Microsoft has a secret tool that enables hidden features in Windows 11 and that tool has leaked.
It's truly the worst blunder Microsoft has made since they accidentally released Windows 11.
I'm Jacob Rush, this is TechLinked, and this happened during the company's current Bug Bash,
a periodic event where developers and testers are encouraged to track down bugs in the latest
Windows Insider build. Included in the instructions for the event was a download link to Staging Tool,
something that was an internal company application until yesterday when the average Joe's cleverly
outsmarted Microsoft by clicking download. It's just that easy. It really is.
It was allegedly first discovered by Xenopanther on a social platform called X, short for X Twitter.
Who pointed out its similarity to ViveTool, a third-party app Windows stands have used
to access hidden Win 11 features for some time. Essentially, Staging Tool is a command-line interface
that uses feature IDs to enable and disable corresponding features. Since most feature IDs
can be found on GitHub, the site that Microsoft owns, basically anyone can now access all the
secret features that might not be ready for primetime yet. If only there was some way Microsoft
could prevent things like this from happening, leave all the feature IDs up on the website they own,
and it's gotta be something, some sort of solution. Godspeed, Microsoft.
And chill out. Why pay for Tesla features when you can just hack your car? Researchers from
TU Berlin were able to activate paid features by taking advantage of Tesla's greatest weakness.
Direct current. I see what you did there. That's a Nikola Tesla joke, baby.
While they won't present everything until next week, the gist is they used voltage glitching,
or a volt fault injection attack if you're feeling saucy. By messing with the supply
voltage of the AMD processor at the heart of the infotainment system at just the right time,
the researchers could trick the chip into accepting manipulated code, potentially unlocking any of
the paid upgrade features Tesla sells, including the $15,000 full self-driving upgrade. That is
so much money. It's one simple trick that Elon hates. Plus, because it's an issue with the SOC,
it's unpatchable. But wouldn't you know it, hacks can also be bad? If an outsider gains
access to your Tesla, they can extract personal information like locations the car is visited,
call logs, and even session tokens for your email accounts. And do you really want someone
knowing you still use your childhood email address? Neopets girl 91 at Yahoo! Really? I mean,
it's coming back though. Neopets is coming back. Kenyan authorities have suspended the
operations of Worldcoin while the government assesses the project's potential risk to public
safety. Reportedly, over 350,000 Kenyans had already signed up to have their eyes scanned
by an ominous orb in return for cryptocurrency currently valued at around 7,000 shillings.
That's a real currency, dope as hell, equivalent to about $49. There is evidence of Worldcoin
employing deceptive practices in several other countries, like Chile, where participants were
given terms of service in English, a language, fun fact, they don't speak, and Indonesia,
where participants were enticed with bribes of cash, crypto, and AirPods without being
told what the scans were for. Founder and chat GPT daddy Sam Altman, hey, he's more of a twink,
who based a world coin out of the Cayman Islands for entirely non-suspicious reasons,
claims the data will be used to distinguish humans from robots. A problem no one's having. But,
also, that he hopes that this will lead to a universal basic income,
somehow. The first part almost makes sense, so let's focus on that. Digital privacy experts
criticized Worldcoin's proposed use of biometrics for online verification, with Edward Snowden
writing, the human body is not a ticket punch. There are concerns, both with the possibility
that the data might be sold to third parties and the fundamental premise of a giant global
database of eyeballs. One ball to rule them all. For today's quick bits, I'm going to try and
quickly name everyone I met in LTX. Okay, here we go. Mika, Kevin, bowtiler, non-bowtiler,
he was the one without the bowtie. Tucker, Eli, Tim, Brent, Trandor, in a shocking development,
another GPU has leaked. Wow. AMD partner PowerColor accidentally detailed the unannounced
Radeon RX 7800 XT. And according to their own specs, the card will have 3,840 shaders, fewer than the
6800 XT. What? But will feature an increase in memory clock speed over the last generation,
thank god. Also, weirdly, while the card features three DisplayPort 2.1 outputs, only two of them
can be used simultaneously. It's like pockets on women's clothes. It's not about being functional,
just looking like it is. That looks functional, you know? It looks like you could use those all.
Hey girl, you look like you could fit a whole phone in there. I know you can't because then
big purse would get angry. Microsoft, the company that just leaked an internal tool,
has been called out for negligent cybersecurity practices. When disclosing a China-based hack
last month that exploited an Azure vulnerability, Microsoft said they acted based on customer
reported information from June. Turns out the vulnerability was disclosed to them by
security firm Tenable two and a half months earlier. That's a lot earlier. And the fix
that Microsoft pushed out on disclosure of the hack only worked for new users,
and they were going to wait until September 28th to secure their current customers'
applications because these things take time, you know? I mean, f*** your regulars. Who cares?
Wouldn't you know it? They managed to fix it merely a day after Tenable's CEO revealed all of this
in a LinkedIn post. Ironic. It's comforting to learn. Microsoft is a company that will fix
problems the moment they know everyone else knows about them. Tim Cook of Tim Cook fame
has confirmed that Apple has been working on generative AI, quote, for years, end quote.
The fact they haven't released anything is probably related to Tim Cook stating,
while AI has a lot of potential, there are issues that need to be sorted. And so they're probably
being cautious. Smart. Taking a slightly different tactic, Meta has released an AI tool for audio
and music, which was likely inspired by Google doing it first. Don't worry, guys, it's for
research. New research has shown that it's possible to control human DNA with electricity,
which may lead to future medical breakthroughs, where gene therapy can be delivered through
wearable devices. That's pretty cool. In this specific experiment, scientists found that they
were able to trigger insulin production in human cells by electrogenic activation of certain genes,
which has obvious applications in controlling diabetes. Can I get it in a scarf?
This scarf is warm, fashionable, and it keeps my blood sugar in check. To be clear, this isn't
changing the DNA, just increasing the expression of the genes that are already there, meaning that,
sadly, we are still decades away from smartwatches that make you fly when you shout, Shazam.
No, my origin story. Sorry, Billy Batson. Go back to school. And Zebo is finally getting an emulator.
And no, this isn't another Glorbo situation, I wish. The Zebo is a 100% real console that was
released in Brazil in 2009, in Mexico in 2010, and into the great discount bin in the sky in 2011.
The Zebo was a budget console, and by budget, I mean budget. It used the same software as
flip phone games. But thanks to developer Tuxality, maybe someday you'll be able to use the Infuse
Emulator to play the worst of the 327 versions of Resident Evil that have ever been released.
It's got more releases than Skyrim in that game. And that's saying something.
That is saying something, actually. And you should play the next episode of Techlinked
when it comes out on Monday, because honestly, I feel like we barely even talk anymore.
What do you mean? We're here. What changed? Did I do something?