Month: August 2018

The RAM 1500 Laramie Crew Cab fuses “luxury” and “pickup truck”

Plush on the inside, this RAM 1500 variant has muscle to spare for work and play.

Enlarge / The '19 RAM 1500 Laramie edition doesn't handle like a boat, but it sure can pull one—in style. (credit: Sean Gallagher)

I have an inordinate fondness for trucks. I learned to drive in a 1978 Chevy Suburban and drove an '88 Ford Ranger for years. However, in recent years, my selection of vehicles has been restrained by my wife's insistence on this thing called "practicality"—we are city dwellers, and despite the sometimes post-apocalyptic terrain of Baltimore streets, Paula has resisted the wisdom of driving something huge with a cargo capacity suitable for evacuating survivors.

I wanted a pickup, and she wanted a Subaru. So we compromised. We got a Subaru.

But when the 2019 RAM 1500 Laramie Crew Cab 4×4 arrived for my test drive—$60,190, as tested—I gained an ally in my pickup-truck cause. "This is my dream car... I mean, truck," my 17-year-old daughter said as she climbed up into the expansive cab and sat in one of the vented, leather-trimmed front seats.

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Asus FX505 und FX705: Sechs Kerne und Nvidia-Grafikeinheit für unter 1.000 Euro

Gleich zwei Gaming-Notebooks stellt Asus für vergleichsweise wenig Geld vor. Das FX505 und das FX705 werden mit 144-Hz-Panel, Coffee-Lake-H-CPU und einer Nvidia-Grafikeinheit verkauft – RGB-Beleuchtung und kantiges Gehäuse inklusive. (Asus, Intel)

Gleich zwei Gaming-Notebooks stellt Asus für vergleichsweise wenig Geld vor. Das FX505 und das FX705 werden mit 144-Hz-Panel, Coffee-Lake-H-CPU und einer Nvidia-Grafikeinheit verkauft - RGB-Beleuchtung und kantiges Gehäuse inklusive. (Asus, Intel)

Medion Erazer X67030: Aldi verkauft GTX 1060 und Hexacore für 1.000 Euro

Der neue Aldi-PC ist mit einer flotten Nvidia-Grafikkarte, einer aktuellen Sechskern-CPU von Intel, viel DDR4-Arbeitsspeicher und gleich drei Laufwerken für den aufgerufenen Preis ziemlich gut ausgestattet. Interessant ist die Kombination aus SSD, HDD…

Der neue Aldi-PC ist mit einer flotten Nvidia-Grafikkarte, einer aktuellen Sechskern-CPU von Intel, viel DDR4-Arbeitsspeicher und gleich drei Laufwerken für den aufgerufenen Preis ziemlich gut ausgestattet. Interessant ist die Kombination aus SSD, HDD und Optane Memory. (Aldi-PC, Core i5)

XMG Neo 15 im Test: Endlich ein vernünftiges Gaming-Barebone

Auf den ersten Blick ein überzeugendes Gaming-Notebook: Das 144-Hz-Display, die mechanische Tastatur und die Kombination aus Coffee Lake H und Geforce GTX 1060 des XMG Neo 15 haben Potential. Auch das Gehäuse ist eine erfrischende Abwechslung zur Masse…

Auf den ersten Blick ein überzeugendes Gaming-Notebook: Das 144-Hz-Display, die mechanische Tastatur und die Kombination aus Coffee Lake H und Geforce GTX 1060 des XMG Neo 15 haben Potential. Auch das Gehäuse ist eine erfrischende Abwechslung zur Masse an immer gleichen Clevo-Barebones. Ein Test von Oliver Nickel (Schenker, Notebook)

Standortverlauf: Sammelklage gegen Googles Datensammeln angestrebt

Trotz deaktivierter Standortverläufe auf dem Smartphone sammelt Google weiterhin fleißig die Geodaten der Geräte. Ein Nutzer hat Klage gegen diese Praxis eingereicht. (Facebook, Smartphone)

Trotz deaktivierter Standortverläufe auf dem Smartphone sammelt Google weiterhin fleißig die Geodaten der Geräte. Ein Nutzer hat Klage gegen diese Praxis eingereicht. (Facebook, Smartphone)

3D-printed gun activists set to face numerous US states in court

Was it ok for State Dept. to alter export laws, allowing release of gun CAD files?

Enlarge / Cody Wilson, owner of Defense Distributed company, holds a 3D printed gun, called the "Liberator", in his factory in Austin, Texas on August 1, 2018. (credit: KELLY WEST/AFP/Getty Images)

Attorneys from 19 states and the District of Columbia will ask a judge to continue an order forbidding the release of 3D-printed gun files on Tuesday morning at 9:00am Pacific Time, in federal court in Seattle.

