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Dealmaster: Get a Dell Inspiron 3000 desktop with Core i7, 16GB RAM for $599

Plus more deals on laptops, desktops, Logitech accessories, and much more.

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our partners at TechBargains, we have a number of deals on laptops, desktops, and accessories to share today. One of them makes Black Friday prices look steep—you can get a Dell Inspiron 3000 desktop computer with 16GB of RAM and a 2TB hard drive for just $599. That's nearly half of its original list price of $1,032. Now's the time to upgrade if you're in need of a new desktop, because this price definitely won't last long.

Check out the full list of deals below as well.

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Felon’s lifetime GPS monitoring upheld by US federal appeals court

Burden on privacy “must in any event be balanced against the gain to society.”

(credit: 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals)

A federal appeals court is upholding lifetime GPS monitoring of a convicted felon, in this instance a Wisconsin pedophile who served time for sexually assaulting a boy and a girl. The court upheld the constitutionality of a Wisconsin law that, beginning in 2008, requires convicted pedophiles to wear GPS ankle devices for the rest of their lives.

A federal judge had sided with the offender, Michael Belleau, now 72. Wisconsin appealed to the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled (PDF) in the state's favor Friday and derided the lower court's ruling as "absurd." Among other things, Belleau said the GPS device violated his privacy because he had served his time and was not on post-prison supervision. The three-judge appeals court did not agree, saying:

When the ankleted person is wearing trousers the anklet is visible only if he sits down and his trousers hike up several inches and as a result no longer cover it. The plaintiff complains that when this happens in the presence of other people and they spot the anklet, his privacy is invaded, in violation of the Fourth Amendment, because the viewers assume that he is a criminal and decide to shun him. Of course the Fourth Amendment does not mention privacy or create any right of privacy. It requires that searches be reasonable but does not require a warrant or other formality designed to balance investigative need against a desire for privacy; the only reference to warrants is a prohibition of general warrants.

The court's reasoning, however, could apply to other criminals who have a propensity to reoffend. The court said that the burden on privacy "must in any event be balanced against the gain to society from requiring that the anklet monitor be worn. It is because of the need for such balancing that persons convicted of crimes, especially very serious crimes such as sexual offenses against minors, and especially very serious crimes that have high rates of recidivism such as sex crimes, have a diminished reasonable constitutionally protected expectation of privacy."

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Deals of the Day (2-02-2016)

Another day, another price drop on the latest Google Nexus smartphones. Google currently charges $349 for a Nexus 5X with 32GB of storage, but right now you can snag one for $10 off from Yapper Wireless. Want a Nexus 6P with a bigger screen, faster processor, and larger battery? Best Buy is selling them for $450 […]

Deals of the Day (2-02-2016) is a post from: Liliputing

Datenschutzabkommen mit USA: Safe Harbor heißt jetzt Privacy Shield

Noch gibt es keinen Text, aber die Grundzüge des künftigen Datenaustausches mit den USA stehen fest. Netzaktivisten kritisieren den neuen Privatsphären-Schild aber schon als “Mogelpackung” und “schlechten Witz”. (Safe Harbor, Google)

Noch gibt es keinen Text, aber die Grundzüge des künftigen Datenaustausches mit den USA stehen fest. Netzaktivisten kritisieren den neuen Privatsphären-Schild aber schon als "Mogelpackung" und "schlechten Witz". (Safe Harbor, Google)

Torrents-Time Brings Popcorn Time to Any Windows Browser

Software making its debut this week is helping to breathe new life into the Popcorn Time concept. Torrents-Time is a plug-in that in conjunction with a new breed of websites will enable users to run the infamous movie and TV show application in any modern Windows browser. The most popular Popcorn Time fork has launched a site utilizing the technology.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

There can be little doubt that in recent months the Popcorn Time phenomenon has been turned on its head, with legal action by the MPAA just one of the concept’s problems.

Since the breakup of the PopcornTime.io team there has been much jockeying behind the scenes, with various groups trying to variously revitalize and take control of new forks and development. Very little of this activity has led to innovation.

