Finnish developer Juha Lindstedt has started a petition on GitHub asking Adobe to release Flash into the hands of the open-source community: the goal is to create a lighter version of the plugin (or, at least, a tool to convert SWF and FLA files) so older Flash content can be experienced indefinitely. While thousands have already signed in favor of this, others say that Flash should be killed off due to security concerns.



The developer wants Adobe to open-source Flash or parts of its technology so the open-source community could take on the job of supporting a minimal version of the Flash plugin or at least create a tool to accurately convert old SWF and FLA files to modern HTML5, canvas data, or WebAssembly code. The entire purpose of this project is to make sure a large chunk of archived web content, movies, or games doesn’t die off in 2020, or in later years as browsers evolve, and the Flash plugin becomes noncompatible with modern tech.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Petition Asks Adobe to Open-Source Flash for the Sake of Internet History

These authors analyzed every county’s broadband usage using data from researchers at the University of Iowa and Arizona State University and found that Saguache County, Colorado, is the worst place to be for reliable broadband: only 5.6 percent of adults in the area have it. Part of it has to do with the mountains and the isolation they bring, and it has sparked discussion about how the federal government should step in to improve access in rural areas.



…Saguache County’s students are expected to take their state assessments online even though an administrator at one school that houses K-12 students told me that until last year, the internet often went down for a couple of hours or even all day in the building. The tide long ago turned from paper to digital in American life, and yet the disparities in access to the internet in parts of the country can be stark. Rural communities often face logistics problems installing fiber-optic cable in sparsely populated areas. In Saguache, internet problems are both logistical and financial; the county is three times the size of Rhode Island, while 30 percent of residents live below the poverty line.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – The Worst Internet in America

Take a look at some press shots of the retail version of the Radeon RX Vega 64. While I like the minimalistic approach that AMD has taken, I would have gone with a gunmetal color.



On the outside, you have two 8-pin PCIe power connectors on the Radeon RX Vega 64, and on the PCI bracket, there are three DisplayPort connectors and one HDMI connector. Under the fan shroud and GPU cooler, we get to see the Vega 10 GPU on the cards full-length PCB. The 8GB of HBM2 memory are said to be housed in two stacks of HBM2. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 has two 8-pin power connectors and the GPU is surrounded by power phases, so it will be interesting to learn the TDP of both the air- and liquid-cooled models.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Official Pictures of the Radeon RX Vega 64

I normally don’t post videos of rocks, but this one is pretty special: while the scenes here appear to be photographed or filmed, everything is actually, in fact, computer generated. Graphic artist Rense de Boer, who worked as a technical art director at Battlefield developer DICE for several years, used two GeForce 1080 Ti cards to explore the boundaries of real-time rendering.



It took him five days to photograph and capture the landscapes he wanted to render, and another several weeks to rebuild them in video game making tool Unreal Engine with a process called photogrammetry, which works by compiling a host of images taken from various angles and using them to create realistic depth. “Plants and trees are built leaf by leaf, giving it depth that is needed to ensure realism and create a more believable world,” de Boer said.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – These Are Some Good-Looking Computer Rocks

Putin has signed a law prohibiting the use of VPNs in Russia, which should make accessing websites banned in the country much more difficult. The legislation, which will come into force on Nov. 1, is being described by parliament as a means of blocking access to “unlawful content,” and that the intention is not to impose restrictions on law-abiding citizens.



The law, already approved by the Duma, the lower house of parliament, will ban the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and other technologies, known as anonymizers, that allow people to surf the web anonymously. It comes into force on Nov. 1. Leonid Levin, the head of Duma’s information policy committee, has said the law is not intended to impose restrictions on law-abiding citizens but is meant only to block access to “unlawful content,” RIA news agency said.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – VPNs Are Now Banned in Russia

It is being called “the case of the incredible shrinking airline seat”: a US appeals court panel is putting pressure on the FAA to regulate the size of airline seats, as small seats bunched too close together results in safety issues ranging from the slowdown of emergency evacuations to travelers developing vein clots. The airline industry has long opposed the regulation of seat size.



Airlines have steadily reduced the space between rows to squeeze in extra seats and make more money. On discount carrier Spirit Airlines, the distance between the headrest of one seat and that of the seat in front of it a distance called “pitch” is 28 inches (71cm), which, after accounting for the seat itself, leaves little legroom for the average passenger. This year, news leaked that American Airlines planned to order new Boeing 737 jets with just 29 inches (74cm) of pitch in the last three rows to make room for an extra row of premium-priced seats toward the front of the plane.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Shrinking Airline Seats Are Becoming a Safety Issue

In the past, Alien: Isolation had been demoed with a VR mode running on the second Rift development kit (DK2), but unfortunately, the developers never did translate that over for the finalized version of the headset. One fan has taken matters into his own hands by designing a mod that lets you experience Isolation in VR with a Rift, though release notes suggest that it could be a recipe for nausea if you go about it the wrong way.



An alpha version of the so-called “MotherVR” mod has been released, adding Rift support to Alien: Isolation. The creator, Zack Fannon, who goes by the alias Nibre, plans to continue developing the mod to add additional features (including Vive support), but says he wanted to launch the mod in its early state so that people could start playing sooner rather than later. For now he warns the game is designed for seated play only, and works with an Xbox gamepad or keyboard and mouse. In the future, Fannon tells me that he hopes to add support for VR controllers like Touch.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Mod Makes “Alien: Isolation” VR Mode Compatible with Oculus Rift