Month: August 2019

Barr says the US needs encryption backdoors to prevent “going dark.” Um, what?

“The FBI says they’re ‘going dark.’ Well yeah, because they’ve been staring at the sun.”

US Attorney General William Barr speaks at the International Conference on Cyber Security at Fordham University School of Law on July 23, 2019 in New York City. In his remarks, Barr stated that increased encryption of data on phones and encrypted messaging apps puts American security at risk. Barr encouraged technology companies to provide law enforcement with access to encrypted data during certain criminal investigations.

Enlarge / US Attorney General William Barr speaks at the International Conference on Cyber Security at Fordham University School of Law on July 23, 2019 in New York City. In his remarks, Barr stated that increased encryption of data on phones and encrypted messaging apps puts American security at risk. Barr encouraged technology companies to provide law enforcement with access to encrypted data during certain criminal investigations. (credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

On July 23, in a keynote address at the International Conference on Cyber Security at Fordham University, US Attorney General William Barr took up a banner that the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation have been waving for over a decade: the call for what former FBI director James Comey had referred to as a "golden key."

Citing the threat posed by violent criminals using encryption to hide their activities from law enforcement, Barr said that information security "should not come at the expense of making us more vulnerable in the real world." He claimed that this is what is happening today.

"Service providers, device manufacturers, and application developers are developing and deploying encryption that can only be decrypted by the end user or customer, and they are refusing to provide technology that allows for lawful access by law enforcement agencies in appropriate circumstances," Barr proclaimed.

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Whitney Cummings—and her sex robot—take on modern womanhood

Netflix has many stand-up specials, but only one kinda takes dead aim at, er, automation.

Yes, Whitney Cummings did have a sex robot made in her likeness for the laughs.

Yes, Whitney Cummings did have a sex robot made in her likeness for the laughs. (credit: David Giesbrecht / Netflix)

I never really understood catcalling until Whitney Cummings explained it in front of a live audience. Rather than waxing snarky about backward oafs who don't get why harassment is bad, she says she understands the impulse, and launches into a story about seeing a service dog in an airport terminal. One that was wearing a vest that says "Dog Working. Do Not Pet." The kind of dog you're never supposed to touch. "Now I'm in a pickle, because I'm going to pet that fucking dog. I mean, it's a dog. It obviously wants it," she says, as the audience bursts out laughing. "I get your logic." Maybe women need vests, too.

The punchline gets more, but different laughter. Sarcasm about "wanting it" is standard fare for women comics, but trading working woman for working dog is sneakily, bleakly brilliant. You can almost hear the laughter change as it sinks in—how hilarious, how accessible, how grim.

Throughout her new Netflix standup special, Can I Touch It?, Cummings takes easy gender jokes and delivers them slightly askew, updated for the off-kilter moment women are living in right now. #MeToo-ed has become a verb, but guys still think it's OK to call a coworker "wife material." Women worry about being replaced by sex robots, but still have to be afraid while walking to their cars, clutching keys between their fingers like "a shitty Wolverine." These are the days of future/past. So, naturally, Cummings shares the stage with an ultra-modern version of one of the most outdated comedy props imaginable, the ventriloquist dummy: a laughing, talking sex robot that looks just like her.

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Marketing: Tesla wieder mit kostenlosem Supercharging bei S und X

Tesla hat ein neues Incentive für den Kauf eines neuen Model S und Model X gestartet. Die Supercharger-Flatrate, die erst vor wenigen Jahren abgeschafft wurde, ist zurück. (Tesla, Technologie)

Tesla hat ein neues Incentive für den Kauf eines neuen Model S und Model X gestartet. Die Supercharger-Flatrate, die erst vor wenigen Jahren abgeschafft wurde, ist zurück. (Tesla, Technologie)

Franky Zapata: Raketenmann überquert Ärmelkanal

Im zweiten Versuch hat der französische Extremsportler Franky Zapata den Ärmelkanal zwischen England und Frankreich mit seinem selbst entwickelten Flyboard Air, einem Hoverboard, überflogen. (Hoverboard)

Im zweiten Versuch hat der französische Extremsportler Franky Zapata den Ärmelkanal zwischen England und Frankreich mit seinem selbst entwickelten Flyboard Air, einem Hoverboard, überflogen. (Hoverboard)