However, while all of this has been underway the most popular remaining fork – Popcorn-Time.se – hasn’t been sitting on its laurels. While keeping out of the various squabbles, this fork has been quietly innovating in the background. Today we bring news of a development that has the potential to inject a whole new wave of enthusiasm into the format.

Popcorn Time enters the browser

Several times in the past year developers have launched sites which appear to allow Popcorn Time to run in a browser. However, instead of utilizing the BitTorrent architecture that powers the Popcorn Time app, these simply grabbed content from swarms and delivered them to users via HTTP. With many thousands of users, bandwidth quickly ran out and most of these websites bit the dust.

A new third-party system already being utilized by the folks behind Popcorn-Time.se aims to do things differently and they have a demo site up to demonstrate their vision for the future.

As can be seen from the image above, Popcorntime-Online.io looks very much like other browser-based versions of Popcorn Time. However, instead of delivering content to users via expensive HTTP, the site relies on a special plug-in called Torrents-Time which effectively embeds a torrent client into the browser.

Torrents-Time

Available for now on Windows 7 and above, the Torrents-Time plug-in allows Popcorntime-Online.io to embed Popcorn Time content in every major browser, although in fact any torrent video can be displayed.

“The Torrents Time plugin contains 2 parts: A torrent-client engine, based on the Libtorrent library and a video player which is completely 100% written by us, which utilizes FFmpeg. It encodes most of the known video formats,” the team informs TF.

“Regularly, you need to run a BitTorrent client to begin downloading a torrent. A torrent client built-in to the browser enables the downloading of the file referred to by the torrent with one click, with the torrent appearing on the HTML page. The user does not need to run a separate BitTorrent client.”

For those wondering how Torrents-Time obtains peers, the client can function with regular trackers and also utilizes PEX and DHT when necessary. The other key features of the Torrents-Time system are shown below.

The claims of ‘instant’ streaming couldn’t be matched in our early tests with videos taking up to a minute or two to buffer sufficiently to allow playback. However, once the initial wait was over the video appeared as promised with smooth delivery and decent audio. Multi-language subtitles complete the basic viewing package.

VPN and casting

The Torrents-Time service currently utilizes Anonymous VPN as its privacy provider. They claim to have a no logging policy. However, Torrents-Time say they are open to working with other suppliers too.

“We invite every VPN provider to contact us, as we appreciate that anonymity is one of the most important features for users’ privacy,” they add.

There was a bug in the casting feature which meant we could not test it, but the team says an update will be launched in a few hours which will fix the issue. In the meantime, some tech specs for the geeks.

“The casting option integrates features including Chromecast, Airplay and DLNA. To implement these features we are using open source features like airplay-js’ castv2-client, mdns-js, node-captions, node-ssdp, upnp-mediarenderer-client and chromecast-js,” the team explain.

Torrents in the browser have been expected

With the impressive WebTorrent waiting in the wings, browser-based BitTorrent streaming is a highly anticipated development and a much needed solution to resource-hungry HTTP transfers. With this in mind the debut of the Torrents-Time-powered site Popcorntime-Online.io is an important event.

Interestingly, however, another site appeared late 2015 offering similar functionality. PopcornTorrents.com also embeds video in the browser but instead uses technology provided by Hola, details of which can be found here. Readers will remember Hola being in the news last year due to controversy over the way the service operates.

There’s no suggestion whatsoever that Torrents-Time is involved in similar practices, but the service does aim to branch out commercially in different ways, as its notes to publishers explain.

A torrent-streaming website hydra?

“By harnessing the incredible abilities of torrents, you can transform your website, in a matter of seconds to an amazing, simple to use streaming website! And by doing so, you will expose your website to new user segments, while massively increasing time on site and the number of user interactions on your website,” the company explains.

“We’re starting a revolution in a field that has never been revolutionized before – the way download, streaming and torrents websites monetize their traffic! With Torrents Time you’ll be able to generate more revenue than with any PPI company or ad network, while maintaining a great, worthy relationship with your awesome users.”

If Torrents-Time lives up to its claims and gains traction as promised there could be a massive wave of easy-to-setup websites utilizing its technology in no time at all. Taking them all down could prove impossible. Time to get the popcorn out.

