Tonight Apple announced a new partnership that will connect its suppliers in China to renewable energy sources. This isn’t its first push to increase the use of clean energy in the country that has been called the world’s most polluting, but it does…
Source: Engadget – Apple announces 0 million fund for clean energy in China
Monthly Archives: July 2018
Gawker.com Sold To Bleacher Report Co-Founder Bryan Goldberg In Bankruptcy Auction
The now-dormant news and gossip website Gawker.com was sold on Thursday to Bryan Goldberg, the founder of Bustle and co-founder of Bleacher Report. According to CNN, the site sold for less than $1.5 million. From the report: Goldberg founded the sports website Bleacher Report along with three other people in 2005; in 2012, they sold it to Turner, which like CNN is owned by AT&T. He launched Bustle, a website focused on women’s issues, in 2013. Goldberg addressed the Gawker sale in a Bustle internal email on Thursday, saying the site will be acquired “under a new holding company, separate from Bustle.”
“You are probably wondering what happens next,” he said in the email, which was obtained by CNN. “The short is this — not much. We have no immediate plans to re-launch Gawker. For now, things will stay as they are. I’m very excited about the possibilities for the future of Gawker. I will share more in the months ahead.” The sale includes an archive of hundreds of thousands of Gawker stories and social media accounts affiliated with the site. Gawker Media was sold to Univision in 2016 for $135 million and renamed Gizmodo Media Group after the company declared bankruptcy, “the result of a legal assault waged by the former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan that was secretly subsidized by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, a longtime Gawker adversary,” reports CNN.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Gawker.com Sold To Bleacher Report Co-Founder Bryan Goldberg In Bankruptcy Auction
Vega 20 Support Added To RadeonSI Gallium3D Driver
With the upcoming Linux 4.18 kernel release due out in August there is the AMDGPU kernel driver support for Vega 20, the yet-to-be-released Vega GPU said to be the 7nm part launching later this year in Radeon Instinct products and featuring 32GB of HBM2 and adding some new deep learning instructions. Now the RadeonSI Gallium3D user-space driver for OpenGL within Mesa has Vega 20 support…
Source: Phoronix – Vega 20 Support Added To RadeonSI Gallium3D Driver
FCC Votes to Change How It Handles Consumer Complaints
The FCC which is led by Ajit Pai has voted to change the way that it handles consumer complaints. Instead of investigating informal complaints from consumers about companies, it will now forward the complaints to the offending company which have 30 days to respond. If the consumer doesn’t receive satisfaction from the ruling of the company, they can now file a formal complaint for a $225 filing fee.
Previously the Commission was required to contact the complainant regarding its review and disposition of the matters raised. Since the Commission no longer has to review a complaint, politicians are fearful that the new languange leaves a consumer’s only recourse is to file the $225 formal complaint. This new process is meant to streamline the way complaints are handled by the FCC.
Does the FCC contact me directly about my complaint?
No, the FCC serves your complaint on your provider(s) and the provider is obligated to respond to your complaint within 30 days and provide the FCC with a copy of that response. It is likely that your provider(s) will contact you to attempt to resolve your complaint.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – FCC Votes to Change How It Handles Consumer Complaints
'Drive' director's free cult-movie streaming service enters beta
Source: Engadget – ‘Drive’ director’s free cult-movie streaming service enters beta
Here Are Some Nuclear Takes from Bryan Goldberg, the Self-Satisfied Shitlord Who Now Owns Gawker.com
On Thursday morning, the world learned that Bryan Goldberg has won the bidding for Gawker.com, the now-defunct sister site of our sister sites, which was sold as part of the bankruptcy process around Gawker Media, their now-defunct parent company. (It’s been an eventful couple of years.) Goldberg, who won the bidding…
Source: Gizmodo – Here Are Some Nuclear Takes from Bryan Goldberg, the Self-Satisfied Shitlord Who Now Owns Gawker.com
Don't Fall for This Scam Claiming You Were Recorded Watching Porn
There’s a twisted new sextortion scam going around.
