Just in Time for the End of the World: Badass Plasma Lighters [Updated]
Power Practical makes our favorite outdoor string lights and bias lightning, but if those didn’t… spark your interest, here’s a goddamn plasma lighter.
$30
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$60
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Looking to light your campsite, balcony, patio, bedroom, or the back of your TV? Power Practical…
The $30 Sparkr Mini is USB-rechargeable, has a built-in flashlight, requires no fuel, can be lit in the wind or rain, and is made of soft, matte plastic that feels great in the hand. Forget your fidget spinner, you’re about to be a monster-of-the-week from a bad SYFY show whose thing is that they fidget with an arc lighter.
Power Practical isn’t the first to the plasma party, Gizmodo covered ArcLighter’s Kickstarter back in 2015 for example, but the competitive set, for the most part, is ugly and/or lacking features.
If you need more than ten fingers to count the number of times you’ve burned yourself while…
The Sparkr is double the price of the Mini and comes in a flashlight form factor. The flashlight has three brightness settings, up to 150 lumens, and a mostly aluminum body. The cap that covers the lighter end does double duty as a diffuser when you need a lantern, and a utility tie is included for hanging. It’s weird that the diffuser cap is part of the battery cover, but not a big deal.
The Sparkr is perfect for lighting deep candles, and great for camping, but won’t make it into your everyday carry like the Mini.
I’m gonna put the pile of fire starters I’ve gotten in to check out in a drawer with my abacus.
Update 10/10/17: Need an arc lighter that can reach around? This Kinja Deals discovery from Tacklife is perfect for lighting candles and more.
$50
Gizmodo Media Group may get a commission
via Gizmodo
Just in Time for the End of the World: Badass Plasma Lighters [Updated]
How to teach Siri to pronounce names correctly on your iPhone
Tips
How to teach Siri to pronounce names correctly on your iPhone
Some names can be hard for Siri to pronounce, and if you don’t correct the matter won’t be accurately retrieved by Apple’s voice-powered assistant. Here’s how to fix them.
After you invoke Siri, say the name of the contact in question that Siri mangles. You may have to pronounce it the way Siri wants you to by default.
After Siri says the name, you have a window of a couple of seconds to say “You’re pronouncing [Siri’s pronunciation of the name] wrong.” Alternatively, in our run-throughs, we had to resort to using “Mike.”
Siri will ask you how the first name of the contact is pronounced —say the name as you would ordinarily. Siri will chew on it for a second, and present you with a few options.
Hit play to preview how Siri interpreted what you said, and select the one you like. If you like none of them, you can hit Tell Siri Again to repeat the process.
If your contact has a middle name, Siri will also run through that one as well.
Repeat the say-and-select process for what is more likely the problematic last name. For instance, we got two very nearly identical options for “Mike” and five very different ones for “Wuerthele.” Over a few devices, the first choice Siri gave us for both my last name and a few other challenging ones was the best.
While we were testing this process, Siri was a little frustrating until we realized that to tell her which name she was pronouncing wrong had to be said the same way Siri was saying it. There’s a text-based way to enter it, in the Contacts app.
Find your contact, and hit Edit. Scroll down and tap Add Field.
When the contact’s screen is returned, hit either Phonetic first Name or Phonetic Last Name as needed. Enter a spelling that approximates the pronunciation, tap Done and Siri will use that.
via AppleInsider
How to teach Siri to pronounce names correctly on your iPhone
Ohio National Guard organizing volunteer teams to protect businesses from cyberattacks
The Ohio National Guard wants to introduce volunteer response teams to help businesses and government groups in the state defend against cyberattacks.
