Just another news site
The operating system for Amazon’s Fire tablets is a fork of Android called Fire OS that’s tightly integrated with Amazon’s apps and services including Kindle, Prime Video, Prime Music, and the Alexa voice assistant. And instead inste…
The operating system for Amazon’s Fire tablets is a fork of Android called Fire OS that’s tightly integrated with Amazon’s apps and services including Kindle, Prime Video, Prime Music, and the Alexa voice assistant. And instead instead of the Google Play Store, the tablets ship with Amazon’s Appstore. It’s fairly easy to sideload third-party apps […]
The post Amazon Fire tablets: How to disable the Continue & Discover row on the home screen appeared first on Liliputing.
Cinema owners say that Avatar: The Way of the Water will hit Russian screens this Christmas, despite Western sanctions. Exactly when is unclear but with backing from the Association of Theater Owners, it seems almost inevitable. Meanwhile, a draft law presented to the government envisions movies such as Avatar 2 being distributed all around Russia, without their owners’ permission.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
For millions of different reasons, Christmas is special for roughly two billion people globally.
Traditions in the U.S. include a family outing to the cinema in search of the latest blockbuster and this year Avatar: The Way of Water will undoubtedly attract the crowds.
For increasingly depressing reasons, new U.S. movies like Avatar 2 can’t be enjoyed in Russian cinemas on Christmas day, or on any other for that matter. Or at least that’s the theory.
Due to sanctions, Russians officially have a choice between watching older movies or local movies, but a third option is also gaining traction. Pirate screenings of Western movies are now common, and with the local cinema industry edging towards collapse, they’re increasingly acceptable too.
Russians traditionally prefer celebrations around the New Year, but if they can watch Avatar 2 in cinemas come December 25, everything will be according to plan. Officially released this week in the U.S., James Cameron’s three-hour science fiction epic is made for the big screen and Russian cinema owners don’t want to miss out.
News outlet IZ recently contacted cinema owners in several areas of the country and was informed that if a decent copy becomes available, Avatar 2 will feature in their line-ups. In common with all pirate releases, quality is one of the most important factors. Timing also plays a key role, and as things stand, nobody can predict a specific date.
There are many moving parts in the piracy machine. Early cammed copies are commonplace, as are high-quality releases later on, but when everything comes together, big things can happen.
Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was reportedly leaked on the day of its official worldwide release and was immediately screened in some Russian cinemas but not all. Early screenings were reportedly restricted to cinemas with the ability to cover the costs associated with a pirate copy, presumably one good enough to show on a big screen
The exact cost of a pirate copy in Russia depends on a number of factors, IZ reports. It mentions none specifically but quality and timing are obviously important. In the end, however, nothing trumps availability. Access to pirate copies in Russia can cost as little as 50,000 rubles (US$790) but at the other end of the scale, 1,000,000 rubles (US$15,800) can sometimes be the going rate.
Some cinemas say they are prepared to screen Avatar 2 using a ‘экранку,’ better known in the West as a ‘cam’ or ‘camrip’. A more significant proposition is outlined too – access to the audio, image and data streams that together become a Digital Cinema Package (DCP).
“Large cinemas, primarily network ones, receive copies of perfect quality, DCP with unique ‘keys’. Moreover, these copies not only come with professional Russian dubbing, but also comply with modern Russian legislation,” IZ reports.
“Where and how copies get into Russian cinemas is kept secret, but Izvestia’s sources say that there is no single supply line and each case is negotiated separately.”
A perfect copy of Avatar 2 hitting Russian cinemas via a DCP source seems unlikely but crazier things have happened recently, including a global pandemic and a major war in Europe. In the end, however, even cammed copies are illegal in Russia but, with no access to big movies, the country’s cinema industry is in a downward spiral.
With revenues down by up to 70%, the Association of Theater Owners begged the government for financial support to get them through a crisis the government caused. Support still hasn’t arrived and an announcement this week offered no specifics on when it might.
