Marijuana law is complicated. While many states are legalizing and regulating the substance, the federal government still says possession is against the law. But what if you take to the ocean to get high? Can you still get in trouble out in the deep blue?
Source: LifeHacker – Is It Legal to Smoke Weed on the High Seas?
Yesterday, Netflix announced that it would be canceling House of Cards after its sixth season. And though it had planned to wrap the series up anyway, the recent allegations that lead actor Kevin Spacey had sexually assaulted Star Trek Discovery’s An…
Source: Engadget – Netflix suspends ‘House of Cards’ production amid Spacey allegations
According to Canard PC Hardware (which has a pretty decent track record), the next iteration of AMD EPYC will feature 64 cores, 256 MB (!) of L3, 8x DDR4-3200, and 128 PCIe 4 lines. Thanks cageymaru.
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Source: [H]ardOCP – Rumored Specifications for Second-Generation AMD EPYC
A video game has got an energy industry group riled up and accusing the game’s creators of eco-terrorism: “Thunderbird Strike” (Windows PC) allows players to take the form of a thunderbird and use lightning strikes to gain points by destroying pipeline equipment. The game sends an obvious message in support of political activism, offering advice on its website for users who want to take action against fossil fuel extraction.
It’s been quite nice to not hear form Energy Builders on all the other violent video games out there that allow you to perform actions much more insidious compared with fantasy-striking an oil pipeline with a lightning-bird. I guess all the fictional and virtual murder out there that got Pat Robertson’s sin-detector humming is of no concern to Energy Builders, whereas virtual violence against some metal and plastic is a bridge too far.
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Source: [H]ardOCP – Energy Company Accuses Anti-Pipeline Video Game of Eco-Terrorism
Could desperate anti-piracy measures be the cause for Assassin’s Creed: Origin’s massive CPU utilization? Maybe — but even if this turns out to be fake news, it’s worth reporting that Ubisoft did in fact double down on DRM, integrating both Denuvo and VMProtect into a single title.
Assassin’s Creed Origins gamers are reporting massive CPU utilization. While the game is said to be quite resource-hungry already, game cracker Voksi informs TorrentFreak that anti-piracy efforts are to blame. With Denuvo in trouble, Ubisoft has called in reinforcements which are reportedly dragging down all but the most powerful machines. “It’s anti-consumer and a disgusting move,” he says.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Assassin’s Creed: Origins DRM Hammers Gamers’ CPUs
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Scott Olson)
Verizon has asked the Federal Communications Commission to preempt any state laws that regulate network neutrality and broadband privacy.
The FCC’s Republican majority is on course to overturn two-year-old net neutrality rules, perhaps by the end of the year. Broadband privacy rules passed by the FCC during the Obama administration were already undone by Congress and President Donald Trump early this year.
With the two sets of rules either gone or on their way out, it’s possible that state governments might impose similar rules to protect consumers in their states. Verizon told the FCC in a filing last week that the commission should preempt laws in any state that does so.
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Source: Ars Technica – Verizon has a new strategy to undermine online privacy and net neutrality
Apple has released iOS 11.1 and it comes with over 70 new emojis, the return of 3D Touch multitasking and a handful of bug fixes. Some of the new emojis include a cursing smiley face, a vampire, a hedgehog, Chinese takeout, a sandwich and a mermaid….
Source: Engadget – iOS 11.1 brings new emojis and important security updates
For many, the big allure of Apple Watch Series 3 has been the promise of phone-free music streaming on cellular data: you can listen to any song you like while you’re out for a run, not just whatever’s stored on the watch itself. And now you can see…
Source: Engadget – Apple watchOS 4.1 delivers phone-free music streaming
Source: Engadget – Instagram now supports three right-to-left languages
A number of Google Docs users have reported being locked out of their documents today for, according to the message that pops up when they try to access the affected document, violating Google’s terms of service. Users that have tweeted about the iss…
Source: Engadget – Some Google Docs users are being locked out of their files
North Korea always seems to be in the news right now thanks to their aggressive threats and missile tests. The latter being the subject of many people’s doomsday fears. But where could they potentially strike with the missiles they have?
