Last year, we announced the evolution of the device inventory view in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. The revamped device inventory view gave SOC analysts visibility into all discovered devices, counts and functional features (such as, search) that enhanced the overall user experience. To build on top of this work, we are expanding our device discovery capabilities through our existing network telemetry and RiskIQ integration. We’re thrilled to announce the ability to discover internet-facing devices is now in public preview.

 

Threat actors are constantly scanning the internet to identify exposed devices, whether it’s part of an opportunistic malicious activity or a wider targeted campaign. These devices serve as highly accessible entry points to an organization’s environment. Mapping your organization’s external attack surface is a key part of security posture management. However, security teams are faced with the challenges of identifying and prioritizing exposed devices to address the greatest threats on their most critical devices.

 

To help organizations extend their threat protection across internet-facing devices, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint will automatically map and flag onboarded devices that are exposed to the internet in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal, providing more context to security teams and deeper insights into device exploitability.  By providing a view into internet-facing devices, security teams can better prioritize alerts, recommendations and incidents as internet-facing devices oftentimes become an adversary's entry point into the corporate network.  

 

New capabilities to map internet-facing devices

Mapping internet-facing devices is often challenging since there is not a single indicator or logic used to determine that a device is accessible from the internet. With many organizations using public IP ranges, numerous data sources, and classification logics to cross-reference their devices, these varying methodologies make it more difficult for admins to gather the visibility and verify the accuracy of the insights generated across their digital estate. With the new capabilities in Microsoft 365 Defender, we can leverage our existing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint telemetries and integration with RiskIQ to map internet-facing devices through a standardized approach that helps gather these insights with precision and less manual effort.

 

Integration with RiskIQ

RiskIQ has catalogued the services, applications, and devices exposed on the IPv4 Internet. By leveraging the integration within Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, administrators are able to identify the exact devices that are internet facing. In addition to gaining visibility into internet-facing devices, the RiskIQ integration works hand-in-hand with Defender for Endpoint’s network traffic parsing capability, to provide concrete evidence of network exposures through the obscured view of the NAT.

 

Relying on Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Signals

The device network connections captured as part of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint signals help to identify internet-facing devices. Using this information, we can identify which external, incoming connections indicate a machine to be facing the internet.

 

To identify the external IPs that are communicating with internal devices, we need to determine which subnets are part of the corporate network. We can see subnets for machines that are protected by Defender for Endpoint. This information helps to determine whether a connection captured by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is internal, or external.

 

Let’s take a look at the user experience

 The classified internet-facing devices will appear with the corresponding tag in the device inventory and will also be available via Advanced Hunting.

 

 

 

Notice how the internet-facing devices which were publicly scanned and masked behind the NAT configuration, can now be observed as part of the below query results.

 

 

 

Figure 2 - Querying for internet facing devices via Advanced Hunting

 

The device pane now shows the internet-facing properties:

 

 

Figure 3 - Device pane

 

Try this for yourself by using this example query which returns the latest results on internet-facing devices:

 

 

DeviceInfo 
| where Timestamp > ago(7d) 
| where IsInternetFacing 
| extend InternetFacingInfo = AdditionalFields 
| extend InternetFacingReason = extractjson("$.InternetFacingReason", InternetFacingInfo, typeof(string)), InternetFacingLocalPort = extractjson("$.InternetFacingLocalPort", InternetFacingInfo, typeof(int)), InternetFacingScannedPublicPort = extractjson("$.InternetFacingScannedPublicPort", InternetFacingInfo, typeof(int)), InternetFacingScannedPublicIp = extractjson("$.InternetFacingScannedPublicIp", InternetFacingInfo, typeof(string)), InternetFacingLocalIp = extractjson("$.InternetFacingLocalIp", InternetFacingInfo, typeof(string)), InternetFacingTransportProtocol=extractjson("$.InternetFacingTransportProtocol", InternetFacingInfo, typeof(string)), InternetFacingLastSeen = extractjson("$.InternetFacingLastSeen", InternetFacingInfo, typeof(datetime)) 
| summarize arg_max(Timestamp, *) by DeviceId

 

 

The results here will provide streamed instances of the internet-facing devices with their aggregated evidence in the “AdditionalFields” column.

 

For example:

InternetFacingLastSeen – last time the device was updated as internet facing.

InternetFacingReason – the detection method used to identify internet facing.

InternetFacingPublicScannedIp – what the external address is, in case NAT was detected.

 

Resources

For those looking to learn more about device discovery, here are some additional resources you can explore.

1. Learn more about Investigating internet-facing devices
2. Learn more about Microsoft Defender Device Discovery
3. Learn more about Network Device Discovery

Aspiring partners accuse Apple of copying their ideas. From a report: It sounded like a dream partnership when Apple reached out to Joe Kiani, the founder of a company that makes blood-oxygen measurement devices. He figured his technology was a perfect fit for the Apple Watch. Soon after meeting him, Apple began hiring employees from his company, Masimo, including engineers and its chief medical officer. Apple offered to double their salaries, Mr. Kiani said. In 2019, Apple published patents under the name of a former Masimo engineer for sensors similar to Masimo's, documents show. The following year, Apple launched a watch that could measure blood oxygen levels. "When Apple takes an interest in a company, it's the kiss of death," said Mr. Kiani. "First, you get all excited. Then you realize that the long-term plan is to do it themselves and take it all." Mr. Kiani is one of more than two dozen executives, inventors, investors and lawyers who described similar encounters with Apple. First, they said, came discussions about potential partnerships or integration of their technology into Apple products. Then, they said, talks stopped and Apple launched its own similar features. Apple said that it doesn't steal technology and that it respects the intellectual property of other companies. It said Masimo and other companies cited in this article are copying Apple, and that it would fight the claims in court. Apple has tried to invalidate hundreds of patents owned by companies that have accused Apple of violating their patents. According to lawyers and executives at some smaller companies, Apple sometimes files multiple petitions on a single patent claim and attempts to invalidate patents unrelated to the initial dispute. Many large companies, particularly in tech, have been known to scoop up employees and technology from smaller potential rivals. Software developers have given a name to what they describe as Apple's behavior in such cases: sherlocking. The term refers to an episode about two decades ago, when Apple released a software product called "Sherlock" that helped users find files on its Mac computers and perform internet searches.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Picard."

Last night, "Star Trek: Picard" wrapped up its 3-season run with its most widely-celebrated arc yet. (You can check out /Film's recap by Witney Seibold here.) Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), and the rest of the Enterprise crew all faced their most formidable enemy, the Borg, and managed to defeat them once and for all. Cue the happy celebrations, the extended epilogue wrapping up the stories of our classic heroes while setting the stage for new adventures to come, and an emotional final scene that sent the original "The Next Generation" cast off into the sunset in as satisfying a way as anyone could've asked for.

All's well that ends well, right? Well, maybe not.

A large part of the season dealt with the presence of Picard and Beverly Crusher's (Gates McFadden) secret lovechild, Jack (Ed Speleers). Although the estranged father and son eventually bonded with one another throughout the course of the 10 episodes, the finale ended with both generations in very different places. Picard and his old crew retired to play another round of poker, an overt callback to the series finale of "The Next Generation" back in 1994. But for Jack, Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Raffi (Michelle Hurd), and the young crew of the U.S.S. Titan (which has now been rebranded as the Enterprise, cool enough), their voyages in outer space are only just beginning.

Wouldn't it be a shame if an interdimensional god interfered with everything again? Yes, the surprising post-credits scene in the "Picard" finale brought back John de Lancie's meddlesome Q, this time to ruin Jack's day. For those who may have been wondering how this came to be, showrunner Terry Matalas is now spilling the beans.

To Be Contin-Q-Ed...

As much as season 3 of "Star Trek: Picard" has earned raves across the board, that hasn't always been the case for this spin-off/sequel series. Season 2 in particular ended up dividing fans, especially in the finale when the show gave longtime enemies Picard and Q a weepy goodbye ... complete with an actual, affectionate hug! While I guess I'm in the minority who thought that was a well-earned coda to their tumultuous relationship over the decades, those disgruntled fans apparently were not alone in wanting a sort of redo to Q's time in "Trek" lore.

Showrunner Terry Matalas recently held a roundtable interview that /Film's Vanessa Armstrong attended, where he divulged exactly how this Q-centric post-credits scene in "Picard" came about:

"It was an idea I had all the way back when we were shooting [Q's] last scene in season 2. I knew we were going to tell this story and I went up to John [de Lancie] and I was like, 'I've got this idea for a post credit scene where he's back.' And he was like, 'Yes.' And John and I are dear friends, so we continued to talk about it whenever we hang out. And he was like, 'I'll be back.'"

Revealing that they only had "20 minutes" to shoot what would become one of his "favorite" scenes in the finale, Matalas was clearly giddy about the prospects of retconning Q back into continuity. Whether this flies in the face of the season 2 finale or not, I think most Trekkies are simply happy to get more of de Lancie's phenomenal, scenery-chewing performance as Q in the future. When exactly will that be? Paramount hasn't announced a "Star Trek: Legacy" spin-off just yet, but hopefully, it's only a matter of time.

Read this next: 14 Underrated Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes

The post That Post-Credits Scene in Picard Season 3 Was Cooked Up During Season 2 appeared first on /Film.

Google Chromebooks expire too soon, saddling taxpayer-funded public schools with excessive expenses and inflicting unnecessary environmental damage, according to the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund. The Register reports: In a report on Tuesday, titled "Chromebook Churn," US PIRG contends that Chromebooks don't last as long as they should, because Google stops providing updates after five to eight years and because device repairability is hindered by the scarcity of spare parts and repair-thwarting designs. This planned obsolescence, the group claims, punishes the public and the world. "The 31 million Chromebooks sold globally in the first year of the pandemic represent approximately 9 million tons of CO2e emissions," the report says. "Doubling the life of just Chromebooks sold in 2020 could cut emissions equivalent to taking 900,000 cars off the road for a year, more than the number of cars registered in Mississippi." The report says that excluding additional maintenance costs, longer lasting Chromebooks could save taxpayers as much as $1.8 billion dollars in hardware replacement expenses. The US PIRG said it wants: Google to extend its ChromeOS update policy beyond current device expiration dates; hardware makers to make parts more available so their devices can be repaired; and hardware designs that enable easier part replacement and service. [...] According to US PIRG, making an average laptop releases 580 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, amounting to 77 percent of the total carbon impact of the device during its lifetime. Thus, the 31 million Chromebooks sold during the first year of the pandemic represent about 8.9 million tons of CO2e emissions. "We think that Google should extend the automatic update expiration to 10 years after launch date," said Lucas Gutterman, who leads US PIRG's Designed to Last campaign. "There's just no reason why we should be throwing away a computer that still is otherwise functional just because it passes a certain date." "We're asking Google to use their leadership among the OEMs to design the devices to last, to make some of the changes that we list, to have them be more easily repairable by actually producing spare parts that folks can buy at reasonable prices," he added. "And to design with modularity and repair in mind, so that you can, for example, use the plastic bezel on one Chromebook on the next version, rather than having to buy a whole new set of spare parts just because a clip has changed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This article contains spoilers for "Barry" season 4 episode 1. "Barry" just entered its final season, and it's going out with a bang. A lot of mysteries still loom in the air and almost every character is floating, with their every attempt to reach out to one another thwarted at every turn. Will Barry make it out of prison? Will the other shoe drop for Cousineau? Will NoHo Hank make it out of season 4 alive? So much happens in the season premiere that one suspenseful moment almost slips through the cracks. When NoHo Hank calls Barry's phone, someone else picks up. Who is it, and how do they have it?

The most natural conclusion would be that the police have it. Barry is in prison for murder, so it's only natural that a branch of the police would take possession of his phone. Barry's ex-mentor/tormentor, Fuches, strikes a deal with the FBI to help take down Berkman. He reveals that his old partner-in-crime has connections to organized crime, which would incentivize the government to pry information about the gangs he worked with from his phone and anyone that tries to contact him.

Even though the feds are probably the ones who have Barry's phone, it might have fallen into civilian hands before it made its way to the police. The serial killer was finally cornered in season 3 for the murder of police officer Janice Moss by an unlikely duo — Barry's acting teacher and Janice's boyfriend, Gene Cousineau, and the late officer's father, Jim Moss. Gene and Jim both meddled in Barry's case for their own reasons — Gene wanted to blackmail Barry and then conceal this blackmail from Jim, while Jim just wanted plain old revenge. Could either of them be the one on the other end of Barry's phone?

Is Jim Moss Doing More Vigilante Work?

Jim Moss took on Barry's arrest as his own personal vigilante mission. Like Barry, Jim is a veteran who has seen combat, making him a perfect foil for Barry — Moss has bent the inescapable violence in his life into serving justice, while Berkman uses it to commit unspeakable crimes.

Janice's father clearly didn't trust the police to solve his daughter's murder, and rightfully so. If he couldn't trust the cops to catch Barry, why would he trust them to keep him prisoner? Might he be screening the hitman's calls himself to see if anyone else was involved in Janice's death or other killings? Or maybe he's trying to intercept any potential plans to break his daughter's murderer out of jail?

