Rambo Tribble writes A new report claims that almost a quarter of the “clicks” registered by digital advertisements are, in fact, from robots created by cyber crime networks to siphon off advertising dollars. The scale and sophistication of the attacks which were discovered caught the investigators by surprise. As one said, “What no one was anticipating is that the bots are extremely effective of looking like a high value consumer.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Fraud Bots Cost Advertisers $6 Billion
Windows 8.1 now natively supports the MKV video format , which has been supported by the Xbox One for a little while now. Read more… 
According to The Verge , Microsoft is planning to unveil the consumer preview of Windows 10 at an event in late January. We’ll apparently see new consumer features, including a touch interface, and get more news on Microsoft’s phone and tablet lines. [ The Verge ] Read more… 
With the holidays coming up, many of us are meeting relatives from our extended family. When they explain how they’re related, some of the terms are confusing. This chart gives you an easy guide. Read more… 
sabri writes: Following the initial suspension of a California Highway Patrol officer earlier this week, news has come out that the CHP has an entire ring of officers who steal and subsequently share nude pictures. The nudes are stolen from women who are arrested or stopped. Officer Sean Harrington of Martinez reportedly confessed to stealing explicit photos from the suspect’s phone, and said he forwarded those images to at least two other CHP officers. Where is the ACLU when you need them the most? Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Some people sure do work quick. Team Pangu has just made available a jailbreak for iOS 8.1—and it works on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the iPad Air 2, along with older devices. Read more… 
Even if you don’t have a kid in college, these $5 care packages from Target are a fantastic bargain, and feature items that anyone can use. Read more… 
NormalVisual (565491) writes The original 11-foot U.S.S. Enterprise studio model from the original series has gone back into the shop again. The Smithsonian owns the model and has had it on display in a gift shop at the National Air and Space Museum for the last 13 years, but will be placed on display in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall in 2016, to coincide with the museum’s 40th anniversary. In the meantime, the model will be undergoing its fourth restoration to address a number of issues. The last restoration in 1991 was performed by Ed Miarecki, a professional modelmaker well known for his work in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, as well as films such as “Event Horizon”. This previous restoration had Trek fans up in arms owing to the paint job, which many feel doesn’t represent the way the model looked originally. Hopefully this next restoration will bring her back to her former glory. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 