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Fleischbetriebe wurden längst zur “erheblichen epidemiologischen Gefahrenquelle” erklärt, der neue Corona-Hotspot in Deutschland ist eine Schande in mehrfacher Hinsicht – Ein Kommentar
The Chuwi LarkBox is a tiny computer that measures just 2.4″ x 2.4″ x 1.7″ but which is a full-fledged PC capable of running Windows 10 or other desktop operating systems. Powered by a 10-watt Intel Celeron J4115 quad-core processor, …
Deutschland wird grüner und der Energiekonzern will rechtzeitig die Kurve kriegen. Kommentar
The designers of Troyes are back with a deep-space saga.
Enlarge (credit: Pearl Games)
Welcome to Ars Cardboard, our weekend look at tabletop games! Check out our complete board gaming coverage at cardboard.arstechnica.com.
Black Angel reminds me of a pocket watch I once had. (This isn’t the setup to a bad joke.) You see, the watch was broken. A memento from my time in Germany, the watch broke during shipping and never kept good time, made a weird grinding noise when I wound it, and had an unsightly crack across its face. I still keep it around, though. With its open face and back, you can see the inner workings—gears, flywheels, jeweled pivots. The craftsmanship is breathtaking, even if it loses a minute every half hour.
Let’s back up. The board game Black Angel, designed by Sébastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges, and Alain Orban, is something of a spiritual successor to their previous collaboration, a well-known game by the name of Troyes. Like Troyes, Black Angel is a dice game in the loosest sense, tasking players with utilizing pools of dice in ways that are almost entirely novel. It also resembles a busted clockwork—lots of ideas working in sync—just not quite in sync enough to keep regular time.
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Und wie die Wissenschaft sich gern benutzen lässt
Dass sie nicht mehr gemeinsam autonom fahren wollen, heißt nicht, dass sich Daimler und BMW nicht mehr mögen. (Autonomes Fahren, Technologie)
Dass sie nicht mehr gemeinsam autonom fahren wollen, heißt nicht, dass sich Daimler und BMW nicht mehr mögen. (Autonomes Fahren, Technologie) Weekly Blu-ray sales fell to its lowest level since September 2010, as the effect of the Coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is hurting the movie industry in and out of theaters.According to data provided by Media Play News and compiled by …
Weekly Blu-ray sales fell to its lowest level since September 2010, as the effect of the Coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is hurting the movie industry in and out of theaters.
According to data provided by Media Play News and compiled by Digital Digest, weekly Blu-ray revenue for the week ending June 6, 2020, was only $16.35 million, the lowest mark since September 11, 2010 (when Blu-ray revenue was $14.65 million).
A combination of poor retail sales and a lack of high profile releases are thought to be responsible.
The writing was already on the wall when the usually busy Easter period saw sales stagnating. Blu-ray and DVD sales were down 33% compared to Easter 2019, despite many sales occurring online where activities for the purchase of other goods have surged since the lockdown.
Just two weeks prior to the week ending June 6, the release of 'Sonic the Hedgehog' on Blu-ray marked the last major film coming to home video for a while. 'Sonic' was the last movie to be released theatrically before lockdown measures, designed to slow down the outbreak, forced theater doors to close in the U.S. and many other places elsewhere. Since then, scores of movies have had their theatrical release delayed, or in some cases, cancelled completely in favor of premium on-demand streaming.
For 2020 so far, the effects of the lockdown and economic downturn on Blu-ray sales have been small, but present. Blu-ray sales were down 18.52% compared to the same period in 2019, which in itself was down 17.40% compared to 2018. Physical media sales have been declining steadily due to the increasing popularity of streaming and digital rental/purchases. Blu-ray revenue peaked in 2013, and has been declining ever since, despite the release of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. So it is difficult to separate what is attributable to the format's gradual decline, and what is down to the pandemic.
Initially, there was some optimism that with people confined to homes, online sales of Blu-ray and DVDs would benefit as people seek to find ways to entertain themselves.
However, movie sales are very much seasonal and dependent on good quality new releases. With no major films coming to theaters until July, and therefore no major films ready to come onto Blu-ray for months, it suggests a dry spell of dry spells for home video releases. The ongoing economic pains could also dampen people's enthusiasm for buying and renting movies.
In other words, the worst may be yet to come.
Viele Blu-Ray-Player von Samsung funktionieren plötzlich nicht mehr, wie aus Posts in den Foren des Herstellers hervorgeht. Die Ursache ist unklar. (Samsung, Blu-ray)
Damit die aktuelle Debatte über Rassismus nicht wirkungslos verpufft, braucht es Veränderung und Dialog. Im Gespräch mit Andrea Karimé, Said Boluri und Dogan Akhanli
Blizzard has suspended or closed over 74,000 accounts in the last month.
Enlarge / For months, clusters of bot-driven accounts have trawled around high-level zones, attacking monsters with uncanny precision before rotating toward their next target in robotic 90° angles. (credit: Blizzard)
Bots are terrorizing World of Warcraft Classic servers, stealing precious resources, monopolizing rare monsters, and inflating the virtual economy with truckloads of illicitly earned gold. Today, WoW Classic developer Blizzard Entertainment announced it has suspended or closed over 74,000 WoW Classic accounts over the last month, many of which were automating gameplay with bots.
For months, clusters of bot-driven accounts have trawled around high-level zones, attacking monsters with uncanny precision before rotating toward their next target in robotic 90-degree angles. These in-game characters are operated by scripts, programmed to optimally kill monsters and obtain rare, valuable items that drop from them. Lately, they’ve been targeting the sought-after Black Lotus, a necessary item for some competitive, high-level play.
World of Warcraft Classic is a punishing game by design, a harkening-back to the early days of World of Warcraft. It boasts little of the expediency that defines modern massively multiplayer online role-playing games; everything is an intentionally slow grind. To obtain a Black Lotus, players had to identify the specific spots where they spawn and camp there for between 45 and 75 minutes, waiting and warding off any competitors. For the last several months, when human-run characters attempted to muscle their way into the mix, coordinated groups of bots threatened them or closed ranks around the flower. So in late May, Loknar—who plays a healing priest in WoW Classic but still tries to kill bots whenever he sees them—decided to hold an anti-bot protest in the in-game city of Orgrimmar.
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Viele Blu-Ray-Player von Samsung funktionieren plötzlich nicht mehr, wie aus Posts in den Foren des Herstellers hervorgeht. Die Ursache ist unklar. (
