Vodafone Portugal is slowly working to recover following a "deliberate and malicious cyberattack" that brought down services used by millions of people and businesses in that country, including those for ambulances and other emergency services.
Vodafone Portugal—a subsidiary of UK-based Vodafone Group with 4.3 million cellphone subscribers and 3.4 million fiber subscribers—said in a statement that the attack began on Monday evening. The attack quickly took down the subsidiary's 4G and 5G networks and halted fixed voice, television, SMS, and voice and digital answering services.
"[It was] a targeted attack on the network, with the purpose, surely voluntary, intentional to leave our customers without any service," Vodafone Portugal CEO Mário Vaz said at a news conference according to Portuguese news site Lusa. "The aim of this attack was clearly to make our network unavailable and with a level of severity to make the level of services as difficult as possible."
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters—who was recently barred from overseeing an election and has promoted former President Trump's conspiracy theory that voting machines were manipulated to help Joe Biden win the presidency—was arrested at a bagel shop yesterday and accused of resisting a search warrant.
The search warrant was for an iPad that Peters was accused of using to record a court hearing in violation of court rules. Video of the brief detainment shows Peters being handcuffed and repeatedly shouting, "Let go of me... give me my key to my car!" The video shows her kicking her leg backward at one of the arresting officers while trying to escape their grasp. "Do not kick–you understand?" an officer told Peters.
The Grand Junction Police Department issued a statement saying that officers were present yesterday morning "to assist investigators with the Mesa County District Attorney's Office who advised our officers they were executing a search warrant. Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was arrested and released on scene, pending charges related to this incident... An arrest affidavit is being submitted and once it becomes available, will be released."
Software developers have discovered apparent references to a new Apple operating system called "realityOS" in App Store upload logs and in GitHub repositories used by the company.
The references were shared widely by developers Rens Verhoeven and Steve Troughton-Smith on Twitter. Verhoeven tweeted:
Uh what is Apple’s RealityOS doing in the App Store upload logs?
The tweet was accompanied by a screenshot from the logs that included "com.apple.platform.realityos" alongside a similar reference for an existing platform, "com.apple.platform.watchos."
It’s got super slim bezels, a camera notch, and an S-Pen.
Enlarge/ The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, with S-Pen and outrageously slim bezels. (credit: Samsung)
Android tablets might be showing new signs of life thanks to Google's push with Android 12L, but Samsung never left the Android tablet market. Alongside Samsung's announcement of the Galaxy S22, the company is also revving its tablet line, and for the first time ever, it's supersizing Galaxy tablets with the Galaxy S8 Tab Ultra.
The Galaxy S8 Tab Ultra is a monster. Its 14.6-inch (370.8 mm), 120 Hz 2960 × 1848 OLED display has a 16:10 aspect ratio. The 326.4 x 208.6 x 5.5 mm (12.8 x 8.2 x 0.2 inch) aluminum body houses an 11,200 mAh battery, and it weighs a whopping 1.6 pounds (0.73 kg). It's bigger than the top half of many laptops.
Samsung's choice to build an ultrabig tablet came with the decision to slim down the bezels, which I don't think anyone has ever asked for on a tablet. You can grip a smartphone around the side of it, so the bezel doesn't contribute much. But you need something to hold onto with a tablet. Samsung went all out on the bezel war and added a MacBook Pro-like notch to the S8 Tab Ultra's front display, which houses two 12MP front-facing cameras (one is a wide-angle lens).
A new bootloader for Raspberry Pi boards has been released for beta testing. It brings one very slick new feature: the ability to install an operating system via your Internet connection. Up until now setting up a Raspberry Pi meant writing an image to an SD card or a USB stick. It’s not a particularly […]
A new bootloader for Raspberry Pi boards has been released for beta testing. It brings one very slick new feature: the ability to install an operating system via your Internet connection.
