February 2017 – Page 116 – news.buyenne.com

FCC tries something new: Making proposals public before voting on them

Wheeler said releasing text before vote would cripple process—now we’ll find out.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai yesterday announced a seemingly simple step to make the FCC's rulemaking process more open to the public: the FCC intends to release the full text of rulemakings before they're voted on instead of days after the vote.

Pai and fellow Republican Michael O'Rielly repeatedly complained about the secrecy of rulemakings when Democrat Tom Wheeler was chairman. Wheeler followed the practice of previous chairs by publicly releasing a summary of the proposed rules a few weeks before the FCC's meetings, while negotiations over the final text of orders continued behind closed doors. The actual text of rulemakings wasn't released until after the vote.

In the case of net neutrality, Pai complained three weeks before the vote that he couldn't share the full text of the draft order with the public. The full text wasn't released until two weeks after the vote.

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Forensik: Elcomsoft kann jetzt Whatsapp auf Android knacken

Das Whatsapp-Tool des Herstellers Elcomsoft ist in der Version 2.0 auch für Android erschienen und soll die Extraktion der verschlüsselten Gesprächsverläufe ermöglichen. Bislang konnten Whatsapp-Gespräche vor allem aus Apples iCloud-Backup ausgelesen werden. (Whatsapp, Verschlüsselung)

Sony: PS4 speichert bald Spiele auf externen Festplatten

Sony hat die wichtigsten neuen Funktionen von Firmware 4.50 für die Playstation 4 vorgestellt. Neben der Möglichkeit, Spiele auf externen Festplatten zu speichern, soll es auch Unterstützung von Playstation VR für Filme auf 3D-Blu-rays geben. (Playstation 4, Sony)

LG is fixing 5K monitor issue that causes failure when near WiFi routers

Apple stopped selling its own displays last year, and instead the company now sells a set of high-end 4K and 5K monitors from LG.

But there’s one small problem: as 9to5Mac reported this week, the LG 27″ UltraFine 5K display doesn’t work properly when placed closed to a WiFi router.

No, really. If you place it within 2 meters (about 6.6 feet) of a router, the screen can flicker or go black.

Continue reading LG is fixing 5K monitor issue that causes failure when near WiFi routers at Liliputing.

Apple stopped selling its own displays last year, and instead the company now sells a set of high-end 4K and 5K monitors from LG.

But there’s one small problem: as 9to5Mac reported this week, the LG 27″ UltraFine 5K display doesn’t work properly when placed closed to a WiFi router.

No, really. If you place it within 2 meters (about 6.6 feet) of a router, the screen can flicker or go black.

Continue reading LG is fixing 5K monitor issue that causes failure when near WiFi routers at Liliputing.

Piaggio: Roboter Gita fährt die Einkäufe nach Hause

Gita folgt auf dem Fuße: Die Piaggio-Tochter PFF hat einen schicken Roboter entwickelt, der Lasten wie Einkäufe nach Hause bringt. Gita ist schnell genug, um einem Fahrrad folgen zu können. Dabei nutzt sie eine interessante Art der Navigation. (Roboter, Technologie)

Shrimp price fluctuations help pinpoint the economic effects of pollution

New method could be useful for quantifying the effects of marine pollution.

Low oxygen levels cause a big problem for aquatic ecosystems. When oxygen falls below two milligrams per liter, the area is classed as “hypoxic,” a condition that can be driven by pollution such as agricultural runoff. Hypoxia has an effect on marine life that’s pretty relevant to fisheries: low oxygen in the environment slows down the growth of individual animals, meaning that populations are made up of smaller creatures.

Research published in PNAS this week, led by Martin D. Smith at Duke University, uses a new method that takes a big step toward being able to quantify the economic impacts of the pollution that causes hypoxia. The approach could give policymakers a better tool to understand the costs and benefits of various pollution controls. Their technique could also help researchers to observe the effects of marine disturbances in other areas.

Smith and his colleagues looked at data from the Gulf of Mexico, which has the world’s largest area of seasonal hypoxia, peaking in the summer. The area is home to an important brown shrimp fishery, which should show the effects of hypoxia—but it’s not quite so simple to detect this.

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House pulls back rule to keep guns from severely mentally ill

It would have kept those unable to run their own finances from buying firearms.

The House voted 235-180 on Thursday in favor of striking down an Obama-era rule intended to keep guns out of the hands of the severely mentally ill.

The rule would require the Social Security Administration to forward information about certain beneficiaries with mental health disorders to the FBI’s background check system. Beneficiaries affected would be those suffering with mental illnesses so severe that they require a representative to manage their finances for them.

