Month: December 2015

Caffeine-spiked peanut butter offers a bittersweet buzz

The pick-me-up sticks around, but so does an unpleasant aftertaste.

(credit: Beth Mole)

Last month, New York Senator Charles Schumer brought to our attention the existence of caffeinated peanut butter, which immediately seemed like something we should try. Of course, that was probably not an outcome that Schumer was going for, since he brought it up only in hopes of getting the Food and Drug Administration to ban it. Nevertheless, as a peanut butter fan and a coffee enthusiast, I happily volunteered to eat some and report back.

(credit: STEEM)

To recap, the peppy peanut butter is made by a company called STEEM, based in Greenfield, Massachusetts, which sells 8-ounce jars online for $5.99 each plus $7.50 for shipping. Jars can also be acquired in select grocery stores in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York. But, as far as I can tell, it’s only offered in smooth variety. (Sorry, chunky fans)

The spread is jam-packed with caffeine, the company boasts, with every two-tablespoon serving offering 150 milligrams of caffeine. STEEM says that’s as much caffeine as two cups of coffee. But that entirely depends on how you make your coffee. According to health researchers, a typical 8-ounce cup of brewed coffee contains anywhere from 95 to 200 milligrams of caffeine. So, maybe STEEM employees make weak-ass coffee.

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In a first, East Texas judge hits patent troll with attorneys’ fees

eDekka LLC had a patent that “teaches someone… a new way of doing things.”

Federal court in Marshall, Texas. (credit: Joe Mullin)

The most litigious "patent troll" of 2014 has been effectively shut down, and will have to pay attorneys' fees to several defendants.

US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, who hears more patent cases that any other federal judge, issued an order (PDF) on Thursday saying that the behavior of eDekka LLC qualified as "exceptional," and that the company should pay the legal fees of various companies it sued.

Gilstrap's courtroom is perhaps the surprising spot in the nation from which a patent troll slap-down might originate. The judge has been criticized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for making life unnecessarily difficult for patent defendants. He's also invalidated relatively few patents under Supreme Court precedent set in last year's Alice Corp. case, even as other federal judges have been tossing out software patents at a steady clip.

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Android on the desktop: Not really “good,” but better than you’d think

Surprisingly good mouse and keyboard support, but the interface can’t scale.

Enlarge / This would all work with Bluetooth, but wires are more fun.

Android is the most popular mobile OS on the planet, and Google has brought the OS to cars, watches, and televisions. And, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Google will soon be bringing Android to yet another form factor: desktop and laptop computers. Re-architecting Android for a mouse and keyboard is going to require major changes to the smartphone operating system, but Android is actually much farther along that path today than most people realize.

We've Frankensteined together a little Android desktop setup using a Nexus 9 and a USB keyboard and mouse to see just how easy—or complicated—it was to use what is still formally a "mobile" operating system in a desktop context today, right now, without complicated changes or reconfigurations. It worked, but Android still has a ways to go before it can be called a real desktop operating system—quite a ways, in some cases.

The biggest affordance Android makes for a desktop OS is that it supports a keyboard and mouse. Any Android device can pair with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and if you want to go the wired route, just about any phone can plug in a mouse and keyboard via a USB OTG cable and a USB hub. Some OEMs even build Android devices with a keyboard and mouse, like the Asus Transformer series, which is a convertible laptop that runs Android.

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Fairphone 2 modular, ethically-sourced smartphone begins shipping

Fairphone 2 modular, ethically-sourced smartphone begins shipping

The Fairphone 2 is a smartphone with a modular design that makes it easy to repair (and possibly easy to upgrade in the future). It’s also built from ethically-sourced materials. As the name suggests, this is the second smartphone from the Fairphone team, and it’s generated a lot of buzz for not only avoiding use […]

Fairphone 2 modular, ethically-sourced smartphone begins shipping is a post from: Liliputing

Fairphone 2 modular, ethically-sourced smartphone begins shipping

The Fairphone 2 is a smartphone with a modular design that makes it easy to repair (and possibly easy to upgrade in the future). It’s also built from ethically-sourced materials. As the name suggests, this is the second smartphone from the Fairphone team, and it’s generated a lot of buzz for not only avoiding use […]

Fairphone 2 modular, ethically-sourced smartphone begins shipping is a post from: Liliputing

HTML5: Facebook gibt Flash weitestgehend den Laufpass

Adobes Appell wurde erhört: Facebook verzichtet bei Videos künftig auf Flash und nutzt stattdessen HTML5 – und das in allen Browsern. Einzige Ausnahme bleiben aus verständlichen Gründen vorerst Spiele. (Facebook, Soziales Netz)