Up until now setting up a Raspberry Pi meant writing an image to an SD card or a USB stick. It’s not a particularly difficult process, but you do need access to a card reader if that’s what you want to boot your fresh OS from.
With the new beta version, the process is similar to any other netboot setup. Once you’ve inserted an SD card and connected your input devices, display, and network cable you simply power up your Raspberry Pi. When the raspberry-colored boot screen appears you’ll be given the option to hold down the shift key to start a network installation.
If you forgot to plug in a network cable, you’ll be prompted to do so. When the Raspberry Pi detects connectivity it’ll begin downloading the imager. At just over 20 megs, it won’t take long to complete on most Internet connections.
Didn’t remember to insert your memory card or plug in a USB disk? The installer will remind you about that, too, and proceed with the installation once it’s able to mount the card or drive.
You can also roll your own network imaging setup by extracting the downloaded files to a TFTP server.
To take the new installer for a spin, just head over to this page on the official Raspberry Pi site and follow the steps. When the imager prompts you to install a bootloader, just choose the beta version and you’re good to go!
‘Omi in a Hellcat’, a YouTuber who previously operated several pirate IPTV services, says he will plead guilty to a federal indictment accusing him of criminal copyright infringement, tax fraud, wire fraud, among others. Following earlier intransigence, he now appears to be spreading an anti-piracy message
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
In November 2019, the federal government shut down Gears-branded IPTV services operated by Bill Omar Carrasquillo, better known by his social media handle Omi in a Hellcat.
IRS and FBI agents seized “at least” $5.2m from his bank accounts along with a laundry list of supercars and other vehicles, all alleged to have been purchased with revenues from Carrasquillo’s pirate TV services.
A criminal indictment unsealed last year revealed that Carrasquillo of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Jesse Gonzales of California, and Michael Barone of New York had all been charged with serious offenses relating to the illegal capture and redistribution of Comcast, Verizon, Spectrum, DirecTV and Frontier Communications broadcasts.
With Carrasquillo facing a sentence of 514 years and the forfeiture of dozens of supercars (not to mention dozens of pieces of real estate), the YouTuber has always maintained his innocence, insisting that the legal advice he received while operating his services was solid.
Whatever that advice was, anyone with even a basic understanding of copyright law in the United States could see otherwise. The consequences of not paying taxes are even more obvious so now, via a message to his fans, Carrasquillo says he will plead guilty.
Even more than that, Carrasquillo says he IS guilty and will have to face the music.
Omi: I Did Wrong, I F***** Up, I’m Guilty
“It’s a super-unfortunate situation. I’m not a threat to society by any means but you know, what did what I did was kind f***** up. Created an app that basically had live TV and recorded shows in a DVR catch-up type of thing. I’m letting you guys know that I’m pleading guilty,” he says in a YouTube video
“Long talks with my attorney, it’s the best option you know. Everyone [presumably co-defendants] already pleaded out, already pleaded guilty on my case, [which] makes no sense, plus it’s an acceptance of responsibility for me.”
Precisely what deal Carrasquillo has reached with prosecutors isn’t made clear. There is no mention of time in prison yet but there is a clear financial component with many, many millions at stake.
“It just sucks, it sucks, it sucks. It sucks to lose my house, to lose properties, money, all my cars, my jewelry. It’s an embarrassment.”
Omi to fans: Don’t Do What I Did
Omi previously painted his predicament as one of a ‘hustler’ who exploited a ‘gray area’ in order to give poorer people access to content for which cable companies were charging too much. His comments now appear to have switched almost entirely towards cautionary advice – anti-piracy advocacy even.
“You know what, this is to kind of let you know man that you don’t want to take easy routes in life. I’ve always been good at hustling you know and in a good sense. I’m not talking about selling drugs I’m talking about hustling you know, grabbing an item selling it for more. I did this through Craigslist, I did this through Facebook,” he says.
“You obtain everything quick but at the end of the day it’s not worth it man so I’m letting you guys know you if you’re f****** and streaming and shit like that man…’STOP IT’.”
