Month: September 2018

Between Cintiq and streaming, animation is thriving—ask Titmouse’s Chris Prynoski

Video: The co-founder of Titmouse animation studio talks tech and Venture Bros.

AUSTIN, Texas—Chris Prynoski remembers paper (and, no, that sentiment is not as absurd as it seems). The animation veteran has been in the field for more than two decades now with early stuff so beloved (he directed an episode of Daria and sequences of Beavis and Butthead Do America) that it now comes up in reboot conversation. "We usually get a call every couple years about a Daria reboot, and it never happens," Prynoski tells Ars offstage at the recent RTX Animation festival. "But this time they made an announcement, so perhaps it’s more serious."

Since then, however, both animation at large and Prynoski's role specifically have changed. He now leads perhaps the best studio in the business, Titmouse, which Prynoski also co-founded alongside his wife Shannon back in 2000. The company works on seemingly everything: kids' shows (Niko and the Sword of Light), cult classics (Metalocalypse), high-profile reboots (TMNT), video games, ads, virtual reality, music videos, movies, and generally just the hottest cartoons at any given moment (Netflix's Big Mouth anyone? Season two starts in October). No one working with him starts with paper these days.

"The fundamentals of animation haven't changed a lot. When I started, you were drawing on pieces of paper; people were using computers to scan but colored in ink and paint," Prynoski says. "Before my time, it was the big ol' Oxberry cameras. But it pretty quickly got taken over by computers. Now, hardly anybody uses pieces of paper... Anything we do starts on [Wacom] Cintiqs, which are basically big computer screens you can draw on. But the main thing is still that artistic skill you have to develop—whether it's on a piece of paper or computer screen—which has stayed pretty similar."

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App für öffentlichen Nahverkehr: Öffi ist wieder im Play Store verfügbar

Fast zwei Monate war die App Öffi aus dem Play Store verschwunden, nun ist die ÖPNV-App wieder verfügbar. Google störte sich an einer für den Nutzer nicht sichtbaren Spendenfunktion und bestand darauf, dass sie entfernt wird. Der Autor folgte dieser Fo…

Fast zwei Monate war die App Öffi aus dem Play Store verschwunden, nun ist die ÖPNV-App wieder verfügbar. Google störte sich an einer für den Nutzer nicht sichtbaren Spendenfunktion und bestand darauf, dass sie entfernt wird. Der Autor folgte dieser Forderung. (App, Mobil)

Mystery of the cargo ships that sink when their cargo suddenly liquefies

A lot is known about the physics of the liquefaction, yet it’s still causing ships to sink.

Boats carrying grain on the Great Lakes in November 1918.

Enlarge / Boats carrying grain on the Great Lakes in November 1918. (credit: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Think of a dangerous cargo, and toxic waste or explosives might come to mind. But granular cargoes such as crushed ore and mineral sands are responsible for the loss of numerous ships every year. On average, 10 “solid bulk cargo” carriers have been lost at sea each year for the last decade.

Solid bulk cargoes—defined as granular materials loaded directly into a ship’s hold—can suddenly turn from a solid state into a liquid state, a process known as liquefaction. And this can be disastrous for any ship carrying them—and its crew.

In 2015, the 56,000-tonne bulk carrier Bulk Jupiter rapidly sank around 300km south-west of Vietnam, with only one of its 19 crew surviving. This prompted warnings from the International Maritime Organization about the possible liquefaction of the relatively new solid bulk cargo bauxite (an aluminum ore).

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TP-Link: Router für das Kabelnetz bleibt in Vorbereitung

Das Volumen des Verkaufsmarkts für Kabelrouter liegt in Deutschland erst bei 45.000 Stück. Bei wachsender Nachfrage durch die Routerfreiheit dürfte sich auch mehr Vielfalt entwickeln. (Router, DSL)

Das Volumen des Verkaufsmarkts für Kabelrouter liegt in Deutschland erst bei 45.000 Stück. Bei wachsender Nachfrage durch die Routerfreiheit dürfte sich auch mehr Vielfalt entwickeln. (Router, DSL)

TACC: Frontera-Supercomputer nutzt Xeons für 36 Petaflops

Das neue System am Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) setzt auf Intels intern Cascade Lake genannte Xeon-CPUs. Der Frontera-Supercomputer soll 2019 einsatzbereit sein und dürfte es mit den prognostizierten Daten in die Top 5 der schnellsten Rechner…

