April 2018 – Page 8 – news.buyenne.com

Army researchers find the best cyber teams are antisocial cyber teams

High-performing blue teams are “purposive social systems”—they shut up and work.

Army researchers have discovered what experienced information security teams already know: actual human interaction isn't a key to success when you already know your role on the team.

At the National Cyberwatch Center's Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition in March and April 2017, the team of researchers decided to conduct a study observing the competing teams. The CyberDawgs of the University of Maryland Baltimore County won the MACCDC before going on to win the Nationals a few weeks later. And like the other top-performing teams in the event, researchers discovered the CyberDawgs were able to coordinate and collaborate most effectively without leaving their keyboards.

"Successful cyber teams don't need to discuss every detail when defending a network," said Dr. Norbou Buchler, Networked Systems Branch team leader at the US Army Research Laboratory, in a press release. "They already know what to do."

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Ubuntu 18.04 LTS flavors including Ubuntu Mate, Ubuntu Budgie, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, and Xubuntu

This week Canonical released Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and while the company is emphasizing cloud features and performance, there are plenty of updates for desktop users too. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS has a new Linux kernel, new power management features, an updated us…

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Electric buses are avoiding hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day

China is buying electric buses in bulk, and major cities are doing their part, too.

The global fleet of electric buses is already helping cities avoiding the purchase of 279,000 barrels of oil per day, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). Diesel buses consume an extraordinary amount of fuel compared to a passenger vehicle. Bloomberg noted that "For every 1,000 battery-powered buses on the road, about 500 barrels a day of diesel fuel will be displaced from the market."

Still, global oil consumption is going up, though maybe not as fast as it might have without electric buses. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), total global oil consumption increased from 96.87 million barrels per day in 2016 to 98.52 million barrels per day in 2017. The EIA projects that the world will consume 100.31 million barrels per day in 2018.

There's still reason for optimism though, especially given the aggressive push for electric vehicles in some Chinese cities like Shenzhen. The country accounts for 99 percent of the electric buses in the world (though in the country itself, only 17 percent of that fleet is electric). In addition, Bloomberg reports that "every five weeks, Chinese cities add 9,500 of the zero-emissions transporters—the equivalent of London’s entire working fleet." Those statistics seem to confirm an earlier report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which noted that in 2016, China had an extraordinary 200 million electric two-wheelers, 3 million to 4 million low-speed electric vehicles, and more than 300,000 electric buses.

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Classic Polaroid camera gutted, made modern with Raspberry Pi + thermal printer

You can make a lot of cool things by stuffing a Raspberry Pi computer into an existing chassis. We’ve seen hackers do everything from turn an old portable DVD player into a modern Kodi-powered media center to designing a Nintendo Entertainment System c…

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Pre-Release Game of Thrones Leaks Bred Pirates, Research Shows

Three years ago, four Game of Thrones episodes leaked online before the season had started. As a result, millions of people turned to unauthorized sources to watch them. New research shows that this had a long-lasting negative impact on the official viewership of both Game of Thrones and related shows.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

The pre-release leak of four Game of Thrones episodes, early 2015, is one of the most prominent piracy cases in TV history.

The first copies, leaked from a review screener, quickly spread across public torrent sites and were downloaded millions of times.

HBO was understandably upset and feared that the leaks would hurt their bottom line. While that was not immediately apparent after the official premiere, new research suggests that they had a significant impact. And not just on Game of Thrones.

A new working paper published by economy researcher Wojciech Hardy of the Institute for Structural Research and the University of Warsaw carefully dissected the aftermath.

The findings show that the pre-release leaks triggered more people to pirate, and not just the four leaked episodes. This led to a decrease in expected viewers for Game of Thrones, but also for comparable TV-shows.

“The general conclusion is that the leak provided a strong incentive for some of the viewers to look for unauthorized sources for TV shows and that, in consequence, some of them started watching TV shows through unauthorised channels in general,” Hardy tells TorrentFreak.

The reasoning behind this effect is that the leaks introduced some people to these unauthorized sources for the first time. They then kept using these for subsequent episodes.

Ratings, viewership and predicted viewership.

For his research, Hardy used an extensive dataset of US TV-viewership of a variety of shows over time, as well as related Google search data. This revealed that other series, similar to Game of Thrones, were negatively impacted too, compared to a control group.

“Importantly, a negative shift in viewership was found, evidenced both by a drop in the viewership of GoT and by a decline in the viewership of TV shows that share an audience with GoT,” Hardy writes in the paper.

