Avast kills off Jumpshot, the subsidiary that sold all your Web data

Users were not happy to learn “security” software sold their browsing habits.

An Avast Antivirus logo displayed on a smartphone.

Enlarge / An Avast Antivirus logo displayed on a smartphone. (credit: Rafael Henrique | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images)

One of the world's largest antivirus providers is ending a program that collected and sold users' Web browsing data a few days after media reports exposed the platform.

Avast CEO Ondrej Vlcek announced late Thursday the end of the data-selling subsidiary, known as Jumpshot. Writing in an open letter, he said that he and the company's board "have decided to terminate the Jumpshot data collection and wind down Jumpshot's operations, with immediate effect."

The pervasive operations of Jumpshot came to light earlier this week following reporting by Vice Motherboard and PCMag. Jumpshot described itself as "the only company that unlocks walled garden data... to provide marketers with unparalleled visibility, analytical insights and a more comprehensive understanding of the online customer journey that delivers a highly competitive advantage."

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DOD tester’s report: F-35 is still a lemon

Inaccurate gun, cybersecurity issues, and poor reliability found by testing director.

A jet fighter its on a runway behind low metal fencing.

Enlarge / A US Lockheed Martin F-35 Fighter is displayed during the 53rd International Paris Air Show last year in its natural state: on the ground. A poor "mission capable" rate plagues the F-35, as well as cybersecurity vulnerabilities and a gun that won't shoot straight, according to an upcoming Pentagon report. (credit: Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The latest report on the progress of the US Defense Department's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is due out soon from the Office of the Secretary of Defense's director for operational test and evaluation (DOT&E), Robert Behler.

Last year's report was full of bad news. And based on Bloomberg Government's Tony Capaccio's early access to the new report, we know much of that bad news is still bad news. In fact, the only real good news is that there are no new major flaws in the $428 billion aircraft program reported by Behler's team.

But the bad is still bad. For starters, the Air Force version of the F-35 can't hit what it shoots its gun at.

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Daily Deals (1-30-2020)

A subscription to CBS All Access will set you back $5.99 per month if you’re cool with commercials, or $9.99 if you’re not. But if you’re only itching to sign up because you want to stream the latest Star Trek show, CBS is offering a …

A subscription to CBS All Access will set you back $5.99 per month if you’re cool with commercials, or $9.99 if you’re not. But if you’re only itching to sign up because you want to stream the latest Star Trek show, CBS is offering a free sample so you can decide if it’s worth it […]

The post Daily Deals (1-30-2020) appeared first on Liliputing.

Spectacular sunrises and a sense of optimism mark the 2020 Rolex 24

IMSA and Le Mans are converging, and everyone still hates Balance of Performance.

What a difference a year makes. In 2019, the Rolex 24 at Daytona could have more accurately been called the Rolex 14 because it rained so hard and for so long that there were 10 hours of red flag stoppages and safety car periods. The sports car community had a markedly better time of it in 2020—the last raindrops fell some time on Thursday, well before the green flag waved at 1:40pm on Saturday, with summer-like temperatures during the day that were welcomed by everyone who descended on Daytona Beach in Florida from places where winter remains in full effect. The racing was quite different from a year ago as well. It was less of a barnstormer, for one thing, with a noticeably smaller grid than in years past, and minus the international star power that is Fernando Alonso—the former F1 double-champ decided to start his racing year by competing in the Dakar rally, instead. That's not to suggest a bad time was had—far from it.

Who wants to race to France?

The biggest news for the weekend actually happened before the race got underway. As mentioned in my pre-race article, talks have been ongoing between IMSA—which runs the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship (of which the Rolex 24 is a part) and the ACO, the French organization that controls the 24 Hours of Le Mans. On Friday, the two groups held a press conference to announce that the next iteration of the DPi prototype race cars—due in 2022—will now be called LMDh (for Le Mans Daytona hybrid) and will compete against the ACO's new Le Mans Hypercar at the world's biggest race. (Sorry Indy, the 500 is still only the world's largest single day sporting event.)

LMDh will use a homologated carbon fiber chassis from the same four manufacturers that produce the current DPi carbon fiber tubs. OEMs will still be free to use their own engines and electronics, and the cars will have much more road car-like styling, similar to Le Mans Hypercars. There will be a common hybrid system that recovers and deploys kinetic energy at the rear wheels, although beyond that, the technical details remain a work in progress. The upshot of this news is that the factory-supported prototypes fielded by the likes of Cadillac, Acura, and Mazda will be eligible to compete at Le Mans for an overall win, something that many sports car fans have been wanting to see since the dieselgate-powered implosion of the mighty LMP1-H category.

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Google’s ADT-3 Android TV developer kit with Android 10 now available for $79

The Google ADT-3 is the first Android TV device to feature a version of Google’s smart TV software based on Android 10. First unveiled in December, the little TV box is aimed at developers who want to make sure their Android TV apps are ready for…

The Google ADT-3 is the first Android TV device to feature a version of Google’s smart TV software based on Android 10. First unveiled in December, the little TV box is aimed at developers who want to make sure their Android TV apps are ready for the software that will roll out to supported devices […]

The post Google’s ADT-3 Android TV developer kit with Android 10 now available for $79 appeared first on Liliputing.

Dealmaster: Lenovo’s already affordable Thinkbook 13s is on sale for $581

Plus savings on Audible memberships, robot vacuums, smart TVs, and more.

Dealmaster: Lenovo’s already affordable Thinkbook 13s is on sale for $581

Enlarge

Greetings Arsians! We're kicking off today's Dealmaster with a big sale on an already solid yet affordable Lenovo laptop. Now you can get the Lenovo Thinkbook 13s with a Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD for $581.