Strangely, the lawsuit, State of Washington et al. v. United States Department of State et al, seems to ignore the fact that the files are already available on numerous sites, including Github, The Pirate Bay, and more. These files have circulated online since their original publication back in 2013. (Recently, new mirrors of the files have begun to pop up: here's one, and here's another.)

Lawyers representing both the Department of State and Defense Distributed argue that their already-approved legal settlement should go forward, and that DEFCAD should be allowed to re-publish its 10 firearms CAD files.

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O2: Netzausfall bei der Telefónica in den Morgenstunden

Die Telefónica hatte heute in Deutschland einen Netzausfall im Mobilfunk, der mehrere Stunden andauerte. Das Problem soll nun behoben sein, die Ursachen sind weiter unklar. (Telefónica, DSL)

Die Telefónica hatte heute in Deutschland einen Netzausfall im Mobilfunk, der mehrere Stunden andauerte. Das Problem soll nun behoben sein, die Ursachen sind weiter unklar. (Telefónica, DSL)

Virtual Reality: Google und Imax bauen doch keine VR-Kamera

Auf der I/O 2016 hatten Google und Imax angekündigt, gemeinsam eine VR-Kamera für hochauflösenden Filme zu entwickeln. Daraus wird offenbar nichts: Imax zufolge hat Google das Projekt abgesagt. (Google, VR)

Auf der I/O 2016 hatten Google und Imax angekündigt, gemeinsam eine VR-Kamera für hochauflösenden Filme zu entwickeln. Daraus wird offenbar nichts: Imax zufolge hat Google das Projekt abgesagt. (Google, VR)

Disney Warns Against ‘Overzealous Copyright Holders’, Not Talking About Self

A copyright dispute involving Disney and the late Michael Jackson’s estate has devolved into claims of hypocrisy with a heavy sprinkling of irony added for flavor.The lawsuit centers around the airing of a program titled ‘The Last Days of Michael Jacks…



A copyright dispute involving Disney and the late Michael Jackson's estate has devolved into claims of hypocrisy with a heavy sprinkling of irony added for flavor.

The lawsuit centers around the airing of a program titled 'The Last Days of Michael Jackson' on the Disney owned ABC network earlier this year. The Michael Jackson Estate is suing Disney because it claims Disney owned ABC did not acquire the rights to music and footage used in the 2-hour news feature. 

Disney is defending their actions by claiming freedom of speech protection under the First Amendment; the ability of news organisation to use excerpts for reporting purposes; and most interestingly of all, the fair use doctrine under copyright law.

Disney, like most other major media companies, have come out in the past strongly against fair use, seeing it as something that weakens existing copyright protection and creates uncertainty in the market.

Disney's response to the lawsuit also has this particularly interesting passage.

"This case is about the right of free speech under the First Amendment, the doctrine of fair use under the Copyright Act, and the ability of news organizations to use limited excerpts of copyrighted works—here, in most instances well less than 1% of the works—for the purpose of reporting on, commenting on, teaching about, and criticizing well-known public figures of interest in biographical documentaries without fear of liability from overzealous copyright holders," Disney wrote.

It's the last part of this paragraph, in particular, that has left critics in amazement due to the irony of the above statement linked with the company in question. It also left the Jackson Estate with plenty of ammunition to fire at Disney for its hypocrisy in the matter, citing several examples of overzealous copyright pursuit by the Mickey Mouse company.

One example refers to a Disney lawsuit against a childcare center for having pictures of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on their walls. Another lawsuit saw Disney file a million dollar lawsuit against a couple on public assistance for attending children's parties dressed as a generic orange tiger and a blue donkey (too close to Disney owned Winnie the Pooh characters Tigger and Eeyore). Even Star Wars fans faced Disney's wrath for daring to post photos of their legally bought Star Wars toys on Twitter and Facebook.

The Jackson Estate did not mince words in calling Disney hypocrites on the matter.

"Like Disney, the lifeblood of the Estate’s business is its intellectual property. Yet for some reason, Disney decided it could just use the Estate’s most valuable intellectual property for free. Apparently, Disney’s passion for the copyright laws disappears when it doesn’t involve its own intellectual property and it sees an opportunity to profit off of someone else’s intellectual property without permission or payment," the complaint read.

The Jackson Estate claims at least thirty different copyright works were used without permission in the ABC news documentary.

[via Techdirt]