PopcornTime-Online can be viewed here (Github). Torrents-Time can be found here (Github)

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Why Safe Harbor 2.0 will lose again

Ars talks with privacy campaigner Max Schrems.

(credit: europe-vs-facebook)

BRUSSELS—Over the weekend, negotiators from the European Union's executive body, and the US Federal Trade Commission worked frantically to thrash out a deal to allow transatlantic data transfers to take place. But the so-called Safe Harbour 2.0 is far from a done deal.

So how did we get here? Two men are essentially responsible: Edward Snowden, and Max Schrems.

The whole world knows only too well about the whistleblowing exploits of Snowden, who infamously exposed the US National Security Agency's PRISM spying operation. What Austrian privacy campaigner Schrems went on to do with that information, once it became public in 2013, is logical but impressive in its scale. Schrems—then a law student in his mid-20s—looked at the companies accused of leaking personal information to the NSA, and decided to file an official complaint about the misuse of his personal data by Facebook.

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JSFuck: Esoterischer Javascript-Stil ermöglicht XSS bei Ebay

Die XSS-Filter von Ebay lassen sich mit Hilfe eines zu Lernzwecken erstellten Javascript-Stils überlisten, um fremden Code auszuführen. Ebay will den Fehler vorläufig nicht beheben. Der Entwickler von JSFuck zeigte sich im Gespräch mit Golem.de überrascht von dem Szenario. (Javascript, eBay)

Asus ZenFone Zoom now available for $399

One of the only smartphones with an optical zoom lens is now available for purchase in the US. A few weeks after starting to take pre-orders, B&H is selling the Asus ZenFone Zoom ZX551ML for $399. The phone has 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and an Intel Atom processor. But its most noteworthy feature […]

Asus ZenFone Zoom now available for $399 is a post from: Liliputing

Comcast 2Gbps fiber available to 18M homes; gigabit cable coming soon

Atlanta and Nashville get gigabit cable first; Chicago, Detroit, and Miami next.

(credit: Comcast)

Comcast today announced that its gigabit cable Internet service will be available in Atlanta and Nashville early this year, with the next deployments coming to Chicago, Detroit, and Miami in the second half of 2016. Exact deployment dates haven't been revealed.

Today's announcement also said that Comcast's fiber-based 2Gbps service, which launched last year, is now available to 18 million homes as planned. That's a sizable chunk of Comcast's network, which passes 55 million homes and businesses in 39 states and Washington, DC. The 2Gbps fiber service launched first in Atlanta, spreading next to Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Nashville, and other metro areas.

While Comcast's fiber-to-the-home service—known as Gigabit Pro—delivers 2Gbps both downstream and upstream, it won't be available throughout Comcast's territory. Comcast says it does plan to bring gigabit cable to "virtually" its entire territory over the next two or three years. That's due to version 3.1 of DOCSIS, the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification, which can bring gigabit download speeds without the need to deploy fiber to homes. New modems will be required.

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DOD running short of smart bombs in ISIS campaign

Obama administration seeks $1.8 billion extra to stock up on guided munitions.

At the Boeing booth on the Air & Space exposition floor in September 2015, a rack of once and future smart bombs—JDAM and JDAM Extended Range. (credit: Sean Gallagher)

If you're wondering how much the war against the Islamic State is costing the US and why the Obama administration isn't ramping up its bombing campaign even more, consider this fact: from August 2014 to December 2015, the US military dropped $1.3 billion in smart bombs and other guided munitions on ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria, with air operations costing an average of about $11.2 million per day.

So many smart bombs have been dropped during the roughly 9,000 missions flown by US Air Force and Navy aircraft that the Department of Defense is running out of the guided weapons—and the Pentagon wants to stock up for ramped-up attacks. The military also wants to accelerate updates to the aging B-52 fleet to convert them into "arsenal ships" that can hang around for long periods of time and deliver bigger loads of guided bombs against targets such as ISIS.

Defense One reports that the Obama administration will send a request to Congress next week to approve an additional $1.8 billion for the DOD in order to purchase 45,000 new Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) smart bombs and other air-dropped ordnance. The $1.8 billion bomb request is part of a total of $7.5 billion the Pentagon will seek to cover Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing operation against ISIS.

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