At a forum at Ohio State University hosted by the Dayton Development Coalition, Maj. Gen. Mark Bartman, the Guard’s Adjutant General, said organizers are "about at the 50 percent point" on the initiative, which would create ‘cyber response teams’ comprised of certified volunteers from Ohio tech companies. They would be able to go into businesses and…
via Columbus Business News – Local Columbus News | Business First of Columbus
Ohio National Guard organizing volunteer teams to protect businesses from cyberattacks
1-800-EAT-SHIT Finally Publishes Decades Of Reckless-Driving Data
NEW YORK—Releasing the records in hopes of reducing automobile accidents nationwide, 1-800-EAT-SHIT on Tuesday finally published decades of reckless-driving data. “These documents catalogue millions of reported moving violations from the sticker’s debut in 1987 and provide valuable information that hopefully will help keep everyone safer on the road,” said head researcher Lydia Cattalone, explaining that the reports based on the hotline calls, breaking down the frequency with which motorists forgot to signal, sped through toll booths, and cut other drivers off over a 30-year period, could potentially decrease automobile deaths by up to 15 percent. “When we first proposed the idea of a bumper sticker as a means of data collection, it was considered rather unorthodox, but it has paid off with a massive repository of vital information. We, of course, would like to thank all of our volunteer respondents, whose passionate and consistent reporting made the whole 1-800-EAT-SHIT project possible.” Cattalone went to say that any peer reviewers seeking to challenge the survey’s methodology or criticize its findings can also call the number.
via The Onion
1-800-EAT-SHIT Finally Publishes Decades Of Reckless-Driving Data
1-800-EAT-SHIT Finally Publishes Decades Of Reckless-Driving Data
NEW YORK—Releasing the records in hopes of reducing automobile accidents nationwide, 1-800-EAT-SHIT on Tuesday finally published decades of reckless-driving data. “These documents catalogue millions of reported moving violations from the sticker’s debut in 1987 and provide valuable information that hopefully will help keep everyone safer on the road,” said head researcher Lydia Cattalone, explaining that the reports based on the hotline calls, breaking down the frequency with which motorists forgot to signal, sped through toll booths, and cut other drivers off over a 30-year period, could potentially decrease automobile deaths by up to 15 percent. “When we first proposed the idea of a bumper sticker as a means of data collection, it was considered rather unorthodox, but it has paid off with a massive repository of vital information. We, of course, would like to thank all of our volunteer respondents, whose passionate and consistent reporting made the whole 1-800-EAT-SHIT project possible.” Cattalone went to say that any peer reviewers seeking to challenge the survey’s methodology or criticize its findings can also call the number.
via The Onion
1-800-EAT-SHIT Finally Publishes Decades Of Reckless-Driving Data
AI2 scales up Semantic Scholar search engine to encompass biomedical research
AI2’s Marie Hagman drew upon person experience during her work on Semantic Scholar. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
The inspiration for the latest extension of the Semantic Scholar search engine, adding tens of millions of biomedical studies, may well have come from Marie Hagman’s aching stomach.
As senior product manager at Seattle’s Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, or AI2, Hagman played a key role in figuring out how to incorporate documents from PubMed and other biomedical databases in the academic search tool.
She drew upon her personal experience from 15 years earlier, when she was a software engineer suffering from two stomach ulcers and gastritis. Her specialist gave her a prescription to deal with the issue, but told her she’d probably have to keep taking pills for the rest of her life.
“I was thinking, ‘Hmm … I’m young and healthy. That just doesn’t sound right,’” Hagman recalled. “They still couldn’t tell me why I had this problem. So I decided to be my own advocate.”
She searched through the medical literature on stomach ulcers, and found a study in which researchers pointed to a type of bacteria known as Helicobacter pylori as a potential cause. Armed with that knowledge, she persuaded another specialist to put her on a two-week round of antibiotics.
“I’ve been cured ever since,” Hagman told GeekWire.
Now her objective is to help researchers, and even regular folks, find the most relevant studies that address the medical questions they want to answer.
“The literature is out there,” Hagman said. “We’re paying for it, right? Our tax dollars go to fund this research. I think that it really makes sense for people to be able to find it — but most importantly, for researchers who are actually investing their careers in these areas to be able to find things more easily.”
With backing from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, AI2 launched Semantic Scholar two years ago as a specialized search tool for computer science studies. The software took advantage of textual analysis and machine learning to extract relevant terms that a human indexer might not notice.
Last year, the database was expanded to take in neuroscience research as well. Since then, Hagman and her colleagues have been developing new algorithms and overhauling the database to allow its breadth to be expanded from 12 million documents to 40 million.
