Shared posts

08 Jun 06:28

Colbert says James Comey treated Trump like the T. rex in Jurassic Park

by Oliver Gettell

With former FBI Director James Comey poised to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee about his interactions with President Trump, Stephen Colbert went digging for material in Comey’s prepared remarks — and naturally, he found a few choice nuggets.

During his Late Show monologue Wednesday, Colbert noted that there’s “a lot of weird stuff” in the document and seemed especially tickled by Comey’s account of Trump asking for a pledge of loyalty.

“I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed,” Comey recalled. “We simply looked at each other in silence.”

“He didn’t move a muscle!” Colbert marveled. “Basically, Comey treated Trump like the T. rex in Jurassic Park.

Launching into a dinosaur impression, Colbert added, “It makes sense — they both have the same size hands.”

Watch the video above for more. The Late Show airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS.

08 Jun 06:26

Pennywise Actor Made Child Actors Cry on the Set of It

by Alex Gilyadov

The It reboot's new Pennywise, Bill Skarsgard did a great job of traumatizing child actors on the set of It.

Speaking with his brother, Alexander for Interview Magazine, Skarsgard revealed he "wasn't very friendly or goofy" during filming and tried his best to make Pennywise as creepy and weird as possible when he was in full makeup.

During the filming of one particular scene, Skarsgard made several child extras cry simply by looking at them. While some "were really intrigued" by Skarsgard's makeup and clown outfit, others were shaking. "I am completely in character," said Skarsgard. "So some of these kids got terrified and started to cry in the middle of the take, and then I realized, 'Holy s**t. What am I doing? What is this? This is horrible.'"

Continue reading…

08 Jun 06:08

Wonder Woman Easter Eggs, References and Trivia

by Jesse Schedeen

The DC Extended Universe just became a bigger and more interesting place thanks to the release of Wonder Woman. Now we know the story of how Diana of Themyscira first ventured into man's world and helped save humankind from annihilation in the waning days of World War I.

Even though Wonder Woman takes place about 100 years before the events of Batman v Superman and the rest of the DCEU, the film features a number of interesting cameos and connections to the comics for eagle-eyed fans.

But don't worry if you didn't catch everything. We've put together a slideshow that breaks down all the big cameos and Easter eggs in the movie.

While the film was packed to the gills with cool comic book homages, it did leave us scratching our heads a few times. Check out our list of 5 WTF questions we're asking after having seen the movie.

Continue reading…

06 Jun 10:55

13 Essential Facts about Dark Universe from Its Creator

by Daniel Krupa

Dark Universe is almost here. If you didn't know, that's the snazzy new name for Universal’s new cinematic universe drawing together its classic monsters.

The Mummy is first up, written and directed by Alex Kurtzman, who also serves as one of the key architects of this new universe of gods and monsters.

We spoke to him at length about the overarching project and the rules governing its creation.

It's clear from our conversations that Kurtzman is a lifelong and passionate fan of Universal’s classic monsters, and while these new movies will be indebted to a wider horror tradition, he sees those original movies almost as a genre in their own right.

Continue reading…

06 Jun 10:53

SpaceX's re-launched Dragon capsule arrives at the ISS

by Timothy J. Seppala
This weekend's big SpaceX news has nearly reached its logical conclusion point: the reused Dragon cargo capsule has been successfully captured by the International Space Station. While that sounds an awful lot like the opening scene of a certain spac...
05 Jun 07:47

Roomba creator wants to do for gardens what he did for your floors

by Jon Fingas
Let's be honest: while planting your garden can be fun, weeding it usually isn't. Not unless you enjoy crouching down for long stretches, anyway. You might not have to endure the drudgery for too much longer, though. Roomba co-creator Joe Jones an...
04 Jun 07:00

SpaceX re-launches a Dragon capsule for the first time

by Jon Fingas
SpaceX is no longer limited to reusing rockets -- it's reusing capsules, too. The private spaceflight outfit has launched a refurbished Dragon cargo capsule (namely, one last used in September 2014) as part of a resupply mission to the International...
03 Jun 19:47

Why the World Needs a Wonder Woman

by Mario-Francisco Robles

In the worst of times, just as in the best of times, we look to heroes to guide us. Sometimes they stand before us a symbol of hope, or simply a reminder that things aren't as bad as we perceive them to be. Other times, they have the ability to pull us out of the depths of despair with just a kind word of encouragement. A hero can even take you back to a simpler, more optimistic time; a time devoid of shades of grey and moral complexity. A time when good could decisively triumph over evil. Today, more than ever, we need a hero that can raise our spirits and remind us that love and compassion are all humanity needs in order to find peace. That hero is Wonder Woman.

