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So you want a Chromebook… but you’re not thrilled about the idea of sharing data with Google? NayuOS is an operating system designed to run on Chromebooks without sending any data to Google’s servers. It’s a free and open source fork of Chromium OS from developers at Nexedi, and there are builds available for download for […]
NayuOS is a Google-free operating system for Chromebooks is a post from: Liliputing
So you want a Chromebook… but you’re not thrilled about the idea of sharing data with Google? NayuOS is an operating system designed to run on Chromebooks without sending any data to Google’s servers. It’s a free and open source fork of Chromium OS from developers at Nexedi, and there are builds available for download for […]
NayuOS is a Google-free operating system for Chromebooks is a post from: Liliputing
Impressions so far: Awkward controls, dumb AI, and repetitive shooting.
If only the game played as well as it looked in this beta.
We'll admit we've gotten a bit caught up in the buzz for Tom Clancy's The Division since its stellar premiere trailer at E3 2013, so much so that we put the game on our most anticipated games of 2016 list. After I played a few hours of the closed beta for the game on Xbox One yesterday, my anticipation isn't gone, but it has been dulled quite a bit.
That's not to say there weren't things I liked. The beta shows off the same kind of detailed environmental design as those initial trailers, rendering a disease-ruined and fallen world where hauntingly beautiful signs of decaying civilization are everywhere you look. I also like the game's augmented-reality style interface, which overlays paths and information neatly over the "real world," including map projections that make it easy to figure out where you are and which way to go. The mix of high-end, near-future technology and crumbling urban infrastructure is certainly visually striking.
The online party integration also seems pretty solid so far. While you can see a whole server full of players running around and buying items in central "safe zones," individual missions are split off into smaller team-based instances. It's relatively easy to join up with friends or strangers to take on those missions in small groups and coordinate your goals on a shared map. The only quibble is that voice communication seems to be the only reliable way to communicate; there are no in-game tools to quickly highlight nearby points of interest or send quick commands and information to your team (if there are, I didn't find them).
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The Ancillary novels made interstellar war as complicated as conflict in the real world.
Cover detail from the Ancillary novels. (credit: John Harris)
Ancillary Justice was published with little fanfare in 2013. Its author, Ann Leckie, had never published a novel before and was a relative unknown outside the world of science fiction book fandom. But then, word started to get around on the blogs—Ancillary Justice was something special, a galaxy-spanning epic with characters and conflicts that took a tired genre in mind-blowing new directions. The buzz reached a fever pitch when the book won both the Hugo and the Nebula for 2013, the two top US awards for science fiction.
Leckie followed up rapidly with two sequels, Ancillary Sword (October 2014) and the New York Times bestseller Ancillary Mercy (October 2015), which surprised readers by abandoning many conventions of trilogies. There is no giant spherical object in space that must be destroyed; there is no bad guy with a singular purpose; there's not even a good guy whose journey offers us an arc of transformation or redemption.
The series will no doubt be remembered as one of the most exciting and confounding developments in space opera of the past several decades. Without question, it has changed the way the science fiction book world thinks about space opera.
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And a big list of additional deals to snatch up.
Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our partners at TechBargains, we are bringing a number of great deals for you to check out this weekend. One of the best is for a powerful Bluetooth speaker—now you can get an Omaker M4 Portable Wireless Bluetooth & NFC speaker for just $18.99, a fraction of its $89 original price and a great deal on its $29 list price.
This speaker lets you bring your favorite tunes into any environment with its splashproof, shockproof, and dustproof design, and it fully recharges in just three hours. You'll get 12 hours of music with this gadget with just 80 percent battery, so you're covered no matter how long your jam session is.
Check out the usual list of laptop, gaming, TV, and accessories deals below as well.