Source: LifeHacker – Where in the World North Korea’s Arsenal of Missiles Can Actually Reach
Louise Matsakis, writing for Motherboard: Google Docs, the collaborative, cloud-based word processing software, appears to be randomly flagging files for supposedly “violating” Google’s Terms of Service. A member of Motherboard’s team, as well as numerous users on Twitter, report that their documents are being locked for no apparent reason. Once a document is flagged, the owner of that document can no longer share it with other users. Users who have already been shared on a document that’s been flagged are kicked out and can no longer access it. When a draft Motherboard article was locked on Monday morning, a message took over the screen that read “This item has been flagged as inappropriate and can no longer be shared.” It’s not clear why this is happening, but it may be the result of a glitch in the system Google uses to monitor Google Docs. DownDetector is currently reporting Google Drive problems in the US and Europe, which may be part of the problem.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Google Docs Is Randomly Flagging Files for Violating Its Terms of Service
You ever wonder what the lovechild of a Ferris wheel and water slide would look like? Well wonder no more my overactive imagination wielding friend, because this is that. The Slidewheel, developed by a German company that specializes in ‘premium water attractions’, can accommodate approximately 720 riders per hour in 4-rider rafts on a 2-minute journey through the continuously looping waterway, at speeds up to 25MPH. How exhilarating! Of course, is this is anything like every other waterslide I’ve ever ridden, my friends are I are going to try to stop ourselves halfway down so we get stuck. I used to be the king of that. Also, why is that water so dirty? If it’s that dirty for the first testrun, you can forget about me riding it at the end of a busy day. I already got stage three swampcrotch once playing Ninja Turtles in the sewers, I’m not getting it again.
Keep going for a video, the first half of which is a timelapse of the Slidewheel’s build, and the second half some first-person testrun footage. There’s also a computer generated x-ray version of a ride through the slide so you can see exactly how it works.
Source: Geekologie – What The Hell Is That?: A Ferris Wheel/Water Slide Hybrid
No need to collect threatened butterflies with these huge butterfly-themed murals.
Source: TreeHugger – Street artist’s larger-than-life butterfly murals beautify city walls (Video)
For the last 15 years or so, we have witnessed the rise of a great evil: the video game mini-map. Recent events have given me hope that the dark era of the mini-map may finally be coming to an end.
Source: Gizmodo – Video Game Mini-Maps Might Finally Be Going Away
Source: Engadget – Netflix is reportedly developing a ‘House of Cards’ spinoff
Acting is a hard job. Not because of believably emoting on camera, challenging as that is. Acting is hard because of the constant rejection, from audition after audition. Few careers involve so much applying, and so much putting yourself out there, until every acceptance or rejection feels like an evaluation of you as…
Source: LifeHacker – What’s the Secret Skill Your Job Requires?
Developer CCP Games has significantly cut the time and money it is investing in virtual-reality based games. From a report: The Iceland-based studio is best known for sci-fi title Eve Online but has also created several VR-centred games. Spaceship dog-fighting simulator Eve Valkyrie helped launch the Oculus Rift headset and CCP also made the Sparc VR ball-tossing game for the PlayStation. CCP boss Hilmar Petursson said the company would re-invest in VR when market conditions improved. The move was a “blow to the viability of VR as a major gaming platform,” said Adam Smith on the Rock, Paper Shotgun gaming news website, adding that Valkyrie was one of the few games that tempted him to try VR. The changes come just over a month after CCP overhauled Valkyrie in a bid to get more people playing it. CCP has cut its investment in VR as part of a broader restructuring effort. The structural changes mean more focus on PC and mobile games, it said in a statement. It is closing its Atlanta, US, office and selling off the development studio it maintains in Newcastle. The VR development work done at both locations will move to London.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Game Studio CCP Scales Back Virtual Reality Development
There are quite a few 360-degree cameras on the market now and they cover a range of needs. For professionals and major VR buffs, there’s the Samsung 360 Round and for more casual videographers there are a slew of options from companies like Ricoh Th…
Source: Engadget – Rylo’s 360-degree camera lets you decide what shots you want later
Imagine losing $30,000 in Bitcoin because you didn’t safeguard your PIN: that’s what happened to the co-founder of tech/culture site BoingBoing, who spent nearly two years trying to fix his mistake. Luckily, his “hardware wallet” of choice, Trezor, had a vulnerability that could be exploited.
In January 2016, I spent $3,000 to buy 7.4 bitcoins. At the time, it seemed an entirely worthwhile thing to do. I had recently started working as a research director at the Institute for the Future’s Blockchain Futures Lab, and I wanted firsthand experience with bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that uses a blockchain to record transactions on its network. I had no way of knowing that this transaction would lead to a white-knuckle scramble to avoid losing a small fortune.
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Source: [H]ardOCP – “‘I Forgot My Pin”: An Epic Tale of Losing ,000 in Bitcoin