It's an interesting theory, but it just doesn't sound like Jim is on the other end of the line with NoHo Hank. Moss has a distinctly deep voice that doesn't match the one that claims to be Barry. It's possible that Moss was using a voice modulator or had hired someone to pretend to be Barry, but that seems a bit far-fetched. However, Jim wasn't the only one that knew Barry was guilty before he was handed to the police — and he wasn't the only one with an agenda, either.

Could It Be A Cousineau On The Other End Of The Line?

Gene Cousineau, Barry's former acting teacher, might have had his own reasons for holding onto Barry's phone. Maybe he wanted to see if someone else would get in touch about Barry so that he could use it to tell the story. Or, in an unexpected stroke of genius, perhaps he wanted additional leverage with the police in case they found him guilty of accepting money from Barry to keep quiet about Janice's murder.

Like Jim, Gene has a fairly distinct voice, and it doesn't sound like him on the other end of the line. However, Gene also has an adult son, Leo, who knew about Barry before his father turned him into the police. It's possible that Leo got a hold of Barry's phone, either with or without Gene's knowledge, and held onto it as collateral. Maybe he wanted to protect his father, or maybe he sought to take him down with the help of one of Barry's dangerous contacts. Leo has a complicated relationship with his father, but he is ultimately a kind-hearted guy, so it's hard to see him pulling such a duplicitous move.

If Leo got his hands on Barry's phone, it's possible that it landed in the hands of an even more unlikely suspect — Gene's grandson. He wouldn't have anything to gain from getting involved in the case, but the morbid curiosity of a young teenager might just be enough of a motive in itself.

The Journalist Might Be Pulling The Strings

There's one final suspect for the person that impersonates Barry over the phone, and he just might be the dark horse of the season. Against his lawyer's wishes and Jim's advisement, Gene spills his guts to a reporter for Vanity Fair journalist, Lon Oneil. Lon might seem unsuspecting, but he could have an ace up his sleeve. As a true crime reporter, it's possible that he fancies himself a vigilante detective like Jim. Maybe he managed to bribe an officer into letting him field Barry's incoming phone calls. Only time will tell if Lon is secretly an evil (crime-solving) genius.

Even though it's possible that the police were bribed into giving away Barry's phone, or failed to collect it with the rest of their evidence, it's most likely that the cell found its way into police custody along with its murderous owner. The person on the other end of the line was probably one of the federal agents that were alerted to Barry's organized crime connections by Fuches. After Barry starts working with the feds and has admitted to having contacts in gangs, his phone becomes all the more valuable.

It might seem like a tragically simple answer to a potentially exciting mystery, but this also opens up a lot of new dramatic questions for the series. Even if NoHo Hank was only on the line for a minute, is it possible that the FBI was able to trace him? Could it be that the feds are already on his tail? If they are, he better hope his hit on Barry is a success, because otherwise, Hank might have to get out of the dodge — and fast. 

Read this next: The 18 Best Crime Dramas In TV History

The post Barry Season 4's Mysterious Phone Call Sets Up a New Mystery — Let's Investigate appeared first on /Film.

"Star Wars" is full of memorable and instantly recognizable villains. As relatable as the heroes are, it is the villains who often steal the show. Whether it's a Sith like Darth Vader or Darth Maul, or even a non-Force user like Boba Fett or Captain Phasma. Indeed, there is no shortage of great villains with distinct personalities in the "Star Wars" galaxy.

Then there's Moff Gideon, the main antagonist of the three seasons of "The Mandalorian" to date. When we first meet him, he is a combination of Grand Moff Tarkin and Grand Admiral Thrawn, a calculating but not entirely cold and detached Imperial officer who is ruthless, ambitious, and fairly successful in his work. He is also a psycho who wants to hurt Baby Yoda.

But after being defeated twice in the first two seasons, Gideon returned for the season three finale of "The Mandalorian," where he tried to eradicate the Mandalorians once and for all. The problem is that any sense of menace or threat he gave off is gone. Instead, Moff Gideon is just a massive dweeb that makes Kylo Ren and Syril Karn look cool by comparison.

He Is Just A Cosplayer

You remember Kylo Ren, right? Not the nuanced and conflicted villain of "The Last Jedi," who was disillusioned with the way his parents sent him off to boarding school cause they were scared of him, or who hated his uncle and master for trying to kill him rather than teach him to be good. No, Kylo Ren the collector of Darth Vader memorabilia, the dude who tried so hard to be the new Sith Lord that he even fashioned a little mask for himself despite not needing it to breathe -- something his grandfather would have found amusing, no doubt.

The Moff Gideon we see in the season 3 finale of "The Mandalorian" puts Kylo's hobbies to shame. First off, he appropriates Mandalorian culture and makes a beskar armor for himself, even boasting about the shiny new cosplay that he made adjustments to because he just knows how to work the metal better than the people who have used it for millennia.

Gideon doesn't stop there, he also adds highly unnecessary blinking buttons and a circuit panel to his beskar armor, mimicking Vader's chest plate (which he needed for, you know, breathing), as well as Maul-like horns to his helmet. This makes his obsession with gaining the Darksaber even dumber, because he did not want to prevent Mandalorians from rising up against the Empire, maybe he simply wanted a lightsaber to complete his Sith cosplay!

Gideon The Collector

Not only is Gideon a dork who likes to cosplay, but apparently the reason why he was doing horrible experiments on Grogu way back in season one was not to clone him, or even to help bring back Palpatine through Project Necromancer, but to make clones of his own egomaniac self. 

Granted, that is a good way of ensuring you (sort of) live forever, but Gideon has other things in mind. He specifically wanted Grogu to make Force-sensitive clones of himself. That's right, because dressing up as Vader isn't enough, Gideon was ensuring some version of himself could Force choke people like he always dreamed of.

And because this is grand dork Gideon we're talking about, he keeps his clones in pristine condition inside vacuum-sealed containers, freaking out when Din Djarin breaks the case, almost as if he was a kid who saved all his money from his newspaper round to buy the figures and is mad because they aren't worth as much outside of their original packaging.

"Star Wars" is a vast franchise with a place for all kinds of characters and villains, even dumb ones like Gideon. Maybe when Gideon inevitably returns he will start cosplaying as someone else, perhaps Captain Phasma.

Read this next: The Most Brutal Moments In The Star Wars Franchise, Ranked

The post The Mandalorian Season 3 Finale Proves Moff Gideon Is the Biggest Nerd appeared first on /Film.

If there was anything about "Renfield" worth getting excited for, it was Nicolas Cage playing Dracula. Though the movie sadly sucks, he's genuinely good. It's not even an out-there performance destined to be made into memes like the kind Cage has become infamous for. Cage is the only one in "Renfield" acting like he's in a horror movie and is thus the only one with a compelling screen presence. Frankly, I'd rather see a straightforward Dracula movie starring him than have him stuck in the confused schlock that is "Renfield."

Cage is the latest in a long line of silver-screen Draculas, so how does he stack up? Ranking Count Dracula performances can be difficult because different actors and storytellers interpret the character differently. Depending on the movie, he can be a hero or a villain. Is Dracula a foreign invader, a tragic romantic, or a bloodthirsty monster? Let's look at the different answers offered by decades' worth of movies and TV.

The Shadow Of Bela Lugosi

The defining Dracula performance is without a doubt Bela Lugosi's, originating with the 1931 Universal Horror "Dracula." Directed by Tod Browning, the film was made only three decades after Bram Stoker wrote the original novel. For the vast majority of Dracula's history, Lugosi has been what people picture when they envision the character.

Lugosi first played the Count on Broadway; he was a Romanian immigrant — born in Transylvania, no less — so his natural accent added authenticity. Lugosi's voice is smooth but never sleazy. Between that, his hungry smile, and his piercing eyes (which the film often literally spotlights), it's hard not to be hypnotized — and plenty of the audience was. Lugosi's sex symbol status went to his head, so much so it's believed to be one reason he turned down the part of Frankenstein's Monster.

Lugosi's performance is such a cultural fixture, and so subject to caricature, that it's hard to judge on its own terms. Take a moment and just think of all the bad "I vant to suck your blood" impressions you've heard from lesser actors. What remains striking is the way Lugosi melds scariness and sex appeal. The way he holds his clawed arm out is like a predator, both ravenous and lascivious. Subsequent Draculas would usually choose one side over the other.

The Romantics

Vampires are inherently sexual creatures; their way of biting their prey's neck is often conflated with a different kind of carnal penetration. Some "Dracula" adaptations understand this all too well and wind up so enamored with the Count, they make him more man than monster. Foremost is John Badham's 1979 "Dracula" starring Frank Langella.

Langella has said he resisted pressure to add the more violent aspects of Dracula to his performance — no bloodstains or fangs for this Count. Langella explained, "I just wanted to play what I believed was a lover, not a killer."

The result is the most human Dracula, one with a kind face and wide eyes. Unlike Lugosi, there's never a hint of insincerity in Langella's politeness or smile and he lacks the evil twinkle in his eye. When Dracula enters the Van Helsing household, he works the room like a gentleman. He does say the famous, "I never drink ... wine" line, but gone is any hint of him toying with his prey. In short, you'd never guess that Langella's Dracula is a bloodsucking fiend — which makes it all the scarier that he is.

Gary Oldman's Tragic Hero

My favorite Dracula film is the 1992 "Bram Stoker's Dracula," directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The Count is played by Gary Oldman, who is the most complete and multi-dimensional Dracula. Indeed, his appearance literally transforms over the course of the film; he goes from long-haired prince to old crone and back again.

This adaptation, otherwise rather faithful to the book, adds a prologue showing Dracula's mortal life as Vlad Tepes. After defeating an invasion by the Ottoman Empire, Vlad's enemies send false word to his bride Elisabeta (Winona Ryder) that her knight died in battle; she throws herself to her death. Outraged that this is his reward for defending Christendom, Vlad renounces God, vowing to rise again and do the Devil's work.

Oldman adopts a Romanian drawl when playing the Count. No matter whether he's acting scary or seductive, there's a ping of sadness in his voice. Then he meets Mina Murray, the reincarnation of Elisabeta (also played by Winona Ryder). In the novel, Dracula's wooing of Mina was simply a predator stalking his natural prey, but here it's a genuine and reciprocated romance. "Prince Vlad," says Mina, "I have crossed oceans of time to find you," one of the purest declarations of love I've ever heard, straight from the mouth of a blackhearted demon. 

When Dracula receives word that Mina has married Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), he does something no previous onscreen Dracula had done; he cries, his face turning monstrous as tears of blood fall down it. Dracula is a man who cannot die yet is always stuck in the past.

Buffy's Dracula

"Buffy The Vampire Slayer" featured the Count as a guest villain in its season 5 premiere, aptly titled "Buffy vs. Dracula." This Dracula, played by German actor Rudolf Martin, has powers no other vampire in the series does; like in Stoker's novel, he can hypnotize his prey or shapeshift into mist, a bat, or a wolf. He puts the former skill to work on Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon), turning him into a new Renfield (complete with a craving for bugs).

Though unmistakenly a villain, Martin's Dracula feels influenced by Oldman's, from the flowing hair to the romantic bent. He's in Sunnydale to win the heart of the Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and thanks to his "dark, penetrating eyes," he just might succeed. The episode even does its own spin on a classic Dracula scene; he sneaks into a woman's bedroom at night and seduces her until she offers her neck for him to bite. Even Buffy's willpower isn't enough to resist.

With about 15 minutes of screentime, Martin's Dracula doesn't get enough focus to be one of the best — he's competing with some bona fide acting legends too. However, as a villain of the week in what's essentially a cover tribute, he gets the job done. And he is genuinely alluring, so you understand why he gets inside Buffy's head.

The Monsters

The runner-up to Legosi for the most famous Dracula actor is Sir Christopher Lee. He played the Count in Hammer Films' mid-20th century revival of the "Dracula" film series. Lee's Dracula was more a silent creature of the night; he let his physical presence define the role.

With a narrow 6'5 frame, Lee was often taller than his co-stars, which added to his menace. When Dracula stands still in perfectly shadowed frames, his cape engulfing his body, he looks more like a shadow than a person. Low-angle shots add to his already imposing height too.

Then, he starts to move, usually slowly backing his prey into a corner until he towers over them. Lee's stare is chilling and the lighting is always sure to let the shadows bring out his eyes. Take the terrifying close-up in the original "Horror of Dracula," where the Count bares his blood-soaked fangs with a hiss. With that one image, Lee's Dracula was more savage than Lugosi's ever was.

Lee's Dracula doesn't lack sexuality — take the scene in "Dracula: Prince of Darkness" when he bares his chest, draws blood from it, and almost makes female lead Diana (Suzanne Farmer) drink from the wound. Still, he's so spine-chillingly scary that fright overpowers desire. You can understand being ensnared by Christopher Lee's Dracula, yet you never forget that if you do, it'll be your end.

