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One cop, one robber, two cups of coffee; it's the set-up for that legendary diner chat in "Heat," one of the most famous scenes in modern movie history. In a three-hour crime epic punctuated by teeth-rattling shootouts, this quiet conversation is one of the most riveting moments in the whole film. Not only is it expertly written and shot, it went down in history as the first onscreen meeting of two acting heavyweights, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

It's fascinating to see these two great actors playing off each other's distinct style. "Heat" has Pacino on the brink of "Hoo-ah!" self-parody, yet it suits his character as Vincent Hanna, the intensely driven LA detective on the trail of De Niro's methodical professional crook, Neil McCauley. Pacino's larger-than-life style is counterbalanced by De Niro's low-key, considered approach. Not only are the two characters opposite sides of the same coin, but the actors are as well, making the scene even more engrossing.

It's ironic that in this first meeting of the two Hollywood legends, director Michael Mann chooses not to capture them in the same frame with a two-shot, leading to rumors that the actors had filmed their half of the conversation separately. Instead, Mann alternates over-the-shoulder shots as they speak, providing a hypnotic rhythm and involving us in the conversation. They talk quietly, respectfully, sizing each other up and finding a common bond. To emphasize the importance of their words, Mann drops out the background noise from the busy diner. In another world, they could be friends, but they both know that the next time they meet each other, only one will likely survive.

In a film packed with superior versions of well-worn tropes, this is the grown-up equivalent of that hackneyed scene in movies where the villain says to the good guy, "We're not so different, you and I." It's such a movie-ish movie scene that it never occurred to me that "Heat" was based on a true story. Then I discovered that two decades before cameras rolled, a real cop and a real robber sat down for a very similar conversation.

So What Happens In Heat Again?

Neil McCauley (De Niro) is a career thief and head of a highly motivated gang of professional robbers. When a loose cannon new recruit guns down a security guard during a daylight heist on an armored car, the crew has no choice but to eliminate the other two witnesses. This cold-blooded act brings LAPD Lieutenant Hanna (Pacino) to the case, who is determined to put a stop to McCauley and his gang.

Meanwhile, McCauley starts a tentative relationship with a fellow lonely heart, Eady (Amy Brenneman), going against his ethos of never having anything in his life that he can't walk away from in an instant. This leaves him exposed as he plans one last big job as Hanna and his team close in.

On paper, it's a pretty simple story featuring several basic tropes of the crime thriller. There is the psycho loose-cannon who even the most meticulous professionals in movies always end up hiring, and the one last job before the protagonist leaves his life of crime behind to settle down with a good woman ... Pacino was in a similar situation a few years earlier in "Carlito's Way."

What makes "Heat" stand out among countless similar movies is Mann's minute attention to detail and his absolute commitment to the story. Mann sees something mythic in this classic tale of cops and robbers, giving the story plenty of room to breathe and populating it with a large cast of superbly written characters, each with their own hopes and sorrows. To get the details just right, Mann spent time in pre-production riding along with the LAPD, interviewing real criminals, and hiring Edward Bunker, the former armed robber turned author and actor (Mr. Blue in "Reservoir Dogs") to act as a consultant on the film (via The Dissolve).

Meanwhile, his cast took advanced firearms training with ex-Special Forces man Andy McNab. The result was a climactic shootout scene that was so realistic that the US Marines have used it as an example in boot camp (via Task & Purpose), recording live volleys of ammo to make the barrage of gunfire sound unlike anything previously put on film. As a result, the robbery scenes in "Heat" are among some of the most authentic action sequences Hollywood has ever produced.

What Was The Real-Life Inspiration For Heat?

The real Neil McCauley was a hardened criminal who spent time in Alcatraz before his release in 1962, when he started putting together a crew and planning a new series of heists. He came to the attention of detective Chuck Adamson, who started tracking his movements. In a moment that inspired Mann to write his first draft of the screenplay that became "Heat," Adamson and McCauley ended up sitting together in a Chicago diner, and found a little common ground during their chat. As Michael Mann said (via Film School Rejects):

"Chuck had respected the guy's professionalism — he was a really good thief, which is exciting to a detective, and he tried to keep any risks to a minimum — but at the same time he was a cold-blooded sociopath who'd kill you as soon as look at you — if necessary... Chuck was going through some crises in his life, and they wound up having one of those intimate conversations you sometimes have with strangers. There was a real rapport between them; yet both men verbally recognized one would probably kill the other."

As Adamson said in The Making of Heat:

"Neil McCauley was 49 years old the day we met and he had already served 25 years in penitentiary. Of that 25, eight of it was on Alcatraz, and four years on Alcatraz in isolation, what they called 'the hole.' Knowing his background as I did, I'm not gonna rehabilitate this man, okay? And I know that going in. So I said to Neil, 'Why don't you go somewhere else and cause trouble?' And he said, 'I like Chicago.' It was real simple stuff. So I said to Neil, 'You realize one day you're gonna be taking down a score and I'm gonna be there?' Then he said, 'Well, look at the other side of that coin. I might have to eliminate you.' And I remember the very last thing I said to him was, 'I'm sure we'll meet again.'"

The Demise Of The Real Neil McCauley

Chuck Adamson was right; he and Neil McCauley would meet again under far less friendly circumstances. Their final showdown was in March 1964 after Adamson and his colleagues had followed the gang for nine weeks. McCauley and three others made their move at the National Tea company in Chicago, just after an armored car delivered a shipment of money to the store. The gang threatened clerks and grabbed the loot ($13,137 in total, the equivalent of almost $120,000 today), before trying to make their getaway by car. 

Adamson and his team were already on the scene and three of the gang, including McCauley, died in the resulting shootout. One surviving member managed to escape the trap but was later arrested and sentenced for the crime. The police revealed that McCauley's gang was responsible for several other robberies, from housebreaking to stealing $70,000 worth of tools and cutting equipment (via Chicago Tribune).

Adamson admired McCauley's discipline and professionalism, as in an earlier incident when the thief walked away from a property he'd previously cased when one of the cops waiting for him made a noise - that moment made its way into Mann's screenplay, too. Mann wrote his first draft based on Adamson's experiences back in 1979, and the story made its way to the small screen twice before "Heat" hit theaters in 1995. Elements appeared in the pilot episode of the TV series "Crime Story," while the 1989 TV movie "L.A. Takedown" was a dry run for the real thing just six years later. Mann's determination and patience in getting the story he wanted to tell to the big screen was worth it; not only is "Heat" one of the greatest crime films ever made, but that legendary scene between Pacino and De Niro did perfect justice to the real-life incident that inspired it.

Read this next: The Best Movies Of 2021

The post The Real-Life Bank Robbery That Inspired Heat appeared first on /Film.

Google appears to have built its own solution for running Windows games on Stadia. Google is planning to detail its Windows "emulator" for Linux next week at the company's Google for Games Developer Summit on March 15th. From a report: Reddit users have spotted a session at the summit that will detail "how to write a Windows emulator for Linux from scratch." The session will be led by Marcin Undak, on Google's Stadia porting platform team, and promises a "detailed overview of the technology behind Google's solution for running unmodified Windows games on Stadia." It appears that Google has built its own Windows emulator for Linux to help developers port games to the service without having to modify titles for Linux. If the emulator runs live on Stadia instead of just testing environments, this could open the door to a lot more games making their way to Stadia in the future

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The time has finally come, "Star Wars" fans. Ewan McGregor is finally set to return in a galaxy far, far away in a brand new series on Disney+ later this year, aptly titled "Obi-Wan Kenobi." This will give one of the most cherished characters in the history of the franchise a chance to take the spotlight, in addition to revisiting one of the brightest of bright spots in the prequel trilogy. During Disney's recent investor call, they decided to finally drop the first trailer for the show on us ahead of its debut this May.

As one might expect, even a mere teaser trailer that is clearly holding back an awful lot offers much to discuss. We get first looks at new villains, new planets, young heroes, returning favorites, and so much more. So, we're going to do a beat-by-beat breakdown of the trailer to see what we can glean from it. Let's dig in, shall we?

Lonely-Wan Kenobi

The trailer opens with our titular character riding through the deserts of Tatooine on an eopie (because he hates flying, you may recall). It has been 10 years since Order 66 and the defeat of the Jedi at the end of "Revenge of the Sith" and Obi-Wan seems quite despondent, roaming the desert alone.

Even as he traverses through town, he looks truly and utterly alone. Defeated. The voiceover in the early bits of the trailer with McGregor saying "The fight is done; we lost" strongly points to his mindset during this time period. This is not the Jedi master we used to know and love. This is a broken man.

A Face In The Crowd

Here, we get a shot of Obi-Wan just going about his work (though it's unclear what he's working on) in town, just mixing into the crowd. He's not a famed Jedi, and he's not someone to be feared. He's just blending in, minding his own business.

Young Luke

Now we get arguably the most intriguing shot of the whole trailer, which sees Obi-Wan spying on the Lars moisture farm from a distance, where we see none other than a young Luke Skywalker, who would be around 10 years old, seemingly playing at podracing, just like his dad did all those years ago on the very same planet.

