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Submission + - Bay Area tech CEO says test project likely struck United flight at 36,000 feet (sfgate.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: The mystery object that struck a plane at 36,000 feet is likely not space debris, as some speculated, but rather a Silicon Valley test project gone wrong.

WindBorne Systems, a Palo Alto startup that uses atmospheric balloons to collect weather data for AI-based forecast models, has come forward to say that they believe they may be responsible for the object that hit the windshield.

“Yes, I think this was a WindBorne balloon. We learned about UA1093 and the potential that it was related to one of our balloons at 11pm PT on Sunday and immediately looked into it,” WindBorne CEO John Dean posted on social media. “At 6am PT, we sent our preliminary investigation to both NTSB and FAA, and are working with both of them to investigate further.”

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement released on social media on Sunday that the windscreen was being sent to their lab for testing, using “radar, weather, flight recorder data” to determine the cause of the incident.
WindBorne said the company has launched more than 4,000 balloons and that it coordinates with the Federal Aviation Administration for every launch. After presenting one of its balloons as a possible cause of the collision, the company said in a statement on its website that it “immediately rolled out changes to minimize time spent between 30,000 and 40,000 feet.”

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for a comment about the structural integrity of the windshields on its 737 Max planes.

Submission + - Microsoft disbles preview in File Explorer to block attacks (bleepingcomputer.com) 1

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Microsoft says that the File Explorer (formerly Windows Explorer) now automatically blocks previews for files downloaded from the Internet to block credential theft attacks via malicious documents. This attack vector is particularly concerning because it requires no user interaction beyond selecting a file to preview and removes the need to trick a target into actually opening or executing it on their system.

For most users, no action is required since the protection is enabled automatically with the October 2025 security update, and existing workflows remain unaffected unless you regularly preview downloaded files.

"This change is designed to enhance security by preventing a vulnerability that could leak NTLM hashes when users preview potentially unsafe files."

It is important to note that this may not take effect immediately and could require signing out and signing back in.

Comment The school... (Score 2) 142

The school and SRO will play the "Wag the Dog" movie scene where a Tostitos sack of chips is changed into a cat.

https://youtu.be/Bp79QTKqKyg?t...

Now they change the bag of Doritos into a gun, and blame the AI for hallucinating, and blame the AI. D'oh! Then the school will issue the press release "We take our students protection and civil rights very seriously..."

JoshK.

Submission + - Mystery man as Inspector Clouseau in photo after the Louvre heist (apnews.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Paris-based Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus caught in his frame a dapperly dressed young man walking by uniformed French police officers.

But it did the job — showing French police sealing off the world’s most-visited museum after the brazen daylight robbery.

Camus figured, the guy walking past the officers was unusually well dressed, in a coat, a jacket and tie and wearing a fedora, adding a touch of Paris couture to the scene.

The photo was sent off to worldwide audiences from there, fertile imaginations sprung into high gear, fomenting a buzz on the Internet.
Posts on social media declared the debonair man to be a French detectiv a more dashing version of the famed Inspector Clouseau from “Pink Panther” movies.

“We’d rather keep the mystery alive ;)” the Paris prosecutor’s office said with a wink in an email response to AP questions.

Not Inspector Clouseau, but more akin to the fictional Belgian detective Hercule Poirot from Agatha Christie's mystery novels, or perhaps from a favorite novel, the detective Truman R. Klutz from the "Final Deadline: Foul Play without a Clue" murder mystery novel by Moses Carlton Kery. Or perhaps the character "Milo Perrier" from the play and movie "Murder by Death"... Undoubtedly there will be more sightings and photos to come.

Comment Re:Bouncing Orb? Is it... (Score 1) 58

by joshuark (#65747524) Attached to: Three Decades After Clippy, Microsoft Launches Mico

I've never heard that, I think of a Klingon ship the "Loknahr" :)

Another thought is that it is "The Rover" from the Prisoner with a false face...Microsoft economizing things as usual.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

And like in the Simpsons, its going to suffocate and smother us with AI "help" until we pay a fee...for license to Microslop.

https://youtu.be/G9RQ4nKXrw8

JoshK.

