ECS Liva Z3 mini PCs with Intel Comet Lake coming in 2020

Taiwanese PC maker ECS is previewing some of its upcoming small form-factor desktop computers in Japan this week, where the folks at ASCII.jp got an early look. Possibly the most interesting new devices are the upcoming ECS Liva X3 Plus and Liva Z3E Pl…

Taiwanese PC maker ECS is previewing some of its upcoming small form-factor desktop computers in Japan this week, where the folks at ASCII.jp got an early look. Possibly the most interesting new devices are the upcoming ECS Liva X3 Plus and Liva Z3E Plus, not because they look all that different from the company’s Z2 […]

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Telling Lies takes an intimate, expansive view of interactive storytelling

Sam Barlow’s Her Story follow-up adds welcome polish and scope.

Four years ago, Sam Barlow surprised the game industry by reviving the moribund and seemingly outdated genre of full-motion-video games. Barlow's Her Story was a well-made, gripping, and ambiguous tale of murder and mania, told exclusively via conversational video snippets that players could search through via deduced transcript keywords.

But Her Story was tight and focused to the point of practical claustrophobia; every scene involved one actress whose character was interrogated in a single, mostly empty room over the course of a few in-game days. Barlow's latest FMV effort, Telling Lies, expands the same basic concept to great effect, packing many more characters, environments, and lengthy plotlines across roughly six hours of raw video and months of in-game time. The result is a slow-burning and deeply intimate character study with a plot that would feel cliché if not for its incredible presentation.

Random walk

Like Her Story, the player interacts with Telling Lies by searching through a video database and watching the clips. This time, though, that database is sourced from an intelligence agency, apparently stolen by your "viewer" character Snowden-style before her access could be completely cut off. Right away, it's apparent your goal is to search through the data before spreading it to the wider world. "When you use the uploader it will erase the hard-drive, so please do that before they take you into custody," read a note that accompanies the USB drive containing the database. "(Which they will—you know this, right?)"

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Internet Archive Faces Permanent ISP Blocking Following Audiobook Lawsuits

An anti-piracy group representing the rights of authors is calling for the Internet Archive to be blocked by ISPs in Russia forever. A pair of lawsuits concerning two audiobooks, including Metro 2033, led to the request to have the massively popular Archive.org permanently rendered inaccessible in the region. A legal process is now underway to avoid that happening.

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

The Internet Archive (archive.org) is a nonprofit library of millions of free books, movies, software and music.

Founded back in 1996, it’s considered one of the most important sites on the entire Internet, not least for its Wayback Machine which provides an unrivaled history of pages published on the web.

Like all platforms of its type, the Internet Archive contains copyrighted material, some of it present without rightsholders’ permission. While the platform previously stated it has some reservations concerning the DMCA, it acknowledges that ‘safe harbor’ provisions are vital to the existence of libraries such as the one it offers via Archive.org.

Internet Archive is required to respond to properly presented DMCA takedown notices but over in Russia, where the site provides millions of visitors with an invaluable service, things are on the brink of going seriously wrong.

The issues stem from the Internet Copyright Protection Association (AZAPI), an anti-piracy group which in part represents the rights of authors.

According to AZAPI, Archive.org has been making available a pair of audiobooks – Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky and Third Eye Diamond by Daria Dontsova – without obtaining permission from rightsholders. It’s unclear whether AZAPI filed simple takedown notices with the Internet Archive to have the titles taken down but the matter eventually went to court.

Digital rights group Roskomsvoboda reports that on May 13, 2019, the Moscow City Court examined the case involving Metro 2033 and decided in AZAPI’s favor. It subsequently issued an order preventing the Internet Archive (Archive.org) from “creating technical conditions” that result in the audiobook detailed by the plaintiff being made available to the public.

According to Roskomsvoboda, whose lawyers are now representing Internet Archive, the digital library was not involved in the initial hearing and was not advised of the outcome. An appeal against that decision is now underway.

Nevertheless, AZAPI, still returned for another bite of the cherry, complaining that another audiobook, Third Eye Diamond by Daria Dontsova, was also being made available via Archive.org.

A hearing in that case took place August 16, with AZAPI stepping up its demands to have Internet Archive (Archive.org) permanently blocked by all ISPs in Russia. However, the case has hit a roadblock due to AZAPI failing to provide evidence that the company behind the audiobook actually has the rights to the work.

As a result, another hearing in the matter is set to take place mid-September. Whether or not the Moscow court will then order Internet Archive to be permanently blocked in Russia remains to be seen but it certainly hasn’t shied away from blocking other huge platforms in the past, Sci-Hub as a prime example.

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

Company accused of “crypto snake oil” sues Black Hat, anonymous detractors

Crown Sterling seeks damages after attendees disrupt “controversial” talk on prime prediction.

Things got weird during a sponsored talk at this year's Black Hat USA conference. Now it's spawning a lawsuit.

Enlarge / Things got weird during a sponsored talk at this year's Black Hat USA conference. Now it's spawning a lawsuit. (credit: Getty Images)

One of the strangest moments at the Black Hat USA security conference in Las Vegas this month has now become the subject of a federal lawsuit against the conference.

In a filing to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (PDF), attorneys for the "emerging digital cryptography" firm Crown Sterling alleged that Black Hat USA had breached "its sponsorship agreement with Crown Sterling and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing arising therefrom." Crown Sterling goes on to accuse the conference organizers of "other wrongful conduct" connected to events surrounding the presentation of a paper by Crown Sterling CEO and founder Robert E. Grant. In addition to legally targeting the conference, Crown Sterling has also filed suit against 10 "Doe" defendants, who it claims orchestrated a disruption of the company's sponsored talk at Black Hat.

