technology – Page 3 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

‘PUBG’ is quietly changing video games with its 3D replay technology

The new replay tools offered in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds are so much more than standard video-capture technology. In fact, it isn’t video capture at all — it’s data capture. The 3D replay tools allow players to zoom around the map after a match, tracking their own character, following enemies’ movements, slowing down time and setting up cinematic shots of their favorite kills, all within a 1-kilometer radius of their avatar. It’s filled with statistics, fresh perspectives and infinite data points to dissect. This isn’t just a visual replay; it’s a slice of the actual game, perfectly preserved, inviting combatants to play God. The toolset comes from South Korean company Minkonet, which just opened a second office in Los Angeles. PUBG is its first big client, and last month’s rollout marks the first real mainstream implementation of this data-capture technology. It definitely won’t be the last. According to Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Gilbert Kim, Minkonent’s phone has been ringing off the hook since the PUBG announcement, with studios around the world wanting a piece of the replay pie. “We’ve been getting a lot of calls and a lot of interest, ” he says. “Getting in new games is really competitive, and every feature counts, but we see data capture and replay technology is probably going to be mainstream in the next few years. … I think this is going to unleash new content that’s never been seen before in games, and it’s just starting. It’s just starting right now.” PUBG is an ideal test case. It’s a massively popular online game where up to 100 players parachute onto a map, scavenge for supplies, upgrade weapons and attempt to be the last person standing. Even though it technically came out in December, PUBG has been available in early access since March and it’s picked up a considerable number of accolades — and players — in the process. Just last week, SteamDB reported PUBG hit 3 million concurrent players on PC, vastly outstripping its closest competitor, Dota 2 , which has a record of 1.29 million simultaneous players. Part of PUBG ‘s success stems from developers’ relentless focus on making the game fun to watch. Live streaming is now a major part of the video-game world, with sites like Twitch and YouTube Gaming growing in prominence and eSports bursting into the mainstream. Kim says PUBG creator Brendan Greene and CEO Chang Han Kim built the idea of data-capture into the game from the beginning, and Minkonet’s tech is a natural evolution of this focus. Minkonet and PUBG developers connected in late 2016 and started working together on the actual software earlier this year. “One of their first visions was to have PUBG as not just a great game to play, but a great game to watch, ” Kim says. “So they were already from the very beginning focused on having PUBG as a great live streaming game; esports was also one of their sort of long-term visions.” Minkonet’s replay suite for PUBG addresses four main issues, as Kim explains it: cheating, learning, video editing and esports. Cheating is a huge issue in PUBG — more than 1.5 million accounts have been banned from the game since it hit Early Access 10 months ago. “One of the biggest sort of issues right now in gaming is cheating, hacking, ” Kim says. “There’s a core, a few people who are doing it to a lot of people. But I think with our 3D replay technology we can sort of provide an anti-cheat — we can’t prevent a hack completely. But because of what we do with the 3D death cam, people sometimes when they play, they want to know how they died, and sometimes our technology can find out how you died. Is there is something a little bit suspicious, maybe something we should be looking at?” On top of possibly catching cheaters in the act, Minkonet’s tech allows players to review their games and cut together cinematic videos of their best (or worst, or funniest) plays. Plus, it features improved spectator modes for esports and live-streaming goodness. All of this exists on PC for now, but PUBG is also available on Xbox One . Minkonet doesn’t have any concrete details to share about bringing 3D replay tech to consoles, but Kim says it’s definitely going to happen. Minkonet is working on fresh features to add to its 3D-replay technology, and it’s talking with developers about bringing these tools to other games. The days look numbered for traditional video-only replays. “We are just starting, but demand has been great, ” Kim says. “We just opened an LA office in the US. There are going to be several more projects next year.”

