Month: February 2019

The desktop Skype client now supports blurring the background of your video calls so that all the clutter and mess that, ahem, some of us accumulate no longer needs to be broadcast to everyone you talk to.

The background-blurring feature has already been rolled out to Microsoft's corporate communication client, Teams, and now it's in the consumer-oriented app. While bulletproof detection of the background requires a depth-sensing camera, the approach used in Skype (and Teams) uses machine learning-derived algorithms in order to work with any camera. The algorithms have been trained to detect human outlines, including the voluminous hair that some lucky people are blessed with as well as arms and hands. Presumably this means that it will properly detect even those arms and hands that appear dismembered, appearing from off the edge of the screen. Using blur is optional, and it can be enabled on a call-by-call basis.

This use of machine learning does, however, mean that it's not 100 percent guaranteed to blur everything that you might want blurred. So if there's anything too embarrassing behind you, you still might want to move it out of the camera shot just in case.

Enlarge / Wind turbines on private working ranch land on August 1, 2017 near Kevin, Montana. (credit: Getty Images / William Campbell-Corbis)

On Thursday morning, NPR posted a bill drafted by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) advocating for a Green New Deal—that is, a public works bill aimed at employing Americans and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the face of climate change.

A similar version of the bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate by Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

The House bill opens by citing two recent climate change reports: an October 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a heavily peer-reviewed report released in November 2018 by a group of US scientists from federal energy and environment departments. Both reports were unequivocal about the role that humans play in climate change and the dire consequences humans stand to face if climate change continues unchecked.

Enlarge / Wind turbines on private working ranch land on August 1, 2017 near Kevin, Montana. (credit: Getty Images / William Campbell-Corbis)

On Thursday morning, NPR posted a bill drafted by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) advocating for a Green New Deal—that is, a public works bill aimed at employing Americans and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the face of climate change.

A similar version of the bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate by Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

The House bill opens by citing two recent climate change reports: an October 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a heavily peer-reviewed report released in November 2018 by a group of US scientists from federal energy and environment departments. Both reports were unequivocal about the role that humans play in climate change and the dire consequences humans stand to face if climate change continues unchecked.

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A federal court has filed a default judgement against Jhonny Perez, the maker of Grand Theft Auto Online cheat program Elusive, in a copyright infringement suit. Southern District of New York Judge Kevin Castel has ordered Perez to pay the statutory maximum of $150,000, plus attorney's fees, after Perez declined to answer the charges in court.

Elusive is one of a number of "mod menus" that let Grand Theft Auto Online players take practically full control of the multiplayer game environment, including granting the ability to generate infinite amounts of in-game currency. That in turn "undermines Take-Two's pricing and sales of legitimate virtual currency," as the ruling obtained by TorrentFreak puts it. The ruling also says Elusive caused "Take-Two to lose control over its carefully balanced plan for how its video game is designed to be played... harm[ing] Take-Two's reputation for maintaining its gaming environment [and] discouraging users from further purchases and gameplay."

Take-Two says it has no way of knowing exactly how much revenue has been lost due to the use of Elusive, but it estimated damages of at least $500,000 in the suit.

Stephen King published his bestselling novel, Pet Sematary, 35 years ago, and it has definitely stood the test of time. We think we know the story, but there will be some unexpected, horrifying twists in the new film adaptation, judging by the spooky latest trailer.

(Spoilers for original book and film below.)

Staunch King fans know the basic plot by now: a doctor named Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) moves his family from the big city (Chicago in the book, Boston in the 2019 film) to a charming small town in Maine. The new house is right by a busy highway on one side and bumps up against a forest in back. So many local pets meet their demise on the highway that the children have set up a "Pet Sematary" in the forest to bury their beloved animals. Louis' daughter Ellie (Jeté Laurence) discovers the site while walking in the woods.