The rule, originally slated to go into effect in December, is estimated to affect 75,000 beneficiaries. Those impacted could appeal through the courts to purchase a firearm, but not before their names were sent to the FBI, The Hill reports.

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RF360 Holdings: Joint Venture für RF-Chips gegründet

Die TDK-Tochter Epcos mit Sitz in München wird Teil eines Joint Ventures mit Qualcomm. Gemeinsam sollen Hochfrequenz-Chips und Frequenzfilter entwickelt werden, die für Fahrzeuge, Smartphones oder IoT-Geräte gedacht sind. (Qualcomm)

Popular Kodi Addon ‘Exodus’ Turned Users into a DDoS ‘Botnet’

Exodus is one of the most-used Kodi addons out there, allowing users to obtain easy access to pirated movies and TV-shows. However, over the past week the same users were unwittingly part of a DDoS attack. After the issue raised eyebrows in the community, the Exodus developer rolled back the malicious code and retired.

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

exodus-movies Millions of people use Kodi as their main source of entertainment, often with help from add-ons that allow them to access pirated movies and TV-shows.

One of the most popular addons is Exodus. The software is maintained by “Lambda,” who’s one of the most prolific developers in the community.

Exodus is widely praised as one of the most useful addons to access streaming video, including pirated movies and TV-shows. This prominent position also brings along quite a few adversaries, which recently led to an unusual situation.

Due to the controversial nature of his work, Lambda has always preferred to remain anonymous. However, he was recently confronted with some people who copied his work and/or threatened to expose his real identity. But instead of backing down, he launched an attack.

Roughly a week ago several lines of code were added to the Exodus plugin, which contacted external sites. While this is nothing new for Kodi addons, in this case the lines in question were targeting resources of Lambda’s adversaries.

Soon after people started to notice, complaints started rolling in accusing Exodus of creating a DDoS “botnet.” The Ares Blog mentioned the issue and a lively discussion started in the TV Addons forum, where the developer himself joined in defending his actions.

The offending code

exodusddos

Lambda says that he added the code as a countermeasure against people who he believes are trying to do harm or get him in legal trouble. The users themselves are not harmed by the code since they are simply trying to access another web source, he adds.

“Like I said they try to find my identity and give me legal trouble. I have no choice but to protect myself. If this won’t help me to defend myself I will retire from all these and focus on my legal addons,” the developer notes.

While some people sympathized with the move, Lambda eventually decided to make the “protection” feature optional. Still, that didn’t satisfy everyone and soon after the developer decided to throw in the towel and retire.

“I just couldn’t deal with all this stress anymore, I made bad decisions that I shouldn’t take and I am sorry about that,” Lambda explains in a formal apology.

“I think this is the time for me to leave, this whole thing is changing me as a person, so it’s time for me to take care of myself and leave this scene once and for all,” he adds.

TorrentFreak reached out to TV Addons repository which offers the Exodus addon, and they told us that the malicious code is no longer present. They are very unhappy with the incident and say they did their best to resolve the matter as swiftly as possible.

“The actions taken were inexcusable,” TV Addons’ Eleazar informed us. When they found out about the code, the developer’s repository was locked and they stress that “this situation is not being taken lightly.”

TV Addons has previously published a malicious code policy and says it takes an active stance against this type of abuse. As such, the team has taken it upon themselves to continue the development of Exodus, with Lambda’s approval.

“Moving forward, his addons will be maintained by another member of our team. TV ADDONS stands for the end user first, integrity is of our utmost concern,” Eleazar notes.

As for Lambda himself, he plans to continue his work on other projects.

“I want to thank everybody who stood by me all these years. It’s time for me to move on and I hope the team to take over my beloved addon. Take care everybody,” he concludes.

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

PS4 will soon support external USB hard drives

Coming firmware upgrade allows for easy storage expansion up to 8TB.

Until now, expanding the storage space on your PS4 from the standard 500GB to 1TB built into the system involved opening up the system and sliding in a new internal drive. That process won't be necessary for much longer, as the PS4's upcoming Version 4.5 firmware will add support for USB 3.0 hard drives up to 8TB.

Just before the PS4 launched in 2013, Sony noted that PS4 games had to be "cached to the hard drive to ensure a smooth gaming experience." If streaming all that game data to the system over a USB connection was a bottleneck at launch, it's apparently no longer a concern for Sony (at least for drives that support USB 3.0's faster data transfer rates). Games, saved data, and captures screenshots and videos will all be storable on external drives, and that data will show up on the main system menu without the need to shuffle them to the internal storage.

The announcement of the external HD support comes as the beta of firmware version 4.5 rolls out to selected PS4 users today. That firmware also brings the ability to use in-game screenshots as home screen wallpapers, streamlined interface improvements, and new support for stereoscopic 3D Blu-Ray discs.

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