Microsoft Starts Rolling Out Windows 10 November 2019 Update Slashdotby msmash on microsoft at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 12, 2019, 11:54 pm)

Microsoft today started rolling out the free Windows 10 November 2019 Update. For those keeping track, this update is Windows 10 build 18363 and will bring Windows 10 to version 1909. From a report: The Windows 10 November 2019 Update (version 1909) is odd because it shares the same Cumulative Update packages as the Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903). That means version 1909 will be delivered more quickly to version 1903 users -- it will install like a monthly security update. The build number will barely change: from build 18362 to build 18363. If two computers have the same servicing content, the build revision number should match: 18362.xxx and 18363.xxx. For developers, this means a new Windows SDK will not be issued in conjunction with this version of Windows (there arenâ(TM)t any new APIs). Again, the Windows 10 November 2019 Update is not a typical release. It's a much smaller update, though it is still worth getting. Windows 10 version 1909 brings improvements to Windows containers, inking latency, and password recovery. User-facing features include letting third-party digital assistants to voice activate above the Lock screen, being able to create events straight from the Calendar flyout on the Taskbar, and displaying OneDrive content in the File Explorer search box. You may also notice some changes to notification management, better performance and reliability on certain CPUs, and battery life and power efficiency improvements.

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Intel Fixes a Security Flaw It Said Was Repaired 6 Months Ago Slashdotby BeauHD on intel at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 12, 2019, 11:50 pm)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Last May, when Intel released a patch for a group of security vulnerabilities researchers had found in the company's computer processors, Intel implied that all the problems were solved. But that wasn't entirely true, according to Dutch researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam who discovered the vulnerabilities and first reported them to the tech giant in September 2018. The software patch meant to fix the processor problem addressed only some of the issues the researchers had found. It would be another six months before a second patch, publicly disclosed by the company on Tuesday, would fix all of the vulnerabilities Intel indicated were fixed in May, the researchers said in a recent interview. The public message from Intel was "everything is fixed," said Cristiano Giuffrida, a professor of computer science at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and one of the researchers who reported the vulnerabilities. "And we knew that was not accurate." While many researchers give companies time to fix problems before the researchers disclose them publicly, the tech firms can be slow to patch the flaws and attempt to muzzle researchers who want to inform the public about the security issues. Researchers often agree to disclose vulnerabilities privately to tech companies and stay quiet about them until the company can release a patch. Typically, the researchers and companies coordinate on a public announcement of the fix. But the Dutch researchers say Intel has been abusing the process. Now the Dutch researchers claim Intel is doing the same thing again. They said the new patch issued on Tuesday still doesn't fix another flaw they provided Intel in May. The Intel flaws, like other high-profile vulnerabilities the computer security community has recently discovered in computer chips, allowed an attacker to extract passwords, encryption keys and other sensitive data from processors in desktop computers, laptops and cloud-computing servers. Intel says the patches "greatly reduce" the risk of attack, but don't completely fix everything the researchers submitted. The company's spokeswoman Leigh Rosenwald said Intel was publishing a timeline with Tuesday's patch for the sake of transparency. "This is not something that is normal practice of ours, but we realized this is a complicated issue. We definitely want to be transparent about that," she said. "While we may not agree with some of the assertions made by the researchers, those disagreements aside, we value our relationship with them."

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[no title] Scripting News(cached at November 12, 2019, 11:24 pm)

I envision a new version of the Democrats that pisses everyone off equally, but fanatically adheres to the Constitution so our country learns that we can survive, even thrive on disagreement, but we cannot survive chaos and kleptocracy.
[no title] Scripting News(cached at November 12, 2019, 11:21 pm)

My vision of the Republican Party is death. There is no redemption. They went over the cliff a long time ago. What remains is cancer. You don't try to rehabilitate cancer, you cut it out and destroy what remains. That's why the new version of the Democrats must piss everyone off equally. No one philosophy matters, at this time, other than adherence to the Constitution.
Uighur activists say China running hundreds more camps AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 12, 2019, 10:46 pm)

A group said it assessed images from Google Earth and found 182 suspected 'concentration camps'.
A US Federal Court Finds Suspicionless Searches of Phones at the Border is Illegal Slashdotby msmash on government at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 12, 2019, 10:29 pm)

