Reader StreamingEagle writes (edited): Netflix conducted a large-scale study comparing x264, x265 and libvpx (Google-owned VP9), under real-world conditions, and found that x265 encodes used 35.4% to 53.3% fewer bits than x264, and between 21.8% fewer bits than libvpx, when measured with Netflix’s advanced VMAF assessment tool. This was the first large-scale study to use real-world encoder implementations, and a large sample size of high quality, professional content.A Netflix spokesperson explained why they did the test in the first place; “We wanted to understand the current state of the x265 and libvpx codec implementations when used to generate non-realtime encodes optimized for OTT use case. It was important to see how the codecs performed when testing on a diverse set of premium content from our catalog. This test can help us find areas of improvement for the different codecs.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Warner Bros Issues Takedown For Own Website
An anonymous reader writes: In a case of sloppy automation run amok, Warner Bros’ copyright enforcement contractor — Vobile — issued takedown notices for legitimate distributors and Warner Bros’ own website, according to the BBC. It also asked the search giant to remove links to legitimate movie streaming websites run by Amazon and Sky, as well as Amazon-owned film database IMDB. Fortunately for them, Google chose to cut them a break and ignore those requests. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Warner Bros Issues Takedown For Own Website
Fugitive Arrested After Using ‘Wanted’ Poster As His Facebook Profile Pic
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: “A fugitive in Florida has been arrested by police after he used a wanted poster adorned with his mug shot for his Facebook profile picture, ” writes the International Business Times. After investigating reports of a disturbance, police discovered the 41-year-old’s Facebook profile, which revealed the man was already wanted for six months for violating his parole after two counts of battery. “Police say that as they arrested Yearwood a bag of marijuana fell out of his pocket. They charged him with possession of cannabis under 20 grams and are continuing to investigate the battery complaint.” One Twitter user jokingly suggested that the suspect should also be charged with copyright infringement — for using the police department’s photo without their permission. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Fugitive Arrested After Using ‘Wanted’ Poster As His Facebook Profile Pic
New Ransomware Poses As A Windows Update
Slashdot reader MojoKid quotes an article from Hot Hardware: A security researcher for AVG has discovered a new piece of ransomware called Fantom that masquerades as a critical Windows update. Victims who fall for the ruse will see a Windows screen acting like it’s installing the update, but what’s really happening is that the user’s documents and files are being encrypted in the background… The scam starts with a pop-up labeled as a critical update from Microsoft. Once a user decides to apply the fake update, it extracts files and executes an embedded program called WindowsUpdate.exe… As with other EDA2 ransomware, Fantom generates a random AES-128 key, encrypts it using RSA, and then uploads it to the culprit. From there, Fantom targets specific file extensions and encrypts those files using AES-128 encryption… Users affected by this are instructed to email the culprit for payment instructions. While the ransomware is busy encrypting your files, it displays Microsoft’s standard warning about not turning off the computer while the “update” is in progress. Pressing Ctrl+F4 closes that window, according to the article, “but that doesn’t stop the ransomware from encrypting files in the background.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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New Ransomware Poses As A Windows Update
Open Source Gardening Robot ‘FarmBot’ Raises $560,000
Slashdot reader Paul Fernhout writes: FarmBot is an open-source gantry-crane-style outdoor robot for tending a garden bed. The project is crowdfunding a first production run and has raised US$561, 486 of their US$100, 000 goal — with one day left to go… The onboard control system is based around a Raspberry Pi 3 computer and an Arduino Mega 2560 Microcontroller. Many of the parts are 3D printable. Two years ago Slashdot covered the genesis of this project, describing its goal as simply “to increase food production by automating as much of it as possible.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Open Source Gardening Robot ‘FarmBot’ Raises $560,000
Linux Mint 18 ‘Sarah’ Released, Supports Generic GTK X-Apps
Slashdot reader Type44Q writes: The Linux Mint team announced the immediate availability of their latest release, Mint 18 “Sarah, ” in Cinnamon and MATE flavors. These follow on the heels of their respective beta versions, which have been out for nearly a month. “Linux Mint 18 is a long-term support release which will be supported until 2021, ” the team announces on MATE’s “new features” page, adding they’ve improved their update manager, included support for the Debian syntax of “apt”, and are working on the “X-Apps” project to “produce generic applications for traditional GTK desktop environments…to replace applications which no longer integrate properly outside of a particular environment.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Linux Mint 18 ‘Sarah’ Released, Supports Generic GTK X-Apps
TeamViewer Servers Go Down, Users Believe They Are Hacked
