Hanging items on a nail isn’t hard, but it’s always tough to hang something you can’t see. You need the string to thread the nail, but not the wooden frame itself. You could photocopy a template,but your poster or painting might be too big. A simple fork can make the job easier.
The International Space Station fills several roles for NASA—providing a toehold in outer space for human activity, testing closed-loop technologies for long-duration spaceflight, and developing international partnerships. But perhaps the station's biggest selling point is science. It was, after all, designated a national laboratory in 2005. And what does a lab need? Scientists.
Yet despite the vastly increased diversity of the astronaut corps since the early, macho days of the Mercury 7, many astronauts today are still fighter pilots, engineers, and surgeons. Relatively few are bonafide research scientists. But Kate Rubins is, and she spent 115 days on the space station this summer and fall. Before becoming an astronaut, Rubins trained in molecular biology and led a laboratory of more than a dozen researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She and her team specialized in viruses such as Ebola and Marburg, and their field work took them to Central and Western Africa.
The Game Awards returned for another annual iteration on Thursday, and like in years past, the online-streamed ceremony was probably more interesting because of game trailer debuts than any of its awards—with the exception of the very first award given.
Last year's broadcast was notable thanks to a weird no-show: Metal Gear Solid series creator Hideo Kojima, who wasn't allowed to attend thanks to contract issues with his former employers at Konami. "What happened to Hideo Kojima last year was a tragedy," a visibly shaken host Geoff Keighley told the crowd—referring specifically to Konami's choice to "lock him in a room" thanks to those squabbles—before handing him the show's Industry Icon award.
Death Stranding December 2016 trailer.
"Last year, I thought I lost everything," Kojima told the crowd in accepting the award. "But I didn't lose anything." He then revealed a new cinematic, non-gameplay trailer for his new PlayStation-exclusive game, Death Stranding, which was apparently rendered in real time on a PlayStation 4—and if so, it's shaping up to be quite the stunner of a game.
Enlarge / Avalanche once hosted ransomware that spoofed messages from law enforcement. Now, a team of 40 law enforcement agencies has shut it down. (credit: Symantec)
[Update, 3:00 PM EDT: This story has been updated with additional details from The Shadowserver Foundation and Europol.]
A botnet that has served up phishing attacks and at least 17 different malware families to victims for much of this decade has been taken down in a coordinated effort by an international group of law enforcement agencies and security firms. Law enforcement officials seized command and control servers and took control of more than 800,000 Internet domains used by the botnet, dubbed "Avalanche," which has been in operation in some form since at least late 2009.
"The operation involves arrests and searches in five countries," representatives of the FBI and US Department of Justice said in a joint statement issued today. "More than 50 Avalanche servers worldwide were taken offline."
The pace at which new Video Game Story Time episodes are being released are insane. As long as they make these videos I will continue to share and promote them. I enjoy them that much.
For years now, gamers have argued that letting PC and console players face each other in first-person shooters would result in a ridiculously unbalanced playing field—that the superior precision and quickness of mouse aiming would utterly dominate the competition using slower, touchier analog sticks, all things being equal. This weekend, Microsoft is rolling out a public crossplay test for Gears of War 4 that could help settle that argument once and for all.
Community Manager OctusTC posted in the Gears of War forums yesterday that cross-platform play would be open between Friday, December 2 and Monday, December 5. The event is being referred to as a "special test weekend... conducted to evaluate the potential of a more permanent crossplay solution in the future to allow Windows 10 and Xbox One gamers to play together in Versus outside of Private Matches" (cross-platform play is already allowed in public co-operative matches).
"Crossplay is divisive in any Versus experience, and Gears of War 4 is no different," OctusTC continues. "From the beginning, we stated our intention to keep both platforms separate in non-cooperative game modes in order to preserve competitive balance. Conserving a fair, competitive environment remains a top priority for us."
Had a similar conversation with my youngest daughter recently. We were watching latest episode of Game Sack and I mentioned one that I owned some of the games they showed. She asked me if they were fun and I told her I didn't know because I have never played them. What I didn't tell her is that I probably never will. Sad, but true.
Congress has passed a law protecting the right of US consumers to post negative online reviews without fear of retaliation from companies.
The bipartisan Consumer Review Fairness Act was passed by unanimous consent in the US Senate yesterday, a Senate Commerce Committee announcement said. The bill, introduced in 2014, was already approved by the House of Representatives and now awaits President Obama's signature.
The Commerce Committee held a hearing on gag clauses a year ago and said it heard "testimony from Ms. Jen Palmer, a plaintiff in Palmer v. KlearGear, where a company demanded the removal of a negative online review or payment of $3,500 in fines because the online merchant’s terms of service included a non-disparagement clause. When the review was not taken down, the company reported the unpaid $3,500 to a credit reporting agency as an outstanding debt, which negatively impacted the Palmers’ credit."
Polish artist and cosplayer Shappi Workshop looks absolutely AMAZING as Mercy from Overwatch! If you play the game and know the character, I’m sure you’ve noticed that Shappi’s costume is nothing short of perfect, including her hair and staff. Photography by Lewandowsky Photography & Studio Zahora.
Ars Technica's full Final Fantasy XV review is coming, but because the game is so large—and only showed up at our doorsteps on Sunday—we've splintered into two factions. Everyone in the first faction wants to take their time sitting with the Japanese series' large, open-world return. They want to sink in however many hours it takes to beat the primary campaign mode and linger in places like side quests and fishing holes.
The second faction (meaning yours truly) was told to bang out about 10 hours of play, with a mix of campaign and side content, and write up impressions before the game hits stores on Tuesday. I jumped on the opportunity because I thought 10 hours would be more than enough to answer a question I've had since my first press-only demo of the game in May: did Square-Enix finally make a Final Fantasy game that I, a lapsed fan of the series, would want to complete?
At this point, I kind of regret taking on the task.
Had a similar conversation with my youngest daughter recently. We were watching latest episode of Game Sack and I mentioned one that I owned some of the games they showed. She asked me if they were fun and I told her I didn't know because I have never played them. What I didn't tell her is that I probably never will. Sad, but true.
