[Music]
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show times visit category 5 TV welcome
to the show everybody it's so great to
have you here have you ever had a hard
drive crash bro yes my hard drive failed
this past week I'm filled filled um no I
didn't have a backup but that's me in my
scenario I didn't need a backup because
I don't store anything on my hard drive
oh ok so I'm ok mm-hmm my hard drive
failed there was no backup oh there was
like seven years of photos see my life
is about central management of data so
like this is how I'm able to use like a
pine Book Pro to do video and yeah we
talked about cells I'm remoted in
through a VPN connection to a massive
server that has I I scuzzy access to
massive storage so I don't need any kind
of storage on my devices so when my hard
drive failed as I failed it it didn't
take any of my data with it it just was
a bit of an inconvenience I had to put
in a new drive and and get back up and
running get everything reinstalled but
what was a little frightening about this
particular failure uh-huh that I have
never encountered in my entire career as
a computer technician in my entire life
is that when I walked in to my office
there was a stench of melted electronics
Oh No
oh I don't have very good photos but
what I have I will give you my hard
drive caught on fire overnight oh yes
so within the chassis of my computer
which is like an aluminium yeah case
there was a fire Wow
yeah so when you think about so and then
I'm thinking oh my goodness all the time
I've never seen this happen before oh
wow and there's nothing that I have ever
done that should have caused that
there's no there's nothing that I did to
do that there's no there was no dust
buildup
no the computer is perfectly clean under
my desk and is as never moved it's
statically set up and it just was it was
a cheap SSD I think and it literally
caught on fire inside the chassis so the
fire was contained the computer was ok
thankfully but stunts like a beast no
dough for about three days but the drive
itself was so baked did you contacts no
no I replaced it with a good Kingston
heart yeah yeah I did and reinstall my
stuff and you know I'm back up and
running in a few hours come you didn't
do this the first time but it really did
make me think about all those times that
I've thought about doing like wooden
builds like maybe it was a really good
thing that my computer chassis was made
of aluminium yes maybe that and and
fairly airtight to the point where not a
whole lot of oxygen can get in once once
it's expelled right yeah so like the
burning didn't affect any of the other
components no because it was in the in
the drive tray so it was contained
within the tray so so the tray itself
actually had some plastic components as
well those plastic components melted and
dripped down Wow but the washburn it was
like oh it was a fire it was a fire
inside the case of the hard drive yeah
the SSD
and that's a crazy part is that it's an
SSD like I I could see that maybe with
you know traditional hard drive with my
moving parts but an SSD to catch fire I
would be really proud if it was like I'm
moving parts thing like I worked that
beast so I got it up to 15 billion rpm
that's rent
nobody must have burnt for a while it
was pretty bad so so you did you get
alerts
ah this is just my desktop computer I
didn't have names running monitoring on
it or anything like that however because
the board the it did make me think
because the motherboard has USB ports on
the motherboard yeah I think I might put
a temper device in my computer chassis
and a temper devices like a USB thermal
sensor we did do that
so imagine putting that in and then I
could have gotten an alert from Nimes
Linux that said hey your computer is a
hundred and 40 degrees Celsius and would
you have been like a mistake that would
have been a little bit of a strange
alert for sure however you can trust
MEMS that the data is accurate so then
you would have gone to see it in action
brought some marshmallows yeah but
thankfully it was contained because that
could have impacted the entire office
yeah but doesn't it make you think about
like all these like builds that I'm
doing and and some of them made of
cardboard so I'm really kind of
rethinking the materials that I use for
my builds and and you know I think about
kks be cases for for single board
computers and how they're like solid
steel mm-hmm then and fabricated steel
and that just says quality to me and
like that's gonna it's gonna protect me
an event of like a short circuit or
something like that I don't know what
happened to the drive it was like an
internal thing I've never had a hard
drive catch matter no matter how are
supplies I haven't I've never I've never
had a fire like that yeah yeah I was the
computer that I built on four years ago
six months in all sudden and I'm like
what is that
spell yeah and then I went down with a
computer and I realize oh it's smoked
sure but I've burnt capacitors I've had
things burst yeah but I'm talking this
caught on fire like literally I was not
from heat this was like a short circuit
in the power lines or something whew
within the drive the crazy stuff so so
now I mean hey I've never seen it happen
before but now I know it could happen
really it actually did happen - Robbie
what are the stats I want I think we
should all try to simulate it make it
happen oh yeah I wonder if there's a kid
like there is some data as to what could
cause an SSD to light on fire what's on
the inside I don't think it's a very
common thing
what what's on the inside of it what is
that you've got a PCB circuit board with
with with memory modules yeah
essentially and and some resistors and
all kinds of little circuits and stuff
but so something in there no there's no
moving parts and some something in there
short-circuited I think and maybe like
12 volt hit something else and decided
to explode and catch I don't know the
interesting is that it happened when you
weren't in the office because if it
happened while you were in the office
you might have taken a while for you to
figure out I might have been like okay
my computer's on fire like you see what
a smell died oh yeah brutal yeah you
might have ruined your computer with
like a fire extinguisher at that point
maybe yeah it's probably good probably
good well but an electrical fire
contained within an aluminum boxes yeah
hopefully pretty safe was in one of my
wooden chassis why do I smell charred
Hickory Wow speaking of burnt have you
tried any healthy foods lately I am
always trying healthy foods Jeff because
I'm learning from the technology that
I've invested in now my budget was a
hundred bucks as you know so a few weeks
ago we started looking at the various
technologies like my fitness tracker
like my smart scale that allow me to
educate myself about my health
to be able to lose some weight
inevitably as kind of a side effect of
that and I have consistent so so
whenever I tell you how much I've lost
it's it's only based on consistency so
if I if I hit seven point six pounds
loss and then I went back to six point
I'm gonna I'm not gonna tell you seven
but I've been consistently beyond of the
seven pounds mark now so another couple
pounds since last week and I've only
been doing it for a month and it's just
by educating myself but part of that
Jeff is yeah eating a little well eating
healthy but I've cut carbs as much as I
can from my diet because I learned about
the fact that I'm burning carbs instead
of burning fat and it's working as
really it actually is working so yeah I
did like I've been using cauliflower
instead of rice so ground up cauliflower
yeah it's actually delicious so yeah so
and it's like a rice substitute but
there's no carbs so but it's just like a
plate of vegetable instead of rice you
can cut up some green onions oh yes
mushrooms and stuff like that I would
I'll have pizza once a like I get a
cheap day once a week so I took my
daughter for her pizza and we had like a
cheese pizza and that's fun I also have
started so now I'm at that point where
I've kind of not plateaued I'm still
losing weight fairly consistently but
fairly slowly so one of the things in we
have a Biggest Loser channel on discord
and Marshman had mentioned that one of
