Talynebear

Comic by: KetchupTriumph

Submitted by: (via Reddit)

Porn-trolling operation Prenda Law sued thousands for illegally downloading porn files over BitTorrent. Now, a new document from Comcast appears to confirm suspicions that it was actually Prenda mastermind John Steele who uploaded those files.

If true, it would be a major blow to Prenda's case. There could be an "implied license" to any porn uploaded by Prenda, since it was initiating the sharing of the copyrighted material. The complaints about piracy and lawsuits would be farces if Steele himself initiated the piracy. Prenda and its principals are already in serious trouble after a federal judge issued a tough sanctions order against the firm.

The allegations about uploading porn to The Pirate Bay to create a "honeypot" to lure downloaders first became public in June, when an expert report filed by Delvan Neville was filed in a Florida case. The allegations gained steam when The Pirate Bay dug through its own backup tapes to find more evidence linking John Steele to an account called sharkmp4.

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Attackers exploited a recently patched vulnerability in the Firefox browser to uncloak users of the Tor anonymity service, and the attack code is now publicly circulating online. While the exploit was most likely designed to identify people alleged to have frequented a child porn forum recently targeted by the FBI, anonymity advocates say the code could be used against almost any Tor user.

A piece of malicious JavaScript was found embedded in webpages delivered by Freedom Hosting, a provider of "hidden services" that are available only to people surfing anonymously through Tor. The attack code exploited a memory-management vulnerability, forcing Firefox to send a unique identifier to a third-party server using a public IP address that can be linked back to the person's ISP. The exploit contained several hallmarks of professional malware development, including "heap spraying" techniques to bypass Windows security protections and the loading of executable code that prompted compromised machines to send the identifying information to a server located in Virginia, according to an analysis by researcher Vlad Tsrklevich.

Discovery of the exploit came as the FBI reportedly sought the extradition of Freedom Host founder on child porn charges. Word of 28-year-old Eric Eoin Marques's arrest also came as members of the Tor Project reported the disappearance of a "large number" of hidden service addresses used by Freedom Hosting. The confluence of the three events has prompted speculation that the de-anonymizing exploit is the work of the FBI or another organized group targeting child pornographers.

After a long period during which the emphasis had been on building ever-faster computer circuits, things have shifted toward making them more energy-efficient. Some efficiency gains have come through small tweaks to the layout of the individual components, but most of the efficiency was a product of changes to the manufacturing process: new materials and ever-smaller features. Unfortunately, we're getting close to the point where shrinking the features of circuits any further will cause the inherent noise of quantum mechanics to start interfering with the chip's operations.

But that doesn't mean an end to potential improvements. A team of Chinese researchers have now described a new structure for the individual gates that control the flow of electrons within chips. Their design, which they're calling a semi-floating gate, switches states in as little as a nanosecond, and it requires very little power to operate.

The gates in electronics share a common design. They have a source of electrons and a drain for them connected by something that can be switched between two states: one that allows the current to flow between the source and drain and one where the current is blocked. Typically, the switch material has been a semiconductor that directly connects the source and the drain. A neighboring bit of material can switch the semiconductor between insulating and conducting, controlling the flow of electrons through the gate.

Unfortunately, there wasn't an NES-style cardboard game box included with this awesome package.

The package I got from Capcom this week grabbed my attention though. Packaged inside a decently cool metal lunchbox was a golden NES cartridge, both of which were emblazoned with the official art from the upcoming DuckTales Remastered. Amidst some shredded dollar bills in the box was a Certificate of Authenticity identifying it as one of only 150 copies. There were a few other cute, retro-inspired touches: a coupon for "green cheese of longevity," a flier advertising "upcoming" Capcom games like Mega Man 3, and a fake ad for a music album packed with duck-themed puns.

I heard Capcom PR did something similar when Mega Man 9 came out, sending members of the press a non-functional cartridge shell in an authentic box. So at first I figured that this cartridge was similarly a stylish art piece in the style of the NES carts of old. When I looked on the underside of the cartridge though, I noticed a set of surprisingly real looking contacts protruding out.

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Comic by: GigaNitros

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