

By hard drive, we mean something that used magnetic disks - a moving head was used to access and write that data. At the time, it was considered a massive leap in massstorage technology because it signified a shift: from punch cards and magnetic tape (which stored data sequentially) to randomly accessible hard drives.

https://www.kiwibox.com/Emma_Jane/blog/

RAMAC itself stood for Random Access Method of Accounting & Control. The whole cabinet weighed over 1000kg and the 5MP data was spread over 50 huge aluminium disks, coated with magnetic iron oxide. The disks rotated at a speed of 1200rpm and the machines were leased for $3,200 per month back in the day.

Technology Facts:

The ransomware since they first started becoming popular in 2012 (ACCDFISA) and 2013 (CryptoLocker). For the most part, ransomware developers create generic ransom notes that provide information as to what has happened and payment instructions on how to get files back.

A few times we have seen some really scumbag moves by developers, such as Popcorn Time telling victims to infect other people to possibly get a free decryption key. Today, though, Michael Gillespie discovered a ransom note uploaded to ID-Ransomware that simply left me disgusted.

This ransom note is titled "Save Children" and shows a picture of a starving 2 year old Nigerian orphan who was being given aid by humanitarian worker. This note then goes on to say that the ransomware victim is now part of the fictitious GPAA, or Global Poverty Aid Agency, which they state is a crowdfunding campaign to raise 1000 bitcoins to save children.

https://www.kiwibox.com/Emma_Jane/blog/entry/146651101/best-names-for-your-wifi-router-this-year/

It's bad enough that these developers are hurting people and their business by encrypting their files, but to spout complete BS while taking advantage of the horrible misfortunes of others to earn money is just disgusting.

Ransomware

With just a can of spray paint, researchers can turn flat surfaces of any shape or size —ranging from walls to furniture to even musical instruments — into touchpads, according to a new study.

The technique, dubbed Electrick by its inventors from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, relies on electrodes attached to an object made of or coated with any slightly conductive material. While not as precise as smartphone touch-screen technology, the resulting touchpads are still accurate enough to allow basic control functions, such as using a slider or pushing a button, the researchers said.
"The technology is very similar to how touch screens work," said Yang Zhang, a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). "When the user's finger touches on an electric field, it will shunt a fraction of the current to the ground, and by tracking where the shunting of the current happens, we can track where the user touches the surface." 

Goals of this Technology:

"The goal of this technology is to enable touch sensing on everything," Zhang said. "Touch has been very successful. It's a very intuitive way to interact with computer resources. So, we were wondering whether we could enable these touch-sensing capabilities in many more objects other than just phones and tablets."

How it Works :

"It wouldn't work with normal plastic, which is totally nonconductive," Zhang said. "But we can use various carbon-loaded materials, materials that have carbon particles inside them, which make them slightly conductive."

Turn flat surface into TouchPad

Apple's iPhone 8 - Coming in 2017

2017 will mark the 10th anniversary of the iPhone and Apple has something major planned to celebrate the occasion. We've got several months to go until the launch of the iPhone 8, but because of Apple's ambitious plans for the device, there are already an abundance of rumors hinting at the impressive features coming in the 2017 iPhone.

Apple is rumored to be testing more than 10 prototype iPhone models, so it's not entirely clear what we're going to see, and because there are so many test devices in play, rumors are also conflicting and murky at this time.

Rumors suggest the iPhone 8 will feature a radical redesign, with an edge-to-edge display that does away with the top and bottom bezels where features like the Touch ID fingerprint sensor and the front-facing camera are housed. Instead, most rumors suggest Touch ID will be built directly into the display, meaning there will be no physical Home button. Apple was rumored to be having trouble implementing Touch ID under the display, but the company may have overcome those issues.

With an edge-to-edge design, the iPhone 8 may be similar in size to the 4.7-inch iPhone, but with a display the size of the 5.5-inch iPhone. Rumors suggest it will feature a 5.8-inch display with 5.15 inches of usable area, with the rest dedicated to virtual buttons that will replace the existing Home button.

The display itself is said to be flexible plastic OLED rather than an LCD, allowing Apple to introduce a thinner device that consumes less power and offers a better display with higher contrast ratio and more true to life colors. Early rumors suggested it could feature edges that are curved on both sides like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, but it's looking more like it will have the same slightly curved 2.5D display that's similar to the displayused in the iPhone 7 because Apple suppliers still have difficultyproducing more curved displays.

As for the body, rumors suggest Apple is finally going to move away from the aluminum used in the iPhone 5, 5s, 6, 6s, 7, and SE, instead re-adopting a glass body that's similar to the body that was used in the iPhone 4. At least one iPhone model coming in 2017 will use a glass body, according to Apple supplier Catcher Technology, and according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the glass will be built around a polished stainless steel frame that's similar in design to the Apple Watch.

Given the radical design changes Apple plans to introduce in the OLED iPhone, rumors have been suggesting there will be serious supply constraints. Apple may introduce the ~5-inch OLED iPhone at a September event alongside the standard 4.7 and 5.5-inch devices, but there's a chance it won't be released until one or two months after its introduction. Alternatively, it may be available in small numbers, with the majority of people unable to get their hands on it until the first quarter of 2018

iPhone 8

Hackers have developed powerful malware that can shut down electricity distribution systems and possibly other critical infrastructure, two cyber-security firms announced Monday, with one report linking it to Russia.

Security researchers from ESET and Dragos have discovered a brand new malware strain that was specifically built to target equipment installed in power grids, and which has already been deployed in live attacks in Ukraine.

These attacks took place on December 17, 2016, and have shut down electrical power distribution to a large area of Kiev, Ukraine's capital.

The incident must not be confused with another cyber-attack that targeted Ukraine in December 2015, which also shut down power supply to large areas of western Ukraine. Those incidents were caused by another ICS malware named BlackEnergy.

2016 attacks caused by Industroyer malware

The strain detected in December 2016 was found by ESET security researchers, who named it Industroyer. ESET says the malware does not share code with BlackEnergy and appears to have been created from scratch.

Experts say Industroyer was designed to target only a specific set of industrial equipment, usually found in the networks of power distribution companies, such as electricity substation switches and circuit breakers.

In a survey last year, Dragos experts found that most industrial systems get infected with malware by accident, and it's usually with commodity malware such as worms, trojans, and ransomware that infect computers controlling ICS/SCADA gear, and not necessarily the equipment per se.

According to Shodan.io founder John Matherly, there are over 100,000 different types of industrial control systems currently connected to the Internet.

Malware