What's the difference between HD, Full HD, 2K, 4K and 5K?

Display resolutions explained

HD/720p and Full HD/1080p

High Definition or HD: The most basic was 1,280 pixels wide by 720 pixels tall, shortened to 720p. The lower-case "p" refers to “progressive scan”

'Full HD', a resolution which measures 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, often called 1080p

QHD/WQHD/1440p

QHD is four times the definition of standard 720p HD, meaning you can fit the same number of pixels as four HD displays into a QHD display of the same size, namely 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, or 1440p. QHD can also be referred to as WQHD (Wide Quad High Definition), it’s the same thing, but some manufacturers put a W in front of the QHD to show that it has a wide aspect ratio.

qHD

qHD is not to be confused with QHD. Despite having a very similar name, qHD stands for Quarter High Definition and is a display resolution of 960 x 540 pixels - one-quarter of 1080p Full HD.

4K and UHD/UHD-1

True 4K displays are used in professional production and digital cinemas and feature 4,096 x 2,160 pixels. 

UHD is different because it is a consumer display and broadcast standard with a resolution four times that of a Full 1080p HD resolution: 3,840 x 2,160 pixels. The difference comes down to slightly different aspect ratios between digital cinema and home displays. 

UHD is another 16:9 aspect ratio standard, which means screens are backward compatible with Full HD content.

5K and beyond

Not many manufacturers produce 5K panels. They can run at a resolution of 5,120 x 2,880. That's double the resolution of a QHD panel, which to the naked eye will still look razor sharp. 5K monitors are just in a league of their own. Of course with all those pixels, you'll need a multitude of graphics cards to consistently output over 60Hz.

read more and source: Expert Reviews

Adobe FLASH RIP

Adobe posted on the 25th of July 2017 the forthcoming death of Flash player.

Adobe has long played a leadership role in advancing interactivity and creative content – from video, to games and more – on the web. Where we’ve seen a need to push content and interactivity forward, we’ve innovated to meet those needs. Where a format didn’t exist, we invented one – such as with Flash and Shockwave. And over time, as the web evolved, these new formats were adopted by the community, in some cases formed the basis for open standards, and became an essential part of the web.

But as open standards like HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly have matured over the past several years, most now provide many of the capabilities and functionalities that plugins pioneered and have become a viable alternative for content on the web. Over time, we’ve seen helper apps evolve to become plugins, and more recently, have seen many of these plugin capabilities get incorporated into open web standards. Today, most browser vendors are integrating capabilities once provided by plugins directly into browsers and deprecating plugins.

Given this progress, and the collaboration of several technology giants – including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla – Adobe has planned to 'switch off' Flash. Specifically, they will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020. They encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats.

Firefox and Chrome keep notifying users when visiting flash enabled sites that they will stop working at the very same date. Thus get prepared, any site you depend on, is using Flash, you will not be able to open or run (if you are the owner/hoster) by the end of this year.

What is RAID?

What are the differences between the different RAID levels? Should you use Software RAID or Hardware RAID?

Don’t worry, we’ll keep it simple.

Whether or not you’re looking to set up your own server, optimize the performance of your data storage solution, or just make sure you’re protected as best you can be against data loss, a RAID solution is going to come in handy – and setting one up the right way is essential.

In this quick guide we’re going to cut down on as much of the geek speak as possible, really working to simplify everything you need to know about the different RAID levels, different ways to set up a smart RAID solution, and how to make sure you’re getting the most out of this incredible tool.

What Is RAID, Anyway?

Before we get right into the actual nuts and bolts of finding or setting up a RAID solution, it’s critical that we break down exactly what RAID technology is to begin with.

RAID is a term that stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks. While that sounds like a pretty geeky acronym for an even geekier system name, the actual technical aspect of a RAID setup is pretty simple and straightforward.

We’re talking about a solution that uses at least two different hard drives, working in concert, to improve the performance and/or the reliability of the system they have been installed into.

The overwhelming majority of RAID setups – especially on the commercial side of things – are going to be for those that want to protect their data and system uptime. With the right RAID solution in place, you could have an entire hard drive fall apart, break down, and stop working completely – and you’d never have to worry about comprising the safety or usefulness of the data on your RAID disk. Furthermore, your dedicated server will remain up and running even when the hard drive fails.

Yes, you’re reading that right. When you have two or more disks set up in a RAID (excluding RAID 0), one of them can fail totally and you’ll still be able to keep chugging along as though nothing happened.

