It’s been two years since Microsoft released their Xbox Series S, and the price has finally come down below the $300 mark for the holidays: Microsoft has announced that their simpler, sleeker Xbox Series S model (compared to the bigger and more powerful Series X) will be $50 off for the holiday season, for a total of…
Source: LifeHacker – You Can (Basically) Get an Xbox Series S for 0 Right Now
Enlarge (credit: carterdayne | E+)
Sheela Lalani is one of many small business owners who depend on social platforms to generate extra holiday revenue. Her Instagram shop with unique, artisan-made children’s clothing—adorably modeled by smiling kids who joyfully twirl in her dresses—has attracted nearly 13,000 followers. She recently rolled out her holiday collection, when suddenly any hope of promoting her new clothing to followers was abruptly dashed when Meta deleted her Instagram account. They also disabled her personal Facebook account, her Facebook business page, and her newest Instagram boutique shop profile.
Lalani was dismayed, but then the situation got worse. Despite the disabled accounts, the PayPal account she linked to her social media pages to buy ads to promote her businesses got hit with a $900 charge. She immediately reached out to PayPal to dispute the charge—and is still waiting for a refund—but she also knew that getting PayPal to intervene wouldn’t fix the larger problem. Someone had bought Facebook or Instagram ads with her PayPal account, and she felt she had no way of reporting this behavior to Meta and stopping any future payments because Meta had disabled all of her accounts.
“This is so unfair for business owners and seems criminal,” Lalani told Ars.
Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – Meta keeps booting small business owners for being hacked on Facebook
NASA recently added a new Moon landing to its Artemis plans and it needs a specialized human landing system to carry it out. To virtually no one’s surprise, NASA chose SpaceX to develop this second lunar lander.
Source: Gizmodo – SpaceX Awarded .15 Billion Contract to Build NASA’s Second Lunar Lander
What was once a Star Wars joke is a fully armed and operational merchandising event. Today is Life Day, which means that from its theme parks to its stores, Disney will find a way to sell you as many Wookiee-affiliated pieces of merchandise as possible: especially those pale blue orbs. But what were they even for?…
Source: Gizmodo – Have We Forgotten Why Wookiees Ponder Their Orbs on Life Day?
Meta reportedly fired more than a dozen security guards and other workers in the last year after internal investigations revealed they had been selling users’ information and login details to hackers. Some of those who received disciplinary actions were contractors who acquired information from users that were locked…
Source: Gizmodo – Meta Employees Were Reportedly Fired for Selling Account Information to Hackers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Last month, the alleged masterminds behind Z-Library — an e-book pirate site that claims to be “the world’s largest library” — were arrested. According to a press release yesterday from the US Department of Justice, Russian nationals Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova have been charged with “criminal copyright infringement, wire fraud and money laundering for operating Z-Library.” “As alleged, the defendants profited illegally off work they stole, often uploading works within mere hours of publication, and in the process victimized authors, publishers, and booksellers,” Breon Peace, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
At the request of the US government, Napolsky and Ermakova were arrested in Argentina on November 3. On the same day, the US government seized “a complex network of approximately 249 interrelated web domains,” the press release said. For many less web-savvy users, the domain seizure essentially shut down access to Z-Library’s 11 million e-books, but anyone on the dark web knows it’s still up and running — suggesting that while arresting Napolsky and Ermakova has stifled Z-Library, it has not shuttered it, and it could come back. TorrentFreak reported that it’s still unknown if the pair has been involved with Z-Library since the start. Michael J. Driscoll, the assistant director in charge at the New York Federal Bureau of Investigation field office, seems to suspect they have. Although the indictment is only focused on the duo’s alleged criminal activity between 2018 and 2022, Driscoll said that they are believed to have “operated a website for over a decade whose central purpose was providing stolen intellectual property, in violation of copyright laws.”
