Latest Windows 10 update breaks Windows Media Player, Win32 apps in general

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update bugs keep on coming.

Part of the group Cydnidae, these are a type of shield bug. These two are apparently on the verge of producing a number of additional shield bugs.

Part of the group Cydnidae, these are a type of shield bug. These two are apparently on the verge of producing a number of additional shield bugs. (credit: jacinta lluch valero (jaclluch at Flickr))

The important data loss bug that interrupted the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, version 1809, may be fixed, but it turns out there are plenty of other weird problems with the release.

As spotted by Paul Thurrott, the update also breaks the seek bar in Windows Media Player when playing "specific files."

This is the kind of bug that leaves me scratching my head, wondering what changed to break such a thing, and why. The various old and new Windows media stacks are certainly complicated beasts, but it's not clear what the October 2018 Update even changed in this area. At least this time around, it doesn't seem that the bug was reported before 1809 actually shipped, though it's hard to be definitive about this given the difficulty in finding anything in the Feedback Hub bug reporting tool. Microsoft does promise to fix the bug, but the timeframe is vaguely open-ended: it will be "in an upcoming release."

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Comcast raises cable TV bills again—even if you’re under contract

Broadcast TV fee goes from $8 to $10, sports fee rises from $6.50 to $8.25.

A person's hand pointing a TV remote at a TV.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Rene Wassenbergh | EyeEm)

Comcast is raising its controversial "Broadcast TV" and "Regional Sports Network" fees again on January 1, with the typical total price going from $14.50 to $18.25 a month.

The newly raised broadcast TV fee will be $10 a month, and the sports fee will be $8.25 a month, Cord Cutters News reported last week. The new fee sizes are confirmed in a Comcast price list for the Atlanta market.

About a year ago, Comcast raised the broadcast TV fee from $6.50 to $8 and the sports fee from $4.50 to $6.50.

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Vivo NEX 2 may swap pop-up camera for a second screen

Vivo was the first company to unveil a smartphone with a slim top bezel and no camera notch… because the front-facing camera for the Vivo NEX is hidden behind the screen and only popped up when you need it. Now rumor has it that the company plans…

Vivo was the first company to unveil a smartphone with a slim top bezel and no camera notch… because the front-facing camera for the Vivo NEX is hidden behind the screen and only popped up when you need it. Now rumor has it that the company plans to launch a follow-up to the NEX. This […]

The post Vivo NEX 2 may swap pop-up camera for a second screen appeared first on Liliputing.

US tries to bury report on climate change’s dire health, economic impacts

Release schedule changed at the last minute.

US tries to bury report on climate change’s dire health, economic impacts

Enlarge (credit: 4th US National Climate Assessment)

“Black Friday” took on a darker connotation last week when US officials suddenly pushed forward the release date of climate scientists' latest report on the dangerous impacts of climate change in the United States. The report had been scheduled to come out in two weeks, but scientists were told to get it finalized on short notice so it could be released on a busy Friday instead.

(A major report on North America’s carbon cycle was released at the same time.)

The latest US National Climate Assessment report—available in an exceptionally readable format online—is a second volume, and it follows last year’s volume on the physical science of the climate system. The 2017 report was written by a large group of volunteer scientists and approved by federal agencies, and it summarized peer-reviewed climate research by explaining that climate change is real and the result of human activities.

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Mars Insight: Nasa hofft auf Langeweile auf dem Mars

Bei der Frage, wie es im Inneren des Mars aussieht, kann eine Raumsonde keine spektakuläre Landschaft gebrauchen. Eine möglichst langweilige Sandwüste wäre den beteiligten Wissenschaftlern am liebsten. Der Nasa-Livestream zeigt ab 20 Uhr MEZ, ob die Su…

Bei der Frage, wie es im Inneren des Mars aussieht, kann eine Raumsonde keine spektakuläre Landschaft gebrauchen. Eine möglichst langweilige Sandwüste wäre den beteiligten Wissenschaftlern am liebsten. Der Nasa-Livestream zeigt ab 20 Uhr MEZ, ob die Suche nach der perfekten Langeweile gelingt. (Mars, Nasa)

Court Rules MusicMonster Stream-Ripping Service Illegal

A music service that scans Internet radio streams for specific music tracks, records them, and makes them available for download in MP3 format, has lost its case in a German court. The case, brought by Sony Music against MusicMonster.fm, ended with a declaration that the service cannot rely on the private copying exception so is both unlicensed and illegal.