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Softpedia: Something is happening with TeamViewers servers at the moment, and all clues point to a massive breach that has led to many users going on Reddit and complaining about having their computers hacked. Some users have reported finding new transactions in their PayPal and bank accounts, while others discovered someone had been poking around their email account. Other lucky users said they barely avoided getting hacked at the last minute, noticing their mouse starting to move across the screen, and hurrying to disconnect their Internet connection. On Twitter, the TeamViewer team wrote that they’re only experiencing issues in some parts of their network, but they denied any security breach, at least on their side. In the past months, we’ve seen malware use TeamViewer many times to infect computers, but most of those cases were because of users who used weak passwords, which is certainly not TeamViewer’s fault. It is strange that this time around, just when TeamViewer servers go down, multiple users also flock to social media to complain about getting hacked. This is either one huge strange cosmic coincidence or TeamViewer is really at fault and won’t be able to pin the blame on its users. On a semi-related note, PayPal will be suspending their business operations in Turkey after failing to obtain a new license for its service in the country. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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TeamViewer Servers Go Down, Users Believe They Are Hacked
NASA Satellite Finds 39 Unreported Sources of Toxic Air Pollution
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Using a new satellite-based method, scientists at NASA, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and two universities have located 39 unreported and major human-made sources of toxic sulfur dioxide emissions. A known health hazard and contributor to acid rain, sulfur dioxide (SO2) is one of six air pollutants regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The 39 unreported emission sources, found in the analysis of satellite data from 2005 to 2014, are clusters of coal-burning power plants, smelters, oil and gas operations found notably in the Middle East, but also in Mexico and parts of Russia. In addition, reported emissions from known sources in these regions were — in some cases — two to three times lower than satellite-based estimates. Altogether, the unreported and underreported sources account for about 12 percent of all human-made emissions of sulfur dioxide — a discrepancy that can have a large impact on regional air quality, said Chris McLinden, an atmospheric scientist and lead author of the study. The co-author of the study, Nickolay Krotkov, says quantifying the sulfur dioxide bull’s-eyes is a two-step process that would not have been possible without an improvement in the computer processing that transforms raw satellite observations from the Dutch-Finnish Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard NASA’s Aura spacecraft into precise estimates of sulfur dioxide concentrations, and the ability to detect smaller concentrations using a new computer program that precisely detects sulfur dioxide that had been dispersed and diluted by winds. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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NASA Satellite Finds 39 Unreported Sources of Toxic Air Pollution
Cisco Finds Backdoor Installed On 12 Million PCs
Reader wiredmikey writes: Security researchers at Cisco have come across a piece of software that installed backdoors on 12 million computers around the world. Researchers determined that the application, installed with administrator rights, was capable not only of downloading and installing other tools, such as a known scareware called System Healer, but also of harvesting personal information. The software, which exhibits adware and spyware capabilities, was developed by a French online advertising company called Tuto4PC. The “features” have led Cisco Talos to classify the Tuto4PC software as a “full backdoor capable of a multitude of undesirable functions on the victim machine.” Tuto4PC said its network consisted of nearly 12 million PCs in 2014, which could explain why Cisco’s systems detected the backdoor on 12 million devices. An analysis of a sample set revealed infections in the United States, Australia, Japan, Spain, the UK, France and New Zealand.Tuto4PC has received flak from many over the years, including French regulators. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Mozilla Seeks New Home For Email Client Thunderbird
Reader chefmonkey writes: In a report commissioned by Mozilla to explore the next home for Thunderbird, two potential new hosts have been offered: the Software Freedom Conservancy (host to git, boost, QEMU, and a host of other projects) and The Document Foundation (home of LibreOffice). At the same time, the report discusses completely uncoupling Thunderbird from the rest of the Mozilla codebase and bringing in a dedicated technical architect to chart the software’s roadmap. Given that the two named organizations are already on board with taking Thunderbird under their wing, is this a new lease on life for the email program Mozilla put out to pasture four years ago?In December last year, Mozilla Foundation chairperson Mitchell Baker had argued that the organization should disentangle itself from the Thunderbird email client in order to focus on Firefox. It appears the Firefox-maker is all set to part ways with Thunderbird. Read more of this story at Slashdot.