We're not going to say that Automated Transactions LLC is a "patent troll," but several others have. The American Bankers Association has called ATL a troll. The Credit Union National Association called ATL a troll—they even illustrated the accusation with a picture of a troll. Individual lawyers, legal commentators, and banks have all described ATL as a troll.
Inventor and ATL founder David Barcelou got so fed up with people labeling his firm a patent troll that he sued about a dozen individuals and organizations for libel in 2016. Last year, a New Hampshire state judge dismissed Barcelou's lawsuit.
And on Thursday, February 14, the New Hampshire Supreme Court heard oral arguments about whether to overrule the lower court's decision and allow the lawsuit to move forward.
Pebbles of melted nuclear fuel were mostly able to be moved.
Before the nuclear fuel deposits had been touched. [credit:
TEPCO ]
Late last week, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) sent a probe into the damaged second reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The probe's mission was to explore the solidity of the nuclear fuel that melted back in 2011, when a tsunami hit the nuclear plant following an earthquake, causing a meltdown of the plant's three reactors.
Eight years later, TEPCO is making slow but steady progress toward decommissioning the three damaged reactors. The mission to touch the melted nuclear fuel with a remote-controlled probe aimed to find out how solid the melted fuel is and whether it could be transported away from the site. This was the first time that field crews had been able to use any device to physically interact with the fuel since the reactor meltdown.
"The observation device made contact with deposits at six locations on the pedestal," TEPCO wrote in a short preliminary report that was published on Friday. "Deposits in five locations could be moved." TEPCO posted a video, which can be found here, of the robotic probe picking up pieces of melted nuclear fuel.
Color us not surprised, but we’re still gonna miss all our favorite Defenders.
Enlarge/ Farewell to the last Defenders standing: Jessica Jones and The Punisher have been officially canceled by Netflix. (credit: YouTube/Allowit)
It was only a matter of time, but today Netflix finally made it official, announcing the cancelation of its two remaining Marvel Defenders series, The Punisher and Jessica Jones. The latter's third season hasn't even aired yet, although Deadline Hollywood reports that Netflix will air season 3 as planned. Nobody who has followed the axing ofIron Fist, Luke Cage, and Daredevil over the last few months was expecting The Punisher to get a third season, even though season 2 was an under-appreciated gem.
Punisher star Jon Bernthal—who is set to join New Line’s The Sopranos prequel feature—gave a fitting farewell on Instagram: "To all who have served. All who know loss. All who love and understand Frank and his pain. It has been an honor to walk in his boots. I’m endlessly grateful to the comic fans and the men and women of the Armed Services and law enforcement community who Frank means so much to. Thank you to the USMC and all the wonderful soldiers who trained me. Go Hard. Be safe."
In its official statement, Netflix expressed gratitude to the showrunners, stars, other cast, and crews of both Jessica Jones and The Punisher, adding “We are grateful to Marvel for five years of our fruitful partnership and thank the passionate fans who have followed these series from the beginning.”
Eine neue Förderung soll auch in Gebieten möglich sein, in denen es bereits Vectoring gibt. Nach Anlauf von drei Jahren ist der Investitionsschutz ausgelaufen. (Vectoring, DSL)
Eine neue Förderung soll auch in Gebieten möglich sein, in denen es bereits Vectoring gibt. Nach Anlauf von drei Jahren ist der Investitionsschutz ausgelaufen. (Vectoring, DSL)
Benchmarks showed that most ad blockers don’t make network requests much slower.
Google has said that it will revise the proposed changes to Chrome's extension API that would have broken or reduced the functionality of a wide range of ad-blocking extensions, to ensure that the current variety of content-blocking extensions is preserved. The initial plans generated a wide backlash from both the developers and users of those extensions, but Google maintains that "It is not, nor has it ever been, our goal to prevent or break content blocking" [emphasis Google's] and says that it will work to update its proposal to address the capability gaps and pain points.
The advertising company is planning an overhaul of its extension interface to, among other things, increase user privacy, make it harder for extensions to perform malicious actions, and make the browser's performance more consistent. Together, this work is documented as Manifest V3.
One of these changes in particular had grave consequences for ad blockers. Currently, ad blockers make extensive use of an API named webRequest. This API allows extensions to examine every single network request made by a page and either modify it (to, for example, redirect it to a different address or add or remove cookies), block it altogether, or allow it to continue unhindered. This has both a substantial privacy impact (an extension can see and steal your cookies and hence masquerade as you) and, Google said, some performance impact, as every single network request (of which there may be dozens in a single page) has to wait for the extension to perform its analysis.
