Continuing with our GTX 980M/GTX 970M coverage, I expect we'll see press releases and website updates from all of the major notebook vendors today or very soon, as all of them add the GeForce GTX 980M and 970M to their configurators. In order of when I received the news, here's a short list of vendors offering GTX 980M/970M notebooks.

Origin PC EON and EVO15-S

Origin tends to offer very high-end configurations with some customization options that you won't find at "lesser" vendors, though like most companies they don't actually manufacture the core chassis. Instead, they use "whitebooks" from ODMs like Clevo and MSI and then custom configure the components. For today's launch, Origin is updating their EON line and EVO15-S laptops; they're also looking to add a 4K display option on the EVO15-S. I'd love to see them offer a HighDPI panel on the larger EONs, as the EVO15-S tops out at the GTX 970M and if you're trying to push 4K resolutions on a notebook you'll want every ounce of performance you can find. Anyway, there's not a whole lot to say about their updated offerings, other than you can head over to their GeForce 900M page to configure your notebook.

Gallery: Origin PC EON and EVO

Maingear Nomad and Pulse

Maingear is also updating their notebook offerings, which are based on MSI designs. As such, you can expect to see the same selection of notebooks that we covered in our MSI GTX 900M post. The Nomad 17 is the same core chassis as the MSI GT72, and it will be available with either the GTX 980M or 970M. The Nomad 15 matches up with the GT60 while the Pulse 15 and 17 equate with the GS60/GS70. For now Maingear appears to be focusing on the Nomad 17, which starts at $2100.

Eurocom

Eurocom is the first to send us a complete list of Clevo-based designs with GTX 980M/970M support. Their X3, X5, X7, and X8 will all support the new GPUs, and yes, that means you can order a GTX 980M SLI configuration if you really need every ounce of performance you can squeeze out of a desktop replacement. Eurocom also supports upgrading existing notebooks with the new GPUs, though the cost is often so high that you'd be better off selling your current system and simply buy a brand new notebook instead.

CyberPowerPC

CyberPowerPC is also offering customized builds based on the MSI GS60. The new Fangbook Edge is available in two configurations, a base model with a 1080p display, i7-4870HQ CPU, GTX 970M, 1x8GB RAM, and a 1TB HDD starts at $1689. The second option is a 4K Fangbook Edge with the same specs but with a 3840x2160 display starts at $1799. I'm actually quite happy that the age of quality notebook displays is finally upon us; $120 extra to go from 1080p to 4K isn't all that bad, as I remember several years back when upgrading from a garbage 1366x768 panel to 1080p could cost more than that. As for storage, CyberPowerPC offers a 240GB M.2 Kingston drive for $131, or you can get up to a 1TB 2.5" Samsung SSD if you're willing to pay for it; the $254 500GB Samsung 840 EVO is still the one to beat, and with the fixed firmware coming out it's probably safe to go that route again.

Gallery: CyberPower PC Fangbook Edge

AVADirect

AVADirect is also selling a full line of Clevo notebooks with either GTX 980M or GTX 970M. The current list consists of the Clevo P150SM-A, P157SM-A, P170SM-A, P177SM-A, and P377SM-A. That last one is an SLI configuration, though that seems more than a bit overkill without a 3K or 4K panel to go with it. The base price for the Clevo P377SM-A with a single GTX 980M is $2212 (with only a hard drive for storage), and adding a second GTX 980M increases the price by $638. If that's the standard price for a GTX 980M, it's actually not too bad; now all we need is the ability to buy one and upgrade existing notebooks, which is easier said than done.

Fans of driving games can generally be split into three overlapping groups. There are those who want the most accurate simulation possible, driving virtual cars that feel exactly like the real thing. There are those that want "arcade"-style accessibility, with crazy speeds and crazier turns that don't require perfect technique. Then there are those time trial fiends that just want to dominate the game with the absolute fastest races possible.