“Intellectual property theft crimes deprive their victims of both ingenuity and hard-earned revenue,” Driscoll said. “The FBI is determined to ensure those willing to steal and profit from the creativity of others are stopped and made to face the consequences in the criminal justice system.” If Napolsky and Ermakova are charged, the indictment said that they will be required to “forfeit any property, real or personal, constituting, or derived from, proceeds obtained directly or indirectly as a result of such offenses.” TorrentFreak reported that Argentina has not yet received a request from the US to extradite the accused Z-Library operators, but that will be the next step toward shutting down Z-Library. “Z-Library has linked eager readers to millions of free e-books since 2009, but it wasn’t until Z-Library began recently trending on TikTok that authors protesting the piracy decided enough was enough,” adds Ars. The TikTok hashtag #zlibrary was viewed 19 million times, which spurred The Authors Guild to complain to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
“Z-Library is killing us,” romance writer Sarina Bowen told officials. “A book we release in the morning is up on Z-Library by lunchtime. This isn’t the only site that hurts us, but it’s the site that keeps showing up in TikTok videos.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Feds Arrest Russians Accused of Running the Largest Pirated E-Book Library
If you’re a person who is prone to motion sickness, road trips can be hell on the stomach. And if it’s your kids who have trouble, you’re going to spend a good chunk of the trip wondering if you really need to pull over. Here are a few tips for what to do when that wave of nausea begins to roll.
Source: LifeHacker – What to Do When You Feel Yourself Getting Carsick
The launch of NASA’s Artemis 1 mission sent the Orion capsule on a journey to the Moon, in addition to 10 cubesats included as secondary payloads. The Space Launch System’s upper stage successfully deployed the tiny satellites yesterday, but one of them appears to be malfunctioning.
Source: Gizmodo – A Satellite That Launched Aboard SLS Is Already in Trouble
US law enforcement isn’t just interested in shutting down video pirates. The feds have charged two Russian nationals, Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova, for allegedly running the pirate e-book repository Z-Library. The site was billed as the “world’s largest library” and held over 11 million titles, many of which were bootleg versions stripped of copyright protections.
The pair was arrested in Cordoba, Argentina at the US’ request on November 3rd. The American government disabled and seized the public Z-Library site at the same time. Napolsky and Ermakova each face charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and wire fraud.
As TorrentFreakexplains, it’s not clear how central Ermakova and Napolsky were to Z-Library. While the indictments only cover activity starting in January 2018, FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll said the two had been running a pirate site for “over a decade.” Z-Library is still accessible on the dark web and responding to email.
The pirate bookshelf’s social media presence contributed to its undoing. Ars Technicanotes The Authors Guild complained to the Office of the United States Trade Representative after a “#zlibrary” hashtag started trending on TikTok, with over 19 million views. Students and other users were touting Z-Library as a way to get textbooks and other course material for free.
As with many pirate site shutdowns, this isn’t likely to be a permanent blow. The Authors Guild pointed to alternatives like Libgen when it filed its complaint, and Z-Library itself is carrying on in a limited form. It’s a high-profile victory for the anti-piracy camp, however, and suggests that other digital book pirates could face similar legal action.
Source: Engadget – Feds charge Russians linked to the ‘world’s largest’ pirated e-book library
Marvel Snap has only been out of beta for a few short weeks, but it’s already quite popular. Still, in 2022, games don’t launch finished, and Marvel Snap is no exception. The team behind Snap has big plans to update, expand, and improve the game into 2023. One big change coming “soon” is the introduction of tokens and…
Source: Kotaku – Marvel Snap Will Soon Let You Grind For Specific Cards, Not Just Random Ones
The age of Z-Library is over, at least as we know it. Two people allegedly behind the online ebook repository are facing federal indictment, and as much as it might spell the end for one of the web’s longest-running ebook archives, it really doesn’t do much to cut down on either supply or demand for published…
Source: Gizmodo – U.S. Indicts Two Russians for Allegedly Profiting Off Copyrighted Books Through Z-Library
Rick and Morty’s sixth season premiered in early September, but it’s been on hiatus since October 9. Thankfully, the much-loved series returns on November 20 to finish out the season, once again reminding us how lucky we are to live in a time where the gaps between new Rick and Morty installments are much shorter than…
Source: Gizmodo – Rick and Morty’s Back! 10 Things to Remember About Season 6 So Far
Nintendo Power is an iconic part of Nintendo history, and gaming history generally. Its 24-year, 285-issue run spanned multiple generations of gamers, and helped us finish tough games played on systems from the OG NES to the Wii U. Many of us have fond memories of flipping through it, but didn’t have the forethought…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Download Every Issue of Nintendo Power Ever
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell turns 20 this month, and in recognition of the anniversary, Ubisoft has uploaded a 20-minute-long YouTube video with various developers talking about their experience behind the multi-vision goggles of stealthy assassin Sam Fisher. Additionally, the Toronto studio currently helming the…
Source: Kotaku – OG Splinter Cell Goes Free As Ubisoft Shares Remake Concept Art
A frustrated owner of an RTX 4090 graphics card, suffering from the infamous melty power connector problem, has filed a class action suit against Nvidia. From a report: Filed in a California court on November 11th, the suit may make for painful reading for Nvidia and includes numerous allegations from fraud to unjust enrichment. The case refers to widely reported instances of the new-style 16-pin power connector used by Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 boards overheating and melting under heavy load. Reportedly, the lawsuit claims that Nvidia sold RTX 4090s with, “defective and dangerous power cable plug and socket(s), which has rendered consumers’ cards inoperable and poses a serious electrical and fire hazard for each and every purchaser.” It’s notable that the claimant, one Lucas Genova, describes himself as “experienced in the installation of computer componentry like graphics cards,” thereby aiming to head off any implication of user error at the pass.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Nvidia Hit With Class Action Suit Over Melting RTX 4090 GPU Adapters
A group of Democratic senators have asked the FTC to investigate Elon Musk over his handling of users’ privacy and security in the wake of his takeover of Twitter. In a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan, the senators cite Musk’s botched rollout of Twitter Blue’s paid verifications, as well as the departures of Twitter’s top privacy and security executives.
