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Warum die Geschehnisse im Reichstagsgebäude kein einmaliger Tabubruch waren. Ein Blick in die Geschichte von Parlament und Protest
Electric vehicle customers today enjoy a wide selection—and a $7,500 tax credit.
Enlarge / Our electric 2019 Kia Niro. (credit: Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica)
On Friday the 13th my wife and I went to a Kia dealership to take delivery of a Kia Niro. Taking one of the last 2019 Niros on the lot, we paid $32,900 for a car that lists for $41,000. Even better, when we file our taxes next spring, we'll get a $7,500 credit from Uncle Sam. So the after-tax cost will be just $25,400.
The options for electric vehicles have gotten dramatically better since we last went car shopping in 2017. I wanted to buy an electric vehicle back then too, but the pickings were slim. Tesla's Model S and Model X were way out of our budget. My wife declared the Chevy Bolt and Prius's plug-in hybrids to be too funny looking. The Nissan Leaf was then rated at 107 miles of range—far too little for road trips.
We test-drove Ford's C-MAX plug-in hybrid in 2017, but the plug-in feature seemed like an afterthought. The car had extra batteries stacked in the rear cargo area, leaving little room for cargo. So we settled for a Subaru Impreza with an internal combustion engine. Cost: $25,200.
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Es waren mutmaßlich die Angestellten des Domain-Registrars Go Daddy, die den Angreifern Zugang zu den Kryptowährungs-Plattformen ermöglichten. (Phishing, Server-Applikationen)
Es waren mutmaßlich die Angestellten des Domain-Registrars Go Daddy, die den Angreifern Zugang zu den Kryptowährungs-Plattformen ermöglichten. (Phishing, Server-Applikationen) Which new console is worth your hundreds? Our direct comparison offers an answer.
Enlarge / L-R: Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S. (credit: Sam Machkovech)
Though this year's newest consoles have only been on store shelves for less than two weeks, we've already published tens of thousands of words about the Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5. Between months of tech previews, picture-filled unboxings, comprehensive reviews, coverage of some of the biggest launch games, and more, you could spend all day doing nothing but reading our detailed thoughts about Sony and Microsoft's new consoles.
If you don't have the time for all that, we understand. That's why we've put together this handy, head-to-head summary comparing the most important features of both systems directly. By the end, we hope you'll know if it's time for you to upgrade your console, and which path you should take if it is.
Both systems add a little bit of visual flair when you look at them from an angle. [credit: Sam Machkovech ]
Both the PS5 ($499 with disc drive, $399 without) and the Xbox Series X ($499) are really big. The Series X astounds as a chunky, minimalist cuboid, with a minimum 6" clearance on any of its sides—making it a nightmare for an average entertainment center's shelves. The PS5 gets its minimum clearance down to 4.25", but that comes at the cost of being 50 percent bigger than Series X in total volume. Once you find a place to put either, the other differences boil down to your aesthetic preferences: black monolith with mild green accents, or a curvy popped-collar tower?
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Goal: launch global commercial Internet service focusing on remote areas by 2022.
The UK has entered the increasingly competitive race to become a global satellite Internet provider after taking control of failed space startup OneWeb with Indian billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal.
The low-Earth-orbit-satellite operator emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday and will now seek a further $1.25 billion through debt or equity to achieve its ambitious medium-term goal of launching a global commercial Internet service by 2022 focusing on remote areas.
It will face well-funded rivals, including ventures led by SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
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Was machen, wenn man zur Bildbearbeitung nicht Adobe Photoshop nutzen möchte? Seit 25 Jahren bietet die Open-Source-Software Gimp eine Alternative. (Gimp, Grafiksoftware)
Was machen, wenn man zur Bildbearbeitung nicht Adobe Photoshop nutzen möchte? Seit 25 Jahren bietet die Open-Source-Software Gimp eine Alternative. (Gimp, Grafiksoftware) Amazon hopes to protect online streaming content with a newly awarded anti-piracy patent. The company has developed a technique where personally identifiable information can be dynamically added to streaming content, visibly or not. This is a relatively low-resource option to detect the source of pirated movies, TV-shows, and even live events.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Amazon is not just the largest e-commerce retailer, the company also has a significant copyright portfolio.