DriveClub makes a few nods to those first two groups, but it seems designed to appeal mainly to the third group of time trial fans. If you enjoy challenging friends and strangers to overcome your best driving performance while answering the gauntlet from others, you'll quickly fall in love with DriveClub's deeply integrated system of online challenges. If repeating the same track for an hour to earn a place on the leaderboards doesn't sound too appealing, this probably isn't the game for you.

As the name implies, getting the most out of DriveClub involves joining together with fellow players in your own "club" of up to six people. Club members don't actively race together in real time, but they do compete for the common good, representing their club in online challenges. For this reason, it's generally better to be able to form a club with other people you know in real life, but you can jump in to a club with strangers if you want.

Any player can set up an online challenge, on behalf of an individual or club, using an automatically saved recording of a previous race as the basis for the "time to beat." (There are also trials to measure who can perform the best drifts, which is surprisingly fun.) Once a challenge is set, other entrants can dive in and try to beat that time before the challenge expires. If an entrant at least shows up in the Top 7 they will receive some credit for the challenge.

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Every year NVIDIA launches quite a few new products; some are better than others, but they're all interesting. This fall, the big news is Maxwell 2.0, aka GM204. Initially launched last month as the GTX 980 and GTX 970, NVIDIA is hopefully changing the way notebook gamers get treated by launching the mobile version of the GM204 just one month later. We already covered all of the new features in the desktop launch, but now we have specifications for the mobile versions. Read on for a preview of GM204 on notebooks as NVIDIA seeks to close the performance gap with desktops.

As noted in the conclusion of our GTX 980M/GTX 970M launch article, we're going to be covering some of the notebooks that are being announced today in separate Pipeline pieces. MSI has the largest selection of notebooks, with four of their existing products receiving updates to support 980M/970M along with one all-new design, the GT72 Dominator. We'll start with the GT72 Dominator, as it's obviously the most interesting option. There are seven different models of the GT72 being offered, with varying storage, RAM, and GPU configurations. Here's a brief overview of the specs:

MSI GT72 Dominator (Pro) Specifications CPU Core i7-4980HQ (2.8-4GHz)
Core i7-4710HQ (2.5-3.5GHz) GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 8GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 6GB RAM 12GB up to 32GB DDR3L-1600
(Four SO-DIMM Slots) SSD 128GB to 1TB M.2 SATA
(2-4 SSDs in RAID 0 for 256GB and up) HDD 1TB 7200RPM Optical Super Multi (9.5mm)
BD Burner 9.5mm Display 17.3" Full HD eDP Anti-Glare (1920x1080) Networking Killer Gaming Network
Killer N1525 Combo (2x2 802.11ac + BT 4.0) I/O Ports 6 x USB 3.0
Flash Reader (SDXC/SDHC)
HDMI 1.4
2 x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 Input Steel Series Keyboard
Multi-touch Touchpad Power 9-cell battery
230W AC adapter Extras Full HD webcam (1080p30)
Configurable Multi-colored Backlighting
Anti-Ghost Key OS Windows 8.1 Multi-Language Dimensions 16.85" x 11.57"x 1.89"
(428mm x 294mm x 48mm) Weight 8.4 lbs (3.82kg) MSRP $2000-$3900

Fundamentally, there are two variants: the GT72 Dominator Pro comes with a GTX 980M while the GT72 Dominator comes with GTX 970M. All seven models come with some form of solid state storage (from 128GB with a single M.2 SATA SSD up to 1TB with four 256GB M.2 SATA SSDs in RAID 0), and they all include a secondary 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive. Pricing starts at $2000 for the GT72 Dominator with GTX 970M, while the top configuration tips the scales at nearly four grand ($3900) – obviously, the cost of four 256GB SSDs can add up. Finally, the NVIDIA GPUs seem to have twice the standard RAM on the GT72, so the GTX 970M comes with 6GB while the GTX 980M comes with 8GB GDDR5. These are clearly intended as high-end gaming systems, and the minimum price for a GT72 with GTX 980M is $2400, which will get you a Core i7-4710HQ, 2x8GB RAM, a 128GB SSD, and a Blu-ray burner (along with the other common features listed above).

