Android Leftovers

• Google Pixel 3 XL Review: Still the pinnacle of Android?

• The Pixel 3 XL supports 1440p 60fps HDR playback

• Bring the Pixel 3's 'Flip to Shhh' feature to your Android smartphone using Tasker

• 18 best new (and 1 WTF) Android games released this week including Reigns: Game of Thrones, NBA 2K19, and ...

• Bring the Pixel 3's 'Flip to Shhh' feature to your Android smartphone using Tasker

• 5 best water reminder apps for Android!

• Best free alternative apps for your Android phone

• Chrome OS is about to get much better Android and Google Assistant integration

• Google to charge Android partners up to US$40 per device for apps: source

• Want To Run Linux On Android Without Rooting? Using UserLAnd

5 tips for choosing the right open source database

So, your company has a directive to adopt more open source database technologies, and they've recruited you to select the right direction. Whether you are an open source technology veteran or a newcomer, this is a daunting and overwhelming task. Over the past several years, open source technology adoption has steadily increased in the enterprise space. With its popularity comes a crowded marketplace with open source software companies promising that their solution will solve every problem and fit every workload. Be wary of these promises. Choosing the right open source technology—especially a database—is an important and difficult decision you can't make lightly.

Today in Techrights

• Lack of Patent Quality Means Lack of Patent Validity and Lack of Legal Certainty
• Data Engine Technologies (DET) Just One Among Many Microsoft-Connected Patent Trolls That Pick on Microsoft’s Biggest Competitors
• Alice/Mayo and Hatch-Influenced US Patent Office
• Funded by the Public to Prey on the Public: The Absurdity of Patent Sales and ‘Enforcement’ by Government
• Lockpath Patents Demonstrate That the US Patent Office — Unlike US Courts — Keeps Ignoring 35 U.S.C. § 101/Alice
• The Eastern District of Texas and Its Patent Trolls Affinity Not a Solved Issue
• More ‘Blockchain’ Nonsense in Pursuit of Bogus, Nonsensical Software Patents
• A Warning About MPEG-G, the Latest Software Patents Trap That Threatens Innovation Everywhere
• MIT and the Prior Art Archive Perpetuate Existing Problems
• Links 20/10/2018: Mesa 18.2.3 Released, FreeBSD 12.0 Beta 1

Security: Cracking, Elections and Apache

• Hack [sic] on 8 adult websites exposes oodles of intimate user data

  A recent [crack] of eight poorly secured adult websites has exposed megabytes of personal data that could be damaging to the people who shared pictures and other highly intimate information on the online message boards. Included in the leaked file are (1) IP addresses that connected to the sites, (2) user passwords protected by a four-decade-old cryptographic scheme, (3) names, and (4) 1.2 million unique email addresses, although it’s not clear how many of the addresses legitimately belonged to actual users.

• Professors discuss election security, voting systems at panel

  Amid questions of election security and potential system hacking in the upcoming midterm elections, Engineering prof. J. Alex Halderman spoke at the University of Michigan Alumni Center Thursday night about vulnerabilities in U.S. voting systems. Last June, Halderman appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to testify about such.

  [...]

  “If an attack takes place, we won’t necessarily see the physical evidence," Halderman said. "The physical evidence that it took place is a discrepancy between what’s written on a piece of paper and what a computer total of that paper says. Because elections are so complicated, they’re so noisy, because the [crackers] can hide their traces in various ways, we won’t necessarily see when something like this happen for the first time. We've got to be ready.”

• Apache Access Vulnerability Could Affect Thousands of Applications

  A recently discovered issue with a common file access method could be a major new attack surface for malware authors. Vulnerabilities in Apache functions have been at the root of significant breaches, including the one suffered by Equifax. Now new research indicates that another such vulnerability may be putting thousands of applications at risk. Lawrence Cashdollar, a vulnerability researcher and member of Akamai's Security Incident Response Team, found an issue with the way that thousands of code projects are using Apache .htaccess, leaving them vulnerable to unauthorized access and a subsequent file upload attack in which auto-executing code is uploaded to an application.