The look on Obi-Wan's face here says a lot, and this is indeed a big moment. But the context is very much needed and, as should not be surprising, this trailer is very light on context. We're left to hopelessly speculate for the most part.

The Inquisitors Arrive

A large section of the "Star Wars" fanbase is about to be introduced to a new villain in the form of the Inquisitors. These foes had a big part to play in the animated "Star Wars Rebels," as well as the "Darth Vader" comic and the "Jedi Fallen Order" video game, but have yet to appear in live-action. That all changes now, as we see one of their ships arriving at an ominous-looking base. Said base, it's worth noting, is surrounded by water and almost certainly is not located anywhere near Tatooine. Additionally, "Duel of the Fates" kicks in here, a nod to "The Phantom Menace" and one of the greatest bits of "Star Wars" music ever composed, which is a nice touch. 

Rupert Friend's Inquisitor

This show boasts a stacked cast, including Rupert Friend ("The Death of Stalin"), who is seen here as one of the Inquisitors that is hunting down the few remaining Jedi throughout the galaxy. That is their one and only mission, and they work closely with Darth Vader. Friend's stone-faced villain looks particularly menacing, both here and later in the trailer.

Sand Train

Here, we see what can only be referred to as a sand train of sort operating on Tatooine. It's a giant ramshackle speeder that is meant for mass transport. 

Obi-Wan is among those on board the ship at this time. Where is he headed? What are they up to? Again, speculate if you must as that's all we can do right now. But this is something new to the franchise from a pedestrian-vehicle perspective.

Inquisitor Meeting

Here, we get a shot of the show's Inquisitors meeting at the unidentified base -- that's Moses Ingram's Reeva standing up at the table. She is positioned as one of the most important Inquisitors in the show, getting the most screen time here.

A Hanging In Star Wars?

This next shot is pretty surprising as we see someone literally being hung in the streets. That's not to say "Star Wars" isn't violent, but this is a pretty grim bit of direct violence that isn't often shown in the franchise. It's typically a lot of people dying in explosions or at the hands of a weapon that doesn't leave a lot of blood. This is a pretty blatant, cruel thing to see ... but Tatooine can be a blatant, cruel place. 

Reva In The Streets

Yet another shot of Reva here, and this appears to be taking place at the same time of the hanging on Tatooine. Have the Inquisitors discovered where Obi-Wan is hiding? Is she playing a bit of crowd control while making an example out of some poor soul? That look on her face is serious, and she appears to serious business. 

Uncle Owen Returns

A returning character! Joel Edgerton is indeed reprising his role as a younger Uncle Owen, just as he did in the prequels. We don't get a ton of him in the trailer, but he appears to be on the wrong end of this Inquisitor business in the streets. We know he makes it out of the show alive, but that doesn't mean he escapes completely unscathed. 

Reva Overlooking Daiyu

How about that? A new location! This appears to be the planet Daiyu, which will be a new planet in the show. This won't be like "The Book of Boba Fett" where we're stuck on Tatooine the whole time. The neon-soaked planet is described as being like Hong Kong, but in space, of course. Reva is seen overlooking the streets trying to find something ... or someone. 

Big Ship, Big Plans

Here, we see a sizable ship landing smack dab in the middle of what looks to be a town on Tatooine. Perhaps Mos Eisley? It's tough to say for sure, but the ship does not look friendly and it does not appear to be concerned with the disruption to anyone's day. 

Hello There, Indira Varma

Now we shift to a shot of another one of our new characters, an Imperial officer played by Indira Varma, of "Game of Thrones" fame. She looks to be all business in this one-and-only shot, but she will presumably play a bigger part in the story based on the actor's pedigree.

The Streets Of Daiyu

We return to Daiyu for this portion of the trailer, and it appears that the Empire is pretty interested in what's going on here. We know that Obi-Wan will make his way to the planet at some point, which leads us to believe the Inquisitors will be hot on his tail. 

And that also means that Darth Vader can't be too far behind, with Hayden Christensen returning to play the part in the show after appearing as Anakin Skywalker in both "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith." 

A New Droid

Though the shot is brief, we get a glimpse of a new droid entering the fold, one that is talking in pretty close-quarters with a Stormtrooper. Is this merely a cool shot for the purposes of the trailer? Or is this droid going to be an important player in the show? Place your bets, please. 

Reva In Action

Yet another sequence focused on Reva comes up at this point, with the Inquisitor springing into action above Daiyu, hopping across rooftops, seemingly in pursuit of someone. The details are left frustratingly vague but we do get to see her in action here. 

Rupert Friend Gets Unfriendly

Now for one of the money shots in the trailer, which sees Friend's Inquisitor flexing some muscle by twirling his very menacing double-bladed, spinning lightsaber in someone's face while asking, "Where is he?" The implication is that he is asking about Obi-Wan, but it's impossible to be sure. Either way, it's a damn cool shot. 

More Inquisitors

Yet another Inquisitor enters the fold, this time followed by a garrison of Stormtroopers. It is tough to tell who is under all that make-up and in that suit, but Sung Kang ("F9") is playing an Inquisitor as well, and this could be him.

Reva's Lightsaber

Would you look at that, it's more of Reva! This time, she is putting her lightsaber to use and threatening a resident of Tatooine. What did this person do to piss her off so fiercely? It's tough to say, but she sure skated in there like a badass. Obi-Wan is going to have his hands full. 

Mysterious Symbol

I imagine someone nerdier than myself about "Star Wars" (though I do pride myself on being quite nerdy about it) is going to decipher the meaning of this, but what I can tell you is that we have a mysterious, black-gloved hand grazing over an equally mysterious symbol on a wall here. What does it mean? Who does this hand belong to? If I'm to recklessly speculate, is that Vader's hand? It's intriguing, I know that much. 

Reva Showdown

As the trailer nears its conclusion, we once again see Reva, this time facing off against someone in the darkness in a back alley. Who is this person? It's though to say based on this angle, but a fight is a-brewin'. 

To that end, the very next shot is a bunch of blaster fire raining out on the rooftops. The series will seemingly not be light on action, that much is clear. And we haven't even seen Vader yet! We merely only hear his breathing as the title card comes up at the end.

Space Birds (Not Porgs)

Interestingly, one of the final shots of the trailer is of these green space birds, seen emerging from a smoky vent that also appears to be on Daiyu. Why are these birds so important? What else is going to emerge from that smoke? Was this just a cool shot to stick in there? Or is there more to it? Rarely has a shot of green birds raised so many questions. 

Obi-Wan Returns

Last, but certainly not least, we get this solo shot of McGregor's Obi-Wan to end the trailer. It's hard to guess what he's looking at or what prompts this look on his face, but it makes every bit of sense to end the trailer on a shot of the man at the center of it all, especially considering that he's oddly not in the trailer all that much when taking into account that the show is literally just his name. One can only imagine what Disney and Lucasfilm aren't showing us if they packed this much into a teaser trailer. 

"Obi-Wan Kenobi" debuts on Disney+ on May 25, 2022.

Read this next: The 20 Greatest War Films Of All Time

The post Obi-Wan Kenobi Trailer Breakdown: Ewan McGregor Finally Returns To Star Wars appeared first on /Film.

Explorers and researchers, battling freezing temperatures, have located Endurance, Ernest Shackleton's ship that sank in the Antarctic in 1915. From a report: The wreck of Endurance has been found in the Antarctic, 106 years after the historic ship was crushed in pack ice and sank during an expedition by the explorer Ernest Shackleton. A team of adventurers, marine archaeologists and technicians located the wreck at the bottom of the Weddell Sea, east of the Antarctic Peninsula, using undersea drones. Battling sea ice and freezing temperatures, the team had been searching for more than two weeks in a 150-square-mile area around where the ship went down in 1915. Endurance, a 144-foot, three-masted wooden ship, holds a revered place in polar history because it spawned one of the greatest survival stories in the annals of exploration. Its location, nearly 10,000 feet down in waters that are among the iciest on Earth, placed it among the most celebrated shipwrecks that had not been found. The discovery of the wreck was announced Wednesday in a statement by the search expedition, Endurance22.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

U.S. tech companies are scrambling to react to sanctions and public pressure after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. From a report: When Arina, a 22-year-old illustrator in Russia, first started using the freelance work platform Upwork last year, it changed her life. But this weekend, Upwork abruptly pulled out of Russia. For more than a decade, American and European tech companies have made a business of facilitating online labor -- from gig work to content creation and online marketplaces to payment processors. Now, tens of thousands of Russian video game streamers on Twitch, gig workers on Upwork, adult-content creators on OnlyFans and computer programmers working on contract have all lost their livelihoods, at least temporarily. The gig work companies acted in response to demands from lawmakers and public sentiment against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Some cited the restrictions that sanctions had placed on processing payments and depositing funds in Russian banks. Twitch told streamers in Russia that it was no longer able to pay them because of sanctions placed on payment services. Many of the platforms that allow fans to pay creators and influencers for their content use payment systems such as Mastercard and Visa, which began blocking Russian accounts in the days after Russia invaded. So did the London-based cross-border payments company Wise and the New York City-based financial services provider Payoneer. On Saturday, PayPal suspended services in Russia, citing both sanctions and solidarity with Ukraine.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Lumen Technologies, an American company that operates one of the largest Internet backbones and carries a significant percentage of the world’s Internet traffic, said today it will stop routing traffic for organizations based in Russia. Lumen’s decision comes just days after a similar exit by backbone provider Cogent, and amid a news media crackdown in Russia that has already left millions of Russians in the dark about what is really going on with their president’s war in Ukraine.