The letter, signed by seven senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Dianne Feinstein and Richard Blumenthal, follows a widely-publicized warning from a lawyer at Twitter that Musk could be exposing the company to billions of dollars in fines from the FTC.
“In recent weeks, Twitter’s new Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, has taken alarming steps that have undermined the safety and integrity of the platform,” the senators write, noting that his actions “could already represent a violation of the FTC’s consent decree.” Under the terms of a 2011 agreement with the FTC, Twitter is required to review new features for potential privacy issues and regularly send reports to the FTC. The recent departures of top pirivacy and security executives came just ahead of a deadline to send one of those reports, according toThe New York Times.
JUST IN: @SenBlumenthal and 6 (Dem) U.S. Senators send letter to head of the @FTC asking them “to investigate any breach of @Twitter’s consent decree or other violations of our consumer protection laws…” following its take-over by billionaire @elonmuskpic.twitter.com/McSyluQzRy
— newsbell (@newsbell) November 17, 2022
In their letter, the senators write that the FCC should investigate Musk and other executives’ actions. “We urge the Commission to vigorously oversee its consent decree with Twitter and to bring enforcement actions against any breached or business practices that are unfair or deceptive, including bringing civil penalties and imposing liability on individual Twitter executives where appropriate,” they write.
It’s unclear if the FTC plans to launch such an investigation, but an FTC spokesperson said last week that the agency was “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” according toCNBC.
Source: Engadget – Democratic senators ask FTC to investigate Elon Musk over his handling of Twitter
In the wake of the midterm elections, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have introduced a bill crafted to ensure emerging technologies keep pace with the needs of people with disabilities. The effort is receiving widespread praise from groups such as the Blinded Veterans Association and Communications Service…
Source: Gizmodo – Dems Debut Bill Updating Tech Accessibility Requirements for Streaming, AI, and Video Conferencing
Enlarge / Simulation of two black holes poised on the verge of a collision. (credit: Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) project)
The advent of gravitational wave detectors—there are now four of them—has produced a steady flow of black hole mergers. As far as we can tell, almost all of them have behaved exactly as we would expect for the sorts of events that we had predicted would produce them: a pair of orbiting black holes that gradually spiral inward until they meet at their mutual center of gravity.
But there was one event that apparently didn’t quite match the sorts of signals we would expect. And researchers are now suggesting it was the product of something that should be incredibly rare: two black holes finding each other in the vastness of space. After a single close pass, the two bodies curved around and immediately swung into a collision.
Black hole collisions require that the two black holes be close enough to each other to gravitationally interact. Since space is so vast, this would typically mean that they are the products of two massive stars that formed as a binary system. After the stars died and left black holes behind, the two bodies would slowly spiral in toward each other, radiating away energy in the form of gravitational waves as they do.
Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – Strange black hole merger may have been a rare random encounter
In this article, we will see the fundamentals of a new firewall service introduced in CentOS 7 named FirewallD. Learn more here.
The post 15 Useful Basic firewall-cmd Commands in Linux appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – 15 Useful Basic firewall-cmd Commands in Linux
To accompany a new holiday season that’s bound to have more in-person shopping than we’ve been used to as of late, Google is pushing out an update to its Maps app that lets you use AR to explore which stores and amenities happen to be in your line of sight. Its part of the Live View feature, which previously mostly …
Source: Gizmodo – Google Maps’ AR Live View Feature Will Now Point Out Shops, Coffee, and ATMs
