First official teaser for Wednesday is deliciously “Burtonesque”

“The ambition of the show was to make it an eight-hour Tim Burton movie.”

Tim Burton directed Netflix's new eight-episode original series, Wednesday.

Netflix has dropped the first official teaser for Wednesday on the heels of yesterday's exclusive first-look images for the Tim Burton-directed series in Vanity Fair. All in all, it looks deliciously Burtonesque, and we're keen to give it a chance.

As I've written previously, American cartoonist Charles Addams created the characters in 1938, originally as a series of single-panel cartoons published in The New Yorker. They were his satirical sendup of American "family values," turning the entire social framework upside-down. The characters proved so popular that ABC created a 1964 live-action sitcom, The Addams Family, based on them. (Not everyone was pleased by the development. William Shawn was editor of The New Yorker at the time, and his refined sensibilities were allegedly so offended by the TV series that he actually banned Addams Family cartoons from the magazine; the characters didn't return to its pages until he retired in 1987.)

Animated versions of the family have appeared regularly in film and TV since the 1970s, and Fox unsuccessfully attempted to revive the original TV series in 1998 with The New Addams Family. But it was two live-action feature films in 1991 and 1993, respectively, that defined their canonical representation in popular culture: The Addams Family and Addams Family Values.

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CDC to restructure after COVID failure, “confusing and overwhelming” guidance

Cultural, structural changes to shift focus from scientific publishing to public health action.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky testifies during a Senate committee hearing in July 2021.

Enlarge / CDC Director Rochelle Walensky testifies during a Senate committee hearing in July 2021. (credit: Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

After persistent and often harsh criticism for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and now the monkeypox emergency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will undergo a significant overhaul, involving cultural and structural changes aimed at realizing its prior reputation as the world's premier public health agency.

“For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in an email to CDC's 11,000-person staff Wednesday, which was seen by The New York Times and Stat News. “My goal is a new, public health action-oriented culture at CDC that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, communication, and timeliness.”

Though the CDC endured meddling and undermining during the Trump administration, many of the agency's pandemic misfires were unforced errors—such as the failure to stand up reliable SARS-CoV-2 testing in the early days and muddled messaging on masks. In a meeting with senior staff Wednesday, Walensky made a startling acknowledgement of the failures while outlining the overhaul in broad strokes.

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Google might give the Pixel tablet a 64-bit-only build of Android

64-bit-only mode promises better performance and security.

An official picture of the Pixel tablet, due out early next year.

Enlarge / An official picture of the Pixel tablet, due out early next year. (credit: Google)

Android 13 hit AOSP the other day, and included in the code source dump is an interesting commit spotted by Esper's Mishaal Rahman. It sounds like Google is planning to—or at least experimenting with—moving the upcoming Pixel tablet to a 64-bit-only build of Android. The commit doesn't beat around the bush, saying: "Move tangor to 64-bit only." "Tangor" is the codename for the already-announced Pixel tablet.

iOS, with its single hardware manufacturer, has been 64-bit only since 2017. Android has a million moving parts split across a bunch of different companies, so getting to 64-bit only is going to be a long road. Getting there is worth the effort, though, with a promise of increased performance and additional security features.

The Google Play app ecosystem is probably furthest along in supporting 64 bit. Any apps written entirely in Java or Kotlin already get automatic 64-bit compatibility from the system. Google mandated that Google Play apps using native code (usually these are games) needed to provide 64-bit versions back in 2019. There were exceptions for a few popular SDKs like Adobe Air and Unity, but these exceptions were ended in August 2021, when all apps were required to have 64-bit versions.

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Daily Deals (8-17-2022)

Lenovo is selling a Thinkpad X13 thin and light laptop with a AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 6650U processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $932, which is more than $360 off the list price for this laptop. Or if you’re looking for something a little che…

Lenovo is selling a Thinkpad X13 thin and light laptop with a AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 6650U processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $932, which is more than $360 off the list price for this laptop. Or if you’re looking for something a little cheaper, you can pick up Lenovo Yoga 7i […]

The post Daily Deals (8-17-2022) appeared first on Liliputing.

AMD will announce Ryzen 7000 CPUs August 29. Here’s everything we know about them

Ryzen 7000 and Zen 4 will be a big overhaul for AMD’s successful Ryzen CPUs.

AMD's Ryzen 7000 chips will be unveiled in late August.

Enlarge / AMD's Ryzen 7000 chips will be unveiled in late August. (credit: AMD)

The final phase of AMD's Ryzen 7000 CPU rollout is approaching, nearly nine months after initially teasing them at CES. The company will livestream their formal unveiling at 7 pm Eastern on Monday, August 29, alongside more details about the AM5 processor socket and 600-series chipsets. Expect to hear more specific news about performance, plus pricing and availability, for the first of what will presumably be many Zen 4-based processors.

AMD has been releasing a steady drip of details about the new CPUs since January, and various leaks and rumors have filled in some of our other knowledge gaps. Let's briefly summarize what we know (and what we think we know).

Faster CPUs, same number of cores

Compared to the nearly 2-year-old Ryzen 5000 processors and the Zen 3 architecture, AMD says that we can expect at least a 15 percent improvement in single-threaded performance, thanks to both clock speed increases and an 8-10 percent increase in instructions-per-clock (IPC). The company also promises performance-per-watt improvements, in part thanks to a new 5 nm manufacturing process (Zen 3 CPUs are 7 nm parts).

