Billie Lourd says she’ll be back in a bigger capacity for Star Wars: Episode VIII . A Thor supporting character may not return for Ragnarok . . Plus new details for Scream Queens ’ next season, set pictures from Wonder Woman , and a ton of clips from tonight’s Supergirl . Spoilers now! Read more…
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J.J. Abrams Insists the Portal and Half-Life Movies Are Still Happening
Finding money on the floor is rarely this exciting. This single gold coin was discovered by a hiker and Israel’s Antiquities Authority has since established that it’s one of only two ever discovered. The coin’s 2, 000 years old—and, before you ask, priceless. Read more…
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A Hiker Stumbled Across This Incredibly Rare 2,000-Year-Old Gold Coin
Andrew Cunningham The new Skylake NUC. 10 more images in gallery Intel’s “Next Unit of Computing” (NUC) mini desktops started off as interesting curiosities, experiments to see just how much computer could fit in a desktop PC that you could hold in your hand. Each subsequent generation has refined the overall concept and added other niceties, making it more and more like a solid consumer-ready computer (albeit one that makes you provide your own RAM and SSD and OS). We looked at Intel’s fourth-generation NUC based on its still-relatively-new Skylake processors. On the outside, less has changed than ever before—Intel has settled on a “look” for the NUC and it’s not messing with the design much. On the inside, you get enough cool upgrades that you can almost forgive Intel’s CPU performance for improving so little in the last three or four years. Model breakdown Specs at a glance: Intel NUC NUC6i7SYK (as reviewed) OS Windows 10 x64 CPU 1.8GHz Core i5-6260U (Turbo Boost up to 1.9GHz) RAM 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 (supports up to 32GB) GPU Intel Iris 540 (integrated with 64MB eDRAM) HDD 256GB Samsung SM951 PCIe SSD Networking 867Mbps 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, Gigabit Ethernet Ports 4x USB 3.0, 1x mini DisplayPort 1.2, 1x HDMI 1.4b, headphones, SD card slot Size 4.53” x 4.37” x 1.26” (115 x 111 x 32mm) Other perks Kensington lock, swappable lids, IR receiver Warranty 3 years Price ~$400 (barebones), about $755 as configured There are four Skylake NUCs as of this writing. Two include a Core i5-6260U with an Iris 540 integrated GPU, and two use a slower Core i3-6100U processor and a slower HD 520 GPU. Each processor comes in two cases: a taller one that makes room for a 2.5-inch hard drive or SSD, and a shorter one that doesn’t. Otherwise, all models share the same basic design, port layout, and other features. Read 27 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Review: Much-improved Iris GPU makes the Skylake NUC a major upgrade
Happy Sunday! Welcome to Holy Shift , where we highlight big innovations in the auto and racing industries each week—whether they be necessary or simply for comfort. Read more…
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How Traffic Lights Came To Be And Why Green Means Go
Virtual reality faces numerous challenges , but one of the biggest is having to take your headset off whenever you need to run a conventional app. What if you want to maintain that immersion, or just want to use a VR device as your only display? That’s where BigScreen thinks it can help. It’s developing software that places your entire Windows desktop in a VR environment. It’s partly for the sake of immersion (you can have a massive, wall-filling screen without spending a fortune ), but it’s a bigger deal for social experiences. You can see a friend’s shared screen as a separate virtual monitor, or play games and movies with friends who sit in using personalized avatars. You can sign up for a public beta test today, and the finished software should be available for both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift when they’re available in April. Samsung Gear VR support is due later in 2016. BigScreen is definitely going to be a niche app on launch (you’re going to need an expensive headset and a powerful PC just to use it), but it’s an important step toward turning VR from a once-in-a-blue-moon experience into something you use every day, whether you’re catching up on Netflix or creating worlds . Via: Upload Source: BigScreen
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Software brings your PC’s entire interface to VR
