Mehr Breitband für mich: Kein Telekom-Selbstbauer-FTTH für kleine Softwarefirma

MBfm (Mehr Breitband für mich) ist für Menschen, die die Bau- und Installationsarbeiten für FTTH durch die Deutsche Telekom selbst übernehmen. Doch das gibt die Telekom nicht jedem. Die Kosten liegen bei mindestens 8.000 bis 10.000 Euro plus Tiefbaukosten. (Glasfaser, Telekom)

MBfm (Mehr Breitband für mich) ist für Menschen, die die Bau- und Installationsarbeiten für FTTH durch die Deutsche Telekom selbst übernehmen. Doch das gibt die Telekom nicht jedem. Die Kosten liegen bei mindestens 8.000 bis 10.000 Euro plus Tiefbaukosten. (Glasfaser, Telekom)

Arms Technica and the tale of the Nonda Zus Kevlar cable

It’s probably a strong cable, but it failed to survive a live-fire exercise.

VIDEO: The ZUS cable versus bullets. Video produced and edited by Jennifer Hahn. (video link)

Attention PR folks: On average, I get about 100 pitch e-mails a day, and most of them get ignored. But this is how you get my attention:

SUBJECT: What do bulletproof vest and our charging cable have in common?

Hello Lee,

We at Nonda have developed an indestructible charging cable.

Introducing the ZUS charging cable built with Kevlar by DuPont with lifetime warranty.


The cable in question comes in USB-C, micro-USB, and Apple Lighting forms. It's also currently the subject of an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that has massively exceeded its $10,000 funding goal (it’s up to about $157,000 this morning, about $10,000 more than it had yesterday). The standout feature, Nonda PR says, is the set of Kevlar reinforcements that run through the cable’s core, strengthening it and in theory preventing it from tearing or breaking on repeated bending.

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This 1996 Sega training video is the most ‘90s thing you’ll see this week

Featuring baggy clothes, Pearl Jam, and a great big pile of classic Sega tech.

This internal Sega video for testers is a wonderful snapshot of the '90s.

If you've ever wondered what Sega was like at the height of its game-making powers, wonder no more. A staff video from the Sega vaults—made in 1996, the same year that the Sony PlayStation would begin to take over the world—has been released by the production company behind it, Green Mill Filmworks. Not only is the video a fascinating behind-the scenes look at game development and game testing, it is also, without doubt, the most '90s thing I've ever seen.

Even excluding the baggy clothes, questionable hair cuts, and horrifying denim, the desks of game testers interviewed—many of whom said they worked up to 90 hours a week squashing bugs—are littered with '90s paraphernalia. My personal favourite, aside from the multiple appearances of the obligatory (for the '90s at least) Jurassic Park merchandise, is the spinning holographic disk that appears 13 minutes in. I had one of those as a kid, and while I still don't quite understand what the appeal was, they were all the rage at school, even over here in the UK.

Of course, there's lots of Sega tech on show too, with testers having access to the Mega Drive (Genesis to our US friends), 32X, Sega CD, Game Gear, Saturn, and even the short-lived Sega Pico, a laptop-like educational system for kids that was powered by Genesis hardware. Each tester was also issued with development cartridges—which you can see being loaded up with memory chips by hand around 18 minutes in—before having to sit and play the game relentlessly, using a VHS recorder (yes really) to record gameplay and identify when and how bugs appeared.

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Google hovers over delete button for backspace nav shortcut in Chrome

Google: Only 0.04 percent of page views navigate via the backspace button.

(credit: ElbridgeGerry)

Google looks set to abolish a feature that allows users to navigate to the previous page by hitting the backspace key, after complaints piled up against the option.

However, it would seem that a small number of users will be very unhappy with the planned change.

The subtle tweak can apparently be seen in Chrome 52, which is currently only available as an unstable "Developer" version.