Source: Gizmodo – Don’t Fall for This Scam Claiming You Were Recorded Watching Porn
Apple Stops Selling 2015 MacBook Pro With Old-Style Keyboard, Legacy Ports
After announcing new MacBook Pro models today, Apple has removed the 2015 MacBook Pro from the Mac section of its website. Ars Technica reports: Beloved by many, the 2015 MacBook Pro had a number of features that have since been changed or have disappeared entirely from new MacBook Pro models. Arguably the most polarizing among these tweaks is the butterfly keyboard — the 2015 MacBook Pro predates that mechanism, making its traditional keyboard a preferred alternative for many users. The 2015 MacBook Pro also contained legacy ports that Apple has since abandoned in the newest models: USB-A, HDMI, and Thunderbolt 2 ports, and an SD card slot. All of the newest MacBook Pros exclusively feature Thunderbolt 3 ports, which some will appreciate but all will scowl at when they’re forced to buy multiple dongles to connect legacy accessories. Currently, Apple has a few 2015 MacBook Pro models listed in its online clearance section, but it’s likely that Apple will not have more to sell after those are gone.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Apple Stops Selling 2015 MacBook Pro With Old-Style Keyboard, Legacy Ports
I Don't Feel So Good: Record Holder For Longest Fingernails Finally Gets Them Cut (After 66 Years)
In I think I’m gonna be sick news, this a video of 82-year old Shridhar Chillal from India having his fingernails cut with a rotary saw. Shridhar has held the Guinness World Record for longest fingernails on a single hand since 2014, with a combined five-nail length of 909.6 centimeters (358.1-inches, or 29.84 feet). Could you imagine if he’d broken a nail during that time? TOTAL DEVASTATION.
The end of an era. After 66 years of growth, our record-breaker Shridhar Chillal from India cut off his enormous fingernails – which will now go on display at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not in New York City, USA.
Oh cool, so you can swing by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not in New York City if you want to be grossed out in real life. That’s nice. So, if you had to choose — would you rather endure: an hour long back scratch with these nails, or– “Whatever the other thing is. I choose the other thing.” A round of Marco Polo played in lava. “I’ll put my swimsuit on.” I’ve already got my feet in.
Keep going for this video, as well as another one discussing Shridhar’s record much more in depth in case you can’t get enough of this.
Source: Geekologie – I Don’t Feel So Good: Record Holder For Longest Fingernails Finally Gets Them Cut (After 66 Years)
These New Maps of Pluto and Its Moon Charon Are the Most Detailed Yet
By meticulously stitching together photos taken from two cameras aboard the New Horizons spacecraft, a team of scientists has compiled the most accurate maps of Pluto and Charon to date.
Source: Gizmodo – These New Maps of Pluto and Its Moon Charon Are the Most Detailed Yet
Uber lets riders pay with Venmo
Source: Engadget – Uber lets riders pay with Venmo
Facebook Nixes Worrying Loophole That Put Vulnerable Closed Groups at Risk
Facebook has quietly changed its privacy standards for closed groups to eliminate the option of manually viewing members’ private information and after it threatened legal action, a Chrome extension that made it possible to download the details of all group members at once has been shuttered. But the question of why…
Source: Gizmodo – Facebook Nixes Worrying Loophole That Put Vulnerable Closed Groups at Risk
Microsoft offers extended support for Windows, SQL 2008: but with a catch
(credit: Marcus W / Flickr)
Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2, as well as SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2, are due to move out of extended support over the next few years; SQL Server in July 2019, and Windows Server in January 2020. For organizations still using that software, this offers a few options: keep using the software and accept that it won’t receive any more security updates, migrate to newer equivalents that are still supported, or pay Microsoft for a custom support contract to continue to receive security updates beyond the cutoff dates.
Today, Microsoft added a fourth option: migrate to Azure. Microsoft is extending the support window by three years (until July 2022 for SQL Server, January 2023 for Windows Server) for workloads hosted on Azure in the cloud. This extended support means that customers that make the switch to the cloud will receive another three years of security fixes. After those three years are up, customers will be back to the original set of choices: be insecure, upgrade, or pay for a custom support contract.
Microsoft isn’t requiring customers to demonstrate that they have any kind of migration plan in place, and this support scheme incurs no additional costs beyond those already imposed by running software on Azure in the first place.
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Source: Ars Technica – Microsoft offers extended support for Windows, SQL 2008: but with a catch
Russian Influence Campaign Sought To Exploit Americans' Trust In Local News
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: The information operatives who worked out of the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg did not stop at posing as American social media users or spreading false information from purported news sources, according to new details. They also created a number of Twitter accounts that posed as sources for Americans’ hometown headlines. NPR has reviewed information connected with the investigation and found 48 such accounts. They have names such as @ElPasoTopNews, @MilwaukeeVoice, @CamdenCityNews and @Seattle_Post. “A not-insignificant amount of those had some sort of variation on what appeared to be a homegrown local news site,” said Bret Schafer, a social media analyst for the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which tracks Russian influence operations and first noticed this trend. Another example: The Internet Research Agency created an account that looks like it is the Chicago Daily News. That newspaper shuttered in 1978. The Internet Research Agency-linked account was created in May 2014, and for years, it just posted local headlines, accumulating some 19,000 followers by July 2016.