There Was No Gray Area
One of the interesting aspects of the case against Carrasquillo is that at the time of his offenses, rightsholders were pushing extremely hard to plug a perceived loophole in copyright law. By treating streaming as a felony, not a mere misdemeanor, the ‘Protecting Lawful Streaming Act 2020‘ would help rightsholders tackle IPTV operations similar to Carrasquillo’s.
Given that the new law passed in 2020 and Carrasquillo’s offenses pre-dated that by years, it’s pretty obvious that existing legislation was already enough in a case like his. Nevertheless, Carrasquillo believes that others who are considering emulating people like him should now be extra cautious, since the new legislation allows for lengthy jail sentences.
“It’s 10 years in prison now if you stream,” Omi warns, leaning towards the camera. The truth is a little more nuanced, however.
In rough terms, people who provide a service that is primarily designed for distributing copyright works for the purposes of “commercial advantage or private financial gain”, can be fined and imprisoned for up to three years. If the service carries pre-release content, the sentence jumps to five years. The 10-year maximum only comes into play for repeat offenders (pdf).
Omi’s Crimes Are ‘A Little Bit Different’
Omi concedes his case became more complex because he didn’t pay his taxes but he’s stressing that the important thing now is for him is to just accept that he was wrong and what he did was illegal.
“Ignorance is no excuse like I’ve always said and to me it’s about accepting responsibility and just stop feeding myself some bullshit. To me it’s narcissistic behavior, the shit that I do. I’m always the victim, America is against me – No. I wouldn’t have had this issue if I hadn’t created this service [and paid my taxes] – that’s a fact.
Disney+ Gets Credited For Omi’s Change of Heart
While Disney and its products have brought joy to countless millions over decades, the company is also well-known for being one of the most bullish pro-copyright corporations ever to exist, one that executes aggressive anti-piracy strategies on a daily basis.
It’s therefore more than a little interesting to see Omi crediting the company for what appears to be his road to Damascus-style recovery.
“I feel guilty. I was watching Disney+, watching Pixar – it’s like ‘meet the creators’ – and I saw this massive building and if you watch ‘meet the creators’ you get to watch the animators and some of the people that work on some of these movies.
“Pixar has Thousands of employees and you see them all walking into the building at the same time, everybody’s just moving. The kitchen is rolling, the auditorium in that place is humongous. It takes them five years – FIVE YEARS – to make one movie,” he exclaims.
“So think about all the money you’re investing, and investing in all the people running back and forth. At the end of the day, do they still get paid? Yes, Omi says, but that made him think about a situation he faced too, when people copied his own products.
Omi Says He’s a Victim of Piracy Too
For some time now, Omi has been selling clothing and other products featuring his ‘Reloaded’ branding, named after one of his services of the same name. He says that when he discovered that someone had copied his products and knock-offs were being sold, it didn’t feel great.
“When I found out that someone was selling Reloaded merchandise t-shirts that shit bothered me. So imagine what a copyright holder has to go through. You’re skipping off money off the top. Towards the beginning I felt like what I did wasn’t illegal and the more I sit back and dwell on it, I was feeding myself bullshit.
“When you’re redistributing copyright material, it’s illegal – no if, and, or buts. But do I deserve all that time in prison? No man, that’s just ludicrous but I do have to make some wrongs into rights.
Omi Says Nobody is Pulling His Strings
Considering the significant public effect of a high-profile YouTuber denouncing piracy like Omi now has, one might rightly muse over whether this is genuine remorse or spoon-fed industry propaganda that could have the potential to lighten his ultimate punishment.
While expressions of guilt and remorse can indeed have that effect, Omi insists that what he is saying is entirely voluntary and he wasn’t coerced in any way.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Multi-console Call of Duty and more will extend “beyond the existing agreement.”