View article:
‘PUBG’ is quietly changing video games with its 3D replay technology

Louisana Police Bust an Infamous Nigerian Email Spam Scammer

MojoKid writes: You have probably at some point been contacted via email spam by someone claiming you are the beneficiary in a will of a Nigerian prince. As the scam goes, all you have to do is submit your personal information and Western Union some funds to process the necessary paperwork, and in return you will receive millions of dollars. One of the people behind the popular scam, Michael Neu, has been arrested by police in Slidell, Louisiana. This may come as a shocker, but Neu is not a prince, nor is he Nigerian. He is a 67-year-old male possibly of German descent (based on his last name) who is facing 269 counts of wire fraud and money laundering for his alleged role as a middle man in the scheme. According to Slidell police, some of the money obtained by Neu was wired to co-conspirators who do actually live in Nigera. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

View article:
Louisana Police Bust an Infamous Nigerian Email Spam Scammer

Congo Shuts Down Internet Services ‘Indefinitely’

On Saturday Engadget wrote: Authoritarian leaders are fond of severing communications in a bid to hold on to power, and that tradition sadly isn’t going away. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s government has ordered telecoms to cut internet and SMS access ahead of planned mass protests against President Joseph Kabila, whose administration has continuously delayed elections to replace him. Telecom minister Emery Okundji told Reuters that it was a response to “violence that is being prepared, ” but people aren’t buying that argument. Officials had already banned demonstrations, and the country has history of cutting communications and blocking social network access in a bid to quash dissent. And today in the wake of deadly protests, Congo announced that the internet shutdown will continue “indefinitely.” The New York Times reports: At least eight people were killed and a dozen altar boys arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday after security forces cracked down on planned church protests against President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to leave office before coming elections… Congolese security forces set up checkpoints across Kinshasa, and the government issued an order to shut down text messaging and internet services indefinitely across the country for what it called “reasons of state security.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read the original post:
Congo Shuts Down Internet Services ‘Indefinitely’

Kodi 18 ‘Leia’ 64-Bit For Windows Is Finally Ready To Replace the 32-bit Version

BrianFagioli shares a report from BetaNews: Earlier this year, we shared with you that a pre-release version of Kodi 18 “Leia” 64-bit for Windows was available. There was a big catch, however — it was not up to par with its 32-bit brother. And so, many people just stuck with the 32-bit version, because, well… why not? It is finally time to make the jump to the 64-bit variant, however, as according to the Kodi team, it is now identical to the 32-bit version from a feature perspective. “The 64-bit Kodi version for Windows is now feature complete and on the same level as 32-bit. From now on the 32-bit installer will include a warning to ask you to install the 64-bit instead. This upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit version is seamless and you just need to install on top of the old version, ” says Kodi. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Taken from:
Kodi 18 ‘Leia’ 64-Bit For Windows Is Finally Ready To Replace the 32-bit Version

Chrome Extension with 100,000 Users Caught Pushing Cryptocurrency Miner

Catalin Cimpanu, reporting for BleepingComputer: A Chrome extension with over 105, 000 users has been deploying an in-browser cryptocurrency miner to unsuspecting users for the past few weeks. The extension does not ask for user permission before hijacking their CPUs to mine Monero all the time the Chrome browser is open. Named “Archive Poster, ” the extension is advertised as a mod for Tumblr that allows users an easier way to “reblog, queue, draft, and like posts right from another blog’s archive.” According to users reviews, around the start of December the extension has incorporated the infamous Coinhive in-browser miner in its source code. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Taken from:
Chrome Extension with 100,000 Users Caught Pushing Cryptocurrency Miner

Chrome OS Will Finally Run Android Apps in the Background

An anonymous reader shares a report: While it’s no longer a novelty to run Android apps on your Chromebook, that doesn’t mean they run well. To date, most of those apps pause when you switch away — fine for a phone, but not what you’d expect on a computer with a multi-window interface. However, they’re about to become far more functional. Chrome Unboxed has learned that the Chrome OS 64 beta introduces Android Parallel Tasks, which lets Android apps run at full bore regardless of what you’re doing. You could watch a video in a mobile app while you’re surfing the web, or take a break from a mobile game without jarring transitions. There’s no guarantee that Android Parallel Tasks will reach the stable Chrome OS 64, so you might not want to plan a purchase around the feature. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See the original post:
Chrome OS Will Finally Run Android Apps in the Background

56,000 Layoffs and Counting: India’s IT Bloodbath This Year May Just Be the Start

