By Daniel Roberts
Later this summer, Major League Baseball digital collectibles are coming to the Ethereum blockchain. Lucid Sight, a blockchain gaming company, is launching MLB Crypto Baseball, through a licensing deal with MLB.
Baseball fans migh…
Source: Engadget – Major League Baseball is going crypto
Cisco shares were down 5% and lost $11 billion in market capitalization after a report circulated that Amazon Web Services is primed to enter the lucrative network equipment market. It is rumored that Amazon will sell their white-box switches for 70% – 80% less than comparable Cisco solutions. These white-box devices will feature built-in connections to Amazon Web Services. The software running on these devices is open-source and the hardware is unbranded to lower the cost. Another upside is that open-source software allows for more customization than proprietary vendor software.
The networking devices will consist of open-source software and unbranded hardware known as “white-box” switches and come with built-in connections to AWS cloud services, such as servers and storage, the Information said. Amazon Web Services could price its white-box switches 70-80 percent less than comparable switches from networking giant Cisco, the report said, citing one of the people with direct knowledge of the unit’s plan.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Amazon Web Services to Enter Networking Equipment Market
An anonymous reader shares a report: A hacker gained access to a developer’s npm account earlier this week and injected malicious code into a popular JavaScript library, code that was designed to steal the npm credentials of users who utilize the poisoned package inside their projects. The JavaScript (npm) package that got compromised is called eslint-scope, a sub-module of the more famous ESLint, a JavaScript code analysis toolkit. The hack took place on the night between July 11 and 12, according to the results of a preliminary investigation posted on GitHub a few hours ago. “One of our maintainers did observe that a new npm token was generated overnight (said maintainer was asleep),” said Kevin Partington, ESLint project member. Partington believes the hacker used the newly-generated npm token to authenticate and push a new version of the eslint-scope library on the npm repository of JavaScript packages.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Compromised JavaScript Package Caught Stealing npm Credentials
Happy weekend, and welcome back to 3-Ingredient Happy Hour, the weekly drink column featuring super simple yet delicious libations. This week we’re making a pink drink inspired by the almost painfully classic Champagne cocktail.
Source: LifeHacker – Think Pink With This Sparkling Cocktail
I stood under the blistering hot sun as my phone grew warmer by the second. It was so hot I could barely hold onto it. Unfortunately, my phone was crucial to the Times Square art installation I was there to cover. Unmoored is a mixed-reality and augm…
Source: Engadget – Mixed reality art is lost in the madness of Times Square
Porn is not, let’s say, difficult to find online. This prevalence and accessibility of sexual imagery on the web has prompted many parents and political figures to try and sieve the smut from screens of the youth. But a new study indicates that these efforts are largely a waste of time and money.
Source: Gizmodo – Porn Finds a Way
Sean Astin is one of those actors you just have to love. Whether it was his turn as Mikey in The Goonies, Rudy in Rudy, Sam in The Lord of the Rings, or even Bob in Stranger Things 2, Astin’s kindness, determination, and earnestness make him a true fan favorite. Astin’s next project is out today. He’s the narrator of …
Source: Gizmodo – Take a Trip Down Memory Lane With Goonies and Lord of the Rings Star Sean Astin
This is a video of a real life panda practicing its kung-fu with a bamboo shoot bo staff. The whole routine starts off very amateur (think elementary school talent show), and never really improves from there until the panda snaps its bo staff in half. Still, it was a joy to watch, and I’m convinced that with the right training this panda could at least learn how to avoid injuring itself in the event of a real kung-fu fight.
Keep going for the video, as well as the original kung-fu bear footage from years ago.
Source: Geekologie – Real Life Panda Unimpressively Practices Kung-Fu
Apple unveiled some refreshed MacBook Pros this week, and I promised we’d be getting a unit to review ASAP. Sure enough, look what arrived in the mail today: a shiny, new 13-inch Mac. As you can see, the exterior design is the same as the previous-ge…
Source: Engadget – MacBook Pro 2018 hands-on: Quieter keyboard, ‘Hey Siri’ and True Tone
July is National Ice Cream Month, and Sunday is National Ice Cream Day, so it’s time for discounts. Refinery29 and U.S. News have lists of chains offering free and discounted ice cream. Some deals are just for Sunday, some run all next week, and some are around all month.
