January 2020 – Page 73 – news.buyenne.com

Linus Torvalds’ ZFS statements aren’t right—here’s the straight dope

Linus should avoid authoritative statements about projects he’s unfamiliar with.

Linus Torvalds is eminently qualified to discuss issues with license compatibility and kernel policy. However, this does not mean he's equally qualified to discuss individual projects in project-specific context.

Last Monday in the "Moderated Discussions" forum at realworldtech.com, Linus Torvalds—founding developer and current supreme maintainer of the Linux kernel—answered a user's question about a year-old kernel maintenance controversy that heavily impacted the ZFS on Linux project. After answering the user's actual question, Torvalds went on to make inaccurate and damaging claims about the ZFS filesystem itself.

Given the massive weight automatically given Torvalds' words due to his status as founding developer and chief maintainer of the Linux kernel, we feel it's a good idea to explain both the controversial kernel change itself, and Torvalds' comments about both the change in question and the ZFS filesystem.

The original January 2019 controversy, explained

In January 2019, kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman decided to disable exporting certain kernel symbols to non-GPL loadable kernel modules.

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Intel Comet Lake: Sparsamer LPDDR4X-Speicher wird später unterstützt

Die sechskernigen Comet Lake U für Ultrabooks nutzen bisher LPDDR3- und DDR4-Speicher. Support für sparsameren LPDDR4X hatte Intel angekündigt, aber nicht erwähnt, dass dafür ein neues Stepping notwendig ist. (Intel Comet Lake, Prozessor)

Five Eyes: MI5 sieht wegen Huawei keine Gefahr für US-Beziehungen

Der scheidende Chef des britischen MI5 erwartet nicht, dass die USA die Geheimdienstzusammenarbeit wegen Huawei tatsächlich einstellt. Sie sei für die USA genauso wichtig wie für die Briten, sagte er. (Spionage, Huawei)

HP Spectre x360 13 review: A high-end two-in-one that’s hard to beat

There wasn’t a lot to fix, so HP added a few features to make this convertible even better.

There was a lot to love about the 4th-generation HP Spectre x360 13, but HP wasn't satisfied. The new 5th-gen laptop, which debuted at the end of 2019, has more improvements than you'd think just by glancing at it. in fact without inspecting it thoroughly, you may think the new Spectre x360 13 looks and feels just like the previous model. But fear not, it's different—HP significantly shrank the device, added a mic-mute button, gave it optional LTE support, and stuffed 10th-gen Ice Lake Intel processors inside of it.

When OEMs make improvements and try to fix problems on a laptop, they often have to make sacrifices. With thin-and-light flagships like these, sacrifices typically come in power, battery life, and port selection, just to name a few areas. But HP didn't remove anything from the 4th-generation laptop when making the newest model—a fact that will work in its favor as it has to compete with the likes of the Dell XPS 13 two-in-one and the new Dell XPS 13 laptop. But just how much better did HP make the Spectre x360 13, and are there any hidden negatives about the newest iteration? We recently spent a few days with the laptop to find out.

Look and feel

Specs at a glance: HP Spectre x360 13 (2019, as reviewed)
Screen	13.3-inch FHD (1920 x1080) WLED touchscreen
OS	Windows 10
CPU	Intel Core i7-1065G7 (Ice Lake)
RAM	8GB
Storage	512GB PCIe SSD + 32GB Optane Memory
GPU	Intel Iris Plus Graphics
Networking	Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX 201 (2x2), Bluetooth 5
Ports	2 x Thunderbolt 3, 1 x USB-A, 1 x microSD card, 1 x headphone jack
Size	12.1×7.7×0.7 inches
Weight	2.88 pounds
Battery	60Whr 4-cell
Starting price	$1,099.99
Price as reviewed	$1,299.99
Extras	Camera kill switch, mic-mute button, optional LTE, active pen included

HP Spectre x360 13

Starting at $1,099.99 from HP

(Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.)

If you spend an inordinate amount of time around laptops like I do, the new narrowness to the 5th-gen HP Spectre x360 13 would immediately strike you. The previous model had chunky black bezels at the top and bottom of its display, increasing the overall width of the device. HP slashed most of that unnecessary space here, leaving behind a modest bezel at the bottom of the display with the HP logo on it. The company developed a super-tiny (2.2mm) IR camera as well, so it could keep that form of Windows Hello on the shrunken top bezel.

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This simulator company reverse-engineered the Tesla Nürburgring lap

They started with the in-car video from the Laguna Seca lap and went from there.

Enlarge (credit: elyob @ Flickr)

Last summer, a whole lot more people learned about the world's gnarliest race track when Tesla announced that it was sending a Model S sedan to the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The 12.9-mile (20.8km) track was built as a make-work project during the Great Depression, and people still race there today, although it's also widely used by car companies to develop their cars—or ruin them, if you believe that one episode of Top Gear. Tesla has been rather coy about the whole thing and hasn't really elaborated on the full raft of modifications it made to the Model S that set an unofficial time of 7 minutes and 23 seconds. But that hasn't stopped our friends at CXC Simulations from having a go at reverse-engineering things in silico.

I spoke to CXC's boss, Chris Considine, and professional racer (and the only American driver to have won pole position at the Nordschleife) Jeff Westphal to find out the answers to important questions like how, and why, and was it fun?

"I saw the story about Tesla running at the Nürburgring, and then we saw the video of them running it at Laguna Seca as well and we thought 'what if we tried to simulate this backwards, right?' Instead of having all the data, and then creating a simulation based on that, what if we just take the lap time and all the information that we know and try and reverse engineer, essentially," Considine told me.

