Just another news site
Nun ist es Zeit, aus der Wahlschlappe die notwendigen Lehren zu ziehen. In der Friedensfrage und der Position zur Nato liegt der Schlüssel zu einer sozial-ökologischen Konversion. Ein Aufruf
AT&T “told us they wanted a conservative network,” OAN founder said in court.
Enlarge (credit: One America News Network)
A Reuters report published today with the title "How AT&T helped build far-right One America News" alleges that the telecom giant played a significant role "in creating and funding OAN, a network that continues to spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic."
While there's no evidence or allegation that AT&T played a direct role in creating OAN, Reuters points to a court case in which OAN's founder said he created the network after AT&T "told us they wanted a conservative network." OAN also apparently gets the vast majority of its revenue from a carriage deal with the AT&T-owned DirecTV, which is by far the largest cable or satellite TV provider that carries the channel. OAN is carried by providers including DirecTV, AT&T U-verse, Verizon FiOS, and CenturyLink, but not by large cable operators such as Comcast, Charter, and Cox.
OAN owner Herring Networks claimed in a 2016 lawsuit that AT&T promised to carry OAN on DirecTV in exchange for OAN's public support of AT&T's attempt to purchase the satellite provider, which required government approval. OAN's lawsuit claimed that AT&T reneged on the deal once its purchase of DirecTV was finalized in 2015. OAN finally got on DirecTV in 2017, weeks after agreeing to drop its lawsuit against AT&T. Herring also claimed in court that AT&T in 2013 proposed acquiring a 5 percent ownership stake in Herring, but that purchase was never made.
Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Common chemicals can often work better than pricey metal catalysts.
Enlarge / Proline is a common amino acid. It's also an effective catalyst. (credit: Wikimedia Commons )
Platinum is a ferociously expensive metal that is difficult to obtain and purify. Most of the small supply we produce every year isn't put to use for its properties as a metal. Instead, it's used as a catalyst for producing a variety of chemicals—and for cleaning up your car's exhaust. Everything made with platinum carries an added burden of cost and environmental damage because of that use.
This year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry honors two researchers for helping to trigger a burst of research into catalysts that leave the metals behind. Benjamin List and David MacMillan made key discoveries that started the field of organocatalysis, developing catalysts that could be made from cheap, common chemicals. Their work took a disorganized set of anecdotes and gave them a strong conceptual footing that allowed many other labs to go further.
At their heart, chemical reactions involve the transfer of electrons, either between atoms or into new configurations of chemical bonds. Metals are often effective catalysts because they ease the process of transferring electrons. Many metals will easily make a temporary loan of their electrons during a reaction or, if properly prepared, can draw electrons from other chemicals in order to hasten a process.
Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer studies cosmic rays from its perch on-board the ISS.
Experience the mission to repair the Advanced Mass Spectrometer (AMS) aboard the International Space Station in Among the Stars, an original documentary series now streaming on Disney+.
It's problematic enough when something goes wrong with a complicated, $2 billion physics experiment on Earth. Those challenges are considerably greater when said physics experiment is on the International Space Station, orbiting 250 miles above the surface of the Earth. Thanks to the efforts of the intrepid ISS crew, who conducted a series of spacewalks to make repairs, a damaged particle detector has a new lease on life.
Among the Stars, a new six-part documentary series on Disney+, chronicles the challenges the crew faced on that mission over the course of two years. The series also chronicles the final spaceflight of veteran NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, which occurred right as the COVID-19 pandemic put the world in lockdown. "I joke that, three years ago, I knew I was going into quarantine in March 2020, according to plan," Cassidy told Ars. "I just didn't know that the whole world would join me there."
As we've previously reported, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a particle detector that launched to the International Space Station in 2011 on the penultimate flight of the space shuttle. The machine has steadily been collecting data during the last six years, looking at a variety of particles from many sources, among them dark matter collisions.
Read 18 remaining paragraphs | Comments
The powerful global anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has taken over yet more pirate IPTV-related domains. The latest wave includes more than three dozen new additions to a rapidly growing list. All indications suggest that ACE gave the suppliers an ultimatum – shut down and hand over your domains or face more vigorous legal action.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Pirate IPTV and similar streaming services are considered one of the greatest threats to the global market for legitimate movie and TV show content. As a result, content companies of all kinds are going to extreme lengths to reduce unlicensed supply.
The most significant anti-piracy program by scale is operated by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, a global coalition that counts the major Hollywood studios, Netflix, Amazon, and dozens more giants among its members. From Apple TV+ to the BBC, Bell Canada, and Canal+, ACE members want pirate streaming platforms out of business as quickly as possible.