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: For Indian techies, 2017 was the stuff of nightmares. One of the top employment generators until a few years ago, India’s $160 billion IT industry laid off more than 56, 000 employees this year. Some analysts believe this spree was worse than the one during the 2008 financial crisis. Meanwhile, hiring plummeted, with entry-level openings having more than halved in 2017, according to experts. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys, two of India’s largest IT companies and once leaders in job creation, reduced their headcounts for the first time ever. Even mid-sized players like Tech Mahindra retrenched several employees. Compared to the normal rate of forced attrition (i.e. asking non-performers to leave) of around 1% in earlier years, 2017 saw Indian IT companies letting go of between 2% and 6% of their employees, said Alka Dhingra, general manager of IT staffing at TeamLease Services. Infosys cut 9, 000 jobs in January. “Instead of 10 people, what if we have three people to work on (a project). If we don’t have the software, then some others will take the advantage (away from us), ” Vishal Sikka, the former CEO of the Bengaluru-based company, said in February. Meanwhile, around 6, 000 Indian employees at Cognizant reportedly lost their jobs to automation. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Originally posted here:
56,000 Layoffs and Counting: India’s IT Bloodbath This Year May Just Be the Start

Apple’s iPhone Throttling Will Reinvigorate the Push for Right To Repair Laws

Jason Koebler, writing for Motherboard: The news that Apple throttles iPhones that have old batteries will reinvigorate the right to repair debate as the movement enters a crucial year. Third party repair shops say they’ve already seen an uptick in customers asking for battery replacements to speed up their slow phones, and right to repair activists who are pushing for state legislation that will make third party and self repair more accessible say Apple’s secrecy about this behavior will give them a powerful rallying message. “If Apple were serious about battery life, they’d market battery replacements, ” Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of Repair.org, told me in an email. “Apple clearly has a big financial benefit when people decide their phones are too slow and head to the Apple Store for a new phone.” Repair.org is a right to repair advocacy group that is made up largely of small, third party repair shops, which is spearheading the effort to get states to consider legislation that will make it easier to repair electronic devices. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post:
Apple’s iPhone Throttling Will Reinvigorate the Push for Right To Repair Laws

AnyDVD Supports UHD Blu-Ray Ripping, While Devices Patch Security Holes

The controversial ripping tool AnyDVD has released a new beta version that allows users to decrypt and copy UHD Blu-Ray discs. The software makes use of the leaked keys that came out recently and appears to work well. Meanwhile, disc drive manufacturers are patching security holes. TorrentFreak reports: This year there have been some major developments on this front. First, full copies of UHD discs started to leak online, later followed by dozens of AACS 2.0 keys. Technically speaking AACS 2.0 is not confirmed to be defeated yet, but many discs can now be ripped. This week a popular name jumped onto the UHD Blu-Ray bandwagon. In its latest beta release, AnyDVD now supports the format, relying on the leaked keys. “New (UHD Blu-ray): Fetch AACS keys from external file for use with ‘UHD-friendly’ drives, ” the release notes read. The involvement of AnyDVD is significant because it previously came under legal pressure from decryption licensing outfit AACS LA. This caused former parent company Slysoft to shut down last year, but the software later reappeared under new management. Based on reports from several AnyDVD users, the UHD ripping works well for most people. Some even claim that it’s faster than the free alternative, MakeMKV. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Continue reading here:
AnyDVD Supports UHD Blu-Ray Ripping, While Devices Patch Security Holes

Ubuntu 17.10 Temporarily Pulled Due To A BIOS Corrupting Problem

An anonymous reader writes: Canonical has temporarily pulled the download links for Ubuntu 17.10 “Artful Aardvark” from the Ubuntu website due to ongoing reports of some laptops finding their BIOS corrupted after installing this latest Ubuntu release. The issue is appearing most frequently with Lenovo laptops but there are also reports of issues with other laptop vendors as well. This issue appears to stem from the Intel SPI driver in the 17.10’s Linux 4.13 kernel corrupting the BIOS for a select number of laptop motherboards. Canonical is aware of this issue and is planning to disable the Intel SPI drivers in their kernel builds. Canonical’s hardware enablement team has already verified this works around the problem, but doesn’t provide any benefit if your BIOS is already corrupted. Read more of this story at Slashdot.