the things I can do to kind of
accelerate things is to to sustain
exercise in such a way that okay like if
I run up the stairs yeah my heart rate
gets going but then it's it settles back
down but right I'm done well so do
things that are gonna sustain a little
bit more exercise essentially so I'm not
doing anything out of the ordinary like
I'm not really changing my life or
anything because I've got to be within
reason for the way that I live yeah but
you know I gave my my 12 year old a
piggyback ride at while we were at
Walmart it works
I'm I'm looking and I'm like holy cow I
burned a lot of calories doing that I
actually kind of started to get sore
legs doing that because like he's 12
years old he's a big big guy and and so
for him it was a lot of fun it was a
great time for me it was like this is a
great great way to sustain that kind of
heart rate so that was something and
then I took my youngest who's nine I
took him skating last night so we just
we found an outdoor skating rink here in
Barrie Ontario and we strapped on the
skates for the first time in a couple of
years nice and and we skated for an hour
and 15 minutes or so yeah it was fun and
for him again so it for for the kids
it's like this is great daddy time
mm-hmm for dad it's great bad child time
but also at the same time I'm I'm I've
got that kind of side motive of am doing
things with the kids that are trying to
get me to be more physically active as a
computer geek because I'm for your
children that this fun activity stuff is
actually fun right yeah yeah yeah if
you're like I'll go outside and play and
you don't do it yourself
it's not as much fun as if you know
dad's out there actually sure playing
around and I was also surprised like
something like finding an outdoor
skating rink that the city maintains
like they have a Zamboni at their
outdoor skate skating rink like this is
serious
real-deal skating and it's free which
was also tax dollars pay for it so you
just go and strap on your skates and go
and skate as long as you want it's open
till 10:00 p.m. so for me it was like
this is a really really cheap outing
cost us nothing to go out so that was
fantastic so you're living healthier I
quite frankly I'm just not caring too
much right about now but I will say fine
it's very busy weekend yeah and on
Saturday and Sunday my watch rewarded me
for beating my daily activity goals I
was like yeah because I had stuff to do
in a house to clean there you go but it
was good I will say though I think my
steps are lower today last week I'm at
878 steps aside you have a car
got forty five hundred seventy five
hundred so that's lower than last week
lower last week last week that was in
competition well they cheat did you know
I don't cheat
well no we are the company today there
has been some discussion and discord on
what cheating really is I play video
games and it ups my step count I know
we're saying you're using this as a way
to main like I'm doing with the
piggyback rides
I maintain that it doesn't feel like
cheating to me did you use activity
manipulation to when you're noticed I
didn't know okay so what did you do this
week oh this week I beat Crimson Fang
tell us about it okay that's like a real
workout yes well in virtual yeah as you
say you have to clarify though what
crimson Fang is okay so I have an a5 and
HTC vive and I play a game called
knockout League so in that game there's
a series of competitors that you fight
against and I boxing I was in a boxing
match and they are tough they're beasts
because they're not based in reality
they can do things that I cannot do oh
and I was really stuck on Crimson Fang
like for a long time because she wears
this mask and if you punched you slow
the mascal bite you
oh dear and I was and just like real box
that's on fire based on reality the mask
bite you and Mike Tyson didn't need a
mask the foot and the fights last six
minutes and oftentimes when I lose I
lose like at the 5 minutes and 30
seconds so I don't have that staying
power for the whole six minute round
yeah okay so I had to really work myself
up to the cardio of a six minute fight I
don't understand how they do rounds of
this against real competitors it was
intense anyway so my next opponent is
gonna be a long way off so was this like
exclusively a cardiovascular kind of
like yes like do you feel it in your in
your in your everything no there's no
there's no physical interaction right
well you're holding onto the control
right not that they have a lot of weight
but you're also like swinging picking D
king dodging so like it's a full-body
deal like it's gotta try this sometime
you have to try it how long ago did she
build that computer two years ago a
couple years where we're supposed to
have like a next Wednesday very cool
so however you decide I mean this is for
me as part of my kind of New Year's
resolution but my New Year's resolution
is really just to educate myself that's
how that's my approach and I am finding
that by educating myself I'm learning
more about how things work and I'm
losing weight I've lost over seven
pounds in the past month which isn't
huge but for me I can see it in my face
I can feel it in my body and and I'm
excited about you know where I'm gonna
be six months from now I feel like I'll
be healthier yeah so will I pounds is
huge don't know don't be like it's not
huge that's huge
it's a it's a great achievement for sure
ya know and I feel great about it I'm
not I'm not downplaying that at all I'm
just like it's not like I lost 20 pounds
in a week no no I'm just seven pounds I
haven't done anything other than changed
just my knowledge that's what about 4%
for you seven pounds uh-huh don't make
me do math today Jeff please don't say
for me plate open pouch whatever
whatever it is for you I just encourage
you to like check out the technologies
that are available if you've ever had
trouble with with if it's weight loss or
if it's like keeping the new year's
resolution there's tech that's available
like the fitness tracker like that scale
that is encouraging me by giving the
information about like BMI and stuff
that I didn't know about before my
metabolic age I've lost two years off my
off my medical baggage so I'm now two
years younger in the past month
so that's huge so those kinds of things
are really good encouragement in the end
they'll help you to be able to achieve
the goals just by educating you and and
helping you to see how the things that
you choose to eat and do
are affecting your health so it's
working for me so far so maybe it will
work for you to get into Biggest Loser
Biggest Loser on our discord channel so
go on to category 5 TV join our discord
under interact and and you'll see
biggest loser there it's pretty fun I
really want to get into the future well
we've got to take a break first Jeff and
then when we get back Jeff has got
something for you folks so stick around
[Music]
I have three kids at home we all have
devices my wife myself I've got a phone
in my pocket at all times except at
night when I need to charge it mm-hmm my
kids each have you know we have a
variety of phones that the kids share
for video games and for chatting and
things like that so there's always stuff
hanging out of wall outlets ghom I've
got a wall wart with a cable and people
fighting over hey he's using my charger
and yeah always it's just the way it is
so Jeff you talked about a couple weeks
ago how you've come up with a solution
for kind of centralizing your charging
station and it really made me think and
I started looking and I found a pretty
fantastic device that that I think
you're you're going to show us today
cord yeah so I mean you're right I do
have another device it's not the G chord
I bought it around Christmas time yeah
and it is a six bank docking station
that allows the kids to place their
phones but we have again three kids but
between them they have their old phones
and their new phones right yeah they
don't want to give up the old phones
because well my minecraft files are not
that old
yeah so all in all I think there's like
six phones and two tablets Center and
it's like there's same deal Chargers
everywhere and one goes missing and like
this is ridiculous
but we also had the issue of they were
sneaking them at night I'm like we need