(credit: Hernán Piñera ) The US Department of Justice has opened another legal front in the ongoing war over easy-to-use strong encryption. According to a Saturday report in The New York Times , prosecutors have gone head-to-head with WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by Facebook. Citing anonymous sources, the Times reported that “as recently as this past week,” federal officials have been “discussing how to proceed in a continuing criminal investigation in which a federal judge had approved a wiretap, but investigators were stymied by WhatsApp’s encryption.” The case, which apparently does not involve terrorism, remains under seal. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Encrypted WhatsApp messages frustrate new court-ordered wiretap
More details have emerged about Intel’s Optane, a new kind of memory and SSD that utilizes 3D Xpoint. The upcoming 3D Xpoint technology, which is supposedly 10 times denser than DRAM and 1, 000 times faster than flash storage, will be compatible with NVMe, a storage protocol that allows an SSD to make effective use of a high-speed PCIe. Several MacBook Pro models already support NVMe technology. Apple is often among the first companies to adopt emerging standards and technologies, which has led many to believe that the Cupertino-based company might leverage Intel’s Optane solid state drives for super fast performance speeds in its next batch of laptops. Apple is expected to announce the refreshed MacBook lineup sporting Intel Skylake processor later this year. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Intel’s Optane SSD Compatible With NVMe; Could Boost MacBook Storage Speeds By 1000x
dcblogs writes: About 300 Hertz IT employees, most located in Oklahoma City, are being impacted [by] a decision to expand its outsourcing to IBM. About 75 will be hired by IBM and those workers [are expected] to receive offers this week while others are facing layoffs. The news was a shock for IT employees. There was “anger, resentment, ” especially by employees who “sacrificed that work/life balance to keep things going here, ” said one employee. Hertz took precautions. On the day that IT employees learned that their work was shifting to IBM, employees noticed Oklahoma sheriff patrol vehicles in the building’s parking lot. They believed plainclothes officers were inside the building. “We consider the safety and security of our people whenever there are circumstances or events that could increase the risk of a disturbance or some form of workplace violence, ” said Bill Masterson, a Hertz spokesman. “Knowing that this was a difficult announcement, we had additional security on hand, ” said Masterson. “Going forward, Hertz IT resources will be focused on development of future products and services for customers, ” he said. The majority of services will be cloud-based. According to the Computerworld article, along with severance pay, benefits also include three months of outplacement assistance. IT employees can receive up to $4, 000 toward retraining or skill certification, said Masterson. IBM India Private Limited, a IBM subsidiary, has filed paper for H-1B visa workers for Hertz Technology offices. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Hertz Had Sheriffs On Hand the Day It Cut IT
An anonymous reader writes: An examination of consumer complaints to the FCC over the past year and a half shows that the practice of Wi-Fi hotspot device blocking continues even though the agency has slapped organizations such as Marriott and Hilton more than $2 million in total for doing this. Venues argue they need to block hotspots for security reasons, but the FCC and consumers say the organizations are doing this to force people to pay for pricey Internet access. “Consumers who purchase cellular data plans should be able to use them without fear that their personal Internet connection will be blocked by their hotel or conference center, ” FCC Enforcement Bureau chief Travis LeBlanc said in a statement. “It is unacceptable for any hotel to intentionally disable personal hotspots while also charging consumers and small businesses high fees to use the hotel’s own Wi-Fi network. This practice puts consumers in the untenable position of either paying twice for the same service or forgoing Internet access altogether.” Consumers have filed many complaints about Wi-Fi hotspot blocking to the FCC. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Wi-Fi Hotspot Blocking Persists Despite FCC Crackdown
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers have discovered that improperly configured TFTP servers can be easily abused to carry out reflection DDoS attacks that can sometimes have an amplification factor of 60, one of the highest such values. There are currently around 600, 000 TFTP servers exposed online, presenting a huge attack surface for DDoS malware developers. Other protocols recently discovered as susceptible to reflection DDoS attacks include DNSSEC, NetBIOS, and some of the BitTorrent protocols. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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600,000 TFTP Servers Can Be Abused For Reflection DDoS Attacks