At the same time, different RAID levels and setups are going to influence how, when, and what your hard disks do when there is a failure. You have to be sure you always choose the right RAID setup to maximize the protection and performance boosts you’ll get out of this technology.

Should I Get RAID? Do I Need It?

Hard drives fail. That’s a fact of life and it’s only a matter of time until the hard drives your dedicated server has will fail.

When hard drives fail on a JBOD (“Just a Bunch Of Disks” or NO-RAID) system, the system will experience downtime and data loss. If your business wants to prevent that downtime and data loss, RAID is for you.

Furthermore, if you need better I/O performance, RAID solutions can improve write and read speeds significantly.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to finding the right RAID type for your needs.

Finding The Right RAID Solution For Your Needs

The only way you’ll be able to make the most of this technology is if you find the right RAID solution for you, and you have plenty of options to pick and choose from.

Let’s breakdown the most common – and often leveraged – types below.

RAID 0 (Striping)

RAID 0 is used specifically for those that want to improve the performance of their server solutions but do not care about consequences of losing one of the disks in the array.
This RAID level uses data striping. What this means is that each piece of data is split into segments and these segments are spread across the different disks in the RAID 0 system. With RAID 0, writing and reading happens simultaneously from all the drives in the array so the I/O performance improvement can be very significant.

Because this is such a performance focused solution and not a reliability solution you won’t find any data protection with RAID 0. If a disk in the RAID 0 system fails – the system fails, and all data spread across the disks will be gone.

RAID 1 (Mirroring)

This type of RAID array is commonly referred to as a “disk mirroring” solution. RAID 1 will be implemented with at least two disks (and always with an even number of disks).

With RAID 1 the same data is written on all disks. With RAID 1 you constantly have at least two copies (depending on how many disks you have) of all of your data so should something happen to one of your disks, you’ll have a complete and functional drive to work off of, all thanks to the RAID 1 system.

RAID 1 can also provide I/O performance improvement for read operations. Having the data in two copies means being able to read it simultaneously so the read I/O speed can be up to twice as fast.

RAID 5 (Parity)

RAID 5 is set up on at least three disks that have all of the data saved stripped across them, this gives you “hot swap protection” should a disk go down.

This RAID type uses parity calculation to achieve striping of the data and the ability to recover from a single failed drive.

Think of it this way: If you have a RAID 5 setup in place, one of your hard drives can fall apart at the seams without any issues. You’ll be able to swap the damaged disk out and replace with a brand new one, with the RAID 5 system mirroring your data and rebuilding the system on the fly as necessary.

It’s like a self-healing piece of technology!

RAID 5 also provides up to two times performance improvement for read operations thanks to the striping.

RAID 10 (Mirroring + Striping)

Certainly the most common type of RAID you’ll find in a commercial setting (and a favorite for those running dedicated server systems for clients), RAID 10 balances performance AND data security.

This RAID level essentially combines the features of RAID 1 and RAID 0, making sure data is mirrored and therefore safe (mirroring) while also making sure that the I/O performance of a system is improved thanks to the data being spread across multiple drives and disks (striping).

RAID For SSD Caching

Another option that not all providers can offer you (but we can because we’re absolutely awesome) is to use RAID to create a system which automatically caches your most used data in SSD and saves the less often used in SATA. This caching mechanism constantly proves itself and brings exceptional performance boosts to those who need a lot of storage, with high performance but without the price tag of many high-capacity SSD drives.

Hardware RAID vs Software RAID

A hardware RAID controller costs money but has no overhead on the server. A software RAID is free but does carry some overhead on the server and may be less reliable under certain circumstances.

You see? We told you we’ll keep it simple.

Choosing A RAID Solution For Your Needs

At the end of the day, you need to make sure that you’re getting the most out of a dedicated server – but you also need to make sure that your data is backed up and protected at the same time.

RAID array solutions (like the ones highlighted above) are going to fit the bill perfectly, but only you will know which makes the most sense for you.

Ban of iPhone sales in Germany

Qualcomm enforces court order to ban iPhone sales in Germany

Qualcomm has completed the last step in a legal process which means a court order is now in force which bans the sale of select iPhone models in Germany.
Qualcomm posted bonds of 1.34 billion euros to finalise the process as part of a legal requirement to enforce a court order which would likely see Apple withdraw all iPhone models in Germany which infringe on Qualcomm's patent, Reuters reports.
A Munich court ruled on December 20 that Apple had infringed on a Qualcomm patent related to its modems - an envelope tracking patent which is vital in the conservation of battery power while the modem is active.
Following the court ruling, Apple said it would pull iPhone 7 and 8 models from its 15 retail stores in Germany when the order came in to force, which happened after Qualcomm posted the bonds.
According to Qualcomm, the order states that Apple must also recall infringing models from third-party resellers in Germany. Apple has said it will be appealing the decision.