Monroe, La. based Lumen [NYSE: LUMN] (formerly CenturyLink) initially said it would halt all new business with organizations based in Russia, leaving open the possibility of continuing to serve existing clients there. But on Tuesday the company said it could no longer justify that stance.

“Life has taken a turn in Russia and Lumen is unable to continue to operate in this market,” Lumen said in a published statement. “The business services we provide are extremely small and very limited as is our physical presence. However, we are taking steps to immediately stop business in the region.”

“We decided to disconnect the network due to increased security risk inside Russia,” the statement continues. “We have not yet experienced network disruptions but given the increasingly uncertain environment and the heightened risk of state action, we took this move to ensure the security of our and our customers’ networks, as well as the ongoing integrity of the global Internet.”

According to Internet infrastructure monitoring firm Kentik, Lumen is the top international transit provider to Russia, with customers including Russian telecom giants Rostelecom and TTK, as well as all three major mobile operators (MTS, Megafon and VEON).

“A backbone carrier disconnecting its customers in a country the size of Russia is without precedent in the history of the internet and reflects the intense global reaction that the world has had over the invasion of Ukraine,” wrote Doug Madory, Kentik’s director of Internet analysis.

It’s not clear whether any other Internet backbone providers — some of which are based outside of the United States — will follow the lead of Lumen and Cogent. But Madory notes that as economic sanctions continue to exact a toll on Russia’s economy, its own telecommunications firms may have difficulty paying foreign transit providers for service.

Ukrainian leaders petitioned the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) — the nonprofit organization charged with overseeing the global domain name system — to disconnect Russia’s top-level domain (.ru) from the Internet. ICANN respectfully declined that request, but many technology giants, including Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, have moved on their own to suspend new business in the country.

Meanwhile, Russia recently cracked down on the last remaining vestiges of a free press within its borders, passing a new law that threatens up to 15 years in jail for anyone who publishes content that refers to the conflict in Ukraine as a “war” or “invasion.”

As Neil MacFarquhar writes for The New York Times, what little coverage there is on Russian television networks about the invasion does not include any footage of the devastation wrought by Russian troops on the Ukrainian citizenry. At the same time, the Russian government has blocked Facebook and partly blocked Twitter, while other platforms like TikTok have suspended services in the country.

“To spend several days watching news broadcasts on the main state channels, as well as surveying state-controlled newspapers, is to witness the extent of the Kremlin’s efforts to sanitize its war with the Orwellian term ‘special military operation’ — and to make all news coverage align with that message,” MacFarquhar wrote.

The Washington Post, which was the first to report on Cogent’s decision last week, wrote that these independent actions by private tech companies collectively “will leave Russians more dependent than ever on government propaganda that already dominates the nation’s newspapers and broadcast stations, leaving few ways to access independent sources of news at a time when the country has entered a severe political crisis.”

In a blog post titled “Why the World Must Resist Calls to Undermine the Internet,” Internet Society President Andrew Sullivan said cutting a whole population off the Internet will stop disinformation coming from that population — but it also stops the flow of truth.

“Without the Internet, the rest of the world would not know of atrocities happening in other places,” Sullivan wrote. “And without the Internet, ordinary citizens of many countries wouldn’t know what was being carried out in their name. Our best hope, however dim, is that those supporting an aggressive regime will change their support. More information can help, even as disinformation circulates. We need a better understanding of what is and is not disinformation.”

There is another — perhaps less popular — camp, which holds that isolating Russia from the rest of the Internet might be THE thing that encourages more Russians to protest the war in Ukraine, and ultimately to take back control of their own country from its autocratic and kleptocratic leaders.

Not long after Russia invaded Ukraine, I heard from an old pen-pal in Ukraine: Sergey Vovnenko, a.k.a. “Flycracker,” a.k.a the convicted Ukrainian cybercriminal who once executed a plot to have me framed for heroin possession. Vovnenko did his time in a U.S. prison, left Fly behind, and we have since buried the hatchet. He’s now hunkered down in Lviv, Ukraine, which is serving as a major artery for refugees seeking shelter outside Ukraine’s borders.

These days, Vovnenko says he is working with many sympathetic hackers to fight the Russians online. Asked what he thought about the idea of Russia being isolated from the rest of the Internet, Vovnenko said it couldn’t happen soon enough given the Russian government’s new media blitz to cast the war in a patriotic light.

“I think they should be disconnected, maybe Russian people will rebel against Putin after that,” he said.

Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault/Rape

The last film class I took in college was titled "Violence in American Cinema," and the curriculum provided by the remarkable Roberta Di Carmine, Ph.D. included two films by "Bloody" Sam Peckinpah, "The Wild Bunch" and "Straw Dogs." While every class inspired heated discussions -- imagine Midwest college kids debating Quentin Tarantino -- none were as passionate as the ones that surrounded "Straw Dogs." Released in 1971 (and remade in 2011), "Straw Dogs" follows mild-mannered intellectual David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) and his English wife Amy (Susan George) as they relocate to Amy's hometown of Cornwall. The move is supposed to help the couple escape their chaotic life in the States so David can work on his research. Unfortunately, the pair's peaceful, rural existence is interrupted as David is repudiated by the local men of the village -- in particular, Amy's ex Charlie (Del Henney).

As the harassment escalates, Amy is sexually assaulted by two of the men in town, and their continued intimidation pushes David to the brink of sanity. "I will not allow violence against this house," he declares, and wages a revenge plot against all who have brought harm to him and his wife. Sexual violence in all forms of media is controversial. But few films outside of the intentional depictions of the rape-revenge genre have a legacy as contentious as "Straw Dogs." Even today, after over 50 long, well debated years, there still isn't a consensus on how to interpret "Straw Dogs," and it seems likely that a conclusion will never be found.

Two Stories At Once

The controversy begins when Charlie and his friends take David out on a hunt, only to leave him out on the moors so they can head back into town and assault Amy. When David finally makes it back home, he's embarrassed and irritated by their abandonment, and has no knowledge of what took place. Amy doesn't tell her husband what happened -- a choice that is her right to make. Therefore, David's explosion of rage and vengeance is not in Amy's defense, but of his own accord. From the point of Amy's first assault (yes, there is more than one) onward, David and Amy are operating from two different perspectives. We are witnessing two stories at once, and unfortunately, as David's perspective becomes the dominant force toward the final third of the film, Amy's is left ambiguous.

Another major focal point is a moment during Amy's first assault where it appears as if she's enjoying the violence being enacted upon her. What begins as a horrific act has a moment where she embraces the face of her attacker, and acts in a way that implies that she is encouraging the continued violence. This moment isn't just an interpretation or a subtextual read, but an intentional decision made by Peckinpah that has been analyzed and interpreted for half a century. Is this moment proof that Peckinpah is nothing more than an exploitative misogynist, or is there something else happening that warrants discussion?

Susan George Agreed With Peckinpah's Vision

Amy is a complicated character, and one that doesn't allow for simple interpretation. As much as she so clearly loves her husband, there are attributes of his character that leave her feeling dissatisfied. When Charlie attacks her, the moment is horrific. She slaps him, she tries to fight him off, and when she is unsuccessful at combating him, there's a deeply upsetting moment of acceptance. Film critic Hal Kitchen brilliantly analyzes the scene in their assessment for 25 Years Later:

The abiding impressions with which the film leaves the viewer are of her trauma and self-loathing, her fear as she watches her ineffectual husband attempt to take control of a situation in ignorance of what she has already undergone, her loathing of that ignorance, and her own desire not to confront what has happened.

When David goes on the warpath, Amy is horrified to see this side of him, knowing full well that David is doing this without the knowledge of what has happened to her. This only exacerbates her guilt and confusion as she struggles to navigate how she feels. Actress Susan George has been very public with her feelings about the making of "Straw Dogs": In an interview with "Gods Of Cinema," she explained that she threatened to leave the project if Peckinpah didn't include her in the framing of Amy's sexual assault on screen. Ultimately, George agreed with Peckinpah about the need to include the difficult and confusing scene, and has said that she is proud of how the film turned out.

No One Can Speak On Behalf Of All Survivors

What makes the scene in "Straw Dogs" so controversial is that it forces viewers -- both survivors of sexual assault and those who have never experienced it -- to put themselves in Amy's position. They judge her reactions on how they feel they would have reacted, or how they expect she should respond. Here's the uncomfortable truth: There is no such thing as a universal response to sexual assault. I'm not going to list the multitude of ways that a person can react during an assault. But given the circumstances of Amy's first assault, her moment of dissociative pleasure is not out of the realm of possibility. To assume that Peckinpah or George were trying to imply that rape is "enjoyable" or "not as bad as it seems" is problematic, and encourages a narrative that there is a "correct" way to respond to being sexually assaulted.