a centralized location where it's like I
know where they all are so we got this
charging port and they all just sit
there and so yeah it's been it's been
great and so does this have that feature
where if the kids grab it after 9:00 it
zaps them nah no feature request that's
what I'm telling the kids if you touch
the phone after 9:00 while it's on the
charging station it will delete
everything charging station sounds like
a great idea for me because it puts
everything in one place in it and it
gets rid of all the cable clutter yes
can we see what you have here okay so
this is from G chord it is a six port 10
amp USB charging station now I will say
right off the hop would caught me off
guard from the boxes at the side that
says quad USB like but it's 6 port okay
why is it quad USB it's because you've
got different types of USB so there's a
there's three piece 8 pin there's two
piece micro USB and then one type see
interestingly enough so my phone is Type
C but mine is the only one that's type c
within our household everything else is
USB micro although there is one Apple
device which uses the old Apple
interface so you came with some cables
it does come okay but I'm gonna open
this up so I'm just gonna slice through
that and place that over here so what do
we have in here starts with I like that
it's ten amps so you've got like one
cable going to the outlet and you don't
have to have like a whole bunch of
charges right it's just one thing nice
alright so it is a 6 port or 6 channel
so alright to start with here's your
various cables yeah okay so these are oh
so it came with little short like one
foot one foot cables these are I've got
a USB C and two USB micros yep so
they're just nice little short cables
and I read your Apple connections ok so
it came with it so these are just like
for your Android phones yeah and then
these are for Apple so if you are using
this but if you are using this and all
you have is Android 3 is not going to be
enough so you need to make sure that
you've got the right okay so when you
buy this what do you do Jeff you buy
some extra so we've got some nice color
coated ones which my kids would
absolutely love because then they'd be
able to say well they've got the pink
one I've got the blue one and you know
solves everybody's problems based on the
color coding perfect things you have to
do to like stop fights at home it's
crazy oh those are nice oh yeah there's
a very nice
or these do not come with it so you have
to buy separately so whatever works for
you so we got three with it well two USB
micro and one USB see yes and then we've
got a bunch just to pack a sort of pack
here now everything they see is
available at cat5 TV slash charger
you're right these are nice yeah those
these are like wound woven those nice
cables but they're color-coded so the
kids will love that all right so I have
unboxed okay really what we have is you
have the base unit mm-hmm is there a
power cord I'll plug in the power cord
while you're describing the power cord
you have the instructions that are just
not simple folow not a wall wart no just
so you know okay so this is just gonna
go right into your your outlet nicely
and your plastic plexi dividers so these
are like heavily sealed let's separate
these puppies somehow I it's like air
compressed oh they're vacuums yeah
vacuum sealed oh my god here we go this
one well it's not vacuum sealed they're
just a cycler on either side yeah okay
like you know someone feels vacuums this
has got power now jack Oh perfect okay
well I'm not gonna plug it in yet
because I'm gonna be playing around with
these but all right is there special way
these go in does not look oh yes there
is
okay so you can't really see it but
there's a little notches here which
prevents you from putting this in
backwards so if I do that it's not going
in because there's a little yeah yeah
nodules there then they go clicks then
perfect all right grab another one you
want me to help I can help you do that
all right
this takes three folks it's teamwork
crazy how many invite some friends oh
honey Chucky's does it take to put
dividers on a cell phone charging
station thank you all right okay so we
can get two phones in there look at this
team action though much faster for this
is the one I struggled with okay getting
these suckers in there I feel like if
you're the person who changes the
garbage at home and then you need to
open the bag the new bag that's all
stuck together you know yes sir
all right last ones going in okay here
we go all right USBC it has been
assembled
okay so right away what I can see on it
you have your physical switch button for
power yeah your connectors are all on
one side interestingly enough so the one
the unit I have at home
the connectors are on either side so
I've got three and three Oh what I like
about that is it prevents all the cords
from jumbling up on one side right this
one they're all on one side so your
device is gonna have to sit because it's
a short cable with the charging port
going that way so depending on any case
you have on your phone or any anything
like that it may cause problems but just
for plugging it in oops
of course it's USB you got to do it a
pretty different way that's right yeah
yeah so but it just sticks in quite
simply all right the one for there's
pretty simple tech folks but yeah it
really I did a USBC for my phone perfect
it's already connected to my phone
because I thought hey we can actually
try like see then see if it explodes or
if it charges it's gonna do one of those
two things yeah those are the only two
options you're gonna learn one day the
way to plug it in I know I haven't so
okay so that is plugged in via charge or
the actual power cable connects here to
the side I do like that it's just a
single power cord and then just a couple
of yeah it is charging so I've powered
it on yeah you can see that no it was
off now it's on cuz the blue lights
kicked on Oh neat I don't know if you
can see that yeah you guys see that a
little a right there I don't know if I
if I were to dim the lighting in the
studio here I don't know if you'd be
able to see that a little bit better
maybe yeah yep that's good okay the blue
light now and when I turn it off I
noticed that it's only the blue light is
only on on the one that the two that are
plugged in oh oh my god look at you you
observe and fella so yeah okay so you've
got the power and then the one that it's
in plug in more that's it what happened
so let's log everything and to connect
sure connect
I didn't get my phone what are you
looking for see ya I only have one see
all right you got to buy the right
cables folks but there's like a mine the
one well I'm using it on my phone
threaded once those are all see a USB
micro okay so you didn't get diversified
pack okay yeah all right well let's test
it this way if I move the connector to
another port yeah cool look at that so
you actually see the blue lights up
Oh USB see as well yeah USB see sorry
Sasha okay so in there it is charging
this one has I believe built-in surge
protection and stuff like that one of
the computers so it has built-in surge
protection it also has intelligent
charging with over voltage overcharge
and overcurrent protection nice mine
does not have that and truthfully when I
was looking for a banking station that
wasn't something I was thinking of I
just wanted to be lucky to have all the
phones outer parts yeah exactly so
that's a nice very nice feature and it
is 10 and 50 watt total power what I
don't see though is fast charge I don't
see that either and it's a good comment
because that's one of the questions
we're gonna get so ya know it looks like
it's just straight like just regular
regular charge power yep now this
particular one now I'm sure those exist
but I mean we're talking about charging
six devices simultaneously which is
pretty impressive
it's pretty good from a single power I
also like the stability of this one Jeff
it's very solid doesn't move now one
thing I noticed about the one that I had
at home for the life mate I can't think
of the model or the brand that it is
there's an ally out there like tell
there's tons yeah search for them but
what I wanted to check with yours is the
gap between the placement spots so my
phone has a bit of a dip on the back