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Some smartphone makers have been including wireless charging capabilities in their handsets for a few years, allowing you to drop your phone on a charging pad to refuel the battery without connecting any wires. But Apple has been on the sidelines… so far. Bloomberg reports that Apple is working on adding wireless charging to smartphones… […]
Future iPhones might support wireless charging using new tech is a post from: Liliputing
Some smartphone makers have been including wireless charging capabilities in their handsets for a few years, allowing you to drop your phone on a charging pad to refuel the battery without connecting any wires. But Apple has been on the sidelines… so far. Bloomberg reports that Apple is working on adding wireless charging to smartphones… […]
Future iPhones might support wireless charging using new tech is a post from: Liliputing
Schlechte Zahlen, weniger Mitarbeiter: ST Microelectronics trennt sich von seiner Set-Top-Box-Sparte und somit von 1.400 Angestellten, Hunderte weitere Mitarbeiter werden in andere Bereiche wechseln. (STMicroelectronics, Set-Top-Box)
Schlechte Zahlen, weniger Mitarbeiter: ST Microelectronics trennt sich von seiner Set-Top-Box-Sparte und somit von 1.400 Angestellten, Hunderte weitere Mitarbeiter werden in andere Bereiche wechseln. (STMicroelectronics, Set-Top-Box) 
A news site has just been blocked by Portugal’s ISPs on copyright infringement grounds. Ultimate Music is operated by journalist Josep Vinaixa who publishes music industry news and sometimes embeds pop videos from YouTube. However, local anti-piracy outfit MAPiNET insists the site needs to buy a special license in order to do so.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Blocking websites is in vogue for copyright holders all around Europe. They normally need to go to court to have allegedly-infringing sites blocked at the ISP level but in Portugal no such formality is required.
In recent months local Internet providers have already blocked hundreds of websites for allegedly linking to copyright infringing content. The action is the result of a voluntary arrangement between the Ministry of Culture, the Association of Telecommunication Operators, and copyright holders including anti-piracy group MAPiNET.
The lack of judicial oversight has been a concern for activists ever since the introduction of the agreement. Now it appears their fears were not unfounded.
Ultimate Music is a site operated by journalist and blogger Josep Vinaixa. He reports on entertainment industry news, such as track and album releases, and also embeds YouTube videos. In the image below one can see a typical piece which announces the launch of an album by Sigma and embeds an official Sigma video from YouTube.
Vinaixa works with international record labels who send him information about releases and even request that he embeds their videos in his site. However, local anti-piracy group MAPiNET believes that embedding YouTube videos is illegal unless Vinaixa’s website is licensed.
In an email from MAPiNET dated Dec 18 and shared with TorrentFreak, the anti-piracy outfit warns Vinaixa that he needs to “change his conduct” or face the consequences. (broken English email quoted verbatim)
“On the past 30 of July we have celebrated a MoU with the Portuguese association of ISPs APRITEL, Portuguese Cultural inspection entity IGAC, and others,” the email states.
“On this MoU websites that have more than 500 copyright protected works or if 2/3 of his content is copyrighted material presented there with no authorization from the legal rights owner are eligible to be blocked by DNS in Portugal.
“If this website do not change its conduct within the next 24 hours we will make all the diligences to proceed with the DNS blocking request.”
Less than an hour later a bemused Vinaixa responded, asking MAPiNET what could possibly be wrong with writing about artists and embedding their official videos in his news articles.
“I really want to fix this because I don’t want any problem. I’m just promoting the new music releases,” he explained.
After receiving no response, Vinaixa’s site was blocked by ISPs in Portugal on Christmas Day. The message now seen by visitors is shown below.
Credit: Revolucaodosbytes.pt
(Translated: The site you want to access is blocked in the wake of compliance of a Entitdade Regulatory notification)
On December 29, Vinaixa wrote to MAPiNET again.
“You blocked my site in Portugal and you didn’t answer my message. I want to fix this and make my site available in Portugal again. Can you please tell me what I have to do?” he begged.
On January 5, 2016, Vinaixa received a reply but it was not what he’d been hoping for.
“According to the information we have gathered from the Portuguese Music Licensing Company (PassMusica) and all music related Collective Management Entities, you have not submitted any licensing request for your site to operate in the Portuguese Territory,” MAPiNET explained.
