If you’re down for a bit of a walk down memory lane in the first-person shooter genre, Bethesda and id Software are serving up a hot plate of retro goodness today. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original Doom’s launch, re-releases of Doom, Doom II, and Doom 3 are being made available across all major gaming platforms.
If you’re
Source: Hot Hardware – Doom, Doom II And Doom 3 Come To Xbox One, PS4, Switch, iOS And Android Platforms
As much as Apple emphasizes privacy, it hasn’t completely avoided eyebrow-raising behavior. The Guardian has learned from a source that Siri quality control contractors regularly hear sensitive info, including medical info, criminal activities and e…
Source: Engadget – Apple contractors frequently hear sensitive info in Siri recordings
An anonymous reader writes: Marcus ‘MalwareTech’ Hutchins, the security researcher who helped stop the WannaCry ransomware outbreak, was sentenced today in the US to time served and one year of supervised release. The UK-born malware analyst avoided the prison time in the case as the judge described “too many positives on other side of ledger” — referring to Hutchins’ role in the WannaCry ransomware outbreak and his work as a malware analyst. Judge J. P. Stadmueller had a difficult decision on his hand, and would have considered a pardon. However, courts have no such power, and deferred to the executive branch. In court, Hutchins apologized, again, to victims, family, and friends. The judge waived any fines. The sentence comes after Hutchins pleaded guilty this April on two charges of entering a conspiracy to create and distribute malware, and in aiding and abetting its distribution.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Marcus ‘MalwareTech’ Hutchins Gets No Prison Time, One Year Supervised Release
In 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe launched a battle against an oil pipeline running across their ancestral lands. Despite their efforts gaining international attention, the 1,172 mile-long Dakota Access Pipeline was built anyway. The tribe lost that battle—but its members didn’t let that defeat stop them from…
Source: Gizmodo – North Dakota’s First Solar Farm Opens on Standing Rock Tribal Land
Video games can be frustrating. Sometimes, that frustration can overpower your ability to play them well. There’s a term for that: In those moments, you’re “tilted.” On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, we had Kotaku’s newest staff writer Joshua Rivera join us to discuss the ways that games have tilted us and how we…
Source: Kotaku – When Your Frustration At A Game Makes You Even Worse
By most accounts, technology wreaks havoc on our sleep. Even tools meant to help us sleep better can make insomnia worse. But sleep and tech don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Artists and researchers from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RM…
Source: Engadget – Brain-controlled VR lightshows could lull you to sleep
Enlarge / Ahhhhhhhhhhhh (credit: Getty | James Morgan)
A 59-year-old North Carolina man died Monday, July 22, from an infection caused by the free-living amoeba Naegleria fowleri, aka the “brain-eating amoeba.”
According to state officials, the man fell victim to the single-celled organism after swimming at the Fantasy Lake Water Park in Cumberland County on July 12, 2019. Laboratory testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later confirmed the infection. Though N. fowleri are rare, they’re almost always deadly, which has health officials calling for greater awareness.
“Our sympathies are with the family and loved ones,” NC State Epidemiologist Zack Moore, MD said in a statement. “People should be aware that this organism is present in warm freshwater lakes, rivers and hot springs across North Carolina, so be mindful as you swim or enjoy water sports.”
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Source: Ars Technica – Brain-eating amoeba kills again—here’s how it kills and how to avoid it
Every time I hoist my daily-carry LifeProof power bank out of my backpack in open sight of others, I get questions, scoffs, and ridicule about it being such an absolute unit. After defensively responding with a list of its benefits on several occasions, I most recently just pushed it off of the table I was sitting at…
Source: Kotaku – LifeProof’s USB-C Power Packs Can Survive Your Clumsy Human Existence
In other phone dropping news (apparently when it rains it pours broken smartphones), this is a video of someone’s cousin dropping his phone in a swamp next to an alligator they spotted while visiting New Orleans. Some more info while I tape my phone to my hand like a forty of Old English:
“We saw a young alligator right next to the boardwalk. I was filming because it looked like the gator was about to move away and my cousin was up close to it trying to take a picture. Then, he drops his phone and it falls right off the boardwalk and next to the animal! You can tell that for a split second he thinks about trying to grab it but then decides better not.”
Provided the phone was waterproof, I would have jumped in there and grabbed it. But that’s just me, and I’m friendly with gators. Now crocodiles, crocodiles are another story– “But is it–” No, not an erotic one.
Keep going for the video.
Source: Geekologie – It’s His Now: Guy Drops Phone Right By Alligator
Ang Lee’s new film Gemini Man is the ultimate gamble. Not because of the story. Not because of the stars. And not because of the subject matter. It’s because it’ll ask audiences to do something they’ve never done before. To believe that a fully CGI human being is real.
Source: io9 – Gemini Man Is Attempting a Once-Thought-to-Be Impossible Feat of Visual Effects
Simply moving through the physical world in regions with massive, powerful surveillance systems threatens to strip one of their anonymity, and in places with anti-government demonstrations, that threat is disturbingly amplified. But protestors in Hong Kong are countering these gross invasions of privacy.
