I can remember, as a small child, thinking it odd that I bought Christmas gifts for my parents from my school’s mini holiday shop, and yet they didn’t buy me any gifts. Sure, Santa brought me plenty, it’s not like I didn’t have a slew of stuff to open, but still…shouldn’t a parent buy their kid a present on the…
Source: LifeHacker – What Do You Tell Your Kids About Santa?
Samsung isn’t waiting long to update the Galaxy Buds lineup, and its next model might focus on one rather important upgrade. 9to5Google reports that MySmartPrice has uncovered a certification revealing an upcoming “Galaxy Buds Pro,” with a new FCC fi…
Source: Engadget – Samsung’s unannounced ‘Galaxy Buds Pro’ surface at the FCC
Some people follow the tradition of creating New Year’s resolutions. A year is a long time, though, so I plan with a seasonal theme or trajectory. Each quarter, I sit down and look at the upcoming three-month season and decide what I’ll work on during that time.For my latest theme, I decided I wanted to write a daily journal. I like having clear commitments, so I committed to writing for five minutes each day. I also like having observable commitments, even if it is just for me, so I put my entries in Git.read more
Source: LXer – Journal five minutes a day with Jupyter
Edited by Jeremy Smolik. Click here for transcript.
As 2020 draws to a close, we’ve still got a couple of extended-edition “War Stories” videos to release, and this one’s been a while coming. We had a great time last year talking to Westwood’s Louis Castle—so much so that we actually got two videos out of him instead of one. In addition to discussing the 1997 adventure game genre swan song Blade Runner, we also got him to spill the beans on the wild development ride that was Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun.
Today we’re happy to finally be able to publish the extended edition of Castle’s Blade Runner interview. To recap from the short version, Castle and his team faced a series of very high technological hurdles in bringing the dark and expansive world of future Los Angeles to the small screen. The challenges weren’t limited to storytelling and design issues, either, though those were substantial (the developers had to create a branching narrative where there weren’t just multiple endings, but multiple interpretations of different events in the game, including swapping around who is and isn’t a replicant—writing a story with that many moving parts that remains coherent throughout is hella difficult). No, the biggest challenges were of the engineering type and required creative solutions—like inventing a way to weld together dynamically lit voxel characters with pre-rendered backgrounds or planning out a data storage strategy that made the game’s huge files work with the limited IO bandwidth available to contemporary CD-ROM drives.
If a deep dive into the mechanics of programming a massive adventure game on late-’90s technology (and pulling it off spectacularly!) sounds interesting, then this video was made for you.
Read on Ars Technica | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – An extended Blade Runner interview with Westwood co-founder Louis Castle
43% Off Select Anker Gear | Amazon
Source: Gizmodo – Keep Your Gadgets Going With up to 43% off Anker Gear at Amazon Today
Cyber Monday, the closing bookend to November’s holiday shopping season, can be a bit overwhelming. So, we’re here to help you cut through the noise and save big on time and money with this quick roundup of products. Here are 10 fantastic Cyber Monda…
Source: Engadget – 10 Cyber Monday deals you need to know about
15% off The Onion Store Merch | The Onion Store | Promo Code CYBERWEEK
Source: LifeHacker – The Onion Store Is Having a 15% off Sale and These Deals Better Make Me Laugh
FCC chairman Ajit Pai has announced that he’s leaving the commission as of January 20th, 2021, the same day that President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in. It’s not a major surprise, as such appointees often resign as a new administration takes over…
Source: Engadget – FCC chairman Ajit Pai is resigning on January 20th
Most of you reading this have long since moved on from using those bulky CRT monitors of yesteryear, the kind of big and heavy displays that would break your back if you had to lug them up a flight of steps (been there, done that). Nevertheless, you might still be on the hunt for a new monitor, one that is primed for gaming. If so, now is
Source: Hot Hardware – Cyber Monday Gaming Monitor Deals Bring Big Savings On Samsung, LG, Alienware, ASUS And More
General Motors has ditched plans to build Nikola’s electric/fuel-cell hybrid pickup and it will no longer take a stake in the company. Nikola has announced a revamped, non-binding agreement that should see it use GM’s Hydrotec fuel-cell system in its…
Source: Engadget – GM has ditched plans to build Nikola’s hybrid fuel-cell pickup
For folks living in the world of AMC’s The Walking Dead, only three things matter: How do I survive, how can we fix this…and why is this happening? The last question might seem like the easiest one to answer, but it’s something TWD’s chief content officer Scott Gimple says we may never know.