Nosferatu

In 1922, German filmmaker F.W. Murnau directed the silent film "Nosferatu," an authorized adaptation of "Dracula" with the character names changed: Max Shreck played the vampire, Count Orlok. Despite legal action from the Stoker estate, the now-century-old "Nosferatu" remains an influential vampire movie classic. It was even remade in 1979 by Werner Herzog, with the proper character names restored. Hutter was again Harker (Bruno Ganz), Ellen was again Lucy (Isabella Adjani), and Orlok was again Dracula (Klaus Kinski).

Despite being called Dracula, the character in Herzog's film keeps Shreck's look as Orlok; bald, grey-skinned, and with pointed ears. This makes him look far more monstrous than other Draculas, yet he's actually a pitiable character. Kinski's Dracula is the most pathetic one; his appearance isn't intended to make him look scarier but emphasize his distance from humanity. The film recreates the original moment of him invading Lucy's bedroom, but here it's because he's desperate for a connection with another person. Being a monster didn't devour this Nosferatu's soul, but chipped away at it.

Two Performances, Same Character

Not all Dracula performances are in live-action. The anime "Hellsing" (that "Renfield" wishes it was) stars Alucard, a tamed version of the Prince of Vampires who now serves the Church of England. Alucard is a monster — he'd be the first to admit it — it's just that he's been directed to fight even greater evils. That's the irony; "Hellsing" is the rare story where Dracula is the outright hero, yet it never downplays how vile he can be.

In the original Japanese, Alucard is voiced by Jouji Nakata, while in the English dub, Crispin Freeman filled in. The differences in their performances and vocal timbre are a further testament to how flexible the character Dracula is. Nakata's voice is older, calmer, and booming; Alucard sounds like a bemused immortal who never loses his cool. While Freeman has a baritone too, his mellifluous voice is younger and sexier, meaning his Alucard is more seductive than Nakata's. Both Alucards are scary, but while Freeman sounds crazy, Nakata always sounds totally in control. No matter the medium a story is told in or the language its performers speak, the power of Dracula shines through.

Where Does Cage Fall?

Nicolas Cage's Dracula definitely falls into the "monster" category. He's evil, no two ways about it, and doesn't bother with any pretense of politeness. He's rude, sadistic, and above all hungry. As a result, Cage is the least sexy Dracula next to Kinski — his trying to seduce Rebecca (Awkwafina) is his weakest moment.

The whole point of the film is to illustrate that Renfield (Nicolas Hoult) is in a toxic relationship with his master, so playing up Dracula's bad side makes sense. The portrayal also fits with Cage's inspiration for the role. "Renfield" is supposedly a sequel to the 1931 "Dracula" — an early black-and-white sequence even recreates Lugosi's introduction with Cage swapped in. However, Cage has said Christopher Lee is the Dracula he pulled the most from. Much like the diminishing returns of the Hammer Dracula sequels, the film doesn't do enough to service Cage's performance.

Christopher Lee had one of the most powerful voices ever bestowed upon a mortal man, yet Hammer's "Dracula" movies rarely let him speak. In "Horror of Dracula," his dialogue is all in the first scene where he meets Harker (John Van Eyssen). He's a perfect gentleman which makes his silence all the more striking. According to Lee, he wished to perform Stoker's dialogue but was often dismissed by the studio. So, he just said nothing at all.

Cage honors Lee's Dracula legacy by elevating a thin villain with pure menace. If only "Renfield" let him be as scary as he's capable of being, then he might be one of the greatest onscreen Draculas. As it stands, he'll probably have to sit at the bottom of the top 10.

Read this next: The 30 Scariest Horror Movie Monsters Ranked

The post How Does Nicolas Cage's Dracula Measure Up? A Horrifying Investigation appeared first on /Film.

Sometimes it’s helpful to create a bootable clone of your Mac, such as for testing software or implementing system changes. Here's how to do it.

The post How to Create a Bootable Clone of Your Mac Running macOS Ventura appeared first on Rocket Yard.

The last couple of years have been difficult, with many organizations operating in a response mode. From a global pandemic to an economic downturn to increasing security risks, teams are under more pressure than ever to deliver greater cyber security and do more with less. 

This responsive approach has resulted in many organizations falling behind on long-term projects, with transformation projects losing funding and getting put on the shelf (understandably so). Yet it has now become clear that the fire-drill operations of the pandemic are not only here to stay but are accelerating and becoming more impactful. As you will read in more detail below, IT teams are becoming burned out, security attacks are increasing and employees are expecting more from their endpoints and IT as remote and hybrid work become the norm. The stakes are higher than ever before, and these trends will require a new approach. Addressing these challenges will require us to shift our focus from being responsive to truly transforming the user digital landscape through consolidation and automation.  

What if you could deliver a new security model that enables people to work how and where they want without jeopardizing their digital experience? What if you could free your IT and security teams to focus on more strategic items and reduce operational complexity? I want this blog post to trigger the most transformational project your team conducts this year; namely, setting your team’s vision for enabling the people in your organization with the best possible digital experience, complete with a first-class security model. This transformation will not be easy, but by following a central theme of simplification it can be achieved. Simplification of your endpoint management approach will enable more productive IT staff, better employee experiences, a better security posture and ultimately better business outcomes. It allows IT and security teams to move from complex to streamlined, from manual to automated, and also deliver significant financial benefits, which I discuss in the next section.  

The prize—consolidated, automated, and secure endpoint management

“Simplification” needs greater explanation if we are to understand the potential benefits.

In the short term, simplification means removing the challenges that come from having too many endpoint management tools. A recent survey showed that two-thirds of respondents were using more than 10 tools to manage and protect their endpoints.¹ This is understandable given the plethora of new dimensions administrators have had to face, from new mobile endpoints to hybrid work to bring your own device (BYOD). Yet 10 or more tools for endpoint management means potentially 10 panes of glass, 10 vendor contract renewal conversations, 10 different training sessions, and significant integration requirements—all which can contribute to disparate experiences for employees, too. Addressing endpoint scenarios with multiple point solutions to fill the gaps ultimately adds complexity and increases costs and security risks.

Consolidation has two financial benefits.

First, consolidation means more time. A Forrester study has estimated that by moving to a suite of endpoint tools (such as the Microsoft Intune Suite), technicians who manage endpoints could save at least 10 percent of their time per year in the first year of use, and, in some cases, even more.²

Second, consolidation delivers a single pane of glass, thus freeing up your staff’s time from the complexity of managing many unified endpoint management (UEM) solutions, from selecting the vendor to training and onboarding each incremental solution.  

The next, more exciting part of simplification is greater automation. As with the introduction of Microsoft Security Copilot, Microsoft is committed to increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of IT and security professionals. Consolidation is an important pre-requisite here: Automation yields better results when it pulls from a central pool of data, which requires consolidation.

What could automation deliver in terms of benefits?

First, automation will improve security. For example, by using best practice data automatically applied rather than manual processes, vulnerabilities caused by human error will be reduced. There were 106 publicly disclosed incidents in February 2023 accounting for 29.6 million breached records.³ Even a five percent reduction means almost 1.5 million fewer records would have been breached in that month alone.

Second, automation saves time for existing workers. There were about 4.7 million workers globally in cybersecurity at the end of 2022.⁴ Roughly speaking, if the industry saved even five percent of the approximately 9.4 billion hours of work done by those workers, that’s 470 million hours per year saved through automation. It’s time to help IT admins refocus on the strategic, not the tactical elements of security.

So, simplification is not just a buzzword. It requires consolidation to then deliver automation, and it can deliver benefits both in terms of saved time for your staff and better security for your organization.

The five-step process to simplify endpoint management

Simplifying your endpoint management is a process, not a single event. I would identify five separate steps:

1. Refine the vision and create a plan. In this stage, work with a small team to paint a picture of the future and build buy-in to the journey. To do this, identify the key stakeholders that will benefit from the simplification, and what they need. Gain a deep understanding of their existing tool sets, processes, and, most importantly, the problems they need to solve. Bring outside experts in to talk about the journeys they have taken or plan to take. And get your team comfortable with the idea of change: Some IT admins and specialists may have invested time and effort in learning previously cutting-edge tools that you are planning to upgrade. Be cautious not to fall into the trap of replicating previous solutions with traditional approaches; instead, focus on the problem and how to best solve with a modern approach. Help the broader team get excited about the new direction, and see the benefit of evangelizing change, not blocking it.
2. Consolidate endpoint management tools to drive more efficiency for IT and security operations teams, delivering a more unified employee experience. To make space for new initiatives, it helps to stop doing things that unnecessarily add to your team’s workload. So, freeing up your team’s time by reducing the number of endpoint tools they have to oversee and manage will help you move towards more strategic automation. Execute against an incremental plan that shows progress along the way and puts points on the board as you go. Pick an on-ramp to get started—Windows 11 is a great opportunity to move to cloud-native Windows management; Microsoft 365 has powerful new security protections to mitigate against modern threats; and Mac and Linux devices are now ready to be brought under management with a modern cloud-native approach. These are all great on-ramps that will help progress your endpoint management consolidation journey. Most importantly, show progress and build confidence as you go.
3. Create tight integration between your management, security, and help desk tools to drive further simplification. Simplification does not end with consolidation of your endpoint management tooling. Automate key processes such as procurement, help desk experience, software and hardware asset management, and vulnerability management by tightly integrating your management tool with your help desk and security tooling. By connecting your management tooling data directly to your help desk tool, you can simplify further with a management-powered remote help experience. Streamline your spend analysis and asset management by integrating management endpoint analytics and your service management tool. Bring your IT and security teams together by integrating Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to automate patching and vulnerability remediation. Connecting these assets will drive further simplification with broader process automation.
4. Make use of your data. Data is a powerful asset that is often underutilized. By simplifying and consolidating your endpoint approach you will have access to new data that can be used to understand your endpoint landscape end-to-end. Your journey to data consolidation will likely be incremental as well. Start with visibility. With endpoint analytics, gain visibility into your device estate to understand how users are interacting with your digital services. Leverage this data to understand further best practices and your areas of opportunity. Use this data to help define your incremental consolidation plan. With this data foundation in place, you can begin to explore how to best use generative AI. Begin identifying scenarios where AI can help you better understand your environment, including trends, best practices, and simplified troubleshooting.  
5. Intelligently automate your common endpoint and security tasks. By bringing together rich data, advanced endpoint management capabilities, and dynamic orchestration, you can now radically transform your approach to delivering IT services and increasing security through rich and extensible automation. With turnkey in-product functionality, you can move away from complex scripting workloads and instead focus on creation of simplified workflows to handle cumbersome administrative tasks. Intelligent orchestration can elevate the employee lifecycle experience, optimize license or hardware spend, and increase your security posture in a world that is rapidly changing—with intelligent automation you can embrace the complexity of modern IT challenges and unlock the simplicity within.

What’s next?

So, how do you take the first step? I would encourage you to get your team together and discuss the general direction you want to take. Focus on the destination, not the steps at this point. Every vision will be slightly different based on your company’s situation. For example, in what order would you consolidate your endpoint tools, given your current resourcing and licensing contracts? How would you introduce a consolidated suite of endpoint tools? And who else do you need to work with in other departments to sell the investment rationale?

And I encourage you to read more about the Microsoft Intune Suite and review the Intune roadmap to provide a better sense of how consolidation could progress. Finally, please experiment with advanced endpoint analytics in the Intune Suite to get a sense of what automation can do (even if it is just the tip of the iceberg for insights data and analytics).

It’s encouraging to be able to move our eyes toward the horizon again and think in timeframes longer than a week or a month. I invite you to seize the opportunity that creating a simplification-centric vision offers.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and Twitter (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

---

¹Managing the Endpoint Vulnerability Gap, Enterprise Strategy Group. February 2023.

²New Technology: The Projected Total Economic Impact™ Of The Microsoft Intune Suite, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting. March 2023. Results are for a composite organization based on interviewed customers.

³Monthly Breach Report: March 2023 Edition, PKWARE. March 9, 2023.

⁴The cybersecurity talent shortage: The outlook for 2023, Sue Poremba. January 5, 2023.

The post Simplified endpoint management with Microsoft Intune Suite: Adopting a long-term approach with intelligence and automation appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

From Cinedigm and Screambox comes the horror legend documentary HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES: THE ROBERT ENGLUND STORY. Check out the trailer below.

A classically trained actor and director, Robert Englund has become one of the most revolutionary horror icons of our generation. Throughout his career, Englund starred in many well-known movies, but shot to super-stardom with his portrayal of supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. This unique and intimate portrait captures the man behind the glove and features interviews with Englund and his wife Nancy, Lin Shaye, Eli Roth, Tony Todd, Heather Langenkamp, and more.

The film which was shot over the course of two years highlights the life and career of the classically trained actor and director.

The documentary follows Englund’s career from his early days in Buster and Billie and Stay Hungry (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) to his big break in the 1980s as Freddy Krueger to his directorial debut with the 1988 horror film 976-EVIL to his iconic acting status in current roles such as the hit TV series “Stranger Things.”

HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES: THE ROBERT ENGLUND STORY features Robert Englund, Nancy Englund, Eli Roth, Adam Green, Tony Todd, Lance Henriksen, Heather Langenkamp, Lin Shaye, Bill Moseley, Doug Bradley, and Kane Hodder

The documentary is directed by Gary Smart and Christopher Griffiths. It is written by Gary Smart and Neil Morris.

HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES: THE ROBERT ENGLUND STORY will be available on Screambox and Digital on June 6, 2023.

The post [News] Trailer for HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES: THE ROBERT ENGLUND STORY appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

Just as Gates McFadden makes her triumphant return to Star Trek screens in Star Trek: Picard Season 3, the twisted doppelganger of her iconic character, Dr. Beverly Crusher, is appearing for the first time in Star Trek Online as part of the Refractions update! This Terran version of Dr. Crusher has never been voiced by Gates McFadden before, and she delivers a deep and dark performance in the quest to rescue her son, the Terran Emperor himself, before he can destroy both universes.

The last time McFadden and Wil Wheaton, who portrayed Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, shared a screen together as these characters was decades ago, in a deleted scene from Star Trek: Nemesis. Star Trek Online Design Lead, Al Rivera, worked closely with McFadden and Wheaton to craft a story that tells their twisted family backstory.

“One of the things we try to do with our stories is we try to end our story arcs, not with pew pew, and not with just murdering the bad guy. But we always like to end our stories in a very Starfleet way. How can you solve this problem, often a universe threatening problem, in a way that is becoming of Starfleet? In a peaceful way, in an emotional way. And so we said, how would you defeat Emperor Crusher, who has this traveler power as well as this merged power from V’ger? His mom.

“So his mother, both as a doctor and a scientist, and as a mother, could really connect with him. It was a logical choice to choose her. And Gates came in and, she’s a wonderful person. Her character is a beloved character, and I was so excited that we got to work with her while she’s coming back. And we see her again in Picard, and it’s so great to see her perform again. If we ever have an opportunity to bring her back again, I would really welcome it.”

“If we ever have an opportunity to bring her back again, I would really welcome it.”

For her part, McFadden stepped right back into the shoes of her previous character, something Rivera has come to expect: “What I find is that most of the actors have played these characters for years, they really know their characters, and they have no trouble turning it on. And sometimes it’s really uncanny how you’ll be talking to them in the recording studio, and talking to them like a normal person would talk. And then when they go into character it’s like flipping a switch, and all of a sudden you’re listening to an episode of Star Trek.”

We hope you enjoy the new update, Star Trek Online: Refractions, now live on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One! The game is completely free to play, and it’s free to access all of this story content. We aim to create the best place online to celebrate your Star Trek fandom, so come and join us if you can. Your Captain, your Trek story.

Related:
Become a Farming Witch in Homestead Arcana, Out Today
Crash Team Rumble™ – Closed Beta is available for Xbox Insiders April 21 – 24!
Dead Island 2: How Dambuster Studios Gave an Undead Series New Life

An anonymous reader shares a report: You know that you're supposed to wipe your smartphone or laptop before you resell it or give it to your cousin. After all, there's a lot of valuable personal data on there that should stay in your control. Businesses and other institutions need to take the same approach, deleting their information from PCs, servers, and network equipment so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. At the RSA security conference in San Francisco next week, though, researchers from the security firm ESET will present findings showing that more than half of secondhand enterprise routers they bought for testing had been left completely intact by their previous owners. And the devices were brimming with network information, credentials, and confidential data about the institutions they had belonged to. The researchers bought 18 used routers in different models made by three mainstream vendors: Cisco, Fortinet, and Juniper Networks. Of those, nine were just as their owners had left them and fully accessible, while only five had been properly wiped. Two were encrypted, one was dead, and one was a mirror copy of another device. All nine of the unprotected devices contained credentials for the organization's VPN, credentials for another secure network communication service, or hashed root administrator passwords. And all of them included enough identifying data to determine who the previous owner or operator of the router had been. Eight of the nine unprotected devices included router-to-router authentication keys and information about how the router connected to specific applications used by the previous owner. Four devices exposed credentials for connecting to the networks of other organizations -- like trusted partners, collaborators, or other third parties. Three contained information about how an entity could connect as a third party to the previous owner's network. And two directly contained customer data.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you've got a multi-story home or one with a larger spread-out area, you might find that even the best Wi-Fi routers struggle to give reliable wireless coverage everywhere. Instead of running wires through your walls or suffering the slowdowns of Wi-Fi extenders, there's a third option.

NVIDIA has seen an impressive surge in its stock after HSBC upgraded the company's position due to the massive demand for its GPUs in AI.

NVIDIA AI GPUs Selling For 20 Times Higher Price Compared To Gaming GPUs, Stock Boosted By Rollercoaster Climb

HSBC has upgraded NVIDIA citing its strong position in the AI market and its highly capable line of chips that are accelerating the framework across multiple fields, reports Yahoo Finance. Currently, HSBC has raised the stock prices for NVIDIA (NVDA) from $175 per share to $355 per Share which is a 30% increase compared to what it was being traded at on Tuesday.

In a statement by HSBC's Head of Technology, Frank Lee, it is reported that while NVIDIA's Data Center revenue hasn't seen a significant climb over the last two quarters which can turn into an excess inventory situation, the demand for GPUs within the AI segment can offset the difference.

HSBC Head of Technology Frank Lee wrote in a note that he had concerns over Nvidia's declining data center revenue through the last two quarters as well as itsrising inventories. But he believes the pricing of A.I. chips counteracts those headwinds and changes the revenue model for Nvidia.

"In particular, we’re shocked by Nvidia’s pricing power on AI chips that we see driving earnings upside, higher valuation," Lee wrote.

via Yahoo Finance

Furthermore, the reason why the demand for GPUs in the AI segment can offset the difference is that these chips are being sold 10 to 20 times higher than the traditional gaming GeForce GPUs so the company doesn't have to push for increased sale volumes as each chip makes a huge return, reports HSBC Analysts.

The NVIDIA A100 and H100 accelerators can range in price from anywhere around $10,000 US and up to $40,000 US. Meanwhile, NVIDIA's top gaming GPU, the GeForce RTX 4090, starts at $1599 US and has also recently been selling below that.

NVIDIA is without a doubt the leader in the AI segment and it is reported that the green team will amount to 9% of the market share in AI by FY 2024. Although competitors such as Microsoft have started researching and putting vast amounts of money into their own chip design which will be launched in the coming years and target the same AI segment. But once again, NVIDIA has had its head start way ahead of its rivals.

“While the overall [total addressable market] of generative AI still remains difficult to forecast, Nvidia has the highest potential leverage from a hardware perspective,” Lee wrote.

Since the beta launch of ChatGPT in late November, investors have rewarded companies attaching themselves to the A.I. hype train and looked down on those that appear behind the eight ball.

via Yahoo Finance

More recently, Elon Must has started investing in a new AI project known as TruthGPT. Elon has hired engineers from Alphabet’s subsidiary, DeepMind, and already purchased around 10,000 GPUs to run a new AI project that involves a Large Language Model (LLM). While the report does not specify, the GPUs are likely to be NVIDIA’s A100 or H100 units. Rival, OpenAI's ChatGPT, also runs around 30,000 NVIDIA GPUs with more on the way.

NVIDIA's CEO, Jensen Huang, has called ChatGPT as one of the greatest things ever done for computing and called it the iPhone moment of AI. The Santa Clara-based GPU powerhouse saw a 40% boost in the company stock a few months ago thanks to the surging demand for its AI GPUs and also used the term "AI" 75 times in its previous earnings call.

Safe Security, a startup building technology to help organizations manage cyber risk, has secured a $50 million Series B funding round.

The post Investors Bet Big on Safe Security for Cyber Risk Management appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been out of the U.S. for a few days, as he has his peripheral vision set on India. The Chief Executive recently opened the first-ever Apple Store outlet in the country, and to say that the response was ecstatic would be a massive understatement. The CEO also received a massive surprise when a customer approached him with a vintage 1984 Macintosh SE computer during the official launch of the outlet.

Tim Cook greeted the Macintosh owner with disbelief; CEO later told him that he could not believe he had kept the computer with him for this long

In an interview with ANI News, Sajid Moinuddin said that he had been waiting in line since six in the morning outside of the Apple Store outlet in Mumbai, likely so he could show Tim Cook that he was in possession of the near 40-year-old machine. In the video below, Apple’s CEO was pleasantly surprised when he took a gander at the off-while colored enclosure and greeted Moinuddin.

When asked what Cook said to him after he saw the Macintosh SE, Moinuddin told ANI News that he could not believe the customer had kept this model with him for such a long time. Moinuddin claims to be an avid Apple enthusiast, stating that he has been using the company’s products since 1984. The customer also said that Cook was extremely humble and gracious, and looking at Moinuddin’s dedication for having to wait three hours, Cook signed the Macintosh computer.

On April 18, the CEO opened the gates of India’s first Apple Store at Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex, also known as BKC. Cook has intended to expand in this region for a long time, believing India to be a key market for Apple. The technology giant has previously opened up manufacturing facilities in the country, with Foxconn overseeing operations, which also granted employment to India’s workforce.

In 2020, Apple opened its first online store in India, and it plans to open a second physical outlet on Thursday at a mall in Delhi’s Saket. Apple originally planned to expand to India much sooner, but COVID-19 stalled those goals temporarily.

Though I tend to keep an open mind with regards to gaming news, I have to admit, when I came into work this morning I didn’t expect that Postal 2, the sweary, gory, altogether crude FPS game from all the way back in 2003, would end up on my to-do pile. Then again, this is gaming - if you can make a shooter featuring Gary Coleman, exploding cats, and the ability to interactively deploy human waste fluids, there’s no reason that after two decades we shouldn’t get a new Postal 2 update, bringing the bad taste classic to Valve’s Steam Deck.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best PC FPS games, Best old games, Best Steam Deck games

Generative AI is a tool, which means it can be used by cybercriminals, too. Here’s how to protect yourself.

Wherein we discuss the Super Mario Bros. Movie, Star Trek: Picard, Succession, the console release of Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, and Meanwhile... A Comic Shop Anthology (Higgins' new comic anthology!). Starring Ryan Scott, Justin Haywald, and Ryan Higgins.

(And go support Meanwhile... A Comic Shop Anthology while you're at it!)

Back in early 2022, Gary Bowser, a member of the hacking team known as Team Xecuter, was sentenced to 40 months of prison for providing and selling together with the team means to circumvent the Nintendo Switch's security systems and allow usage of pirated software. The Team Xecuter member is about to be released from prison, but he is apparently not done paying the cost of his actions.

As reported by TorrentFreak, Gary Bowser is about to be released from prison earlier than intended in part due to his good behavior, and is now waiting to be returned home to Canada. However, he was also sentenced to pay ten million dollars back to Nintendo, which he has yet to do and will highly unlikely ever be able to.

In a recent interview with Nick Moses, Gary Bowser confirmed that he was able to pay back $175 thanks to his prison job. If he will manage to get a stable source of income once back in Canada, the Japanese company will be able to take between 25 and 30 percent of the gross monthly income as part of the agreement, essentially meaning that Gary Bowser will have to pay Nintendo for the rest of his life.

Gary Bowser's role in the Team Xecuter operation was far from being central, as he was the man behind the MaxConsole website, which primarily focused on reviewing Team Xecuter hacking tools. French citizen Max Louarn, who was reportedly the leader of the entire operation, had a much bigger role in the operation but somehow managed to stay ahead of the authorities and avoid getting extradited to the United States, where he would face charges possibly worse than those that Gary Bowser did, as he apparently helped Team Xecuter make millions of dollars, way more than the "measly" $320,000 that Bowser made during his time with the operation.

Nintendo, like every other company, has never hesitated to go after people who hack their systems and try using its properties for their own personal gain, as it has demonstrated time and time again over the years. Will such a harsh sentence be a warning for other people in the future who may attempt to do the same in the future? Probably not, but only time will tell.

Shinji Mikami is one of those game-makers who, whatever they’re working on, I’ll basically always be interested. Creator and director on the original Resident Evil, Mikami also directed Dino Crisis, The Evil Within, and, of course, the 2005 RE4. Mikami has a pretty strong horror game pedigree, is what I’m saying - I trust the guy. And now he’s officially finished playing Resident Evil 4 Remake and offered his opinion. What does the master make of the apprentice?

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Resident Evil 4 Remake review, Resident Evil 4 Remake system requirements, Best Resident Evil 4 remake weapons

If you're a movie or TV viewer, you've seen Chris Diamantopoulos. Probably many times. If you're an animation nerd, you've heard Chris Diamantopoulos. Again, probably many times. Anyone who is pop culture-literate in the year 2023 has encountered the actor in some capacity -- even if you don't know his name, you know his face. But you can be forgiven for not recognizing his voice, because his chameleonic voiceover work suggests the work of a dozen different actors. 

