“Pizzagate” DC shooter pleads guilty, faces years in prison

At sentencing hearing, judge asks defendant if he was the culprit: “Yes ma’am.”

Enlarge / The Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington, DC., where Edgar Maddison Welch stormed to "self-investigate" Pizzagate. (credit: Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images)

A North Carolina man pleaded guilty Friday to weapons-related charges for a December episode in which he stormed a Washington, DC pizzeria and fired rounds from a Colt AR-15 assault-style rifle. The incident was a bid to "self-investigate" an unfounded conspiracy theory concerning the restaurant's basement being the secret headquarters of a nonexistent child sex-trafficking ring whose (again, nonexistant) members included Hillary Clinton and her inner circle.

(credit: Facebook)

No one was injured, but the episode sent Comet Ping Pong employees and patrons running for their lives when Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, walked in with the assault weapon and a .38-caliber Colt revolver. Later, Welch pointed the AR-15 at a restaurant worker before shooting a computer and a lock on a backroom door.

Welch pleaded guilty to two counts. One charge was the interstate transport of firearms. The other was a local count of assault with a dangerous weapon. Welch remains jailed, and he faces up to a seven-year prison term when sentenced later this year. He faced a substantially longer term had he been convicted at trial.

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XMPP: Bundesnetzagentur will hundert Jabber-Clients regulieren

Die Bundesnetzagentur will offenbar nicht mehr nur Telekommunikationsdienste regulieren, sondern auch Software. Mehr als 100 Entwickler von XMPP-Clients wurden angeschrieben und sollen sich einer Registrierung unterziehen. Von Hauke Gierow (Bundesnetza…

Die Bundesnetzagentur will offenbar nicht mehr nur Telekommunikationsdienste regulieren, sondern auch Software. Mehr als 100 Entwickler von XMPP-Clients wurden angeschrieben und sollen sich einer Registrierung unterziehen. Von Hauke Gierow (Bundesnetzagentur, Instant Messenger)

How ISPs can sell your Web history—and how to stop them

How the Senate’s vote to kill privacy rules affects you.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | KrulUA)

The US Senate yesterday voted to eliminate privacy rules that would have forced ISPs to get your consent before selling Web browsing history and app usage history to advertisers. Within a week, the House of Representatives could follow suit, and the rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission last year would be eliminated by Congress.

So what has changed for Internet users? In one sense, nothing changed this week, because the requirement to obtain customer consent before sharing or selling data is not scheduled to take effect until at least December 4, 2017. ISPs didn’t have to follow the rules yesterday or the day before, and they won’t ever have to follow them if the rules are eliminated.

But the Senate vote is nonetheless one big step toward a major victory for ISPs, one that would give them legal certainty if they continue to make aggressive moves into the advertising market. The Senate vote invoked the Congressional Review Act, which lets Congress eliminate regulations it doesn't like and prevent the agency from issuing similar regulations in the future. For ISPs, this is better than the FCC undoing its own rules, because it means a future FCC won't be able to reinstate them.

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Synlight: Wie der Wasserstoff aus dem Sonnenlicht kommen soll

Das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt hat eine künstliche Sonne gebaut und will damit auch effizientere Wege zur Erzeugung von Wasserstoff suchen. Obwohl die Forschung schon ein halbes Jahrhundert läuft, funktioniert noch kein Prozess so gut wie erhofft. Von Frank Wunderlich-Pfeiffer (Solarenergie, Internet)

Das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt hat eine künstliche Sonne gebaut und will damit auch effizientere Wege zur Erzeugung von Wasserstoff suchen. Obwohl die Forschung schon ein halbes Jahrhundert läuft, funktioniert noch kein Prozess so gut wie erhofft. Von Frank Wunderlich-Pfeiffer (Solarenergie, Internet)

Zero Terminal: A DIY handheld Linux PC made from a Raspberry Pi and a cheap iPhone keyboard accessory

Zero Terminal: A DIY handheld Linux PC made from a Raspberry Pi and a cheap iPhone keyboard accessory

Looking for a tiny, Linux computer that’s small enough to fit in a pocket, but which has a keyboard, display, and everything else you need for computing on the go? I guess you could spend $69 on a Pocket CHIP. but you could also just build your own. That’s what a hacker that goes by […]

Zero Terminal: A DIY handheld Linux PC made from a Raspberry Pi and a cheap iPhone keyboard accessory is a post from: Liliputing