Enlarge/ Despite the prominent "Xbox" in this image, Microsoft suggests some of these popular Activision titles could persist on PlayStation "into the future."
Microsoft now says that it has "committed to Sony" that "Call of Duty and other popular Activision titles" will be "available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love." The Xbox maker also says it is "interested in taking similar steps to support Nintendo’s successful platform" following its planned $68.7 billion purchase of the mega-publisher.
The announcement comes as part of a blog post outlining a number of "Open App Store principles" Microsoft says are explicitly designed "to address Microsoft’s growing role and responsibility as we start the process of seeking regulatory approval in capitals around the world for our acquisition of Activision Blizzard."
The bit about distributing Activision titles to non-Xbox consoles "beyond the existing agreement" is especially relevant here. In the days after Microsoft announced its plans to purchase Activision, statements regarding console exclusivity plans from Activision, Sony, and Microsoft focused on language like "honor[ing] all existing commitments" and "abid[ing] by contractual agreements" and "honor[ing] all existing agreements," respectively. Late last month, Bloomberg reported that those existing agreements only covered the next three Call of Duty games planned for release through 2024.
Cherry's MX switches are the most well-known in the mechanical keyboard world, and countless other brands mimic the switches' iconic cross-stem design to deliver tactile typing. Now, a magnetic twist to the Cherry MX style has resulted in a 3D-printable mechanical switch with an adjustable actuation point.
Recently shared via Github by a user named famichu and spotted by Hackaday this week, the homegrown MagLev Switch MX is a 3D-printable switch with Cherry MX Red-like linear travel. With the familiar cross-stem design, the switches are compatible with any keycaps that would fit on a Cherry MX switch.
But instead of using a spring in each switch for actuation, like Cherry's switches, the MagLev Switch MX uses a neodymium magnet in the stem and another in the bottom housing, with a Hall-effect sensor in between.
Some Mazda owners in the Seattle area are stuck with bricked infotainment systems after listening to a particular radio station.
According to the Seattle Times, the problem began on January 30 and afflicted Mazdas from model years 2014 to 2017 when the cars were tuned to the local NPR station, KUOW 94.9. At some point during the day's broadcast, a signal from KUOW caused the Mazdas' infotainment systems to crash—the screens died and the radios were stuck on 94.9 FM.
From there, the infotainment systems became trapped in a rebooting loop, never successfully completing the task. When afflicted owners took their cars to be checked at local Mazda dealers, they were told that the "connectivity master unit" was dead and needed to be replaced.
New findings could shed light on how humans evolved ability to design and use tools
Figaro the cockatoo displays his "primate level" combination tool-using skills by playing a cockatoo version of "golf," and choosing the correct hole for a cashew reward. Two other cockatoos figured out different tool-using techniques to achieve the same result. (Goffin Lab)
Several years ago, we introduced Ars readers to Figaro, a precocious male Goffin's cockatoo kept in captivity and cared for by scientists in the "Goffin lab" at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Figaro showed a surprising ability to manipulate single tools to maneuver a tasty nut out of a box. Other cockatoos who repeatedly watched Figaro's performance were also able to do so. Now, Figaro and his cockatoo cronies are back, having learned how to combine tools—in this case, a stick and a ball—to play a rudimentary form of "golf," according to a new paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.
As Ars' Science Editor John Timmer explained in 2012, tool use was once thought to be one of the defining features of humans, but examples of it were eventually observed in primates and other mammals. Then birds were observed using tools in the wild, although this behavior was limited to the corvids (crows and jays). Parrots, in contrast, have mostly been noted for their linguistic skills, and there has only been limited evidence that they use anything resembling a tool in the wild. Primarily, they seem to use external objects to position nuts while feeding.
Then along came Figaro. Figaro was playing with a stone one day in the Goffin Lab at the University of Vienna's Department of Cognitive Biology, led by Alice Auersperg. He accidentally dropped the stone behind a metal divider.
In November 2019, the federal government 
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