Die erste Ausbauwelle der alten Kabelverzweiger hat die Telekom jetzt beendet. Das Unternehmen habe im ländlichen Raum begonnen und arbeite nun verstärkt in großen Städten an Vectoring und Super-Vectoring. (Vectoring, DSL)
Die erste Ausbauwelle der alten Kabelverzweiger hat die Telekom jetzt beendet. Das Unternehmen habe im ländlichen Raum begonnen und arbeite nun verstärkt in großen Städten an Vectoring und Super-Vectoring. (Vectoring, DSL)
Das Netz mobilisiert weiter gegen Uploadfilter und Leistungsschutzrecht. Zwar hat Justizministerin Barley selbst Bedenken gegen die Urheberrechtsreform, doch stoppen kann sie die Pläne nicht mehr. (Leistungsschutzrecht, Google)
Das Netz mobilisiert weiter gegen Uploadfilter und Leistungsschutzrecht. Zwar hat Justizministerin Barley selbst Bedenken gegen die Urheberrechtsreform, doch stoppen kann sie die Pläne nicht mehr. (Leistungsschutzrecht, Google)
A bunch of PC makers and retailers are running Presidents Day sales today which means that you can save money on some cheap, mid-range, and premium laptops, among other things. Unfortunately Lenovo’s $100 laptop is already sold out. But if you…
A bunch of PC makers and retailers are running Presidents Day sales today which means that you can save money on some cheap, mid-range, and premium laptops, among other things. Unfortunately Lenovo’s $100 laptop is already sold out. But if you’ve got a little more money to spend, you can pick up an Asus 11.6 […]
Samsung gibt Tablets trotz sinkender Nachfrage nicht auf: Mit dem Galaxy Tab S5e veröffentlicht der Hersteller ein neues Modell, das sich dank OLED-Display und vier Frontlautsprechern gut zum Videoschauen eignet. Ebenfalls neu: das Galaxy Tab A 10.1 im…
Samsung gibt Tablets trotz sinkender Nachfrage nicht auf: Mit dem Galaxy Tab S5e veröffentlicht der Hersteller ein neues Modell, das sich dank OLED-Display und vier Frontlautsprechern gut zum Videoschauen eignet. Ebenfalls neu: das Galaxy Tab A 10.1 im Einsteigersegment. (Samsung, OLED)
On Friday, the EU Commission published a piece on Medium that suggested that Google has taken over the minds of millions of citizens, rendering them incapable of thinking for themselves in their opposition of Article 13. The piece was later deleted with a note implying that people simply aren’t capable of understanding the subtle nuances of the English language.
Last week the European Parliament and European Council agreed on the final text of the EU Copyright Directive.
Supporters of Article 13 say this will lead to a better deal for the entertainment industries at the expense of Google’s YouTube, since it will have to obtain proper licenses for content uploaded to platform, while taking responsibility for infringing uploads.
Opponents, on the other hand, believe that the Article 13 proposals will be bad news for the Internet as a whole, since they have the potential to stifle free speech and expression, at the very least.
It’s important to note that Article 13 opponents come in all shapes and sizes, some more militant than others. However, last Friday the EU Commission took the ‘one size fits all approach’ by labeling every dissenting voice as being part of a “mob”, one groomed, misinformed and misled by Google.
Given that the Commission’s own Code of Conduct mandates that “both Commissioners and Commission staff are bound to act objectively and impartially”, the publication of the piece was a real surprise. That it also appeared to demean and devalue the public protests of millions of its own citizens bordered on the outrageous.
Proponents and opponents of any pending legislation should be free to undermine the position of their opponents by any legal, non-violent means, but this intervention by the EU seemed flat-out wrong. Taking sides in this way – even if the piece had been against Article 13 – is inappropriate at this stage of the game.
Before we published our report on Friday, a short discussion here at TF concluded that a record of the piece should be taken. None of us here believed it would stay up for long and it transpires that gut instinct was right. Visitors to the Medium page where the piece was published now see the following text;
The people just don’t understand….
The piece appears to have been removed (archive copy here) following a torrent of complaints on social media, with supporters of Article 13 incensed that they were essentially being told they hadn’t made up their own minds about the proposed legislation, but had become mindless zombies hypnotized by an insidious Google campaign.
Whether there is any truth to claims that Google is behind some kind of ‘bot’ campaign will be for future dissection but organizations like the EU Commission shouldn’t go around implying that voters are stupid. They’re allowed to think it (don’t we all to a degree?), but saying it is incredible.
Quite why this line was crossed is anyone’s guess but someone reasonably important sanctioned this piece and it would be nice to know who – and why.
What is even more bewildering is that the Commission is not sorry for what was written. The article was removed not because it was incorrect, but because the public apparently doesn’t have the capacity to understand it. Evidently, a simple update and clarification wouldn’t have been understood either, hence the deletion of the entire piece.
Mentioning SOPA in the same breath as Article 13 always raises hackles among entertainment industry groups because there are plenty of legitimate reasons why they want it to be forgotten. Now, seven years on, they might finally get their wish because what is happening now is arguably much more ugly. This could be the new benchmark, the new low.
Let’s be absolutely clear and honest here. In common with every political campaign in history, there has been misinformation on both sides of the Article 13 debate. In the middle, however, are genuine people who either want to protect their creative revenues or keep their Internet free and open.
The bias presented in the piece by the EU Commission undermined the credibility of all of them. It doesn’t need to be explained, it speaks for itself.
If the music industries and the EU want to take on the dominance of Google, then they should do so. If Google is found to have done wrong in this campaign, then it should face whatever is coming. That said, why do hundreds of millions of citizens have to be caught in the crossfire?
George Carlin said we should never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. Or was that the EU Commission, I forget now.
What i’m absolutely certain of is that it was David Brent, the world’s greatest living philosopher, who said that when we treat people greatly, they will show themselves to be great. I guess it’s a bit late for that now.
Eine neue Förderung soll auch in Gebieten möglich sein, in denen es bereits Vectoring gibt. Nach Anlauf von drei Jahren ist der Investitionsschutz ausgelaufen. (
Die erste Ausbauwelle der alten Kabelverzweiger hat die Telekom jetzt beendet. Das Unternehmen habe im ländlichen Raum begonnen und arbeite nun verstärkt in großen Städten an Vectoring und Super-Vectoring. (
Das Netz mobilisiert weiter gegen Uploadfilter und Leistungsschutzrecht. Zwar hat Justizministerin Barley selbst Bedenken gegen die Urheberrechtsreform, doch stoppen kann sie die Pläne nicht mehr. (
Samsung gibt Tablets trotz sinkender Nachfrage nicht auf: Mit dem Galaxy Tab S5e veröffentlicht der Hersteller ein neues Modell, das sich dank OLED-Display und vier Frontlautsprechern gut zum Videoschauen eignet. Ebenfalls neu: das Galaxy Tab A 10.1 im Einsteigersegment. (
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