Amy, unfortunately, is assaulted again later in the movie, and there is no mistaking her reaction for pleasure. She is horrified in the moment, and George effectively portrays Amy's contradictory feelings, which often change from scene to scene. A woman overcoming rape does not always come with a straightforward revenge plot of her own. Sometimes, it's a lot more complicated, heartbreaking, and difficult to assess. David's version of "Straw Dogs" is a violent thriller with a cathartic conclusion, but Amy's story is a relentless and impossible-to-define trauma response. The only person who can appropriately analyze what happened to Amy, is Amy.

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The post The Straw Dogs Controversy Explained: The Trouble with Amy appeared first on /Film.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: A Chinese government-backed hacking group has breached local government agencies in at least six US states in the last 10 months as part of a persistent information-gathering operation, investigators at cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Tuesday. The wide range of state agencies targeted include "health, transportation, labor (including unemployment benefit systems), higher education, agriculture, and court networks and systems," the FBI and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a separate, private advisory to state governments obtained by CNN. For agencies in two states, the hackers broke into networks using a critical software flaw that was revealed in December just as the Biden administration was scrambling to respond to the flaw's discovery, according to Mandiant. The hackers' motives aren't clear, but their victims are "consistent with an espionage operation," the firm said. The list of state agencies affected by the hacking could grow as the investigation continues. CISA on December 10 publicly warned that Log4J -- software used by big tech firms around the world -- had a vulnerability that hackers could easily exploit to gain further access to computer systems. Hundreds of millions of computers around the world ran the vulnerable software, US officials later estimated. For weeks, US officials urged companies to update their software; the White House hosted a meeting in January with tech executives to try to address the root problem of software that is not secure by design. Within hours of the CISA advisory, the Chinese hackers had begun using the Log4J flaw to break into the two US state agencies, according to Mandiant. Agencies in four other states were hacked via other means. In one state, Mandiant said, the hackers accessed personal data on some Americans, including names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers. Mandiant declined to name the US states or agencies affected. While the hackers' ultimate objectives are unclear, state agencies could provide a wealth of useful information to foreign spies, whether data related to elections or government contracting. Mandiant blamed the hacking campaign on a group that the Justice Department has linked with China's civilian intelligence agency. That hacking group, according to a US indictment unsealed in September 2020, has been linked to attempts to breach hundreds of organizations around the world, from hardware makers to pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you happen to be on the Mac side of things then you might be aware that Apple's M1 Max was pretty good, and that an M2 chip was rumored ahead…

As the title makes clear, there's a beating for almost every character in "Fight Club." None more so than the film's unnamed Narrator (Edward Norton), a white-collar worker whose existential troubles spiral out of control when he becomes involved with diabolical soap-salesman Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Hijinks ensue as the two bond over their shared disillusionment, forming a fight club that eventually blossoms under Durden into a multi-cell terrorist operation he names Project Mayhem. The cherry on top, of course, is that our unreliable Narrator's suave and vehemently masculine friend doesn't actually exist but was dreamt-up to find fulfillment.

David Fincher's adaption of Chuck Palahniuk's novel doesn't pull any punches when it comes to its fight scenes. Both Norton and Pitt's characters find themselves beaten black and blue, but obviously, the actors weren't taking any real hits ... right? Given how ferociously bloody the film's best fight scenes are, there's no way a director would let his two lead actors wallop one another. But while the characters of "Fight Club" beat each other to a pulp just to feel something beyond the numbness of their daily lives, for Pitt, a little numbness would've probably been welcome during the filming of one scene.

Pitt Gets An Earful

Given the number of punches thrown in "Fight Club," you have to wonder if anyone ever took a hit that wasn't pulled as much as it should've been. Or even if the actors themselves had trouble finding a balance between selling the fight scenes and not actually hurting one another. Norton revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon it was actually a bit of both -- while filming their first fight in the film, the actor really hit Pitt:

"It's the first punch in the movie and I hit him in the ear. Fincher came up to me and said, 'Hit him, connect with him somewhere.' I didn't know what to do and I hit him in the ear. He says in the film, 'Ow! Why the ear?' Yeah, that was real."

Norton's punch feels off-balance and beautifully mirrors his character's initial hesitation and timidness. Pitt takes the clearly painful hit like an absolute champ -- wincing at an earful of knuckles -- before giddily sucker-punching the Narrator in the gut. Luckily, that hit wasn't real, but the improvisation works perfectly in these early scenes where the duo's friendship hasn't yet spiraled out of control. Not to mention the awkward and playful nature of their first fight greatly contrasts the intensity and brutal deliberation of the ones in the fight club itself.

Judging by the lengths Pitt went to nab and prepare for the role of Durden, going so far as to get his teeth purposefully chipped, he must've thought he'd already immersed himself enough into the role ... though Norton's fist clearly had other ideas. But the instigating Fincher probably couldn't have asked for a better result from both actors.

Read this next: The 16 Best '80s Action Movies Ranked

The post Edward Norton's Fight Club Improv Was More Than Brad Pitt Bargained For appeared first on /Film.

Moore's Law is Dead has posted some meaty information regarding NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 'Ada Lovelace' GPU lineup. The new rumors include all the way from launch and performance details to the full lineup and what we can expect from each tier that the green team is going to offer later this year.

NVIDIA Next-Gen GeForce RTX 40 'Ada Lovelace' GPU Lineup, Rumored For Q3 Launch To Tackle AMD's RDNA 3 MCM GPU Lineup

Most of the information that MLID has shared is something that we have come to know over the last couple of months and more recently in the NVIDIA leak which revealed not only the GPU code names but also the exact core configuration that we will be getting in the next-generation lineup.

Power Consumption Maxing Out at 600W For Ada Lovelace Flagship?

Starting with the details, it is clear that NVIDIA is pushing the power figures for its entire GeForce RTX 40 'Ada Lovelace' GPU lineup compared to their initial targets. Hence it is why we have been hearing some absurd rumors of power figures going up to 850W but those are just internal test cases and MLID states that the nominal power consumption of the flagship AD102 GPU die will land somewhere between 500-600W and the upper limit is doable on air-cooling thanks to AIBs already invested in triple and quad-slot cooling solutions with hefty heatsinks. Anything above is going to require more serious cooling solutions and we can see liquid-cooled or hybrid models featured on the ultra-premium GPU variants.

NVIDIA is already investing development around the new PCIe Gen 5 connector that offers up to 600W power input per connector. The delayed GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is one example where the card is expected to rock at a TGP of 450W and will be the first desktop graphics card to utilize such a connector interface. The next-gen cards are also expected to utilize the same PCIe standard.

Several PSU makers have already started releasing their brand new Gen 5 power supplies which would include the necessary connectors to support the next-gen GPUs but they only feature one primary Gen 5 connector which means that if NVIDIA was to use a second 16-pin port, users will have to use a 2x 8-pin to 1x 16-pin adapter which will ship with most of these PSUs.

GDDR6X Is Nice But Ada Might Also Be Ready For The Next-Gen GDDR7 Memory Standard

One interesting thing mentioned by MLID is that his sources seem to be reporting the inclusion of GDDR7 memory controllers within Ada Lovelace GPUs. Now NVIDIA is yet to offer the full GDDR6X speeds (24 Gbps) on any of its graphics cards and even the upcoming RTX 3090 Ti is only expected to utilize just 21 Gbps G6X modules so there's still some room left for the memory standard. It is likely that this could be more of a future-proofing move by NVIDIA where they could initially offer Ada Lovelace Rev.1 on GDDR6X memory and move to GDDR7 with an Ada Lovelace Rev.2 refresh (RTX 40 SUPER?) later on.

The GDDR7 memory is expected to offer up to 32 Gbps transfer speeds along with a real-time error protection technology. A GDDR7 memory sub-system across a 256-bit wide bus interface at 32 Gbps transfer speeds will offer 1 TB/s of total bandwidth. That's 1.5 TB/s with a 384-bit bus interface and up to 2 TB/s on a 512-bit system. This is just insane amounts of bandwidth for a GDDR standard.

GDDR Memory Specifications:

Feature	GDDR5	GDDR5X	GDDR6	GDDR6X	GDDR6+	GDDR7
Density	From 512Mb to 8Gb	8Gb	8Gb, 16Gb	8Gb, 16Gb	8Gb, 16Gb	8Gb, 16Gb, 32Gb?
VDD and VDDQ	Either 1.5V or 1.35V	1.35V	Either 1.35V or 1.25V	Either 1.35V or 1.25V	TBD	TBD
VPP	N/A	1.8V	1.8V	1.8V	1.8V	TBD
Data rates	Up to 8 Gb/s	Up to 12Gb/s	Up to 16 Gb/s	19 Gb/s, 21 Gb/s, >21 Gb/s	24 Gb/s	32 Gb/s
Package	BGA-170 14mm x 12mm 0.8mm ball pitch	BGA-190 14mm x 12mm 0.65mm ball pitch	BGA-180 14mm x 12mm 0.75mm ball pitch	BGA-180 14mm x 12mm 0.75mm ball pitch	BGA-180 14mm x 12mm 0.75mm ball pitch?	TBD
I/O width	x32/x16	x32/x16	2 ch x16/x8	2 ch x16/x8	2 ch x16/x8	TBD

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 'Ada Lovelace' GPU / Graphics Card Configurations

According to the leak, NVIDIA will have at least six GPUs within its Ada Lovelace lineup. These will include AD102, AD103, AD104, AD106, AD107, and AD10B. The first five SKUs will be designed for the desktop and mobility segments and featured in both GeForce RTX 40 and RTX Workstation solutions.

