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In the market for a Microsoft Surface tablet? This might be a good week to pick one up. Right now you can save $150 when you buy a Surface 3 tablet with an Atom processor and a Type Cover keyboard case. That actually makes it cheaper to buy the tablet + keyboard than it would be […]
Deals of the Day (12-03-2015) is a post from: Liliputing
In the market for a Microsoft Surface tablet? This might be a good week to pick one up. Right now you can save $150 when you buy a Surface 3 tablet with an Atom processor and a Type Cover keyboard case. That actually makes it cheaper to buy the tablet + keyboard than it would be […]
Deals of the Day (12-03-2015) is a post from: Liliputing
New Jersey towns petition state for fiber upgrade or better copper maintenance.
(credit: Aurich Lawson)
Sixteen cities and towns in New Jersey have asked the state to investigate Verizon, claiming that the telecommunications company “has, through neglect, abandoned and retired its copper landline infrastructure in most of South Jersey.”
In areas where Verizon hasn’t upgraded its network to fiber, it has failed to properly maintain the copper wires used to provide telephone service and DSL Internet, the towns said in a petition to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU).
“In more affluent communities, Verizon has begun to phase out copper with more modern fiber” while “ignoring these issues in communities like ours,” Hopewell Township Committeeman Gregory Facemyer said in the towns’ announcement of their petition.
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Namco had a legal monopoly on interstitial mini-games for the past 20 years.
After 20 years, developers will finally be able to ape this Ridge Racer screen.
Back in 1995, Namco threw in a playable, miniature version of the arcade classic Galaxian to keep players amused during the lengthy loading times for PlayStation launch title Ridge Racer. In the decades since, other developers have largely been prevented from copying the idea of minigames on loading screens. That's because of a broad US patent Namco got for games that prevent "unnecessary wastage of time... by first loading the smaller, auxiliary game program code into the games machine, before the main-game program code is loaded, then loading the main-game program code while the auxiliary game is running."
Some games, like FIFA and Bayonetta, have managed to skirt that patent by including load-screen minigames that are simply smaller versions of the full game rather than "auxiliary" games as mentioned in the patent. Still, for the most part, developers have been forced to use those unskippable load times to display concept art or in-game statistics rather than playable diversions.
The dark era of dull loading screens may finally be coming to an end, though, because the 20-year term on Namco's 1995 patent expired last week. To celebrate, a number of indie developers are getting together for a Loading Screen Game Jam, devoted to "creating interactive loading screens... and defiling the patent that held back game design for so many years!"
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Updates sollen Systeme sicherer machen – im Falle der Scada-Systeme der Firma EKI ist das jedoch offenbar gründlich misslungen. Ein Update, das fest codierte SSH-Schlüssel entfernen sollte, macht die Systeme für Shellshock und Heartbleed verwundbar. (Heartbleed, OpenSSL) 
Updates sollen Systeme sicherer machen - im Falle der Scada-Systeme der Firma EKI ist das jedoch offenbar gründlich misslungen. Ein Update, das fest codierte SSH-Schlüssel entfernen sollte, macht die Systeme für Shellshock und Heartbleed verwundbar. (Heartbleed, OpenSSL) 
Startup OnePlus generated a lot of buzz over the past year by selling high-quality phones at relatively low prices. The company’s marketing campaigns haven’t always been well received, and few people like the invite system OnePlus uses to make sure it doesn’t manufacture more phones than it can sell. But the OnePlus One and OnePlus […]
You don’t need an invite to buy a OnePlus 2 anymore is a post from: Liliputing
Startup OnePlus generated a lot of buzz over the past year by selling high-quality phones at relatively low prices. The company’s marketing campaigns haven’t always been well received, and few people like the invite system OnePlus uses to make sure it doesn’t manufacture more phones than it can sell. But the OnePlus One and OnePlus […]
You don’t need an invite to buy a OnePlus 2 anymore is a post from: Liliputing
Case undermines “the very objective of antitrust law—to ensure robust competition.”
(credit: David Kravets)
Apple picked up a major ally in its battle against the Justice Department's e-book price-fixing case against the gadget maker. The Authors Guild and several other writers groups told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that Apple didn't illegally conspire with major publishers to fix and raise the prices of e-books, as an appeals court ruled. Instead, Apple enhanced competition, the guild claimed in a friend-of-the-court brief.
The authors were challenging a June federal appeals court decision that found Apple liable for engaging in e-book price-fixing in an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Justice Department and 33 states. The government also sued publishers Penguin, HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan.
The publishers agreed to settle the 2012 suit for $164 million. Apple fought the charges and lost, and it appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, where it is pending high court action. Apple argued that at the time of its 2010 entry into the e-book business, Amazon was its only real competitor, and Amazon was selling e-books for $9.99, which Apple said was well below a competitive price. Apple claimed it worked with publishers to hit a price point that would help Apple be profitable enough to enter the e-book market and compete with Amazon.
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Data published by Central Michigan University has revealed a worrying trend in copyright complaints. Out of 1,912 received so far in 2015, more than 80% were from Rightscorp, a company that demands cash to settle. The university’s chief information officer believes that campuses like his are being deliberately targeted.
Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Whether it’s a nice discount here and there or a straight-up freebie, cash-strapped students are happy to be front and center. No surprise then that they’re often associated with obtaining a little media from unauthorized sources too.
As a result, in the middle of the last decade this penchant for lifting music from file-sharing networks grew into an international controversy when the RIAA forcefully targeted students with legal action. While it sent a message, it was also a PR disaster.
