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Phoenix OS is an Android-based operating system designed to work like a desktop OS. There’s a taskbar, support for running apps in windows that can be positioned anywhere on the screen, and there’s a sort of start menu instead of a full-screen app drawer. We first took a look at Phoenix OS more than a […]
Phoenix OS 2.0 Alpha released: Android 7.1 as a dekstop OS is a post from: Liliputing
Phoenix OS is an Android-based operating system designed to work like a desktop OS. There’s a taskbar, support for running apps in windows that can be positioned anywhere on the screen, and there’s a sort of start menu instead of a full-screen app drawer. We first took a look at Phoenix OS more than a […]
Phoenix OS 2.0 Alpha released: Android 7.1 as a dekstop OS is a post from: Liliputing
Report suggests NASA should become a customer, just like the US Air Force.
Enlarge / An artist's conception of an SLS launch. (credit: NASA)
After President George W. Bush announced a plan to return to the Moon and move on to Mars in 2004, NASA began to consider how best to carry out that vision. Although there were some promising private-sector rockets even then, administrator Michael Griffin set the agency on the course of building its own rockets and spacecraft. Those programs have evolved into the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.
Since then, according to a new report published by the nonpartisan think tank Center for a New American Security, NASA has spent $19 billion on rockets, first on Ares I and V, and now on the SLS. Additionally, the agency has spent $13.9 billion on the Orion spacecraft. The agency hopes to finally fly its first crewed mission with the new vehicles in 2021. If it does so, the report estimates the agency will have spent $43 billion before that first flight, essentially a reprise of the Apollo 8 mission around the Moon.
These costs can then be compared to the total cost of the entire Apollo program, which featured six separate human landings on the Moon. According to two separate estimates, the Apollo program cost between $100 billion and $110 billion in 2010 dollars. Thus just the development effort for SLS and Orion, which includes none of the expenses related to in-space activities or landing anywhere, are already nearly half that of the Apollo program.
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Plus, Ars shares what stood out from a festival that plays this alongside Terrence Malick.
AUSTIN, Texas—South by Southwest's film schedule refuses to hold your hand. While projects like Nobody Speaks ("the Gawker trial documentary") or Life (a modern sci-fi thriller, à la Alien) have loglines that can guide you, that's not the case for everything being shown. Case in point: Sylvio, a "comedy, drama, fantasy" about "a small town gorilla stuck in his job." Huh?
If Sylvio immediately gives off the impression it's a small arthouse/theater-of-the-absurd affair, that's because it is to some extent. Filmmakers Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney have created a slow and stylish version of Baltimore where a gorilla can shoot hoops or play some vinyl, all within perfectly composed frames Wes Anderson would approve of. The score is minimalistic, 8-bit, and catchy. The deadpan humor has a degree of intentional, Tim & Eric-styled awkwardness (though the absurdity is turned down a bit in comparison). Together, these taste elements make the mundane interesting to some extent—but after seeing it, I still didn't really understand why Sylvio became a film.
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A Court of Appeal in Rome has overturned a 600,000 euro ruling against four unlicensed sites that offered streaming movies to the public. The Court found that merely providing links does not qualify as distributing files protected by copyright, even though the sites generated revenue via advertising.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
When it comes to passing judgment on so-called ‘pirate’ sites, Italy has more experience than most around Europe. Courts have passed down many decisions against unlicensed sites which have seen hundreds blocked by ISPs.
Today, however, news coming out of the country suggests that the parameters of what defines a pirate site may not be so loosely interpreted in future.
It began in 2015 when the operator of four sites that linked to pirated movies was found guilty of copyright infringement by a local court and ordered to pay more almost 600,000 in fines and costs. As a result, filmakers.biz, filmaker.me, filmakerz.org, and cineteka.org all shutdown but in the background, an appeal was filed.
The appeal was heard by the Rome Court of Appeal in February and now, through lawyer Fulvio Sarzana who defended the sites’ operator, we hear of a particularly interesting ruling.
“The Court ruled that the indication of links does not qualify as making direct disposal of files protected by copyright law,” Sarzana told TF in an email.
Often in these kinds of cases, the presence of a financial motivation by a site operator can play a crucial role. In this matter, however, even revenue generation via advertising failed to tip the scales in the prosecution’s favor.