Source & more info: ITPro UK

Schizophrenic robot

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Yale University used a neural network called DISCERN to teach the system certain stories. To simulate an excess of dopamine and a process called hyperlearning, they told the system to not forget as many details. The results were that the system displayed schizophrenic-like symptoms and began inserting itself into the stories. It even claimed responsibility for a terrorist bombing in one of the stories.

Computer networks that can't forget fast enough can show symptoms of a kind of virtual schizophrenia, giving researchers further clues to the inner workings of schizophrenic brains, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Yale University have found.

The researchers used a virtual computer model, or "neural network," to simulate the excessive release of dopamine in the brain. They found that the network recalled memories in a distinctly schizophrenic-like fashion.

After being re-trained with the elevated learning rate, DISCERN began putting itself at the center of fantastical, delusional stories that incorporated elements from other stories it had been told to recall. In one answer, for instance, DISCERN claimed responsibility for a terrorist bombing.

Source & more info: The University of Texas

Συλλογή και επεξεργασία δακτυλικών αποτυπωμάτων - Δικαστική απόφαση

ΑΠΟΦΑΣΗ ΔΙΟΙΚΗΤΙΚΟΥ ΔΙΚΑΣΤΗΡΙΟΥ: απόρριψη προσφυγής αναφορικά με τη συλλογή και επεξεργασία δακτυλικών αποτυπωμάτων

Με την Απόφασή του (Υποθ. Αρ. 1930/2012) ημερ. 19/5/2017 το Διοικητικό Δικαστήριο επικύρωσε την Απόφαση του Επιτρόπου Προστασίας Δεδομένων ημερ. 2/10/2012 με την οποία είχε επιβάλει στο Απολλώνειο Ιδιωτικό Νοσοκομείο τη διοικητική κύρωση της διακοπής της επεξεργασίας και καταστροφής των σχετικών δεδομένων (βλ. άρθρο 25(1)(ε) του Νόμου) με τη διακοπή της λειτουργίας του συστήματος δακτυλοσκόπησης και την καταστροφή των δεδομένων που αφορούσαν στα δακτυλικά αποτυπώματα των υπαλλήλων.

Περισσότερες πληροφορίες στη σελίδα του Επιτρόπου Προσωπικών Δεδομένων.

How the NSA identified Bitcoin 'creator'

The ‘creator’ of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is the world’s most elusive billionaire. Very few people outside of the Department of Homeland Security know Satoshi’s real name. In fact, DHS will not publicly confirm that even THEY know the billionaire’s identity. Satoshi has taken great care to keep his identity secret employing the latest encryption and obfuscation methods in his communications. Despite these efforts (according to my source at the DHS) Satoshi Nakamoto gave investigators the only tool they needed to find him — his own words.
  Using stylometry one is able to compare texts to determine authorship of a particular work. Throughout the years Satoshi wrote thousands of posts and emails and most of which are publicly available. The NSA was able to the use the ‘writer invariant’ method of stylometry to compare Satoshi’s ‘known’ writings with trillions of writing samples from people across the globe. By taking Satoshi’s texts and finding the 50 most common words, the NSA was able to break down his text into 5,000 word chunks and analyse each to find the frequency of those 50 words. This would result in a unique 50-number identifier for each chunk. The NSA then placed each of these numbers into a 50-dimensional space and flatten them into a plane using principal components analysis. The result is a ‘fingerprint’ for anything written by Satoshi that could easily be compared to any other writing.

But why? Why go to so much trouble to identify Satoshi? The source says that the Obama administration was concerned that Satoshi was an agent of Russia or China — that Bitcoin might be weaponized against us in the future. Knowing the source would help the administration understand their motives. As far as I can tell Satoshi hasn’t violated any laws and I have no idea if the NSA determined he was an agent of Russia or China or just a Japanese crypto hacker.
 The moral of the story? You can’t hide on the internet any more. Your sentence structure and word use is MORE unique than your own fingerprint. If an organization, like the NSA, wants to find you they will.