A federal court in Boston has ruled that the government is not allowed to search travelers' phones or other electronic devices at the U.S. border without first having reasonable suspicion of a crime. From a report: That's a significant victory for civil liberties advocates, who say the government's own rules allowing its border agents to search electronic devices at the border without a warrant are unconstitutional. The court said that the governmentâ(TM)s policies on warrantless searches of devices without reasonable suspicion "violate the Fourth Amendment," which provides constitutional protections against warrantless searches and seizures. The case was brought by 11 travelers -- ten of which are U.S. citizens -- with support from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who said border agents searched their smartphones and laptops without a warrant or any suspicion of wrongdoing or criminal activity. The border remains a bizarre legal grey area, where the government asserts powers that it cannot claim against citizens or residents within the United States but citizens and travelers are not afforded all of their rights as if they were on U.S. soil. The government has long said it doesn't need a warrant to search devices at the border.

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'Dreamers' rally as Supreme Court weighs fate of DACA programme AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 12, 2019, 10:16 pm)

The court hears oral arguments on the Trump's administration bid to end the DACA programme.
'Dreamers' rally as Supreme Court weighs fate of DACA programme AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 12, 2019, 10:16 pm)

The court hears oral arguments on the Trump's administration bid to end the DACA programme.
The New Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Trailer is a Giant Relief Slashdotby msmash on movies at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 12, 2019, 9:54 pm)

You can almost hear the sigh of relief from the global Sega fan community. The new Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer, which Paramount released this morning, is a giant improvement. From a report: Our spiky hero no longer looks like a nightmarish experiment in avant garde taxidermy. The human teeth have been extracted. He has big doe eyes, not the sinister mini-peepers of the original trailer. The new design genuinely captures a lot of what original character designer Naoto Ohshima set out to achieve -- a cool but cuddly mascot, infusing Japanese kawaii sensibilities with American attitude. His fur is bright, mimicking the famed Sega blue of the company's classic arcade games. He is no longer absolutely terrifying, an important achievement for a family film.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The New Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Trailer is a Giant Relief Slashdotby msmash on movies at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 12, 2019, 9:54 pm)

You can almost hear the sigh of relief from the global Sega fan community. The new Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer, which Paramount released this morning, is a giant improvement. From a report: Our spiky hero no longer looks like a nightmarish experiment in avant garde taxidermy. The human teeth have been extracted. He has big doe eyes, not the sinister mini-peepers of the original trailer. The new design genuinely captures a lot of what original character designer Naoto Ohshima set out to achieve -- a cool but cuddly mascot, infusing Japanese kawaii sensibilities with American attitude. His fur is bright, mimicking the famed Sega blue of the company's classic arcade games. He is no longer absolutely terrifying, an important achievement for a family film.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The New Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Trailer is a Giant Relief Slashdotby msmash on movies at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 12, 2019, 9:54 pm)

You can almost hear the sigh of relief from the global Sega fan community. The new Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer, which Paramount released this morning, is a giant improvement. From a report: Our spiky hero no longer looks like a nightmarish experiment in avant garde taxidermy. The human teeth have been extracted. He has big doe eyes, not the sinister mini-peepers of the original trailer. The new design genuinely captures a lot of what original character designer Naoto Ohshima set out to achieve -- a cool but cuddly mascot, infusing Japanese kawaii sensibilities with American attitude. His fur is bright, mimicking the famed Sega blue of the company's classic arcade games. He is no longer absolutely terrifying, an important achievement for a family film.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Father of detained Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein dies AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 12, 2019, 9:37 pm)

Hussein's family calls on Egypt to allow him to attend funeral after requests to visit his ailing father were denied.
Father of detained Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein dies AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 12, 2019, 9:37 pm)

Hussein's family calls on Egypt to allow him to attend funeral after requests to visit his ailing father were denied.
Father of detained Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein dies AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 12, 2019, 9:37 pm)

Hussein's family calls on Egypt to allow him to attend funeral after requests to visit his ailing father were denied.
Australian gets 4 months in jail over drunken Bali rampage AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 12, 2019, 9:34 pm)

Nicholas Carr carried out a campaign of destruction in Seminyak, a popular tourist area on the Indonesian island.