One of the key ACE strategies is to use its momentum and sheer power to force pirates into submission. In a nutshell, ACE gathers evidence on pirate IPTV operators and then approaches them with an offer they may be unwise to refuse – shut down or face potentially dire consequences. And then have to shut down anyway.
Part of this process involves operators having to sign over their domains for use by the Motion Picture Association. Over the past few years, ACE has taken control of more than 200 domains in this fashion and in the past couple of weeks has been particularly busy. The group is yet to make any announcements but we can reveal the number of domains ‘seized’ has grown by more than three dozen.
The first set of domains appear to be connected to each other. In the past they have been advertised separately and together on platforms including Reddit and even Pintrest, making them relatively easy pickings for ACE.
Abon-sat.com, abon-iptv-ott.com, king-platinum-iptv.com, electrotv-sat.com, electro-tvsat.com, electro-tv-sat.com, electrotvsat.net, electro-tv-sat.net, king-premium-iptv.com, king-platinum-iptv.com and salah-sat.com have all been promoted by a single user on Reddit and now divert to ACE, presumably having been shut down.
King-platinum-iptv.com, which claimed to offer 17,000+ channels and VOD. It even had its own DMCA page noting that the service “DOES NOT! broadcast any TV channel from its servers, nor is in any way connected with the channel broadcasting” but that didn’t prevent it from being placed under ACE/MPA control with all of the others.
Other domains scooped up by Hollywood include volkatvpro2.com and volkatv-pro2.com after offering access to global TV at a cheap price, including live sports from Sky and Bein, and TV shows from Canal+. It too shows the familiar ACE seizure banner after presumably caving to legal pressure
And the list goes on.
Up until the summer Juice TV was being promoted as a great alternative to services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, offering channels from the United States and United Kingdom, plus PPV, movies and TV shows available across a wide range of devices for as little as $4.99 per month.
That and all other offers now appear to be over. In the past few days, many former Juice TV domains have been transferred over to the Motion Picture Association and now divert to the ACE ‘seizure’ banner.
They read as follows: juicetv.ca, jaccounting.ca, juiceaccounting.ca, juicepay.app, juicetv.plus, juicetv.org, juicetvmax.pro, juicetv.app, juicetv.in, juicetv.co, juicetv.app and juicetvmax.pro.
Other IPTV-related domains to fall to ACE control include the following: recepteur-iptv.com, orca-pro.com, ottrapid.com, smartstb-ott.com, ip-tv-ott.com, ott-premium-iptv.com, ott-tvbox.com, premium-kingott.com, ott-rapid.com, buyiptv-ott.com and akhbar-ma.com plus ezstreamtv.com, esiptv-pro.com and estilotv.pro.
This global anti-piracy action by ACE is part of the MPA’s war on all kinds of unlicensed services, focused mainly on IPTV and similar streaming operations.
As reported yesterday, Hollywood still considers piracy to be its biggest threat so these seizures certainly won’t be the last. Indeed, the work of the MPA is being recognized at the highest levels, including by Spanish law enforcement which yesterday awarded the industry group with the Distinguished Cross of the Police Merit with Distinction for its anti-piracy efforts.
In part, recognized the MPA’s work in the shut down of streaming app Mobdro earlier this year.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
The cheapest AirPods haven’t changed much, but Pro and Max got new features.
Enlarge / Apple's AirPods Pro. (credit: Jeff Dunn / Ars Technica)
Apple today began updating all AirPods models (AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max) to firmware 4A400. While the normal, non-Pro, non-Max AirPods don't appear to have gotten much from this update, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max got new "Find My" features, and AirPods Pro now support a feature called "Conversation Boost."
In the previous firmware, it was possible to ping your AirPods with Find My to locate them among couch cushions or to see where your AirPods were when they were last synced with your iPhone.
But now, AirPods Pro and Max can also use the same Find My network of hundreds of millions of iOS devices that are used to locate lost AirTags. If you lose your headphones, other people's iOS devices may find them nearby and update your Find My app with their location. (The owner of the other iOS device has no visibility into this process.)
Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Twitch confirms the data breach but is investigating the full extent.
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)
Live video broadcasting service Twitch has been hit by a massive hack that exposed 125GB of the company's data. In a 4chan thread posted (and removed) Wednesday, an anonymous user posted a torrent file of the multi-gig data dump. The dump contains the company's source code and details of money earned by Twitch creators.
In a 4chan post seen by Ars today, an anonymous user claimed to leak 125GB of data lifted from 6,000 internal Twitch Git repositories. The forum poster mocked Amazon's acquisition of Twitch, writing, "Jeff Bezos paid $970 million for this, we're giving it away FOR FREE."
The hacker wrote that the purpose of the leak was to cause disruption and promote competition among video streaming platforms. The hacker further said that Twitch's "community is a disgusting, toxic cesspool."
Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Valve explains exactly how to open up the Steam Deck so you can repair or replace components and add or upgrade an SSD. The bad news is Valve highly recommends you don’t actually do that, since there’s a high risk that you’ll damage your device.
The post Steam Deck: How to disassemble Valve’s handheld gaming PC (and why you shouldn’t) appeared first on Liliputing.
Valve’s Steam Deck is a handheld gaming PC with a 7 inch display, built-in game controllers, a custom AMD processor with RDNA 2 graphics, and a starting price of $399, which makes the Steam Deck one of the most affordable devices in its category.
But the entry-level model has just 64GB of eMMC storage, which means you have to pay $529 or more to get a version with a faster, higher-capacity PCIe NVMe solid state drive. The good news is a new video from Valve shows exactly how to open up the Steam Deck and add or upgrade an SSD. The bad news is Valve highly recommends you don’t actually do that, since there’s a high risk that you’ll damage your device.
Unlike most companies advising against opening up your hardware, Valve notes that once your Steam Deck arrives, it is yours, and you can do whatever you want with it. But the company also says the warranty doesn’t cover any damage you do if you open the chassis to perform repairs or upgrades and something goes wrong.
The Steam Deck is a compact device with a lot of components crammed into a small space, and the company notes that once you’ve opened the case, you’ll immediately weaken it structural integrity, making it less drop resistant.
As for SSD upgrades, the company notes that there are multiple potential issues with replacing the SSD using an off-the-shelf version:
The Steam Deck also uses an M.2 2230 SSD, which an unusually small and uncommon type of solid state drive, so it’s not like there are as many third-party options for this type of storage as there would be if the company was using an M.2 2280 drive (the size more commonly found in laptops).
Interestingly, Valve notes that even the $399 Steam Deck with eMMC storage uses an M.2 connector, so if you disregard all of the company’s warnings and open the chassis, you should be able to upgrade that model by adding an SSD.
Valve also used some custom components, which means that even if you do manage to open the case, you may not be able to easily perform repairs. The analog thumb sticks, for example, are all part of one assembly featuring a board, stick, and cap and the only officially compatible replacement will be the exact same type of thumb stick.
The company says it will eventually let customers know where they can buy replacement components including thumb sticks and SSDs, even if Valve only recommends experts perform repairs or upgrades.
The post Steam Deck: How to disassemble Valve’s handheld gaming PC (and why you shouldn’t) appeared first on Liliputing.
A look at some of the most iconic cars to appear in Bond films across the years.
Is this 1964 Aston Martin DB5 the most famous movie car of all time? Maybe. [credit: Ted7/The Petersen Museum ]
The sports car is as intrinsic to 007's character as a vodka martini or that license to kill. At the start, long before James Bond went from page to screen, he drove a Blower Bentley, the equivalent in 1953 of tooling about today in a Toyota GT-One. The move to motion pictures meant driving something a bit more current than a 1931 Le Mans racer, and over the course of 25 films there's been plenty of four-wheel action. But one car stands out above all the others—the Aston Martin DB5.
We first saw the ionic coupé in 1964's Goldfinger, where it almost stole the show with its battering ram, ejector seat, smoke screen, and the rest of the gadgets that introduced the world to the Bond car. It has appeared in eight films in total. After Goldfinger it returned in Thunderball, then sat out the Lazenby and Moore years before returning in GoldenEye and then Tomorrow Never Dies, despite a marketing deal that meant Q had to issue the secret agent BMWs instead.
Casino Royale offered a new origin story for the DB5, with Bond winning the car in a game of poker. However, when it shows up again in Skyfall six years later, the steering wheel has switched sides, and Q Branch has had some fun with it. When last we saw 007 in Spectre he was driving away in BMT 216A, and we've known since the first trailer for No Time to Die that the DB5—and its headlamp miniguns—plays an important role in No Time to Die.
Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Supported or not, new or old, this is everything you need to know.
Enlarge / You name it, we've tried installing Windows 11 on it. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)
We originally published this install guide for Windows 11 shortly after the OS was released in October 2021. To keep it current and as useful as possible, we updated it in August 2022 to cover tweaks that Microsoft has made to the Windows installer for version 22H2, and some new workarounds for unsupported systems.
Windows 11 has been out for nearly a year, and its first major update will be released at some point in the next few weeks. Even if our original review didn't convince you to upgrade, you might be thinking about it now that it's more established and some of the biggest early bugs have been fixed.
We've pulled together all kinds of resources to create a comprehensive install guide to upgrading to Windows 11. This includes advice and some step-by-step instructions for turning on officially required features like your TPM and Secure Boot, as well as official and unofficial ways to skirt the system-requirement checks on "unsupported" PCs, because Microsoft is not your parent and therefore cannot tell you what to do.
You must be logged in to post a comment.