July 2017 – Page 7 – news.buyenne.com

Better Call Saul needed 3D printing and an Arduino to arm Mike Ehrmantraut

BCS‘s SFX/props team is so good, they had to dumb down some work to keep it legal.

Learn a little about the tech behind Better Call Saul (video link)

Warning: This story contains mild spoilers for Breaking Bad and S3 of Better Call Saul.

Whether on Better Call Saul or Breaking Bad, Mike Ehrmantraut has proven himself handy within all sorts of situations. So when faced with quite the pickle on this recent season of Saul—the character discovers some shady organization has planted a GPS tracker of sorts within his car’s gas cap—he doesn’t panic. Of course, Mike Ehrmantraut has a plan. He even knows a guy who can get him a MILSPEC-like tracker of his own.

No spoilers, but neither Joseph Ulibarri nor Jason Delap turn out to be Ehrmantraut’s guy. Still, this duo is absolutely essential to putting the gear in Mike’s hands. That’s because this particular GPS tracker didn’t exist before S3 of Better Call Saul, and Ulibarri (special effects) and Delap (props) help lead the behind-the-scenes effort needed to change that. “We try to MacGyver stuff up when things that don’t exist need to,” Delap tells Ars.

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Pokemon Go Fest’s blunders result in class-action lawsuit

What could go wrong other than spotty Internet, huge lines, and a server meltdown?

By many accounts, the Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago last week was a failure of epic proportions. The main thing that many festival-goers found—instead of make-believe characters in the game—was themselves standing in huge lines and without Internet at a 20,000-person party to celebrate the augmented reality game's first year in operation.

Things were so bad that many fans couldn't even log into the game because of server problems and overloaded cell towers at the Grant Park festival. The tickets had a face value of $20, but sold for much more on the secondary market because of high demand.

"I know that some of you guys have had trouble getting logged on this morning, and I wanted to let you know that we're working with the cell companies—AT&T, Sprint, Verizon—trying to get that worked out," Niantic's chief executive, John Hanke, told the crowd July 22.

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Großbritannien: Fast alle Haushalte sollen mindestens 10 MBit/s erhalten

Um einer verpflichtenden Universalversorgung zu entgehen, macht BT ein Angebot, 99 Prozent aller Haushalte zu versorgen. Es werde FTTC, Fibre To The Home (FTTH), und – für sehr entlegene Haushalte – Fixed Wireless gebaut. (G.fast, DSL)

Um einer verpflichtenden Universalversorgung zu entgehen, macht BT ein Angebot, 99 Prozent aller Haushalte zu versorgen. Es werde FTTC, Fibre To The Home (FTTH), und - für sehr entlegene Haushalte - Fixed Wireless gebaut. (G.fast, DSL)

Deutschland: Streamingportal Dazn will mehr Sportrechte

Das Streaming-Portal für Sport Dazn will sein Angebot ausbauen. Zudem soll es den Dienst auch bei Vodafone Kabel und im IP-TV-Angebot der Deutschen Telekom geben. (Streaming, ARD)

Placing humans at center of computer optimization yields hot plasmas

Human decision making in computer optimization yields hot plasma in alt-fusion.

If there is one thing I hate, it's optimization. Computers don't actually understand what they are optimizing. And that creates problems for everything from bicycles to nuclear fusion.

The process goes something like this: you have a mathematical model of a bicycle. You want your bike to perform better, but there are so many things that can be changed, so you can't imagine finding the best configuration on your own. So you write a script. The script will vary the configuration of the bicycle and evaluate whether it is improved. After many iterations, you have the perfect bike, right?

No, you don't. What you didn't imagine was that the computer would remove the seat. Or that it would place, for no apparent reason, a third wheel between the (now removed) saddle and handlebars. Even worse, the stupid machine has got the chain passing through a bit of solid steel.

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LG Display: Apple gibt 2,67 Milliarden US-Dollar für OLED-Panels aus

Apple will einen zweiten Lieferanten für die OLED-Panels in seinem künftigen iPhone. Die Partnerschaft mit LG Display wurde nun laut einem Medienbericht geschlossen. (OLED, Display)

Now Kodi ‘Navi-X’ Domains Get Signed Over to Law Firm

Last week several domains previously operated by Kodi addon repository TVAddons were transferred to a Canadian law firm. This week the action continued, with domains previously connected to the now-defunct Kodi addon Navi-X suffering the same fate. Meanwhile, more TVAddon domains have been placed in the law firm’s hands.

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

In the wake of the Dish Network lawsuit filed against TVAddons in Texas, the booming Kodi third-party addon scene received its first real taste of corporate power.