Submission + - Fake Homebrew Google Ads Push Malware onto the Mac (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: A new malicious campaign is targeting macOS developers with fake Homebrew, and other platforms.

The fake ads deliver infostealing malware like AMOS (Atomic macOS Stealer) and Odyssey.
Homebrew is a popular open-source package management system that makes it easier to install software on macOS and Linux. Threat actors have used in the past the platform's name to distribute AMOS in malvertising campaigns.

BleepingComputer discovered that in some cases the traffic to the sites was driven via Google Ads, indicating that the threat actor promoted them to appear in Google Search results.
AMOS, first documented in April 2023, is a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) available under a $1,000/month subscription. It can steal a broad range of data from infected hosts.
Recently, its creators added a backdoor component to the malware to give operators remote persistent access capabilities.
Odyssey Stealer, documented by CYFIRMA researchers this summer, is a relatively new family derived from the Poseidon Stealer, which itself was forked from AMOS.

It is strongly recommended that users don't paste in the Terminal commands found online if they don’t fully understand what they do.

Comment Re:George Plimpton.... (Score 1) 51

My friend tried to get "Tower of Doom" but his mother was horrified by the "satanic" cover...I remember she freaked when I came over to play some D&D and had "Fiend Folio" with a githyanki holding a flaming sword.

The ColecoVision controllers went first, although the actual box still worked, just the mushroom shaped controllers did not. :( Finally my mother put it out in the trash, cartridges and all when I was not around... JoshK.

Comment George Plimpton.... (Score 1) 51

George Plimpton the deceased actor and writer, recreated with an LLM to pitch the product? I remember those commercials, and then turned on my ColecoVision to play Zaxxon, or plugged in the Atari adapter to play Adventure. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I had a friend with an Intellivision, loved to play the B-17 Bomber game with the voice module...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I'd return I'd let my friend play Zaxxon, Venture, and the plethora of Atari games. The only thing was going from Coleco controllers to Intellivision.

JoshK.

Submission + - Only 40% of workers have a high-quality job, Gallup finds (gallup.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Not all jobs are created equal, according to the new American Job Quality Study.he nationally representative survey of roughly 18,000 Americans finds that just 40% of U.S. workers hold "quality jobs," "Quality jobs" re defined as roles with fair compensation, safe environments, growth opportunities, agency and manageable schedules.Quality jobs are linked to higher satisfaction and wellbeing, yet most U.S. workers face gaps in pay, advancement, scheduling and fairness.

As former obsolete technology COM guru Don Box stated: COM sucks but pays my bucks. Now it sucks and no bucks.

Submission + - Tesla investigated after self-driving cars drive on wrong side of the road (bbc.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Tesla is being investigated by the US government after reports the firm's self-driving cars had broken traffic laws, including driving on the wrong side of the road and not stopping for red lights. An estimated 2.9 million cars equipped with full self-driving tech will fall under the investigation.

According to the NHTSA report, there were six crashes caused by cars stopping at a traffic light before setting off while the light was still red. Four of the crashes resulted in injuries.

Tesla is already facing an investigation from the NHTSA over the cars' door locking mechanisms, after cases where children were reportedly trapped inside Model Y cars.

Perhaps this is a new "feature" to simulate teenagers learning to drive, or an homage to the movie "License to Drive" ???

Submission + - 80% of employees say their workplace is toxic (fastcompany.com) 1

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: According to Monster’s newly released 2025 Mental Health in the Workplace survey of 1,100 workers, 80% of respondents described their workplace environment as toxic. Toxic work environments are playing a large role in an epidemic of worsening mental health.

The alarming statistic is an increase from 67% just a year ago. Mental health is incredibly important to employees. The majority (63%) care more about it than having a “brag-worthy” job. According to the survey, more than half of workers (57%) say they’d rather quit their job than continue working in an environment they feel is toxic and overall, causing major strains to their mental well-being.

Regardless of the fact that workers seem to be feeling strained, most of them don’t feel their employer is responding to workers’ mental health needs. The vast majority (93%) say their employer isn’t focused on supporting employee mental health—a statistic that rose drastically since just a year ago, with 78% claiming the same.

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