Author: kenmay

Movie piracy app Popcorn Time thinks it can thwart a shutdown

About a year after Popcorn Time’s death and resurrection show , comes news that app is taking even more of the legwork out of watching pirated movies online. To further stretch the meaning of “legal, ” the service is moving to a peer-to-peer streaming system so that its userbase (which is apparently growing by 100, 000 downloads per day) hosts the requisite data, according to Wired . “Making all our data available via P2P will mean that Popcorn Time will no longer rely on domains and centralized servers, but only on its user base, ” an anonymous software engineer said. “After everything we went through, this will be our sweetest revenge and our biggest victory.” So there’s that. Wired says the application will use the same P2P protocol for streaming that BitTorrent does , so if the central servers are knocked offline the service itself should remain operational. Another forthcoming addition will issue software updates for the app via P2P downloads that take advantage of “cryptographic signatures” to ensure that no malicious code proliferates the community. The interview is a really interesting, but the engineer seems incredibly cavalier about what the app is doing and how long it can outrun the law. Reading through it reminded me a lot of the attitude the original Pirate Bay crew had before the shutdowns and litigation ensued. We all know how that turned out. Filed under: Home Entertainment , Internet , HD Comments Source: Wired

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Movie piracy app Popcorn Time thinks it can thwart a shutdown

Safe white light disinfects hospitals around the clock

Add / Remove In certain workplaces, especially hospitals and restaurant kitchens, regular levels of bacteria are unsafe. In the past, UV lighting and chemicals have been used to disinfect fragile areas, but both of these options are unsafe for continuous use. Offering a new solution, Vital Vio is a disinfectant lighting which can reduce harmful micro-organisms by up to 99.9 percent, using harmless white light from specialized overhead light fixtures. Vital Vio’s disinfectant lighting can be installed in thirty minutes anywhere there is a light fixture. Once in place, the system can remain on around-the-clock, providing continuous protection from bacteria such as MRSA, E.Coli and Salmonella for patients and staff. The system uses precision control of LEDs, and integrates the invisible cleansing into white light. Vital Vio can even work with customers to create modified protection — adjusting the color temperature to best suit their environment. Vital Vio offers 90 percent disinfection after just one and a half hours rising to 99.9 percent after 16 hours. While the primary applications for Vital Vio are healthcare and catering environments, the company also suggest implementing it in hotels, gyms and public restrooms — anywhere that bacteria can easily thrive and spread. Where else could the technology be implemented? Website: www.vitalvio.com Contact: www.vitalvio.com/contact

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Safe white light disinfects hospitals around the clock

Watch Nissan’s glowing Leaf tear down a glowing stretch of highway

Daan Roosegaarde’s Smart Highway concept saw a third of a mile of asphalt in the Dutch town of Oss festooned with phosphorescent stripes — they spend the day soaking up sunlight and convert it into a slightly eerie blue/green glow to guide drivers for eight hours once night falls. Seeing the road is trippy in and of itself, so (naturally?) watching Nissan’s glow-in-the-dark Leaf tear down it is a whole other story. Friendly reminder: You might want to have the Tron or Starlight Express soundtracks cued up before you press play. If you’re asking yourself why this exists, just stop — there’s really no meaning to this little artistic exercise other than to demonstrate an understanding that glowing thing plus glowing equals cool. You won’t be recreating this with the same sort of gear soon either, since the relatively exotic strontium aluminate paint that makes the Leaf shine in the dark is Nissan’s and it won’t share. You’re better off just buying a Tron bike of your own for the same effect, but for now just enjoy the light show as you wait for the weekend to engulf you. Comments Via: Autoblog

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Watch Nissan’s glowing Leaf tear down a glowing stretch of highway