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Asus unveils Transformer Book T101 2-in-1 tablet with Atom x5-Z8350

Asus unveils Transformer Book T101 2-in-1 tablet with Atom x5-Z8350

The Asus Transformer Book family of computers are 2-in-1 devices that can function either as laptops or tablets. Some models have detachable keyboards, while others have 360 degree hinges that allow you to fold the screen until it’s back-to-back with the keyboard.

One of the most popular lines has been the Transformer Book T100 series, which feature 10 inch tablets, detachable keyboards, and relatively inexpensive price tags.

Now Asus is starting to show of its next-gen model.

Continue reading Asus unveils Transformer Book T101 2-in-1 tablet with Atom x5-Z8350 at Liliputing.

Asus unveils Transformer Book T101 2-in-1 tablet with Atom x5-Z8350

The Asus Transformer Book family of computers are 2-in-1 devices that can function either as laptops or tablets. Some models have detachable keyboards, while others have 360 degree hinges that allow you to fold the screen until it’s back-to-back with the keyboard.

One of the most popular lines has been the Transformer Book T100 series, which feature 10 inch tablets, detachable keyboards, and relatively inexpensive price tags.

Now Asus is starting to show of its next-gen model.

Continue reading Asus unveils Transformer Book T101 2-in-1 tablet with Atom x5-Z8350 at Liliputing.

Fox ‘Stole’ a Game Clip, Used it in Family Guy & DMCA’d the Original

This week’s episode of Family Guy included a clip from 1980s Nintendo video game Double Dribble showing a glitch to get a free 3-point goal. Fox obtained the clip from YouTube where it had been sitting since it was first uploaded in 2009. Shortly after, Fox told YouTube the game footage infringed its copyrights. YouTube took it down.

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

familyguyJust when you think you’ve seen every ridiculous example of a bogus DMCA-style takedown, another steps up to take the crown. This week’s abomination comes courtesy of Fox and it’s an absolute disaster.

In last Sunday’s episode of Family Guy titled “Run, Chris, Run“, Peter and Cleveland play the 1980s classic Nintendo video game Double Dribble. Peter doesn’t play fair though and exploits a glitch in the game that allows his player to shoot a three-point goal every time. The clip is available on YouTube.

Perhaps surprisingly the game glitch is absolutely genuine and was documented in a video that was uploaded to YouTube by a user called ‘sw1tched’ back in February 2009.

“This is an automatic shot my brothers and I found on the NES Double Dribble back in the 80’s when it was released. I know others know this also, but as long as you release at the right point it is automatic. The half court shot I took at the end goes in 80% of the time, but i didn’t want to keep recording….HAHA,” sw1tched wrote.

Interestingly the clip that was uploaded by sw1tched was the exact same clip that appeared in the Family Guy episode on Sunday. So, unless Fox managed to duplicate the gameplay precisely, Fox must’ve taken the clip from YouTube.

Whether Fox can do that and legally show the clip in an episode is a matter for the experts to argue but what followed next was patently absurd. Shortly after the Family Guy episode aired, Fox filed a complaint with YouTube and took down the Double Dribble video game clip on copyright grounds. (mirror Daily Motion)

doubledribble-1

Faced with yet another example of a blatantly wrongful takedown, TorrentFreak spoke with Fight for the Future CTO Jeff Lyon. Coincidentally he’d just watched the episode in question.

“It’s most likely that this is just another example of YouTube’s Content ID system automatically taking down a video without regard to actual copyright ownership and fair use. As soon as FOX broadcast that Family Guy episode, their robots started taking down any footage that appeared to be reposted from the show — and in this case they took down the footage they stole from an independent creator,” Lyon says.

“The problem with an automated DMCA takedown system is that robots can never know the difference between fair use and copyright infringement. It is not hyperbolic to call this mass censorship,” he continues.

“Instead of copyright holders having to prove a video is infringing, their scanning software can take it down automatically, and then it falls on the creator to prove they had a right to post it. Creators are discouraged from filing counter-notices to stand up for their work, facing lost revenue and permanent bans from online platforms. This erodes fair use and free speech on the Internet.”