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

Stream-ripping tools and services have been around for many years and are currently most closely associated with obtaining tracks from YouTube, Spotify, and Deezer.

However, before these undoubtedly more efficient tools came along, users with an aversion to peer-to-peer networks often used software to ‘record’ songs from streaming Internet radio stations.

While more cumbersome than straightforward downloading, there are virtually no risks attached to doing so, with many considering this ‘private copying’ and therefore completely legal.

Somewhere in the middle sit services like MusicMonster.fm, a Germany-based service that claims to make stream-ripping easy, by scanning Internet radio streams for the user, ripping out songs, and then making these available to the end user for download.

“First, you should put together a wish list – just click the button ‘I want!’ next to your favorite songs,” MusicMonster’s site reads.

“If one of these songs is played in one of the web radios monitored by MusicMonster.FM, the song will be recorded automatically and digitally and will be recorded on [the site’s storage space].”

From here (or from Dropbox if the option is selected), songs can be downloaded to the user’s computer in MP3 format. This, the site suggests, isn’t a problem because users have already paid for the right when the stations paid their licensing fees.

“The ability to save music (eg: analog recording) is a paid right. The customer has already paid for it,” MusicMonster advises.

“If you have not noticed this in recent years, then the music industry has received payments without providing anything in return. Now this consideration will be used by you. The MP3 music file you have recorded and created is not a copy of the original piece of music, but an independent legal object.”

Perhaps needless to say, record labels aren’t impressed with this type of product and MusicMonster.fm eventually came to the attention of Sony Music’s lawyers.

In September 2017, the Munich Regional Court delivered a first instance judgment that MusicMonster itself is the creator of the copies, not the user, so in this case the act of stream-ripping represents a violation of the label’s reproduction rights.

Following an appeal by the service, on November 22, 2018 the Higher Regional Court of Munich agreed that the operators of the site could not rely on the private copying exception, declaring the MusicMonster platform both unlicensed and unlawful.

The Federal Music Industry Association (Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI)) welcomed the ruling.

“This is a very important decision that contributes further clarification,” says BVMI Managing Director Dr. Florian Drücke, who describes MusicMonster as a service trying to generate profit using the private copying exception.

“The industry will continue to be consistent against such brazen business models that unfairly interfere with the legal digital market, mislead consumers, and disregard the rights of artists and their partners.”

René Houareau, Legal & Politics Director at BVMI, adds that courts are increasingly able to identify illegal and opportunistic business models from those that are officially licensed and return revenue to the entertainment industries.

BVMI adds that stream-ripping is a big problem for the music industry worldwide but acknowledges that in some instances in Germany, the use of stream-ripped music sits in a legal gray area.

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

Court Rules MusicMonster Stream-Ripping Service Illegal

A music service that scans Internet radio streams for specific music tracks, records them, and makes them available for download in MP3 format, has lost its case in a German court. The case, brought by Sony Music against MusicMonster.fm, ended with a declaration that the service cannot rely on the private copying exception so is both unlicensed and illegal.

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

Stream-ripping tools and services have been around for many years and are currently most closely associated with obtaining tracks from YouTube, Spotify, and Deezer.

However, before these undoubtedly more efficient tools came along, users with an aversion to peer-to-peer networks often used software to ‘record’ songs from streaming Internet radio stations.

While more cumbersome than straightforward downloading, there are virtually no risks attached to doing so, with many considering this ‘private copying’ and therefore completely legal.

Somewhere in the middle sit services like MusicMonster.fm, a Germany-based service that claims to make stream-ripping easy, by scanning Internet radio streams for the user, ripping out songs, and then making these available to the end user for download.