All four major browsers take a stomping at Pwn2Own hacking competition

The annual Pwn2Own hacking competition wrapped up its 2015 event in Vancouver with another banner year, paying $442,000 for 21 critical bugs in all four major browsers, as well as Windows, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Reader. The crowning achievement came Thursday as contestant Jung Hoon Lee, aka lokihardt, demonstrated an exploit that felled both the stable and beta versions of Chrome, the Google-developed browser that’s famously hard to compromise . His hack started with a buffer overflow race condition in Chrome. To allow that attack to break past anti-exploit mechanisms such as the sandbox and address space layout randomization, it also targeted an information leak and a race condition in two Windows kernel drivers, an impressive feat that allowed the exploit to achieve full System access. “With all of this, lokihardt managed to get the single biggest payout of the competition, not to mention the single biggest payout in Pwn2Own history: $75,000 USD for the Chrome bug, an extra $25,000 for the privilege escalation to SYSTEM, and another $10,000 from Google for hitting the beta version for a grand total of $110,000,” Pwn2Own organizers wrote in a blog post published Thursday . “To put it another way, lokihardt earned roughly $916 a second for his two-minute demonstration.” Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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All four major browsers take a stomping at Pwn2Own hacking competition

Streaming music sales in the US beat CDs for the first time

Sorry, Taylor Swift , but streaming music isn’t going anywhere. In fact, revenues from streaming services like Spotify and Rdio overtook CD sales last year — a first for the music industry — according to data from the RIAA . Streaming sales hit $1.87 billion last year, a 29 percent jump from 2013, while CD revenues fell 12.7 percent reaching $1.85 billion. Naturally, digital downloads still rule the music realm — accounting for 37 percent of the total market and $2.57 billion in sales — but it’s also worth noting they dipped a bit last year. At this point, it’s not a matter of if streaming music will overtake digital downloads, it’s simply a matter of when . The big problem for artists, though, is that they don’t make as much from streaming services as they do from downloads or CDs (that’s basically Swift’s entire beef). Don’t be surprised if you end up paying more for your Spotify subscription at some point soon, as those services rush to ramp up their pay outs. Filed under: Internet Comments Via: CNET Source: RIAA

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Streaming music sales in the US beat CDs for the first time

PlayStation’s Vue Live Streaming Cord-Cutter TV Service Launches In The U.S.

 PlayStation is officially debuting its live streaming video service in the U.S. today, launching PlayStation Vue in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia with pricing beginning at $50 per month. The on-demand and live-streaming video service includes content partners like Fox News, AMC and Turner Broadcasting and offers channels like CBS, Discovery, Animal Planet, Syfy, Food Network and many… Read More

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PlayStation’s Vue Live Streaming Cord-Cutter TV Service Launches In The U.S.

FAA Grants Amazon Permission To Test Drone Deliveries

 The FAA just released a statement indicated that Amazon now has limited permission to test and develop drones in the United States. It’s not a blank check, though. The FAA gave Amazon strict rules and regulations. Read More

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FAA Grants Amazon Permission To Test Drone Deliveries

Microsoft clarifies Windows 10 upgrade process for pirated copies

Yesterday, we heard that Microsoft planned to give people with pirated copies of its software a free way to upgrade to Windows 10. According to Reuters , Microsoft’s goal with this plan was to combat piracy in China, though the idea was to expand said offer beyond that country. Well, as it turns out, it won’t be that simple — and, frankly, is anyone really surprised? Microsoft tells The Verge that it will provide “a mechanism” for pirates to upgrade to the latest version of its OS , but they will have to go through the Windows Store in order to get a genuine (read: officially supported) upgrade. In other words, those with a non-genuine copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8 will have a way to get Windows 10, but there’s no confirmation that it will be at no cost. “We will provide a mechanism for non-genuine Windows 10 PC devices to ‘get genuine’ via the new Windows Store, whether they are upgraded versions of Windows or purchased.” Although Microsoft isn’t making the situation any easier to understand, a company spokesperson did tell The Verge that the upgrade practice described above “will be consistent globally.” Exactly what the process will be like is yet to be determined, but we’re sure the Redmond-based company is going to have more details to share on that front as we get closer to the launch of Windows 10 . Filed under: Desktops , Laptops , Software , Microsoft Comments Source: The Verge

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Microsoft clarifies Windows 10 upgrade process for pirated copies