Don’t bother putting Lego’s new minifigure collection on your holiday wish list because it’s not slated to hit stores until January 1, but Lego does make up for that unfortunate timing with an excellent roundup of weird and wonderful new figures, including an irresistible Spacebaby.
Source: Gizmodo – You Cannot Resist the Lure of the New Lego Spacebaby Minifigure
Like many, my first Witcher game was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015. I sunk countless hours into it as I fell madly in love with the characters, but after I finished it, I knew I had to go back and play the first one. It’s not uncommon for the first Witcher game to be swiftly disregarded when discussing the trilogy.…
Source: Kotaku – In Defense Of 2007’s The Witcher, The Overlooked Game That’s Getting Remade For A Reason
Enlarge / Then-CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried speaks during a House Committee on Financial Services hearing on December 08, 2021 in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | The Washington Post)
FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried ran the failed cryptocurrency exchange as his “personal fiefdom” and many of its assets have disappeared, an FTX lawyer said at a hearing in US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on Tuesday. “A substantial amount of assets have either been stolen or are missing,” said James Bromley, a Sullivan & Cromwell partner who is representing FTX, according to a New York Times report.
“What we have here is a worldwide, international organization, but which was run as a personal fiefdom of Sam Bankman-Fried,” Bromley said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “FTX was in the control of inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals, and some or all of them were compromised individuals.”
Bromley also told the court that “substantial amounts of money” were spent on items unrelated to the business, including vacation homes in the Bahamas, the Financial Times wrote. FTX now owes its top 50 creditors over $3.1 billion, according to a bankruptcy court filing.
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Source: Ars Technica – Founder ran FTX as “personal fiefdom”; many assets stolen or missing, court hears
We’re into the eighth day of the 25-day Artemis 1 mission to the Moon, and the incoming imagery has been as spectacular and intriguing as expected.
Source: Gizmodo – See the Coolest Images So Far From Orion’s Historic Mission to the Moon
The inaugural launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) sent the Orion capsule on a historic mission to the Moon and back, but the rocket’s secondary payloads have been faltering.
Source: Gizmodo – Another Artemis 1 Satellite Is Experiencing Problems
For all the talk about how the world today is “entirely digital,” it sure doesn’t feel that way sometimes. I still receive a ton of paper documents, from bills to insurance info to dog license applications. We don’t deal with as much paper as we used to, but it’s still a mess if not meticulously organized. And if…
Source: LifeHacker – It’s Never Been Easier to Digitize Your Life
HP is the latest tech company to announce extensive layoffs. Following a surge in demand for computing products amid pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions, the computer vendor is readjusting as consumer demand for laptops and desktops falls.
In its Q4 and fiscal 2022 results shared Tuesday, HP announced that it will eliminate 4,000 to 6,000 jobs by the end of fiscal 2025.
According to CNBC, HP had about 51,000 workers in October of last year, so this week’s announcement is expected to affect around 7.8–11.8 percent of HP’s workforce.
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Source: Ars Technica – HP plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs amid plummeting PC demand
The Securities and Exchange Commission was seeking information from collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX earlier this year, the Prospect reported Wednesday, bringing a new perspective to an effort by a bipartisan group of congressmembers to slow down that investigation. From the report: The March letter [PDF] from eight House members — four Democrats and four Republicans — questioned the SEC’s authority to make informal inquiries to crypto and blockchain companies, and intimated that the requests violated federal law. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), whom the Republican caucus just elected as majority whip, the number three position in the House GOP leadership, led the letter. In a contemporaneous Twitter thread, Emmer wrote: “My office has received numerous tips from crypto and blockchain firms that SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s information reporting ‘requests’ to the crypto community are overburdensome, don’t feel particularly … voluntary … and are stifling innovation.”