“The challenge for us was actually scaling it up to all 80-plus medical domains. … We had to come up with an entirely new approach,” Hagman said. AI2’s researchers will explain exactly how they did it in a paper to be published in the near future, she said.
Hagman said the upgraded search tool should help novices as well as researchers who are getting into a field where they may not be completely familiar with the nomenclature.
“If I type in ‘stomach ulcer,’ ‘gastric ulcer’ will come up, which is apparently the medical term for that condition — which I never would have known,” Hagman said. “We also provide topic summaries so you can drill into that particular topic. You can see what else is related to it, and see what are the best papers to start with if you want to start informing yourself.”
Hagman said that user-friendliness distinguishes Semantic Scholar from other academic search engines such as Google Scholar and PubMed, which are geared more toward expert users.
That doesn’t mean AI2 is in competition with the others. On the contrary: AI2 is teaming up with Google, Microsoft and Baidu for an initiative known as Open Academic Search. The aim is to facilitate data sharing on a basic level so that participants can devote more resources to creating true innovations.
For Semantic Scholar, that means going for depth as well as breadth.
“We would like to go deeper on both computer science and biomedicine, to prove out some hypotheses about the interesting things we can do,” Hagman said. “But there’s also a lot of overlap between computer science and mathematics and physics, or between medicine and chemistry. So over time, we will expand out as well.”
via GeekWire
AI2 scales up Semantic Scholar search engine to encompass biomedical research
Microsoft unveils Azure Government Secret to help U.S. agencies handle classified data
The Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense. (DoD Photo)
More and more government agencies are realizing the benefits of cloud computing, and Microsoft is poised to unveil several new updates to its cloud services for government customers Tuesday at its Government Cloud Forum.
Microsoft currently operates six cloud computing regions dedicated specifically to government customers, and supports the U.S. Department of Defense with two of those regions. Working with the government requires satisfying a host of security requirements, and a new service called Azure Government Secret will allow other agencies with strict protocols for the handling of classified information to use Azure services, said Tom Keane, head of global infrastructure for Microsoft Azure.
Azure Government Secret builds on the announcement earlier this year that Azure was cleared to serve agencies at Impact Level 5 of the Defense Information System Agency’s cloud security requirements, the second-highest level of classification. But the DoD is not the only government agency that handles sensitive information, and the new service will allow agencies working on topics classified as “Secret” in fields like energy research or law enforcement greater access to cloud computing services like artificial intelligence and translation, Keane said.
The different levels of security authorizations granted to cloud computing providers, as compiled by the Defense Information Systems Agency. (DISA Image)
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of government-backed hacking going on around the world at the moment. Even some of the lesser-known Cabinet-level government agencies have secret data that they’d like to keep within the country, and their budgets don’t always allow them to hire the best infrastructure and security talent, which is where a cloud provider like Microsoft comes in.
The new service will allow those agencies to take advantage of Azure services even when handling classified data. “Customers of Azure Government Secret will gain access to new technologies at scale and pace of innovation they’d experience in a commercial environment,” Keane said.
Microsoft also plans to make a version of its blockchain technology available for government agencies to use, after several agencies expressed interest in evaluating the blockchain — which allows two parties to conduct secure internet transactions via a shared ledger, without the need for a hackable database — in some of their efforts.
Keane thinks government customers might use blockchain technology for licensing services, voter records, of tax management. One specific example: the U.S. Department of State has expressed interest in using blockchain technology as part of helping with recovery efforts around the world, he said.
In 2011, all government agencies were ordered by the Obama administration to think cloud-first when upgrading their technology infrastructure, and despite its fondness for rolling back various initiatives of its predecessor, the policy seems to have continued in the Trump administration.
This has been a boon for cloud infrastructure and software providers, who have all rushed to build services tailored for the unique needs of government customers despite the byzantine process that often accompanies government contracts. Microsoft has been aggressive here thanks to long-standing business (and legal) relationships with government agencies, but Amazon Web Services built a cloud service for the Central Intelligence Agency and says over 2,000 government agencies are using some of its services.