After cutting his teeth on the Broadway stage, Diamantopoulos smashed into film and television and has seemingly never stopped working. You may know him from roles on major TV series like "CSI," "24," "The Sopranos" and "Arrested Development," where he eased into those shows' distinct tones with ease. He was the sound guy who tempted Pam away from Jim in the final season of "The Office." He was that guy from the horse scene (you know the one) in "Hannibal." He was Russ Hanneman, the memorably egocentric billionaire from HBO's "Silicon Valley." In the voiceover booth, he has played various characters across the DC Universe: Steve Trevor, Green Arrow, and the egocentric Aquaman of "Harley Quinn." Roles in adult-skewing animated shows like the "Beavis and Butt-Head" reboot and "Family Guy" don't keep him from being the modern voice of Mickey Mouse in Disney's brilliant animated short films, a role he reprised in the theme park attraction Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.

In short, Chris Diamantopoulos is everywhere. And he can do anything. And quite frankly, he's one of the best and most versatile actors working today, and one whose range and depth of talent has led to an IMDB page more full of "Oh, yeah! I remember that!" characters and moments than you can count.

This week, Diamantopoulos can be seen in "Mrs. Davis," Peacock's new head-spinning sci-fi series that defies casual explanation, but does feature the actor as JQ, a buff, enthusiastic Australian meathead working to battle an oppressive artificial intelligence sweeping the globe. As you'd imagine, he vanishes right into the part. 

I recently spoke with Diamantopoulos over the phone for an extended conversation that took us from "Mrs. Davis" to '30s cartoons to Moe Howard and that 2012 "Three Stooges" movie that Diamantopoulos stands by, mixed reviews be damned. And yes, he knows exactly which Marvel character he wants to play, and yes, he's not shy about wanting to let you know.

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

'I Had A Ball. It Was A Really Big Character Swing For Me'

When I told everybody at my site that I was talking to you, everybody had a different role to bring up.

Oh, that's so sweet, man. Well, dude, listen, I've been lucky enough to be doing ... I was on a plane flying into LA yesterday, and someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Hey, are you an actor?" I said, "Yeah, I am." They said, "What do I know you from?" I was like, "Oh gosh." It's like, "I don't know. Tell me what you watch." They rattled off a hundred shows. It's just so funny. I've been lucky enough to be able to be doing this nonsense for so many years, and it just never gets old, man. I'm always pleasantly surprised.

Just when I feel like maybe there's a genre or a tone or something that maybe I've experienced, I do something like "Mrs. Davis," and I'm like, "Well, this is f***ing brand new. I didn't even know something like this existed." I don't know how you would categorize it. I should ask you, Jacob, have you seen anything other than the teaser or the trailer? Have you watched any of the show yet?

I watched the first two episodes at the SXSW Film Festival.

Okay, so we can chat a little bit about this, and maybe you can give me your opinion. Have you ever seen anything like this show before?

No, I haven't. People keep asking me to describe it, and I keep on ... my obtuse way of telling people to watch it is it's like Monty Python doing Neal Stephenson.

My God! Dude! Dude, Jacob, that's exactly ... it's funny because I say it's like if Tarantino decided to make a TV show and he hired the Coen brothers to show run it.

I interviewed Michael Emerson a few years ago. I asked him about working on "Lost" and working on a project where Damon Lindelof was a writer-producer [Tara Hernandez is the showrunner on "Mrs. Davis," even though Lindelof is a writer, producer, and co-creator]. He said that part of the fun and part of the dance of being an actor on that show was trying to play a complete character, even though you never quite knew what was coming next and never knew what the revelations would be. With "Mrs. Davis," how far in advance did you know? How much of the mystery did you have to play up and how much were you let in on in advance?

What an excellent question. Excellent question to ask him, too, because it's interesting, it's Michael Emerson in "Lost" that first put Damon Lindelof on my radar. Look, I'm not any sort of in-depth cinephile or anything like that, but I remember seeing Emerson's performance and then getting into "Lost." It literally gave me a goal way-back-when that I needed to work with Damon Lindelof because this type of storytelling is so compelling. It was particularly that. I knew for a fact, because I'd been working in network television for so long, there was no way for the actors to be privy to what these story arcs were going to be because I know that the writers were probably working feverishly to figure them out themselves.

So there's something, I think, very freeing in putting your hands in the skilled hands of a craftsman like Lindelof and Hernandez and being able to say, "Hey, here's the clay, mold away."

So to answer your question, when I had the meeting with Tara and Damon, the character wasn't fully formed. They had some abstract ideas. Some of them were actually just physical ideas, like this idea that [my character, JQ] wanted to be Tyler Durden from "Fight Club" or Bruce Willis' character from "The Fifth Element," the idea that the character had an aggrandized notion of himself.

There was also at that first meeting -- right before we decided, yeah, I want to do it, and, yeah, they want me to do it -- just this notion of maybe he's Australian. It was like, "Wait, really?" They're like, "Yeah, what if he's Australian?" It was just this thing that was born out of conversation. I don't know, but I'm positive that Tara and Damon had a full idea of what this arc was, but I only started ... I read episode 1 and 2 before I signed on, but I hadn't looked at anything else. I was figuring stuff out as we went along. There was something very refreshing about it because it's like, Jesus, take the wheel. Hands off the wheel and then just go. It really gave me a chance to play with great aplomb. I had a ball. It was a really big character swing for me.

'I Would Say With JQ On Mrs. Davis, Those Are The Strangest Shoes I've Ever Put On. It's A Really Big, Big, Big Swing'

My literal next question was going to be, was that accent in the script or not? Because it's one of those accents that walks the line between being realistic enough, but also being outrageous. How do you find that voice?

I actually think the script ends up lending itself to that determination. In the second episode, which is the first episode that JQ appears, his presence is a massive enigma and his origin story, what he is, what he stands for, this resistance movement ... it's kind of a big giant question mark. I think the accent adds to that. I think in the conversation with Damon and Tara, the notion was, what they've done very, very well on this show, and with my character not excluded, is they poke fun at certain pop culture and cinematic tropes, right? Things that we've come to expect in certain action movies, certain sci-fi things, and there's this great mashup or an amalgamation of some of these tropes. 

I think that my character is no exception. One of the reasons that the accent ends up veering toward this outrageous Australian is just hearkening to certain actors, certain performances, certain characters that we feel like we know, and it adds a level of bravado. I had a ball doing that. I'd never done that accent before, and it was certainly really, really fun to jump into it and find it. It was great, great fun.

As someone who's done a lot of voice work, did you find yourself treating your voice as a shield? Do you see yourself being able to vanish behind it and be maybe the number one key to transforming? I mean, you're not Christian Bale, gaining 100 pounds for a role, but your voice changes are as extreme, in a way.

Listen, I try not to take myself seriously at all, but I do take the work very seriously. For me, in my little career, what I have found is that, if I can find the way that the character sounds and the way the character stands, and if that can be just slightly off or bent away from where my normal north in my body is, and that gives me a chance to step into some shoes that aren't mine. It's very, very few and far between, almost never, that I have a character that sounds just like me and stands just like me and looks just like me. So, for me, I'd say 90% of the fun is being able to disappear into somebody else's shoes. I would say with JQ on "Mrs. Davis," those are the strangest shoes I've ever put on. It's a really big, big, big swing.

My voice work and my Broadway work definitely help with regard to finding [the character]. Because it's not just a regional accent, it's also where the voice is placed, how it resonates. That is affected by how I'm standing and how I'm carrying myself. I know it sounds silly and there are a lot of actors that don't want to talk about that sort of thing, but I frankly find it fascinating, because I work with my voice so much and I use my voice as probably one of my main tools with which I can emote. This was a really great challenge for me, because I find that accent exceptionally difficult and it's not one that I was used to doing before or had ever even attempted before. Yeah, finding the voice really helped me find the character. Once I found the voice, I figured out how he walked around and what his vibe was, and then it was off to the races.

Does this apply to your voiceover work, too? Does Mickey Mouse stand the same way as Green Arrow or Steve Trevor do when you're recording?

No, Mickey is completely different. Oh, no. I mean, when I'm doing Mickey ... it's funny, my son really was part of the first inspiration for Mickey. When I first started doing those shorts for Paul [Rudish] and the boys at Disney, we were doing a throwback to Walt Disney's Mickey. I'm talking about Walt's Mickey from "Brave Little Tailor," and from those early Walt Disney shorts. There was a simultaneous timidity and bravado. It's like Mickey's soul was this sweet, warm, almost timid little creature, but then occasionally he would have bouts of being Errol Flynn. My son really ended up being a highlight for me just in terms of his stature. When I was figuring out Mickey, I found myself in the booth emulating the way my son stood and the way my son moved his arms and stuff, because there was this free abandon. No, very different than what I would say Oliver Queen ... I think Oliver Queen and Steve Trevor are a blend of closer to Chris versions. But I do find that I assume different postures when I'm finding these voices and doing these voices.

'I Stepped Into A Very, Very Beautiful And Warm Environment'

One thing I really appreciate about your Mickey is that there was this decades-long period where Disney was so afraid to let Mickey be a character. They let him become a mascot for so long, they didn't know who he was anymore. These shorts come along and you reinvent them as this brave, but neurotic, character. Can you talk about reclaiming Mickey?

Well, that's very kind to you say. I would give all that credit to Paul Rudish and Darrick Bachman, and all of those brilliant writers, directors, and animators over at Disney, to Dave Wright over at Disney TV and to the whole team over there, because they really were the ones who reconceived Mickey as this three-dimensional character and brought him back to his roots of who he originally was when he first popped onto the screen. So, I stepped into a very, very beautiful and warm environment. I think one of the things that I was really lucky with was they allowed me to explore and to use some of my comedy tools and some of my lexicon of emotions with regards to what I would infuse in Mickey. There was just something very freeing about being able to realize that, no, no, Mickey is just like us, and sometimes he gets frustrated and sometimes he gets really scared, and he's neurotic. He might be a little bit of a hypochondriac occasionally. There was something really beautiful about that.

I have an affinity for 1930s and 1940s cinema and culture, and so there was something great about being able to utilize that lilt, the way that people spoke back then, certainly on screen, and being able to bring that to Mickey, which again, was a throwback to what Walt was simply doing intrinsically because he was of that era. So, when you heard Walt on "Brave Little Tailor" go [enters Mickey Mouse voice] "Huh? Yes, your Honor. And how! I was all alone. I heard them coming, I looked up, they were here, there, everywhere, a whole bunch of them. They came at me from the left, from the right, left, left, right, right, and then I let them have it." [exits Mickey Mouse voice] When I go back to those and I'm like, "Oh yeah, man, I mean, Mickey had all of the stuff that I was allowed to do." It's just somewhere along the way, like anything in life, we like to compartmentalize. It's like, "No, Mickey Mouse is for children, so he only goes from A to B." But no, he's for children and he goes from A to Z, because so do kids. So, it's really nice.

I'm one of those guys who likes exploring old 1930s, '40s, '50s Disney comics. You see in the old Mickey Mouse comics and the old Donald Duck and Scrooge comics, they go on adventures, they have relationships with one another.

There you are. My son's got all those old comics, the Donald Duck comics from the '40s and the Mickey Mouse comics from the '40s. Exactly, the subject matter wasn't treated with any kid gloves. It was like any other hero or leading character on an adventure, on a weekly adventure. They allowed those characters -- Mickey, in particular -- to run the gamut within what was in the confines of him being able to come back to neutral so they could do another strip the next week or the next day or whatever it was.

As somebody who grew up going to Disney theme parks, I've got to ask about your work on Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, and the process of recording for a theme park attraction, as opposed to an animated short. Was that a different process?

Have you been on the ride?

No, I live in Texas, so I haven't been able to get to either coast yet.

I haven't been able to get to it either. I was supposed to go when it opened, but it was just shortly before Covid hit and we weren't able to go. They've been wanting me to go now that it's open here in California, and I really want to take my kids. As I say, I've got four kids, so that'll be a fun one to do. Boy, was that a real honor to be able to voice this ride that people are enjoying daily, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people are enjoying daily. I had a ball recording it. I can't say that I took any different approach with regard to doing the voice.

I think I was aware of the fact that it was going to live on as long as the ride is there, and that because the character speaks in the ride, at least in my understanding, you can hear Mickey while you're waiting in line, and then Mickey also takes you through the whole ride. There's a beautiful song that brilliant Chris Willis did. So for me, it was really just a matter of bringing my best Mickey, you know what I mean? Making sure that the kids and the families that were in line waiting for the ride just felt like they were in Mickey's presence. I couldn't believe that I was being asked to do it, and I can't wait to see it. I hear it's just terrific.

There's this long history of incredible voice actors being the voices of Disney theme parks. I'm thinking of Thurl Ravenscroft being one of those voices that I just know from Disney. He's so identifiable to Haunted Mansion. There must be a point of pride where you think you get to be on the same level as someone like that now.