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IPTV Pirates Must Pay ACE $181k But More Evidence Needed For Damages

The operator of pirate IPTV service Nitro TV was recently ordered to pay $100m in damages to DISH and a second lawsuit, brought by members of ACE, is set to cause additional financial pain. This week a judge handed down an order requiring Nitro’s operator to pay $181k in costs and legal fees, but also informed the plaintiffs they need to provide more evidence of infringement.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

IPTVIn August 2021, US broadcaster DISH Network, Sling and NagraStar sued pirate IPTV service Nitro TV.

The case focused on Nitro operator Alex Galindo and other members of his family, alleging mass violations of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions and the Federal Communications Act (FCA). The case went undefended and this June came to a close, with the plaintiffs being awarded over $100m in statutory damages.

Since that judgment was handed down the docket has been kept busy with sealed documents. From the available information, it seems that the plaintiffs are attempting to garnish property owned by one or more of the Galindos. While the process won’t be pretty it’s perhaps necessary given that other people are also queuing up to get paid.

ACE Copyright Infringment Lawsuit

A coalition of entertainment companies headed up by Universal, Paramount, Columbia, Disney and Amazon filed their complaint against Nitro in 2020 but for a number of reasons the case is still open after more than two years.

In contrast to the DISH lawsuit, Alex Galindo did mount some kind of defense here, and at one point even tried to have the whole thing dismissed. Perhaps the $7m processed through the Galindo’s accounts is a motivating factor but the studios seem determined to prevail against the defendants, who now find themselves without an attorney.

Clock Ticks, Costs Mount, Galindo Must Pay

According to the studios, the defendants have been uncooperative at best, deliberately obstructive at worst. Allegations of evidence destruction and other misconduct led to a motion for sanctions, followed by a recent report from a judge to the district judge recommending a finding that Alex Galindo willfully violated court orders, failed to cooperate in discovery, and should be held liable for infringement.

Meanwhile, the studios have continued to run up huge legal and administrative bills. Attorney’s fees and costs associated with their discovery motion alone reached $88,080, while those for the plaintiffs’ sanctions motion topped out at $93,000. United States District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong conducted a review but found nothing to contradict the recently submitted report.

“Galindo’s assertions and arguments have been reviewed carefully. The Court, however, concludes that nothing set forth in Galindo’s Response or otherwise in the record for this case affects or alters, or calls into question, the findings and analysis set forth in the Report,” Judge Frimpong’s order reads.

With the court accepting the findings and recommendations in the report, Alex Galindo now has just 60 days to pay $88,080 in attorneys’ fees and costs associated with the plaintiffs’ discovery motion, plus $93,000 in fees and costs associated with their sanctions motion, to a total of $181,080.

That may seem like a small amount when compared to the $100m already owed to DISH, but the studios are nowhere near finished.

Plaintiffs Seek Default Judgment, Judge Wants to See Evidence

The parties in the case have rarely been in agreement but one point of contention has now been resurrected by the Judge. The defense previously noted that if the studios had clarified the full nature and extent of infringement at Nitro, the case would’ve gone to a default judgment a long time ago. The Judge now says that the court will need to see more information to move on.

Judge Frimpong raises the possibility of a default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs but notes that would not automatically entitle the plaintiffs to the damages requested. Noting that the court has “considerable leeway” to determine what information it requires before an entry of default, the Judge says the plaintiffs need to submit evidence in greater detail.

“In this case, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have neither provided a complete enumeration of the copyrighted works at issue, a full accounting of the corresponding amount of statutory damages sought pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(2), nor evidence to support either of the above. In the absence of these items, the Court declines to enter Judgment at this time,” the Judge notes.

Columbia Pictures, Amazon Content Services, Disney Enterprises, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Universal Studios Productions, Universal Television, and Universal Content Productions, now have 60 days to file a brief identifying every movie and TV show for which they are seeking damages, along with relevant evidence.

The studios must also identify the factors the court should consider when calculating statutory damages. The studios previously submitted a list of copyright works to the court (pdf) but that was over two years ago.

Judge Frimpong’s order can be found here (pdf)

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Airbnb’s party-pooper tech claims to stop likely party-throwers from renting

Pilot program reduced banned parties in Australia by 35 percent, company says.

Airbnb’s party-pooper tech claims to stop likely party-throwers from renting

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

Airbnb really wants to shut down parties in its rentals. On Tuesday, the company announced the deployment of "anti-party tools" that it claims will help identify users who are likely to throw a party and prevent them from renting a property.

Airbnb is launching the tools in the US and Canada, it said. The tools use an algorithm that flags "potentially high-risk reservations" by looking at user characteristics like "history of positive reviews (or lack of positive reviews), length of time the guest has been on Airbnb, length of the trip, distance to the listing, weekend vs. weekday, among many others."

"This anti-party technology is designed to prevent a reservation attempt from going through," Airbnb said. "Guests who are unable to make entire home bookings due to this system will still be able to book a private room (where the Host is more likely to be physically on site) or a hotel room through Airbnb."

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Wheelhome Vikenze III-e: Winziges elektrisches Wohnmobil mit Solardach

Wheelhome hat mit dem Vikenze III-e ein elektrisches Wohnmobil für ein bis zwei Personen vorgestellt, das sich selbst dank Solarzellen mit Strom versorgt. (Elektroauto, Technologie)

Wheelhome hat mit dem Vikenze III-e ein elektrisches Wohnmobil für ein bis zwei Personen vorgestellt, das sich selbst dank Solarzellen mit Strom versorgt. (Elektroauto, Technologie)