right where it yeah it is thicker and so
your phone sits quite nicely it's leaned
back when I put mine in because of that
it sits up doesn't very much okay does
that now I said matter
former bothers them well what it does
create a problem is if you if you're
trying to organize all your devices
succinctly it doesn't work as well if
one of them is falling forward it
bounces them all around especially
because I owed your phones when you put
them in the charger no but for the one I
have at home I have to do it in a
certain order because of the different
case sizes as one goes forward they all
follow knocks them out so ok aware of
that like all these things you wouldn't
even think about exactly because of the
the gap I mean that's that's finger
width that's it so it's not like it's a
big gap if you have a table at your
tablet's gonna sit fairly pretty snug
yeah yeah so be aware of that but
otherwise that's it that's a nice little
okay the suckers small any guesses any
guesses iPod first-generation no ice
crazy yeah doesn't even like when they
came with with like full touchscreen but
that fits quite nicely but yeah I mean
if you have a tablet or something it's
going to sit a little bit higher and you
could see like mine is back on and
hanging that because that little knob is
not there but if you had a tablet with a
thicker case it's gonna sit straight up
there's no give and the chance with that
is if you accidentally bump it you could
potentially break the plastic just
beware yeah well yeah I guess I mean
you're gonna find a safe place to put
this kind of parasite yeah plain and
simple so but it keeps it in a
centralized location and allows you you
know especially if you have multiple
devices at your home to organize
everything you have all your phones
there you you know maybe you've got
young kids it's like get off the phone
that's your spot where you go this is
the phone charging sport yeah it's not
in the rooms at night it's a central
location you know where every phone is
and it's like this is kind of what I'm
thinking like if if this works is a
great charger which it looks like it's
it's fantastic for this as a parent I'm
gonna hide every other charger in the
house yes and it's just here okay when
your phone's dead put it on the charger
I know because I because we've updated
to one of the you know something like
this at home yeah I have so many wall
connectors now
like what am i doing me more raspberry
pi's that's exactly what yeah yeah so
yeah that's right nice job it comes up
one-year limited warranty which is kind
of nice normal wear and tear
seals abuse misuse not cover damage
trying to see if there's anything else
that's important to mention from the
instructions I'm not seeing it mmm
I like that it has the surge protection
and everything else because your wall
wart you're just how many times have you
just plug your phone into the wall well
exactly what happens if there's a power
surge or something
mm-hmm so that's kind of a bonus as well
yep nice so yeah that's it it is the G
chord six port 10 amp USB charging
station specifically the black color
there you go go to a cat5 dot TV slash
charger if you're interested in that
particular one or of course follow that
link and then you can find various
alternatives as well Amazon's kind of
cool that way you'll see some of the
other options that are similar but
different if you need quick charge then
I guess that would be really the
deciding factor this one does feel like
it's really like quite sturdy yeah and I
say that like it really does feel sturdy
you know really good I didn't even
notice it's got like rubber grip pads in
there yeah I felt that when I put my so
you know which is kind of nice holds the
phone in place mm-hmm so that's okay
well I will say in having used one of
these now there's one thing that makes
me go you could take this to the next
level that zapping feature
well the zapping feature would be
amazing cordless well court actually
cordless would be kind of cool if these
had cordless charging plates but no yeah
to allow one USB that a lot that does
data sync for a computer so all six
would be plugged in you plug it into
your computer and allow you want it to
be a hub as well how cool would that
Nora yes that would be a nice feature I
guess I think that's a whole new level
yeah but then every phone would show up
is it as a hard drive when you plug in
your your charger no but think about
nightly syncs like you got all your
family's phones hook up your family
phones yeah that would be a neat feature
I guess I'll be kind of cool I don't
know if any of the devices do it
I mean now that I've used one of these
I'm like now would be a cool feature to
have yeah
next level yeah yeah you've gotta take a
really quick break folks when we come
back I'm going to be showing you an app
that allows you to create app like
browser windows on a modern Linux system
stick around
[Music]
these days we're surrounded by things
like Chromebooks Pyne book pros and and
devices I mean the Chromebook is the
perfect example of a device that
utilizes the Internet as an app
infrastructure right so I think about
things like like my Google Drive and
Google Docs and Google sheets and and
and how those are very fast becoming my
applications for doing things like
document editing mm-hmm
I don't install Microsoft Office anymore
now right I use in my browser my Google
Docs that's how I do it
you even Microsoft like word and all
that you can
they've got online database like Outlook
has gone into the cloud is like a
browser-based thing but so these are all
things that they used to be applications
on our computer and now they're
progressively becoming more and more
cloud driven and that means they are
accessible through your web browser but
there's kind of like that old-school
feel about having the native app on your
computer having you know to do it in
your web browser feels like you're going
on a website to do it in the app feels
like you're opening a program and and
and there's less screen real estate
that's wasted to things like the address
bar yeah yeah bookmarks and that kind of
rhyme example QuickBooks Online perfect
I use that for an organization that I'm
and it's funny because I have it
installed on the computer yeah but then
I can also login and and use it online
on my personal computer looks exactly
the same runs exactly this yeah but even
psychologically within my head I'm like
I would rather use the app right cuz
that's the app it's a web browser and
you've got the address bar and
everything else so there have been
applications and and browsers themselves
have things like app mode and and
abilities to create a bit more of a
native feel to websites right so that
they feel more like native apps but
there's it's it's never really been
solidified as a standard so what rises
up and then fizzles away like Firefox
used to have a great mechanism for doing
this for creating an app kind of window
for your for your browser sessions but
it got discontinued so then it just
fizzled out but peppermint OS has done
something incredible with a tool that
they call ice and ice is so what they
call this is SSB which is a
site-specific browser but the interface
is really unique in that it it is
specifically it's not a web browser that
allows you to save an icon to your
desktop that simply opens that website
every time you double-click on it no
it's it creates launchers on your Linux
computer that look like the they look
like a native application it repairs all
of that browser stuff around the edges
and everything else oh very cool but
they've made it very very simple but I'm
not using peppermint okay I'm actually
using Linux Mint and on Linux Mint which
is a debian derivative it's also it's
based on Ubuntu and this will go for
Ubuntu what what I want to show you is
for any Debian based distro so that's
Debian obviously we've been to
mint linux mint so i'm on linux mint 19
and it's it's fine for me to do those
thing this on any of those distros okay
so i'm gonna jump into my web browser my
current one which is google chrome and
I'm gonna jump over to now observe this
URL that I'm gonna type in here
peppermint OS dot-com slash guide slash
ice and when I bring that up here we go
an introduction to site specific