Zero Terminal: A DIY handheld Linux PC made from a Raspberry Pi and a cheap iPhone keyboard accessory

Looking for a tiny, Linux computer that’s small enough to fit in a pocket, but which has a keyboard, display, and everything else you need for computing on the go? I guess you could spend $69 on a Pocket CHIP. but you could also just build your own. That’s what a hacker that goes by […]

Zero Terminal: A DIY handheld Linux PC made from a Raspberry Pi and a cheap iPhone keyboard accessory is a post from: Liliputing

Pietsmiet: “Alle Twitch-Kanäle sind kostenpflichtiger Rundfunk”

Ein sichtlich verstörter Peter Smits von Pietsmiet hat sich über seinen Austausch mit der Landesmedienanstalt Nordrhein-Westfalen geäußert. Daraus würde sich ergeben, dass jeder Twitch-Kanal eine kostenpflichtige Sendelizenz benötigt. (Streaming, Games)

Ein sichtlich verstörter Peter Smits von Pietsmiet hat sich über seinen Austausch mit der Landesmedienanstalt Nordrhein-Westfalen geäußert. Daraus würde sich ergeben, dass jeder Twitch-Kanal eine kostenpflichtige Sendelizenz benötigt. (Streaming, Games)

Judge: eBay can’t be sued over seller accused of patent infringement

Who’s making the “offer for sale?”

eBay headquarters on January 22, 2014 in San Jose, California. (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

It's game over for an Alabama man who claims his patent on "Carpenter Bee Traps" is being infringed by competing products on eBay.

Robert Blazer filed his lawsuit in 2015, saying that his US Patent No. 8,375,624 was being infringed by a variety of products being sold on eBay. Blazer believed the online sales platform should have to pay him damages for infringing his patent. A patent can be infringed when someone sells or "offers to sell" a patented invention.

At first, Blazer went through eBay's official channels for reporting infringement, filing a "Notice of Claimed Infringement," or NOCI. At that point, his patent hadn't even been issued yet and was still a pending application, so eBay told him to get back in touch if his patent was granted.

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Apache-Lizenz 2.0: OpenSSL plant Lizenzwechsel an der Community vorbei

Ohne große vorherige öffentliche Diskussion soll OpenSSL künftig die Apache-Lizenz 2.0 nutzen. Vor allem die OpenBSD-Community kritisiert die Lizenz und das konkrete Vorgehen, das die Community spaltet und den Eindruck erweckt, als sei alles schon beschlossen. (OpenSSL, Urheberrecht)

Ohne große vorherige öffentliche Diskussion soll OpenSSL künftig die Apache-Lizenz 2.0 nutzen. Vor allem die OpenBSD-Community kritisiert die Lizenz und das konkrete Vorgehen, das die Community spaltet und den Eindruck erweckt, als sei alles schon beschlossen. (OpenSSL, Urheberrecht)

3DMark: Overhead-Test ersetzt Mantle durch Vulkan

Futuremark hat den Overhead-Feature-Test des 3DMark um eine Implementierung der Vulkan-Grafikschnittstelle erweitert, der indirekte Mantle-Vorgänger fällt im Gegenzug weg. Für Spiele ist der Test aber wenig aussagekräftig. (3DMark, API)

Futuremark hat den Overhead-Feature-Test des 3DMark um eine Implementierung der Vulkan-Grafikschnittstelle erweitert, der indirekte Mantle-Vorgänger fällt im Gegenzug weg. Für Spiele ist der Test aber wenig aussagekräftig. (3DMark, API)

GameStop expects the Switch to be hard to find through 2017

CEO predicts “Wii-like” sales potential amid instant sell-outs of new shipments.

(credit: JeepersMedia)

The successful launch of the Nintendo Switch earlier this month is already creating retail shortages and steep markups on the secondary market. Now, major retailer GameStop says it expects those kinds of shortages and nearly instant sell-through of shipments to last throughout 2017 in its more than 7,000 retail stores.

"The demand is incredibly strong for this [Switch] column," GameStop COO Tony Bartel said in an earnings call yesterday evening. "As soon as we get into our stores, it's out within hours. We anticipate that we're going to be chasing supply this entire year."

CEO Paul Raines said elsewhere in the call that the retailer's initial shipment of Switch systems sold out in two days and that "multiple replenishments since the launch... have sold out in hours." Bartel added that "there is tremendous demand for this, and we just don't know how high it is because every time we get it out in our stores it's literally gone."

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