This makes sense, as newcomers to pirate sites are likely to use them for other content as well. That this appears to be a direct effect of the leaks is evidenced by the fact that the decrease in expected viewership wasn’t visible for unrelated TV-shows.

The findings are backed up by Google search data too. Following the pre-release leaks, Google search phrases linked to unauthorized viewing (such as ‘show_name watch online’) gradually increased for GoT-related shows, relative to a control group.

The key message of the current research, according to Hardy, is that even temporary piracy incentives such as pre-release leaks can have long-term effects. They only affect a small percentage of the total audience, but every lost viewer costs money.

This is bad news for HBO and others who have been in a similar situation. However, the data also shows that there may be a promotional effect, possibly because people discover new shows.

As searches for unauthorized sources increased, the viewership of GoT-like shows slowly recovered. This suggests that there may be a promotional piracy effect, where people start to watch shows legally after discovering them on pirate sites.

“On the one hand, this means that the content providers should pay much attention not to incentivize their audience to switch to unauthorized sources to avoid losses,” Hardy says.

“On the other hand, it’s possible that adequate promotional incentives might convince some of the ‘pirates’ to switch to the authorized distribution channels instead, he adds.”

Follow-up studies may provide more clarity on this and other effects.

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A copy of the full working paper, titled Pre-release leaks as one-time incentives for switching to unauthorised sources of cultural content, is available here (pdf).

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Apple is getting out of the WiFi router business

The last time Apple released a new WiFi router was when the company released an AirPort Time Capsule in 2013. And while the company continues to sell and support a handful of AirPort models, it looks like their days are numbered. Engadget reports that …

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Deals of the Day (4-27-2018)

Best Buy’s Insignia Voice line of smart speakers support WiFi and Bluetooth, stream music and other audio from Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn and Google Play, and support multi-room features. They also have a built-in clock display, which lets y…

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In first, doctors treat rare genetic disorder with an injection in utero

The experimental treatment allowed the babies to develop normal sweat glands.

Three babies with a rare genetic disorder have been spared the worst effects of their condition thanks to an experimental injection they received in utero, researchers report this week in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The success marks the first time a genetic disorder has been partially reversed by such a treatment prior to birth. The results are “remarkable and encouraging,” development biologist Marja Mikkola at the University of Helsinki, Finland wrote in an accompanying editorial. “This study paves the way for a larger trial of this novel approach.”

The in utero injections treated a rare, recessive genetic condition called X-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (XLHED), which affects the development of skin, hair, nails, and teeth. People with the disorder have sparse body and head hair, dry eyes, mouths, and airways, and few teeth, which are usually pointy. But most dangerously, the condition also disrupts development of sweat glands throughout the body. People with XLHED have fewer sweat glands and/or poorly functioning ones. This leaves individuals vulnerable to high fevers and over-heating (hyperthermia), which can be life-threatening and lead to medical complications.

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Microsoft: Office 2019 mit neuen Funktionen kann ausprobiert werden

Microsoft stellt sein neues Office 2019 als Preview zum Ausprobieren bereit. Vorerst können nur Business-Kunden die Programme testen. Auf die ist es auch ausgelegt. Neu sind beispielsweise eine verbesserte Stifteingabe und mehr Diagramme in Excel. (Off…

Daybreak Games claimed this Russian oligarch as owner—then the sanctions hit

MMO maker backtracks on previously claimed relationship with embattled investment fund

Back in 2015, the former Sony Online Entertainment announced it was being bought by investment management firm Columbus Nova and changing its name to Daybreak Game Company (Everquest II, H1Z1, Planetside 2). Now that the US Treasury Department is sanctioning the Russian oligarch that owns Columbus Nova, though, Daybreak is suddenly saying that it has never had any affiliation with its ostensible parent company.

Let's start with the few undisputed facts in this odd tale. Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg was placed under sanction by the US Treasury Department earlier this month for "malign" and "destabilizing activities" in various international affairs. Vekselberg, whose US assets have been frozen, is the owner of technology investment group Columbus Nova and its parent company, Renova Group.

What Daybreak now disputes, though, is that Columbus Nova ever had an ownership stake in the MMO maker. "From the get-go, Daybreak has been primarily owned by Jason Epstein, a longtime investor who also has investments in a variety of media properties," the company wrote in a forum post yesterday. "We're well aware of prior statements from Daybreak indicating our company was acquired by Columbus Nova. We have since clarified that the company was acquired by Jason Epstein when he was a partner at Columbus Nova, which he left in 2017."

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