Source: Kotaku – My Favorite Bayonetta 3 Weapons Were Its Most Absurd Ones (Naturally)
Monthly Archives: November 2022
This Rooster Manga Is The Perfect Thanksgiving Read
Thanksgiving turkeys might be getting pardoned and roasted this week, but this tough piece of poultry is kicking all kinds of kaiju ass in this action comedy manga.
Source: Kotaku – This Rooster Manga Is The Perfect Thanksgiving Read
Two of America's Largest Rail Unions Are Split on Tentative Agreement
Amidst ongoing tension between the nation’s railroad workers and the Department of Labor, a strike may be looming at the end of the tunnel. In a split decision, two rail unions have made two polar opposite agreements over White House-brokered bargaining agreements.
Source: Gizmodo – Two of America’s Largest Rail Unions Are Split on Tentative Agreement
Texas Just Had Its Biggest Earthquake in Decades, and Fracking Is a Prime Suspect
The Railroad Commission Texas, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, is investigating a 5.4-magnitude earthquake that rocked communities in West Texas last Wednesday, The Texas Tribune reports. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a drilling technique common in the area that is known to cause earthquakes.
Source: Gizmodo – Texas Just Had Its Biggest Earthquake in Decades, and Fracking Is a Prime Suspect
Blade Finds New Blood With Lovecraft Country Director Yann Demange
Disney and Marvel Studios’ Mahershala Ali-led Blade feature film has found a new director in Yann Demange, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Demange previously worked on the fan-favorite supernatural horror television darling Lovecraft Country for HBO and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.
Source: Gizmodo – Blade Finds New Blood With Lovecraft Country Director Yann Demange
Warzone 2.0's DMZ: Everything You Need To Know About The Game's Best New Mode
Warzone’s new 2.0 release updates Call of Duty’s much-celebrated battle royale (and it is a very fun time), but there’s also a new mode: DMZ. Here, the pace and goals are quite different, despite taking place on the same map as Warzone’s BR. The goal of this mode is to exfiltrate with as many goodies as you can. To…
Source: Kotaku – Warzone 2.0’s DMZ: Everything You Need To Know About The Game’s Best New Mode
Pop!_OS: Reasons why its an all-rounder Linux distro
Few reasons why System76’s Pop OS is the best all-rounder Ubuntu-based Linux distribution.
Source: LXer – Pop!_OS: Reasons why its an all-rounder Linux distro
NASA's SLS Launch Was a Roaring Success—Except for Its Secondary Payloads
Japan’s tiny lunar lander never got to touch down on the Moon, as it failed to communicate with ground controllers shortly after launching aboard NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The spacecraft was one of 10 cubesats that participated in the Artemis 1 launch, which endured several delays that may have affected…
Source: Gizmodo – NASA’s SLS Launch Was a Roaring Success—Except for Its Secondary Payloads
The FCC is cracking down on ringless voicemail spam
You’re not the only one tired of ringless voicemails that put spam in your inbox. The Federal Communications Commission has determined that these silent voicemails are covered by the same Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) rules that forbid robocalls without consent. Companies need your permission to leave these junk messages as they’re still considered calls, the FCC says. The ruling takes effect today.
The finding comes five years after marketers first asked for exemptions to the regulations surrounding ringless voicemails, the FCC says. The requests, from All About the Message and two other petitioners, reportedly drew “overwhelming” negative feedback from public commenters. The Commission added that it receives “dozens” of complaints about these voicemails each year. FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel proposed extending the TCPA to this spam in February.
As with other robocall crackdowns, there’s no guarantee the voicemails will stop. Spammers may find alternate avenues to deliver these messages, and the FCC can only do so much to limit spam originating outside the US. However, this does establish firm boundaries inside the country — companies who flout the rules risk FCC action and customer lawsuits that could prove costly.
Source: Engadget – The FCC is cracking down on ringless voicemail spam
Police Tracked Traffic of All National ISPs To Catch Pirate IPTV Users
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: In May 2022, Italian police claimed that thousands of people had unwittingly subscribed to a pirate IPTV service being monitored by the authorities. When users tried to access illegal streams, a warning message claimed that they had already been tracked. With fines now being received through the mail, police are making some extraordinary claims about how this was made possible. […] Today’s general consensus is that hitting site operators is much more effective but whenever the opportunity appears, undermining user confidence should be part of the strategy. Italian police have been following the same model by shutting down pirate IPTV services (1,2,3) and warning users they’re up next.
Letters recently sent to homes in Italy reveal that police were not bluffing. A copy letter obtained by Iilsole24ore identifies the send as the Nucleo Speciale Tutela Privacy e Frodi Tecnologiche, a Guardia di Finanza unit specializing in IT-related crime. It refers to an anti-IPTV police operation in May. The operation targeted around 500 pirate IPTV resources including websites and Telegram channels. At the time, police also reported that 310+ pieces of IPTV infrastructure, including primary and balancing servers distributing illegal streams, were taken offline. Police also claimed that a tracking system made it possible to identify the users of the pirate streams. The letter suggests extraordinary and potentially unprecedented tactics.