MLID only reports with confidence on the AD102 GPU rumors and other performance data are mostly his speculation which are provided below:

• RTX 4090 (AD102) -> +80-110% Rasterization vs RTX 3090 (GA102) / Double RT Perf
• RTX 4070 (AD103) -> +10-30% Rasterization vs RTX 3090 (GA102) / 2-3 Tier Better RT Perf
• RTX 4060 (AD104) -> Same Rasterization as RTX 3080 (GA102) / 3090-Like RT Perf
• RTX 4050 Ti (AD106) -> Same Rasterization as RTX 2080 Ti (TU102) / 3070-Like RT Perf
• RTX 4050 (AD107) -> Same Rasterization as RTX 3060 (GA106) / 3060-Like RT Perf

So starting with the leaked SKUs, the top AD102 GPU which is likely going to power the next-gen GeForce RTX 4090, RTX 4080 Ti graphics cards will make use of 144 SMs, a 71% increase over the existing GA102 GPU and house a massive 18,432 CUDA core count. The interesting thing here is that the AD102 GPU is the only SKU that is getting over a 50% increase in SM count & considering what we have heard about the flagship chip, in terms of performance and power consumption, it looks very likely that NVIDIA is going all out with its top chip in the Ada Lovelace family.

The AD103 GPU will replace the GA103 GPU which was recently introduced on mobile and feature the same SM count as the GA102 GPU at 84. The AD104, AD106, and AD107 GPUs will feature 60, 36, and 24 SM units, respectively. Besides the AD103 GPU which is a 40% SM increase over GA103, every other GPU gets a 25-20% SM count increase over its predecessor. It's not as significant as the AD102 GPU but considering this is the mainstream segment, we are likely going to get RTX 3080 or similar performance out of an RTX 4060 Ti & RTX 3070 or higher performance out of the standard RTX 4060. The RTX 4050 should be close or on par with an RTX 3060 given the addition of IPC and clock improvements aside from architectural upgrades.

In addition to the SM counts, the Ada Lovelace GPUs will also feature increased L2 cache sizes. Starting with the AD102 GPU, the flagship would be outfitted with up to 96 MB of L2 cache, an insane 16x increase over the 6 MB L2 cache featured on GA102. The AD103 GPU will feature 64 MB, AD104 will feature 48 MB while both AD106/AD107 GPUs will feature 32 MB of L2 cache. As for the memory bus, the flagship AD102 GPU will feature a 384-bit bus interface, the AD103 GPU will get a 256-bit bus interface, AD104 will feature a 192-bit bus interface, while the AD106/AD107 GPUs will get a 128-bit bus interface.

NVIDIA Ada Lovelace 'GeForce RTX 40' GPU Configurations

GPU Name	GPCs / TPCs	SMs Per TPC / Total	CUDA Cores	L2 Cache	Memory Bus
AD102	12 / 6	2 / 144	18432	96 MB	384-bit
AD103	7 / 6	2 / 84	10752	64 MB	256-bit
AD104	5 / 6	2 / 60	7680	48 MB	192-bit
AD106	3 / 6	2 / 36	4608	32 MB	128-bit
AD107	3 / 4	2 / 24	3072	32 MB	128-bit

NVIDIA Ada Lovelace & Ampere GPU Comparison

Ada Lovelace GPU	SMs	CUDA Cores	Top SKU	Memory Bus	Ampere GPU	SMs	CUDA Cores	Top SKU	Memory Bus	SM Increase (% Over Ampere)
AD102	144	18432	RTX 4090?	384-bit	GA102	84	10752	RTX 3090 Ti	384-bit	+71%
AD103	84	10752	RTX 4070?	256-bit	GA103S	60	7680	RTX 3080 Ti	256-bit	+40%
AD104	60	7680	RTX 4060?	192-bit	GA104	48	6144	RTX 3070 Ti	256-bit	+25%
AD106	36	4608	RTX 4050 Ti?	128-bit	GA106	30	3840	RTX 3060	192-bit	+20%
AD107	24	3072	RTX 4050?	128-bit	GA107	20	2560	RTX 3050	128-bit	+20%

The NVIDIA Ada Lovelace GPU family is expected to bring a generational jump similar to Maxwell to Pascal. It is expected to launch in the second half of 2022 but expect supply and pricing to be similar to current cards despite NVIDIA spending billions of dollars to acquire those good good TSMC 5nm wafers.

The post NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 ‘Ada Lovelace’ GPU Rumors: Graphics Card Lineup Detailed, Q3 Launch, Possible GDDR7 Memory Support by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Spring is my favorite time for gardening. Nobody else has gotten their plants in the ground yet, so you feel like an overachiever; you don’t need to toil under the hot sun (although you might get a bit muddy); and I’m always amazed at what can thrive amid the frost.

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In what can best be described as a heated argument, former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Scott Kelly and the head of the Russian space organization (Roscosmos) Mr. Dimitry Rogozin traded barbs with each other on the social media platform Twitter. Kelly is a veteran astronaut who has spent 520 days in space and commanded three expeditions onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Mr. Rogozin has been sharing heated arguments on Twitter in the wake of the ongoing invasion of the Eastern European nation of Ukraine by his country, and his latest saw him attract the attention of Kelly, who recommended that the former would have to find a job for the fast-food chain McDonald's and that his statements were equivalent to a child throwing tantrums.

Russian Space Program Will Go Bankrupt Without Foreign Exchange Says Astronaut

Astronaut Kelly's heated exchange with Mr. Rogozin kicked off when the former shared a video of the Russian Soyuz rocket with the flags of several countries. The video showed the crew at Russia's Baikonur base removing the U.S., the U.K. and Japanese flags from the rocket, and the Russian space head boasted that they were doing so because the rocket looked great without the flags of some countries.

In response, Kelly replied that without the funds that Russia receives from foreign commercial and governmental space launches, it will be unable to sustain its space program. The former astronaut's comments (made in Russian and translated) were as follows:

Dimitry, without those flags and the foreign exchange they bring in, your space program won't be worth a damn. Maybe you can find a job at McDonald's if McDonald's still exists in Russia.

1:15 PM · Mar 6, 2022·Twitter for iPhone 

He also called out Mr. Rogozin for taunting Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) chief executive Mr. Elon Musk and his conversation with the Ukrainian president Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Rogozin had implied that Mr. Musk would be better off 'smoking a joint' when talking about space to 'make it easier'.

Mr. Musk's company is the first and only entity in the world that is capable of landing its rockets post-mission, and it also operates the world's largest satellite constellation in addition to having developed a full-flow staged combustion methane fuelled rocket engine in its Texas facilities. This engine is the first of its kind to have propelled a vehicle off the ground, and the only other in the world, developed in Russia, had been abandoned before it could be put to use.

In response to Mr. Rogozin's tweet about Mr. Musk, Kelly stated:

Dimitry, I thought Russia blocked Twitter. Do you have a VPN, or are you just that special?

4:47 PM · Mar 6, 2022·Twitter for iPhone 

Rogozin also directly targeted Kelly, telling him to 'get off Twitter' or the 'death of the ISS' would be on his hands. However, realizing that the tweet was strongly worded and hinted at putting the lives of Russian, American and German astronauts onboard in danger, he deleted the Tweet. However, this move did not go unnoticed by Kelly, who not only posted a screenshot of the jibe, but retorted:

Dimitry, why did you delete this tweet? Don't want everyone to see what kind of child you are?

10:08 AM · Mar 7, 2022·Twitter for iPhone 

The heated exchange ended when Mr. Rogozin blocked Kelly. The astronaut also posted a screenshot of him being blocked, and asked the Russian space chief whether his 'eyes were hurting' after the exchange, implying that perhaps Mr. Rogozin was uncomfortable after being told the truth.

The post Russian Space Head Is A Child Who Should Flip Burgers Implies Ex-NASA Astronaut by Ramish Zafar appeared first on Wccftech.

I love iceberg lettuce. It may not taste like much, but the cool, crisp crunch it brings to meat-and-cheese-heavy salads (such as the glorious wedge) and salty, mayo-y sandwiches (such as a tuna salad situation) is iconic. I know romaine has more “flavor,” but that “flavor” is “leaf,” and you should be seasoning your…

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"Enter The Dragon" rules. There's simply no other way to put it. It's the final film in the late, great Bruce Lee's filmography and is often the film that springs to mind when people mention him in conversation; it managed to blend a mixture of genres including martial arts, espionage, and blaxploitation; and it's inspired a number of martial arts films and characters — including Marvel's own "Master of Kung-Fu" Shang-Chi, who recently was the star of his own martial arts epic "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings."