Note that there have been some significant changes to the GT72 compared to the previous generation GT70 platform, though we haven't reviewed the GT72 (which launched last month) yet. MSI has reworked the chassis and motherboard to provide six USB 3.0 and two mini-DisplayPort 1.2 ports, and the new GT72 chassis also comes with dual cooling fans, which should address one of our biggest complaints with the previous GT70 design. Support for up to four M.2 SATA SSDs is also new. Needless to say, we're definitely looking forward to testing the GT72; MSI provided some photos of the GT72 in the gallery below.

Gallery: MSI Gaming Notebooks with GeForce GTX 980M and 970M

MSI GT60/GT70 Dominator Specifications CPU Core i7-4710HQ (2.5-3.5GHz) GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3GB RAM 8GB or 16GB DDR3L-1600
(Four SO-DIMM Slots) SSD 128GB or 2x128GB mSATA
(None on base model) HDD 1TB 7200RPM Optical BD Combo
Super Multi (base model) Display GT70: 17.3" Full HD Anti-Glare (1920x1080)
GT60: 15.6" Full HD Anti-Glare (1920x1080) Networking Killer Gaming Network
Intel 7260 (2x2 802.11 ac + BT4.0) I/O Ports 3 x USB 3.0
2 x USB 2.0
Flash Reader (SDXC/SDHC)
HDMI 1.4
1 x mini-DisplayPort 1.2
1 x VGA Input Steel Series Keyboard
Multi-touch Touchpad Power 9-cell battery
180W AC adapter Extras Full HD webcam (1080p30)
Keyboard Backlighting OS Windows 8.1 Multi-Language Dimensions GT70: 16.85" x 11.34" x 2.17"
(428mm x 288mm x 55mm)

GT60: 15.55" x 10.51" x 2.16"
(395mm x 267mm x 55mm) Weight GT70: 8.6 lbs. (3.91kg)
GT60: 7.7 lbs. (3.50kg) MSRP $1600-$2100

Moving on, the GT60 and GT70 Dominator have also been updated with the GTX 970M (but not the 980M). The core differences from the new GT72 are easily summarized. GT70 provides four SO-DIMM slots but MSI only populates two of them on the new GTX 970M models. The SSDs are mSATA and you can get the GT70 with none, one, or two SSDs (and a 1TB 7200RPM HDD). In terms of I/O, there are two USB 2.0 ports, one fewer total USB ports, a VGA port in place of one of the mDP ports, and the chassis is a bit thicker and heavier. MSI doesn't mention multi-colored keyboard backlighting, so it looks like they're going with a standard white backlight. Finally, the AC adapter is only 180W for these models and the WiFi is a standard Intel 7260 module. As for the GT60, there's only one model and it matches the base model GT70 in specs, so it's basically a bit lighter and has a smaller display.

MSI GS60/GS70 Specifications Notebook GS60 Ghost Pro GS70 Stealth Pro CPU Core i7-4710HQ (2.5-3.5GHz) Core i7-4710HQ (2.5-3.5GHz) GPU GeForce GTX 970M 3GB/6GB GeForce GTX 970M 3GB/6GB RAM 12GB or 16GB DDR3L-1600
(Two SO-DIMM Slots) 12GB or 16GB DDR3L-1600
(Two SO-DIMM Slots) SSD 128GB or 2x128GB M.2 SATA 128GB to 3x256GB mSATA HDD 1TB 7200RPM 1TB 7200RPM Optical N/A N/A Display 15.6" Full HD eDP WVA (1920x1080)
15.6" WQHD+ 3K IPS (2880x1620) 17.3" Full HD eDP Anti-Glare
(1920x1080) Networking Killer Gaming Network
Killer N1525 Combo
(2x2 802.11ac + BT4.0) Killer Gaming Network
Killer N1525 Combo
(2x2 802.11ac + BT4.0) I/O Ports 4 x USB 3.0
Flash Reader (SDXC/SDHC)
HDMI 1.4
2 x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 4 x USB 3.0
Flash Reader (SDXC/SDHC)
HDMI 1.4
2 x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 Input Steel Series Keyboard
Click Pad Touchpad Steel Series Keyboard
Click Pad Touchpad Power 6-cell battery
150W AC adapter 6-cell battery
150W AC adapter Extras Full HD webcam (1080p30)
Multi-colored Backlighting Full HD webcam (1080p30)
Multi-colored Backlighting OS Windows 8.1 Multi-Language Windows 8.1 Multi-Language Dimensions 15.35" x 10.47" x 0.78"
(390mm x 266mm x 20mm) 16.47" x 11.29" x 0.85"
(418mm x 287mm x 22mm) Weight 4.2 lbs. (1.91kg) 5.7 lbs. (2.59kg) MSRP $1900-$2300 $1900-$2600