Das neue System am Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) setzt auf Intels intern Cascade Lake genannte Xeon-CPUs. Der Frontera-Supercomputer soll 2019 einsatzbereit sein und dürfte es mit den prognostizierten Daten in die Top 5 der schnellsten Rechner der Welt schaffen. (Supercomputer, Intel)

FTTH: Telekom will Berlin komplett mit Glasfaser erschließen

Die Deutsche Telekom sucht einen Partner wie Vodafone, Tele Columbus oder 1&1 Versatel, um Berlin komplett mit FTTH zu versorgen. Das Unternehmen bietet an, die Hälfte der Kosten zu übernehmen. (Telekom, DSL)

Die Deutsche Telekom sucht einen Partner wie Vodafone, Tele Columbus oder 1&1 Versatel, um Berlin komplett mit FTTH zu versorgen. Das Unternehmen bietet an, die Hälfte der Kosten zu übernehmen. (Telekom, DSL)

AU Optronics: Apple soll Wechsel von OLEDs zu Micro-LEDs vorbereiten

Bei einer der nächsten Watch-Generationen scheint Apple ein Display mit Micro-LEDs statt wie bisher mit OLEDs zu planen. Darauf weisen Gespräche mit AU Optronics sowie eine eigene Fabrik in Kalifornien hin. (Micro-LED, Display)

Bei einer der nächsten Watch-Generationen scheint Apple ein Display mit Micro-LEDs statt wie bisher mit OLEDs zu planen. Darauf weisen Gespräche mit AU Optronics sowie eine eigene Fabrik in Kalifornien hin. (Micro-LED, Display)

ISP: Piracy Extortion Letters Are Easy to Thwart Without Logs

Swedish Internet service provider Bahnhof is a fierce opponent of so-called copyright trolling efforts. Where other ISPs have shared the personal details of allegedly pirating subscribers, Bahnhof hasn’t, simply because it keeps limited logs. The company’s CEO wants to know why other ISPs aren’t following suit.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

In recent years file-sharers around the world have been threatened with lawsuits, if they don’t pay a significant settlement fee.

These so-called “copyright trolling” efforts have been a common occurrence in countries such as Germany and the United States, and in recent years they have conquered Sweden as well.

The process is fairly simple. Copyright holders ask local courts for a subpoena so they can demand the personal details of the subscribers that are connected to allegedly pirating IP-addresses.

The ISPs are then required to look these up in their databases and hand over the relevant personal information. The rightsholders use this to send a settlement claim to the subscribers, asking them to pay up, or else.

Most providers are not happy with this practice, but they see no other option than to cooperate. However, Swedish ISP Bahnhof is different. It is yet to hand over any data to copyright holders and publicly despises the copyright-trolling business model.

In recent comments on the matter, Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung says that subscribers of many of its competitors, including Comhem, Telia, and Bredbandsbolaget, have received a letter of formal notice in recent months.

“Many Swedes have been innocently accused of downloading a movie from the web. It is not just a legal scandal that this will happen. The letters also appear to be based on false information, but the individuals who get them still have difficulty defending against unfair bills of thousands of dollars,” he notes.

The CEO says that Bahnhof is the only major ISP to consistently refuse to disclose any data to these copyright holders, which the company describes as “blackmailers.”

There’s no magic involved really. Not keeping any extensive log files does the trick.

“How? The ingeniously simple solution is that we do not save log files. There is, therefore, nothing to share. The question, however, is why all the other operators save sensitive data about their customers,” Karlung adds.

Bahnhof’s solution is not new. When the first wave of copyright trolls came to Sweden the company severely limited the logs it kept. The company also urged other ISPs to follow suit, but most didn’t.

The question, is why? Karlung urges subscribers of the affected ISPs to ask about their logging policies, and in particular, the motivation behind them.

“There is something not right here. Why do the other broadband operators save as much information about you as a customer, when they are not technically in need of it to deliver a contracted service? Ask them about it!”

Bahnhof itself says that it keeps IP-address logs for a maximum of 24 hours. They base this practice on a European Court of Justice ruling which concluded that the Swedish adoption of the data retention directive is invalid.

“To our knowledge, it’s Bahnhof and Tele2 who operate their IP logs in this manner, other Swedish ISPs are likely to follow the data retention directive and keep IP logs over the last six months,” Bahnhof Communicator Carolina Lindahl tells TF.

This issue isn’t only limited to Sweden of course. It also applies to the United States and other countries where some providers keep logs for months, or years, without a legal requirement.

How long the other ISPs in Sweden keep their logs is unclear. If any readers get an answer from their ISP, they are welcome to share it below.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.