The entire situation is indeed bewildering and utterly ridiculous. The original Double Dribble game came out in 1987, some 12 years before the very first episode of Family Guy aired in 1999. The clip of the glitch was uploaded by sw1tched more than seven years ago. Then somehow Fox came along, copied it, put it into their TV show, claimed copyright on it, and then nuked the original clip from the Internet.

You couldn’t make it up. Nor would you want to.

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

With Android apps coming to Chrome OS, is there room for Remix OS or Phoenix OS?

Over the past few years a number of companies have tried to turn Google Android into a desktop (or TV-focused) operating system by adding support for multi-window mode, among other things. Most recently, Chinese startups have launched Android-based ope…

With Android apps coming to Chrome OS, is there room for Remix OS or Phoenix OS?

Over the past few years a number of companies have tried to turn Google Android into a desktop (or TV-focused) operating system by adding support for multi-window mode, among other things. Most recently, Chinese startups have launched Android-based operating systems like Remix OS and Phoenix OS which add a taskbar, desktop, and Windows-like multi-window functionality to Android.

But now that Google is bringing support for Android apps to Chrome OS, is there a future for those operating systems?

Continue reading With Android apps coming to Chrome OS, is there room for Remix OS or Phoenix OS? at Liliputing.

Google I/O 2016 in pictures: What happens when you make nerds go outside

All the good and bad stuff about Google I/O’s new location.

I'm going on my fifth year in this tech reporting game, and Google I/O 2016 is the only time I've been handed sunglasses, sunscreen, and a protective bandana as part of the welcome pack when I registered at an event.

Google's big developer conference this year isn't being held in its normal location at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco—it was moved to the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Google's hometown of Mountain View. The keynote actually happened in the amphitheatre, and the rest of it was spread out into various ticket and concession booths and the sprawling parking lots surrounding the venue.

As a change of scenery, the move outside was actually fairly pleasant. The worst that can be said of the weather is that it was a little hot the first day and a little windy the second day. My appreciation of the beautiful weather and California greenery was tempered somewhat by an intense allergy to blooming plants, but that isn't Google's fault.

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Preis: Verkauf von Yahoo gefährdet

Die Yahoo-Kaufinteressenten wollen, seit sie Interna aus einem Treffen mit Marissa Mayer kennen, weit weniger zahlen als die Eigner erwarten. Der Verkauf könnte auch noch komplett scheitern. (Yahoo, Verizon)

Die Yahoo-Kaufinteressenten wollen, seit sie Interna aus einem Treffen mit Marissa Mayer kennen, weit weniger zahlen als die Eigner erwarten. Der Verkauf könnte auch noch komplett scheitern. (Yahoo, Verizon)

OneCore to rule them all: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

Microsoft promised developers that Windows would run anywhere. This summer, it finally will.

Everywhere Windows 10 can be. And on the server, too, though there it gets a different branding. (credit: Microsoft)

The Windows 10 Anniversary update, due later this summer, represents a major landmark for Microsoft. As well as being a significant update for Windows 10 on the desktop and Windows 10 Mobile on phones, the release is also coming to the Xbox One. For the first time, the Xbox One will be running essentially the same operating system as desktop Windows. Critically, it will also be able to run many of the same applications as desktop Windows.

In a lot of ways, this represents the realization of a vision that Microsoft has been promoting for more than 20 years: Windows Everywhere. Always important to Microsoft's ambitions for Windows as a platform, the Windows Everywhere ideal has a renewed significance with Windows 10 and CEO Satya Nadella's promise that Windows 10 will have one billion users within the first three years of its availability. The purpose of that promise is to send a message to developers that Windows is a big platform, a platform that they should still think about and create software for.

But if it is to have a hope of hitting that one billion target, Microsoft needs more than just PC users to get on board, which makes it important for Windows to run on more than just PCs. Hence the need for Windows Everywhere.

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