For more information and source: Medium
Author of complete article: Alexander Muse

TESTING SMTP AUTH USING TELNET

Test if SMTP authentication is working.

Sometimes you need to test SMTP Authentication is working on your server, and you may not have Outlook or another email client handy to test the connection.

You can verify SMTP authentication is working by using telnet and accessing the SMTP server directly. Below is a quick tutorial on how to test your server with Atmail for SMTP authentication details.

RESOLUTION

1. First, make sure SMTP authentication is enabled via the Atmail Webadmin > Services > SMTP Settings > SMTP Authentication = On
2. Next, create or verify an existing username and password on the system
3. Build the Base64 username/password
   SMTP AUTH LOGIN will encapsulate the username and password as a Base64 string. This is used to prevent sending the username/password plaintext via the network connection. Using Perl, you can issue the following command to encode the username and password as a base64 string, which can be sent to the SMTP server. Note the @ symbol is escaped to pass the string via Perl.
   

   # perl -MMIME::Base64 -e 'print encode_base64("myusername\@domain.com")'
   bXl1c2VybmFtZUBkb21haW4uY29t
   # perl -MMIME::Base64 -e 'print encode_base64("weakpass")'
   d2Vha3Bhc3M=

4. Access the local system. Commands we issue are highlighted in bold.
   

   # telnet localhost 25
   Trying 127.0.0.1...
   Connected to localhost.localdomain (127.0.0.1).
   Escape character is '^]'.
   220 mydomain.com Welcome to the @Mail SMTP Server ( Exim )
   ehlo test.com
   250-mydomain.com localhost [127.0.0.1]
   250-SIZE 52428800
   250-PIPELINING
   250-AUTH LOGIN
   250-STARTTLS
   250 HELP>

   The above command will verfiy AUTH LOGIN is enabled on the server. Next, send the following command to start the SMTP Authentication process.
   

   AUTH LOGIN
   334 VXNlcm5hbWU6 ( Server returns username as a base64 string )
   bXl1c2VybmFtZUBkb21haW4uY29t
   334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6 ( Server returns password as a base64 string )
   d2Vha3Bhc3M=
   235 Authentication succeeded

5. Congratulations, SMTP authentication is now enabled and confirmed working on your server. Note you must send the Base64 string of the username and password as two commands.

Why Does Every Camera Put Photos in a DCIM Folder?

Every camera — whether it’s a dedicated digital camera or the Camera app on Android or iPhone — places the photos you take in a DCIM folder. DCIM stands for “Digital Camera Images.”

The DCIM folder and its layout come from DCF, a standard created back in 2003. DCF is so valuable because it provides a standard layout.

Meet DCF, or “Design rule for Camera File system”

DCF is a specification created by JEITA, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association. It’s technically standard CP-3461, and you can dig up the arcane standards document and read it online. The first version of this standard was issued in 2003, and it was last updated in 2010.

The DCF specification lists many different requirements with a goal to guarantee interoperability. The file system of an appropriately formatted devics — for example, an SD card plugged into a digital camera — must be FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, or exFAT. Media with 2 GB or larger of space must be formatted with FAT32 or exFAT. The goal is for digital cameras and their memory cards to be compatible with each other.

Ultimately, just having a standard is important — whatever the standard is. That’s why the DCIM folder has followed us from point-and-shoot cameras to smartphone and even tablet camera apps. The Picture Transfer Protocol, or PTP, isn’t the same as the DCF standard, but it serves a similar purpose. It’s been superseded by MTP and other standards, but PTP is supported by Android devices and iPhones for communicating with photo-management applications that support this standard.

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As usual, we’re all carrying an old-and-arcane standard forward because it’s better to be compatible with everything than design something new from scratch. That’s the same reason why email is still so popular!

for more information and analysis visit HowToGeek.com

FACEBOOK WILL TRACK WHAT PHYSICAL STORES YOU GO INTO

AND SHARE THE DATA WITH ADVERTISERS

Facebook is planning to track how many times a week you go to the grocery store, and every other store, and it will share that information with advertisers.

Using the location services on your phone, Facebook will keep a tally of who goes to what stores, and show the anonymized numbers to advertisers, as evidence that buying ads on Facebook is getting people to visit brick-and-mortar businesses.

It's a great thing for Facebook, which will now have excellent data to prove (or disprove) on a user-to-user basis what a store is getting for its advertising dollar. But it's a pretty frightening idea that a company will have information not unlike your credit card statement all from location services data.

Of course, turning off location services is fairly easy on most devices: something to think about.