The letters state that Italian authorities were able to track the IPTV users by “arranging for the redirection of all Internet service providers’ national connections” so that subscribers placed their orders on a police-controlled server configured to record their activity. In comments to Iilsole24ore, Gian Luca Berruti, head of investigations at the Guardia di Finanza, describes the operation as “decisive” in the fight against cybercrime. Currently deployed to Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency, Berruti references “innovative investigative techniques” supported by “new technological tools.” Technical details are not being made public, but it’s claimed that IPTV users were tracked by “tracing of all connections to pirate sites (IPs) combined, in real-time,” and “cross-referencing telematic information with that derived from the payment mechanisms used.” The police operation in May was codenamed Operazione:Dottor Pezzotto. A Telegram channel with exactly the same branding suffered a traffic collapse at exactly the same time. “The letters refer to an administrative copyright infringement fine of just 154 euros or ‘in case of recidivism’ a total of 1,032 euros,” notes the report. “However, if people pay their fines within 60 days, the amounts are reduced to 51 euros and 344 euros respectively.”
“Around 1,600 people are believed to have been targeted in this first wave of letters but according to Andrea Duillo, CEO of Sky Italia, this is just the start.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Police Tracked Traffic of All National ISPs To Catch Pirate IPTV Users
How to Set Screen Time Limits on Your Phone or Laptop To Keep Yourself Focused
As our devices continue to get more and more distracting, they are also adding more and more tools to try to manage this distraction—so that, you know, you can actually get some work done or actually communicate in real life with other people in the same room as you. Besides all the third-party options, there are now…
Source: Gizmodo – How to Set Screen Time Limits on Your Phone or Laptop To Keep Yourself Focused
Your Gmail Account Has Unlimited Addresses
One Gmail, one address. That seems right. After all, you have one phone number, and one home address. The same should be true for your email addresses, Gmail included. As it happens, though, your Gmail account has an unlimited number of addresses you can use whenever you want, fooling everyone from Netflix to spammers…
Source: LifeHacker – Your Gmail Account Has Unlimited Addresses
Rick And Morty Creator's New Game Is Best Played Stoned
I am very sober during my hands-on preview with High On Life, a fast and loud first-person shooter from Squanch Games, and for once, that’s a bad thing. If I showed up to any other game preview absolutely blitted out of my mind, it might be an issue–but here, it’s preferred. When I suggest, half-jokingly, that this…
Source: Kotaku – Rick And Morty Creator’s New Game Is Best Played Stoned
Golden State Warriors Face Class Acton Lawsuit Over Partnership With Doomed FTX
The Golden State Warriors are the latest business to find themselves on the receiving end of class action lawsuits alleging them of misleading FTX customers about the safety and reliability of the flailing cryptocurrency platform. The suit, first reported by Reuters, comes on the heels of another class action suit…
Source: Gizmodo – Golden State Warriors Face Class Acton Lawsuit Over Partnership With Doomed FTX
Sam Bankman-Fried Deepfake Video Attempts to Scam the Scammed
A deepfake video posted to Twitter over the weekend shows the face and approximate voice of disgraced FTX founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried—offering assurance in the form of a crypto giveaway (i.e. a phishing scam).
Source: Gizmodo – Sam Bankman-Fried Deepfake Video Attempts to Scam the Scammed
Ubisoft Back On Steam Just In Time For Assassin’s Creed Valhalla's Final Update
Ubisoft was one of many publishers in the last few years to ditch Steam for its own storefront or Epic’s launcher. And like so many, including Activision, Ubisoft is now coming back to Steam with the upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on the platform, after 2019 comments from the publisher suggested the…
Source: Kotaku – Ubisoft Back On Steam Just In Time For Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Final Update
COP27 Was a Historic Compromise, and Not Nearly Enough
Another UN climate change conference has come and gone, as thousands of international delegates ended two weeks of intense negotiations on Sunday morning in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt. Despite the historic conclusions in the final text from COP27, the conference once again failed to commit the world to taking some of the…
Source: Gizmodo – COP27 Was a Historic Compromise, and Not Nearly Enough
Pick Up and Play at Your Next Game Night With These 10 Accessible TTRPGs
From Elle Dwight, the co-founder and CEO of social gaming platform Role, comes this list of accessible tabletop roleplaying games that are easy to introduce to your family and friends over the holidays or even the weekend. With easy to adjust roles and intuitive character creation, you’re bound to find a game to suit…
Source: Gizmodo – Pick Up and Play at Your Next Game Night With These 10 Accessible TTRPGs
Whether You Really Need to Pee After Sex, According to Science
If you have a vagina, you’ve probably been told that it’s an absolute must to pee immediately after having sex to prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs). But it turns out there isn’t a lot of evidence to support this idea. There is shockingly little research on the question of whether this oft-repeated advice…
Source: LifeHacker – Whether You Really Need to Pee After Sex, According to Science
Nintendo goes after fan-made custom Steam “icons” with DMCA takedowns
Enlarge / An archived page showing some of the custom Steam imagery that has been taken down by Nintendo’s DMCA requests. (credit: SteamGridDB / Internet Archive)
Nintendo has issued a number of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requests against SteamGridDB (SGDB), a site that hosts custom fan-made icons and images used to represent games on Steam’s front-end interface.
Since 2015, SGDB’s collection has grown to include hundreds of thousands of images representing tens of thousands of titles. That includes custom imagery for many standard Steam games and emulated game ROMs, which can be added to Steam as “external games.”
To be clear, SteamGridDB doesn’t host the kind of ROM files that have gotten other sites in legal trouble with Nintendo, or even the emulators used to run those games. “We don’t support piracy in any way,” an SGDB admin (who asked to remain anonymous) told Ars. “The website is just a free repository where people can share options to customize their game launchers.”
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Source: Ars Technica – Nintendo goes after fan-made custom Steam “icons” with DMCA takedowns