“Having said that, we recommend you, as a first step, to obtain the correct licensing for your site to work properly and according to the Portuguese Legislation, and therefore we urge you to address the above mentioned entities.”
So, after being blocked by MAPiNET, Vinaixa turned to PassMusica for help.
“My website is a music site about new releases and future artists from all parts of the world. All the music / videos are from official channels like Youtube, Spotify, Soundcloud or Vevo,” Vinaixa told the licensing outfit.
“I do not understand what I could do wrong, for you to block my access throughout your country. I simply want to return to be operational in Portugal and fix something if there is something to fix. Thank you so much.”
Again, the response was disappointing.
“Further to your email, we can confirm that we have not received any licensing request from you in order to operate in Portugal. Furthermore, we also have information that you have not requested authorization [from] the Record Company to make the music videos and tracks available through your website, as all the platforms you’ve mentioned have requested,” PassMusica told Vinaixa.
“We appreciate that the music and all the videos are from official channels, but those channels have negotiated directly with the record companies in order to be able to make such usage of music, as we are sure you have not. Also, those channels, in their disclaimers do not authorize such utilization.”
But according to Vinaixa, that is nonsense.
“Excuse me but that’s not true,” he told PassMusica earlier this month.
“All the labels from UK, Australia, USA and Spain send me the information about the releases from their artists and they want me to put all of the videos and audios (official link) on the site.”
Vinaixa told the licensing outfit he’s been working with the labels for three years and no one has ever complained. In fact, all he gets is thanks for his cooperation in promoting the labels’ artists.
“I don’t understand why Portugal blocked me when all the other countries are working with me, the labels and the artists’ advertising agencies. I just want to work properly as I have been doing around the world for 3 years. So you do not tell me I have no license, because I work closely with almost all the record labels.”
So for now Vinaixa and his site is in limbo while being treated like the dozens of hardcore pirate sites on MAPiNET’s register. They are no longer responding to his questions and Portuguese users are still unable to view his site.
According to a 2014 decision by the EU’s Court of Justice, if content is already freely available after being legally published and isn’t already subject to restrictions such as a subscription or pay wall, embedding is not a breach of EU law.
TorrentFreak contacted MAPiNET on two occasions to hear its reasons for blocking Ultimate Music but the anti-piracy group did respond to requests for comment.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Authors appear to have reused data, pretended it was from different experiments.
(credit: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation)
An ongoing investigation at the University of Naples in Italy is looking into allegations that some studies of genetically modified crops included data that was manipulated to make it appear that the consumption of GMOs is harmful to mammals. Frederico Infascelli, the researcher who led these studies, claims that the allegations are false, but evidence has surfaced of widespread image manipulation in his work.
Genetically modified crops, more commonly known as genetically modified organisms or GMOs, have been engineered to make plants heartier in challenging environmental conditions, more resistant to pests or disease, or for a better nutritional profile. Studies have found that GMOs can be effective in reducing the use of pesticides, increasing overall crop yield, and in increasing farmer’s profits. Some of the more common GMO crops include rapeseed, corn, cotton, papaya, soybeans, and beets.
In general, most scientists, Including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, concur that GMOs do not present an increased risk to human health relative to non-modified foods, though the growth and consumption of GMOs has been riddled with controversy. Partially in response to public concerns, some countries require foods using GMOs to be labeled as such.
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In Kalifornien könnten fahrerlose Autos verboten werden. Google warnt nun davor, die Kontrolle durch menschliche Fahrer zu überschätzen. (Netzneutralität, Internet) 
In Kalifornien könnten fahrerlose Autos verboten werden. Google warnt nun davor, die Kontrolle durch menschliche Fahrer zu überschätzen. (Netzneutralität, Internet) 
Wer das Jolla Tablet bezahlt hat, aber es nicht geliefert bekommt, erhält sein Geld zurück. Vor allem die ersten Unterstützer erhalten ihr Geld aber nur in Raten zurück. (
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