Something to consider when thinking of many comics heroes is how they were created to empower the most vulnerable and powerless among us: children. Each of us who gravitated towards superheroes as a child did so, whether we realized it or not, because they had the power to make things better. They didn't need permission, and they weren't at the mercy of anyone else. They were powerful, fearless, and courageous in the face of unspeakable evil.

Continue reading…

03 Jun 07:07

Scientists now know how your brain differentiates faces

by Mallory Locklear
Researchers at Caltech have taken a huge step in figuring out how the brain processes faces. In a study published this week in Cell, the team found that the brain only needs around 200 neurons to differentiate faces from each other.
02 Jun 08:35

Dolphins Have Figured out How to Use Tablets

Dolphins are well known for being smarter than the average bear (and most other animals), but I never imagined I'd see them mucking around with a giant Surface or iPad. College researchers and the National Aquarium in Baltimore created a giant, eight-foot touchscreen with "dolphin-friendly" apps, and the aquatic animals evidently had no trouble using it. The author notes that while Apple may have found new customers to buy its underperforming tablets, dolphins are far too intelligent to buy gear from the fruit company. Biophysicist Marcelo Magnasco says that it was an elegant solution that was absolutely safe for the dolphins, but it has been incredibly rewarding to work with these amazing creatures and see their reactions to our system. "It has always been hard to keep up with dolphins, they are so smart; a fully interactive and programmable system will help us follow them in any direction they take us." Rockefeller University professor Diana Reiss hoped this technologically-sophisticated touchscreen "will be enriching for the dolphins and also enrich our science by opening a window into the dolphin mind." Discussion
02 Jun 07:39

Elon Musk leaves Trump’s council after US exits Paris climate pact

by Roberto Baldwin
Today, president Donald Trump announced that the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris Accord. As promised, Tesla CEO Elon Musk then announced that he would no longer be part of presidential councils based on Trump's decision.
01 Jun 05:46

The world’s largest aircraft prepares for testing

by Rob LeFebvre
We last heard about the Stratolaunch in August 2015, when Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's company Stratolaunch Systems announced plans for test flights with the massive airplane meant to help launch satellite-bearing rockets more efficiently. Those...
01 Jun 05:44

Google's virtual museum tours tell you more about the art

by David Lumb
Google has built tools to explore art since 2011, when it began uploading gigapixel images of classic pieces. The tech titan introduced museum floor plans and walking tour info to Google Maps as well as its Art and Culture app, released last July, to...
30 May 08:12

NVIDIA 'Max-Q' gaming laptops: ultrabooks with GTX 1080 power

by Richard Lawler
Based on NVIDIA's 2017 Computex announcements, PC gamers won't have to choose between bulky gaming laptops and desktop-level processing power for much longer. A new design called "Max-Q" is arriving in new laptops that it claims are both 3x thinner a...
29 May 06:15

Microsoft’s transition to Git/GVFS for Windows development is almost complete

by Pradeep

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it is working on a solution that allows Git client to scale to really huge repos. The new solution was called GVFS (Git Virtual File System). GVFS virtualizes the file system beneath your repo and makes it appear as though all the files in your repo are present, but in reality only downloads a file the first time it is opened. It also actively manages how much of the repo Git has to consider in operations like checkout and status, since any file that has not been hydrated can be safely ignored.

Microsoft today provided an update on the progress they have made with GVFS. GVFS team has almost completed the rollout of Git/GVFS to the Windows team at Microsoft. This is a huge milestone and a validation to the project. If it works for Windows codebase, then it should work for almost all other large codebase projects. Microsoft also shared some numbers related to Windows team and its codebase. The Windows team is about 4,000 engineers and the engineering system produces 1,760 daily “lab builds” across 440 branches. Windows code base is approximately 3.5M files with a size of about 300GB.