Facing what appears to be an existential crisis, the Association of Theater Owners is now supporting Russian senators and a draft law that would allow Russian cinemas to show unlicensed movies without legal consequences.
The text obtained by RIA Novosti (below) proposes extending special powers to the government so that it can temporarily limit rightsholders’ ability to enforce their rights. Translations of legal texts always carry risks of misinterpretation but exclusive rights aren’t called that for no reason, even if rightsholders receive an undetermined sum in compensation.
Establishment of the procedure for the fulfillment by residents to foreign right holders of monetary obligations related to the use of certain results of intellectual activity, including cases of using such results of intellectual activity without the consent of the right holders, but with the payment of remuneration to them, a list of results of intellectual activity in respect of which certain results of intellectual activity cannot be applied provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Translated from Russian)
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, out but still representing Twitter on pending cases.
From the moment Elon Musk began layoffs at Twitter, former employees immediately started suing. In a matter of weeks, Twitter was hit with multiple class-action lawsuits, with employees alleging that Twitter violated laws by denying proper severance and discriminating against women and staff with disabilities or on family or medical leave. These class actions didn’t seem to faze Musk, though, as he continued with staff cuts without delivering promised severance to many. Instead of paying ex-employees, he eventually further escalated threats to terminate remaining staff, abruptly firing employees for criticizing him and threatening to sue employees who leak internal Twitter communications.
It's clear that Musk feels confident facing down potential legal battles against former Twitter staff, but what’s not clear is who he imagines will be helping him win. Yesterday The New York Times reported that Musk has begun to “shake up” his legal team at Twitter as he gets ready to overcome all these claims, according to seven people familiar with what’s going on at Twitter. He even reportedly dismissed one of his closest legal allies, his personal attorney, Alex Spiro, after Musk discovered that it was Spiro who made a controversial call to retain Twitter general counsel James A. Baker.
A person familiar with the matter told Ars that Spiro was never a Twitter employee and wasn't fired. Spiro only ever served a transitional advisory role at Twitter, and moving forward, he will continue to work as a trial lawyer representing Musk generally and representing Twitter on multiple pending cases. The source confirmed that NYT's reporting was generally accurate but could not confirm if Baker had anything to do with Twitter’s recent decision to decline to retain Spiro’s services on future litigation.
Chip designer MIPS Technologies announced last year that it was pivoting to RISC-V architecture, and earlier this year the company introduced its first designs based on the open instruction set architecture. Now MIPS says its first processor core is a…
Chip designer MIPS Technologies announced last year that it was pivoting to RISC-V architecture, and earlier this year the company introduced its first designs based on the open instruction set architecture. Now MIPS says its first processor core is available for licensing. The company says its MIPS eVocore P8700 multiprocessor IP core is a high-performance […]
The post MIPS announces its first RISC-V chip designs are now available for licensing appeared first on Liliputing.
Best Buy is selling an Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 laptop for $1100. This model, which has a list price of $1649, is a 3.6 pound notebook with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor, Radeon RX 6700S discrete graphics, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a 14 inch, 25…
Best Buy is selling an Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 laptop for $1100. This model, which has a list price of $1649, is a 3.6 pound notebook with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor, Radeon RX 6700S discrete graphics, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a 14 inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel display. It’s a […]
The post Daily Deals (12-14-20220) appeared first on Liliputing.
In an abrupt reversal, China ended mandatory testing last week.
Enlarge / This frame grab from AFPTV video footage shows people queueing outside a fever clinic amid the Covid-19 pandemic in Beijing on December 14, 2022. (credit: Getty | YUXUAN ZHANG/AFPTV/AFP)
Amid what appears to be an explosive outbreak of COVID-19, China on Wednesday said it would no longer report asymptomatic cases because they've become "impossible" to track after an end to mandatory testing.
The now-voluntary testing policy is part of an abrupt pivot away from the country's strict zero-COVID policy that drew widespread protests in recent weeks.