In recent years the company has increased its anti-piracy efforts, both individually and as a member of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment.
The company has booked some successes but copyright infringement remains a challenge. As with other streaming platforms, virtually every Amazon title is pirated shortly after its release.
With a newly obtained patent, the company hopes to make it easier to find people who leak their content. The invention titled “encoding identifiers into customized manifest data” can be used for various purposes but copyright enforcement is high on the list.
In short, Amazon proposes a technology to add unique identifiers to streaming video. While these types of ‘watermarks’ are not new, Amazon’s implementation is.
The patent description is highly technical but when we focus on the anti-piracy application it becomes clear how Amazon envisions using it. The company itself provides an illustrated example of a ‘pirating’ subscriber who records a copy of its series “The Tick.”
The subscriber in question has a unique identifier (ID:1011). When this person plays the video, Amazon generates customized manifest data (126) based on this ID. This is used as input for the Fire TV player (124) which requests video data based on the data and decodes the video fragments from the media server (122).
When the subscriber records the video, with an HD camera in this example, this includes a code or mark that points back to the manifest data.
“However, unbeknownst to user 102, a pattern of version information 110 is encoded into at least some of the content fragments (e.g., 112-118) identified by customized manifest data 126 and is recoverable as a version pattern 132 that can identify user 102 as the source of the recorded episode,” Amazon writes.
The identification code can be clearly visible but it can also be invisible. That can be useful to make it hard for pirates to remove these identifiers.
“It is desirable in some implementations that the overlay representing version information be imperceptible to the human eye,” Amazon writes.
“Not only does that make it more difficult for content pirates to detect, alter, remove, or otherwise defeat the overlay, it ensures that the quality of the video content being marked with a version identifier is not significantly degraded.”
Without going too deep into the technical details, it is clear that Amazon is trying to find and possibly implement advanced technologies to track pirating users. These technologies already exist, but can be quite resource-intensive.
Instead of encoding the identifier or watermark in the video content, Amazon proposes to add it to the manifest data. As a result, Amazon’s solution can be more easily applied at the individual level. This can be useful to protect content on Amazon’s own streaming service, but other rightsholders may want to use it as well.
The company specifically mentions live streaming content, such as NFL matches including the Super Bowl. These live broadcasts can be played with individual marks, but they can also carry more general information such as people’s location.
“It should be noted that the term customized manifest data is not limited to the level of specificity corresponding to individual persons or devices as described in the anti-piracy context.
“For example, for an NFL broadcast scenario, customized manifest data might be a level of specificity based on geography,” the patent reads.
According to Amazon, its solution may also avoid the need for client-side watermarking on the user’s playback device, which is another advantage.
At this point, it is unclear whether Amazon already uses this technology but the company’s intentions are obvious; make it possible to track pirating subscribers. That said, ‘watermarking’ is not new and thus far it hasn’t stopped many pirates, so how effective it will be remains to be seen.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
A new generation of machines is automating a tech-averse industry.
Theresa Arevalo was in high school when she first tried finishing drywall at her brother’s construction company. “It’s a fine art,” she says of mudding—applying and smoothing drywall. “Like frosting a cake, you have to give the illusion that the wall is flat.”
Fast-forward a few decades: Arevalo now works at Canvas, a company that’s built a robot using artificial intelligence that’s capable of drywalling with almost as much artistry as a skilled human worker.
The robot has been deployed, under Arevalo’s supervision, at several construction sites in recent months, including the new Harvey Milk Terminal at San Francisco International Airport and an office building connected to the Chase Center arena in San Francisco.
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Medienkritik zum Corona-Journalismus – Teil 4
Medienkritik zum Corona-Journalismus – Teil 4
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