The Beta fish is back in the new Windows “Blue” previews. This week, Microsoft is unveiling the previews for its Windows “Blue” operating systems—the Windows 8.1 client, Windows Server 2012 R2, and an update to Windows Server Essentials. Last night, Microsoft released the previews through its MSDN and TechNet programs for its server platforms, which include a feature called “Desktop Experience”—an add-on which gives the server versions of the platform the same interface as Windows 8.1. As a result, Microsoft has tipped its hand about some of the interface changes it will be showing in the preview of the client, which it will release later this week. Here’s a quick look at the most significant changes in the interface we’ve found in our first hands-on with the preview revisions. Read on Ars Technica | Comments
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Hands-on with the Windows “Blue” desktop experience
With 32.3 percent of the market share, Netflix reigns the entertainment streaming world, but Amazon, Hulu, and YouTube still maintain their piece of the pie. [Read more] 
hypnosec writes “The E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA) gaming league has admitted to embedding Bitcoin mining code inside the league’s client software. It began as an April Fools’ Day joke idea, but the code ended up mining as many as 29 Bitcoins, worth over $3,700, for ESEA in a span of two weeks. According to Eric Thunberg, one of the league’s administrators, the mining code was included as early as April. Tests were run for a few days, after which they ‘decided it wasn’t worth the potential drama, and pulled the plug, or so we thought.’ The code was discovered by users after they noticed that their GPUs were working away with unusually high loads over the past two weeks. After users started posting on the ESEA forums about discovery of the Bitcoin mining code, Thunberg acknowledged the existence of a problem – a mistake caused a server restart to enable it for all idle users.” ESEA posted an apology and offered a free month of their Premium service to all players affected by the mining. They’ve also provided data dumps of the Bitcoin addresses involved and donated double the USD monetary value of the mined coins to the American Cancer Society. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
The software giant sends out invitations that confirm rumors of the next-generation console’s unveiling next month. [Read more] 
SchrodingerZ writes “The Blue Angels squadron, known for their intricate and death-defying aerial demonstrations, has canceled all scheduled air shows for the rest of the year. The United States Navy, which controls the Blue Angels, has reported that the grounding comes from the massive rollbacks in spending, due to the 85 billion dollar sequestration given by the federal government. In a statement from the office of the Commander Naval Air Forces in San Diego, the Navy said, ‘Recognizing budget realities, current Defense policy states that outreach events can only be supported with local assets at no cost to the governmen.’ Currently, the cost of an air show is above $100,000. This story came just a week after the announcement by the Air Force that their Thunderbird shows will also be canceled.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
An anonymous reader writes “According to ABC entertainment president Paul Lee: ‘We’d love to do something with Lucasfilm, we’re not sure what yet. We haven’t even sat down with them. We’re going to look at [the Star Wars live-action TV series], we’re going to look at all of them, and see what’s right. We weren’t even able to discuss this with them until [the deal] closed and it just closed. It’s definitely going to be part of the conversation.’ Not only that, but it’s also been announced that some of the 50 completed episode scripts that producer Rick McCallum has previously mentioned have been written by none other than Ron Moore of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica fame.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 