The Zoomable Universe is a feast for your eyes and brain

This gorgeous new book recalls the golden age of science journalism.

The Zoomable Universe, by Caleb Scarf with Illustrations by Ron Miller (Scientific American/FSG)

Sometimes we want science to show us the complexity and uncertainty of everything, but sometimes we just want it to dazzle us.

You'll get a heaping dose of dazzle in Caleb Scharf and Ron Miller's coffee table book The Zoomable Universe: An Epic Tour Through Cosmic Scale, from Almost Everything to Nearly Nothing. It recalls the wonder-laced scientific writing of Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan, and it reminds us that the scientific view of the world is gorgeous as well as rational.

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EA shuts down Visceral, will reboot its Star Wars game due to “marketplace”

Dead Space’s creators are gone; outlook fuzzy on Amy Hennig’s single-player SW game.

EA has now dramatically shifted the development of the above, unnamed Star Wars game. This image is from E3 2016; Visceral's game had long been hidden from the public with a way-off release target of 2019. (credit: EA)

EA packed a double-whammy announcement into a single post on its blog on Tuesday. The company announced the dissolution of an internal game studio and a substantial reboot of that studio's upcoming, unnamed Star Wars game.

Visceral Games, which began life as EA Redwood Shores in 1998, is now "ramping down." Members of its staff are being moved to "as many other projects" as possible, according to EA executive Patrick Söderlund. The studio is best known for the Dead Space trilogy, along with a number of '90s and '00s games in the Lord of the Rings and 007 franchises.

Visceral had most recently snagged headlines because the studio had been put in charge of one of EA's upcoming, unnamed Star Wars games. The project was being led by all-star game industry vet Amy Hennig (best known for the Uncharted series). That game appears to have been all but blown up, as per Söderlund's lengthy-yet-vague statement. "It was shaping up to be a story-based, linear game," he starts, only to describe "feedback about what and how [fans] want to play" and "fundamental shifts in the marketplace."

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DOJ indicts Chinese fentanyl distributors selling to Americans online

“They use multiple identities to disguise their activities and their shipments.”

Enlarge / Deputy US Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (L) speaks during a news conference October 17, 2017 at the Justice Department in Washington, DC. (credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Two men in China have been charged by American federal prosecutors as being the kingpins of a vast international conspiracy to manufacture and sell fentanyl, a powerful opioid, via unnamed Dark Web sites.

In a press conference in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said that the bust marked the first time the Department of Justice had "indicted major Chinese fentanyl traffickers."

"Chinese fentanyl distributors are using the Internet to sell fentanyl directly to US customers," Rosenstein continued.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 is 40 percent faster than SD630)

Qualcomm’s latest processor for upper mid-range smartphones is designed to offer up to 40 percent better performance than the Snapdragon 630 chip which launched less than half a year ago. The new model is called the Snapdragon 636, and it also of…

Qualcomm’s latest processor for upper mid-range smartphones is designed to offer up to 40 percent better performance than the Snapdragon 630 chip which launched less than half a year ago. The new model is called the Snapdragon 636, and it also offers up to 10 percent better graphics performance. The new chips are expected to […]

Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 is 40 percent faster than SD630) is a post from: Liliputing

New ‘Coalition Against Piracy’ Will Crack Down on Pirate Streaming Boxes

A newly announced coalition of major entertainment companies including Disney, Fox, HBO, NBCUniversal and BBC Worldwide has set its eye on pirate streaming boxes. The Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) will coordinate local enforcement efforts in Asia, hoping to disrupt the “criminal syndicates” behind these devices.

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

Traditionally there have only been a handful of well-known industry groups fighting online piracy, but this appears to be changing.

Increasingly, major entertainment industry companies are teaming up in various regions to bundle their enforcement efforts against copyright infringement.

Earlier this year the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) was formed by major players including Disney, HBO, and NBCUniversal, and several of the same media giants are also involved in the newly founded Coalition Against Piracy (CAP).

CAP will coordinate anti-piracy efforts in Asia and is backed by CASBAA, Disney, Fox, HBO Asia, NBCUniversal, Premier League, Turner Asia-Pacific, A&E Networks, Astro, BBC Worldwide, National Basketball Association, TV5MONDE, Viacom International, and others.

The coalition has hired Neil Gane as its general manager. Gane is no stranger to anti-piracy work, as he previously served as the MPAA’s regional director in Australasia and was chief of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft.

The goal of CAP will be to assist in local enforcement actions against piracy, including the disruption and dismantling of local businesses that facilitate it. Pirate streaming boxes and apps will be among the main targets.

These boxes, which often use the legal Kodi player paired with infringing add-ons, are referred to as illicit streaming devices (ISDs) by industry insiders. They have grown in popularity all around the world and Asia is no exception.

“The prevalence of ISDs across Asia is staggering. The criminals who operate the ISD networks and the pirate websites are profiting from the hard work of talented creators, seriously damaging the legitimate content ecosystem as well as exposing consumers to dangerous malware”, Gane said, quoted by Indian Television.

Gane knows the region well and started his career working for the Hong Kong Police. He sees the pirate streaming box ecosystem as a criminal network which presents a major threat to the entertainment industries.

“This is a highly organized transnational crime with criminal syndicates profiting enormously at the expense of consumers as well as content creators,” Gane noted.

The Asian creative industry is a major growth market as more and more legal content is made available. However, the growth of these legal services is threatened by pirate boxes and apps. The Coalition Against Piracy hopes to curb this.

The launch of CAP, which will be formalized at the upcoming CASBAA anti-piracy convention in November, confirms the trend of localized anti-piracy coalitions which are backed by major industry players. We can expect to hear more from these during the years to come.

Just a few days ago the founding members of the aforementioned ACE anti-piracy initiative filed their first joint lawsuit in the US which, unsurprisingly, targets a seller of streaming boxes.

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

Datenbank: Microsofts privater Bugtracker ist 2013 gehackt worden

Es ist erst der zweite bekannte Angriff dieser Art: Microsofts interner Bugtracker ist im Jahr 2013 gehackt worden. Unklar ist, ob und welche Informationen über Sicherheitslücken die Angreifer dabei erbeuten konnten. (Microsoft, Sicherheitslücke)

Es ist erst der zweite bekannte Angriff dieser Art: Microsofts interner Bugtracker ist im Jahr 2013 gehackt worden. Unklar ist, ob und welche Informationen über Sicherheitslücken die Angreifer dabei erbeuten konnten. (Microsoft, Sicherheitslücke)

Dealmaster: Get a 15-inch Dell laptop with a 512GB SSD for $580

Plus deals on Wi-Fi routers, 4K TVs, and more laptops.

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our friends at TechBargains, we have another round of savings to share. Today we've got more laptop deals, headlined by a $340 discount on a Dell Inspiron 15 5000 laptop with a Core i7 (7th-gen) processor and 512GB SSD. Other bargains on PCs, mesh W-iFi routers, 4K TVs, and more can be found below.

Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

(credit: TechBargains)

Featured deals

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ZTE launches crazy, foldable, dual-screened smartphone

Open it up, and you have two side-by-side, 5.2-inch 1080p displays.

ZTE


Budget Android company ZTE is launching what has to be its craziest-looking smartphone ever, the Axon M. The M looks like someone took a Nintendo DS, removed the controls, and stuck two big smartphone screens on each side.

The Axon M is a whopping 12.1mm thick. A hinge runs along the long side of the phone, and it opens up, just like a Nintendo DS. On each side of the phone, you get a 5.2-inch, 1080p TFT LCD. Open the whole thing up, and when combined the screens sort of become a 6.75-inch, 8:9 aspect ratio, 1920x2160 display. I say "sort of" because of course there's a big seam down the middle.

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The new Han Solo film is done filming, and it has a name

We are sorry to report there will be no porgs.

The cast of <em>Solo</em> takes a break.

The cast of Solo takes a break. (credit: Disney)

Today, the next standalone Star Wars film wrapped. Directed by Ron Howard—after a bitter departure from previous directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie)—the movie at last has a name. It will be called Solo. The film explores Han Solo's early adventures and is rumored to give us a glimpse of how Han won the Millennium Falcon from Lando.

Howard announced the wrap in one of his many snaps from the production. Han Solo will be played by Alden Ehrenreich (Beautiful Creatures), and Donald Glover (Atlanta, Community) will be Lando Calrissian. Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) plays Kira, who is one of the adventurers Han will meet, and Thandie Newton (Westworld) has an unknown role. Joonas Suotamo will play Chewie.

Howard didn't just finish up the film that previous directors Lord and Miller worked on for six months. He did extensive reshoots, and it seems likely that he changed the film quite a bit from the original comedic vision. The film was written by Lawrence Kasdan, who worked on the first trilogy with Lucas, along with his son Jon Kasdan. It's due in theaters on May 25, 2018.

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Deals of the Day (10-17-2017)

Find yourself buying apps, games, music, movies, or eBooks from the Google Play Store from time to time? Right now Amazon’s selling $50 Google Play gift cards for $45. That’s basically like free money if you were either going to spend $50 a…

Find yourself buying apps, games, music, movies, or eBooks from the Google Play Store from time to time? Right now Amazon’s selling $50 Google Play gift cards for $45. That’s basically like free money if you were either going to spend $50 anyway and/or could be persuaded to buy your next few DRM-free albums of […]

Deals of the Day (10-17-2017) is a post from: Liliputing