Month: February 2018

Enlarge / FCC Chairman Ajit Pai at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 23, 2018 in National Harbor, Maryland. Pai was given the 'Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award' by the National Rifle Association at the conference. (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla)

The National Rifle Association (NRA) today gave its Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award to Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Pai was about to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland when the award presentation seemed to catch him by surprise. The award is a handmade long gun that could not be brought on stage, so it will be housed in the NRA museum until Pai can receive it.

"Ajit Pai, as you probably already know, saved the Internet," American Conservative Union (ACU) Executive Director Dan Schneider told the audience. The ACU is the host of CPAC; Schneider made a few more remarks praising Pai before handing the award presentation over to NRA board member Carolyn Meadows.

Enlarge (credit: IRS)

With fewer than two months before tax returns are due, the FBI is warning of an increase in new scams that try to trick taxpayers and employers into sending employee records, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and other sensitive information.

The scams are most often directed at human resources departments in an attempt to trick workers into sending records for large numbers of employees. Often, the people perpetrating these crimes impersonate executives inside a targeted company by compromising or spoofing a trusted email account that asks for all W-2 information on record.

"Individual taxpayers may also be... targeted, but criminals have evolved their tactics to focus on mass data thefts," FBI officials wrote in an advisory published Wednesday. "This scam is just one of several new variations of IRS and tax-related phishing campaigns targeting W-2 information, indicating an increase in the interest of criminals in sensitive tax information."

Enlarge / Leonel Cordova (L) and Noris Cordova, who are not plaintiffs in this lawsuit, speak to a CBP officer at Miami International Airport on March 4, 2015 in Miami, Florida. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

For over a decade, Customs and Border Protection has failed to properly verify e-passports (which contain biometric data) as "it lacked the software to do so," according to a new letter sent by two top senators.

According to a 2010 report authored by the Government Accountability Office, the problem needed fixing then—and eight years later it still hasn’t been resolved.

An e-passport is essentially a passport that includes machine-readable RFID chips containing a traveler's personal information. These more digitally secure passports, which began to be required by the United States for visitors form visa waiver countries beginning in 2007, are scanned at the border by a CBP agent’s computer. However, without a digital signature, it is impossible to validate that the data contained on the passport is actually authentic.

Enlarge / Do many gamers even recognize this as one of gaming's most prestigious awards?

LAS VEGAS—Every year, when I tell people I'm going to Las Vegas in February for video gaming's version of the academy awards, the response is usually the same: "I didn't even know video games had an academy awards."

Yes, those who follow the industry closely might have read the list of winners at Thursday night's 21st annual DICE Awards (where Nintendo generally—and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild specifically—cleaned up). A few thousand really dedicated fans even watched the livestream on IGN.

But gaming's own academy awards can't even come close to the attention and cachet of major industry happenings like the Oscars, the Emmys, or the Grammys. Video gaming's most "official" award show struggles to even get the same kind of attention as The Game Awards, a bombastic, marketing announcement-fueled spectacle that grew out of an embarrassing Spike TV telecast.

Enlarge (credit: Tesla)

Tesla has long required buyers to install a brand-specific adapter in their homes to charge their cars. Now the company wants to help workplaces do the same so that people without access to a garage at night can find 6 to 8 hours of charging on the other end of the clock. On Thursday, Tesla announced that it would work with building managers to install free charging infrastructure—the building would only have to pay for the cost of the electricity.

Tesla already has a similar destination charging program, where hotels and restaurants can have a Tesla charger installed, and the property owner covers electricity cost. One important note about these workplace chargers, however, is that their location won't be made public, so tenants of the building are the primary beneficiaries.

It obviously benefits Tesla to bring potential customers without a garage at home into the fold. If workplace charging can replace garage charging, the electric vehicle (EV) company can make its pitch to more people. But though it sounds very altruistic, Tesla would certainly be getting something out of any "workplace charging" agreement. As autonomous vehicle law consulting firm Safe Self Drive tweeted, installing Tesla charging spots in crowded urban areas amounts to building Tesla-reserved parking spots. (That is, unless you have access to one of the few adapters out there that let non-Tesla EVs draw from Tesla chargers.) From a building manager's perspective, it's probably better to install a generic EV charger and let Tesla owners use their adapters to fill up the tank.

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our friends at TechBargains, we have another round of deals to share. Today the Dealmaster is bringing you into the weekend with a handful of sales on PCs and laptops, including Dell's Inspiron 5680 desktop down to $650.

This is certainly not the beastliest rig around—you may want to upgrade on this config's 1TB HDD, for one—but bargain hunters could do worse than an 8th-gen, six-core Core i5-8400 chip and Nvidia GeForce 1060 graphics card for the price.

If that's not your bag, we've also got deals on one of TCL's popular Roku TVs, a PlayStation VR bundle, wireless charging pads, monitors, and a handful of other laptops and desktops. Take a look for yourself below.