Oh my goodness. I would never, ever deign to put myself on the same level as someone like that. I mean, these people were legends, right? Here's what I'll say. I'm the luckiest guy alive. I get to work in a medium that brings me so much joy, because it reminds me of how much joy I got being an audience of that same medium, and I still get. So, the fact that I get to be able to do some of this stuff, it really still astounds me, and I feel so grateful. If I can entertain some of these kids and some of these families, and some of these audience members, some grown-ups as well, in any of the stuff that I do, and make them step away from themselves a little bit or laugh a little bit, if it gives them a chance to feel like they feel fulfilled by virtue of some performance of mine, then jeez Louise, man, that's not a bad way to make a living. Truthfully, I really do feel lucky. It's a pretty neat gig, man. I know nothing lasts forever, so I'm just going to enjoy it while it's happening.

'I Love When Something That We Expect Is Flipped On Its Head'

I want to talk about another one of your voiceover performances. I think it's one of the funniest scenes I've seen in the past few years, which is your entire Aquaman scene from "Harley Quinn." Everything about that scene is funny. Every character in it is hilarious. How did that scene read on paper and how did you chose to play that scene?

Oh, that's so sweet of you to say. I mean, look, I do have to say, it might be a boring answer, but it really is true, and I think you know this Jacob, because you're a writer, it begins and ends with the writing, doesn't it? You know what I mean? I can be good, I can be a good performer, I can add an element of maybe some charisma or something there, who knows? But the truth of the matter is, if it's not on the page, it's not going to do what it did for you, which is make you remember it and make you laugh. So, it was all on the page. When I read it, that's why I was like, "Yes, I have to do this," because the reaction that you had to the finished product was the reaction I had to the script. It's just brilliantly conceived.

I love when something that we expect is flipped on its head, and it gives us a chance to look at it from a completely different angle. I think much in the way where my Mickey has been allowed to explore Mickey in a more three-dimensional or humanistic way, this Aquaman, you got to wonder, what is it like to be a royalty from another realm under the sea? Got to have some insecurities here and there. You may get a little seaweed in your ear or whatever. I just love the idea that he's this petulant ... I don't know, there's something really, really neat about, yes, he's got superpowers and he can talk to fish and he can breathe underwater, but he's also just a little douchey once in a while and maybe not in a great mood or whatever. I love that.

I know it's not your line, but think about Bane stomping on Aquaman's fish about once a day.

Exactly. It's very, very funny. Now, they're so clever, man. I talk with some people that are like, "Oh gosh, borrowing from the DC and the Marvel Universe and utilizing those storylines, isn't that going to get old?" My answer is, "Well, not if you can find new ways to tell it." I mean, if you're going to go by that standard, all the stories have been told. They finished being told back in ancient Greece, right? We're just revising and adapting them. As long as you can find a new way in, as long as you can find a way to be clever and to keep people engaged, just go for it, man. Wave that flag.

Speaking of finding a new way in, I'm curious about how you approach an existing character, like you did with Flynn Rider in the "Tangled" spin-off. How do you approach a character when you know it's someone people already love, and you're tasked with carrying that torch?

It's happened a few times for me. Recently, I actually got to do, it hasn't come out yet, but I'm doing Stan in "American Dad." Something happens to Stan and he ends up sounding like me. I have a great time when I am given a specific analog. For example, when the Three Stooges movie came out, I had been a massive Stooges fan when I was a child, and when the task at hand was, "This is the person we need, this is what we need," I love that, because all the rules in the universe are established. "This is what Moe would sound like," yada, yada, yada.

In the instance of someone like Flynn Ryder, I was the benefactor of such a great performance [from Zachary Levi], and such a fully formed universe in the show. So, I was able to look at that and extrapolate from all the various elements that were already put into the voice that existed, and then just sprinkle in a little of my own nonsense. So, it was enjoyable, but not that difficult really, because I've got a good ear, I'm a good mimic, and I'm also a big fan of voice acting. So, I can hook into pretty quickly what somebody, particularly somebody that I admire, is doing, and then I'm just able to go.

'That Movie Was 100%, As You Say, A Love Letter To The Stooges'

It's been over 10 years since that "The Three Stooges" came out, and I think the critical reaction was a little unfair, because that movie loves those characters more than anything. It really feels like a labor of love.

That's really interesting you should say that. Look, I don't need to be the patron saint security guard of the "Three Stooges" movie, but it's funny, there seems to be this notion that the movie wasn't critically acclaimed, and that's not true. If you actually go back, dude, this surprises me as much as it might you, but we were a New York Times critics pick when we opened. We had a couple of beautiful little love letters written to us by some pretty terrific film critics. But that movie was 100%, as you say, a love letter to The Stooges. Look, nobody loves The Stooges more than me, but I think [directors] Pete and Bob Farrelly come very, very close.

No movie is perfect, and that movie was of course far from perfect, but what was perfect was the intention of saying to a new generation of kids that may not be savvy enough or have access to or interested in watching black and white shorts, we wanted to give them a chance to experience a brand of humor that's 100 years old, and that has lasted and still makes people laugh. It's funny, I remember Moe [Howard] in one of his last interviews, someone was interviewing him and they said, "So, do you find yourself the godfather of slapstick?" He correctly and accurately corrected the interviewer and said, "What we do isn't slapstick, it's farce." There is physical humor, but all of the humor is derived from the situation. For me, making that movie, that was a 16-week love letter that included dislocated rotator cuffs, broken fingers, and a sprained ankle, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I loved making that movie.

There's an incredible book I read recently called "Camera Man," about the life of Buster Keaton. A large chunk of it spent on his early vaudeville days, and the art of vaudeville, and the sometimes-lost art of vaudeville and how it translated into his film. So, when you play roles like that, when you play roles that are very physical and lean on the farce with the very stage-driven physical comedy, do you see yourself keeping tradition of old performance styles alive?

The answer is an unmitigated yes. I mean, look, I'm a student of history, both as an actor, but also just in general. I mean, gosh, when the pandemic hit, boy did I go back to my early educational days of stoic philosophy, because I needed it. I needed to go back to what was a tried and true method for dealing with adversity. The sobering realization that as difficult as something feels, like, "Guess what, kid? You're not special." And I'm talking to myself. You're not the first one to go through this. There have been centuries and centuries of people that have gone through these hardships, so maybe you can borrow from their wisdom.

To that end, as an actor, "Guess what, kid, you're not the first one to think that your little slip and fall on a banana peel is funny. There are others before you that have done it better, so learn from them." So, when I have an opportunity to do something like The Stooges, I have a little bit of a photographic memory, particularly with things that I'm very interested in, and so for me, stepping into the skin of Moe wasn't so much a learning experience, as much as it was a coming of age. It was a moment I had been waiting for and preparing for my entire life. I mean, jeez, when I was in sixth grade, all the kids had to do a speech that year. We practiced for it all year. One kid did the Everglades, the other kid did volcanoes, dinosaurs. Mine was Moe Howard. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. I knew everything about him. I knew about what he was working with Ted Healy. I knew him about when he first met Larry, and it was just Moe and Larry.

I know everything, and everything that there was, anything that you could possibly get your hands on. Yeah, I was a student of his. His wasn't necessarily the vaudeville circuit, although, yeah, he was kind of in there, but his was more Borscht Belt. I mean, he played some pretty crappy venues, but Moe loved acting. Moe loved acting. He sent away to work on a steamship that was a performance steamship, and he lied. He said he was 5' 9", he said he was 21, and he said he was Shakespearean trained. He was 16 and 5' 4" and he looked like Moe. When he arrived, the captain was so angry, because they sent him his train fare and his boat fare to get there. When the captain saw him, he was so irate, but he couldn't send him away, so he had him work there on the boat, swabbing the decks, literally cleaning s*** up, and learning. When the captain realized that there's something to this kid, and Moe had it, he always had it in him, and he was the leader both onscreen and off. Anyway, I could talk forever about that stuff.

'Some Of It's Going To Work, Some Of It's Not, And Just Give Me A Chance, I'll Be Better In The Next One'

One of the most hair-raising things I've seen on YouTube is you and your fellow "Three Stooges" actors appearing on WWE. Watching that footage back, it feels like you three are being tossed into the meat grinder to promote your movie. It feels terrifying. Do you remember that situation and what it was like to be on that stage with a crowd who clearly wasn't having it?

In life, in cinema, you try things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Even the greats like Spielberg, they have their massive successes that we all remember them for, and then they have things that didn't quite work the way they planned or didn't get received the way they planned. When I did "The Three Stooges," it was such a labor of love for me. It took me six months to win that role. I auditioned for it over 14 times. The role had been offered out to [Johnny] Knoxville, who ended up passing, and to Hank Azaria, who ended up passing for various reasons. When it finally got to me, I had written a letter to Tom Rothman, who was running the studio at the time, and it was an impassioned letter of basically saying, "Look, I know I can't begin to be aware of what the pressures are for you to hire the right actor for your features, and I'm not a celebrity and I'm not a stand-up comedian, but I don't think you'll find someone that understands this subject matter and this character better than me. You got to hire me to play Moe."

I think I even put in there, "I'd do it for free." So, when they cast me, they took me to my word and they paid me Schedule F, which was the lowest that you could get paid to do a movie like that. From that experience forward through into the promotion, it's not like anyone was checking in with me like, "Hey, Chris, do you think X would be a good idea, or do you think Y would be a good idea with regard to promotion or whatever?" I certainly was happy to be involved and happy to help in any way I could. I think that idea was probably a genesis of ... I know [fellow "Stooges" actor] Will Sasso has a deep affinity for the wrestling world, and I think some of his contacts came together, and I think the rest is history. Sean [Hayes], Will, and I certainly went into it with aplomb. It wasn't a world that I knew very well. We certainly wanted it to be funny. We wanted to do the best that we could. It was with great trepidation that we walked out there and it was all we could do to keep it together to stay out there while the bit happened. But some things work, some things don't. What did Ed Wood say? "So, you thought my film was absolutely terrible? Well, my next one will be better."

I think a massive part of the wrestling world is knowing when to let them see you bleed or not. I think the three of you did a good job not letting them see you bleed.

Thank you. Well, I'm sure I've still got a scar somewhere on me, but we would've recovered from all these things. Look, man, you can't take it too seriously. You got to do your best. Some of it's going to work, some of it's not, and just give me a chance, I'll be better in the next one. You know what I mean?

Absolutely. There's a movie that's not talked about very much, and it's a one of the movies where you're the leading man and the action hero. It's "Man Vs.," the science fiction action movie where you play a survival reality show host fighting an alien. I would love to hear about how that came together, because that's one of those movies where I watch it thinking it would be kind of a goof, but you really sell that movie in a dramatic way.

Jacob, thank you so much. That's very, very kind of you to say, pal. Listen, I treat every opportunity that I get as an actor with the same level of respect and preparation and awe, because I still can't believe that I'm lucky enough to get to do this. That movie was brought to me by Nicholas Tabarrok, who was the producer on a film that I had done a couple of years prior with Kurt Russell, Terrence Stamp, and Matt Dillon, called "The Art of the Steal," which was a terrific little heist film. If you haven't seen it, oh, it's just a lovely little ride. Beautiful, beautifully done. Nicholas had this script for this one-hander, basically, it was basically me in the whole film. He said, "Would you be interested?" I love working with him, and I love working in Canada, and I am Canadian and I love the subject matter, and I hadn't gotten the chance to be an action thriller hero before, and boy, that's all I've ever wanted to do. My wife jokes, she's like, "I think your time has passed."

I was like, "No, no. Maybe I could still do it. Maybe I'll have my Liam Neeson moment." Oh man, I had a really great time on that. That was a really, really intense shoot. For all intents and purposes, I actually ended up helping in a cinemagraphical way as well, because I actually had to set those cameras, the Black Magic, the GoPros, and we utilized a great deal of footage from where the placement of those cameras was, and then I had to perform into those cameras. I had a ball. It was great fun. I would do something like that again in a heartbeat. I mean, look, I was a big fan of "Cast Away." I thought giving someone like Tom Hanks an opportunity to just explore that character in isolation over the course of a film was a brilliant idea, and I thought he did such a gorgeous job. For me, in my little, micro, mini way, I looked at a film like this as an opportunity for me to explore something similar as well. Me on screen for most of the time, and trying to find real elements of humanity and real elements of emotional challenge, and just go for it. I had a ball.

'If Anyone Out There Is Listening And They Have The Rights To The Green Goblin And Marvel Wants To Make It, I'm Your Man'

There's this recent trend we're starting to see in a lot of Hollywood movies where they realize they can cast somebody funny, like Paul Rudd. Send Paul Rudd to the gym for six months and say, "Oh, now we have a superhero." I'm not going to ask you the Marvel question, but have you ever thought about, has it ever entered your brain, "Maybe I should try becoming that leading man, suave action hero"? Has that been something you've ever wanted to chase?