Microsoft has made some significant performance improvements and introduced Git proxies. Also, GVFS is an open source project and Microsoft has started making regular updates to the published code base. Starting today, Microsoft is opening GVFS for external contributions. Microsoft also worked with the community to begin to build support into popular tools – like SourceTree, Tower, Visual Studio, etc.

GVFS is free to use. Just download it from GitHub, create a Visual Studio Team Services account with a Git repo in it and you can start using the setup.

29 May 06:13

Explore your virtual home with VeriCon’s new HoloLens app

by Greg Jordan

Dutch company VeriCon, a structural engineering firm, has just created a new HoloLens app that would allow its customers to view the inside and outside of their homes in Virtual Reality. Above, you can check out a VeriCorn customer visualizing her new home after seeing 2D drawings of her new home.

With this, you would be able to walk through the home, check out the views from specific windows, check out all of the floor space, furniture locations, and much more.

In addition to this, VeriCon is working on using HoloLens with structural engineers, architects, and other project managers to better visualize building structure layouts to tackle any problems with electrical, plumbing, or other building system issues before they arise.

Sander Ekstijn, a senior consultant at VeriCon said about the app:

This woman was the buyer of the house and had never before heard or seen this technology. She had looked at many 2D drawings of her house, but when it came to live at the exact location in 3D with the HoloLens, she was thrilled checking out every room for size and views outside. Because the architect already provided some furniture, it really feels like you are there. She almost wanted to offer us coffee from the virtual kitchen. Upstairs she was afraid to walk ‘through’ the bed and walked around it.

We have special voice commands implemented to move up/down a floor. Since we had enough space outside, we did not have to move the house around us, but we also have move forward/backward, so you can do this in a small space, too.

But indeed, a very nice experience to show the power of 3D mixed reality. Looking from the inside to the garden and the other way around. Also, she was pointing at a wall, so we all had to look at the surface tablet to get that. She was so immersed in the experience that she had no idea we could not see ‘that’ wall.

29 May 06:05

Man holds umbrella while driving convertible Mercedes in the rain

by Simon Davis
This is the utterly bizarre moment a motorist was caught using an umbrella to shield himself from the rain while driving his convertible with the top down. The footage, which was recorded in...
28 May 07:02

Things I Did Not Know - Periods and Plusses in Gmail Addresses

by admin

I often have to explain to folks that email addresses are not case sensitive.  But I confess I never knew this (applicable only to Gmail I think, other systems are different)

I recently discovered some little-known ways to use your Gmail address that can give you greater control over your inbox and save you some time and headache. When you choose a Gmail address, you actually get more than just "yourusername@gmail.com." Here are two different ways you can modify your Gmail address and still get your mail:

  • Append a plus ("+") sign and any combination of words or numbers after your email address. For example, if your name was hikingfan@gmail.com, you could send mail to hikingfan+friends@gmail.com or hikingfan+mailinglists@gmail.com.
  • Insert one or several dots (".") anywhere in your email address. Gmail doesn't recognize periods as characters in addresses -- we just ignore them. For example, you could tell people your address was hikingfan@gmail.com, hiking.fan@gmail.com or hi.kin.g.fan@gmail.com. (We understand that there has been some confusion about this in the past, but to settle it once and for all, you can indeed receive mail at all the variations with dots.)

For me, the real value in being able to manipulate your email address is that it makes it really easy to filter on those variants. For example you could use hikingfan+bank@gmail.com when you sign up for online banking and then set up a filter to automatically star, archive or label emails addressed to hikingfan+bank. You can also use this when you register for a service and think they might share your information. For example, I added "+donation" when I gave money to a political organization once, and now when I see emails from other groups to that address, I know how they got it. Solution: filtered to auto-delete.