browsers they've got a great example
there with Oh with the pixel editor
which is a web based image editor but by
using ice it looks like a native app on
the computer really does how sweet is
that the interface is stellar but
because I'm not on peppermint OS it
doesn't it's not available or come on my
distro right
however peppermint OS is open source
right
it's debian based if you've got a debian
based machine you're able to install the
things that they have open sourced and
compiled for their distro on my distro
so here I am on Linux Mint let's see if
this is going to work for us so we're
gonna grab the source from not the
source but a binary packages from
Launchpad dotnet slash tilde peppermint
OS / plus archive slash Lubuntu slash
ice - dev slash + packages and this
takes us to the packages folder for the
ice development from the pepper mint OS
team and you see the latest version at
the time of this broadcast is version
6.0 7.0 point 7 I should say so I'm
gonna click on that and let's take a
look at what we have here we've got
packages and builds here's a build for
amd64 so because I am on a 64-bit Intel
processor I'm okay to click on that and
download the build theirs the Debian
package
there and here it comes I'm gonna keep
that file and then I'm gonna click on it
presumably dpkg is gonna try to launch
it and ask me what I want to do what is
this web app integration for peppermint
ice front end blah blah blah install
package kind of love the way Linux makes
installers these days that's so much
easier than the default where you used
to have to log into terminal yeah
compiling from source I mean you can do
that so maybe you're not on AMD 64 and
you need to compile all right so that's
done what's changed close everything out
nothing's changed so I'm gonna click on
here and I'm gonna type in ice and lo
and behold there's an application now on
my computer called ice and just like
that I've got my simple what is it
called SSB is a site-specific browser
they call it a simple site-specific
browser manager ok so it's this easy to
create launchers and when I say a
launcher I'm talking you know how
onerous it can be to add things to like
your internet category here let's say we
want to turn YouTube into an app so
let's call this YouTube and the URL is
HTTP colon slash slash youtube.com and
we're on the menu I'm actually not gonna
put it in Internet even though it's a
website I'm gonna put it in multimedia
ooh wow what do I want the icon to look
like I'm gonna try this use site fav
icon I have yet to see that work it
doesn't seem to work so what I'm gonna
do instead is I'm going to click on my
browser and I'm going to type YouTube
icon I can jump into images I'm gonna
click on tools I'm going to click on
color I'm gonna choose transparent then
I'm gonna grab a transparent YouTube
icon that doesn't have a background I'm
going to save that to my computer I'm
going to throw that into pictures I'm
going to make a folder called icons and
save it there
done now I have a file that quickly so
go into my home into where did I put it
pictures where's pictures there it is
okay icons YouTube alright so now I've
chosen the YouTube icon there we go
notice it will support chrome chromium
Vivaldi or Firefox so that's the back
end it's going to use then it also so
I'm gonna choose chrome because that's
my browser okay it's detected that I
also have Firefox on here but I don't
use it
create an SSB with an isolated browser
profile that means that within this app
if you will you are not going to it's
not going to share the session with your
real browser so I've logged into YouTube
in Chrome if I don't have that checked
it will also it will be logged in in the
app so it's almost like an incognito
mode a sort of but it will no it's more
like its own profile okay so you can log
into your youtube profile but it will
only be logged in there so then similar
so by contrast in chrome you will not be
logged in right okay clear you can
choose and and feel free to play with
that setting see what what way you want
it to be so I'm gonna say yes I want
this to be an isolated browser with
Chrome and I'm gonna go apply well again
it doesn't seem to have done anything
but if I click on my Linux Mint menu and
I go into sound and video
I now see a button called YouTube no way
that garnet these things let's uncheck
these things just because it does see
because remember it's created a new
profile right so I'm gonna say okay and
now I'm gonna close that just because
now that I've done that I want to show
you from scratch now that I've turned
off those things so sound in video
YouTube it's not gonna ask me those
things again okay so YouTube is now its
own window its own app it's it's going
to behave very very much like an app but
it's using Chrome as its background as
its backend right so if you find that
chrome performs better than Firefox
choose chrome if you find it's the
use firefox right if you want to remove
one of those launchers from your menu so
say I want to remove YouTube I can
actually go to remove tab in ice
highlight it and click on remove and
that will actually get it get rid of it
you can do as many of these as you want
if you want to add like a category-5 TV
let's say maybe you want to do the live
category 5 live so let's do that let's
go live cat 5 TV so then whenever and
you'll probably want our Icona if for
the sake of the speed of tonight's
demonstration I'm not going to do that
right now but you already saw how to do
that
okay so category 5 live is under sound
and video there it is up there again
turn these things off oh I put like a
underscore or something but it's still
working so so now I've got a launcher
for category 5 when we're live so when
we're live boom there we go
Wow Inception right that's super super
easy well is that so it is super super
easy really quick works really well it's
effective and it's supported it's open
source and it's available on any Debian
distro that with a DB file it's already
compiled for amd64 and I think you'll
find other compiles there as well if you
dig through right so check that out it's
called ice and from the folks who bring
us peppermint OS thank you very good
thank you for that that's a great tool
great yeah another thing you may want to
add to your launchers is the category 5
TV news room yes yes yeah
immediately in fact and now double click
on it cuz it's time here's what's coming
up in the category 5 TV newsroom
Microsoft no longer sees PlayStation
maker Sony and Nintendo is the biggest
competition for its Xbox pot
and you won't believe who they see as
their biggest threat an artist trick
Google into thinking that they were met
there were major traffic jams by pulling
a wagon filled with smartphones down
empty streets arm is getting edgy with
two new processor designs which bring
swimline AI workloads to smart speakers
and other Internet of Things devices and
windows trust an abandoned driver code
lets ransomware burrow deep into
targeted machine stick around the full
details are coming up later in the show
this is the category 5.2 the newsroom
covering the leak stop texting with a
slight linux bias
I'm Sasha Rickman joined this week by
Jeff Weston and Robbie Ferguson some
quick honourable mentions this week a
hacker crew managed to temporarily take
control of Facebook's official Twitter
account the irony in a tweet posted on
February 7th at 3:50 p.m. on the
official app Facebook Twitter feed the
attacker posted hi we are our mine
well even Facebook is hackable but at
least their security better than Twitter
they then went on to advertise their
services saying to contact them in order
to quote improve your account security
unquote our mind did not say how they
got into the social networks Twitter
account but no self-respecting hacker
could would ever take pass up the
opportunity to blast Facebook's security
practices according to a draft research
paper from the astronomers who are
analyzing it a mysterious radio signal
from space that was first detected in
Canada appears to repeat at regular 16
day intervals the you the unusual signal
which has been traced back to a spiral
galaxy roughly 500 million light-years
from Earth is known as a fast radio
bursts aka FRB it has been fascinating
astronomers since Canada's chime
