Crash

When a program unexpectedly quits in OS X, the system will activate the crash reporter that will generate a report that includes the memory backtrace for each thread and other information about the crashed process. This can be used to help troubleshoot the situations or be submitted to developers so erroneous code can be tested and corrected. The crash reporter will by default show the full crash log on screen, but this can be changed to either show just a warning, or never show the crash reporter.

The setting to do this is hidden in the system, but it can … Read more

When a self-driving car crashes, one just has to wonder about those robots. Are they really all they're cracked up to be? Or might they be just as cracked as the rest of us?

Should you have, this morning, been unreasonably detained by aggressive machines, may I tell you that Google's famed, futuristic, liberating, and ultimately superhuman machine, the self-driving Prius, was involved in a fender bender.

What seems evident from shots of the scene is that Google's robot machine ran into the back of another Prius. You might think that it was on robotic autopilot and … Read more

Ask app developers and most will tell you that good user reviews and high ratings are the keys to selling apps. I'm not going to get into which reviews are real or written by friends. Nor am I going to talk about those nefarious instances where one app maker puts a negative review on a competing app (yes, it happens). But suffice to say the more positive reviews the better, and negative reviews that bring an overall rating down hurt. Bad.

Which brings me to people who post one-star ratings on apps because they simply don't work or … Read more

An emphasis on speed and a lack of security makes automated trading in financial markets ripe for exploitation and fraud, a security researcher warned today.

Most stock trades in the U.S. and many around the world in general are now made by data-crunching computers that buy and sell stocks in microseconds--something that used to take human traders minutes to do. With these algorithm-based, high-frequency trades a fraction of second can be worth millions of dollars for an investor. (See CBS 60 Minutes report on this.)

In the push for greater speed and thus higher profits, security is sacrificed, James … Read more

A number of early adopters of the OS X 10.7 Lion upgrade are running into a fairly severe bug. What happens is that Macs will crash with a black screen, which requires a forced shutdown. Some systems may show kernel panic messages on-screen, but the majority of them just have a black screen. The issue seems to happen specifically when certain graphics events are happening such as manipulating images in applications, or triggering interface elements when graphics events are occurring. In addition, it happens when systems are woken from sleep.

Most systems that appear to be affected are 2010 … Read more

Imagine a situation where a kid chases a ball into a street. Even for drivers with lightning-sharp reflexes, there might not be enough braking distance to avoid impact. But Toyota's next-generation crash avoidance technology may be able to solve that problem by steering the vehicle out of harm's way.

Designed in part to reduce pedestrian fatalities, Toyota's Pre-Collision System (PCS) with collision-avoidance assist uses stereo camera and millimeter-wave radars installed around the vehicle to identify objects in its path. If the system calculates that there isn't enough time to brake and that a crash with an … Read more

Many cars are equipped with crash avoidance technology, but the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says the Volvo's City Safety is the most effective at reducing low speed crashes.

By examining property damage liability claims, the IIHS determined drivers of Volvo XC60s outfitted with City Safety file 27 percent fewer at-fault driver claims than owners of comparable midsize SUVs without that technology. That means that XC60 owners are less likely to be involved in low-speed crashes in which they are at fault, namely rear-ending the car in front of them in traffic.

City Safety is standard feature on … Read more

There have been a few prominent issues following the update to OS X 10.6.8, though a couple of them have to do with third-party application support. One that has caused a number of users to have kernel panics is the tool Hands Off, which is a personal security program. Apparently the kernel extension for version 1.3 of the program is the culprit, and should be removed.

To do this, boot the system to Safe Mode and then locate the file "handsOff.kext" in the /Suystem/Library/Extensions/ folder. Move it out or delete it, and … Read more

Have you ever forgotten to turn your cell phone off during a flight? Did you survive?

The question might seem slightly churlish, but the airline industry would like you to know that your little electronic devices--yes, just one of them--can really, truly, seriously mess with the aircraft's systems.

ABC News managed to get hold of a report by the International Air Transport Association that makes for very interesting reading. For it seems to link up to 75 incidents on planes with interference from cell phones or other electronic devices.

Rational minds will, no doubt, judge the evidence through their … Read more