But what led to the creation of this kung-fu classic? "Enter The Dragon" cinematographer Gil Hubbs took part in a group interview alongside producers Fred Weintraub & Paul Heller and the late Bob Wall that celebrated the film's 40th-anniversary release on Blu-ray. During the interview, Hubbs and Weintraub discussed the influences that shaped "Enter The Dragon" — and one of these influences had a major impact on the plot and look of the film. And, surprisingly enough, the influences don't involve kung-fu movies. 

Like Something Out Of A Comic Book

According to Heller, it was not kung-fu, but comic books that played a large part in shaping the visual language of "Enter The Dragon":

"When we first started thinking about the look of the film, there was a comic strip called Terry and the Pirates, and that became sort of the genesis of the whole look of the film. It was about a Dragon Lady and Chinese pirates, and it was a wonderful moment in time about adventure. But it has a wonderful, brilliant color scheme of golds and blues and reds, and if you think about Enter the Dragon, that's what we did. And that was very, very conscious. It just felt like it would be very right for the film."

"Enter The Dragon" does boast a dynamic color scheme that feels right at home inside of a '70s-era comic, including the golden gi that Jim Kelly's Williams wears; the final fight taking place in a hall of mirrors also feels very comic-booky. 

The idea of a comic influencing a film doesn't seem that far-fetched nowadays, given the rise of the superhero genre in film and television, but back then it must have seemed like a novel choice. And it also gives Williams' iconic line "You come right out of a comic book!" a whole new meaning.

In A League Of Its Own

Even with the martial arts genre being a hot commodity, Hubbs said that "Enter The Dragon" didn't draw on any other kung-fu films for inspiration — mainly because he hadn't seen one:

"I don't think we referenced existing martial-arts films. I had never seen one -- I had never seen a scene from a kung fu fight, and I had never seen a martial artist on film."

Hubbs also said that "Enter The Dragon" grew into much more than a simple martial arts film due to Lee and Wall's collaboration.

"And I think Bruce maybe wanted it to be more like the films they were making in Hong Kong, and I think Bob realized that for it to do well around the world, it needed to be different. It needed to have a broader story and people identify it visual to be different. So they worked very closely together; they did have many discussions and disagreements, and Bob handled them very well, and Bruce was very talented."

It says a lot that even though "Enter The Dragon" wasn't inspired by other films, it wound up being an inspiration in its own right. A large part of that is due to the collection of martial artists in its cast, but also a result of filmmakers willing to think outside the box.

Read this next: The Best Movies Streaming Right Now: Malignant, A Hero, And More

The post Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon Wasn't Inspired by Other Kung-Fu Movies appeared first on /Film.

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Apple just revealed something that trumps the M1 Max in performance, the M1 Ultra, making it the most powerful SoC from the technology giant right now. With the latest announcement, the company has successfully completed its Apple Silicon transition. Here is everything you need to know.

M1 Ultra Delivers 90 Percent Higher Multi-Threaded Performance Than the Fastest 16-Core Desktop Processor Right Now While Being Thoroughly Energy Efficient

The SoC that makes the 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU is made thanks to the fusion of two chipsets process that Apple calls UltraFusion. Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies had this to say about the M1 Ultra.

“M1 Ultra is another game-changer for Apple silicon that once again will shock the PC industry. By connecting two M1 Max die with our UltraFusion packaging architecture, we’re able to scale Apple silicon to unprecedented new heights, With its powerful CPU, massive GPU, incredible Neural Engine, ProRes hardware acceleration, and huge amount of unified memory, M1 Ultra completes the M1 family as the world’s most powerful and capable chip for a personal computer.”

For the most part, the M1 Ultra is two M1 Max chipsets combined together that delivers 2.5TB of bandwidth between the two. As for the 20-core CPU, 16 of those are focused on performance, while the remaining four handle the less demanding tasks. It delivers 90 percent higher multi-threaded performance than the fastest available 16-core PC desktop chip while consuming the same power.

As for GPU-related tasks, Apple claims that M1 Ultra delivers faster performance than the fastest desktop GPU while consuming 200 watts less. Additionally, the new chipset sports a 32-core Neural Engine for machine learning purposes. Where a single M1 Max was limited to 64GB of unified RAM, the M1 Ultra can support up to 128GB of the same memory. Memory bandwidth also gets a significant raise at 800GB/s, with the new part now eight times larger than the M1.

The M1 Ultra can also play back up to 18 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video, which Apple claims no other chip can accomplish. The new silicon is found in the newly announced Mac Studio and should unlock new levels of performance that have never been seen before, and we will likely see them in the coming days, so stay tuned.

The post Apple’s M1 Ultra Combines Two Chipsets to Feature 114 Billion Transistors, Features a 20-Core CPU, 64-Core for Unrivaled Performance by Omar Sohail appeared first on Wccftech.

Apple just revealed several new Mac models, including the most powerful Apple Silicon computer yet, the Mac Studio. It has a similar form factor as the Mac Mini, but with a taller design and much more powerful internals. How powerful, you may ask? Well, maxing out every available option will set you back nearly $8,000.

The Apple Store product listing for the Mac Studio just went live, and Apple has a few configuration options available. You can buy it with a 48 or 64-core GPU, and 64 or 128GB of unified memory (which is shared across conventional RAM and video memory). Apple has four storage options available: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB. There is no keyboard, mouse, or other accessory included in the box: just the Mac Studio and a power cord.

Maxing out all available options brings the final total to a whopping $7,999.00. That’s far from the most expensive Mac hardware configuration to date — a top-of-the-line Mac Pro in 2019 would have cost you $52,199 — it’s certainly pricey. The official release date is March 18, but shipping dates are already exceeding that timeline, as of the time of writing.

Before you balk at the pricing as another example of Apple’s price gouging, like the infamous $999 monitor stand that the company is still selling, the Mac Studio is a high-end workstation. It’s intended for graphics-intensive modeling design and video editing, not Microsoft Word or a few rounds of Among Us. Windows-powered PC workstations for the same tasks are easily in the same price range, and as previously mentioned, Apple itself has sold more expensive computers in recent history.

The starting price for the Mac Studio is a much more affordable $1,999.00 for 32GB of unified memory, 512GB of SSD storage, and an M1 Max chipset with a 10-core CPU and 24-core GPU. You still don’t get any accessories in the box, though.

The post Buying the highest-end Mac Studio will cost you nearly $8,000 appeared first on xda-developers.

Apple has announced the Mac Studio, a desktop system that looks like the Mac Mini on the outside but packs a lot more power on the inside. The Mac Studio features both Apple's M1 Max chip as well as a new, even more powerful processor, the M1 Ultra. It looks a bit similar to the Mac Mini, but Apple claims that the new device will be faster than even its top-of-the-line Mac Pro. From a report: The chassis is 7.7 inches by 3.7 inches; Apple claims it "fits perfectly under most displays" and will remain quiet under heavy workloads. The rear includes four Thunderbolt 4 ports as well as a 10Gb Ethernet port, two USB-A ports, an HDMI, and an audio jack. It supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0. The front includes two USB-C ports (10 Gbps on M1 Max systems, 40 Gbps/Thunderbolt 4 on M1 Ultra systems) and an SD card slot. The Mac Studio can support up to four Pro Display XDRs and a 4K TV, Apple says. Apple claims that the Mac Studio with M1 Max will deliver 50 percent faster CPU performance than a Mac Pro with a 16-core Xeon and 2.5 times faster CPU performance than a 27-inch iMac with a 10-core Core i9. The M1 Ultra configuration purportedly has 3.8 times faster CPU performance than that 27-inch iMac and is up to 90 percent faster than the 16-core Mac Pro. The Mac Studio with M1 Max will start at $1,999, and M1 Ultra models will start at $3,999. The studio display is $1,599.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This month is Women’s History Month and today is International Women’s Day—a time to reflect as individuals, societies, and industries on our progress for quality and equity for women. As a woman working in cybersecurity, I know firsthand that engaging girls, women, and people of color in cybersecurity as early as possible is critical to the growth and impact of our industry. Security threats are increasingly complex, frequent, and impactful; they come from outside and inside the organization and everyone is vulnerable. The landscape requires a workforce of security professionals who bring diverse expertise, backgrounds, and skills to these cybersecurity challenges. And we know there is a huge opportunity with estimates of one million unfilled cybersecurity roles.

Yet, in 2021, women represented about 25 percent of the global cybersecurity workforce—only one-fourth!¹ We can and should do more to encourage more people with diverse perspectives to enter the profession. As we reflect this month, it’s a great time to think about how we can bring more women into cybersecurity and why it’s mission-critical we do so. I promise it’s a great industry to work in!

Encouraging and nurturing the careers of women in cybersecurity is important for a number of reasons:

1. Our cyber adversaries come from diverse backgrounds, which means that our defender community must be equally diverse in order to understand and succeed against them.
2. We are facing a massive talent shortage in cybersecurity of more than 2.5 million job openings. This is putting a strain on security teams and organizations of every size. We can vastly decrease the deficit by deliberately expanding our hiring and mentorship of underrepresented groups who can bring so much to the table.
3. Innovation is everything! And what’s more conducive to innovation than bringing together new perspectives, ideas, and experiences to solve today’s challenges? Cybersecurity depends on it because cybercrime tactics keep evolving. In fact, an MIT Technology Review article referred to cybersecurity versus cybercrime as “an innovation war.”²  
4. Studies show that diversity of thought and leadership is just good for business. A study from Cloverpop showed that gender-diverse teams make better business decisions 73 percent of the time.³ 

With all these compelling reasons to promote diversity, why is there such a shortage of women in cybersecurity?