“The Judge has recognized as lawful the portals’ activities, and this despite the presence of advertising banners,” Sarzana says.
According to the lawyer, it is not enough to simply show that the ‘pirate’ site generates income. The prosecution must also show that profit activity is connected to an individual. If it does not, the sharing aspect could be considered as merely avoiding an expense rather than a for-profit activity designed to generate “significant gain”. In the event, that’s exactly what happened.
“In fact, the Judge ruled that file sharing, i.e the sharing of files protected by copyright, is a saving of expense and not a for-profit business. Therefore, in these cases you cannot apply the penal provisions of copyright law and the resulting administrative sanctions,” Sarzana notes.
The decision to clear the sites of all charges and overturn the financial penalties against their operator is bound to prove a controversial one, not just locally but across the EU as a whole. Only time will tell how the decision will affect the bigger picture.
Meanwhile, the complexities of the case have not been lost on Federico Bagnoli Rossi, Secretary General of the Federation for the Protection of Audiovisual and Multimedia Content (FAPAV). He believes that traditional legal avenues are not the only way to tackle the piracy problem.
“We are aware of the difficulties encountered in investigative activities and for this reason we are convinced that intermediaries should assume their responsibilities and work more closely with all parties involved in protecting culture,” Rossi says.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Elevating the humble Alta with a heart-rate monitor and sleep facts.
Video shot/edited by Jennifer Hahn. (video link)
Making an accurate wristband heart rate monitor, let alone one that's also comfortable and stylish, is challenging. Fitbit's latest attempt to strike that balance is the $150 Alta HR. A near mirror-image of the original Alta, the Alta HR is an updated model with slight design differences, improved sleep-tracking features, and a tiny optical heart-rate monitor inside of it.
The Alta HR is quite similar to Fitbit's currently available Charge 2, but the Alta HR places more emphasis on the combination of a slim design and an accurate heart-rate monitor. Fitbit is banking on that combination encouraging users to wear a device all day and all night long. The Alta HR is proof that you can have a device that works as hard as you do without being ostentatious and without much sacrifice.
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Eine vorhersehbare Sicherheitslücke im Webserver eines Geschirrspülers für Großküchen ermöglicht den Zugriff auf die Daten des Servers. Hersteller Miele reagiert offenbar weder auf den Fehlerbericht noch stellt das Unternehmen einen Patch bereit. (Security, Server-Applikationen)
Eine vorhersehbare Sicherheitslücke im Webserver eines Geschirrspülers für Großküchen ermöglicht den Zugriff auf die Daten des Servers. Hersteller Miele reagiert offenbar weder auf den Fehlerbericht noch stellt das Unternehmen einen Patch bereit. (Security, Server-Applikationen) Wer in Diablo 3 den Monstern schon eigene Spitznamen gibt, sollte einen Abstecher in Vikings: Wolves of Midgard wagen: Das im Szenario der Wikinger angesiedelte Hack-and-Slay bietet neben einer sehr guten Steuerung auch ein paar frische Ideen. (Spielet…
Wer in Diablo 3 den Monstern schon eigene Spitznamen gibt, sollte einen Abstecher in Vikings: Wolves of Midgard wagen: Das im Szenario der Wikinger angesiedelte Hack-and-Slay bietet neben einer sehr guten Steuerung auch ein paar frische Ideen. (Spieletest, Diablo) 
Erfolg auf Kickstarter: Das im Kalten Krieg angesiedelte Strategiespiel All Walls Must Fall ist finanziert. Das ambitionierte Projekt spielt im Berlin der Zukunft - und dürfte auch für Fans elektronischer Musik interessant sein. (
Nicht mal ein Viertel der Nutzer erhält im Festnetz die vertraglich versprochene maximale Datenrate. Die Ergebnisse der Breitbandmessung der Bundesnetzagentur zeigen, dass die Kunden systematisch belogen werden. (
Das Azure Service Fabric von Microsoft nutzen das Unternehmen selbst und seine Kunden zum Erstellen von Microservices in der Cloud. Auf Wunsch der Nutzer ist nun ein erstes SDK dafür Open Source, weitere Bestandteile könnten folgen. (
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