Almost a decade on and the landscape is somewhat changed, with official services now more cheaply available and often providing deep discounts for students. Nevertheless, students still like to download from P2P networks such as BitTorrent and today, just like a decade ago, they are getting caught in their thousands.
Data just released by Central Michigan University (CMU) shows that the number of copyright complaints received quadrupled between 2013 and 2014. But even with figures only available for the first 10 months of 2015, it’s already a record year.
As of the end of October, anti-piracy outfits had filed a total of 1,912 complaints at CMU. To put those numbers into perspective, CMU has around 20,000 students. However, it is the nature of the majority of those complaints that is most cause for concern.
While anti-piracy tracking companies such as IP-Echelon and MarkMonitor are contacting the university with their own DMCA-style ‘warning’ notices, the volume sent by them is being dwarfed by a company with a different agenda.
According to Mark Strandskov, associate director of the Office of Information Technology, piracy monetization company Rightscorp is now the dominant sender, accounting for more than eight out of every ten complaints received.
“You have agencies like Rightscorp where in the last two years account for over 2,500 complaints,” Strandskov told university publication CM-Life.
“They account for 81 percent of our total number of complaints this year and we didn’t receive anything at all from them two years ago. That sort of sticks out.”
In 2014 Rightscorp sent 899 complaints to CMU, around 65% of all complaints received. By the end of October 2015 the company had filed 1,648.
And, of course, for each of those notices Rightscorp demands cash. For example, Strandskov says that one student was asked to pay $30 after he allegedly downloaded The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King from Warner Bros.
But while these ‘fines’ are nothing out of the ordinary, vice president for information technology Roger Rehm says that he believes that outfits like Rightscorp are deliberately targeting educational establishments.
“The fact of the matter is (monitoring companies) have targeted university campuses,” Rehm says. “There is no question that they treat us differently than other networking organizations.”
While the sheer number of people on site will mean that universities and colleges receive a lot of complaints, the reason they are being targeted is likely to be connected to the RIAA’s actions last decade and the pressure subsequently placed on the government.
In July 2010, the U.S. responded by putting in place a new requirement for colleges and universities to take action against illegal file-sharing. Failure to do so can result in the loss of federal funding so little wonder that campuses view the issue seriously.
As a result, not passing on complaints from outfits like Rightscorp could have serious consequences for universities like CMU and it’s more than likely the company understands that. With this in mind, students are probably easy targets but whether they’ll bear fruit long term is up for debate.
While Rightscorp asks them for $30 per offense, CMU has much harsher punishments in store. According to CM-Life, a second infringement notice results in a $150 fine being imposed by the university and a potential Internet access suspension. A third offense warrants a $300 fine and even expulsion.
However, while it might be difficult to avoid being fined by the university itself following a complaint, not paying Rightscorp is an easier proposition.
“We’re in the business of passing the complaint along,” Rehm says. “We do not identify [students] to the company.”
Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
The comedian wants to keep people from recording, texting during the show.
(credit: Yondr)
Dave Chappelle is in the midst of a 13-night run at Thalia Hall in Chicago. The comedian has naturally sold out all shows, and he wants to make sure that only those lucky people with a ticket get to see his best material. To that end, Chappelle has teamed up with San Francisco-based startup Yondr, which makes cloth “socks” for smartphones with a smart lock on them. Cross into the “no phone zone,” and you’ll have to get the sock locked, preventing theater-goers from distracting phone use.
Ars tried Yondr back in October 2014 with mixed results. Some people loved the “olden times” feel of being free of their phones, others resented being told that they can’t take photos and send them to friends as bragging rights. Yondr’s sock design doesn’t seem to have changed much since then. Although the Hollywood Reporter implies that a wireless perimeter locks and unlocks Yondr’s phone pouches, The Chicago Tribune noted that theater-goers had to go through a “check-in process” to get their phones locked, similar to the manual process that Ars experienced a year ago. Yondr did not respond to Ars’ request for clarification.
Reportedly, Chappelle’s impetus for partnering with Yondr is primarily to keep his live material off the Internet. He’s following in the footsteps of comedian Hannibal Buress, who partnered with Yondr for a show in Napa, California after an audience member took a video of Buress talking about Bill Cosby’s sexual assault allegations, creating a social media storm that Buress didn’t exactly care to be a part of.
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Der BND hat große Defizite beim Einsatz von NSA-Selektoren eingeräumt. Im NSA-Ausschuss verwirrte ein Geheimdienstmitarbeiter dabei mit widersprüchlichen Angaben. (BND-Affäre, Datenschutz) 
Der BND hat große Defizite beim Einsatz von NSA-Selektoren eingeräumt. Im NSA-Ausschuss verwirrte ein Geheimdienstmitarbeiter dabei mit widersprüchlichen Angaben. (BND-Affäre, Datenschutz) 
BlueStacks, a program that allows you to use Android apps on a PC or Mac has received a major overhaul. BlueStacks 2 features multitasking capabilities, allowing you to open and run multiple apps at once. Apps are displayed as web browser-like tabs that you can click on to switch between, so you can keep Messenger open while playing Clash […]
BlueStacks gets major update, now runs multiple apps at once is a post from: Liliputing
BlueStacks, a program that allows you to use Android apps on a PC or Mac has received a major overhaul. BlueStacks 2 features multitasking capabilities, allowing you to open and run multiple apps at once. Apps are displayed as web browser-like tabs that you can click on to switch between, so you can keep Messenger open while playing Clash […]
BlueStacks gets major update, now runs multiple apps at once is a post from: Liliputing
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