Source: LifeHacker – Where to Get Free Ice Cream This Sunday, July 15th
Senators Edward Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter to the FTC this week requesting that the agency open an investigation into how smart TVs collect consumer viewing data and whether manufacturers disclose that practice adequate…
Source: Engadget – Lawmakers ask FTC to investigate smart TV data collection
This week, a German federal court ruled that Facebook must give the mother of a dead 15-year-old access to her entire account. They’re not just talking about access to a memorial page, either. The mother gets access to everything, including private messages. In Germany, the judges decided, heirs should be able to…
Source: Gizmodo – Should Your Family Be Able to Inherit Your Facebook Messages?
If you ever wash your own car, you’ve probably bought a waffle weave towel to dry it. This three dimensional texture increases the surface area of the fabric, meaning it can absorb more water while allowing it to evaporate and dry more quickly.
Source: LifeHacker – Preorder and Save On These Quick-Drying Bath Towels That Absorb Water Like Sponges
I don’t know about you, but I’m still on the fence about Apple’s Touch Bar. The most use I get out of it is accidentally tapping the virtual “back” button in my browser when trying to press a number key. That, and I mainly use the Touch Bar to adjust my MacBook’s brightness and volume. (Perhaps I need to configure…
Source: LifeHacker – Trick Out Your Touch Bar With These Creative Apps and Games
It’s time to pull out the ionization detectors and go photoelectric.
Source: TreeHugger – Smoking out the differences in smoke detectors
Behold the MEGA-one video game controller mod. This thing is designed specifically to make your games more immersive by delivering heftier vibration feedback than your PS4 or Xbox One controller is capable of. In fact, the MEGA-one vibration motor is 500 times stronger than what’s available in a standard DualShock or Xbox One controller.
According
Source: Hot Hardware – Ex-NASA Engineer Designs Killer Xbox One, PS4 Force Feedback MEGA-one Controller Mod
The GENKI: Bluetooth Audio adapter for the Nintendo Switch by Human Things features an USB-C connector and is compatible with Bluetooth 5. According to the Kickstarter page, this allows users of the Nintendo Switch to use up to two pairs of Bluetooth headphones with the console at the same time. When only using one set of headphones, the GENKI device only exhibits 40 ms of latency to keep your gaming audio perfectly synced with the console. It only draws 0.02 watts of system power and doesn’t use batteries. The Kickstarter has exceeded the requested funding, but remember that there is always a chance that the development of the device will fail and there are no guaranteed refunds.
GENKI follows the Nintendo’s USB audio protocol and therefore receives power directly from your Nintendo Switch. But don’t worry, it only draws 0.02 Watts. To get an idea that’s like 1% of your Nintendo Switch’s battery, which is less power than if you had used the built-in speakers. This means you don’t ever have to charge GENKI. And because a battery isn’t needed, there is absolutely no risk of bricking or damaging your console like third party docks.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – GENKI: Bluetooth Audio for the Nintendo Switch
We have talked about blockchain smartphones in the past a bit. And today HTC is announcing its first blockchain phone, the EXODUS, this year. HTC says, “Our vision is to expand the blockchain ecosystem by creating the world’s first phone dedicated to decentralized applications and security. With the release of the HTC Exodus we can now make this a reality.” Computer World has a write-up talks about a few blockchain phones and their abilities that is an interesting read.
The Finney devices are designed to support inherent Blockchain applications such as a crypto wallet, secure exchange access, encrypted communications and a P2P resource sharing ecosystem for payment and apps, supported by Sirin’s own SRN token. “This enables fast payments between the network peers without the need for mining (fee-less),” Sirin said in its marketing material.
So before you go out stuffing all your cryptocurrency into your new blockchain phone, you might want to give this Motherboard article a read that breaks down the responsibilities and exposure you might create for yourself with one of these devices.
The upcoming Finney phone by Sirin Labs and the HTC Exodus let users keep their cryptocurrency in cold storage; but is being your own bank really such a good idea? Cold storage is a high-security method for storing private keys that control the majority of one’s digital funds. You could use cold storage for small purchases and daily use, but it’s more cumbersome than using a hot wallet and exposes it to the open internet more often than is necessary—better to treat it as a mini Fort Knox for your virtual wealth that is rarely touched. Security-conscious cryptocurrency owners often use a hot wallet for purchases and put the majority of their funds in cold storage.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – You and Your Upcoming Blockchain Phone
One more sign that all this crypto-garbage-crap is coming to an end. Witness a Radeon GPU for less than MSRP! Here is a fairly comprehensive list of RX 580 reviews from all over the web…if you don’t remember these from April of 2017.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Radeon RX 580 4GB Below MSRP
I think all that is left to be said is that we need to get this guy a beefier CPU and GPU combo. Enjoy.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – 20K Sith vs 20K Jedi – FIGHT!