“First, you should put together a wish list – just click the button ‘I want!’ next to your favorite songs,” MusicMonster’s site reads.

“If one of these songs is played in one of the web radios monitored by MusicMonster.FM, the song will be recorded automatically and digitally and will be recorded on [the site’s storage space].”

From here (or from Dropbox if the option is selected), songs can be downloaded to the user’s computer in MP3 format. This, the site suggests, isn’t a problem because users have already paid for the right when the stations paid their licensing fees.

“The ability to save music (eg: analog recording) is a paid right. The customer has already paid for it,” MusicMonster advises.

“If you have not noticed this in recent years, then the music industry has received payments without providing anything in return. Now this consideration will be used by you. The MP3 music file you have recorded and created is not a copy of the original piece of music, but an independent legal object.”

Perhaps needless to say, record labels aren’t impressed with this type of product and MusicMonster.fm eventually came to the attention of Sony Music’s lawyers.

In September 2017, the Munich Regional Court delivered a first instance judgment that MusicMonster itself is the creator of the copies, not the user, so in this case the act of stream-ripping represents a violation of the label’s reproduction rights.

Following an appeal by the service, on November 22, 2018 the Higher Regional Court of Munich agreed that the operators of the site could not rely on the private copying exception, declaring the MusicMonster platform both unlicensed and unlawful.

The Federal Music Industry Association (Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI)) welcomed the ruling.

“This is a very important decision that contributes further clarification,” says BVMI Managing Director Dr. Florian Drücke, who describes MusicMonster as a service trying to generate profit using the private copying exception.

“The industry will continue to be consistent against such brazen business models that unfairly interfere with the legal digital market, mislead consumers, and disregard the rights of artists and their partners.”

René Houareau, Legal & Politics Director at BVMI, adds that courts are increasingly able to identify illegal and opportunistic business models from those that are officially licensed and return revenue to the entertainment industries.

BVMI adds that stream-ripping is a big problem for the music industry worldwide but acknowledges that in some instances in Germany, the use of stream-ripped music sits in a legal gray area.

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

Hybrid theory: Lockheed Martin, Boeing pitch upgraded F-22, F-15

An F-22 with F-35 tech and a super-powered F-15 Eagle? Air Force isn’t interested yet.

A transcript to this video can be found here. (video link)

Almost since the day the last F-22 Raptor fighter jet rolled out of Lockheed Martin's assembly plant, the US Air Force has been making plans for its successor—a "sixth generation" fighter aircraft to continue the US military's dominance of the air.

In 2016, the Air Force issued its "Air Superiority 2030" strategic plan for the next 15 years of air combat capabilities, which included a call for developing a "Penetrating Counter-air (PCA)" aircraft. Essentially, the military wanted a fighter capable of surviving in an advanced, hostile environment while taking out enemy aircraft and air defenses and acting as "a node in the network, providing data from its penetrating sensors to enable employment using either stand-off or stand-in weapons." The US Navy is looking at similar capabilities for its carrier-based air operations.

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Nintendo struggles to contain massive Smash Bros. Ultimate leaks

Data miners trawl through early pirated copies for tons of hidden info.

Photograph from the convention floor of PAX West.

Enlarge / A massive Smash Bros. mural from a trade show.

We're still two weeks away from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's official December 7 release, but Nintendo is already struggling to squash holiday weekend leaks of everything from the game's animated cut scenes and hidden content to its massive, remix-filled soundtrack.

The earliest evidence of the game's availability "in the wild" dates back to a Wednesday post on 4chan showing an image of the game's purported retail packaging. In the following days, further online reports suggested that the game was being sold early and relatively widely at certain Mexican retailers.

From there, it was only a short matter of time before pirated versions of the game's data were leaking on to the darker corners of the Internet (thanks in large part to the unpatchable Switch hacking method published earlier this year). That in turn led to streamers showing off spoiler-filled demonstrations of the still-unreleased game on Twitch and YouTube. Nintendo has been working to take down many of these streams with copyright claims, but archived versions are not very difficult to find online as of this writing (we won't be providing direct links here, though).

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