Wrapping up, the GS60 and GS70 have both been updated as well with support for the GTX 970M. There are six GS70 models coming out and four GS60 models, with the GS60 having two 3K variants. The base model on both comes with 12GB RAM and a 3GB GTX 970M and a 128GB SSD; all of the other models have 16GB RAM, but there are options with 3GB VRAM and 6GB VRAM. The GS60 only supports two M.2 SATA SSDs while the GS70 can support three mSATA SSDs, and the top configuration of the GS70 comes with 768GB of SSD storage. The display options on the GS60 trump the GS70, however, as you can get either a wide viewing angle (IPS or similar) 1080p panel or a 3K IPS panel, while it appears the GS70 only has a standard 1080p display – the same display used in the GT70/GT72 most likely.

Professor Brian Cox joins a search-and-rescue mission in the depths of winter as they collect two cosmonauts and an astronaut as they arrive back on Earth after months living aboard the International Space Station.

Hey! You there! You've got it pretty good, you know that? While you're sitting there using your Internet-enabled device to read about some other Internet-enabled device, it's easy to forget that the majority of people doesn't have any access to the Internet at all. The "World Wide" Web is actually not that worldwide—only about one-third of the population is online. That's 4.8 billion people out there with no way to get to the Internet.

Bridging this digital divide will be one of the tech industry's biggest challenges—and growth opportunities—over the coming years. As all-encompassing as the Internet feels now, the user base has the potential to triple in size. So as of late, we've started to see Internet companies take an interest in getting more of the disconnected world online. Facebook launched Internet.org, and Google has a ton of projects that aim to provide Internet by fiber, balloon, and drone for example.

CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:["top"], collapse: true});But these initiatives are all focused on merely bringing Internet access, not addressing the actual hardware necessary to display the Internet. Enter the Intex Cloud FX, a $35 (Rs 1,999) smartphone from India aimed precisely at this issue. The Cloud FX runs Firefox OS, Mozilla's home-grown OS. Firefox OS is entirely Web-powered, and, therefore, Gecko, Firefox's layout engine, runs just about everything on the device. Apps are built entirely from Web technologies. Think "Chrome OS"—but from Mozilla and on a smartphone.

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The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were rumored to have sapphire-coated screens right up until the announcement, but it didn't come to pass. Megan Geuss

Back in late 2013, Apple signed a deal with a company named GT Advanced Technologies to build a sapphire manufacturing plant in Arizona. Apple would build the facility, and GT would manufacture sapphire for use in Apple's devices. Sapphire is even harder and more scratch-resistant than the Corning Gorilla Glass used in many smartphones and tablets today, and the deal gave rise to rumors that Apple would be using sapphire to protect the screens of its new iPhones.

Those rumors were repeated many times in subsequent months, though others indicated that it wasn't a sure thing. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus ended up launching with glass screens after all. Apple still uses sapphire to protect a few important surfaces on iPhones—the camera lenses and TouchID buttons, specifically—but those components are much smaller and therefore less lucrative for their manufacturer.

