For Community Knowledge: DRM
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| For Community Knowledge: DRM | |
| Number | 3352 |
| Broadcast Date | AUGUST 22, 2018 |
| Episode Length | 30:17 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane |
| Guests | Scott Johnson |
Good Old Games has launched on a new site dedicated to promoting DRM-free content. Will it succeed in creating a DRM-free alternative to iTunes and Amazons of the digital marketplace?
Guest
Quick Hits
- Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, posted that Facebook and Instagram have removed hundreds of accounts and pages for “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” thanks to help from security company FireEye. All the accounts were attempting to sway political opinion in the US, Syria and Ukraine. The accounts appeared to originate in Iran and Russia. Twitter also announced it had banned 284 accounts for “coordinated manipulation” originating in Iran.
- China shuts down blockchain news accounts, bans hotels in Beijing from hosting cryptocurrency events
- China has shut down at least eight blockchain-related news accounts on WeChat. Tencent, which operates WeChat said the accounts were shut down for publishing information related to ICOs and cryptocurrency trading-- in violation of regulations that demand content providers comply with "national interests" and "public orders." Separately, Beijing's central Chaoyang district now forbids hotels, office and shopping malls from hosting events promoting cryptocurrencies.
- Qualcomm has followed Huawei in announcing its next system on a chip will be built on the 7 nm process node. Qualcomm says it can be paired with a Snapdragon X50 5G modem. Qualcomm says it is sampling the platform to multiple manufacturers with 5G mobile hotspots set to ship with it by the end of 2018 and in smartphones in the first half of 2019.
Top Stories
- 22 US states have filed a lawsuit to reinstate net neutrality guidelines. An addendum to that suit details throttling of the Santa Clara County Fire Department's unlimited data account, while fighting the Mendocino Complex Fire earlier this year. Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden said Verizon slowed the unlimited account, despite being informed it was impeding crisis-response and essential emergency services. Verizon required the department to switch to a more expensive plan before restoring normal service. People used their own accounts or borrowed from other agancies, until the billing department worked out the switch. Verizon told Ars Technica this was a customer support mistake and its policy is to lift throttling in emergency situations.
- Google Assistant now responds to the command "Tell me something good." Responses will include stories curated by the Solutions Journalism Network from a database of 4,000 stories focused on solutions to society's problems. Examples include reviving the honeybee population or preventing teen alcohol abuse.
- MIT Media Lab researchers Fadel Adib and Francesco Tonolini have developed technology that allows a submerged submarine to communicate with contacts above the water. The system is called TARF or Translational Acustic-RF communication. It consists of two parts. A speaker that resides with the submersed vessel where it would transmit audio signals causing ripples on the surface of the water just micrometers in height. The second part is a modified millimeter radar that would scan the water and detect the ripple modulations and decode them. Using a technique called orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing complex messages can be sent. Currently limitations of the system; one-way only sub to plane, cannot be used when the waves in the water are taller than 6 inches, and large messages will take a long time to send.
- Xiaomi announced the Poco F1 phone running Android 8.1 Oreo with a Snapdragon 845 chip, 4,000mAh battery, Qualcomm Adreno 630 GPU, 6.18-inch 1080p display, fingerprint sensor and face unlock, 20-megapixel selfie cam and dual-rear cameras, coming to India for $300. It also uses three-genration old Gorilla Glass 3, a plastic back, inexpensive speakers, and has no oleophobic coating. Xiaomi product manager Jai Mani told the Verge the company read Reddit forums and determined what people wanted were bigger batteries and decent processors. Xiaomi also reported revenue rose 68.3% in Q2 on strong smartphone sales combined with a rise in its connected devices section. Xiaomi reported net profit of 14.63 billion yuan compared to a net loss of 11.97 billion yuan a year ago. Revenue from outside China doubled year over year.
- Valve announced a beta version of Steam Play for Linux that uses Valve's Wine-based Proton project to let Linux users play Windows-only games. Steam Play now includes native Steamworks and OpenVR support AND an implementation of Direct3D 12 that uses Vulkan for high performance, and DXVK, a Vulkan implementation of Direct3D 11. Games will also automatically recognize any controller supported by Steam, sometimes more than the Windows game itself. Windows games they are supporting today with the new Steam Play beta are QUAKE, Tropico 4, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, DOOM, DOOM VFR, PAYDAY: The Heist, STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, with more to come.
Discussion
Mailbag
- Several of the larger hotels and the majority of hotels/resorts in Las Vegas do have multiple means and methods of checking people/bags upon entry for things like explosives or weapons. Without going into the details of how this works, there are devices at the primary and secondary entrances that are constantly scanning, and there are personnel on staff trained on how to address these issues when they are discovered. These same systems are also used at a variety of museums, stadiums, and performance venues throughout the country and they go well beyond the standard metal detector and x-ray machine. These devices are still considered to be fairly new, but they are now starting to be deployed on a much wider scale. Security professionals are typically not motivated to stay on the cutting edge because they cannot afford to deploy unproven systems. It takes many test and pilot programs to convince a security professional that the hype and the real world results are the same.
- Sent by Scott Napier, PSP Office of Protection Services, Smithsonian Institution
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| Preceded by: "Agree to Disagree on a Degree's Pedigree" |
For Community Knowledge: DRM |
Followed by: "XBox as a Service" |