With lawyers breathing down their necks, several high-profile Kodi addons took the decision to shut down and even TVAddons itself went offline without explanation.

With very little news surfacing, last week we revealed how three key domains previously operated by TVAddons had ended up in new hands. TVAddons.ag, the site’s main domain, plus Offshoregit.com and XBMCHUB.com, were transferred to Canadian law firm, DrapeauLex.

With no explanations forthcoming from company owner Daniel Drapeau or staff at TVAddons, no solid conclusions could be reached. Was this part of a settlement with Dish Networks or was something unrelated underway?

With everyone involved remaining tight-lipped since, further investigations by TorrentFreak this week have revealed more developments on the domain shifting front, with one in particular catching the eye.

Back in May, one of the oldest and most popular Kodi addons was shut down by its operators. Navi-X, which was used by hundreds of thousands of people, was discontinued after spam, pollution of its indexes, and mislabeled adult content piled on top of general legal fears.

Navi-X was a particularly iconic piece of software. Launched in 2007 by Netherlands-based coder ‘Rodejo,’ it debuted on XBMC (Kodi’s previous name) on the original XBoX. Subsequent success aside, that longevity put the addon into the history books.

So why then is Navi-X’s former main domain now in the hands of the same law firm that’s taken control of TVAddons’ domains?

Now Navi-X’s domain is in the hands of lawyers

Navixtreme.com was first registered in November 2007 and was the key domain associated with Navi-X. For years it was prominently displayed on the addons’ Twitter feed, for example. Another domain – navi-x.org – was registered more recently in February 2017. Both are now under the control of lawyer Daniel Drapeau.

What is unusual about this situation is that Navi-X shut down long before the Dish lawsuit was filed against TVAddons. If TVAddons did indeed shut down because of that lawsuit, why then have the domains of Navi-X been transferred in the same manner as TVAddons’ domains? They certainly weren’t mentioned in the lawsuit so one has to conclude that something else is at play here.

Again, no one wants to talk, but the situation appears to be fluid. In addition to the TVAddons .ag domain that was transferred last week, the law firm has now acquired other TVAddons domains that were registered around the same time, including TVAddons.com, .org, and .TV.

Something unusual is undoubtedly going on in the addon scene but quite where this will all end up is currently anyone’s guess. All the signs point to legal action of some kind but the nature of that is still unclear. That being said, it’s unlikely to remain a secret forever.

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

Rust: “C ist eine feindselige Sprache”

Der Mitbegründer des Gnome-Projekts Federico Mena Quintero ist nicht mehr besonders überzeugt von der Sprache C und empfiehlt aus eigener Erfahrung stattdessen Rust – vor allem für Parser. Ein Bericht von Sebastian Grüner (Rust, Gnome)

Der Mitbegründer des Gnome-Projekts Federico Mena Quintero ist nicht mehr besonders überzeugt von der Sprache C und empfiehlt aus eigener Erfahrung stattdessen Rust - vor allem für Parser. Ein Bericht von Sebastian Grüner (Rust, Gnome)

Hexacore-CPU: Intels Coffee Lake schaffen 4,7 GHz Boost

Sechs Kerne und enorm hohe Frequenzen: Intels neue Mittelklasse-CPUs (Coffee Lake) laufen mit bis zu 4,7 GHz auf einem und bis zu 4,3 GHz auf allen Cores. Die für den Sockel LGA 1151 gedachten Chips werden gegen AMDs Ryzen positioniert. (Intel Coffee Lake, Prozessor)

Paramount Commits to Dolby Vision, Atmos for 4K UHD Releases

Paramount Home Media has announced plans to introduce Ultra HD Blu-ray discs titles that have been encoded with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos surround sound.

Paramount joins Warner Bros., Sony and Lionsgate in embracing Dolby Vision to release HDR enabled content on 4K.

Up until now, most HDR releases have used the HDR10 standard, which UHD Blu-ray that features HDR must support as part of its specs.

Dolby Vision, however, offers several improvements over the open HDR10 standard, including greater color depth (12-bit vs HDR10's 10-bit), support for a brighter picture (1,000-4,000 nits vs always 4,000 nits) and Dolby Vision enabled TVs feature a special chip that knows the TV's own capabilities and helps these displays produce the best possible reproduction of the film compared to the original masters.

It is these qualities that Paramount cites as the reason behind their support for Dolby Vision, as well as Dolby's latest object based surround sound technology, Atmos.

"The combination of high-quality, immersive audio and dramatic visual imaging truly elevates the home viewing experience,” Buchi said a statement," said Bob Buchi, president of worldwide home media distribution at Paramount Pictures.

[via Home Media Magazine]