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Router-Distribution: OpenWRT 19.07 unterstützt WPA3

Die freie Linux-Distribution für Router, OpenWRT, unterstützt in der aktuellen Version 19.07 erstmals die neue Verschlüsselung WPA3. Das Entwicklerteam hat außerdem das Web-Interface beschleunigt und eine wichtige Board-Migration angestoßen. (Linux-Dis…

Game Developer Sees Boost in Sales After Releasing Official Torrent

Most copyright holders are doing everything they can to prevent their content from showing up at The Pirate Bay. However, the developer of the indie shooter game ‘Danger Gazers’ took the opposite approach. He uploaded a free copy of his own game to the torrent site and generated enough buzz to actually boost sales.

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

Online piracy is an issue that affects many industries and indie game development is certainly no exception.

Some developers see piracy as an evil that needs to be rooted out as soon as possible. However, others are more open to some of the motivations behind it and are willing to experiment.

Game developer Shota Bobokhidze, aka ‘ShotX,’ falls in the latter category. The indie developer from Tiblisi, Georgia, runs his one-man company ShotX Studio which just released a new shooter game titled ‘Danger Gazers.’

The release is available on Steam where it currently sells at $9.99. While that’s not an extremely steep price, ShotX realizes the average game fan may not have the financial means to try out all the new titles that come out every month.

This prompted the developer to release a special edition targeting the pirate community. It’s something he already planned to do with the game Kontrakt in 2018, but that idea was canned after The Pirate Bay kept returning server errors.

This time he was more successful. Late last week the torrent made its way onto The Pirate Bay, carrying a special message from the creator.

“This is the latest DRM-free version of Danger Gazers (1.1.0), there’s no catch here, no Steam only features, just the fully functional game,” ShotX writes on The Pirate Bay.

The game can be downloaded for free, no strings attached. The developer’s only request is that people consider buying it if they like what they see, or to support the project in any other way. The same message was later repeated on Reddit where ShotX highlighted his release.

Ironically, the developer’s first post on Reddit was removed, presumably because the moderators assumed it was a pirated version. However, that’s certainly not the case.

This is not the first time that a game developer has plugged his work on a pirate site, but it remains a rarity. To find out more about ShotX’s motivations, we decided to reach out for some additional comments.

The developer informs us that he is all too familiar with piracy. He grew up in a situation where piracy was often the only option to get new software. Today he also sees the other side of the story, as he relies on sales to make a living. However, he still understands that not everyone can easily buy his work.

“The decision to release a torrent came along with the memories of my time spent with pirated software,” ShotX says.

“I remember that I didn’t feel any guilt at all as there was simply no other choice for me at that moment, moreover, had I known that there were other options I could have supported developers with, I’d have done all I could without a second thought.”

Releasing the game on The Pirate Bay allows people to try it out for free. This comes with the added advantage of free exposure, which is welcome too, as it’s becoming harder and harder for new games to get noticed.

ShotX says that this certainly wasn’t a planned PR campaign. He just wanted to get the word out and give the free torrent a chance. That said, he does believe that piracy can have a positive exposure impact, which was also the case here.

“It wouldn’t have been effective if it was a planned PR move to get people to buy the product. It was just a kind act that I was lucky enough to get noticed. I’m sure it would have been apparent if it wasn’t so,” he says.

ShotX’s approach worked well. The Reddit post promoting the official torrent reached a broad audience. This resulted in a lot of free downloads but also motivated people to buy the game and spread the word.

“The response so far was amazing,” ShotX says. While he didn’t expect anything in return, the free release actually resulted in a significant revenue boost.

“There was a noticeable boost in sales, some kind individuals even donated twice as much and most importantly all the rest supported me in their own ways by sharing my game and respecting my decision,” the developer adds.

The developer didn’t promote the torrent on his social media or on his official site, as he specifically wanted to reach out to the pirate community. Given the results, this was quite successful.

This shows that some ‘pirates’ are definitely willing to pay under the rights conditions but it doesn’t mean that this is easily repeatable. If all indie developers started releasing torrents it would no longer be something special and could become harder to get noticed once again.

In this case, however, it clearly paid off.

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

Raspberry Pi 4: Bastler baut Retro-Cyberdeck mit Kippschaltern

Für interessante Bastelprojekte scheint der Raspberry Pi 4 eine Inspiration zu sein: So hat auch der Nutzer Reviiser Lab einen eigenen tragbaren Computer mit Touchscreen, Trackpad und sogar eigenem Akkupack gebaut. Dazu braucht es einen 3D-Drucker und …

Amazon, Netflix und Sky: Disney bringt 2020 den großen Umbruch beim Videostreaming

In diesem Jahr wird sich der Video-Streaming-Markt in Deutschland stark verändern. Der Start von Disney+ setzt Netflix, Amazon und Sky gehörig unter Druck. Die ganz großen Umwälzungen geschehen vorerst aber woanders. Eine Analyse von Ingo Pakalski (Str…

Joyn Plus+: Probleme bei der Kündigung

Bei der Videostreaming-Plattform Joyn Plus+ können Probleme bei der Kündigung auftreten. Insbesondere im Zusammenspiel mit der Abobuchung als In-App-Kauf räumt der Anbieter einen Fehler ein. Wer das Abo für Joyn Plus+ beendet, kann sich derzeit nur bed…