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Submission + - Microsoft Says Free Windows 10 Upgrades For Pirates Will Be Unsupported

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When Microsoft confirmed it will offer free Windows 10 upgrades to pirates worldwide, many were shocked. VentureBeat has been trying to get more details from the company, which disclosed today that after PCs with pirated copies of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are upgraded to Windows 10, they will remain in a “non-genuine” status and Microsoft will not support them.

“With Windows 10, although non-genuine PCs may be able to upgrade to Windows 10, the upgrade will not change the genuine state of the license,” a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Non-genuine Windows is not published by Microsoft. It is not properly licensed or supported by Microsoft or a trusted partner. If a device was considered non-genuine or mislicensed prior to the upgrade, that device will continue to be considered non-genuine or mislicensed after the upgrade. According to industry experts, use of pirated software, including Non-genuine Windows, results in a higher risk of malware, fraud — identity theft, credit card theft, etc. — public exposure of your personal information, and a higher risk for poor performance or feature malfunctions.”

Yet this doesn’t provide enough answers. After a pirate upgrades to Windows 10 for free, does this “non-genuine” version expire and become unusable after a certain period of time? Does no support mean no security updates for pirates?

Submission + - Why is the Grand Theft Auto CEO also chairman of the ESRB?

Submitted by donniebaseball23
donniebaseball23 writes: In an editorial at GamesIndustry.biz, Brendan Sinclair asks an important question about the game ratings board in America. Should Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two, which owns the Grand Theft Auto franchise and has been at the heart of the ESRB's biggest controversies of the last decade, really be serving at its chairman? "No matter how removed from the day-to-day running of the ESRB Zelnick might be, his current role invites accusations of impropriety," he writes. "It's the sort of thing any critic of the games industry can point to as a clear conflict of interest, and many reasonable outsiders would probably look at that as a valid complaint. At least when titans of industry in the US become the head of the regulatory agencies that oversee their former companies, they actually have to leave those companies."

Submission + - SPAM: Facebook user to test how fb suicide prevention tool act, lands in mental asylum

Submitted by abhishekmdb
abhishekmdb writes: Shane Tusch faked his suicide in an attempt to test the authenticity of Facebook suicide prevention tool and got detained for 72 hours

Facebook has rolled out a set of tools to keep a check on its users who are having suicidal tendencies and prevent these users from suicidal attempts. In case some user is having suicidal thoughts and mentions that in the Facebook posts and if a friend of that user reports it to Facebook then a third party will immediately review the post and Facebook would lock the suicidal user’s account and the user will be made to read Facebook’s suicide prevention materials.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - 1990es hit game "Descent" gets a reboot (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by boll
boll writes: A bunch of Star Citizen alumns have taken it upon themselves to resurrect the hit game franchise "Descent" backed by a Kickstarter campaign. If you are a semi-oldtimer on the PC gaming scene, you may fondly remember how the original "Descent" was among the first to provide 6 genuine degrees of freedom during intense late night LAN gaming sessions.

Submission + - Taxi Companies Sue Uber For False Advertising On Safety (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: A group of California taxi operators are suing Uber, claiming the ridehailing service is guilty of false advertising when it comes to rider safety. The taxi companies claim that Uber doesn't use a Live Scan fingerprint ID for drivers like they do, and that the $1 "safe rides" fee on every fare doesn't specifically go towards boosing safety.

Submission + - Target To Pay $10 Million In Proposed Settlement for 2013 Data Breach (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Target has agreed to pay $10 million in a proposed settlement to a class-action lawsuit stemming from its massive 2013 data breach, which affected as many as 110 million people. Individual victims could receive up to $10,000. The proposed settlement also includes measures to better protect the customer data that Target collects, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota.

Submission + - Amazon launches one-hour delivery service in Baltimore and Miami (baltimoresun.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Amazon.com announced the launch Thursday of its one-hour delivery service, Prime Now, in select zip codes in Baltimore and Miami. It initially launched in Manhattan in December.

The one-hour service, available to Amazon Prime subscribers through the Prime Now mobile app, costs $7.99. Two-hour delivery is free.

Submission + - Tag Heuer partners with Google and Intel to create luxury Apple Watch rival (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Luxury Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer has announced that it will be designing a smartwatch in partnership with U.S. tech giants Google and Intel. The watch is to rival similar devices in the consumer wearables market, specifically the much-anticipated Apple Watch. Tag is the first watchmaker to join with Google, however it is thought that the deal will also welcome collaborations with other high-quality LVMH brands such as, Hublot and Zenith. The watch will be available towards the end of the year, with price structures and functionality details announced shortly before its release.