I'll tell you this, of course, it's something I've wanted to do. I mean, I'm an audience member of these projects and I'm a father, and I grew up in the '80s and '90s, so for me, I wanted to be Harrison Ford when I grew up. So, should the opportunity present itself, I would be all over it. My son recently said to me, "Dad, you know what you should do? You should find a way to do a streaming mini-series called Goblin, where you play Norman Osborne. It's like the origin story of Norman Osborne and the Green Goblin." I was like, "Now, that's a good idea." So, if anyone out there is listening and they have the rights to the Green Goblin and Marvel wants to make it, I'm your man.

Look, they've officially retired Willem Dafoe from the part after the last movie. I think the doors are wide open.

There you go.

Let's do this. If they're going to do a Green Goblin, they're going to cast you, I'm going to make sure of this. I'll make some calls.

All right, Jacob. I'm holding you to it. I'll call you if it doesn't happen.

Do you mind if I just run down some of the roles that people brought up when I mentioned I was talking to you?

I'd love it.

All right, I'll use the exact words from my colleagues. Number one: "Horse guy from 'Hannibal.'"

Oh, I mean, the great Bryan Fuller called and said, "I want you to do an episode. I'm not going to tell you what happens in it. Will you come?" I said, "Yes." I think he's brilliant. I'd work with Brian anywhere, any day. I did not expect that I would be freezing my off in a fake horse carcass in northern Ontario in the middle of the winter. But boy, oh boy, it was easy to get into character.

Number two: "The internet's most hated man in 'The Office.'"

Oh, yeah, totally. I am the internet's most hated man. I've had people yell at me on the street when I'm with my children, "F*** you. You tried to break up Jim and Pam." My children are actually obsessed with 'The Office' now because of this. They're just of that age where they're starting to watch it. They haven't gotten to my season yet. They're like, "When do you come in? When do you come in?" I was like, "Well, hold your horses kids, you'll be disappointed." Look, man, when they called and said that they wanted me to be on the show, I was such a fan of that show for so long that how could I say no? I didn't know what I was going to be doing. I did what I was asked to do. You take the punches. Oh, well, listen, let's be honest, Pam was kind of asking for it.

Number three, repeating it exactly how it was said to me: "This guy f***s from 'Silicon Valley.'"

Oh yeah, listen, my favorite television comedy is "Seinfeld." When I heard that Alec Berg was working with Mike Judge on a new show called "Silicon Valley," I was the first one ready to watch it. That first season of "Silicon Valley" to me is some of the best comedy television ever produced. It's absolutely brilliant. When I heard that I had a chance to audition for a role on it, I leapt at the opportunity. I went in, my agents had given me the wrong material. They were non-revised script sides. When I went in to do the audition, the casting people saw that I had the wrong material, they said, "Oh, s***, it's the wrong material." It was 14 pages of material.

I was like, "But I worked on it. It was five days I'd been working on this." They said, "It's the wrong material." I was like, "Well, let me just do the audition anyway." So, I did it and it didn't go great. I called my agent and I asked him, "Did you hear anything about this one?" He's like, "I think this one's going away." Apparently they had someone else that they were going to make an offer to. It bothered me so much because I loved the idea of the role, and I loved the show, and I called the casting office and I went in on the weekend with the right material and I redid my audition, and I got the job. I loved it.

Russ Hanneman is one of the funniest characters in that show, which is saying a lot.

Thanks, man. No, I had a ball. I had a ball. 100% of the performance was helped by the writing. I showed up and I delivered these excellent script lines.

'I'm All For Progress, Assuming That We Are Progressing, Assuming That It's Leading Us Toward Some Sort Of A Greater Understanding'

I know your next project is was one where you're number one on the call sheet, "The Sticky." Can you tell me about that? What's that about, and who are you playing?

Well, let's say this, no one is number one when Margo Martindale is on set. Margo Martindale is one to 100, and I'm happy to be 101 in that instance, because I get to work with her and she is absolutely divine. This show, I think, is genre-bending, man. I think this one might reinvent the half-hour genre as not only being connected to comedy. Now, the show definitely has some funny moments, but it's like if you were to take "Fargo" and dissect it and make it a half-hour show. It's bent, it's broken, it's frightening, it's thrilling. Come on, dude, it's got Jamie Lee Curtis. She's not only producing, but dude, she's going to be in the show. I think the show is just going to be tremendous. We've been shooting for about two and a half weeks now. Oh, it's just great.

I feel like if you have Margo Martindale and Jamie Lee Curtis on the same set, the "actor mom" energy must feel incredible there.

Oh, man, unbelievable. Unbelievable. Not only that, but the opportunity to sit back and learn and sit back and watch, it's just marvelous. For someone that's a fan of not only doing it but watching it, it's like I'm a kid in a candy store. It's just tremendous.

We just ran a big investigative piece where one of my writers has been talking to voice actors for months, talking about the recent upswing in, or the looming threat or promise, or whatever you want to call it, of AI being introduced in voice work and how that may impact the industry. This ties all back to the beginning, going back to "Mrs. Davis" and AI taking over the world, and in this case, a world you love so much: the world of voice acting. Have you personally seen or comprehended what kind of world we're looking at where people are going to try to artificially recreate famous voices for the future?

Gosh, that's a great question. Sadly, I leave the worrying about things like that to bigger minds than me. I'm a "keep your head down and do the work" kind of guy. I do know that throughout history, particularly a history of this industry, most of the time that there might have been any resistance to technological advancement or change, it's met with a brief little bump, and then technology usually ends up winning. Everything from film going digital and silent films turning into talkies, etc. I think that technology, when used correctly, will always help us to augment our storytelling abilities. But I do think that audiences, at least for now, are still human. Despite what the media would have us believe, there is something that connects us and unites us as a species with regard to the way that we proliferate and absorb story.

I think utilizing AI as a tool is one thing. Utilizing it as the source is an entirely different thing. So, I believe that if AI can help bring back certain voices ... I mean, look, I'm watching "The Mandalorian" with my son. We've got a young Mark Hamill that's acting on screen. It's terrific. I'm not distracted by it, it works. But I wouldn't watch the show where that character was the star of the show, because there's just something about it, that even in the instance where it works perfectly, it's the imperfection that I'd be missing. So, I hope I can maintain relevance and carry on working as a voice actor and as a screen actor until the day that I die. It's not up to me. What's up to me is to do the best work that I can do when a job is presented.

I spoke to filmmaker Henry Selick from "The A Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Coraline" a little while back, and he talked about how the reason he prefers stop-motion over other animation is that he loves being able to see the imperfections. He wants to see the craft at work. I'm reminded of how in original 1933 "King Kong," you can see the animator's fingerprints appearing on King Kong as he moves around. It's a reminder of the literal hands at work. Stop-motion lets you see the process. I imagine that with voiceover performance, the right stutter or falling over the right word or the right pause that can't be digitally created, is where the real magic lies.

I think so. I think so. I think if they need to bring back some beautiful old personalities and it helps add a spice to a scene, I'm all for it. I think it's absolutely fine. Look, man, I'm all for progress, assuming that we are progressing, assuming that it's leading us toward some sort of a greater understanding. Yeah, I think as long as we all do our best to try and continue to tell stories in a way that's compelling and can pull people in, then we're all winning. There's plenty of room for everyone, even "Mrs. Davis."

Let's end with a fun one. You mentioned Green Goblin, but let's go ahead and open up the doors up to everything. Who's your dream character from any book, any Broadway show? Who do you want to play and make yours?

All right, I want to be Don Quixote in the Broadway revival of "Man of La Mancha." That would be something that I'd give my left arm for. Actually, Jacob, mark my words, one day, whether it's now or 30 years from now, I will do that. The very next one, I mean, look, man, you don't get any better in terms of the biggies, then James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Batman. So, I'm ready.

I feel like you can voice Batman pretty easily. I feel like that could be a job you'd slide into.

You know what I would be great as, Jacob? I'd be a great Wolverine. When time has passed and they want to cast a shorter guy who's Canadian, I'm ready, Jacob. I'm very hairy and I'm quite angry.

All right, you know what? We'll make it happen. I'll see what I can do.

All right, let's do it, pal.

"Mrs. Davis" premieres on Peacock on April 20, 2023.

Read this next: The Coen Brothers Movies Ranked Worst To Best

The post Chris Diamantopoulos Has Been in Everything – and He's Not Slowing Down [Exclusive Interview] appeared first on /Film.

The latest news on the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard deal from regulatory bodies around the world gave fans a solid hope that the company's prized games might soon make it to Game Pass. After all, if heavy hitters like Diablo and Call of Duty appeared on Microsoft's subscription service, analysts believe the subscription figures could explode. However, speaking to Rolling Stone, Xbox corporate vice president Sarah Bond said the true value of Game Pass lies in the depth and breadth of its portfolio rather than any single acquisition.

We’ve been very clear about our commitment to have our first-party portfolio shipping to Game Pass day and date. We understand that people really value that, but it’s also about diversity of content. It’s not really about any one acquisition. It’s about the depth and breadth of the portfolio all up; from big triple-A games to indie titles to hidden gems. That’s actually what makes Game Pass really valuable.

It could be argued that purchasing one of the biggest third-party publishers is a great way to increase both the depth and breadth of said portfolio. Needless to say, it would make a huge difference, and there's a chance Microsoft might also increase the subscription service's price; they've already removed the long-standing $1 new user promotion. On the other hand, the company is also testing a Friends and Family option that might be advantageous for large groups of relatives and friends.

In the Rolling Stone interview, Sarah Bond also talked about the way Game Pass influences game development.

Game Pass is an option for developers. One thing that we talk a lot about internally but I’ve been striving to share more externally is the business model associated with a game has an endemic link to the nature of the gameplay. We invest a lot of time in how we introduce more business model diversity; how we create more options. We talk a lot about Game Pass because subscription is the latest option that we scaled: you have pay-to-play, then there was free-to-play, and then we introduced Game Pass.

We’ve talked about how we’re experimenting with other models, like what does it mean for advertising in games which is more prevalent in mobile – are there models of that that work well in PC and console? Are there other models where you might have timed slices of games and stuff like that? Providing creators with options and choice enables them to experiment and do what they like, and actually create more immersive and creative experiences without having to fit into a mould.

One recent example of that is certainly Obsidian's Pentiment, which might have never been made without Microsoft's help and the existence of Game Pass.

Elsewhere in her interview with Rolling Stone, Bond also commented on the announcement-release combo that did wonders for Hi-Fi Rush. As many had suspected, it was a case-by-case decision, so it won't necessarily be repeated any time soon. For more on Hi-Fi Rush, check out our freshly published post-launch interview with John Johanas.

Lastly, Sarah Bond said the advent of AI could massively democratize game development. Just yesterday we covered a new generative AI tool that quickly creates hundreds of unique NPCs, and of course, Microsoft could do so much more thanks to its investment in ChatGPT. Just imagine an RPG where you actually speak with non-player characters in a freeform fashion to get a unique experience every time. It may take a while, but we'll get there.

Recently, Lifehacker asked whether our readers tip every time they’re asked. Point-of-sale gratuities are more and more common, showing up in previously straight-forward transactions like buying a coffee, picking up some takeout, or even buying some groceries at the store, so we’re hoping to get a feel for the new…

Read more...

Business is booming in India's $117 billion education industry and new colleges are popping up at breakneck speed. Yet thousands of young Indians are finding themselves graduating with limited or no skills, undercutting the economy at a pivotal moment of growth. From a report: Desperate to get ahead, some of these young people are paying for two or three degrees in the hopes of finally landing a job. They are drawn to colleges popping up inside small apartment buildings or inside shops in marketplaces. Highways are lined with billboards for institutions promising job placements. It's a strange paradox. India's top institutes of technology and management have churned out global business chiefs like Alphabet's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella. But at the other end of the spectrum are thousands of small private colleges that don't have regular classes, employ teachers with little training, use outdated curriculums, and offer no practical experience or job placements, according to more than two dozen students and experts who were interviewed by Bloomberg. Around the world, students are increasingly pondering the returns on a degree versus the cost. Higher education has often sparked controversy globally, including in the US, where for-profit institutions have faced government investigations. Yet the complexities of education are acutely on show in India. It has the world's largest population by some estimates, and the government regularly highlights the benefits of having more young people than any other country. Yet half of all graduates in India are unemployable in the future due to problems in the education system, according to a study by talent assessment firm Wheebox. Many businesses say they struggle to hire because of the mixed quality of education. That's kept unemployment stubbornly high at more than 7% even though India is the world's fastest growing major economy. Education is also becoming an outsized problem for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he attempts to draw foreign manufacturers and investors from China. Modi had vowed to create millions of jobs in his campaign speeches, and the issue is likely to be hotly debated in the run up to national elections in 2024.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft is excited to announce that we are shifting to a new threat actor naming taxonomy aligned to the theme of weather. The complexity, scale, and volume of threats is increasing, driving the need to reimagine not only how Microsoft talks about threats but also how we enable customers to understand those threats quickly and with clarity.