The Thinkbook 13s debuted last year as an option for those who wanted some ThinkPad influences in a more wallet-friendly machine. Normally, the Thinkbook 13s starts at around $750, putting it at an intriguing price point when compared to the ThinkPad, HP Spectre, and Dell XPS machines of the world. Lenovo's current sale only sweetens the deal on this mid-range configuration—and you can get a more powerful Thinkbook 13s with a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD for just $721 as well.

We liked the Thinkbook 13s for its relatively slim yet sturdy design, comfortable keyboard, physical webcam shutter, and solid performance. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that flagship notebooks do—like an IR camera, a standard touchscreen panel, or Thunderbolt 3 port—but it has most of the things we see as essential in a machine that sits in the $500 to $1,000 range.

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A deep dive into the Apollo Guidance Computer, and the hack that saved Apollo 14

How on Earth do you patch the software on a computer orbiting the Moon? Very carefully.

The source of all the trouble: the Abort pushbutton (along with its companion the Abort Stage pushbutton). This particular image is of the LM simulator currently residing at the <a href="https://www.cradleofaviation.org/">Cradle of Aviation Museum</a> in Long Island.

Enlarge / The source of all the trouble: the Abort pushbutton (along with its companion the Abort Stage pushbutton). This particular image is of the LM simulator currently residing at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Long Island. (credit: Frank O'Brien)

Commanded by Alan Shepard, the only original Mercury astronaut to make it to the Moon on an Apollo mission, Apollo 14 was a reflight of Apollo 13's abandoned lunar landing plan. Accompanied by Lunar Module Pilot Ed Mitchell and Command Module Pilot Stu Roosa, Shepard's target was the Fra Mauro highlands, a hilly area near the lunar equator and just south of the giant crater Copernicus. Likely created from the ejecta thrown out when Mare Imbrium was created, the Fra Mauro site was thought to potentially contain material from deep inside the Moon that could shed light on our companion satellite's origin.

In the eight months since the harrowing flight of Apollo 13, engineers made several changes to the spacecraft to reduce the chance of another explosion happening. To help ensure that the crew could make it home if another emergency occurred, an additional oxygen tank and battery were added. The unplanned pause also allowed time for some software updates to be added to the lunar module computer; a particularly welcome addition was the ability of the computer to recognize changes in the height of the surface during the approach to the landing site. With this new capability, the computer would not be confused by the undulating terrain as the vehicle headed toward landing.

What is past is prologue

In the afternoon of January 31, 1971, the flight thundered away from the Kennedy Space Center on its Saturn V launch vehicle after only a brief 40 minute hold for weather. After restarting the S-IVB third stage for trans-lunar injection (TLI), the command module Kitty Hawk and her crew were on their way to the Moon.

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Samsung Galaxy Book S Win10 laptop with Snapdragon 8cx coming in February (pre-orders start today)

The Samsung Galaxy Book S is a 13.3 inch laptop that weighs 2.1 pounds, measures less than half an inch thick. It has a backlit keyboard, a fingerprint sensor, and built-in support for 4G LTE and GPS. It’s also the first notebook to feature a Qua…

The Samsung Galaxy Book S is a 13.3 inch laptop that weighs 2.1 pounds, measures less than half an inch thick. It has a backlit keyboard, a fingerprint sensor, and built-in support for 4G LTE and GPS. It’s also the first notebook to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx processor, a 7 watt processor that’s the chip maker’s […]

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DOD launches swarming drone in test of C-130 “drone mothership” concept

Next comes test of in-flight capture and recovery with sky-hook equipped cargo plane.

An artist's concept of how Gremlins would fill the skies, launched from manned motherships.

Enlarge / An artist's concept of how Gremlins would fill the skies, launched from manned motherships. (credit: DARPA)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been conducting research into a number of types of swarming drones that could be used on the battlefield. The latest of these is the "Gremlins" program—an effort to build relatively low-cost unmanned aircraft that can be launched from a "mothership" transport aircraft and then be recovered by the mothership after their mission is complete.

This past week, the Defense Department conducted the first airborne launch test for the Dynetics X-61A Gremlins Air Vehicle, a jet-powered drone that can be launched from the rotary weapons bays of the B-1 and B-52, from wing pylons, or from a C-130—and then recovered by a C-130 equipped with a docking cable and a crane-like recovery arm.

A DARPA video describing the Gremlins program.

The first flight of the X-61A took place in November, but the test this week—at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah—was the first air launch of the drone. While the 101-minute flight was successful, the parachute system intended to allow for a soft ground landing failed, and the drone was destroyed in the unexpected hard landing that followed.

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An extended interview with Oddworld’s creator, Lorne Lanning

If you’ve got three hours to kill, we’ll take you on a magical trippy journey.

Directed by Sean Dacanay, edited by Jeremy Smolik. Transcript is still in progress and will be ready in the next few hours.

In December, we ran a "War Stories" video on the Oddworld series, an unusual 90s-era adventure/platformer title that sees the player inhabiting the role of escaped factory slave Abe in his quest to avoid being turned into canned food. Filmed with the help of Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning, the video turned out to be very popular—doubtless because Lanning makes for a damn compelling interview subject.

We've gotten a lot of feedback on the video since it aired, primarily asking for more Lorne, and so we're going to try a bit of an experiment: rather than try to scrub through the original and pull out some more highlights, we've just exported the whole nearly-three-hour shoot for you guys.

Highlights for the full interview here include a fuller origin story for Abe, crazy stories from Lorne's father about disappearing world leaders and famous people on Arctic submarines, and some discussion about drug-fueled motion graphics design.

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