Just another news site
Beware the surveillance state: Anyone can film you in public.
(credit: JohnTV.com)
It was Bates' drone that earlier this year took video of what he believed was a man picking up a woman named Amanda Zolicoffer that he described as a "known prostitute." Both Blansett and Zolicoffer now face a misdemeanor charge of "engaging in an act of lewdness."
Footage of the bust, which took place in March 2015, was first posted in August 2015.
Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Intel looking into reports, but says there “could be several variables at play.”
(credit: pcgameshardware.de)
Certain third-party CPU coolers could damage Skylake CPUs and motherboards thanks to Skylake's thinner construction, according to a report by German tech website Games Hardware. In independent testing, the site found that the pressure exerted by some popular coolers caused the structurally weaker Skylake CPU to bend, thus damaging the motherboard's delicate pins and contacts.
The problems appear to stem from the substrate used in Skylake's construction, which is noticeably thinner than that of previous-generation chips. Noctua, EK Water Blocks, Scythe, Arctic, Thermaltake, and Thermalright, commenting to Games Hardware about the issue, suggested that damage from overly high mounting pressure is most likely to occur during shipping or relocation of a system. Some are recommending that the CPU cooler be removed altogether before a system is shipped.
So far, only Scythe has offered a solution to the problem. A post on its support page notes that it will be redesigning the mounting mechanism for Skylake CPUs by offering new screws to reduce the mounting pressure. The change only affects coolers that use its H.P.M.S mounting system, with the company saying that its coolers are "compatible with Skylake sockets in general." Scythe will send a set of upgraded screws for free to existing customers.
Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Beneath animal sidekicks and bloody clubs is a very familiar Far Cry experience.
We've had a Micronesian archipelago, the African savannah, Pacific islands, fictional Himalayan peaks, and even an '80s action movie. Now we're going 12,000 years back in time to the Stone Age. Far Cry goes Primal, said a marketing whiz somewhere, somewhen.
Unsurprisingly, then, the single-player only Far Cry Primal has a distinctly rural vibe. Snow-capped mountains punctuate a skyline densely packed with forest canopy, steep cliffs, and gentle hillocks. Rivers flow at ground level, fed by waterfalls that have left deep scars in the terrain. The world of Oros could almost be a picture-postcard kind of place... if it weren't for the numerous bloodthirsty wild animals. Not that all of the local fauna is out to get you, but this wouldn't be Far Cry without a few dozen animals trying to take a chunk of your leg. There's no sign of a honey badger yet, though.
Still, animals are key to both the personality of Primal's world and how club-happy protagonist Takkar views it. Described by Ubisoft rather grandly, as a "beastmaster," Takkar is the Stone Age's very own Doctor Doolittle—able to tame and command even the most aggressive of creatures. I'm told any of the game's predators (around 14 of them) can be tamed, although that feature isn't quite ready for show just yet. Apparently, the rough idea is to sneak up on your target and pacify it gently without violence, which doesn't sound all that exciting right now, but maybe Ubi's keeping the secret sauce under wraps until a later date.
Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments
We’re giving away over 100 prizes, including toys, accessories, and clothing.
Some of this could be yours if you enter our sweepstakes!
We're once again coming up on the season of giving, and here at Ars, we’d like to give some stuff to you while you give to some deserving charities. That’s right—it’s the 2015 edition of our annual Charity Drive.
Since 2007, we've been actively encouraging readers to give to Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity, which provides toys and games to kids being treated in hospitals around the world. In recent years, we've added the Electronic Frontier Foundation to our annual charity push, aiding in their efforts to defend Internet freedom. This year as always, we're giving some extra incentive for those donations by offering donors pieces of our big pile of vendor-provided swag. We can't keep it (ethically), and we don't want it clogging up our offices anyway, so it’s yours to win.
This year's swag pile is yet another big one. We have more than 100 prizes amounting to more than $8,000 in value, including laptops, game consoles, headsets, collector's edition games, rare limited-edition items, clothing, and other cool collectibles. In 2014, Ars readers raised over $25,000 for charity, contributing to a total haul of over $166,000 since 2007. This year, we're hoping to break the 2012 record of more than $28,000 in donations, and we can do it if readers really dig deep.
Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Geschlossenes Cockpit, Solarzellen, Hirnstromsteuerung: McLarens Konzept für die Formel 1 ist reichlich futuristisch. (Formel 1, Technologie) 
Geschlossenes Cockpit, Solarzellen, Hirnstromsteuerung: McLarens Konzept für die Formel 1 ist reichlich futuristisch. (Formel 1, Technologie) 
A Dutch court has refused to hand down a ban against a site selling devices which enable users to stream copyrighted content from the Internet. The court said that the final outcome to the case, which was brought by anti-piracy outfit BREIN, relies on answers to questions already filed with the EU Court of Justice on the issue of streaming.
Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
While downloading content for later playback has been the mainstay of BitTorrent aficionados for well over a decade, streaming of content continues to gain popularity with many users.
More recently, torrent users have been getting in on the act too, with the streaming abilities of the popular Popcorn Time application. However, this software uploads too, meaning that users can be exposed to claims of copyright infringement. Streaming directly from a single source (often a website) rarely carries such risks.
As a result a whole new market as flourished, one which has seen highly modified versions of software such as Kodi installed on set-top boxes, offering free and almost risk-free streaming of movies and TV shows to the masses.
This availability hasn’t gone unnoticed by Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, who have been taking action on several fronts against this unofficial market. As part of those efforts the group filed a copyright case against Moviestreamer.nl, a site that sells hardware for the purposes detailed above. BREIN asked for an injunction against the site, claiming that its actions constitute infringement.
However, in a decision published this week, BREIN was informed by the Midden-Nederland court that it would not be handing down a ban on the sale of devices offered by Moviestreamer. The problem (and indeed the answer) lies in a separate case BREIN has pending against Filmspeler.nl, another vendor of similar devices.
Filmspeler.nl sold media-players bundled with XBMC and pre-installed addons which provided hyperlinks to unlicensed sites offering movies, TV shows, live sports and music. Filmspeler was clear on the purpose of its devices, marketing them with slogans such as “Never go to the cinema again”, “Netflix is the past” and “Never pay again.”
Another claim made by Filmspieler is that its devices are legal. “Downloading (from illegal source) is illegal but streaming is not,” the site said. This appears to be a reference to a decision by the Dutch government last year which banned the downloading of content from illegal sources but did not specifically mention streaming.
BREIN disagreed and asked the court to rule that the trader infringes copyright by linking to illegal content and that the streaming of that content also constitutes infringement. Seeking clarification, the court referred several questions to the EU Court of Justice, including whether the legal requirement of ‘lawful use’ is met if a temporary reproduction is made during the streaming of unauthorized content.
Since the case against Moviestreamer is very similar to that against Filmspieler, this week the Midden-Nederland court found that as long as there is uncertainty over the legality of streaming from illegal sources, there would be no injunction against Moviestreamer.
The fact that questions are already with the EU Court of Justice shows that there is indeed “reasonable doubt” but that will necessarily change with a ruling. Indeed, the court said that if it is established that streaming from illegal sources constitutes copyright infringement, it is plausible that facilitating access to the same would also be unlawful.
Simply put, as long as streaming from illegal sources is not officially illegal, selling devices that offer that ability are not yet illegal either. While BREIN may prevail longer term after a potentially positive EU ruling, in the meantime the group intends to appeal.
“BREIN will appeal this verdict because it considers this facilitation to be very harmful, not only because it facilitates streaming from illegal sources but also because it facilitates the illegal offering itself and is therefore clearly unlawful,” the group said.
It is not yet clear when the EU Court will hand down its decision.
Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Viele Bilder, einfache Texte und sogar Aufklappseiten und ein Poster: Thing Explainer von XKCD-Erfinder Randall Munroe ist aufgebaut wie ein Sachbuch für Kinder. Erklärt wird aber wenig, weshalb wir, wie Kinder eben, immer weiter nachfragen müssen und damit nur schwer wieder aufhören können – oder wollen. (Wissenschaft, Spaceshuttle) 
Viele Bilder, einfache Texte und sogar Aufklappseiten und ein Poster: Thing Explainer von XKCD-Erfinder Randall Munroe ist aufgebaut wie ein Sachbuch für Kinder. Erklärt wird aber wenig, weshalb wir, wie Kinder eben, immer weiter nachfragen müssen und damit nur schwer wieder aufhören können - oder wollen. (Wissenschaft, Spaceshuttle) 
Google veröffentlicht eine eigene Kamera-App für Cardboard-Betrachter: Mit Cardboard Camera können Nutzer Panoramen aufnehmen, die dank Softwarebearbeitung einen 3D-Effekt simulieren. Bei der Aufnahme lassen sich auch die Umgebungsgeräusche speichern. (
Das Festnetz der Telekom ist bundesweit gestört. Über die Ursache schweigt das Unternehmen noch, räumt aber Störungen bei Telefonie, im Internet und TV im Festnetz ein. (
Toshiba sucht Partner, um seine traditionsreiche Produktion von PCs und Notebooks zu retten. Gespräche sollen mit Fujitsu und Vaio laufen, die alle mit sinkenden Marktanteilen und Umsätzen kämpfen. (
You must be logged in to post a comment.