Category: Uncategorised

Blast off: It's time for No Man's Sky! (credit: Hello Games)

In crowded expo halls and at private demo sessions, No Man's Sky has impressed and intrigued with promises of a massive, gorgeous, and diverse galaxy of space exploration—and one that, developer Hello Games insists, no two people will play the same way, since the game's 18 quadrillion planets are built using a web of criss-crossing math formulas. But now, brief demos give way to the real, final game—so how much does No Man's Sky live up to its hype?

Ars Technica was fortunate enough to land a single day's advance play of the game before its Tuesday launch on PS4 in North America (it's released in the UK a day later, on August 10), which isn't enough to constitute a full review.  I mean, I still have, er, 17,999,999,999,999,999,992 planets left in my completist run of the game. But after a 12-hour marathon on the eve of its retail launch, I'm getting a sense of the game's potential, its limits, and whether I see myself continuing this epic quest to the center of a mysterious galaxy.

Ars' full review is forthcoming, but for now, let me kick off my marathon impressions with an atypical proposition: that No Man's Sky is the rare game that is better when spoiled.

Ahmed Mohamed, on a family visit to Sudan in October 2015. (credit: ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images)

Ahmed Mohamed, who was arrested last year after showing a home-made clock to a teacher at his high school, has filed a lawsuit against his former school district, its principal, and the city of Irving, Texas.

Mohamed's lawsuit (PDF), filed earlier today, claims that the school district has a history of racial discrimination, and that the treatment he received violated both US civil rights laws and his 14th Amendment right to equal treatment under the law.

The suit begins by reprinting in full "The New Colossus," the Emma Lazarus poem inscribed on the Statute of Liberty. The suit goes on to describe the history of discrimination against immigrants in the US, dating back to the 17th century.

The name "Project Sauron" came from code contained in one of the malware's configuration files. (credit: Kaspersky Lab)

Security experts have discovered a malware platform that's so advanced in its design and execution that it could probably have been developed only with the active support of a nation state.

The malware—known alternatively as "ProjectSauron" by researchers from Kaspersky Lab and "Remsec" by their counterparts from Symantec—has been active since at least 2011 and has been discovered on 30 or so targets. Its ability to operate undetected for five years is a testament to its creators, who clearly studied other state-sponsored hacking groups in an attempt to replicate their advances and avoid their mistakes. State-sponsored groups have been responsible for malware like the Stuxnet- or National Security Agency-linked Flame, Duqu, and Regin. Much of ProjectSauron resides solely in computer memory and was written in the form of Binary Large Objects, making it hard to detect using antivirus.

Because of the way the software was written, clues left behind by ProjectSauron in so-called software artifacts are unique to each of its targets. That means that clues collected from one infection don't help researchers uncover new infections. Unlike many malware operations that reuse servers, domain names, or IP addresses for command and control channels, the people behind ProjectSauron chose a different one for almost every target.

Android Police's mockup of the new Nexus devices, based on inside information. (credit: Android Police)

With Android 7.0 Nougat and the new Nexus devices fast approaching, Google is no doubt hard at work developing and testing the latest wave of features coming to the Android ecosystem. The Android N Developer Preview has given us a look at the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) side of things, and it looks like the coming Nexus devices will be the launch point for the proprietary "Google" side of Android.

These could trickle down to other devices someday, but for now it seems like Google is developing a suite of Nexus-exclusive features to further differentiate the Nexus line from regular phones. There has been a never-ending string of rumors and reports about the new Nexus devices and their accompanying software, so here's a roundup of the latest rumors we're monitoring from reliable sources.

The Nexus Launcher and Google Wallpapers

Google's current home screen is the "Google Now Launcher," which started as an exclusive Nexus feature and eventually made its way to the Play Store. For 2016, there is apparently a new Google home screen called the "Nexus Launcher," which re-imagines what an Android home screen should look like. We've actually heard about this app from two different sources: the app's existence was first revealed by Android Police and then a full APK was later leaked by Nate Benis.

HACK THE POKE-PLANET! Oh, wait, wrong meme... (credit: Aurich vs GITS vs Pokémon)

When we first wrote about the world of automated Pokémon Go-playing "bot" programs a few weeks ago, we predicted a brewing technological war. Developer Niantic was inevitably going to deploy cheat-detection technology, and hackers would subsequently work to break through that detection. Last week, we saw the first battle in that war, and so far it seems like the hackers are winning handily.

After largely ignoring the growing issues of bots (and related mapping hacks) for weeks, Pokémon Go developer Niantic rolled out a mandatory game update last Wednesday focused on cutting off server access for such unofficial apps. In a blog post last Thursday, Niantic cited "aggressive efforts by third parties to access our servers outside of the Pokémon Go game client and our terms of service." The developer argued these hacks were overloading its servers and its employees, slowing efforts to improve the game and bring it to new markets.

"Developers have to spend time controlling this problem vs. building new features," Niantic wrote. "It’s worth noting that some of the tools used to access servers to scrape data have also served as platforms for bots and cheating which negatively impact all Trainers. There is a range of motives here from blatant commercial ventures to enthusiastic fans but the negative impact on game resources is the same."