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Freedom Clip rids you of Keurig’s coffee pod tyranny

Keurig’s K-Cup 2.0 DRM protection didn’t keep rogue pods out of its coffee machines for long , and another company created an add-on to bypass the system. The Rogers Family Company, a purveyor of some of those unapproved coffee products, made the appropriately-named Freedom Clip: a small insert that’ll allow you to use those “non-approved” coffee and tea servings. Keurig’s newer machines recognize special ink on the tops of its officially licensed pods, and those lacking the identifier won’t work. The clip tricks machines into thinking the security measure is present, and the folks at Rogers are giving it away for free. Of course, it’s probably hoping you’ll nab a box of pods as a display of gratitude. [Lead photo credit: Richard Levine/Alamy] Filed under: Household Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Rogers Family Company

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Freedom Clip rids you of Keurig’s coffee pod tyranny

Obama’s 2016 NASA Budget Status Quo, Funds Europa Mission

MarkWhittington writes The Washington Post reported that the NASA portion of the president’s 2016 budget proposal is basically status quo though it does provide further funding for a mission to Europa. A Europa probe is near and dear to the new chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee that funds NASA, Rep. John Culberson. However, the $18.5 billion budget proposal also funds the asteroid redirect mission, which has come under increasing fire from both Congress and the scientific community. The Houston Chronicle suggested that the final spending bill will be considerably different once congressional Republicans get through with it. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Obama’s 2016 NASA Budget Status Quo, Funds Europa Mission

Verizon reportedly selling off old wires to focus more on wireless

Verizon is reportedly close to selling off parts of its wireline network and some cell towers in a series of deals totaling more than $10 billion, helping the company fund spectrum license purchases that will boost its wireless business. The Wall Street Journal reported the deals today , saying they “will involve different buyers and could be announced as soon as later this week.” The report said Verizon will sell “a package of assets including cellphone towers and parts of its wireline business” but did not get any more specific. Presumably, Verizon would be selling off parts of its old copper telephone and DSL networks rather than its FiOS fiber-to-the-home assets. Given Verizon’s focus on its wireless business, the cell towers are probably surplus to requirements. Verizon’s wireless subsidiary just committed to purchasing $10.4 billion worth of wireless spectrum licenses. Verizon lost $2.23 billion in its most recent quarter. Besides funding that spectrum purchase, Verizon is trying to pay off debt, according to the  Journal report. The company “took on a massive debt load” last year when it spent $130 billion to buy out Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless, the report said. Verizon now owns 100 percent of Verizon Wireless. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Verizon reportedly selling off old wires to focus more on wireless

‘Neflix For Lego’ Pley Launches A Kit Crowdsourcing Platform And Raises $10M

 While Lego’s own crowdsourcing platform exists, letting users submit ideas for community voting, eventually resulting in some being made, the process is slow and somewhat difficult to navigate. Now Lego set sharing platform Pley is debuting a crowdsourced set creation platform called PleyWorld that can see a submission go from concept to shipping product in as little as two weeks, … Read More

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‘Neflix For Lego’ Pley Launches A Kit Crowdsourcing Platform And Raises $10M

​How Prisoners in China Are Patenting Their Way Out of Jail

China absolutely dominates the rest of the world when it comes to the number of patents it produces, thanks in part to a system of government rewards that encourage inventors with everything from cash to early release from prison. Wait, what? Read more…

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​How Prisoners in China Are Patenting Their Way Out of Jail

Blur Uses One-Time Use Credit Card Numbers to Deter Hackers

After all the recent credit hacking news , many people are a little more hesitant about using plastic. Blur is a service that makes your shopping a little more secure by generating “fake” credit card numbers to deter hackers. Read more…

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Blur Uses One-Time Use Credit Card Numbers to Deter Hackers

Dish used “small business” discount to save $3 billion at taxpayer expense

Dish took advantage of discounts intended for small businesses to save $3.3 billion in an auction of public airwaves, making a “mockery” of the small business program, according to a member of the Federal Communications Commission. Dish used companies it owns in order to place $13.3 billion worth of winning bids in an auction of wireless airwaves that can be used for cellular networks. Results of the auction were announced last week . But Dish only has to pay $10 billion because it didn’t place the bids directly. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai called upon FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler “to immediately launch an investigation into these multi-billion dollar subsidies.” “[T]wo companies in which Dish Network has an 85 percent ownership stake claimed over $3 billion in taxpayer-funded discounts when purchasing spectrum in the AWS-3 auction,” Pai said in his call for an investigation today . “Those discounts came through the FCC’s designed entity (DE) program, which is intended to make it easier for small businesses to purchase spectrum and compete with large corporations. Dish, however, has annual revenues of almost $14 billion, a market capitalization of over $32 billion, and over 14 million customers. Its participation makes a mockery of the DE program.” Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Dish used “small business” discount to save $3 billion at taxpayer expense

Lucasfilm heads to court to unmask Star Wars: The Force Awakens image leaker

Lucasfilm is demanding that popular photo-sharing site ImageShack cough up the identity of one of its users the studio says uploaded an infringing photograph connected to its upcoming Star Wars movie. ImageShack has already deleted the picture  from user “Darth-Simi” whose account was used to post a picture that was described as a villain from the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie. The image included a glimpse of a red crossguard lightsaber like the one showed in a teaser trailer officially released in November. Lucasfilm’s parent company, Disney, is seeking a San Francisco federal court to order California-based ImageShack to turn over Darth-Simi’s personal information. The studio is making the demand  [PDF] to remove the picture “Star Wars Episode VII Costume Design and Photograph” under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Lucasfilm heads to court to unmask Star Wars: The Force Awakens image leaker

The Hells Angels Are Old Pros at Encryption 

The Silk Road trial is back on, and we still don’t know if Ross Ulbricht is going to go down for the crimes of the Dread Pirate Roberts. Today, the trial focused on DPR’s interactions with the Hells Angels, who he allegedly hired to kill a rogue drug vendor. Read more…

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The Hells Angels Are Old Pros at Encryption