telescope first detected it in 2018
scientists have discovered hundreds of
seemingly random one-off FRBS over the
last decade but only a handful of them
have been found to repeat now here's the
thing this particular signal is not only
repeating but it appears to be sent out
at regular intervals the signal starts
and let me just say this is not sci-fi
this is really reality the signal starts
every sixteen point three five days it
lasts four
or days and then fall silent for 12 days
before starting up again according to
the paper that is a recurring schedule
the number of births within each four
day blast varied each time according to
409 days worth of data that was compiled
by chime the study authors say in their
abstract quote our results suggest a
mechanism for periodic modulation and
disfavor
models invoking purely sporadic
processes in other words and this is a
not a quote so the quote is over but in
other words the signal is not repeating
at random okay so they say that the
source may be flickering at regular
intervals or some other factor might be
interrupting the signal blasts in a
consistent pattern orbits come to mind
for me like that could be part of it for
sure but if their findings are confirmed
the discovery would be another first in
the early study of F R bees which have
only been known to science for a
relatively short period of time called
the ultimate arm powered Nass Helios 64
is accepting pre-orders discounted for
the first 500 Helios 64 is a full
fledged linux powered Nath solution that
offers built-in features that you will
not find in any other product at this
price point it supports up to 80
terabytes of data storage in five hot
swappable drive bays plus support for a
single m dot two for applications that
demand extra performance for
connectivity it uses the new multi
gigabit speed standard on dual land
ports they offer up to 2.5 gigabits per
second throughput the NASS uses an arm
64 hexa core SOC it features 4 gigabytes
of RAM and a 16 gigabyte EMM
for OS storage and booting now it's an
ass that's basically behaving like a
Linux computer so because the helio 64
is open-source once it's released we're
going to begin seeing distributions
created specifically for this hardware
the Helios 64 was slated for release as
early as next month but with factory
shutdowns due to the corona virus the
first shipments will be delayed an ETA
update will be provided by the company
once factory lines are allowed to reopen
in China but we estimate it to be late
spring or possibly early summer
pre-orders are discounted to just are
you ready for this $285 to the first 500
orders and you can place that order now
at COBOL dot io let's get into the top
stories we're following this week
Microsoft no longer sees PlayStation
Maker Sony and Nintendo as the biggest
competition for its Xbox platform Phil
Spencer Microsoft's head of gaming said
he now considered Amazon and Google as
his top rivals because of their cloud
computing infrastructure
he believes their transitional rivals
Nintendo and traditional rivals Nintendo
and Sony are out of step with the future
of gaming he said quote when you talk
about Nintendo and Sony we have a ton of
respect for them but we see Amazon and
Google as the main competitors going
forward that's not to disrespect
Nintendo and Sony but the traditional
gaming companies are somewhat out of
position end quote
what cloud gaming players don't need to
buy a games console instead the games
are run on servers and huge data centers
with the footage streamed over the
Internet to a TV computer smartphone or
a tablet
it means players don't need to buy discs
or download games and software updates
which can take a long time Google
entered the home gaming market in 2019
with its stadia streaming service the
company's vast cloud computing business
means that it has the necessary
infrastructure in place but critics say
the lineup of games on stadia stadia is
currently sparse while Amazon and Apple
offer games on their app stores and
Apple offers a monthly subscription they
don't currently offer a cloud gaming
service however Amazon also operates an
enormous cloud computing business and is
rumored to be developing a game service
Sony has offered its PlayStation now
cloud gaming service since 2014
letting gamers stream more than 700
titles to a ps4 console or PC however it
currently streams games in 720p
resolution by contrast Google stadia can
stream its games at up to 4k resolution
NVIDIA has officially launched its
GeForce now streaming service after
months of testing and both Sony and
Microsoft have already announced that
they are still working on new games
consoles for home totally demonstrates
the shift
yeah and how things are being how
technology is being provisioned I feel
old I guess in the fact that my brain
doesn't get it like I don't understa
locked into console mind-bending yeah
well we've been sold for so many years
that the biggest most powerful console
is going to give you the best gaming
experience now we're being told oh well
you can do it on your phone you can do
it on this little $100 device you can do
it on anything oh and then you can
transition over to your computer which
doesn't even have to be a good computer
it can be a Chromebook yeah what I think
the difference though and I mean
admittedly I have not explored Google
and Amazon gaming services so I can't
speak from first-hand knowledge but the
ability to go offline is what separates
the two oh yeah yeah but but maybe
that's the ideas that were never offline
anymore well and sure we are but do we
really but when we're at that point are
it's just we're always connected Jeff
but they're always connected business
you're right we are always connected but
dives 860
that's an assumption of necessary
connectivity I like we see this with our
kids all the time they play games that
are not online it's downloaded and
that's it like sure minecraft is a great
one for kids that are younger where
they're playing Minecraft it's not going
online I mean you could go to realms and
stuff but the difference here is yeah if
you're gonna go with the cloud-based
computer gaming services you're stuck to
a couple things you're stuck to what
they offer from the choices and the
graphics and all that kind of stuff
which I think again I don't know from
first hand would be subpar compared to
what you can pull out of say you know an
Xbox one ass or you know PlayStation 5
with with their graphics I mean I can't
see playing like Red Dead Redemption 2
on my phone
you can't you still it's from a
technological perspective everything's
going cloud yes but the the quality so
you're saying will it look as good so
the quality is not the video the video
is your my TV is 1080p so it's 1920 by
1080p regardless of how powerful my
system is or not so yet for some reason
if I use a first gen we versus a
Playstation 4 I'm going to notice a
quality difference in the pricing and
ensure it's a different system and so it
is apples to oranges but what I mean is
the power of that more powerful system
even though my TV never changed
resolution it's still the same
resolution the video quality is still
the same right ok but it looks so much
better because that one is so much more
powerful so now take that and put it
into a cloud server where this cloud
server is still streaming 1920 by 1080 P
2 to my 1080p TV mhm and yet it has so
much power yes it's a
multibillion-dollar system
versus my little $400 right console
right so so the the the resolution is
not the bottleneck now our our Internet
is capable of streaming 4k video in real
time with no latency right that's
incredible
mm-hmm so now put it back and in there
that is so powerful that I can do that
on my cheap device yeah and on any
device and I can transition from device
to device I don't have to buy anything
in particular to be able to use my games
and the transition is happening but the
transitions going to be difficult for
people like me who still like to go to
the store and buy a game and you and I
actually kind of and if the business you
take it with you and put it on and I
hesitate even buying digital copies of
games like I like to have the actual
game but I understand that the future is
is coming up quick I'm still gonna buy a
PS 5 right I'm gonna also likely play
