Comment Re:"Average" bomber. (Score 1) 156
At this point all their base, did in fact, belong to them.
At this point CATS was just doing a villain monologue on screen.
Comment Re:Well, this is believable... (Score 2) 44
I expect they're worried about being replaced by AI themselves. Cost cutting here is probably pre-emptive.
You can build pretty decent sites with $20 Claude Pro, no WordPress or other knowledge required.
Comment Re: The researchers concluded... Hmmm. (Score 4, Informative) 46
It is not. If you add up the gravity from all the visible stars and dust, the mass is not enough to hold the galaxies together. Something that is not visible is involved and no one knows what it is.
Submission + - Bill To Block Publishers From Killing Online Games Advances In California (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A bill focused on maintaining long-term playable access to online games has passed out of the California Assembly’s appropriations committee, setting up a floor vote by the full legislative body. The advancement is a major win for Stop Killing Games‘ grassroots game preservation movement and comes over the objections of industry lobbyists at the Entertainment Software Association. California’s Protect Our Games Act, as currently written, would require digital game publishers who cut off support for an online game to either provide a full refund to players or offer an updated version of the game “that enables its continued use independent of services controlled by the operator.” The act would also require publishers to notify players 60 days before the cessation of “services necessary for the ordinary use of the digital game.”
As currently amended, the act would not apply to completely free games and games offered “solely for the duration of [a] subscription. Any other game offered for sale in California on or after January 1, 2027, would be subject to the law if it passes. [...] In a formal statement of support for the bill sent to the California legislature, SKG wrote that “there is no other medium in which a product can be marketed and sold to a consumer and then ripped away without notice As live service games rise in popularity for game developers and gamers alike, end-of-life procedures are essential tools to ensure prolonged access to the games consumers pay to enjoy.”
The Entertainment Software Association, which helps represent the interests of major game publishers, publicly told the California Assembly last month that the bill misrepresents how modern game distribution actually works. “Consumers receive a license to access and use a game, not an unrestricted ownership interest in the underlying work,” the ESA wrote. The eventual shutdown of outdated or obsolete games is “a natural feature of modern software,” the group added, especially when that software requires online infrastructure maintenance. The ESA also said the bill would impose unreasonable expectations on publishers regarding licensing rights for music or IP rights, which are often negotiated on a time-limited basis. “A legal requirement to keep games playable indefinitely could place publishers in an impossible position—forcing them to renegotiate licenses indefinitely or alter games in ways that may not be legally or technically feasible,” they wrote.
As currently amended, the act would not apply to completely free games and games offered “solely for the duration of [a] subscription. Any other game offered for sale in California on or after January 1, 2027, would be subject to the law if it passes. [...] In a formal statement of support for the bill sent to the California legislature, SKG wrote that “there is no other medium in which a product can be marketed and sold to a consumer and then ripped away without notice As live service games rise in popularity for game developers and gamers alike, end-of-life procedures are essential tools to ensure prolonged access to the games consumers pay to enjoy.”
The Entertainment Software Association, which helps represent the interests of major game publishers, publicly told the California Assembly last month that the bill misrepresents how modern game distribution actually works. “Consumers receive a license to access and use a game, not an unrestricted ownership interest in the underlying work,” the ESA wrote. The eventual shutdown of outdated or obsolete games is “a natural feature of modern software,” the group added, especially when that software requires online infrastructure maintenance. The ESA also said the bill would impose unreasonable expectations on publishers regarding licensing rights for music or IP rights, which are often negotiated on a time-limited basis. “A legal requirement to keep games playable indefinitely could place publishers in an impossible position—forcing them to renegotiate licenses indefinitely or alter games in ways that may not be legally or technically feasible,” they wrote.
Comment Re: About damn time (Score 1, Offtopic) 95
Would you suggest using Chinese hosted data centers? Would you trust the CCP that much?
US has issues, but there is not an equivalency in the least.
Comment Re: 2TB SSD (Score 1) 70
Most of the world died at the ripe old age of forty for centuries. Lack of food, not "chemicals", is a more common cause of death.
Comment Malus means Apple (Score 1) 120
Comment Re: Bold move, but jolly good! (Score 2) 95
I agree, but like any kind of prisoner, they find a way around the system. iPads aren't banned, but still can do messaging and social media. Other issues include college courses requiring MFA, which is always a cell phone authentication app or text.
Comment I will admit (Score 2) 53
There is a part of me that is ever so slightly disappointed that they didn't emerge from the capsule wearing ape masks.
Comment Here's an idea (Score 3, Insightful) 279
What if we enacted policies to make having children, you know, affordable?
Comment Re:How did they get initial access to the routers? (Score 2) 70
According to a Brian Krebs article, initial access to devices such as routers and TV boxes that are vulnerable on the LAN side of a NATed home internet connection is sometimes via 'free' smartphone games and apps that contain residential proxy software.
Some 'free' smartphone games and apps make money by allowing nefarious people to relay traffic through your home internet connection for things like fake social media accounts and credit card fraud but sometimes they also relay traffic to LAN ip addresses, typically 192.168.0.x, allowing hacking of devices that have default passwords, security holes in the crappy web interface, "Android Debug Bridge" enable and suchlike.
Comment hidden gotcha for people who avoid using a Microso (Score 4, Interesting) 114
There is a hidden gotcha for people who avoid using a Microsoft account to log in to a personal Windows machine.
It has become common for a new laptop to be supplied with bitlocker disk encryption enabled, without the user being aware.
If you log on using a Microsoft Account then the bitlocker key gets stored in the account. Microsoft can give the key to police or feds when they seize a laptop. If Windows stops booting for some reason, or the key gets erased from the TPM which is not uncommon, then to take the drive out of the computer and retrieve your files you need the key and you can get it from the Microsoft account.
If someone jumps through the hoops to avoid using a Microsoft account then later they can find they can't take the disk/ssd out and read it by connecting it to another computer. If the computer stops booting, they did not save the bitlocker key because they did not know the drive was encrypted and did not have an up to date backup then, oh no, they have permanently lost their files.
If Windows gets as far as reading the bitlocker key from the TPM chip (which happens before user log in), then sometimes it is possible to solder wires to the I2C bus, record the data with a hardware logic analyzer and spend a week customizing some software from github to extract the bitlocker key. If someone takes their personal windows laptop to a local computer shop or IT department then they almost certainly are not capable of that. Some models of laptop, intended for business, have a BIOS option to erase the TPM if opening of the laptop case is detected.
There is a security choice between:
1) Bitocker encryption and MS account: If my laptop gets lost or stolen then whoever has it will find it very difficult to access my files but Microsoft can prevent me logging in to my own computer, if I don't have access to the email I used for the Microsoft account or the Microsoft account password then I may loose my files later.
2) No disk encryption. Someone who steals or finds my laptop can access my files.
3) Bitlocker and windows login with an MS account. If you don't have backups and you didn't save the bitlocker key then you may be screwed later.
I hate Microsoft trying to force me to use a Microsoft account on a personal Windows laptop and I hate the boobytrap of bitlocker that you did not know was in use even more.
Comment Re:pfft (Score 4, Funny) 85
Meh, I keep mine on a floppies, and swap between aloud and bloud.
Comment It's very on the nose (Score 1) 6
I uploaded a photo of my wife and told it to make something that would showcase all the cool new features.
NB2 generated a photo of my wife using the editor to make a picture.
Touche, sir.
Comment 300 people is a startup? (Score 1) 101
I'm gonna need a bigger garage!
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