Last week, we reported that an international law enforcement operation had shut down AlphaBay , the dark web’s go-to marketplace after the fall of Silk Road. Today, the U.S. Justice Department announced that it has seized AlphaBay and has brought civil charges against operator Alexandre Cazes (who is now deceased) and his wife, with the intention of taking their assets as well. Cazes, a Canadian citizen, was arrested in Thailand on July 5, but he committed suicide while in custody a week later. While the United States is working with international authorities to freeze the assets of AlphaBay, the Justice Department is also specifically interested in Cazes’ and his wife’s personal assets amassed through illegal AlphaBay activities. These including luxury cars, homes and a Thai hotel. Authorities have already seized Cazes’ vast stores of cryptocurrency. AlphaBay earned millions of dollars per week selling drugs, weapons, tools to help commit internet fraud and more. According to the Justice Department’s press release , Silk Road (which was shut down in 2013) had around 14, 000 goods and services listed when it was seized. Comparatively, AlphaBay had “over 250, 000 listings for illegal drugs and toxic chemicals on AlphaBay, and over 100, 000 listings for stolen and fraudulent identification documents and access devices, counterfeit goods, malware and other computer hacking tools, firearms and fraudulent services.” Source: U.S. Department of Justice
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US authorities have seized the dark web marketplace AlphaBay
We are proud to offer a special Christmas gift for you: MediaPortal 2 Alpha 4 ! Although this version is still tagged “Alpha”, which means there might be still problems, don’t hesitate to try it. It works very smoothly and will probably be the last Alpha release before we take the next steps to a “Beta” release! Be sure to read the instructions at the end of this news regarding installation, upgrade and extension compatibility. Why MediaPortal 2? If you don’t know what it’s all about, read the blog: MediaPortal 2: What does it bring to the table? or just give it a go and find out what the most advanced media center dares to offer you in future. Summary of changes This release brings a lot of new technologies to your HTPC. We upgraded to .NET 4.5.1 framework , switched from SlimDX to SharpDX , switched the default database to SQLite , updated many 3rd party libraries, implemented new features and of course fixed some bugs. Improved user experience: Major improvements to Media Library navigation and layouts, user selections are now saved and reused the next time. This affects filter, sorting and layout of each screen. Reduced complexity in Media Library menu items, moved filters into own dialog. Added support for browsing Media Library shares by filesystem structure. Improved GUI performance due to newly added VirtualizingWrapPanel (which reduces memory required and speeds up display because only visible items are allocated). Improved media importing performance. Improved video thumbnail creation. Improved database performance with no size limits due to SQLite as new default database. Fixes Browsing network shares could fail under certain cases. Some minor fixes in the MediaPortal UPnP library. Updated plugins OnlineVideos plugin is included in this release. SlimTV plugin (both NativeTV and MPExtended) has been significantly improved for Alpha 4 release. WebRadio plugin to play your favourite web radio streams inside MP2! More plugins are available! (via our MP2 Plugins Downloads section on the website and forum) WiFi configuration plugin (included). CEC remote plugin allows controlling MP2. The full change log is available here: MediaPortal 2 Alpha 4 change log Screenshots Installation Before installing MediaPortal 2 make sure all requirements are installed. Then extract the downloaded .zip archive and simply run the .msi installer file. For screenshots or further details, refer to our Getting Started wiki. Upgrade notes Due to the new default database (SQLite) you cannot use an older version (SQLCE, MySQL) with the default installation. You must add your media shares again. However, performance is much improved compared to Alpha 3. Local cached online data will be kept (like covers and backdrops). Feedback & Support Discuss this release in the official release thread MediaPortal 2 Alpha 4 If you are looking for further information please check out MediaPortal 2 wiki first. We are working constantly to improve it, and you can help! If you don’t find an answer there create a new thread in MediaPortal 2 forums . If you find a bug, please check our Issue Tracker & bug report forums first. If it has not been reported already, create a new thread. Download If you would like to support MediaPortal, we would be happy to receive a small donation ! The Team wishes you a lot of fun with this new release! .::. Download – MediaPortal 2.0 Alpha 4 .::. .::. Download MP2 plugins .::. .::. Post a Comment .::. 