games on stadia right yeah and that's
that's an interesting point I want to
just reiterate what you just said which
is I'm going to also play videos on
stadia stadia so I don't think that
we're replacing that offline phone
device I think we're supplementing it
and say it enhance hey now okay you can
you can also when you're connected to
the internet play games that you can't
play when you're offline that are like
high-end
yeah and that's where okay maybe this is
just another another platform and we all
have multiple plans that's right yeah I
wonder if they'll have it like now
here's the latency is too high for VR
here's an eye we have got to be able
it's gotta be able to track you with
this right now so I mean like you've
brought up VR which you know totally
make sense yes what about things like
framerate
because you said 64k that's pretty good
to me yeah I hear you but you're talking
about the screen resolution I mean if
your internet can't keep up it's gonna
impact your gameplay do you remember
when we used to be like oh I'm like I'm
so bad yeah like in order to go back to
lagging or my car my kids gonna go yes
however consider this as and I know we
do need to move on to the next story but
consider that the very companies that
are pushing the technology shift are the
same companies who are controlling the
introduction of like Google's gigabit
fiber to the home right right so yeah if
that's the case oh you know it's gonna
perform well it's like you you you just
know that that's what they're driving
toward and and they're not gonna build a
service that's gonna fail based on that
this latency is a big thing sure sure
because this is internet-based
it's going to be it's going to resolve
the cross-platform compatibility issues
it's an interesting thing though because
you have to remember that this is not
game streaming this is video streaming
we've already proven through YouTube and
through everything else that video
streaming is great these days yep
there's no latency on videos like like
really in real time if it was real time
so they've created real time video
streaming service that has the
interactivity of controls and control
doesn't take a lot of bandwidth no so
it's like it's instant as long as you
don't have high pings
right as long as you don't have latency
on your internet connection and that's
the key thing and so they'll be driving
ISPs to support their codecs and you'll
see an evolution in that kind of thing
very cool if you've tried stadia or any
other cloud-based service comment below
let us know if you've been contemplating
it maybe post why you haven't tried it
you know what's holding you up artist
Simon wacker noticed something unusual
at a made a demonstration in Berlin
Google Maps showed that there was a
massive traffic jam even though there
were zero cars on the road soon enough
wicked realize that it was the mass of
people or
specifically their smartphones that had
inadvertently tricked Google into seeing
gridlock on an empty street and then he
decided to do it himself where Kurt says
quote the question was if it might be
possible to generate something like this
in a much simpler way I don't need the
people I just need their smart phones
end quote
so he borrowed phones from friends and
rental companies until he had acquired
99 devices which he piled into a little
red wagon the plan was simple over the
course of a day a worker would walk up
and down a given Street mostly at random
towing his smartphone packed wagon
behind him the effect wasn't
instantaneous it took Google Maps about
an hour to catch up but eventually
inevitably record said that his wagon
would create a huge long red line in the
app indicating that a traffic had slowed
to a crawl even though there wasn't any
traffic at all he had effectively
tricked the system into thinking a
series of large buses was crawling back
and forth Google said in a statement
quote traffic data in Google Maps is
refreshed continuously thanks to
information from a variety of sources
including aggregated and anonymized the
data from people who have location
services turned on and contributions
from the Google Maps community end quote
they note that while it had figured out
how to distinguish between cars and
motorcycles it does not yet have any way
to filter for a wecord set up Weikart
says quote what I'm really interested in
generally is the connection between
technology and society and the impact of
technology how it shapes us end quote
the hack is getting attention not only
because it's fun but also serves as a
necessary reminder that the system's
people take for granted involve inputs
and outputs and that they themselves are
sometimes both it shows how simple it is
to be it's how simple it is to fool a
product in which people place a trim
Bendis amounts of trust how this
interesting there's a lot of fun but I
love how the artist has found the spin
to say hey maybe we're trusting the
technology a little too much that yeah
so much so that anyone looking at their
app or using their GPS that's powered by
Google services yes is avoiding those
areas based on his little experiment
right so when when I had first heard
this story I thought to myself okay so
four people are in a car like if you're
carpooling and you're stuck in a slow
section of the highway is it gonna show
up way busier on the highway than it
actually is it's completely yeah I I
personally use Waze which is owned by
Google it it's yeah it's I think it's
the exact same well no there's some
enhanced features that Google Maps
doesn't he'll differently yeah but what
I like about Waze is is that it is user
input unlike a lot of Google Maps that
is drawn by anonymous unit user data and
things happening in the backend so ways
builds off Google Maps but then you can
add your individual components into it
but I have at times how to phone call or
text or something come in where it's
like I need to respond to this so I'll
pull over on the side of the road do the
thing that I need to do and all sudden I
get an alert on my phone we're detecting
a slowdown oh you know are you in
traffic how heavy is the traffic and I'm
like pulled over and so I'll say no and
move on this is this is odd Jeff is not
texting while driving this is character
for you but what what I could have done
is gone
yes heavy traffic sure traffic's flowing
beside me well so I mean if there is
that user element so I've never fully
trusted the information I see on those
services because I know that there is
that user input data right actually
today on my way to the studio I always
use Google Maps I even though I know how
to get here I always use it I like I
like to be told what to do but Google
told me to take the highway and I looked
at the highway and I thought ah that's a
dead stop
and Google was pretty mad at me like it
kept trying to correct me back to the
highway but I was like I am taking the
main road was it just that one spot and
then it was fine after yeah there's one
spot on the highway right now
okay so this this opens up something
though interesting about and I know we
need to move to the next story but about
proximity how specific is location-based
services on the phone because like my
kids play pokemon go yeah so when
they're at home if they move from one
side of the living room to the next
their character moves with them yeah but
when I'm sitting in the car I'm getting
a bigger blip on the map and so I don't
know if it can update as quick to my
precise location it's probably lulling
you into a false sense of like anonymity
it knows exactly where you it know
exactly where you're parked so then
Google have not built something into the
programming that it watches for the
collection of devices and it goes there
are 99 within this box that's not actual
I think they will know okay we have got
to take a quick break more of this
week's top tech stories are coming up
don't go anywhere
[Music]
welcome back urn has announced the Evo's
view 55 and the cortex-m 55 for edge
devices bringing an AI neural network
accelerator to futures smart speakers
light bulbs fridges and other IOT
devices the more powerful of the two
known as the cortex-m 55 is a general
microcontroller grade cpu blueprint well
the other names ethos yu55 is
essentially an AI accelerator the