Source: io9 – The Walking Dead’s Zombie Apocalypse Origin May Never Be Revealed
Enlarge / The front half of the Nikola Badger. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Nikola Motor Corporation)
Things keep going downhill for aspiring hydrogen truck-maker Nikola.
Nikola’s stock plunged on Monday morning as the company announced that a previously announced deal with General Motors was not going to close. Instead, the two companies signed a “non-binding memorandum of understanding” related to the use of GM’s hydrogen fuel cell technology in Nikola’s future semi trucks. GM will not take a stake in Nikola as originally planned.
Nikola’s stock is down 26 percent as I write this on Monday morning. The stock is down 58 percent since September 8, the day Nikola originally announced the GM deal.
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Source: Ars Technica – Nikola stock plunges as company cancels Badger pickup truck
We weren’t necessarily expecting 2016’s beloved first-person shooter Doom to show up on the Nintendo Switch, but turns out id Software and Panic Button knew what they were doing. The whole experience worked well, no mean feat given that Doom was desi…
Source: Engadget – ‘Doom Eternal’ hits the Nintendo Switch on December 8th
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in a case that could lead to sweeping changes to America’s controversial computer hacking laws — and affecting how millions use their computers and access online services. From a report: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was signed into federal law in 1986 and predates the modern internet as we know it, but governs to this day what constitutes hacking — or “unauthorized” access to a computer or network. The controversial law was designed to prosecute hackers, but has been dubbed as the “worst law” in the technology law books by critics who say it’s outdated and vague language fails to protect good-faith hackers from finding and disclosing security vulnerabilities. At the center of the case is Nathan Van Buren, a former police sergeant in Georgia. Van Buren used his access to a police license plate database to search for an acquaintance in exchange for cash. Van Buren was caught, and prosecuted on two counts: accepting a kickback for accessing the police database, and violating the CFAA. The first conviction was overturned, but the CFAA conviction was upheld. Van Buren may have been allowed to access the database by way of his police work, but whether he exceeded his access remains the key legal question. Orin Kerr, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said Van Buren vs. United States was an “ideal case” for the Supreme Court to take up. “The question couldn’t be presented more cleanly,” he argued in a blog post in April.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – The Supreme Court Will Hear Its First Big CFAA Case
The smartphone world is bouncing back from the early days of the pandemic, and there’s been a changing of the guard as a result. Gartner estimates that Xiaomi overtook Apple in phone sales during the third quarter of 2020, climbing from 32.9 million…
Source: Engadget – Xiaomi overtook Apple in smartphone sales last quarter
Can you make a living off of TikTok? Yes, but it ain’t easy—the viral video platform offers limited ad revenue to its creators, so you’ll need to rely on sponsored posts, merchandise, and thousands of followers before you can quit your day job.
Source: LifeHacker – How Much Money Can You Make on TikTok?
In 1980, the Christmas windows at iconic London department store Selfridges featured a romantic tableau: two mannequins, a man and a woman, swept up in a waltz, underneath a chandelier, next to a festively decorated Christmas tree. He wore the classic Prince Charming costume, topped with sash and epaulets; she looked…
Source: Kotaku – Romancing the Throne
It’s Cyber Monday, which means that now’s the time to score great deals on all kinds of tech products. Right now, we have a slew of deals for you on Samsung devices including smartphones, tablets, and even smartwatches. There’s something in here for everyone, so read on to get details on what’s cooking today.
Galaxy Smartphones
To kick
Source: Hot Hardware – Samsung Cyber Monday Deals Slash Up To 33% Off Galaxy Phones, Tablets, And Smartwatches
Cyber Monday is here, and that means a continuation of deals and discount carried over from Black Friday, as well as brand new bargains. It also means you can snag a new smartphone and save some money in the process. Several different models are on sale at Amazon, including Google’s excellent Pixel 4 XL, which is more than a third off right
Source: Hot Hardware – Motorola, Google Pixel And Sony Xperia Phones Deeply Discounted Over 40 Percent Off For Cyber Monday
Launching just in time for Pokémon Day, February 27, The Wand Company has turned everybody’s favorite pocket monster prison into a $100 metal replica, complete with proximity-sensing lights, a numbered collector’s case, and a warning for it to never, ever be thrown.
Source: Kotaku – Official Die-Cast Poké Ball Replicas Run 0 Apiece, Should Not Be Thrown