Grant's presentation, entitled "Discovery of Quasi-Prime Numbers: What Does this Mean for Encryption," was based on a paper called "Accurate and Infinite Prime Prediction from a Novel Quasi-PrimeAnalytical Methodology." That work was published in March of 2019 through Cornell University's arXiv.org by Grant's co-author Talal Ghannam—a physicist who has self-published a book called The Mystery of Numbers: Revealed through their Digital Root as well as a comic book called The Chronicles of Maroof the Knight: The Byzantine. The paper, a slim five pages, focuses on the use of digital root analysis (a type of calculation that has been used in occult numerology) to rapidly identify prime numbers and a sort of multiplication table for factoring primes.

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Daily Deals (8-23-2019)

Whether you like it or not, headphone jacks are becoming an endangered species on smartphones. But that doesn’t mean you need to spend $150+ on a set of earbuds to use with your phone. Meh is selling a set of Sony truly wireless earbuds with acti…

Whether you like it or not, headphone jacks are becoming an endangered species on smartphones. But that doesn’t mean you need to spend $150+ on a set of earbuds to use with your phone. Meh is selling a set of Sony truly wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation for just $69 today (while supplies last). […]

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Tesla working to resolve dispute with Walmart over solar panel fires

“Walmart and Tesla look forward to addressing all issues,” the companies say.

Fire damage on the roof of a Walmart store in Indio, California.

Enlarge / Fire damage on the roof of a Walmart store in Indio, California. (credit: Walmart)

Walmart and Tesla are actively negotiating to resolve the lawsuit Walmart filed against Tesla earlier this week over defective solar panels, the two companies said in a joint statement sent out on Thursday evening.

"Walmart and Tesla look forward to addressing all issues and re-energizing Tesla solar installations at Walmart stores, once all parties are certain that all concerns have been addressed," the statement said. The companies say they're both committed to a "sustainable energy future" as well as safety and efficiency.

Spokespeople for Tesla and Walmart declined to provide any further details about the state of the negotiations, but it's not hard to guess what happened. The optics of Walmart suing Tesla over multiple fires on its store roofs were not good for Tesla. Tesla wants the public—and potential customers—to know that it's now working to address Walmart's concerns.

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UMTS: 3G-Abschaltung kein Thema für die Bundesregierung

Nutzer, die kein LTE in ihren Verträgen festgeschrieben haben, sollten wechseln, da 3G zunehmend abgeschaltet werde. Das erklärte das Bundesverkehrsministerium und sieht keinen Grund zum Eingreifen. (UMTS, Freenet)

Nutzer, die kein LTE in ihren Verträgen festgeschrieben haben, sollten wechseln, da 3G zunehmend abgeschaltet werde. Das erklärte das Bundesverkehrsministerium und sieht keinen Grund zum Eingreifen. (UMTS, Freenet)

P3 Group: Wo die Mobilfunkqualität in Deutschland am niedrigsten ist

Die Qualität des Mobilfunks in Deutschland ist in den einzelnen Bundesländern sehr unterschiedlich. Dort, wo Funklöcher gerade ein wichtiges Thema sind, ist die Versorgung gar nicht so schlecht. (Mobilfunk, Telekom)

Die Qualität des Mobilfunks in Deutschland ist in den einzelnen Bundesländern sehr unterschiedlich. Dort, wo Funklöcher gerade ein wichtiges Thema sind, ist die Versorgung gar nicht so schlecht. (Mobilfunk, Telekom)

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Funkmastenprogramm verzögert sich

Wegen fehlender Zustimmung der EU ist das Geld für ein Mobilfunkprogramm in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern noch nicht verfügbar. Dabei hat das Bundesland laut einer P3-Messung große Probleme. (Telekommunikation, UMTS)

Wegen fehlender Zustimmung der EU ist das Geld für ein Mobilfunkprogramm in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern noch nicht verfügbar. Dabei hat das Bundesland laut einer P3-Messung große Probleme. (Telekommunikation, UMTS)

Sun’s solar wind recreated in lab with aid of Big Red Ball

Laboratory model of solar wind may improve space weather forecasts.

The Big Red Ball is pictured in Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Oct. 2, 2017. There is no word on whether or not the Big Red Ball contains an unknown glowing green substance which fell to earth, presumably from outer space. (Though it probably does not. <em>Probably</em>.)

Enlarge / The Big Red Ball is pictured in Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Oct. 2, 2017. There is no word on whether or not the Big Red Ball contains an unknown glowing green substance which fell to earth, presumably from outer space. (Though it probably does not. Probably.) (credit: Jeff Miller / UW-Madison)

The solar wind is made mostly of pure awesome. It is an always-changing, poorly predictable flow of charged particles from the Sun: a giant exhalation right into our faces. It's responsible for the auroras, which it produces in partnership with the Earth's magnetic fields. The solar wind has also given rise to possibly the coolest job description on Earth: space meteorologist.

But data on the solar wind is not so easy to come by. Yes, we can always observe the charged particles that hit our world's magnetic field, but for a more global view, we need to use satellite data—and satellites don’t come cheap. It would be nice if we could recreate the solar wind in the laboratory. And that is exactly what a group of physicists have done, using a machine called the "Big Red Ball."

A closer look at the solar wind

You'd think we understand the solar wind pretty well given that its existence was predicted before it was observed. But it's a complex system, and predicting its existence has not made it any easier to predict its behavior. Why is it so complicated?

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