We now know that FTX was one of those firms receiving information requests from the SEC, about the very activities that have brought down the firm. This raises the question of whether Emmer and the other congressmembers were acting on behalf of FTX (which has been credibly accused of snatching customer money to make risky bets) to try to chill an ongoing investigation from an independent regulatory and law enforcement agency. Some of the “Blockchain Eight,” as the Prospect termed them in March, have benefited from crypto largesse. Five of the eight members received campaign donations from FTX employees, ranging from $2,900 to $11,600. Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), one of the signatories, received half a million dollars in support from a Super PAC created by FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry Into FTX
If you watched the company’s presentation on November 3rd, then you’re well-aware that AMD is launching the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and similarly-named Radeon RX 7900 XT on December 13th. As it turns out, that may not exactly be the full story, though. AMD said that its reference cards would be available on that date, but partner models might be
Source: Hot Hardware – Here’s When AIB Partner Radeon RX 7900 XTX And XT GPUs Might Arrive At Retail
GhostBSD is an open-source Unix-like desktop operating system created upon the most recent release version of FreeBSD. Learn more about it here.
The post GhostBSD: A Simple Unix-Like Desktop OS Based on FreeBSD appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – GhostBSD: A Simple Unix-Like Desktop OS Based on FreeBSD
Over the past few years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become so popular, the characters have almost become family. Fans know and love them so much, any chance to spend even one or two more minutes with them outside of their own films feels like a gift. And that’s why The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is…
Source: Gizmodo – The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Is Holly Jolly Good Fun
George Hotz is best known for jailbreaking the iPhone’s carrier-lock and hacking the PlayStation 3. Now Elon Musk has set him on his most momentous technical challenge: Fixing Twitter in three months. Okay, not all of it. He was hired to fix Twitter’s currently-broken search function.
Source: Kotaku – Elon Musk Hires PlayStation 3 Hacker To Fix Twitter
Cheesecake is great. Cheesecake that sets without you needing to use the oven is, frankly, fantastic. This no-bake cheesecake is built in a slab style, which takes away some of the drama of the tall, circular variety, and replaces it with a welcoming, casual vibe. A wide, square baking dish makes spreading the thick,…
Source: LifeHacker – Make This Casual, No-Bake Slab of Cheesecake
Enlarge / Artist’s concept of the Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover on Mars. (credit: Adrian Mann/Stocktrek Images)
The more than two dozen nations that make up the European Space Agency concluded their high-level “ministerial” meeting on Wednesday, establishing a budget and priorities for the next three years.
A German delegate chosen to chair the meeting, Anna Christmann, said the space agency’s plans reflect a bold agenda for Europe to lead in climate science and maintain independent and launch capability. The goal is for Europe to stand alongside the United States and China as a major space power. “We’ve shown Europe is ambitious,” said Christmann at a media conference to discuss results of the meeting.
Germany, France, and Italy remain the major players in ESA, combining to contribute nearly 60 percent of its overall funding. The member nations agreed to contribute 16.9 billion euro ($17.5 billion) to agency programs over the next three years. This is less than the 18.5 billion euro sought by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher but still significantly higher than the total for the previous three-year period of 14.5 billion euro.
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Source: Ars Technica – The long, tangled journey of a European rover to Mars takes another twist
Moog’s holiday promos this year include a particularly nice perk: a freebie. The synthesizer pioneer has released a free new MF-109S Saturator add-on (shown above) for all Moogerfooger Effects Plugins users. As the name implies, the plugin gives you more control over the input drive circuit to produce anything from analog saturation through to smooth compression. It also replicates the noise generator circuit of the Minimoog Model D, with control through a switchable filter type.
You’ll need to own Moogerfooger Effects Plugins to get the MF-109S, but the pack is on sale for $149 (normally $249) as of this writing. It works with common plugin formats like AudioUnits, ProTools AAX and VST3 on Macs and Windows PCs.
And don’t worry if you’d rather buy full-fledged creative software — Moog has deals there, too. The company is once again offering 50 percent off its iOS and Mac software, including the Animoog Z wavetable synthesis app ($15 to unlock), Minimoog Model D ($15) and Model 15 (also $15). This isn’t the first time Moog has run a sale on its apps this year, but you might not mind if you’re hoping to add classic synth sounds to your musical repertoire.
