Kiosks spotted over in Ethiopia are giving RedBox a run for their money ( do they even have RedBox over there? ). For $1 to $3, you can get the latest movie releases simply by plugging in a USB stick. These machines are reportedly “maintained” by someone who torrents movies all day and uploads them to the device. No, you are not going to be seeing these around here any time soon.



“At the beginning of this year, All Mart (the Walmart equivalent here) brought in a new machine. It’s basically a monitor with a USB port but shaped like an ATM. It’s called SwiftMedia and there’s a guy who ‘maintains’ it,” our source explains. “Basically you go to this very big store and you approach the machine and you plug in a USB drive. The screen will turn on and it will let you browse through a massive archive of movies.” “At first I assumed these movies had their rights lifted or something because well, you know, but then I later found out that the movies I had first seen were just there on release day,” our source continues.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – ATM-Style Kiosk Pumps out Pirate Movies to USB Sticks

Some players in the Australian government would like ISPs to take a more active role in defending its customers from cyber security threats. This move would mirror the government’s own move toward blocking or diverting malicious traffic and other web threats from the inside. Is ISPs offering a sort of firewall service even necessary, seeing that customers already have plenty of ways to protect themselves? What I would be afraid of is harmless content and sites mistakenly being blocked off.



Should your ISP play a greater role in keeping you safe from malware, viruses and other web threats? One of Australia’s senior politicians seems to think so. In a column in The West Australian, Dan Tehan, Australia’s cybersecurity minister, wrote: “Just as we trust banks to hold our money, just as we trust doctors with our health, in a digital age we need to be able to trust telecommunications companies to protect our information from threats.” A companion news article in the same newspaper cited Tehan as arguing that “the onus is on telecommunications companies to develop products to stop their customers being infected with viruses.”

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Lawmaker Calls on ISPs to Protect Customers from Viruses

Early Saturday morning, Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority implemented an order under Law No. 5651, effectively banning all access to Wikipedia from within the countries borders. In case you were wondering, Law No. 5651 gives the Turkish government complete control over the country’s internet and is seen by many to be an assault on the Turkish people’s right to information. Officials state that the ban was implemented to prevent Turkish users from viewing content that promotes “terror propaganda”. The articles in question make the accusation that Ankara has collaborated with jihadists in Syria to undermine Kurdish opposition. Some are speculating that the ban is really due to disparaging updates to Turkish President Erdogan’s Wikipedia profile after a referendum was passed this month which greatly expanded the powers of his office.



This isn’t the first time Turkey has gone dark. In the last several years Turkey has blocked access to popular websites like Youtube, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter. If any content is shown that is potentially damaging to the countries leadership, a ban usually follows.

Wikipedia’s Founder took to Twitter to express his concern: “Access to information is a fundamental human right. Turkish people, I will always stand with you to fight for this right.”

Consider this for a moment. In America, there is an overwhelming amount of information. So much news, that there are websites to determine if the articles from other websites are fake or not. Then we have websites to tell us whether the websites that tell us if articles are fake are fake. An interesting contrast indeed.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Turkey Drops the Ban Hammer on Wikipedia

Is this guy just being a contrarian, or does he have a point? While a great many people (including so-called experts) talk about the effect that “superhuman artificial intelligence” will have on society—its destruction, particularly—some feel that nobody has bothered to stop and think about the possibility that AI isn’t actually capable of reaching human intelligence. He cites five pillars of assumptions that regularly surround the topic but insists that none of them rest on any sort of solid foundation. These include our capability of even making human intelligence in silicon and expanding intelligence without limits.



…I find the following five heresies to have more evidence to support them. Intelligence is not a single dimension, so “smarter than humans” is a meaningless concept. Humans do not have general purpose minds, and neither will AIs. Emulation of human thinking in other media will be constrained by cost. Dimensions of intelligence are not infinite. Intelligences are only one factor in progress. If the expectation of a superhuman AI takeover is built on five key assumptions that have no basis in evidence, then this idea is more akin to a religious belief — a myth.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Wired Founding Editor: Superhuman AI Takeover a “Myth”

The Rock has released story details on his new venture: a film adaptation of Midway’s 1986 Rampage. Boy, Hollywood must really be running out of ideas if they are looking at properties that a lot of people haven’t even played or remember. Mr. Johnson will play a member of an anti-poaching squad who sees his animals—a gorilla, alligator, and wolf—transformed into those big monsters you play as in the game when they are infected by a serum.



Released in 1986, the original Rampage put players in control of one of three monsters: A giant ape named George; a giant lizard name Lizzy; or a giant werewolf named Ralph. The game saw the monsters running amok across the United States, fighting the military, and destroying key landmarks. Several sequels were developed for the title as well, adding even more types of monsters to the playable roster and extending their path of destruction into the cosmos and even back in time. New Line will release the Rampage movie to theaters on April 20, 2018.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – The Rock Thinks a “Rampage” Movie Is a Good Idea

A patent from last year suggests that Nintendo will be jumping on the VR bandwagon with a headset that will house the Switch tablet. Some fans have decided to experiment early and get an idea of what the experience may be like. Considering that the Switch is not only bulky but also features a low-resolution screen, are we merely on course for another Virtual Boy moment?



…YouTuber Nintendrew decided to leapfrog past Nintendo’s R&D team and use some workaround solutions to see what the screen looks like inside of a VR device. Using a tablet-focused VR headset called the Durovis Dive 7, he found that the Nintendo Switch actually fit just perfectly. From there, he recorded his own footage of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D from the Nintendo 3DS and displayed it back as side-by-side footage on YouTube. Then, he just had to slide his way into the Switch’s web browser, pull it up on YouTube, and he was good to go.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Nintendo Switch Meets VR: How Well Does It Work?