Month: March 2017

Music superstar Ed Sheeran has let known his secret to success: illegal file sharing!

In an interview with CBS, Sheeran, the artist behind hits 'Photograph' and 'Shape of You', was asked what helped him get to where he is today. And his answer was simple and surprising.

It was fans and their use of illegal file sharing, that helped him get recognized. 

"I know that’s a bad thing to say, because I'm part of a music industry that doesn’t like illegal file sharing," said Sheeran.

"Yeah, but illegal fire sharing was what made me. It was students in England going to university, sharing my songs with each other."

But today's new artists may no longer need to rely on piracy to get noticed, as Sheeran says that file sharing basically no longer exists, thanks to the introduction of a raft of new legal alternatives.

"I don't think file sharing exists now ... Yeah, I think people rip off YouTube. That's a thing. But I feel like it’s so easy to stream," explained Sheeran.

[via CBS]

Enlarge / Passwords help keep hackers like this out, but passwords are pretty terrible. (credit: TeachPrivacy)

The operator of a website that accepts subscriber logins only over unencrypted HTTP pages has taken to Mozilla's Bugzilla bug-reporting service to complain. He is bemoaning how the Firefox browser is warning that the page isn't suitable for the transmission of passwords.

"Your notice of insecure password and/or log-in automatically appearing on the log-in for my website, Oil and Gas International, is not wanted and was put there without our permission," a person with the user name dgeorge wrote here. "Please remove it immediately. We have our own security system, and it has never been breached in more than 15 years. Your notice is causing concern by our subscribers and is detrimental to our business."

As a member of the Mozilla developer team promptly pointed out, both Firefox and Chrome routinely issue warnings whenever users encounter a log-in page that's not protected by HTTPS encryption. The warnings became standard earlier this year.

Enlarge / The spikes here represent the cost of unlocking everything in the game. The big guy is Ubisoft...

At this point in the evolving history of video-game economics, we're used to free-to-play games that make you pay exorbitant sums or grind for a ridiculous number of hours to unlock a bunch of digital trinkets. But Ubisoft's For Honor is the latest game to add a ridiculous number of paid and/or grindy unlockables on top of a pay-up-front games. It asks for over $730 or over 5,200 hours of gameplay to unlock everything.

The particular math here comes from Reddit user bystander007, who calculates that unlocking all the emotes, executions, effects, outfits, and ornaments for a single character in For Honor costs 91,500 in-game “Steel.” That includes the most recent batch of emotes which cost a hefty 7,000 Steel each just for the benefit of taunting your opponent in a specific manner. To unlock everything for all 12 in-game heroes costs nearly 1.1 million Steel. That's roughly $732 (£610) in real money at the current best exchange rate of $100 (£83) for 150,000 Steel.

While you can also earn Steel for free during regular gameplay, earning enough to unlock everything in For Honor would take a good long while. Bystander007 estimates a dedicated player could earn about 23,500 Steel in a full week of insane, 16-hour daily grinds through Duel matches and regular Contract rewards. Even at that rate, it would take about 11 months (326 days) to earn that 1.1 million Steel to unlock everything. For players that can only play a couple of hours a day, the amount of grinding time needed is astronomical.

Enlarge / A customer in Apple's store in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2010. A report by a major New Zealand newspaper found Apple hasn't paid any taxes in New Zealand. (credit: Brendon O'Hagan / AFP / Getty Images)

The big technology story in New Zealand this weekend is about Apple's tax bill. Or rather, the lack thereof.

The electronics giant sold $4.2 billion (NZD) worth of products in New Zealand, but it didn't pay any local tax at all. That's according to a Saturday report from the New Zealand Herald. Apple did pay $37 million in income tax based on its New Zealand sales, but it paid that money to the Australian government, since that's where the New Zealand operation is run from.

The arrangement to send the tax on New Zealand profits to Australia has been in place since at least 2007. Experts confirmed the arrangement is legal under New Zealand law.

Enlarge / the Australian funnel-web spider (Hadronyche infensa) (credit: Toby Hudson)

It may not be radioactive, but venom from a dangerous spider in Australia may help give researchers the super power of protecting brains from strokes.

Venom from the Australian funnel-web spider (Hadronyche infensa) contains a chemical that shuts down an ion channel known to malfunction in brain cells after strokes, researchers report Monday in PNAS. In cell experiments, the harmless chemical protected brain cells from a toxic flood of ions unleashed after a stroke strikes. In rats, the venom component markedly protected the rats’ brains from extensive damage—even when it was given hours after a stroke occurred.

That “translates to improved behavioral outcomes, with a marked decrease in neurological deficits and motor impairment.” This is according to the authors of the report, who are researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland and Monash University.

Enlarge (credit: Floyd Wilde)

Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), a mechanism by which HTML5 video providers can discover and enable DRM providers offered by a browser, has taken the next step on its contentious road to standardization. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standards body that oversees most Web-related specifications, has moved the EME specification to the Proposed Recommendation stage.

The next and final stage is for the W3C's Advisory Committee to review the proposal. If it passes review, the proposal will be blessed as a full W3C Recommendation.

Ever since W3C decided to start working on a DRM proposal, there have been complaints from those who oppose DRM on principle. The work has continued regardless, with W3C director, and HTML's inventor, Tim Berners-Lee arguing that—given that DRM is already extant and, at least for video, unlikely to disappear any time soon—it's better for DRM-protected content to be a part of the Web ecosystem than to be separate from it.

Enlarge (credit: CDC)

Postpartum blues are a common and healthy range of sadness that tends to peak five days after giving birth. But those blues are also a high-risk state for postpartum depression, which is the most common childbearing complication in the US. A recent paper in PNAS shows that dietary supplements intended to combat physiological changes that occur after giving birth are effective in reducing the sadness associated with postpartum blues. This dietary supplement reduced postpartum sadness and effectively cut the risk of postpartum depression.

For psychiatrists, postpartum blues are considered the “prodrome” for postpartum depression. That means that increased postpartum blues signal the likely onset of postpartum depression. If the severity of the postpartum blues could be reduced, then the likelihood of developing depression should also be reduced.

Postpartum blues are thought to be driven by hormonal changes. After giving birth, women experience a severe drop in estrogen and progesterone levels, and these declines are thought to be associated with depressive symptoms. Postpartum depression is also associated with changes in brain chemicals, including an elevation in the enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), which helps the brain regulate neurotransmitter activity.

Enlarge / Flight attendants from Royal Jordanian attend a ceremony to induct two new Airbus jets in 2010. (credit: KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP/Getty Images)

US authorities will no longer allow travelers from 13 African and Middle Eastern countries to bring computer and laptops into airplane cabins anymore, two news agencies have reported.

The new rules were laid out in an e-mail sent to airlines today by the US Transportation Safety Administration. This is according to The Guardian, which was first to report on the matter. Cell phones will still be allowed, but anything larger—including laptops, tablets, and cameras—must be put in checked baggage. CNN, citing two unnamed "administration officials," confirmed the report.

It isn't clear which airlines received the new directive, but The Guardian reports that at least Royal Jordanian and Saudia Airlines are among the airlines affected. The affected airlines have 96 hours to comply.