 

28 May 06:57

Radio Shack Closing Its Doors after 96 Years This Memorial Day Weekend

Radio Shack was actually where I bought my first PC (IBM Aptiva) but I don't think I have any tears to shed for the retailer, as they never did a great job of innovating and competing with their rivals. While the franchise will live on through its online storefront, many of the brick-and-mortar stores that have managed to stay standing will be now be going away. They are actually auctioning off a bunch of "nostalgic memorabilia" from their historic archives in Fort Worth, Texas: these include unused original TRS-80 Microcomputers, Realistic Transistor Radios, Tandy computer software games, and original brick cell phones. At its peak, RadioShack operated over 7,300 stores with retail sales and operating revenue in the billions of dollars and its locations were famously within 3 miles of more than 95% of households across America. This Memorial Day Weekend, we will be closing over 1,000 stores, leaving less than 70 corporate and 500 RadioShack dealer stores around the country. With 96 years of history, go say goodbye to the RadioShack in your neighborhood. This weekend you still have an opportunity to come visit your nearby store for your electronic needs at great liquidation sale prices, before we close the doors for good. Discussion
27 May 07:22

Far Cry 5 Will Almost Certainly Be Divisive

by Ryan McCaffrey

Far Cry 5 is almost certainly going to get talked about by the mainstream news media. Whether that idea excites you, annoys you, or something else is up to you. But Far Cry is going places that no big-budget, AAA-level game has gone in recent times, if ever.

You play a sheriff’s deputy caught up in a war between the US Marshal Service and Hope County’s resident cult leader, Joseph – a man who believes he’s been chosen to protect his followers from a government collapse he believes to be imminent – and his family: brothers Jacob and John and their half-sister, Faith. You won’t be alone, of course. Joining you in the battle for Hope County’s soul are potential allies like Pastor Jerome, whose church has come under fire by Joseph’s group; Mary May, whose father was killed by the cult; and Nick Rye, a pilot and soon-to-be father who wants to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who both fought for the US.

Continue reading…

26 May 05:38

T.J. Miller Exits Silicon Valley for Season 5

by Alex Gilyadov

HBO has renewed a pair of its comedies, Veep and Silicon Valley, but one of their stars won't be returning.

Veep will return for a seventh season and Silicon Valley for a fifth in 2018, HBO announced today, but Silicon Valley star T.J. Miller won't be back, with the show's current fourth season set to be his last.

T.J. Miller as Erlich Bachman in Silicon Valley.

HBO confirmed the news of Miller's departure in a statement to Vulture, saying "The producers of Silicon Valley and T.J. Miller have mutually agreed that T.J. will not return for season 5. In Erlich Bachman, T.J. has brought to life an unforgettable character, and while his presence on the show will be missed, we appreciate his contribution and look forward to future collaborations."

Continue reading…

24 May 19:50

The Flash: How Season 3 Finale's Draws From the Comics

by Jesse Schedeen

Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Flash's Season 3 finale! Read our review of "Finish Line."

The Flash's Season 3 finale ended with what could wind up being the show's most status quo-altering twist yet, as Barry Allen retreated into the Speed Force to pay his penance for creating the Flashpoint timeline and Savitar. The rest of Team Flash will have to carry on in his absence in Season 4. Depending how far the writers are willing to take this new development, we could be looking at a fourth season driven not by Grant Gustin's Barry Allen, but by Keiynan Lonsdale's Wally West.

Continue reading…

24 May 09:19

Blockstack's decentralized internet browser uses bitcoin tech

by Mariella Moon
Blockchains used to be exclusively associated with bitcoins until other industries saw how useful the digital distributed ledger can be. Walmart used it to identify expired food that needed to be pulled from its shelves, and at least one shipping com...
24 May 05:39

Malicious Subtitles Allow Hackers to Commandeer Devices Running Streaming Software