cortex-m 55 is based on arms helium
technology the ethos u 55 on the other
hand is a novel architecture forearm and
has been described as a micro neural
processing unit or micro NPU for short
both processors are available now to
license and are intended to be used
together the m55 running application
code the u55 doing all the neural
network mathematics in fast Hardware the
senior director of the IOT and embedded
team at arm says quote the micro NPU
cannot be used on its own it needs to be
paired with a CPU like the cortex m55
together the system delivers 480 times
the performance compared to previous
cortex-m generations working on their
own end quote
we expect to see chips using these
blueprints early next year
awesome I can't believe this is real
life but neural processing units are now
I know heart of an SOC like this is so
it's just signed by to my what exactly
an eighties mind like I remember when
which Star Trek was it where they use
the neuro packs what are they called
oh my gosh one of the Star Trek's was an
enterprise maybe where there's like Oh
to have like telepresence yeah within
the ship and like they would blow out
and they'd have to replace
them and they're like these gel pack
things and I'm like that would never
happen I think it was Star Trek I
understand that what I remember watching
that I think I'm Star Trek Enterprise
and I was like there's no way we're
gonna have that kind of advanced
technology it's not possible this is
like 15 20 years ago and now I'm
watching stuff like this coming where
it's like neuro networks I'm like oh my
goodness
every year there's a new possibility and
I never would have expected this this is
yeah yeah like so we're talking like the
next gen of yes AI which is so crazy
that these little chips can now process
teraflops worth of information like it's
I don't know what it really is but it's
like ridiculous amounts of data having
to do with AI right so that so the next
thing is that the you know coders will
be able to make thinking devices so
those smart speakers with this and with
this technology will be smarter the fact
that there are two separate things like
I'm surprised that well you have to have
a CPU you have to have the ability to
run traditional code yeah otherwise you
wouldn't be able to like you wouldn't be
able to as a human interact with it
there has to be a layer for humans to be
able to access the NPU yeah hmm
otherwise it just blow our minds how
quickly before this would be adapted for
phones and Technology in phones right
but I mean at this level
I don't know like because that could
change mobile computing sure it's gonna
change a lot of sauce but the idea is
that it's getting faster smaller yeah
and more integrated that's the way
technology goes and so we're seeing a
massive shift in how data is processed
because we're specifically looking
toward AI not far in machine learning
Arvest they're little pluses attackers
behind one of the world's most more
destructive pieces of ransomware have
found a new way to defeat defenses that
that might otherwise prevent the attack
from Incred encrypting data installing a
buggy driver first and then hacking it
to burrow deeper into the targeted
computer the ransomware in this case is
Robin Hood known for taking down the
city of Baltimore networks and systems
in Greenville North Carolina Robin Hood
can easily encrypt sensitive files once
a vulnerability has allowed the malware
to gain a toehold
for networks that are better fortified
the ransomware ax has a harder time
breaking in now Robin Hood has found a
way to defeat these defenses in two
recent attacks researchers from security
firm Sophos said the ransomware has used
its access to a targeted machine to
install a driver from taiwan-based
motherboard manufacturer gigabyte that
has a known vulnerability in it it's the
same vulnerability that led to gigabyte
officials discontinuing the use of the
driver but since it contains gigabytes
cryptographic signature the Windows
operating system trusts it and allows it
it allows it to run in the highly
sensitive Windows kernel region of the
OS without question whisks a benign but
buggy driver installed Robin Hood then
exploited the vulnerability to gain the
ability to read and write to virtually
any memory region chosen by the attacker
the Robin Hood exploit changed a single
bite to disable the windows requirement
that drivers be signed
with that Robin Hood installed its own
unsigned driver that used its highly
privileged kernel access to kill
processes and files belonging to
endpoint security products the advanced
status of the driver gave it greater
ability than other techniques to ensure
that the targeted processes are
permanently stopped there are other
windows trusted drivers with known
vulnerabilities that could be used in
the same way of gigabytes drivers these
include sign drivers from VirtualBox
novel cpu-z and asus and while the
gigabyte driver may be the first known
instance of this type of hack it is it
very well may not be the last and points
to a need for Microsoft to reassess the
way their certificate revocation
procedures hmm that's tough mm-hmm
because the the part of me wants to say
Oh we'll just revoke the certificate
anytime there's an exploit but remember
that then that would nullify everybody's
drivers right so this is all mole I mean
as I'm hearing it this is like a new
wave of Trojan attacks so to speak yeah
that's what it feels like like you're
coming in through yeah trusted source to
get access is that not the basic
principle of behind it or is it a whole
different wave just feels like so
they're using it as an elevated
privilege tactic so they're using a
driver that windows trusts because of
the signature being valid so it's not a
fake driver it's not like a malware it
is a legitimate driver but it has a bug
in it mm-hmm that caused it to be
recalled basically but the Windows
operating system no matter what version
you're running still trusts the
Installer for that driver because of the
certificate that is applied to it
and so the hackers are using that to
then be able to elevate their privileges
and do whatever the heck they want and
that's the scary thing because how do
you stop that how can you possibly stop
that I think it comes down to where's
your first line of defense I think the
only thing you have to that you can look
at is how did they get in in the first
place
was it a phishing scam was it somebody
clicked on an email that had some file
list malware that allowed somebody to
run something resident in their computer
is it that you have Remote Desktop
turned on on one of your computers on
your network and that's really easy to
hack now I don't know how certificates
work just because I haven't delved into
that but does each certificate in each
driver have its own like certificate
identifier no the driver doesn't have
its own certificate but the company that
manufactures the driver does so that
certificate says yes to Microsoft this
is a gigabyte driver provided by
gigabyte because it contains the
certificate that proves that this is a
legitimate driver from gigabyte so what
if the certificate system changed in
such a way that you have your your main
certificate say for gigabyte but then
you have your sub certificates for each
driver roll out so that
it identifies this drivers this subset
yeah developer I feel like that's your
you're giving me nightmares right now
Jeff okay I like where you're going but
it just sounds like a logistical
nightmare as far as managing those
certificates like it could just be a
nightmare I think maybe some kind of an
aristocrat is able to identify maybe
it's a checksum that identifies known
faulty drivers or deprecated drivers so
that Windows could say yes this is a
valid certificate however gigabyte has
marked this certificate or this
installer as bad it's got to be some
kind of an identifier yeah that's the
answer
go wonderful big thanks to really Nash
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category-five TV newsroom I'm Dasha
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for being here everybody that is all the
time that we have I hope you have had
fun a good week for you and we look
forward to seeing you again
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