Adobes Appell wurde erhört: Facebook verzichtet bei Videos künftig auf Flash und nutzt stattdessen HTML5 - und das in allen Browsern. Einzige Ausnahme bleiben aus verständlichen Gründen vorerst Spiele. (Facebook, Soziales Netz)

Windows 10 Mobile: Abo für Office Mobile im Continuum-Betrieb notwendig

Wer künftig auf einem Smartphone mit Windows 10 Mobile im Continuum-Modus das Office-Paket nutzen möchte, benötigt ein Office-365-Abo. Bis Ende März 2016 ist die Nutzung aber kostenlos. (Windows 10 Mobile, Office 365)

Wer künftig auf einem Smartphone mit Windows 10 Mobile im Continuum-Modus das Office-Paket nutzen möchte, benötigt ein Office-365-Abo. Bis Ende März 2016 ist die Nutzung aber kostenlos. (Windows 10 Mobile, Office 365)

3DMark Holiday Beta: Futuremark zeigt erste Benchmarks für VR-Headsets

Futuremark hat eine VR-Version des aktuellen 3DMark veröffentlicht. Szenen wie Fire Strike können so auf einem VR-Headset betrachtet werden. Zudem gab es auf einer Partnerveranstaltung erste Bilder des kommenden 3DMark mit DirectX-12-Schnittstelle zu sehen. (3DMark, DirectX)

Futuremark hat eine VR-Version des aktuellen 3DMark veröffentlicht. Szenen wie Fire Strike können so auf einem VR-Headset betrachtet werden. Zudem gab es auf einer Partnerveranstaltung erste Bilder des kommenden 3DMark mit DirectX-12-Schnittstelle zu sehen. (3DMark, DirectX)

1337x Staff Abandon “Insecure” Torrent Site, Start Over

One of the most active torrent communities is witnessing an exodus of moderators and admins. Nearly all active staff of 1337x have abandoned the site claiming that the owner failed to fix several security holes. The (former) staffers have now launched their own site and have begun redirecting 1337x traffic to their new home.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

1337xWithout proper moderation any torrent site will turn into a swamp of fake files and malicious content.

This became painfully apparent earlier this year when The Pirate Bay was left unmoderated, and a similar situation is now taking place at 1337x.to.

The site, which is one of the most visited torrent sites on the Internet, has built up a strong community in recent years. As with most other sites the day-to-day operations are managed by admins and moderators, who volunteer their free time to dealing with spam and other inappropriate content.

After a redesign, however, the staffers have grown impatient with the site’s owner who failed to respond to various complaints. One of the most pressing issues is a security hole which allows others to hijack user accounts.

“The new design is full of bugs, leaving users unprotected and vulnerable to attacks. The owner has refused to fix those problems creating dissension in the ranks,” former 1337x moderator ‘The Ghost’ informs TF.

The vulnerabilities allow outsiders to take over the accounts of regular users and post all sorts of spam.

“What would happen, is somebody would reply to a comment that had a script injected. Once they replied, their account got hijacked and started uploading infected torrents,” The Ghost says.

The above is just one example, according to the moderator. These and other bugs caused a lot of problems for the moderation crew as well as the users. However, they reportedly remain in place today.

Since the owner has been very unresponsive, all active moderators and admins have decided to step down. They were already paying for the server rent and the 1337x domain names, which will likely be forwarded to the new home.

Visitors who access the old forum URL (1337x.net) are now redirected to the new home at leetxtorrents.org, where a new forum was created with a copy of the database.

Another “former” 1337x staffer Mustangx, who owns the original .com and .org domains, confirms the staff exodus and says that they are working on a new torrent site as well. The staffers don’t have access to the old code, so they have to start anew.

“We have a team working on an entirely new site at the moment. We hope to have it ready for the new year,” Mustangx says.

In recent days the owner of the original 1337x reappeared again. However, many staffers believe that it’s too late to make things right, although it hurts to leave their old home behind.

“Nobody likes the idea of just leaving the old site sitting there but it doesn’t have an off button. Kind of like leaving a claymore mine lying around the internet,” The Ghost concludes.

At the time of writing the old 1337.to site remains operational, but the domain may be redirected in the future as well.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

The Secret of Monkey Island (1990): Gummihuhn und Bananen-Pflücker aus der Hose

Wir beenden die zweite Staffel von Golem retro_ und werden Pirat. Das machen wir schon seit über 25 Jahren recht häufig, denn in keinem Adventure macht das so viel Spaß wie in dem von 1990, The Secret of Monkey Island. (Monkey Island, Adventure)

Wir beenden die zweite Staffel von Golem retro_ und werden Pirat. Das machen wir schon seit über 25 Jahren recht häufig, denn in keinem Adventure macht das so viel Spaß wie in dem von 1990, The Secret of Monkey Island. (Monkey Island, Adventure)