Researchers from Check Point have discovered a nasty vulnerability in streaming software that allows malicious subtitles to open an attack vector style security breach onto devices running streaming software such as Kodi, VLC, strem.io and Popcorn Time. It is equivalent to clicking "Yes" to installing malicious software from a website without ever seeing the prompt. Check Point researchers note that "We estimate there are approximately 200 million video players and streamers that currently run the vulnerable software, making this one of the most widespread, easily accessed and zero-resistance vulnerability reported in recent years". The vulnerability allows the hacker to have total control of the device. The Check Point researchers describe the attack vector as a seemingly innocent chain of trust where users choose a subtitle thinking that it is nothing more than a text file. Antivirus developers pay little to no attention to the subtitle file formats as different streaming software may have 25 or more subtitle types that it can access. Each of these different formats opens the streaming software, and thus the user's device, to vulnerabilities. Since it is considered just innocent subtitles, little has been done to patch the security holes over the years. It is extremely easy to spread the malicious subtitle files as the most popular subtitles are automatically loaded by many streaming media players. Subtitle repositories such as OpenSubtitles.org rank and index subtitles. The Check Point researchers also noted that it was even easier to manipulate the subtitle rankings on these websites to make sure that the malicious files are ranked highest. I would like to thank TorrentFreak for the original article that I referenced. By conducting attacks through subtitles, hackers can take complete control over any device running them. From this point on, the attacker can do whatever he wants with the victim's machine, whether it is a PC, a smart TV, or a mobile device. The potential damage the attacker can inflict is endless, ranging anywhere from stealing sensitive information, installing ransomware, mass Denial of Service attacks, and much more. Which media players are affected? To date, we tested and found vulnerabilities in four of the most prominent media players: VLC, Kodi, Popcorn Time and Stremio. We have reason to believe similar vulnerabilities exist in other media players as well. We followed the responsible disclosure guidelines and reported all vulnerabilities and exploits to the developers of the vulnerable media players. Some of the issues were already fixed, while others are still under investigation. To allow the developers more time to address the vulnerabilities, we've decided not to publish any further technical details at this point. Discussion
24 May 05:22

The Last Jedi Photos Reveal Captain Phasma Unmasked

by Jonathon Dornbush

A new look at the Star Wars: The Last Jedi's has been revealed via Vanity Fair's new Annie Leibovitz covers, including a first look at Captain Phasma unmasked.

As both a 40th anniversary celebration for Star Wars Episode IV — A New Hope and in anticipation of The Last Jedi's December release, Vanity Fair's newest issue features four Star Wars covers, all photographed by Leibovitz. Check out one below, featuring Gwendoline Christie as Phasma, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, and Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux.

Vanity Fair Star Wars: The Last Jedi Cover, photographed by Annie Leibovitz

Continue reading…

21 May 09:08

IBM makes quantum computing breakthrough with 'fastest' 17-qubit processor

by tom.allen@incisivemedia.com(Tom Allen)
IBM makes quantum computing breakthrough with 'fastest' 17-qubit processor

Prototype is 'at least' twice as powerful as before

21 May 08:59

Is Marvel TV About to Introduce SWORD?

by Jesse Schedeen

Full spoilers for Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: Season 4 and speculation about how the show may tie to Marvel's Inhumans continue below.

It's not easy being the Director of SHIELD in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Every time Phil Coulson overcomes one problem, another one rears its head. That was very much the case with the recent Agents of SHIELD: Season 4 finale. Just as Coulson and his team sat down to enjoy some well-deserved R&R, they found themselves kidnapped and dragged to a mysterious space station. As far as cliffhangers go, it was a biggie.

And while at first glance it might seem hard to glean much from this sudden plot twist, we have a theory about where the series is heading in Season 5. We think Agents of SHIELD is gearing up to introduce the organization SWORD to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For more on SHIELD's finale, make sure to check out our Q&A with the showrunners about Season 5 and heading to space.

Continue reading…

20 May 12:39

A new 'Life is Strange' game is in the works

by Nick Summers
The episodic, time-bending teenage drama of Life is Strange is coming back for a second season. Developer Dontnod Entertainment confirmed the news in a brief YouTube video, but said little about the premise or when it will be released. "We've been wo...
20 May 12:34

Facebook adds food ordering so you never have to leave

by Rob LeFebvre
The Facebook additions are coming fast and furious these days, with possible Instagram notifications, a revamped Marketplace, and a new visual style for comments. TechCrunch reports that the latest feature, rolling out to select users today, brings o...
20 May 12:33

Melted permafrost floods entrance to the doomsday seed vault (updated)

by David Lumb
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was designed to be a repository should the worst happen and a disaster decimate crops around the world. But it was recently breached by floodwater from surrounding permafrost that melted after the hottest year on record...