Source: Gizmodo – How Hong Kong’s Protestors Are Hindering (and Hijacking) the Tools of Surveillance
The Internal Revenue Service has begun sending letters to more than 10,000 cryptocurrency holders, warning about penalties for failing to report income and pay tax on transactions involving virtual currencies. From a report: The agency expects its mailing to be completed by the end of August [Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source]. It is sending three variations of one letter, depending on the information it has about the recipient. “Taxpayers should take these letters very seriously. The IRS is expanding efforts involving virtual currency, including increased use of data analytics,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. An IRS spokesman declined to say whether the letters stem from information turned over by digital-currency platform Coinbase. In mid-March of 2018, Coinbase provided data — under a federal court order — on about 13,000 accounts requested by the IRS.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – IRS Sending Warning Letters To More Than 10,000 Cryptocurrency Holders
For many students, their first year at college is the first time they’ll be entirely responsible for their personal finances. Such independence can be stressful, but it doesn’t need to be as long as you’re savvy, organized and disciplined. And there…
Source: Engadget – A student’s guide to keeping track of your finances
SK Hynix said that it would cut wafer starts of 3D NAND in the coming months more aggressively than it originally anticipated earlier this year. Besides, the company will reconsider plans to equip its M15 and M16 fabs, which will reduce its capital expenditures.
Oversupply of 3D NAND memory encourages makers of flash to reduce their output in a bid to stabilize prices. Earlier this year SK Hynix said that it would reduce 3D NAND wafer starts by 10% in 2019, but this week it said it had changed its plans and now intends to reduce wafer starts by 15% when compared to its 2018 output.
In Q2 2019, SK Hynix’s NAND flash bit shipments increased by a whopping 40% quarter-over-quarter as the company ramped up production of 72-layer 3D NAND and because overall increased demand following a traditionally slow first quarter. Meanwhile, average selling prices of 3D NAND dropped by 25%, which is reason for concern for SK Hynix.
As SK Hynix (and other makers of NAND flash) transitions to more advanced 3D NAND designs with more layers (or more bits per cell in case of 3D QLC) and higher bit density, they increase their bit output, which to some degree create oversupply. As a result, cutting output of (usually previous-generation) wafers by 10% to 15% may not be enough to reduce bit output.
SK Hynix currently produces 72-layer 3D NAND for datacenter and mainstream SSDs. The company’s 512 Gb 96-layer 3D TLC NAND entered production last November and the company intends to increase production of 96-layer 3D NAND shortly. In addition, SK Hynix recently started to ramp up production of 1 Tb ‘4D’ TLC NAND featuring the company’s charge trap flash (CTF) design featuring the peripheral under cells (PUC) architecture. These memory devices promise to significantly improve bit density over currently shipping 3D NAND, and further increase SK Hynix’s 3D NAND bit output.
In addition to reduction of 3D NAND wafer starts, SK Hynix will also slow down expansion of cleanroom space at its M15 fab near Cheongju, South Korea, which can produce both DRAM and 3D NAND. In addition, it will also delay installation of equipment at its M16 fab near Icheon. While SK Hynix does not elaborate, it says that the decision would lower its 2020 CapEx “significantly” when compared to 2019, which may mean that new production capacities at the said plants may not come online next year.
Related Reading:
Source: SK Hynix
Source: AnandTech – SK Hynix NAND Update: 3D NAND Output Cut, Slowdown Capacity Expansions
Samsung is offering generous trade-in offers on the latest Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel, and iPhone smartphones, plus deals on plenty of older handsets. That includes paying you the full price of a regular Google Pixel 3—$600, as of publication time.
Source: LifeHacker – Samsung Will Pay You the Full Price of a Google Pixel 3 If You Trade It In
The cord-cutting movement is going strong, and people all around the world are shedding cable and satellite TV programming. The problem is as more people cut the cord and went with streaming options, prices for internet connectivity have gone up, and pricing on streaming services continually increase.
AT&T’s DirecTV Now has seen several
Source: Hot Hardware – AT&T Bleeds Almost 1 Million DirecTV Customers Due To Price Gouging
Enlarge / To the credit of the three school districts affected, at least nobody’s trying to pay the Danegeld. (credit: US Air Force / Adam Butterick)
This Wednesday, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency in response to ransomware attacks on three public school districts.
There’s no word so far on which ransomware variant has hit the school districts or what the exact extent of damages is. Eddie Jones, principal of Florien High School (a school in one of the three affected districts), told KSLA News that his technology supervisor received an alert on his phone at 4am Sunday about unusually high bandwidth usage. Shortly afterward, investigators discovered ransomware on the school servers. Jones says “anything and everything housed solely on the School District’s servers” was lost, including 17 years of his own personal documents.
The Sabine and Morehouse district ransomware attacks this week follow an attack on the Monroe City school district last week. Morehouse parish claims not to have been affected to the extent of the other two parishes, and it states that “all major systems, including payroll, are operational.”
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Source: Ars Technica – Louisiana declares state of emergency in response to ransomware attack
Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images)
There is at long last a silver lining for the 144 million of us who had our personal data leaked in the gigantic 2017 Equifax data breach: cash money.
Under the terms of its settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Equifax established a fund of at least $300 million to compensate individuals who had their data compromised.
You, the individual, get to choose which claim to file: up to 10 free years of credit monitoring service, or a $125 check.
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Source: Ars Technica – You can go claim at least 5 from the Equifax settlement right now
This week, an asteroid flew by the Earth, coming as close as 44342 miles away. No, you shouldn’t worry about this specific asteroid (anymore, at least), but you might wonder how we missed it.
Source: Gizmodo – How Did We Miss This Week’s Shockingly Close Asteroid Flyby?
Canonical announced that the BT Group communications company has chosen to use the Charmed OpenStack on Ubuntu and related open-source tools to automate the deployment and operations of their next-generation 5G cloud core network.
Source: LXer – Canonical’s Ubuntu OpenStack Architecture to Empower BT’s Next-Gen 5G Cloud Core