What people believe about women in cybersecurity

To learn more, Microsoft Security commissioned a survey to find out what is contributing to the skills shortage gap. Our main goals were to identify the dynamics fueling the gender gap in cybersecurity and to explore strategies for Microsoft to overcome those barriers.

Although most respondents (83 percent) said they believe there is an opportunity for women in cybersecurity, less than half of female respondents (44 percent) believe they’re sufficiently represented in the industry. A lack of representation can then reinforce the gender gap by dissuading women from entering cybersecurity. More women than men (54 percent versus 45 percent) say there is gender bias in the industry that results in unequal pay and support. It’s extremely important to break through biases that limit women’s career options.

Many respondents indicated a bias that cybersecurity isn’t a traditional career choice for women. Several respondents revealed how entrenched such beliefs are: “There are fewer women interested in high tech,” said one. “Women get bored with computers because they are better caregivers,” said another.

Some women expressed these biases themselves. The survey indicated women are more likely than men (71 percent versus 61 percent) to think that cybersecurity is “too complex” of a career. Men are more likely than women (21 percent versus 10 percent) to feel qualified to apply for a cybersecurity job posting. And more women than men (27 percent versus 21 percent) believe men are seen as a better fit for technology fields.

That breaks my heart.

Many believe gender bias starts early. More than one in four (28 percent) believe that parents are more likely to steer their sons to technology and cybersecurity fields than their daughters. The women surveyed are more likely than men (31 percent versus 26 percent) to believe this. Another possible contributor is that women typically have fewer cybersecurity role models—parents, mentors, or peers—who could spark their interest in the profession.

My journey in cybersecurity

I grew up in India, not knowing anyone in cybersecurity. But I was fortunate to have strong women in my life to encourage me, and great role models in my parents and grandparents. Eventually, I became the first woman in my family to work outside of the home. My interest in science was sparked when I was 10 or 11 by my love of the science-fiction television show Star Trek, which was one of the few available in India. It led to a dream of being captain of the Enterprise, and a life-long passion for technology and innovation.

I moved from India to the US when I was 18 after earning a scholarship to the University of Minnesota, where I earned my Master’s in electrical engineering. After graduation, I took an engineering role at Intel. A curiosity about how technology influences the world led me to cybersecurity and I’m so glad that it did. It is such fulfilling, mission-driven work that has a real impact and the power to make our world a safer place for everyone.

I’ve always felt that cybersecurity is a calling but as our survey shows, the journey isn’t always easy. I’ve often been the only woman or person of color at the table. And, while I’ve tackled every challenge thrown at me, I sometimes doubted myself and struggled with imposter syndrome. Most of us do— women especially. The important thing is that over time, we find our voice and learn to speak up.

For myself, I’ve come to understand that my unique set of experiences has tremendous value in the collective wisdom of my chosen field. And I have enjoyed overwhelming gratification in the work I do and the positive impact I can have in the world. So, to anyone considering a career in cybersecurity, I say go for it! You’ve got this. Cybersecurity is an incredible field, and it needs you and everything you bring to the table.

What’s Microsoft doing to help?

As you embark on a career in cybersecurity, know you are not alone. There are so many amazing women and men in our field to support and encourage you. I’m also so proud that Microsoft is partnering on several programs aimed at encouraging girls and women to consider careers in cybersecurity and expanding career opportunities for women. I hope you’ll take advantage of them. These programs include:

• Girl Security: This program builds equitable pathways in security for girls, women, and gender minorities through identity-centered learning, training, and mentoring, beginning in high school. Girl Security’s two-track approach provides girls from underrepresented communities interested in cybersecurity with e-mentorship, professional development, and skill-building. Girl Security’s e-fellowship provides advanced participants with 15 weeks of training, mentoring, and professional development, led by leading women across government, industry, and the social sector.
• CyberStart America: Built by a team of cybersecurity professionals, this immersive cybersecurity training game lets participants try real-world cybersecurity tasks and simulations that help them learn skills. More than 200 fun-to-play challenges are available to play.
• Cybersecurity Converge Tour: In partnership with organizations like the Security Advisory Alliance (SAA), Microsoft hosted students in New York City for a Capture the Flag interactive education and mentorship event with the goal of creating 20,000 internship opportunities and increasing the number of women and minority security professionals. We’ve also sponsored key events that support women like Executive Women’s Forum, The Diana Initiative, and Wicked6 Cyber Games.
• Women in Cybersecurity (WYiCyS): Established in 2012, this global community creates opportunities for women in cybersecurity through professional development programs, conferences, and career fairs.
• Microsoft Women in Security: This long-running, company-wide initiative was started with the goal of building a strong internal community of female cybersecurity professionals through programs, mentorships, and week-long events.
• Cyber Shikshaa: Launched in 2018 by Microsoft India and the Data Security Council of India, this program is creating a pool of skilled female cybersecurity professionals.
• Microsoft DigiGirlz: This program gives high school girls the chance to participate in hands-on computer and technology workshops, learn about careers in technology, and connect with Microsoft employees. We also help girls grow their skills and love for technology through our support of TECHNOLOchias, Black Girls CODE, and Girls Who Code.
• Elevate: This industry consortium offers a supportive community and networking and mentoring opportunities for female leaders in cybersecurity, in partnership between Mandiant, Microsoft, NightDragon, and the Athena Alliance.

Our mission as women in cybersecurity

As we dispel harmful myths about cybersecurity careers, engage in dynamic skill-building, and share stories from female leaders in cybersecurity, Microsoft is also building a stronger global community by partnering with Girl Security in the development of the Cybersecurity Superpowers open-source curriculum, a series of pathways focused on a variety of skill sets. If you are a female leader in cybersecurity, let’s work together to build our support for all those who embark on the journey with us. Stay tuned throughout March 2021 as we showcase fearless women in cybersecurity and new opportunities to learn and grow together. Explore Microsoft Security for customer stories, the Total Economic Impact of Microsoft security solutions, and Zero Trust details.

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 at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

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¹Women Hold 25 Percent Of Cybersecurity Jobs Globally In 2021, Cybersecurity Ventures. April 20, 2021.

²An innovation war: Cybersecurity vs. cybercrime, MIT Technology Review Insights. October 18, 2019.

³White Paper: Hacking Diversity with Inclusive Decision-Making, Cloverpop.

The post 2.5 million-plus cybersecurity jobs are open—women can fill them appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

The filmmaking duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, colloquially referred to as Lord & Miller, have established their reputation for taking films that sound like terrible ideas and — like Rumpelstiltskin — spinning self-aware, slapstick comedic gold out of them. Lord & Miller's first film was "Extreme Movie," one of the final films in the unfortunate trend of really, really awful spoof films that plagued the 2000s. They made their mark, however, with a 2012 film adaptation of the 1988 TV show "21 Jump Street," which transformed a "serious" and "important" TV show about cops undercover at a high school into a broad farce of the highest order. It starred Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum — a modern Fontanne and Lunt — whose comedic chemistry was of the highest order. 

After the unexpected critical success of "The LEGO Movie," Lord & Miller returned with "22 Jump Street," ready to play again and be ever sillier than before. The sequel involved Hill and Tatum infiltrating a college campus to track the source of a mysterious new narcotic called WHYPHY (Work Hard? Yes. Play Hard? Yes.). The central gag of the film is that the handsome jock Tatum, used to being admired for his football prowess and amazing physique, is now dismissed as a relic of the past, while awkward nerd Hill, accustomed to being pilloried in a school's social structure, is now considered one of the cool kids. 

Through an oblique set of circumstances, Tatum and Hill find themselves, in disguise, in the back of a criminal's truck that is full of small animals. One of those animals was that most dreaded of God's fauna: the cockatoo. This proved to be a challenge for one of the film's stars, as Hill revealed in the Blu-ray commentary track for "22 Jump Street," he hates birds. 

Jonah Hill Doesn't Like Birds

The fear of birds is called ornithophobia, and several notable celebrities have claimed to be deathly afraid of our beloved dinosaur descendants. Celebrated Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, for instance, claims to have the fear, and you'll find — while taking a required tour of the master's cinema — that birds only ever serve as symbols or ambiance; they are never animals in and of themselves. Actress Scarlett Johansson claims that several scenes in "We Bought a Zoo" were difficult to film because of her aversion to avians. Rapper Eminem also once admitted that he has a fear of owls in particular, leading one to ponder if he is aware of a fan mashup between his song "Lose Yourself" and the song "Fireflies" by the band named after his worst fear: Owl City. You can listen to the mashup here. 