Microsoft also plans to announce a few other new services for government customers at the event, held, of course, in Washington, D.C.
- Microsoft 365, the new package of Windows 10, Office 365, and Enterprise Mobilty and Security software introduced at Inspire in June, will be generally available for government users early next year. Microsoft Teams will also be available for government users around that time.
- Agencies interested in high-performance computing cloud services will be able to take advantage of Azure’s H-series virtual machines.
- Citrix’s VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) will now be available for Azure Government customers.
via GeekWire
Microsoft unveils Azure Government Secret to help U.S. agencies handle classified data
What’s on TV: ‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘Gran Turismo Sport,’ NBA
The fall TV heavyweights are back, and this week that includes AMC’s The Walking Dead, returning for season number eight. Sports fans can get ready for NBA action, while gamers can finally get a fresh taste of Gran Turismo. South Park’s long-awaited game is finally arriving as well, while Spider-Man Homecoming tops the 4K Blu-ray list and Netflix premieres season two of Miranda Sings’ Haters Back Off. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Blu-ray & Games & Streaming
- Annabelle Creation (VOD)
- The Dark Tower (VOD)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (4K, 3D)
- Girls Trip
- Samurai Jack: The Complete Series
- Serenity (4K)
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
- Apollo 13 (4K)
- Barry Lyndon
- American Gods (S1)
- Stranger Things (S1)
- Gran Turismo Sport (PS4)
- The Jackbox Party Pack 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch)
- Life is Strange: Before the Storm – Episode 2 (PS4, PC, Switch)
- Let’s Sing 2018 (PS4, Wii)
- South Park: The Fractured But Whole (Xbox One, PS4)
- Elex (Xbox One, PS4)
- Dungeons 3 (Xbox One, PS4)
- Megaton Rainfall (PS VR)
- Rogue Troper Redux (PS4, Xbox One)
- WWE 2K18 (Xbox One, PS4)
Monday
- Colts/Titans, ESPN, 8:15 PM
- Lucifer, Fox, 8 PM
- The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 8 PM
- The Voice, NBC, 8 PM
- 9jkl, CBS, 8:30 PM
- Dancing with the Stars, ABC, 8 PM
- WWE Raw, USA, 8 PM
- Supergirl, CW, 8 PM
- 3 Hikers, Starz, 9 PM
- Valor, CW, 9 PM
- The Gifted, Fox, 9 PM
- Kevin Can Wait, CBS, 9 PM
- Me, Myself & I, CBS, 9:30 PM
- Scorpion, CBS, 10 PM
- The Brave, NBC, 10 PM
- The Good Doctor, ABC, 10 PM
- Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM
Tuesday
- The Mindy Project, Hulu, 3 AM
- Patton Oswalt: Annihilation, Netflix, 3 AM
- Slasher (S2), Netflix 3 AM
- Celtics/Cavaliers, TNT, 8 PM
- Rockets/Warriors, TNT, 10:30 PM
- The Flash, CW, 8 PM
- Finding Your Roots, PBS, 8 PM
- The Voice, NBC, 8 PM
- Lethal Weapon, Fox, 8 PM
- NCIS, CBS, 8 PM
- WWE Smackdown, USA, 8 PM
- The Middle, ABC, 8 PM
- Fresh Off the Boat, ABC, 8:30 PM
- DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, CW, 9 PM
- Black-ish, ABC, 9 PM
- Bull, CBS, 9 PM
- The Mick, Fox, 9 PM
- This is Us, NBC, 9 PM
- Inside the NFL, Showtime, 9 PM
- Fantomworks, Velocity, 9 PM
- The Mayor, ABC, 9:30 PM
- Brooklyn Nine-nine, Fox, 9:30 PM
- The Mane Event (series premiere), BET, 10 PM
- Undercover High, A&E, 10 PM
- Cyberwar, Viceland, 10 PM
- Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, ABC, 10 PM
- Law & Order: True Crime, NBC, 10 PM
- NCIS: NO, CBS, 10 PM
- American Horror Story, FX, 10 PM
- The Challenge, MTV, 10 PM
- Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10 PM
- Weediquette (season premiere), Viceland, 10:30 PM
- 90s House, MTV, 11 PM
- Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM
Wednesday
- Chance, Hulu, 3 AM
- Freakish (season premiere), Hulu, 3 AM
- 76ers/Wizards, ESPN, 7 PM
- The Blacklist, NBC, 8 PM
- Empire, Fox, 8 PM
- The Goldbergs, ABC, 8 PM
- Survivor, CBS, 8 PM
- Lucha Underground (season finale), El Rey, 8 PM
- Riverdale, CW, 8 PM
- Speechless, ABC, 8:30 PM
- Dynasty, CW, 9 PM
- Modern Family, ABC, 9 PM
- Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 9 PM
- Seal Team, CBS, 9 PM
- Star, Fox, 9 PM
- American Housewife, ABC, 9:30 PM
- Timberwolves/Spurs, ESPN, 9:30 PM
- Mr. Robot, USA, 10 PM
- Shannara Chronicles, Spike TV, 10 PM
- Criminal Minds, CBS, 10 PM
- Chicago PD, NBC, 10 PM
- Designated Survivor, ABC, 10 PM
- Liar, Sundance, 10 PM
- Are You the One, MTV, 10 PM
- Channel Zero, Syfy, 10 PM
- You’re the Worst, FXX, 10 PM
- Garage Squad, Velocity, 10 PM
- South Park, Comedy Central, 10 PM
- Broad City, Comedy Central, 10:30 PM
- Rosehaven (season finale), Sundance, 11 PM
- Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM
Thursday
- Bomb Scared, Netflix, 3 AM
- I Love You America, Hulu, 3 AM
- Grey’s Anatomy, ABC, 8 PM
- Superstore, NBC, 8 PM
- Gotham, Fox, 8 PM
- Supernatural, CW, 8 PM
- Chiefs/Raiders, CBS, 8:30 PM
- The Good Place, NBC, 8:30 PM
- The Eleven (series premiere), A&E, 9 PM
- Arrow, CW, 9 PM
- Scandal, ABC, 9 PM
- Van Helsing, Syfy, 9 PM
- The Orville, Fox, 9 PM
- Will & Grace, NBC, 9 PM
- Great News, NBC, 9:30 PM
- The Walking Dead: Behind the Dead, AMC, 10 PM
- Chicago Fire, NBC, 10 PM
- Better Things, FX, 10 PM
- The Mist, Spike TV, 10 PM
- Bong Appetit, Viceland, 10:30 PM
- The Rundown with Robin Thede, BET, 11 PM
- The Timeline, NFL Network, 11 PM
- Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM
Friday
- Haters Back Off (S2), Netflix, 3 AM
- Wheelman, Netflix, 3 AM
- The Day I Met El Chapo (Episodes 1 – 3), Netflix, 3 AM
- Red Oaks (S3), Amazon Prime, 3 AM
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, CW, 8 PM
- Macgyver, CBS, 8 PM
- Once Upon a Time, ABC, 8 PM
- Tackle My Ride, NFL Network, 8 PM
- Jane the Virgin, CW, 9 PM
- Marvel’s Inhumans, ABC, 9 PM
- Active Shooter, Showtime, 9 PM
- Z Nation, Syfy, 9 PM
- The Exorcist, Fox, 9 PM
- A Football Life: Sam Mills, NFL Network, 9 PM
- Tough Guys, Showtime, 9 PM
- Superstition (series premiere), Syfy, 10 PM
- The Walking Dead: Walker World, AMC, 10 PM
- Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus, Cinemax, 10 PM
- Superstition, Syfy, 10 PM
- Tracey Ullman’s Show (season premiere), HBO, 11 PM
- Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents, Comedy Central, 12 AM
Saturday
- Too Funny to Fail, Hulu, 3 AM
- Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, BBC America, 9 PM
- The Walking Dead: The Journey So Far, AMC, 9 PM
Sunday
- The Toy Box, ABC, 7 PM
- Outlander, Starz, 8 PM
- Shark Tank, ABC, 8 PM
- The Simpsons, Fox, 8 PM
- Falcons/Patriots, NBC 8:20 PM
- Star Trek: Discovery, CBS All Access, 8:30 PM
- Ghosted, Fox, 8:30 PM
- Wisdom of the Crowd, CBS, 8 PM
- Outlander, Starz, 8 PM
- The Walking Dead (season premiere), AMC, 9 PM
- Family Guy, Fox, 9 PM
- Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, CNN, 9 PM
- Poldark, PBS, 9 PM
- Ray Donovan, Showtime, 9 PM
- The Deuce, HBO, 9 PM
- The Last Man on Earth, Fox, 9:30 PM
- NCIS: LA, CBS, 9 PM
- Talking Dead (Season premiere), AMC, 10 PM
- Good Behavior, TNT, 10 PM
- Madam Secretary, CBS, 10 PM
- Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO, 10 PM
- Ten Days in the Valley, ABC, 10 PM
- This is Life with Lisa Ling, CNN, 10 PM
- Unsung Hollywood, TV One, 10 PM
- Vice Principals, HBO, 10:30 PM
[All times listed are in ET]
via Engadget
What’s on TV: ‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘Gran Turismo Sport,’ NBA
