Microsoft Teases First-Ever 'Stream-To-Win' Option Built Into Xbox
At this month's E3, Microsoft
confirmed "a first in the booming world of game streaming," reports Ars Technica. "It's a subtle thing, which we're dubbing 'stream-to-win,' and it sees Microsoft take its boldest step in battling the behemoth service Twitch." From the report:
Horizon 4 will be the first Microsoft Studios game to recognize when players broadcast their live gameplay via Mixer and then give out bonuses within that game for doing so (Mixer is a Twitch-like service that Microsoft acquired in 2016 before re-dubbing it Beam). All Xbox One consoles received an update last year to integrate one-button "stream to Mixer" support, which players can swap to Twitch by going through the system's options.
In the week-plus since learning this about Horizon 4, we have been unable to find a comparable feature in any video game -- meaning, one that recognizes a broadcast (on Mixer, Twitch, or any other service) and then gives out goodies inside the same video game as a reward. Some video games already include official and deep integration with Twitch and Mixer, but these rely largely on audience-driven votes, like in the digital card game Superfight and the battle royale game Darwin Project.
Ticketmaster UK Admits Personal Data Stolen In Hack Attack
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BBC:
Ticketmaster has admitted that it has suffered a security breach, which the BBC understands has affected up to 40,000 UK customers. Malicious software on third-party customer support product Inbenta Technologies caused the hack, the firm said on Twitter. "Some personal or payment information may have been accessed by an unknown third party," it added. All affected customers have been contacted.
In the email to those customers, Ticketmaster said it had set up a website to answer any questions and advised them to reset their passwords. It also offered them a free 12-month identity monitoring service. It said the breach was likely to have only affected UK customers who purchased or attempted to purchase tickets between February and 23 June 2018. But, as a precaution, it said it had also informed international customers who had purchased or attempted to purchase tickets between September 2017 and 23 June 2018.
Betting Giant BetVictor Leaked a List of Its Own Internal Systems Passwords
A popular betting platform left a password list for its internal systems on its website for anyone to find. From a report:
BetVictor, a Gibraltar-based betting site, has since removed the two-page document containing a list of links to back office systems, including usernames and passwords. Chris Hogben found the document through the customer support search box on the company's homepage. The customer support pop-up allowed users to search the site's knowledge base of questions and answers. "Logins/Links to Back Offices - Internal," read the document's title, which contained over two-dozen passwords to the company's trading platform, ticketing system, and Experian's identity verification service, Hogben told ZDNet.
Google Doubles Down on Linux and Open Source
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, writing for ZDNet:
Google couldn't exist without Linux and open-source software. While you may not think of Google as a Linux company in the same way as you do Canonical, Red Hat, or SUSE, it wouldn't be the search and advertising giant it is today without Linux. So, it makes sense that Google is moving up from its Silver membership in The Linux Foundation, to the Platinum level. With this jump in status, Google gets a seat on the Foundation's board of directors. This position will be filled by Sarah Novotny, the head of open source strategy for Google Cloud Platform. Earlier this week, Chinese tech giant Tencent
joined the Linux Foundation as a platinum member.
Apple, Samsung Settle After Fighting Seven Years in Court
Apple and Samsung
reached a settlement in their U.S. patent battle, putting an end to a seven-year fight over smartphone designs. From a report:
The string of lawsuits started in 2011 when Apple sued Samsung for allegedly copying the design of the iPhone in the creation of its own line of smartphones. Terms of the accord weren't immediately disclosed. The settlement follows a damages retrial in which Apple won a $539 million jury award in May.
Laptop Vendors Are Left Sitting On the Sidelines Waiting For the Next Waltz To Start
An anonymous reader shares a report:
Intel's delayed release of a new processor is going to have a noticeable effect on the laptop market this year. As there is little chance of seeing anything new until towards the end of this year, laptop designers will not be able to offer new models for the holidays and will instead have to rework existing products. DigiTimes suggests we will see trimmed down models with lower price tags to try to entice consumers into purchasing something, as they expect lower demand than we saw last year. Hopefully some gaming machines may become more affordable, or we will start to see models incorporating AMD's new chips become more common.
NASA Again Delays Launch of Troubled Webb Telescope
In a blow to NASA's prestige and its budget,
America's next great space telescope has been postponed again. From a report:
NASA announced on Wednesday that the James Webb Space Telescope, once scheduled to be launched into orbit around the sun this fall, will take three more years and another billion dollars to complete. A report delivered to NASA by an independent review board estimated that the cost of the troubled Webb telescope would now be $9.66 billion, and that it would not be ready to launch until March 30, 2021.
