Month: October 2021

Enlarge (credit: Future Publishing | Getty Images)

Since at least 2019, hackers have been hijacking high-profile YouTube channels. Sometimes they broadcast cryptocurrency scams, sometimes they simply auction off access to the account. Now, Google has detailed the technique that hackers-for-hire used to compromise thousands of YouTube creators in just the past couple of years.

Cryptocurrency scams and account takeovers themselves aren’t a rarity; look no further than last fall’s Twitter hack for an example of that chaos at scale. But the sustained assault against YouTube accounts stands out both for its breadth and for the methods the hackers used, and an old maneuver that’s nonetheless incredibly tricky to defend against.

Enlarge (credit: Chris Delmas | Getty Images)

Donald Trump is launching a social media platform called TRUTH Social, which will go public via a merger with a blank-check company, as the former US president seeks to capitalize on his popularity among a large chunk of Republicans.

The move comes after months of speculation about whether Trump would launch a media company to compete with Twitter and Facebook and set the stage for another presidential run in 2024.

Trump, who used Twitter extensively during his 2016 campaign and four years in office, was banned from the platform, along with Facebook, YouTube, and other big social media networks in the wake of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Enlarge / Denis Villeneuve's vision of Dune appears to be heated not by scorching desert suns but by a ton of Hollywood hotties. That's one way to get the spice to flow. (credit: Warner Bros.)

I left my first screening of Dune (2021) convinced that I would watch it again soon.

For a film that spends much of its time in a barren desert wasteland, Dune's cinematography consistently dazzles. And despite a sizable cast of seemingly important characters, Dune does a good job establishing empathy and likability across the board—without losing the story's thread. Lead actor Timothée Chalamet also comfortably surmounts whatever massive expectations series fans might have about the Dune universe's latest "chosen one."

But that's not to say it's a perfect or even great film—a fact that shouldn't necessarily ring alarm bells for anyone familiar with David Lynch's cult-favorite effort. And while Denis Villeneuve's ambitious take is certainly anchored in a familiar story, marked by identical storytelling beats, it works hard to differentiate itself from the 1984 film, as if to make it easier for fans to love both of them.