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Submission + - Our obsession with trailers is making movies worse (cnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Our increasing obsession with trailers is changing how we watch movies. We're becoming audiences afraid of surprise, audiences that would rather watch movies we're certain we'll like than risk watching films that surprise us into love. In some cases, this fixation is even lowering the quality of movies themselves by encouraging bad filmmaking habits. The most extreme example happened when Warner Bros. released such a successful trailer for "Suicide Squad" it brought on the company that cut it to edit the whole film — dropping the director's original cut altogether. [...] Thanks to trailers' easy accessibility on YouTube and those shot-by-shot breakdowns that quickly appear online once trailers drop, anyone interested in a given flick can pore over all the available footage for hours — even if that leads to major spoilers for them and everyone they share it with.

Submission + - Soon, you'll be able to build your own LTE network over Wi-Fi frequencies. (hpe.com)

Submitted by Esther Schindler
Esther Schindler writes: An industry consortium called MulteFire wants to help you build your own LTE-like network that uses the Wi-Fi spectrum, with no need for carriers or providers, writes Andy Patrizio. Just don't expect to get started today.

In its basic specification, MulteFire Release 1.0 defines an LTE-like network that can run entirely on unlicensed spectrum frequencies. The alliance didn't try to do too much with the 1.0 spec; it simply wanted to get it out the door so partners and manufacturers could begin adoption. For 1.0, the alliance focused on the 5-GHz band. More functionality and more spectrums will be supported in future specs.

Why would you want it? As Patrzio explains, MulteFire's target audience is fairly obvious: anyone who needs speed, scalability, and security beyond what Wi-Fi offers. “MulteFire is enabling cellular technologies to run in unassigned spectrum, where they are free to use it so long as they follow the rules of the spectrum band," says Mazen Chmaytelli, president of the MulteFire Alliance."

Is this something you think would make a difference?

Submission + - Slain DNC Staffer Provided WikiLeaks with Emails

Submitted by RoccamOccam
RoccamOccam writes: The Democratic National Committee staffer who was gunned down on July 10 on a Washington, D.C., street just steps from his home had leaked thousands of internal emails to WikiLeaks, a federal investigator reveals.

Twelve days after Rich was killed, WikiLeaks published internal DNC emails that appeared to show top party officials conspired to stop Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont from becoming the party’s presidential nominee. That controversy resulted in Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigning as DNC chairperson

Submission + - We Owe Ronald Reagan the GPS as We Know Today (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by Mehmet Çömek
Mehmet Çömek writes: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 left Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 30, 1983, with 269 people on board, strayed into Soviet airspace on its way to Seoul, and was shot down by Russian forces. Part of Ronald Reagan’s response was to allow civilian use of GPS, developed by the U.S. military in the 1970s as a Cold War weapon, to help planes avoid hostile airspace. In the early days, commercial GPS was much less accurate than the systems used by the military. The military initially encrypted the p-code for fear that GPS would be a handy way for enemy militaries to guide weapons. In 2000, President Bill Clinton told the Department of Defense to turn off the selective availability feature commonly used in GPS technology. This feature allowed the military to degrade the accuracy of civilian GPS technology. By turning it off, people had accurate and reliable GPS technology at their fingertips.

Submission + - Now OPERA Is My Best Friend (vice.com) 1

Submitted by mspohr
mspohr writes: Jason Koebler writes on Vice Motherboard:
"Over the last few years, I have grown endlessly frustrated with Chrome's resource management, especially on MacOS. Admittedly, I open too many tabs, but I'd wager that a lot of you do, too. With Chrome, my computer crawls to complete unusability multiple times a day. After one too many times of having to go into Activity Monitor to find that one single Chrome tab is using several gigs of RAM, I decided enough was enough."
"Because Opera is also based on Blink, I almost never run into a website, plugin, script, or video that doesn't work flawlessly on it. In fact, Opera works almost exactly like Chrome, except without the resource hogging that makes me want to throw my computer against a brick wall.

This is exactly the point, according to Opera spokesperson Jan Standal: "What we're doing is an optimized version of Chrome," he said. "Web developers optimize most for the browser with the biggest market share, which happens to be Chrome. We benefit from the work of that optimization."
I should note that this has also been my experience. I have a 2010 MacBook which I was ready to trash since it had become essentially useless; coming to a grinding halt daily. I tried Opera and it's like I have a new computer. I never get the spinning wheel of death. (Also, the built in ad blocker and VPN are nice.)

Submission + - Microsoft Job Posting Hints at VR MMO (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by sqorbit
sqorbit writes: Microsoft has posting a job opening for a Senior Design Manager for a mixed reality team. The posting states they are "“looking to build a massively social gaming and entertainment experience for both the PC and the console.” It looks like they are targeting both PC and Xbox Platforms for a VR socially geared development project. The requirements: "The Xbox Mixed Reality team is looking for an experienced senior design manager with deep expertise and passion around crafting immersive social systems and experiences."

Submission + - Museum Unveils Virtual Lorenz Machine (tnmoc.org)

Submitted by AndyTayl0r
AndyTayl0r writes: An online Virtual Lorenz that can be used by anyone wanting to experience sending and receiving top-secret Second World War communications has been unveiled at The National Museum of Computing (UK) in celebration of the centenary of Bill Tutte, the man who unravelled the secrets of Hitler’s most secret encryption device.

Submission + - MP3 is officially retired (ubergizmo.com) 1

Submitted by igny
igny writes: The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits made the announcement on its website which basically states that they will no longer be supporting the format. This is because they believe that as popular as the format currently is, there are better ways to store music out there today, and presumably with the retirement it should help push those formats forward.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How can I safely update Windows? 2

Submitted by ShamblerBishop
ShamblerBishop writes: I still run Windows 7 because of how worried I am about the increasing intrusiveness of each version of Windows — and ever since Microsoft tried to forcibly install Windows 10 on old Windows versions, I've disabled Windows Update and have avoided all updates.