Another twist: These accounts apparently never spread misinformation. In fact, they posted real local news, serving as sleeper accounts building trust and readership for some future, unforeseen effort. “They set them up for a reason. And if at any given moment, they wanted to operationalize this network of what seemed to be local American news handles, they can significantly influence the narrative on a breaking news story,” Schafer told NPR. “But now instead of just showing up online and flooding it with news sites, they have these accounts with two years of credible history.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Russian Influence Campaign Sought To Exploit Americans’ Trust In Local News
Sprint Still Fails to Understand What ‘Unlimited’ Actually Means
Sprint, mirroring its competition, has engaged in some grammatical gymnastics with its new unlimited strategy, announcing not one, but two different unlimited plans, each with their own limitations. One might almost say they’re not unlimited plans at all, and instead amount to yet another attempt by carriers to…
Source: Gizmodo – Sprint Still Fails to Understand What ‘Unlimited’ Actually Means
The latest Spike Lee Joint is all about Uber drivers
Uber apparently has a lot of money to fight an ongoing public relations battle. The beleaguered ride-sharing company has enlisted… wait, what? Spike Lee has directed and produced five new short films (also called commercials) for Uber called, wait…
Source: Engadget – The latest Spike Lee Joint is all about Uber drivers
LifeLock Still Gives NRA Discount It Said It Ended After Parkland School Shooting
After the Parkland, Florida, school shooting last year, in which 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were killed, a slew of companies sought to distance themselves from the National Rifle Association.
Source: Gizmodo – LifeLock Still Gives NRA Discount It Said It Ended After Parkland School Shooting
Nintendo hid a load-your-own NES emulator inside a GameCube classic
Enlarge / Replacing that memory gibberish with a carefully crafted memory card file lets you load arbitrary NES games through Animal Crossing. (credit: Nintendo)
Fans of the early-2000s era GameCube version of the original Animal Crossing likely remember the game including a handful of emulated NES titles that could be played by obtaining in-game items for your house. What players back then didn’t know is that the NES emulator in Animal Crossing can also be used to play any generic NES ROM stored on a GameCube memory card.
Security researcher James Chambers discovered the previously unused and undocumented feature buried in the original Animal Crossing game code and detailed his methodology and findings in a technically oriented Medium post this week.
The key to opening Animal Crossing‘s NES emulator is the game’s generic “NES console” item. Usually, this item simply tells players who try to use it that “I want to play my NES, but I don’t have any software” (separate in-game items are used to play the NES ROMs that are included on the Animal Crossing disc).
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Source: Ars Technica – Nintendo hid a load-your-own NES emulator inside a GameCube classic
I'd Live There: A Tiny House Inspired By The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Module
This is the little 250-square foot getaway home built by boat designer Kurt Hughes, who drew his inspiration from the Apollo 11 lunar landing module. The tiny house sits on three large steel beams that elevate it nine feet over the grassy slope it was built on above the Columbia River in Washington. Obviously, it’s the perfect home for going to bed pretending you’re an astronaut, then waking up and picking up right where you left off. Space is a lifestyle.
a staircase offers an entry point into the 250-square-foot home which comprises an open floor plan lit by a large geodesic dome skylight. a kitchen with stainless steel appliances occupies a small space near to a dining area which is situated by a window overlooking the river and the hillside. meanwhile a retro-styled mirror and semi-spherical basin styles a wash area just off the bathroom.
a small ladder leads below deck where a bed sleeping two people is neatly positioned. upstairs, a small outdoor deck offers a space to look upon the surrounding wildlife.
Man, I would totally live there. And I’m not just saying that because I love space, but also because, at 250-square feet, it’s almost double the size of my current apartment. FULL DISCLOSURE: I live in a 12-foot by 12-foot glass box in an alien zoo. “You don’t live in an alien zoo.” They want to breed me! “They don’t want to breed you.” How do you know? “I read your chart.” Pfft, you can’t read alien. “⊝⊨⊩ ⊞⊣⊤⊦⊧ ⊠⊡ ⊢⊥ .” Holy shit, you’re one of them!
Keep going for a bunch more shots.
Source: Geekologie – I’d Live There: A Tiny House Inspired By The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Module
India Now Has the 'World's Strongest' Net Neutrality Rules
India has just adopted tough new rules guaranteeing an open and fair internet for nearly half a billion people. From a report: The government has taken an “unambiguous stand” on the issue by endorsing net neutrality rules proposed last November, India’s telecom regulator said on Thursday. Net neutrality rules require internet providers to treat all online content the same, preventing them from favoring — or withholding — access to certain websites, services or apps. The principle is under attack in America, where the Trump administration repealed federal laws last month, but has been staunchly defended in India in the face of attempts by global tech companies such as Facebook to offer stripped-down internet access.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – India Now Has the ‘World’s Strongest’ Net Neutrality Rules