Shared posts

09 Feb 19:53

Crosswalks

by jwz

Mapping Crosswalk Coverage via Satellite Imagery in San Francisco.

I particularly commend the absolute grind of the data collection method:

The method was time-consuming, but simple. I manually reviewed satellite imagery at every single intersection citywide. I did this in order to maximize accuracy, and dig deeper than a binary crosswalk vs. no-crosswalk score.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.

15 Feb 11:09

Smartphones und Notebooks: Bundesrat fordert bei Elektrogeräten wechselbare Akkus

by Tobias Költzsch
Besonders bei Notebooks und Smartphones seien fest verbaute Akkus eine Fehlentwicklung, die "dringend gestoppt" werden müsse, heißt es vom Bundesrat. (Umweltschutz, Smartphone)
14 Jun 18:43

Report on the Stalkerware Industry

by Bruce Schneier

Citizen Lab just published an excellent report on the stalkerware industry.

Boing Boing post.

21 Feb 21:12

Uploadfilter: Regierung bricht Koalitionsvertrag in EU-Abstimmung

by Friedhelm Greis
Obwohl Union und SPD in ihrem Koalitionsvertrag des Gegenteil vereinbart haben, stimmt die Bundesregierung auf EU-Ebene für Uploadfilter. Mehrere andere EU-Staaten lehnten die Einigung auf die "Merkelfilter" bis zuletzt ab. (Urheberrecht, Leistungsschutzrecht)
24 Jun 06:42

Get Even im Test: Rettungsmission in verschachtelter Realität

by Peter Steinlechner
Eine Jugendliche ist entführt worden, der Spieler muss sie retten. In Get Even macht er das durch das Lösen einfacher Aufgaben, gelegentlich mit Schusswechseln - und indem er sich auf ein spannendes Spiel unterschiedlicher Wirklichkeitsebenen einlässt. (Namco Bandai, Adventure)
20 May 23:34

SSD HyperX Predator im Test: Kingstons Mischung ist gelungen

by Marc Sauter
Kingstons neue SSD ist schnell, aber nicht unschlagbar. Das Unternehmen war daher clever und hat der HyperX Predator mehr mitgegeben: eine Partitionssoftware und eine lange Lebensdauer. (Solid State Drive, Storage)

18 Feb 00:24

Pirate Bay Caught Up In a Hosting Whac-A-Mole

by Ernesto

pirate bayTwo weeks ago The Pirate Bay returned online and millions of users have been finding their way back to the popular torrent site since.

While the site is currently up and running, Pirate Bay’s comeback hasn’t been without trouble. On Friday the site went offline for roughly 12 hours after a hosting provider pulled the plug.

TF reached out to Pirate Bay admin Winston, who informed us that “getting stable hosting” is one of the main challenges the site faces at the moment.

TPB is currently using CloudFlare’s CDN services which means that the hosting location is well hidden. However, Cloudflare does forward takedown notices to hosting providers and most are not very eager to have TPB as a customer.

The site continues to look for a safe alternative but that is proving to be a troublesome process. When we discussed the topic with the site’s admin TPB went offline again, causing yet more downtime.

“Another ISP killed it,” Winston told us yesterday. “So yeah. It will take a long time until it’s stable.”

While the hosting issue has priority, there’s also a spam problem TPB has to deal with. Despite deploying “FakeSkan” robots there are still many scammy comments and malicious torrents on the site.

The Pirate Bay initially launched without moderators due to security concerns. This resulted in a mutiny among TPB staff, some of whom wanted to start their own version of the site.

While the locked-out staffers managed to revive a copy of the Suprbay forum a few days ago, launching a TPB alternative will prove to be much harder. Winston now says that TPB is open to welcoming some of the old staffers back in the near future.

“After hosting issues are resolved I’ll talk to some old mods,” Winston tells us. “If they want to continue then it’s okay, but I won’t look for new mods. Someone from the old team will have to be in charge of that.”

After the initial disappointment of being locked out, several admins are indeed showing willingness to return to their former home.

“The conditions do not need to change from our side,” long time TPB moderator Agricola told TF. “All we want to do is keep the site clean.”

In addition to dealing with the pollution problem, TPB registrations should also open up again in the future. At the moment new users are unable to sign-up and publish content.

“There are just some security issues that have to be resolved first,” Winston says. “Plus, the hosting has to be stable.”

Speaking of hosting, a few hours before this article was published The Pirate Bay was forced to leave another ISP. That brings the total to four thus far, and the end is not yet in sight.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.