Google Home Speakers and Chromecast Are Down Worldwide, Company Confirms
"Sorry, something went wrong. Try again in a few seconds." That's the response that Google smart speaker users around the world heard Wednesday when they asked their devices to play music, get the weather or even respond to its "Hey, Google" prompt. From a report:
Google confirmed there's a problem with both their smart speakers and the Chromecast, the plug-in video casting dongle for televisions. While the company did not say how many people are affected or what caused the issue, it did confirm it's working on a fix. "We're aware of an issue affecting some Google Home and Chromecast users. We're investigating the issue and working on a solution," Google said in a statement. Google Home and Chromecast owners started reporting issues to Google early Wednesday morning, according to online help forums for both devices. Devices affected by the problem have lost their normal functions.
The Billionaire Space Race Is Making Life Difficult for Airlines
On Feb. 6, Elon Musk's SpaceX
launched its largest rocket into the blue Florida sky. Onboard was "Starman," a dummy strapped into the billionaire's cherry red Tesla roadster. Minutes later, fans cheered as Musk topped himself by nailing a simultaneous landing of the Falcon Heavy's boosters. It was arguably a turning point for the commercial space age. Airlines were somewhat less thrilled. From a report:
On that day, 563 flights were delayed and 62 extra miles added to flights in the southeast region of the U.S., according to Federal Aviation Administration data released Tuesday by the Air Line Pilots Association, or ALPA.
America's airspace is a finite resource, and the growth of commercial launches has U.S. airlines worried. Whenever Musk or one of his rivals sends up a spacecraft, the carriers which operate closer to the ground must avoid large swaths of territory and incur sizable expenses. Most of the commercial activity to date has been focused on Cape Canaveral, the Air Force post on Florida's Atlantic coast, where Musk's Space Exploration Technologies and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin base their stellar operations. It is one of 22 active U.S. launch sites, and a number of other locales -- including Brownsville, Texas; Watkins, Colorado; and Camden County, Georgia -- are pursuing new spaceport ventures to capitalize on commercial space activity.
Satellites Could Show Airplanes Faster Long-Haul Routes in Mid-Air
The promise of powerful satellite constellations orbiting hundreds of miles above the earth can seem, well, a little distant. But what if they could make long-haul flights faster? From a report:
Operators like Iridium and Inmarsat are promising that jet liners linked to space communications networks can save fliers money, time and carbon impact, as more efficient flights cut fuel use. Today, an airliner flying five miles over the open ocean, beyond the reach of the radar systems used by civil air controllers, is dependent on flight plans written well before take-off, and what pilots could report over the radio to scattered air traffic controllers. Weather bulletins still arrive in the cockpit as brief text messages. But a true global communications network -- one orbit around the earth -- could give pilots the flexibility to react to changing situations in real time, the same way Google Maps now allows drivers to re-route around traffic jams as they drive.
Space is Full of Dirty, Toxic Grease, Scientists Reveal
An anonymous reader shares a report:
It looks cold, dark and empty, but astronomers have revealed that interstellar space is permeated with a fine mist of grease-like molecules. The study provides the most precise estimate yet of the amount of "space grease" in the Milky Way, by recreating the carbon-based compounds in the laboratory. The Australian-Turkish team discovered more than expected: 10 billion trillion trillion tonnes of gloop, or enough for 40 trillion trillion trillion packs of butter. Prof Tim Schmidt, a chemist at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and co-author of the study, said that the windscreen of a future spaceship travelling through interstellar space might be expected to get a sticky coating. "Amongst other stuff it'll run into is interstellar dust, which is partly grease, partly soot and partly silicates like sand," he said, adding that the grease is swept away within our own solar system by the solar wind. The findings bring scientists closer to figuring out the total amount of carbon in interstellar space, which fuels the formation of stars, planets and is essential for life.
Finally, It's the Year of the Linux... Supercomputer
Beeftopia writes:
From ZDNet: "The latest TOP500 Supercomputer list is out. What's not surprising is that Linux runs on every last one of the world's fastest supercomputers. Linux has dominated supercomputing for years. But, Linux only took over supercomputing lock, stock, and barrel in November 2017. That was the first time all of the TOP500 machines were running Linux. Before that IBM AIX, a Unix variant, was hanging on for dear life low on the list."
An interesting architectural note: "GPUs, not CPUs, now power most of supercomputers' speed."