I can't keep doing this anymore though, because of the severity of security issues which allow easy proliferation of e.g. the WannaCry ransomware — how can I safely update Windows 7, so that I have all of the latest security fixes, without also risking installation of all the privacy invading updates, and without risking a stealth-install of Windows 10?

Submission + - New Logan Story and Character Details Go Inside Wolverine 3 (cloudconsultingservicesinc.com)

Submitted by Cloud Consulting
Cloud Consulting writes: Earlier today, the veil of secrecy swirling around Wolverine 3 was lifted just slightly, with the release of the first poster, which confirmed the official title is Logan. Director James Mangold also took to social media to show fans the second page of the script, which reveals that Wolverine's healing powers have greatly diminished, while the poster showed Wolverine holding the hand of a young girl. Now we have even more details about this story, who this girl may be, and exactly when this story is set.
Long before the poster dropped, there had been rumors that the young mutant X-23, a.k.a. Laura Kinney, would be a part of this story. We even saw set photos with Hugh Jackman and an unidentified young girl, who many have speculated is in fact X-23. The Wrap's sources confirm the girl whose hand Logan is holding is a young mutant, but they wouldn't specify whether it's X-23 or not. The site's sources do confirm, though, that the story is set in the year 2024, and that this story is darker than any of the previous X-Men or Wolverine movies.The report claims that Old Man Logan is in "full effect," with Logan growing sick, causing his powers to fade, and sometimes, he doesn't even fully heal from his injuries. The script page that James Mangold posted revealed that Logan has turned to booze to ease his pain, which isn't terribly surprising since he is often seen drinking in the X-Men and Wolverine movies, with this report adding that he "looks bad" and "drinks a lot." For work, Logan has landed a job driving a Chrysler 300 limousine, which would explain the limousine seen in early set photos, riddled with bullet holes.

As for the mutant child, she ends up getting taken under Logan's wing. This report claims that, in the year 2024, mutant births have gone down drastically, and no one can account for this sharp decrease. There is reportedly a "government-type program" known as Transigen, which is "turning mutant children into killing machines." This girl Logan mentors is said to have two adamantium claws, instead of three. This report also reveals the previously-mysterious character of a supporting cast member.

Stephen Merchant is reportedly playing Caliban, who was portrayed by Tómas Lemarquis in this summer's X-Men: Apocalypse, which was set in the 1980s. In this movie, Caliban helps Logan take care of the ailing Professor X (Patrick Stewart), whose powers have become unstable and there are times where the Professor doesn't even remember who Logan is. None of these details have been confirmed, but hopefully we'll find out more when the first trailer for Logan arrives at some point in the hopefully-near future.

Submission + - Faster Android Updates with "Project Treble" (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Thelasko
Thelasko writes:

Ahead of Google I/O, Google has just dropped a bombshell of a blog post that promises, for real this time, that it is finally doing something about Android's update problems. "Project Treble" is a plan to modularize the Android OS, separating the OS framework code from "vendor specific" hardware code. In theory, this change would allow for a new Android update to be flashed on a device without any involvement from the silicon vendor. Google calls it "the biggest change to the low-level system architecture of Android to date," and it's already live on the Google Pixel's Android O Developer Preview.

Submission + - Apple Invests $200 Million In US Glass Maker Corning (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Apple made news and scored some positive PR earlier this month when the company announced a $1 billion fund aimed at investing in U.S.-based manufacturing. Now it’s ready to announce the first big investment from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund. New York-based Corning Incorporated will be receiving $200 million from the tech giant’s coffers, money that will go toward its Harrodsburg, Kentucky R&D facility. Corning is a logical first choice for Apple. The two companies have worked closely for roughly a decade, when Apple first pushed Corning to create a chemically strengthened glass for the iPhone. The resulting product, Gorilla Glass, has since become the standard for nearly every smartphone maker out there. As Apple helpfully adds in a news release touting the funding, the relationship thus far “has created and sustained nearly 1,000 US jobs across Corning’s R&D, manufacturing and commercial functions, including over 400 in Harrodsburg.” And indeed, aside from a brief dalliance with synthetic sapphire crystal a couple of years back, it’s been a pretty fruitful partnership.

Submission + - An Estimated 25 Million Steam Users Now Have VR Ready GPUs (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: High PC hardware requirements are one reason why VR’s initial buy-in cost is often cited around $1,500, but as GPUs get more powerful and cheaper over time, more people are ending up with ‘VR Ready’ hardware, perhaps without even meaning to. Today an estimated 25 million Steam users already have one of the most expensive parts of the VR Ready equation: a powerful GPU that meets the VR industry’s recommended specifications.

Submission + - Ransomware Using NSA Exploit Leaked by Shadow Brokers Is on a Global Rampage (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ransomware scum are using an SMB exploit leaked by the Shadow Brokers last month to fuel a massive ransomware outbreak that exploded online today, making victims all over the world in huge numbers. The ransomware's name is Wana Decrypt0r, but is also referenced online under various names, such as WannaCry, WannaCrypt0r, WannaCrypt, or WCry.

The ransomware is using the ETERNALBLUE exploit, which uses a vulnerability in the SMBv1 protocol to infect vulnerable computers left exposed online. Microsoft issued a patch for this vulnerability last March, but there are already 36,000 Wana Decrypt0r victims all over the globe, due to the fact they failed to install it.

Until now, the ransomware has laid waste to many Spanish companies, healthcare organizations in the UK, Chinese universities, and Russian government agencies. According to security researchers, the scale of this ransomware outbreak is massive and never-before-seen.

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