Month: March 2016

Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope team used a robotic arm to install the last of the telescope's 18 mirrors onto the telescope structure. (credit: NASA)

Since Galileo first discovered the moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus, telescopes have gotten larger, more accurate, and more powerful. They're now installed all around the world from mountaintop observatories to suburban backyards. And over those 350 years, all of them have battled the same enemy: our Earth’s atmosphere.

The thin layer of nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide that makes life possible on our planet makes observation of everything beyond the planet maddeningly difficult. The atmosphere absorbs a great deal of the light outside the visible part of the spectrum, blocking or severely attenuating information about the cosmos. Its turbulent motions distort what does get through. It scatters our own light back down into our eyes and instruments, making the night more like a slightly darker day, washing out all but the brightest celestial objects in a haze of light pollution.

A comparison of ground-based and Hubble images of Pluto and Charon. (credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI Ground Image: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Hawaii)

We can reduce this atmospheric obfuscation slightly by situating our observatories at high altitudes, far from population centers. But it is not enough. If only we could open a hole in our gaseous shroud and peer through it...

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This image is from Codemasters' F1 2015, which is has the official license for the sport. Alter this game at your peril! (credit: Codemasters)

There's a bit of a fuss going on in the sim racing community right now. A website called RaceDeparment—which serves as a hub for many a sim racing game—took down many pages of content containing mods for a pair of Codemasters Formula 1 games as well as Reiza Studio’s Automobilista following a cease and desist from the sport's commercial rights holder.

RaceDepartment was hosting mods for F1 2013, F1 2014, and Automobilista that let players update their games so that the cars look like this year's machines (rather than several years out of date). But those mods were unlicensed by Formula One World Championships Ltd, which owns the commercial rights to all things F1 (including TV broadcasts, online videos, and video games). That's riled a few people up, if this hyperbolic (and sometimes-profane) rant at Pretend Race Cars is anything to go by.

However one feels about unlicensed game mods, it ought not to be too surprising that the content has been removed. For one thing, RaceDepartment's terms of service unambiguously state that copyright- and trademark infringement isn't cool, and even tells users that "When creating or uploading free to use mods, car skins, helmets, cars, tracks etc users should seek official permission first from the copyright or trademark holders," something that didn't happen here, since Codemasters is the only organization with an official license for Formula 1. And being able to update a two- or three-year old game to the 2016 season isn't exactly helpful to Codemasters either, giving gamers one less reason to pay for this year's game.

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When it comes to file-sharing news, torrent sites usually grab most of the headlines and have done so for the last decade or more. However, a much older method of file-sharing continues in the background, one which facilitates the spread of huge amounts of copyrighted material every day.

Usenet (newsgroups) is a server-based sharing system that usually requires a subscription to access. Users download files (binaries) directly from servers run by their Usenet provider and no peer-to-peer sharing takes place. This means that downloads are very secure, almost immune from snooping, and generally very fast.

Certain prominent cases aside, Usenet providers have largely avoided prosecution but for one company in France the show is now over. Following a complaint filed by anti-piracy outfit SACEM two years ago, France’s largest independent Usenet provider Newsoo has just been shut down by the police.

“I just got back from custody after a search and seizure of Newsoo servers by the judicial police in Strasbourg. I announce therefore that the Newsoo adventure ends immediately and permanently,” Newsoo owner Cedric reports.

While the Newsoo operation was small by Giganews standards, for example, the service was definitely unique. Cedric (known online as Optix) was very public about his passion for his staunchly independent service, which was built up over the years by hand and backed up by personal customer support from the enthusiast.

But like many file-sharing services (and all Usenet providers), Newsoo had its problems with copyrighted content being uploaded to its servers and this week the authorities ran out of patience. In what was reportedly a relatively calm raid, Optix was arrested and his service dismantled.

“As to the ‘practical’ terms of my custody, rest can be assured. The staff were very courteous, kind and sympathetic, and there were no handcuffs and all that. I’m fine,” he explained in a statement.

While questioning whether the shutdown of his service was appropriate, Optix says that it actually came as a relief. Describing Newsoo as an addictive project in which he was responsible for everything, the combination of little time with his family and no financial incentive eventually became too much.

“Revenues were automatically fed back into the activity itself, I took no salary, no dividends, nada, niet, zilch – zero personal enrichment. In other words, everything earned [was always spent on] new machines, new fibers, and the network,” he says.

While the raid effectively closed down Newsoo, Optix says the final decision lay with him. He will now place his company into liquidation, cooperate with the inquiry, and try to remember the good times.

“When I began two years ago, I started with barely two poor machines. I gained a lot of knowledge and I enjoyed sharing with you my successes, my problems and now my fall (well that is not really a pleasure),” he told supporters on the Warizens forum.

“It was really great to see that even if people were not fully in the project, most have made the effort to read all of my writings, because there is so much to say on a subject as exciting as this. In short, it is time to say goodbye.”

According to a Zataz report, the raid targeted 650TB of data and resulted in the seizure of 130 hard disks. One newsgroup connected to the service is said to have held 26 million MP3 files.

Optix has been told he will appear in court June 21, 2016.

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

The iPhone 4S and other older iDevices could be affected by this problem. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Update: Apple today posted a new version of the update, build 13E237, to fix the activation problem for all affected devices. It's currently available to download over-the-air or via iTunes.

Original story: Apple has temporarily pulled the iOS 9.3 update for older iDevices following some issues with device activation. On a support page for the update, the company said that affected products could get stuck during the activation phase of the update if users didn't happen to remember their Apple ID passwords.

Devices affected include the iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, and 5S; and the iPad 2, third- and fourth-generation Retina iPads, and the iPad Air. Apple's page doesn't mention the iPad Mini or iPod Touch lines, but according to this Twitter account that tracks iOS updates, the iPad Mini and Mini 2, and the fifth-generation iPod Touch are also affected.

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