GT Advanced Technologies' stock took a dive in the days following the announcement, and the Wall Street Journal now reports that the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Under Chapter 11, companies generally continue to operate as they attempt to reorganize their operations, and GT CEO Tom Gutierrez emphasized that the company wouldn't be shutting down.

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Ivan David Gomez Arce

James Comey, the Federal Bureau of Investigation director, says Chinese hackers are daily targeting US companies' intellectual property.

"I liken them a bit to a drunk burglar. They're kickin' in the front door, knocking over the vase, while they're walking out with your television set," Comey said Sunday on CBS' 60 Minutes. "They're just prolific. Their strategy seems to be: `We'll just be everywhere all the time. And there's no way they can stop us."'

60 Minutes Comey's remarks on the news magazine comes two weeks after a Senate Armed Services Committee report concluded that China's military broke into Pentagon contractors' computer networks at least 50 times—hacks that threaten "to erode US military technical superiority."

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A breakup years in the making, and possibly at least three years too late. Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P.

Three years ago, almost to the day, as Meg Whitman was taking over as Hewlett-Packard’s CEO, I offered her some unsolicited advice on what to do to save the company. Now it looks like she’s taken that advice, albeit a bit too late for the thousands of employees that will now be released into the wild to do something else with their lives. Was this trip really necessary?

As we’ve reported, HP’s executive team has decided to split the company in two, setting the PC unit free—bundled with HP’s money-printing printer unit. That’s essentially the advice I gave in October 2011, when Whitman was trying to decide what to do with the wreckage left by her predecessor, Léo Apotheker. Apotheker had blown billions on the acquisition of the “big data” software company Autonomy, only to announce that HP would spin off or sell the personal computer business because “continuing to execute in this market is no longer in the interest of HP and its shareholders.”

Since then, Whitman has been through several revisions of a new strategic vision to turn the company around. Instead of following through on Apotheker’s urge to get out of the consumer hardware business and become more like IBM—a business model that now even IBM is having a hard time with—Whitman pulled back from throwing away the PC business. She began a long process of trying to figure out what HP wanted to be when it grew up.

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Among other items, the XProtect list now includes several iWorm variants. Andrew Cunningham

In case you missed it over the weekend, MacRumors reports that Apple has updated OS X's built-in XProtect malware definitions list to include the Mac.BackDoor.iWorm malware we reported on late last week. The iWorm malware allegedly managed to infect more than 17,000 Macs worldwide, and it was apparently using a (now closed) Minecraftserverlists board on reddit to distribute the IP addresses of control servers to infected Macs.

XProtect was first introduced to OS X in Snow Leopard in response to the MacDefender malware that managed to infect some OS X systems back in 2011. While the complete list is only 40 items long as of this writing, OS X silently checks for XProtect updates daily, and Apple also uses the list to mandate the usage of up-to-date versions of Java and Flash. While XProtect doesn't do anything to clean existing infections, it can prevent new ones by telling users explicitly that they're attempting to install known malware.

Dr. Web, the antivirus vendor that first reported the existence of both the malware and the botnet, recommends that you buy its products to scan for and delete malware that may already be on your computer—researchers at antivirus companies can get the word out about new vulnerabilities, but they don't do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Developer Jacob Salmela has some instructions that can help you delete the malware manually.

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C

Security firm Check Point Software Technologies used a flaw it discovered in the Perl programming language to hack into the popular Bugzilla bug-tracking system and add four users to the administrator group, giving them power to see the details of undisclosed vulnerabilities.

The bold demonstration, detailed in a private bug report made public on Monday, took advantage of a new class of flaws discovered by Check Point in the Perl programming language, allowing the organization to craft specific strings of text that essentially fooled Bugzilla's user database. Check Point created administrator accounts for mozilla.com, mozilla.org, bugzilla.org, and bugzilla.bugs in the system.

"This is not an SQL injection attack, this is something rather new," Shahar Tal, security research team leader at Check Point, told Ars. "This is part of research that we have been working on for a couple of months on a specific Perl issue. Bugzilla is a good example and sample, but it is not the only project that we were able to find vulnerabilities in."