Japan's Hayabusa 2 Spacecraft Reaches Cosmic 'Diamond'
A Japanese spacecraft has arrived at its target - an asteroid shaped like a diamond or, according to some, a spinning top. From a report:
Hayabusa 2 has been travelling toward the space rock Ryugu since launching from the Tanegashima spaceport in 2014. It is on a quest to study the object close-up and deliver rocks and soil from Ryugu to Earth. It will use explosives to propel a projectile into Ryugu, digging out a fresh sample from beneath the surface. Dr Makoto Yoshikawa, Hayabusa 2's mission manager, talked about the plan now that the spacecraft had arrived at its destination. "At first, we will study very carefully the surface features. Then we will select where to touch down. Touchdown means we get the surface material," he told me. A copper projectile, or "impactor" will separate from the spacecraft, floating down to the surface of the asteroid. Once Hayabusa 2 is safely out of the way, an explosive charge will detonate, driving the projectile into the surface.
Google Opens Its Human-Sounding Duplex AI To Public Testing
Google is moving ahead with Duplex, the stunningly
human-sounding artificial intelligence software behind its new automated system that places phone calls on your behalf with a natural-sounding voice instead of a robotic one. From a report:
The search giant said Wednesday it's beginning public testing of the software, which debuted in May and which is designed to make calls to businesses and book appointments. Duplex instantly raised questions over the ethics and privacy implications of using an AI assistant to hold lifelike conversations for you. Google says its plan is to start its public trial with a small group of "trusted testers" and businesses that have opted into receiving calls from Duplex. Over the "coming weeks," the software will only call businesses to confirm business and holiday hours, such as open and close times for the Fourth of July. People will be able to start booking reservations at restaurants and hair salons starting "later this summer."
Instagram Is Estimated To Be Worth More Than $100 Billion
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg:
Facebook's Instagram is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion, if it were a stand-alone company, marking a 100-fold return for the app purchased in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. The photo-sharing platform, which reached 1 billion monthly active users earlier this month, will likely help nudge Instagram revenue past $10 billion over the next 12 months, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jitendra Waral wrote in a report Monday. Instagram is attracting new users faster than Facebook's main site and is on track to exceed 2 billion users within the next five years, Waral said. While the social network already has surpassed that milestone, Instagram's audience is younger than its parent, making it more attractive to advertisers. And unlike Facebook, Instagram is still growing in the U.S.
Blogger Stabbed To Death After Internet Abuse Seminar
A prominent Japanese blogger has been
stabbed to death minutes after giving a seminar on how to resolve personal disputes on the internet. The Guardian reports:
Media reports said Kenichiro Okamoto, better known by his blogger name Hagex, died on Sunday evening after reportedly being attacked by a man he had argued with online. The suspect, Hidemitsu Matsumoto, allegedly followed Okamoto into the toilets after he had ended his talk at a venue in the south-western city of Fukuoka.
Okamoto was stabbed several times before staggering out of the toilets after his assailant, who fled on a bicycle, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. Okamoto, who sustained stab wounds to the chest and neck, was taken to hospital where he was confirmed dead. His attacker reportedly handed himself in almost three hours after the attack.
We May Be All Alone In the Known Universe, a New Oxford Study Suggests
A
new study by Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute determined that
it's quite likely humans are alone in the observable universe. Fortune reports:
The study looked at the Fermi paradox -- the apparent discrepancy between the seeming likelihood of alien life, given the billions of stars similar to our sun, and the scant evidence that such life actually exists. The paradox was named after physicist Enrico Fermi, who famously asked his colleagues at Los Alamos, N.M.. "Where Is Everyone?"
The study authors then examined various hypotheses and equations used to resolve the Fermi paradox. The results weren't pretty: "Our main result is to show that proper treatment of scientific uncertainties dissolves the Fermi paradox by showing that it is not at all unlikely ex ante for us to be alone in the Milky Way, or in the observable universe. Our second result is to show that, taking account of observational bounds on the prevalence of other civilizations, our updated probabilities suggest that there is a substantial probability that we are alone." SpaceX CEO Elon Musk cited the study's conclusions as an "added impetus" for humanity to become a spacefaring civilization capable of extending life beyond Earth. He
tweeted: "This is why we must preserve the light of consciousness by becoming a spacefaring civilization & extending life to other planets..."
Microsoft
Why do I get the feeling this is less about Google doubling-down on Open Source / Linux, and has more to do with the fact they don't want to be out-done by Microsoft, who is already a Platinum level member. This is just more of a corporate pissing contest.