The post Microsoft shifts to a new threat actor naming taxonomy appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

In the fall of 1979, Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and the rest of the cast and crew arrived on location in the woods of Tennessee to make a movie called "The Evil Dead." It wasn't always called that; its original title was "The Book of the Dead," and there were more suggested titles along the way. Thankfully Raimi went for economy, and the title we know today matches the film: Concise, scary, and in-your-face. 

It also wasn't the first time that Raimi and friends had embarked on such a project. A year earlier, the young filmmaker rustled up $1600 to make a 30-minute proof-of-concept called "Within the Woods" to showcase his team's talent and raise money for their first feature-length movie. It is only just about watchable, but it is fascinating to see some ideas and techniques that Raimi would later use taking shape in the trial run.

"Within the Woods" helped secure enough funding to make "The Evil Dead." Released in 1981 after the successes of "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th," it became a sleeper hit. At that stage, even Raimi himself probably never envisioned that his film would go on to become a cult horror franchise, with two sequels, a remake, a TV show, and a new generation of Deadite-bashing movies beginning with "Evil Dead Rise." 

Raimi's film was incredibly influential, cementing the spooky cabin in the woods setting as a subgenre of its own and paving the way for "Cabin Fever," Tucker & Dale vs. Evil," and, er, "The Cabin in the Woods." As groundbreaking as "The Evil Dead" was, its concept wasn't totally original. 13 years before Raimi made "Within the Woods," another young filmmaker and his pals made "Equinox," an ultra-low budget horror movie with an uncannily similar premise.

So What Happens In Equinox Again?

"Equinox" opens with a young man, David (Edward Connell), frantically fleeing an unseen menace in the woods. Making it to the road, he is struck down by a car with no driver.

Exactly a year and one day later, a newspaper reporter visits the psychiatric ward to follow up on his previous story about the mysterious deaths of David's friends. David, now in a catatonic stupor, becomes violent when shown a photo of his old university professor, Dr. Watermann (Fritz Leiber).

The reporter listens to a tape of David's testimony from when he was first brought into the ward. In flashback, David tells how he received a phone call from Dr. Watermann, asking him to come urgently to his cabin in the mountains. Along for the ride was his best friend, Jim (Frank Bonner), Jim's girlfriend Vicki (Robin Christopher), and his blind date Susan (Barbara Hewitt).

They find Dr. Watermann's cabin destroyed and no sign of the professor. Exploring a nearby cave, a crazy old man gives them a strange book filled with arcane symbols and ominous illustrations. Helpfully, Dr. Watermann's notes are tucked inside, revealing how his experiments with the book unleashed demonic creatures, one of which trashed his shack.

Things get worse from there. The gang finds huge footprints in the sand outside the cave and spots a castle that appears and disappears randomly; Dr. Watermann dies after snatching the book from David, only for his body to vanish; and they encounter Asmodeus (Jack Woods), a creepy forest ranger with very suspicious eyebrows. For a finale, the kids witness the true power of the book. They're attacked by a huge gorilla-like creature and a giant caveman before Asmodeus reveals his true nature and turns into a winged demon. Running for their lives, David is the only survivor. Or is he?

Equinox Was A Labor Of Love For Its Creators

"Equinox" was the pet project of young filmmaker and producer Dennis Muren, who got together with writer Mark McGee and stop-motion animator David Allen to make their own monster movie. Muren would go on to have a hugely successful career in special effects, winning eight Oscars for his work on movies like "The Empire Strikes Back," The Abyss," and "Jurassic Park."

With that kind of nascent talent behind the project, it's no surprise that the special effects are what really make "Equinox" worth watching. The stop-motion creatures wouldn't look out of place in a Ray Harryhausen movie, which is incredible considering it was made by a group of teenagers on a tiny budget. The rest of the film is fun but unremarkable, with pleasant performances and a cheerful can-do spirit. Without the benefit of lighting, Muren and friends shot during the day, giving the movie a sunny Californian vibe like the Beach Boys took a wrong turn and wound up in a horror flick.

Muren's movie was shot over two years and then lay dormant until it was picked up by Jack H. Harris, the producer best known for "The Blob." He hired editor Jack Woods to film extra footage with the original cast, re-edit, and pad it out to feature length for a theatrical release in 1970. The newer footage mostly blends in, although the length of time between the original 1965 shoot and the extra scenes results in the actors visibly aging and de-aging before your eyes.

The similarities between "Equinox" and "The Evil Dead" don't stop at the storyline and subject matter. Although Raimi's film cost considerably more, it was still a low-budget project that needed plenty of hands-on ingenuity. One that was made in far less sun-kissed circumstances.

The Evil Dead Was A Tough Shoot For Cast And Crew

"The Evil Dead" eventually cost $375,000, which sounds like a fortune compared to what Sam Raimi originally had to work with for his prototype. Even so, it was still an exercise in DIY-style filmmaking that put the cast and crew through a miserable 12-week shoot as winter set in. As Raimi told IGN: 

"There was no running water, and it was in the 20s and 30s -- we didn't have any winter wear. It was freezing. When you're in that cold for 16 hours, you start to -- I started to die. There was no food, and everything was covered in Karo syrup in that temperature... The only water we had was in a hot water heater so you could make instant coffee. Boiling water over your hands from the tap; that's how you'd wash them, to load the film into the camera."

One of the great things about "The Evil Dead" is that you can almost see the filmmaker's fingerprints. When you feel that human touch and the passion that went into it, it's easier to overlook the moments when the budget restrictions poke through. Raimi's directorial style stands out, typified by those signature crash zooms and prowling P.O.V shots representing the evil force crashing through the woods. Those moments still look really accomplished, achieved by strapping a camera to a length of timber and running with it through the woods. The effect is so good that Raimi even snuck a slicker version into his much higher budget "Spider-Man 2." As for the gloopy makeup effects, the man responsible was Tom Sullivan, who also worked on "Within the Woods" and credits "Equinox" with influencing his career.

Did Equinox Influence The Evil Dead In Any Way?

Given the close similarities in the storyline and subject matter, it would seem surprising if "Equinox" hadn't had some influence on "The Evil Dead." However, Sam Raimi has cited "The Night of the Living Dead" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" as major inspirations instead. This makes sense, as they were also groundbreaking low-budget horrors that were largely set in a claustrophobic single location.

"Equinox" was promoted by influential editor Forrest J. Ackerman in "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine, bringing it to the attention of a new generation of creature feature lovers including Tom Sullivan, who oversaw the makeup effects in "Within the Woods" and "The Evil Dead." He acknowledged the film had a big impact on his career (via Criterion):

"I had seen 'Equinox' at least twice in drive-ins before making 'The Evil Dead.' I don't recall having discussed it with Sam Raimi, but the similarities are remarkable. I think they come from the low-budget nature of both films. That is, a few characters, an isolated, inexpensive location, and ambitious special effects. All in all, 'Equinox' did inspire me to continue my goal of making movies. 'If they can do it...'"

I'm not about to accuse Raimi of ripping off "Equinox" but, as they say, there is no such thing as an original idea. Whether Sullivan remembers it or not, it seems unlikely to me that the film never came up when talking about the storyline for "The Evil Dead." After all, the source of evil changed from a desecrated burial ground in "Within the Woods" to a necromantic book unleashing demons on a group of teens. Whether it had an influence or not, the charming earlier film makes a fun port of call for "Evil Dead" fans eager to check out the connections.

Read this next: Horror Remakes That Are Better Than The Originals

The post The Low-Budget Horror Cult Classic That May Have Inspired Evil Dead appeared first on /Film.

A team of scientists led by Slava Turyshev of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology have proposed merging miniature satellite units with a solar energy process that would create a fast, inexpensive, lightweight mode of travel. Phys.Org reports: Solar sailing is a process by which the pressure generated by the sun's radiation is harnessed for propulsion. Recent innovations in this technology were demonstrated in a successful crowdfunded 2019 mission undertaken by the Planetary Society's LightSail-2 project. The researchers explain, "Solar sails obtain thrust by using highly reflective, lightweight materials that reflect sunlight to propel a spacecraft while in space. The continuous photon pressure from the sun provides thrust, eliminating the need for heavy, expendable propellants employed by conventional on-board chemical and electric propulsion systems, which limit mission lifetime and observation locations." They say that sails are far less expensive than heavy equipment currently used for propulsion, and that the ever-present continuous solar photon pressure from the sun makes thrust available for a broad range of vehicular maneuvers, such as hovering or rapid orbital plane changes. Solar sails and miniaturization "have advanced in the past decade to the point where they may enable inspiring and affordable missions to reach farther and faster, deep into the outer regions of our solar system," the report says. The researchers refer to the merging of these two technologies as the Sundiver Concept. "Fast, cost-effective and maneuverable sailcraft that may travel outside the ecliptic plane open new opportunities for affordable solar system exploration," the report states, "with great promise for heliophysics, planetary science, and astrophysics." With enhanced maneuverability, the spacecraft can easily deliver small payloads to multiple destinations if required, and can dock with related modular craft. The reliance on the sun and the miniaturization of the carrier, which requires no dedicated launch site, will prove to be significant cost savers, the researchers add: "A substantial reason for the high costs is our [current] reliance on slow and expensive chemical propulsion, operating at the limits of its capabilities, effectively rendering the current solar system exploration paradigm unsustainable. A new approach is needed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Stay connected with your social network, family, and friends to maintain a sense of belonging and support.
• Cultivate interests and hobbies such as gardening, woodworking, or cooking to stimulate the brain and enhance physical strength and agility.
• Explore nature – walk in the park, admire seasonal flowers, visit beach towns, or take a road trip to seek new experiences.
• Prioritize your physical health with regular exercise, a healthy diet, and routine check-ups.

Aging is a natural process that we cannot avoid. As we grow older, our health, mobility, and overall physical and mental abilities decline, which can be quite depressing. However, if you focus on life’s positive aspects, senior years can also be filled with joy, self-discovery, and memorable experiences. This blog post will discuss six practical ways to fill your aged years with happiness and excitement.

Stay connected with your social network.

As you age, your social network tends to shrink due to fewer opportunities to meet new people or engage in new activities. Therefore, staying connected with your family, friends, and community groups is essential to maintain a sense of belonging and support. You can join a social club, volunteer in a charity, attend a senior center or participate in a hobby group to meet new people and create meaningful connections.

Another great way to maintain your social network is by attending church services. This will help you connect to a larger community and make new friends who share your values. The good news is that you don’t have to leave your home to attend church services. Many churches offer virtual Sunday services, so you can stay connected with fellow believers while enjoying the comfort of your home.

Cultivate your interests and hobbies

Aging does not mean giving up on your passions and interests. It is the perfect time to explore new hobbies, learn new skills, and develop your talents. If you don’t know what hobbies or activities to try, here are some ideas:

Gardening

Planting a garden is an enjoyable and easy activity from home. Gardening can give you the peace of mind and satisfaction of creating something beautiful with your hands. Invite some of your family or friends to join you in your gardening venture and enjoy some quality time together.

Woodworking

Woodworking is an excellent activity for seniors because it stimulates the brain, enhancing physical strength and agility. It also helps you appreciate the beauty of nature and teaches patience as you watch wood transform into something useful.

Cooking

Cooking has many benefits, both physical and mental. Not only will it help you stay active, but it will also elevate your mood while savoring delicious dishes. Try experimenting with new recipes or learning traditional dishes from your heritage to keep things interesting.

Explore nature

Nature has a therapeutic effect on the mind and body. Go for walks in the park or trails, explore nearby gardens, and admire seasonal flowers. You can also visit beach towns to appreciate the ocean’s beauty or take a road trip to seek new experiences.

Prioritize your physical health

Maintaining good physical health is crucial for overall well-being, especially in senior years when health can be fragile. You can include regular exercise, a healthy diet, and routine check-ups to energize your body. Walking, swimming, yoga, and dancing are great options for seniors to stay active without putting too much strain on the body.

Practice mindfulness and relaxation techniques

Aging can come with higher stress, anxiety, and sleep disorders. Mindfulness and relaxation techniques, such as meditation, deep breathing, tai chi, and massage, can help improve mental and emotional well-being. These practices can also reduce inflammation, lower blood pressure, and improve sleep patterns.

Make time for travel and adventure

Just because you are in your senior year does not mean you cannot travel or explore new places. It is the perfect time to cross some destinations from your bucket list! You can plan a trip with your loved ones, take a group tour, or travel solo to explore new cultures and make new memories.

Give back to your community

Giving back to your community can create a sense of purpose and fulfillment while helping others in need. You can volunteer at a local charity, donate to a cause you care about, or mentor young people. This can create a sense of pride and satisfaction, knowing that your contributions positively impact other people’s lives.

The Bottom Line

In conclusion, senior years can be filled with joy, excitement, and fulfillment if we focus on the positive aspects of life. By staying connected with our social network, pursuing our passions, prioritizing our physical health, practicing mindfulness, traveling, and giving back to the community, we can create a life filled with happiness and contentment. Remember, age is just a number, and we can make the most of our senior years with a positive attitude and the desire to make each day count.

The post How to Fill Your Golden Years with Joy and Happiness appeared first on Joe Martin.