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Alexander Rabb

After BuzzFeed revealed late Sunday that a digital advertising firm, Titan 360, was using public pay phones in New York City (yes, they still exist) to host Gimbal Bluetooth tracking beacons, the mayor’s office has now ordered them to come down.

The beacons can be used to log nearby phones’ Bluetooth addresses and mark the date, time, and location where they are seen. As such, the beacons can be used as a way to track physical movements of cellphone users, potentially allowing advertisers to serve those phones customized spots. (Users who have Bluetooth turned off on their phones will not be seen by the beacons.)

As recently as last month, Gimbal’s beacons—a rival to Apple’s iBeacon—were also being tested by another ad firm in GameStop stores in Texas. But in NYC, "the beacons will be removed over the coming days," according to New York City mayoral spokesman Phil Walzak, in a statement sent to Ars.

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The BBC is reporting that a Spanish nurse has contracted Ebola after treating a patient in Madrid. The patient in question, a priest who worked in West Africa, died in late September after returning to his native Spain. If he was the cause of the nurse's infection, then it would represent the first transmission of the virus outside the range of the current epidemic.

Health care workers in West Africa have frequently contracted Ebola due to the lack of advanced isolation facilities there. But the availability of these facilities in developed countries has been a key factor in limiting the spread of the virus outside of Africa, even as infected individuals returned home without knowing that they were infected or were brought home for treatment. This apparent instance of transmission may heighten tensions regarding our ability to limit the spread of the virus in an era where intercontinental travel is commonplace.

These tensions were on display as a flight from Belgium arrived in New Jersey this weekend, bearing a sick passenger who traveled to West Africa. A full evaluation of his status in a local hospital revealed no cause for concern, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

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Fraud and Abuse Online: Harmful Practices of Inernet Payday Lending

Online payday loan operators threaten their customers, promote loans designed for long-term indebtedness, and charge exorbitant interest rates, according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"Lump-sum loans online typically cost $25 per $100 borrowed per pay period—an approximately 650 percent annual percentage rate," Pew said.

The report, "Fraud and Abuse Online: Harmful Practices in Internet Payday Lending," (PDF) comes a month after the Federal Trade Commission halted an only payday scheme that the government said "allegedly bilked consumers out of tens of millions of dollars by trapping them into loans they never authorized and then using the supposed 'loans' as a pretext to take money from their bank accounts."

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The US Food and Drug Administration released guidance last week in which it suggested that medical-device manufacturers consider the dangers of hacking in the design of their products, while not requiring countermeasures.

The nine-page document informs companies of the agency's "current thinking" on the topic of cybersecurity. In it, the FDA recommended that companies assess any dangers on the intentional or unintentional misuse of a device in their design stage. In addition, medical devices and systems should detect and log attacks and allow technicians to react to such attacks, whether through patching a vulnerability or other action.

"The need for effective cybersecurity to assure medical device functionality and safety has become more important with the increasing use of wireless, Internet- and network-connected devices, and the frequent electronic exchange of medical device-related health information," the agency stated, adding that "manufacturers should address cybersecurity during the design and development of the medical device, as this can result in more robust and efficient mitigation of patient risks."

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Aurich Lawson

UPDATE: On Friday, Intel issued a statement via its company blog to apologize for its part in the #GamerGate conversation. The post began with an acknowledgement that the company pulled ads from news site Gamasutra, confirming that the company would "not continue with our current ad campaign" there after receiving a wave of user complaints.

"Our action inadvertently created a perception that we are somehow taking sides in an increasingly bitter debate in the gaming community," the post continued. "That was not our intent, and that is not the case. When it comes to our support of equality and women, we want to be very clear: Intel believes men and women should be treated the same."

The post concluded by decrying "any organization or movement that discriminates against women," then saying, "we apologize and we are deeply sorry if we offended anyone." Intel's apology did not acknowledge the content of Leigh Alexander's September article, nor any other concerns or complaints attributed to #GamerGate.