It may be worth investing in the Moogerfooger effects set even if the bonus isn’t a draw. We were impressed with the plugins when we tried them in October. You can produce subtle results if you want, but they’re at their best when you venture to the stranger side — even a basic track can stand out with the right tweaks. They’re treats for musicians who revere analog synthesis but don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on vintage hardware.
Source: Engadget – Moog’s holiday deals include a free new effects plugin
NASA’s Webb space telescope has revealed an exoplanet’s atmosphere in a way never seen before. The highly-advanced telescope viewed the molecular and chemical profile of a distant planet’s atmosphere, giving scientists and astronomers an idea of how clouds of this nature may look up close.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) turned its
Source: Hot Hardware – Why Scientists Are Blown Away By Webb Telescope’s Chemical Fingerprint Of A Hot Gassy Giant
Enlarge (credit: Theo Wargo / Staff | WireImage)
When “Chief Twit” Elon Musk launched a poll to decide whether to reinstate Donald Trump’s Twitter account, many wondered what happened to Musk’s plan to form a “widely diverse” content moderation council to help him weigh any decisions to reverse permabans. He had announced that plan after meeting with civil rights groups earlier this month but had never mentioned it since. It took four days of Trump not tweeting before Musk finally provided an update on that oversight council that he never formed.
In a tweet seemingly blaming activists for Twitter’s advertising woes, Musk claimed that he had only promised to form the council on the condition that activists promised to stop pushing advertisers to boycott his platform.
“A large coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by starving us of advertising revenue if I agreed to this condition,” Musk tweeted. “They broke the deal.”
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Source: Ars Technica – Musk breaks promise to form Twitter moderation panel, blames activists
Mercedes is the latest manufacturer to lock auto features behind a subscription fee, with an upcoming “Acceleration Increase” add-on that lets drivers pay to access motor performance their vehicle is already capable of. From a report: The $1,200 yearly subscription improves performance by boosting output from the motors by 20-24 percent, increasing torque, and shaving around 0.8 to 0.9 seconds off 0-60 mph acceleration when in Dynamic drive mode. The subscription doesn’t come with any physical hardware upgrades — instead, it simply unlocks the full capabilities of the vehicle, indicating that Mercedes intentionally limited performance to later sell as an optional extra. Acceleration Increase is only available for the Mercedes-EQ EQE and Mercedes-EQ EQS electric car models. As global sales for new cars have fallen in recent years, car manufacturers have pivoted toward selling software updates and features as subscriptions to generate a continuous revenue stream long after a car has been purchased.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Mercedes Locks Faster Acceleration Behind a ,200 Annual Paywall
Enlarge / The Chevrolet Bolt EUV is one of the cheapest EVs on sale, starting at $27,200. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)
You might have noticed that our car coverage is rather heavily biased toward electrified vehicles. Partly that’s in recognition of the fact that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are now far higher than at any time since humans have walked the planet. But as I drive more and more EVs, it’s also clear that they’re actually just better in nearly every metric one might choose, other than when it comes to energy density and how long it takes to recharge. But this viewpoint puts me in a minority of Americans, according to a new survey of Americans, Canadians, and Australians.
The survey was conducted by Consider the Market, an Australian insurance comparison site, which found that only 33.8 percent of Americans say they’d prefer an EV to a traditional vehicle. By contrast, more than half (52.9 percent) say they want to stick with gasoline or diesel, a number that goes up to 70 percent in the 55–64 age bracket. Meanwhile, 43 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds would prefer an EV.
Which is unfortunate, because very few in that age bracket can afford them. In fact, purchase price ranked second as a barrier to EV adoption, at 54.5 percent. (The highest barrier to adoption was battery life and replacement costs, at 56.4 percent of survey respondents, which, as we’ve explained before, is more a problem of perception than reality.)
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Source: Ars Technica – Americans remain resistant to the lure of EVs, which are still unaffordable
Black Friday brings some of the deepest discounts of the year for all sorts of tech products—and apps are no exception. If you’ve been holding off on buying any pricey paid, it’s worth taking another look this week. It might just be the perfect time to tap “Buy.”
Source: LifeHacker – These Are the Best Black Friday Deals for Popular Apps