Raytracing-Shooter: Remedy senkt Systemanforderungen für Control

Entwickler Remedy hat neue Systemanforderungen für Control genannt, die deutlich niedriger liegen als die, welche bisher im Epic Games Store veröffentlicht wurden. Nun reichen eine Geforce GTX 780 oder Radeon R9 280X ohne und eine Geforce RTX 2060 mit …

Entwickler Remedy hat neue Systemanforderungen für Control genannt, die deutlich niedriger liegen als die, welche bisher im Epic Games Store veröffentlicht wurden. Nun reichen eine Geforce GTX 780 oder Radeon R9 280X ohne und eine Geforce RTX 2060 mit Raytracing-Effekten. (Raytracing, Core i5)

RIAA Asks Cloudflare to Unmask Owner of Turbobit

Turbobit, one of the longest-standing file-hosting sites on the Internet, is being targeted by the RIAA which wants Cloudflare to unmask its owner. Interestingly, two other sites detailed in the subpoena are accused of hosting tracks featuring hip hop artist Swizz Beatz. The coincidental loop-around here is that Beatz was once listed as the CEO Megaupload, another one of the RIAA’s file-hosting targets.

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

When Megaupload was shut down in 2012, chaos ensued in the international file-hosting scene.

While Megaupload undoubtedly stored a lot of copyright-infringing content, it also cooperated with rightsholders and executed takedown demands, not unlike YouTube, for example.

Fearing the same fate, some sites shut down. Others, like fellow file-hosting sites Uploaded and Turbobit, reacted by preventing visitors from the United States from accessing their sites, at least temporarily. While both sites are still around today more than seven years later, the latter is now getting some attention from the RIAA, one of the plaintiffs in the currently-frozen Megaupload civil case.

On July 26, the RIAA filed for and obtained a DMCA subpoena which compels US CDN company Cloudflare to hand over the personal details of Turbobits’ operator, including names, physical addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, payment information, and account histories.

Turbobit stands accused of offering for distribution the album ‘Hurts 2B Human’ by American singer Pink. Another site listed in the subpoena, Hotsahiphop.org, is similarly accused of offering Mike Posner’s ‘Look What I’ve Become ft. Ty Dolla $ign’ without authorization.

However, it’s two fairly anonymous URLs listed in the same subpoena that offer a coincidental loop-around to the earlier Megaupload case of 2012.

321hiphop.is and gotth.is (Got This) are two pretty low-traffic sites that appear to be used as hosting platforms for various tracks and mixtapes. Since there are much bigger targets around today, it isn’t clear why they’re on the RIAA’s radar.

Nevertheless, the RIAA wants Cloudflare to hand over the personal details of their operators for the offense of hosting two copies of the 2010 Jay-Z track ‘Ultra’ which features none other than Swizz Beatz, the man Megaupload claimed was their CEO at the time of the raid in 2012.

Source: Megaupload (January 2012)

It’s unclear why Swizz Beatz was listed as the company’s CEO all of those years ago since the artist was never mentioned by name in any of the legal documentation connected to the raids or subsequent lawsuits. It was later confirmed by Ira Rothken, counsel for Megaupload, that Beatz was in negotiations to become the CEO, but it never came to pass.

However, Beatz did admit to working with Megaupload, possibly in connection with Megabox, the service that planned to give fans free music in return for their advertising clicks while giving most of the money back to the artists.

Megabox never came to light and here we are, seven years later, with the RIAA trying to tackle sites, not unlike Megaupload, with similar strategies, in order to protect his music.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems.

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

52PI Ice Tower: Turmkühler für Raspberry Pi 4B halbiert Temperatur

Unter Last wird der Prozessor des Raspberry Pi 4B sehr heiß und drosselt daher seinen Takt. Mit dem 52PI Ice Tower gibt es einen großen CPU-Kühler, der den Broadcom-Chip auf unter 50 Grad Celsius drückt. (Raspberry Pi, Broadcom)

Unter Last wird der Prozessor des Raspberry Pi 4B sehr heiß und drosselt daher seinen Takt. Mit dem 52PI Ice Tower gibt es einen großen CPU-Kühler, der den Broadcom-Chip auf unter 50 Grad Celsius drückt. (Raspberry Pi, Broadcom)

Another European heatwave, another link to climate change

Not to sound like a broken record, but Europe broke records again.