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The Windows 10 desktop isn't all that different from Windows 8.1's, but it's more important for the OS to replace Windows 8's damaged brand. Andrew Cunningham

The desktop environment in Windows 8.1 is pretty good.

This was not the message that Microsoft conveyed at its Windows 10 launch event last week, a presentation that had Microsoft's historically change-averse but financially important business customers in mind. Whether the company was looking forward to multiple desktops and Continuum or backward to the Start menu and the command prompt, Microsoft's message was clear: we have finished undoing all that stuff you didn't like.

But regardless of the message, the Windows 10 desktop is really only building on the foundation Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update 1 laid. These updates restored the Start button, allowed desktop and laptop users to boot into the desktop environment by default, and gave the familiar Windows taskbar the ability to launch and switch between full-screen Windows Store apps.

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Not the actual exploit.

A security researcher claims to have uncovered a botnet being built by Romanian hackers using the “Shellshock” exploit against servers on a number of high-profile domains, including servers at Yahoo and the utility software developer WinZip. Jonathan Hall, president and senior engineer of technology consulting firm Future South Technologies published a lengthy explanation of the exploits and his communications with the exploited on his company’s website this weekend and said that Yahoo had acknowledged finding traces of the botnet on two of its servers.

Hall found the botnet, he said, by tracking down the source of requests that probed one of his servers for vulnerable CGI server scripts that could be exploited using the Shellshock bash vulnerability. That security flaw allows an attacker to use those vulnerable server scripts to pass commands on to the local operating system,  potentially allowing the attacker take remote control of the server. Hall traced the probes back to a server at WinZip.com. He then used his own exploit of the bash bug to check the processes running on the WinZip server and identified a Perl script running there named ha.pl.

After extracting the contents of the script, Hall discovered that it was an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) bot similar to ones used to perform distributed denial of service attacks on IRC servers. However, as he examined it more closely, he found that it “appeared to focus more on shell interaction than DDoS capabilities,” he wrote. According to Hall, it takes remote control of the server, while using its IRC code to report back to an IRC channel (called, creatively, #bash). The code was also heavily commented in Romanian.

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The actual firing patterns of grid cells as a mouse navigates a square enclosure. Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Understanding where we're located may seem trivial, but it has a profound effect on life. We strongly associate memories with specific locations, and we can retain the ability to navigate between places for decades. A sense of location is also associated with basic survival: you can remember where to go next to get food, or know that approaching an edge should be done cautiously if you recall that you're 300 meters up a mountainside.

All of which suggests that producing a sense of place—and relating that sense to both memories and to other locations—should be central to the lives of complex animals. But until the 1970s, we had very little idea of how this knowledge was generated and retained by the brain. This year, the Nobel Prize committee is honoring three researchers for their roles in figuring out "the brain's GPS."

A sense of place

One half of the prize is going to John O’Keefe, an American who has worked at the University College, London for decades. O’Keefe's work took advantage of technological developments in the late 1960s. At the time, researchers had known for a while how to record the activity of individual neurons in the brain, but this was extremely invasive and generally done on anesthetized animals. A key breakthrough was the miniaturization of the equipment, which was eventually made small enough that the rats could be monitored while they were awake and active.

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HP today confirmed yesterday's report that it plans to split itself into two companies, one for PCs and printers and another for business technology and services. HP also said its layoffs, which are already in full swing, will affect 55,000 people by the time they're done. For comparison's sake, Google's entire employee base is 47,756.

HP had 317,000 employees as of October 2013. The company got rid of 36,000 people by July of this year. HP was planning total "employee reductions" of 45,000 to 50,000 people, but it will now push that to 55,000 "to fund investment opportunities in R&D and sales," the company said in a presentation for investors today.

HP plans to break into two by the end of October 2015. One of the new, separate companies will be Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, focusing on "servers, storage, networking, converged systems, services and software as well as its OpenStack Helion cloud platform," HP said. HP CEO Meg Whitman will be CEO of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.

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