21 Nov 12:35

Unicode character 'SIGN OF THE HORNS'

by jwz
New Emoji Candidates for Unicode 8.0:

The following proposed additions are for compatibility with other messaging and mail systems.

  • ZIPPER-MOUTH FACE
  • MONEY-MOUTH FACE
  • FACE WITH THERMOMETER
  • NERD FACE
  • THINKING FACE
  • FACE WITH ROLLING EYES
  • UPSIDE-DOWN FACE
  • FACE WITH HEAD-BANDAGE
  • ROBOT FACE
  • HUGGING FACE
  • SIGN OF THE HORNS
  • CRAB
  • SCORPION
  • LION FACE
  • BOW AND ARROW
  • AMPHORA

Most Popularly Requested Emoji

  • HOT DOG
  • TACO
  • BURRITO
  • BOTTLE WITH POPPING CORK
  • POPCORN
  • TURKEY
  • UNICORN FACE
  • CHEESE WEDGE

I cannot find an image of what Unicode character 'SIGN OF THE HORNS' looks like, but I hope it's fucking metal.

I still think it's wrong that there is no , though.

31 Jul 20:34

Computational! Prison Architect Adds Logic Circuits

by Alice O'Connor

Logical.

Logic can be dangerous. Minecraft players have built everything from room-sized games of Pong to autocannons with its redstone logic circuits, and that’s a relatively peaceful game. If you combined logic circuits with, say, the prison-industrial complex, I dread to imagine what dehumanising mechanisms might be built around inmates. So let’s see what happens now Prison Architect has done just that.

It’s fine, though. Prison Architect isn’t quite so freeform, and Introversion imagine the new automation and logic tools will be used for things like remote door control systems and sharing clock signals. Which does almost sound like a challenge.

… [visit site to read more]

09 Jul 21:06

Marxio Kart

Marxio Kart
26 Jun 02:15

Amazon AppStream Update - New Features and New Docs

by Jeff Barr

Amazon AppStream is a very cool service that lets you build and stream resource-intensive applications from the AWS Cloud. AppStream deploys your application on AWS infrastructure and streams its output to a variety of mass-market devices including personal computers, tablets, and mobile phones. You can eliminate device constraints and address a larger market by making use of AppStream.

I am writing today to bring you up to date on the latest and greatest AppStream features and debugging tools. I would also like to call your attention to some new sample code and some additional documentation!

New Features
As part of this release, we added support for the ARM64 architecture. This improves performance on 64-bit iOS devices by up to 20%.

Late last month, we added additional GPU metrics to the Utilization Logs generated by each AppStream application. We also simplified the Application Resource Properties and improved the overall adaptability to changes in bandwidth in the face of a varied frame rate.

For more information about this and other updates, take a look at the Product Updates section of the AppStream Developer Guide.

New Debugging Tools
You can now debug your streaming application running in Amazon AppStream Standalone mode by using the Remote Tools for Visual Studio (2012 or 2013) on your EC2 instance. To learn more, read the new documentation on AppStream Standalone Mode Debugging.

Improved Sample Code
We have put the AppStream sample code on a diet and reduced it from over 2,000 lines of code to 600 or so. The new sample code shows you how to use the API calls offered by AppStream's high-fidelity, low-latency STX protocol. This application should help you to figure out how to use the AppStream SDK to implement application streaming, input handling, and scaling.

bool initializeD3D()
{
  g_D3D9 = Direct3DCreate9(D3D_SDK_VERSION);
  if (!g_D3D9) return false;

  UINT32 AdapterOrdinal = 0;
  D3DDEVTYPE DeviceType = D3DDEVTYPE_HAL;
  D3DCAPS9 caps;
  g_D3D9->GetDeviceCaps(AdapterOrdinal, DeviceType, &caps);

  D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS params;
  ZeroMemory(&params, sizeof(D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS));
  ...

More Documentation
We have updated several sections of the documentation to increase clarity and to help you to get started more quickly. Here's a summary:

Other Goodies
We updated the AppStream Use Cases page to tell you more about how the CAD, Simulation, and Life Sciences industries can make use of AppStream.

Finally, we added a new video with even more information about popular AppStream use cases:

I hope that you have enjoyed this quick AppStream update!

-- Jeff;

26 Mar 21:37

Giant Squid as an Omen

by schneier

An omen of what?

An increase in the number of giant squid being caught along the Sea of Japan coast is leading puzzled fishermen to fear their presence may be some kind of 'omen' -- although experts think the invertebrate are simply a bit cold.