Map of Europe stylized for temperatures.

Enlarge / Satellite-estimated surface temperatures for July 25, 2019. (credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

It’s becoming standard procedure that extreme weather events will quickly be analyzed by the World Weather Attribution team—a group of climate scientists who estimate the influence of climate change on individual events. But even so, covering fresh results on a record-breaking European heatwave is jarring, given that we did the same thing just one month ago.

The last week of July saw several days of sweltering heat around Western Europe. Weather stations in Belgium and the Netherlands hit temperatures over 40°C (104°F) for the first time on record, while the UK hit a new high at 38.7°C. Both Paris and Germany set new records at 42.6°C—over 2°C higher than either’s previous high.

The heatwave was the result of a wiggle in the Jetstream helping pull air from North Africa across France and toward Scandinavia. That pattern has happened before, so why did it break so many temperature records this time?

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uTorrent Desktop Client Will Stop Working on New Mac OS

Mac users who plan to upgrade to Catalina, the latest version of Mac OS, won’t be able to use the desktop version of uTorrent. Both uTorrent and BitTorrent Mainline are not compatible with the new operating system and users will be automatically upgraded to the browser-based “Web” clients instead.

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

uTorrent for Windows first came out in September 2005. Soon after, it became the most widely used torrent client, which it still is today.

Initially, Apple users were left out, but after three years BitTorrent Inc. released their long-awaited version for Mac OS.

While official numbers are not available, uTorrent likely never gained the impressive market share it enjoyed on Windows. This is, in part, was due to the fact that there were already several established Mac torrent clients around, including Transmission and Vuze.

In recent years there’s been very little progress on the Mac development front. The last client update dates back to last year, and there is virtually no discussion going on in the official Mac forums. It was also excluded from the recent BitTorrent Speed release, which is Windows only.

That said, something big is expected next month. BitTorrent Inc. just announced that the desktop versions of uTorrent and BitTorrent Mainline won’t be available on the new Mac OS Catalina (version 10.15 and up). Instead, all users will be updated to the browser-based web clients.

The reason for this is fairly simple. uTorrent Mac is only available as a 32-bit application, while Apple’s upcoming release of Mac OS Catalina is only compatible with 64-bit apps.

“Therefore, in early September, we will automatically update µTorrent Classic for Mac to our newest torrent downloader and player, µTorrent Web for Mac. This is necessary to ensure that our torrent downloading software continues to work seamlessly with Catalina when millions of users update to the new version,” BitTorrent Inc announces.

“We will start updating users in early September. If you are using µTorrent Classic for Mac version 1.87 or earlier version, you will automatically get upgraded to µTorrent Web for Mac.”

It’s no surprise that support for 32-bit applications will end on the newer Mac OS. This has been known for a while and, for this reason, a 64-bit version of uTorrent was put on the feature request list last year. However, that request didn’t receive an official response.

As a result, all users of the new Mac OS Catalina will have to move their torrenting activity to the browser, or find an alternative client. Users who haven’t updated Mac OS to Catalina can continue to use the desktop version

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

Roll over, Beethoven: Decoding the maestro’s musical style with statistics

What makes Beethoven sound like Beethoven? Swiss team used data science to find out.

EPFL researchers analysis of Beethoven's writing style, applying statistical techniques to unlock recurring patterns.

Famed Classical/Romantic composer Ludwig van Beethoven had a distinct statistical signature to his compositional style, according to an innovative analysis published in a recent paper in PLOS ONE. The study is part of the rise of so-called "digital humanities," although much of the work to date in this burgeoning subfield has focused on textual analysis.

"New state-of-the-art methods in statistics and data science make it possible for us to analyze music in ways that were out of reach for traditional musicology," said co-author Martin Rohrmeier, head of EPFL's Digital Humanities Institute, which is devoted to achieving a better understanding of how music works. "The young field of digital musicology is currently advancing a whole range of methods and perspectives."

Per co-author Markus Neuwirth, "Our approach exemplifies the growing research field of digital humanities, in which data-science methods and digital technologies are used to advance our understanding of real-world sources, such as literary texts, music, or paintings under new digital perspectives."

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