According to WebMD — the website devoted to convincing you that every small physical quirk you might experience is a distant symptom of a horrid, fatal disease — ornithophobia can be in inherited trait, and while 80% of phobias do not go away on their own, they can be treated with cognitive behavior therapy. So while Jonah Hill might have had a fearful encounter with a bird on camera during the production of "22 Jump Street," his fearful reaction is in the final cut of the film, an ornithophove watching may find it to be therapeutic. 

The Scene In Question

That shrieking Hill is doing in this scene is very much real. According to the aforementioned commentary track, Jonah's screaming was him dropping character and legitimately freaking out.

Hill's ornithophobia was not played for laughs in "22 Jump Street," nor was it mentioned in "21 Jump Street" when the star crashed into an exploding chicken truck. And we may never see a "23 Jump Street," as one of the closing gags of "22" was a series of posters for upcoming, increasingly bizarre "Jump Street" sequels that top off at 44. However, there were rumblings of a crossover with "Men in Black" that never came to fruition.

"22 Jump Street" is funny. You should watch it because it's funny. It has a parrot. Watch the parrot attack Jonah Hill. It's funny.

Read this next: The 10 Best Comedies Of The Last 10 Years

The post The 22 Jump Street Moment That Was a Little Too Real For Jonah Hill appeared first on /Film.

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STALKER fans, here is something for you today. The SZM-Team has released a new version of the Choice of Destiny Mod for STALKER: Call of Pripyat. Choice of Destiny is a global modification with new storyline, models and locations. According to the team, the three new locations are Predbannik, Agroprom, and the Swamps. Naturally, this … Continue reading This STALKER: Call of Pripyat Mod adds new storyline, models & locations →

The post This STALKER: Call of Pripyat Mod adds new storyline, models & locations appeared first on DSOGaming.

There are a lot of bad decisions you might make if a deer appears in front of you in the road while you’re driving. You’ll be startled, it will freeze, and your brain will sound the alarm that you should do something now—but please, avoid the urge to swerve around it.

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Apple has just unveiled its flagship M1 SOC, the M1 Ultra, and provided some impressive metrics in regards to its CPU & GPU performance.

Apple M1 Ultra SOC Offers Faster CPU & GPU Performance Than Flagship Desktop Intel Alder Lake & NVIDIA RTX 3090 Chips While Consuming Lower Power

The Apple M1 Ultra SOC is the combination of two M1 Max chips using the brand new Apple UltraFusion architecture. The Ultra SOC still utilizes the 5nm process node but the doubling provides up to 114 Billion transistors on the same package. The new UltraFusion architecture delivers up to 2.5 TB/s of low-latency interprocessor bandwidth and 800 GB/s of fast memory bandwidth. The interconnect architecture features more than 10,000 signals between the two chips.

A low-level view of the Apple M1 Ultra SOC reveals a 20-core CPU with 16 high-performance and 4 high-efficiency cores. Like the previous M1 chips, the high-performance cores are based on an ultra wide execution architecture with 192KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache & 48 MB of L2 cache while the efficiency cores are based on a Wide Execution architecture with 128KB instruction cache, 64KB data cache and 8 MB of L2 cache. There are also 32 cores as a part of the M1 Neural Engine which provide up to 22 trillion operations per second.

The GPU also gets a huge bump with a 64-core unit that offers 8192 execution units for up to 21 TFLOPs of single-precision horsepower, 660 GTexels/s, and 330 GPixels/s. The media engine on the Apple M1 Ultra is composed of the latest Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes & ProRes with 2 video decode engines, 4 videos encode engines and 4 ProRes encode/decode engines. The GPU is getting access to 128 GB of unified memory.

Apple M1 Ultra SOC CPU Performance (vs Intel Alder Lake):

Coming straight to the performance numbers on display, Apple has stated that the M1 Ultra can deliver up to 90% more performance than the flagship Intel Alder Lake Desktop CPU, the Core i9-12900K at the same wattage and similar performance while sipping in 100W less power. It is also stated that the chip offers 90% more performance than an Intel Xeon 16-core chip and 2.5x faster performance than a 10 core Intel Core i9 desktop CPU. The specific models for both chips weren't mentioned.

Apple M1 Ultra SOC GPU Performance (vs NVIDIA/AMD GPUs):

The same is true for the GPU which offers the same performance as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti at 1/3rd the power and similar performance to NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card while sipping in 200W less power. Apple also showed comparative numbers against the Radeon Pro W6900X on their existing Mac Pro solutions. The Mac Studio with M1 Ultra SOC offers up to 80% faster performance than the Radeon Pro solution.

Mac Studio Powered by M1 Ultra Enables:

Apple M1 Ultra SOC UltraFusion Chip-To-Chip Interconnect:

Footnotes:

1. Testing was conducted by Apple in February 2022 using preproduction Mac Studio systems with Apple M1 Ultra, 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, 128GB of RAM, and 8TB SSD, as well as production 2.5GHz 28-core Intel Xeon W-based Mac Pro systems with 384GB of RAM and AMD Radeon Pro W6900X graphics with 32GB of GDDR6, configured with Afterburner and 4TB SSD. Prerelease Compressor 4.6.1 tested using a three-minute clip with 5K Apple ProRes RAW media, at 5760x3240 resolution and 24 frames per second, transcoded to Apple ProRes 422. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Studio and Mac Pro.
2. Testing was conducted by Apple in February 2022 using preproduction Mac Studio systems with Apple M1 Max, 10-core CPU, and 32-core GPU, and preproduction Mac Studio systems with Apple M1 Ultra, 20-core CPU, and 64-core GPU. Performance measured using select industry‑standard benchmarks. 10-core PC desktop CPU performance data tested from Core i5-12600K and DDR5 memory. 16-core PC desktop CPU performance data tested from Core i9-12900K and DDR5 memory. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Studio.
3. Testing was conducted by Apple in February 2022 using preproduction Mac Studio systems with Apple M1 Max, 10-core CPU, and 32-core GPU, and preproduction Mac Studio systems with Apple M1 Ultra, 20-core CPU, and 64-core GPU. Performance was measured using select industry‑standard benchmarks. Popular discrete GPU performance data tested from Core i9-12900K with DDR5 memory and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Highest-end discrete GPU performance data tested from Core i9-12900K with DDR5 memory and GeForce RTX 3090. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Studio.
4. Testing was conducted by Apple in February 2022 using preproduction Mac Studio systems with Apple M1 Ultra, 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU, and 128GB of RAM, and configured with 8TB SSD. Prerelease Final Cut Pro 10.6.2 was tested using a one-minute picture-in-picture project with 18 streams of Apple ProRes 422 video at 8192x4320 resolution and 30 frames per second, as well as a one-minute picture-in-picture project with nine streams of Apple ProRes 422 video at 8192x4320 resolution and 30 frames per second. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Studio.
5. Testing was conducted by Apple in February 2022 using preproduction Mac Studio systems with Apple M1 Ultra with 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU. Power was measured using a representative workload in a commercial application. High-end PC desktop data was acquired from testing Alienware Aurora R13 with Core i9-12900KF and GeForce RTX 3090. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Studio.

The post Apple Unveils M1 Ultra SOC: CPU Faster Than Intel 12900K at 100W Less Power, GPU On Par With NVIDIA RTX 3090 at 200W Less Power by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Apple recently launched the M1 Pro and the M1 Max chips alongside its new MacBook Pro notebooks. Now, the company is taking things to a whole new level with the new M1 Ultra chip. The M1 Ultra is said to be the most powerful variant of the original M1 chip that debuted a couple of years ago. The new M1 Ultra chip is going to be powering the new Mac Studio desktop computer.

According to Apple, the M1 Ultra uses the company’s UltraFusion architecture, effectively fusing two separate M1 Max chips into a single SoC. Yes, it’s essentially a combination of two M1 Max chips offering 128GB of unified memory. The M1 Ultra packs 114 billion transistors and features 800GB/s of memory bandwidth and 2.5TB/s interprocessor bandwidth. The M1 Ultra, in case you are wondering, is a 20-core processor with 16 high-performance cores and 4 high-efficiency cores.

The new M1 Ultra chip also has a 32 core Neural engine and a 64-core GPU to power through even the most demanding tasks. Apple says the new chip offers up to eight times faster GPU performance compared to the M1 chip. It’ll be interesting to see how it comes to the M1 Max chip, though.

Here’s a quick look at the features the new Apple M1 Ultra brings to the table:

The new M1 Ultra chip also features support for hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW. All that is being handled by two video decode engines, four video encode engines, and four separate ProRes encode/decode engines. As is the case with every new Apple chip, the M1 Ultra also offers industry-leading performance per watt. The new M1 Ultra chip can deliver more performance while using as much as 100W less power. Since Apple didn’t exactly mention any competing chips, this is something we’ll have to put to test once we get our hands on the new machines powered by this particular chip.

The new M1 Ultra chip, as we mentioned earlier, will debut in a Mac Studio desktop that Apple is announcing alongside the new chip. We expect this new chip to eventually make its way to other devices, though. In addition to the new chip and the Mac Studio, Apple has also announced the new iPad Air with M1 chip, and a couple of other interesting products.

The post Apple announces M1 Ultra, its most powerful computing chip yet appeared first on xda-developers.