Month: August 2017

Enlarge / Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. (credit: NYU Stern BHR)

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has quit President Donald Trump's American Manufacturing Council, he announced in a Monday statement.

"I resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues, including the serious need to address the decline of American manufacturing," Krzanich wrote.

Krzanich hinted that his resignation was connected to this weekend's violence in Charlottesville, VA. "I have already made clear my abhorrence at the recent hate-spawned violence in Charlottesville," he wrote. "Earlier today I called on all leaders to condemn the white supremacists and their ilk who marched and committed violence."

Enlarge / Police and demonstrators stand off in downtown Washington following the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. More than 200 people were indicted on rioting-related charges. An investigation continues. (credit: Stephen J. Boitano/Getty Images)

The Justice Department is seeking the 1.3 million IP addresses that visited a Trump resistance site. The search warrant is part of an investigation into Inauguration Day rioting, which has already resulted in the indictment of 200 people in the District of Columbia. DreamHost, the Web host of the disruptj20.org site that helped organize the January 20 protests, is challenging the warrant it was served as being an "unfocused search" and declared that it was a "clear abuse of government authority."

A hearing on the dispute is set for Friday in Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

"The request from the DOJ demands that DreamHost hand over 1.3 million visitor IP addresses—in addition to contact information, e-mail content, and photos of thousands of people—in an effort to determine who simply visited the website," DreamHost said in a blog post. "That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind."

Enlarge / Apple Watch Series 2. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Aetna's 50,000 employees already use Apple Watches as part of their corporate wellness program, but Aetna may soon extend that perk to its customers. According to a CNBC report, the health insurer has been in talks with Apple to provide free or discounted Apple Watches to its 23 million customers as a member perk.

Aetna sees Apple Watches as a way to further encourage its customers to take more interest in leading healthier lives and tracking their diets better. Calling out diet tracking is peculiar since the Apple Watch doesn't offer diet tracking, but there are plenty of third-party apps that function as food diaries on your wrist. Either way, Aetna clearly sees the value in the ease of exercise and diet tracking that the Apple Watch could provide its customers.

Aetna reportedly met with Apple executives and hospital chief medical information officers late last week in outhern California to discuss the plan. Apple's Myoung Cha, with the title "special projects, health," led the meeting.

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The reference books that line the shelves of developer Ultra Ultra's modest Copenhagen office offers insight into the aesthetic of its first game, Echo. There's a book of 19th Century Interior Design, and a book of Venetian photography. Prometheus: The Art of the Film and Star Wars provide sci-fi reference points, while Metal Gear Solid, Blame! and Neon Genesis Evangelion—all three of which are represented in some form on the shelf—provide the inspiration for character design.

Echo is made up of many familiar parts, but parts that are remixed in a way that makes them feels new. This is fundamental to Echo not just aesthetically, but also mechanically. Unsurprisingly, given Ultra Ultra's staff of ex-IO Interactive Hitman developers, Echo is a stealth game. It learns from your actions to figure out how you play the game. This causes you to second guess your tactics regularly, almost like playing chess against yourself.

The third-person camera, and helpfully placed walls and corners that act as cover are all familiar, then, but the overall atmosphere is different. This is much more of a reactionary stealth game than we're used to. As such, this is not a game that—even if you're familiar with the genre—you can simply sleepwalk through.

Trevor Mahlmann

On Monday, after standing down for a month, SpaceX returned to flight from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Mostly sunny, deep-blue skies provided a perfect opportunity to photograph the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket. And armed with four remote cameras, Trevor Mahlmann was there for Ars to capture the scene.

The photo galleries in this post showcase the Falcon 9 rocket in flight from launch, into MaxQ, and through the first stage's return to Landing Zone 1 on the Florida coast. When he checked his remotes, Mahlmann found a few surprises—including a few birds other than the Falcon taking a flight of their own during the launch.