Tag Archive for: Driving

This driver should give up coffee — and driving — before someone gets hurt

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Only my preternaturally quick reflexes prevented a young driver from harming us both this morning … all because she needed to stop at Dunkin’ Donuts.

My daily commute includes a left-hand turn that traffic engineers were smart enough to equip with a very long left-hand turn lane because it funnels into a busy intersection. Today I entered that lane with nothing but empty pavement between my car and the light; Dunkin’ Donuts and a few other businesses to my left. Being a careful driver, I was watching for cars exiting those establishments on my left, as that happens regularly.

Suddenly, like a car out of hell, our young driver passes my moving vehicle on the right and swerves directly in front of it, not to join me in the left-hand turn lane, which would have been reckless enough, but to reach the Dunkin’ Donuts and order some ridiculous cup of froth and maybe a box of Munchkins, given her general maturity level.

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Network World Paul McNamara

Researchers sound alarm about the role of any and all phone sounds in distracted driving

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You say you don’t answer your phone and wouldn’t dream of texting while driving?

Not good enough, say researchers from Florida State University, as the mere presence of that cacophonous device in a moving motor vehicle is enough to dangerously distract a driver:

Whether you are alerted to an incoming phone call or text by a trendy ringtone, an alarm bell or a quiet vibration, just receiving a notification on your cell phone can cause enough of a distraction to impair your ability to focus on a given task, according to a new Florida State University study.

In fact, the distraction caused by a simple notification — whether it is a sound or a vibration — is comparable to the effects seen when users actively use their cell phones to make calls or send text messages, the researchers found.

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Network World Paul McNamara

Facebook blamed for driving up cellphone bills, but it’s not alone

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A default feature in Facebook’s mobile app that automatically launches videos in users’ newsfeeds has been blamed for devouring mobile phone users’ data and driving up their cellphone bills.

Consumer site MoneySavingExpert.com reported today that it has seen “many complaints” from users who believe a recent increase in data-related charges on their cellphone bills are the result of Facebook’s auto-play feature. The default setting for the auto-play feature launches and continues to play videos silently until the user either scrolls past it or clicks on it; if the user does the latter, the video then goes full-screen and activates audio. The silent auto-play occurs regardless of whether users are connected to Wi-Fi, LTE, or 3G.

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Network World Colin Neagle

Java-based malware driving DDoS botnet infects Windows, Mac, Linux devices

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Kaspersky Lab

Researchers have uncovered a piece of botnet malware that is capable of infecting computers running Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux that have Oracle’s Java software framework installed.

The cross-platform HEUR:Backdoor.Java.Agent.a, as reported in a blog post published Tuesday by Kaspersky Lab, takes hold of computers by exploiting CVE-2013-2465, a critical Java vulnerability that Oracle patched in June. The security bug is present on Java 7 u21 and earlier. Once the bot has infected a computer, it copies itself to the autostart directory of its respective platform to ensure it runs whenever the machine is turned on. Compromised computers then report to an Internet relay chat channel that acts as a command and control server.

The botnet is designed to conduct distributed denial-of-service attacks on targets of the attackers’ choice. Commands issued in the IRC channel allow the attackers to specify the IP address, port number, intensity, and duration of attacks. The malware is written entirely in Java, allowing it to run on Windows OS X and Linux machines. For added flexibility, the bot incorporates PircBot, an IRC programming interface based on Java.

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