The KRACK attack: Is all WiFi unsafe now? No, not really. But you’d better patch
Belgian researcher Mathy Vanhoef announced some rather brilliant research on Monday which demonstrates that nearly all WiFi in use today can be hacked. The tool for scrambling data as it’s transmitted wirelessly between your gadgets and routers, called WPA2, can be tricked into coughing up the secrets needed to unscramble it, he found. Because the flaw is fundamental to the protocol, just about everyone and everything around the planet is exposed to the attack.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning about this so-called KRACK attack on Monday. So this is serious. If your device uses Wi-Fi, it’s vulnerable.
But don’t panic.
First, a criminal who wanted to exploit this flaw would have to be in physical range of the wireless network, so that limits its practical use. Second, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance, there is no evidence the vulnerability is being used maliciously. But most important, for most consumers, security can be restored through a software update to their computers and phones. It’s worth checking to see if your Wi-Fi router has a security update, but it’s not necessary. According to Vanhoef, it’s not even necessary to change your router password (though, after you install any patch, that’s not a bad idea).
Critically, that also means you don’t have to avoid all public Wi-Fi, as some have suggested — though it wouldn’t hurt to stick with your mobile network and skip Wi-Fi if you are an Android phone user, for now. One flavor of the attack is substantially easier to exploit on Android and Linux devices, the researchers say.
The flaw comes from the way the routers and the gadgets talk, so you can protect yourself by updating your gadget. Of course, it’s always a good idea to be judicious when using public Wi-Fi — to avoid security-sensitive tasks like online banking, to use secure sites (signaled by https in the web address) or use a VPN for extra security. It’s also worth looking around your coffee shop to see if anyone seems to be doing anything suspicious. But, at the moment, the skills needed to pull off such an attack are elite, so the risks posed are still low.
“For ordinary home users, your priority should be updating clients such as laptops and smartphones,” the researchers say.
Bottom line for you: If you’ve been postponing software updates, stop what you are doing and restart your gadget to install any new security patches. Microsoft told The Verge that it has already patched against KRACK, so Windows users who install the latest update are safe. Google is still working on a patch for Android devices, The Verge said. The status of any patch from Apple for iOS laptops and phones was not immediately available.
Enterprises might have a bit more to fear, as they have much more to lose. A criminal using KRACK could theoretically sit in a parking lot outside a retailer and hop on a Wi-Fi network to download a stream of credit card numbers. Doing so would be worth the investment of time. And while even the researchers concede in their paper that some attack scenarios seem “impractical,” tools to weaponize the attack are certain to follow. So IT workers should actively seek out router patches. Recall the recent Equifax incident: CEO Richard Smith would still have his job today if his firm hadn’t waited month to install a critical security update.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Response Team has a comprehensive list of impacted vendors here.
via GeekWire
The KRACK attack: Is all WiFi unsafe now? No, not really. But you’d better patch