After years of keeping SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks largely at bay with various restrictions, mandatory isolations, quarantines, lockdowns, and extensive testing, China last week significantly eased its unpopular policy. The State Council announced on December 7 that residents would no longer be required to undergo frequent PCR tests for COVID-19. It also dropped the requirement to use digital health passes—personal QR codes that tracked an individual's movements and COVID-19 test results—for access to buildings and public transportation. And for the first time during the pandemic, the government also allowed people with mild or asymptomatic infections to isolate at home rather than in centralized facilities, which residents often criticized for being unsanitary and overcrowded.
New automated moderation program does not seem to allow for human intervention.
Enlarge (credit: Carolco Pictures)
YouTube has announced a plan to crack down on spam and abusive content in comments and livestream chats. Of course, YouTube will be doing this with bots, which will now have the power to issue timeouts to users and instantly remove comments that are deemed abusive.
YouTube's post says, "We’ve been working on improving our automated detection systems and machine learning models to identify and remove spam. In fact, we’ve removed over 1.1 billion spammy comments in the first six months of 2022." It later adds, "We’ve improved our spambot detection to keep bots out of live chats."
When YouTube removes a message, the company says it will warn the poster that the message has been removed. The company adds, "If a user continues to leave multiple abusive comments, they may receive a timeout and be temporarily unable to comment for up to 24 hours."
A skin of porous scales may have helped keep dinosaurs’ metabolism from overheating.
Enlarge / Diplodocus dinosaur scene from the Jurassic era 3D illustration (credit: Warpaintcobra)
Finding any fossil skin is extraordinary; finding dinosaur skin is that much more rare. So when Tess Gallagher and her mom excavated patches of skin from one of the largest dinosaurs to exist, there was reason for jubilation.
More than a year later, that glee disintegrated—right along with the skin they excavated. But what could have been the end of a sad story was merely the beginning of another exciting chapter, one that could potentially broaden our understanding of how these enormous creatures cooled themselves.
Gallagher, now a paleontologist and paleobiology graduate student at the University of Bristol, and her mother, Lisa Marshall, were part of a team excavating a site called the Mother’s Day Quarry in Montana. The site has produced, among other things, 15 individual Diplodocus juveniles from about 145 million years ago.
Subaru is recalling 271,694 2019–2022 Ascent SUVs due to faulty heater wiring.
Enlarge / That's as close as you should park your Subaru Ascent to the garage for now, Subaru says. (credit: Subaru)
This week, Subaru announced a recall for more than 271,000 Ascent SUVs due to a potential fire risk. Although owners won't be formally notified until early February, Subaru says that model year 2019–2022 Ascent SUVs should not be parked in garages or car ports or under other structures. Subaru also says owners should not leave their Ascent running unattended, and if they notice or smell smoke coming from the dash or driver's footwell, they should immediately turn the car off and not attempt to restart it.
The problem is an improperly grounded terminal for the cars' positive temperature coefficient heater, a heat source for the climate system that does not rely on engine heat. In January 2020, Subaru changed part of the Ascent's assembly process, switching to air tools on the part of the production line that fastens the ground terminal.
If the bolt isn't properly fastened and the contact area is too small, resistance can build up to the point where the ground terminal gets hot enough to melt, along with anything in close proximity. That's obviously not something you want to happen while you're driving a car.
Twitter claims @ElonJet broke the rules but hasn’t suspended other similar bots.
Enlarge / Elon Musk during a press conference after a SpaceX launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 2, 2019. (credit: Getty Images | Jim Watson)
Twitter suspended the ElonJet account that tracks the movements of Elon Musk's private jet, despite Musk previously stating he would leave the account up as part of his "commitment to free speech."
"Well it appears @ElonJet is suspended," account creator Jack Sweeney wrote today. He added that people can still follow the private jet bot on other platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, and Truth Social.
Clicking on the ElonJet Twitter account now shows a message that says, "Account suspended: Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter Rules." Sweeney also posted a screenshot of a message he received that said, "Your account is permanently suspended. After careful review, we determined your account broke the Twitter rules." The message further said, "You won't be able to create new accounts. If you think we got this wrong, you can submit an appeal."
You must be logged in to post a comment.