Submission + - Obama: Maybe It's Time For Mandatory Voting in US

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: CNN reports that when asked how to offset the influence of big money in politics, President Barack Obama suggested it's time to make voting a requirement. "Other countries have mandatory voting," said Obama "It would be transformative if everybody voted — that would counteract money more than anything," he said, adding it was the first time he had shared the idea publicly. "The people who tend not to vote are young, they're lower income, they're skewed more heavily towards immigrant groups and minority groups. There's a reason why some folks try to keep them away from the polls." At least 26 countries have compulsory voting, according to the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Failure to vote is punishable by a fine in countries such as Australia and Belgium; if you fail to pay your fine in Belgium, you could go to prison. Less than 37% of eligible voters actually voted in the 2014 midterm elections, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts. That means about 144 million Americans — more than the population of Russia — skipped out. Critics of mandatory voting have questioned the practicality of passing and enforcing such a requirement; others say that freedom also means the freedom not to do something.

Submission + - Nintendo to Announce Virtual Boy 2

Submitted by SlappingOysters
SlappingOysters writes: Nintendo has officially unveiled the development of its next home console, codenamed the NX. This article at finder puts forward the case that Nintendo will be stepping back into the virtual realty game with a follow-up to its ill-fated 1995 peripheral, the Virtual Boy. It would be going head-to-head with the Vive, Project Morpheus and the much-rumoured, not yet announced, Microsoft VR unit.

Submission + - BIOS Rootkit Implant To Debut at CanSecWest (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: Research on new BIOS vulnerabilities and a working rootkit implant will be presented on Friday at the annual CanSecWest security conference. An attacker with existing remote access on a compromised computer can use the implant to turn down existing protections in place to prevent re-flashing of the firmware, enabling the implant to be inserted and executed.

The devious part of the exploit is that the researchers have found a way to insert their agent into System Management Mode, which is used by firmware and runs separately from the operating system, managing various hardware controls. System Management Mode also has access to memory, which puts supposedly secure and privacy focused operating systems such as Tails in the line of fire of the implant.

Their implant, the researchers said, is able to scrape the secret PGP key Tails uses for encrypted communication, for example. It can also steal passwords and encrypted communication. The implant survives OS re-installation and even Tails’ built-in protections, including its capability of wiping RAM.

Submission + - Atari copyright trolls gaming legend Jeff Minter over TxK (gamasutra.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Atari — now a copyright troll?? "Llamasoft founder Jeff Minter has publicly accused Atari of acting as a "copyright troll" and threatening him with legal action in an effort to stop him from selling his Tempest-esque PlayStation Vita game TxK, porting it to new platforms or ever making another Tempest-esque game again."

Submission + - Gabe Newell Understands Half-Life Fans, Not Promising Any Sequels

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Half-Life 3 is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games in history. While Valve transitioned from the revolutionary series that brought the company most of its original success, to online games like Team Fortress, Dota and Left 4 Dead, people still desperately want to believe that there is more coming for Half-Life.

In a recent podcast interview he had with Geoff Keighley, Valve CEO Gabe Newell opens up the current situation a bit more: "I'm a fan of TV shows, I'm a fan of writers, I'm a fan of movies, I'm a fan of games and I certainly understand why people are like, you know, hey I remember this awesome experience and I'm starting to get worried that I'm never going to have it again. I am a fan of Terry Pratchett and he has Alzheimer's, it's like, Oh my god, I may never get another great Discworld novel. [...] We aren't going to go all retro because there are too many interesting things that have been learned. The only reason we would go back and do a 'super classic' kind of product is if a whole bunch of people internally at Valve said they wanted to do it, and had a reasonable explanation for why it was."

Submission + - NZ Customs wants power to require passwords (stuff.co.nz)

Submitted by Orange Roughy
Orange Roughy writes: New Zealand customs are seeking powers to obtain passwords and encryption keys for travelers. Supposedly they will only act to obtain credentials if it was acting on "some intelligence or observation of abnormal behaviour". People who refuse to hand over credentials could face up to three months jail time, however "serious criminals would still refuse". I for one would refuse to hand them over, and I am a law-abiding citizen. My data is my business, not Customs.

Submission + - Uber shut down in multiple countries following raids (bbc.com)

Submitted by wired_parrot
wired_parrot writes: Worldwide raids were carried out against Uber offices in Germany, France and South Korea. In Germany, the raids followed a court ruling banning Uber from operating without a license. In Paris, raids followed an investigation into deceptive practices. And in South Korea, 30 people, including Uber's CEO, were charged with running an illegal taxi service.

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