Month: June 2016

Heaven help us that we've reached this point: one where the legacy of a blatant B-movie retread like 1996's Independence Day can be looked upon fondly, especially in light of a sequel. I have no interest in holding the original film up to some American Film Institute-level standard; the campy Roland Emmerich original is a classic because it knew its place as a piece of hyperbolic, chest-thumping sci-fi fun.

But what happens when the original film's creator doesn't know how to make the "fun" happen anymore? Well, that's when you get Independence Day: Resurgence, the long-teased, finally-here sequel that suffers from the odd issue of hewing too closely to its predictable source material and yet not repeating a single good note. Abandon any hopes for the last film's cheesy-yet-inspiring President Bill Pullman. Don't get your hopes up for a comedically cocky fighter pilot or an abrasive and darkly funny super-nerd. And prepare yourself for such underwhelming action set pieces and phoned-in dialogue that you'll swear you've tuned into a high-budget porno film--or, at least, one that distinctly lacks anything in the way of sex. Or fun.

No two actors can replace Will Smith, apparently

Jeff Goldblum returns as David Levinson. Photo Credit: Claudette Barius.

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It's 2016 in America, and our country is kickin' it with a female President, a smattering of low-flying transportational and surveillance aircraft, a stronger international alliance with the world's greatest leaders (even Russia!), and a fully operational moon base. Life's pretty sweet these days, so long as you don't have a chip on your shoulder about your parents dying when a bunch of aliens messed your planet up in 1996 (which, conveniently enough, most of this film's heroes have in common).

Earlier today, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced that the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees has appointed Katherine Maher as its new executive director.

Maher formerly served as communications officer for Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that governs the massive online encyclopedia. She became interim director in March following a period of turmoil during which a board member and former Executive Director Lila Tretikov both resigned. Those resignations came after an unprecedented "no-confidence" vote by the site's editors.

"Our mission is vast, diverse, and inclusive, where everyone can find a home and purpose," said Maher in a statement. "We are driven by an insatiable curiosity for the world around us, and a fundamental belief in the power of collaboration and cooperation. I'm honored by this opportunity to serve this remarkable organization and movement, and I look forward to building our future together."

Theranos CEO and founder Elizabeth Holmes. (credit: Max Morse for TechCrunch)

In recent months, medical testing company Theranos has been slammed by media reports and federal inspections that say its blood testing devices don’t work. Amid the revelations, the company’s president stepped down, Theranos voided or corrected tens of thousands of blood test results, and Walgreens dumped its arrangement. Theranos now faces hefty federal sanctions, criminal charges, and several lawsuits from ex-customers. It has seen its valuation drop from $9 billion to just $800 million.

Still, “nothing’s gone wrong with Theranos,” according to ground-floor investor, Tim Draper.

In a Thursday interview with Bloomberg, Draper accused competitors and others of unfairly drumming up negative publicity and excessive scrutiny on Theranos and its founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes. “Theranos is being attacked by the powers that be in big pharma, in [Holmes’] competitors, in the world of medical insurance, the people in government who are going to be very much affected by a really cheap, really effective, wonderful solution,” he said. Those attacks echo “the way Uber was being attacked by the taxi drivers and Bitcoin was attacked by the banks,” he explained.

(credit: wbeem)

Comodo, the world's biggest issuer of browser-trusted digital certificates for websites, has come under fire for registering trademarks containing the words "let's encrypt," a phrase that just happens to be the name of a nonprofit project that provides certificates for free.

In a blog post, a Let's Encrypt senior official said Comodo has filed applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office for at least three such trademarks, including "Let's Encrypt," "Let's Encrypt with Comodo," and "Comodo Let's Encrypt." Over the past few months, the nonprofit has repeatedly asked Comodo to abandon the applications, and Comodo has declined. Let's Encrypt, which is the public face of the Internet Security Research Group, said it has been using the name since November 2014.

"We’ve forged relationships with millions of websites and users under the name Let’s Encrypt, furthering our mission to make encryption free, easy, and accessible to everyone," Josh Aas, ISRG executive director, wrote. "We’ve also worked hard to build our unique identity within the community and to make that identity a reliable indicator of quality. We take it very seriously when we see the potential for our users to be confused, or worse, the potential for a third party to damage the trust our users have placed in us by intentionally creating such confusion."

United Launch Alliance

An Atlas V rocket launched Friday morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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The Atlas V rocket is not the world's most powerful rocket, but it can credibly claim to be the most reliable. Before Friday morning, it had flown 62 times into space, completing its primary mission each time. That 100 percent mission success rate is unparalleled in the history of orbital rockets over so many flights. Accordingly, it's a source of pride for its manufacturer, United Launch Alliance.

The 63rd flight on Friday was also a success, delivering the MUOS-5 satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit 31,000km above Earth for the US Navy. This is the final satellite in the five-satellite constellation, which provides war fighters with significantly improved communications.

The launch was also notable because it flew the 551 variant of the rocket. This combines the core stage along with five solid rocket boosters, which burn for 88.3 seconds at the beginning of the flight to give the rocket an initial kick off the launch pad. This most powerful variant of the Atlas V rocket can deliver up to 19 tons of payload to low-Earth orbit and 8.9 tons to geostationary transfer orbit. The 551 configuration first flew back in 2006, when it launched the New Horizons mission to Pluto.

The Surface 3's non-LTE version.

Microsoft's Surface 3 impressed us when it launched last spring. It's a smaller, cheaper iteration of its Surface Pro concept, and this setup struck us as a pretty compelling mix. But there are signs that the device is not long for this world. Brad Sams at Thurrott.com writes that many versions are listed as out of stock in Microsoft's online store, with no expected availability. Online, only the 2GB RAM/64GB storage/LTE version is in stock.

In-store stock levels show a bit more availability, but the Surface 3 remains limited, with only some configurations on offer.

This kind of shortage at this stage in a device's life is generally an indication that manufacturing is slowing down or stopping entirely, and evidence points to this possibly being the case. In a statement, Microsoft said: