Month: December 2017

Enlarge / Protestors waved signs saying "Say not to corporate control" and "StopTheFCC." (credit: Cyrus Farivar)

Protestors across the nation rallied in support for network neutrality on Thursday, a week before the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to take a historic vote rolling back network neutrality regulations. Protestors say those regulations, which were enacted by the Obama FCC in 2015, are crucial for protecting an open Internet.

Organizers chose to hold most of the protests outside of Verizon cell phone stores. Ajit Pai, the FCC Chairman who is leading the agency's charge to repeal network neutrality, is a former Verizon lawyer, and Verizon has been a critic of the Obama network neutrality rules.

Ars visited protests in Washington DC, New York, and San Francisco.

Enlarge / Artist's conception of Sony fighting off the developers and players demanding cross-platform play for their games.

Amid all the pre-scripted announcements and canned trailers at last night's Game Awards extravaganza, there were a few unexpected moments to the evening. And while A Way Out director Josef Fares' splashy "f**k the Oscars" moment was fun to watch, Fortnite creative director Donald Mustard's on-the-spot discussion of cross-platform gameplay was a bit more relevant to the industry.

Responding to what seemed like an unrehearsed question from host Geoff Keighley, Mustard appeared genuinely upset that Fortnite players can't play with those on other platforms. "Look, Fortnite is even better when you're playing with your real friends, and due to platform restrictions there are some players that aren't able to play with their friends and are left out," he said.

"Gamers want cross-play, and we are committed to doing whatever it takes to make that happen," he continued. "Players deserve it."

Enlarge / Elon Musk in 2016. (credit: PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Tesla is building its own custom AI chips, CEO Elon Musk acknowledged on Thursday night according to reports from CNBC and the Register.

"Jim is developing specialized AI hardware that we think will be the best in the world," Musk said at a Tesla-organized party.

"Jim" is Jim Keller, a well-known chip engineer that Tesla recruited last year to lead Tesla's Autopilot hardware efforts. Keller has held key positions at both AMD and Apple.

Enlarge / In addition to that sweet mixtape, here are just some of the prizes you could win by entering this year’s sweepstakes.

It's that special time of year when we give you a chance to do well by doing good. That's right—it's time for the 2017 edition of our annual Charity Drive.

Since 2007, we've been actively encouraging readers to give to Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity, which provides toys and games to kids being treated in hospitals around the world. In recent years, we've added the Electronic Frontier Foundation to our annual charity push, aiding in their efforts to defend Internet freedom. This year, as always, we're providing some extra incentive for those donations by offering donors pieces of our big pile of vendor-provided swag. We can't keep it (ethically), and we don't want it clogging up our offices anyway. It's now yours to win.

This year's swag pile is yet another big one. We have nearly 80 prizes amounting to more than $4,000 in value, including games, hardware, toys, collectibles, and more. In 2016, Ars readers raised a record $38,000 for charity, contributing to a total haul of more than $240,000 since 2007. We want to break that record this year, and we can do it if readers really dig deep.