Shared posts

01 Feb 21:31

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution support comes to Valve’s Gamescope Compositor

by Jason R. Wilson

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution support comes to Valve's Gamescope Compositor

Gamescope, Valve's Wayland compositor that assists the process of running games on the Linux platform, has now blended support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, also known as AMD FSR.

Linux sees further assistance for Valve's Gamesope with the inclusion of AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution for high-end gaming in the open-source operating system.

Valve's Gamescope was created from Valve's SteamOS Compositor (file name "steamcompmgr") as a micro-compositor that supplies the most satisfactory gaming performance with the Wayland setting. This process incorporates operating as a nested compositor on a standard Linux desktop. Gamescope is already supporting the integration of integer scaling and other components and will include AMD FSR in its already robust settings. AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is the company's open-source image upscaling procedure that delivers increased graphical results for next-gen gamers and users.

Last night, the newest AMD merged on GitHub appeared to facilitate AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution support for games operating within Gamescope. Website Phoronix notes that

[w]ith Gamescope there is now the -U launch argument for enabling the FSR upscaling as well as --fsr-sharpness for enabling FSR sharpness support. Plus there are similar keyboard shortcuts for altering the FSR upscaling and sharpness behavior.

— Phoronix

Georg Lehmann, a programmer whose work on Vulkan in Linux has been crucial and labored on support for FSR for Proton, created the Gamescope construct.

Valve has already shown considerable interest in ensuring that their new handheld will offer cross-platform support to add to gamers. It is rumored that Valve will utilize Gamescope on the upcoming next-gen handheld Steam Deck. Incorporating AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution in Linux and other operating systems will allow all users to profit from using this compositor from the Linux desktop.

We reported yesterday that AMD's open-source department launched a feature called Process Adaptive autoNUMA (PAN), allowing increased performance in specific server workloads in Linux operating systems. Also, AMD and Intel have incorporated open-source engineers from each company to assist with the unreleased Linux 5.17 to support their devices, such as Intel's ARC Alchemist discrete graphics card released in the coming months. Linux 5.17 is still in development. Still, this new kernel will be one of the most significant and most critical releases to date.

The post AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution support comes to Valve’s Gamescope Compositor by Jason R. Wilson appeared first on Wccftech.

01 Feb 21:30

Two Dozen UEFI Vulnerabilities Impact Millions of Devices From Major Vendors

by Eduard Kovacs

Researchers at firmware security company Binarly have identified nearly two dozen vulnerabilities in UEFI firmware code used by the world’s largest device makers.

read more

01 Feb 21:30

Senate introduces bill to let farmers tinker with their own equipment. Which seems odd, because I tinker with mine all day long [Interesting]

01 Feb 21:29

Bob Odenkirk's lucky break(ing bad)

by Devin Nealy
Bob Odenkirk Image

Since the late 90s, I've spent my entire relationship with Bob Odenkirk's professional career in a state of shock. At first, I was shocked that a sketch comedy show like Mr. Show was not only allowed to exist but that it was also genuinely funny at the same time. — Read the rest

01 Feb 21:25

GOG 2022 update: A look at the present. A glimpse into the future.

Entering a new year is like leveling up in a game – new adventures and challenges await, which you approach with all previously gained skills. This is a moment that drives us, and today we’d like to give you a general overview of what is to come this year on GOG, but without spoilers – no one likes those.

2021 went with many exciting activities on GOG as well as – let’s be open about it – with some hard knocks. All of those events allow us to gain more experience, learn from our successes and mistakes and grow in our constant pursuit of delivering you the best gamer-centric platform – with a selection of exceptional games, from timeless classics to new releases, and respect for ownership. This approach won’t change this year either, and we’d like to let you know about two areas that we’re putting in the spotlight in 2022.

Let’s start with the platform experience. This is a big one, as we want you to have the best experience when buying the game of your choosing, browsing the catalog, checking the best deals and new releases, finding hidden gems, or discovering that next game to play! There is a lot we can improve here – we know – and this year our development teams’ pipelines are full of projects we hope you’ll enjoy. While we won’t be sharing the exact features just yet, we want to highlight the few that have already been released and are available on GOG, which should give you a good sense of things to come.

First and foremost is the new and improved catalog that has recently gone live to all users. It brings you a new way to carry out more customized searches, sort and filter games by price and release date range, genres, and tags. With your help, we were able to first test the new catalog by slowly rolling it out to more users, monitoring its performance, and gathering initial feedback. Judging by some of your comments, we can already see you appreciate the ease of navigating the offer, especially during bigger sales, and how fast the catalog works – thanks! Our devs are planning further improvements like expanding the tags system – adding new ones, improving filtering, or giving an option to exclude tags from results. Oh, and one more thing – we've heard you were missing the "all-time bestsellers" sorting option. Well, it's back!



Secondly, we want to keep on improving your experience with GOG GALAXY. The client remains an important part of our platform and offers a unique way of interacting with GOG, if you decide to use it. Our approach right now focuses on making the main view in GOG GALAXY more dynamic and live – one way to do it is to show what cool stuff is happening on the platform, something you may have noticed during the Winter Sale when we highlighted the event and the giveaways. In the coming weeks, we will be testing some more changes in the client, so if you’d like to see them first, make sure to toggle the “Experimental features and updates” option in the settings.

And since we’re on the topic of testing, there are more features to come this year, and we’d like to keep you involved in the process. That’s why, before releasing improvements to all users, we will be asking some of you to test these ideas and share your feedback with us, just as we did with the new catalog. With some features, we’ll want to surprise you, so expect the unexpected improvements as well!

And what is the second area of our focus, you may ask. It’s games, of course! But not just any games – it’s about classics. While we’re years from calling ourselves Good Old Games, we remember our roots, and those games will always have a special place in our hearts and on GOG. We get that actions speak louder than words, that’s why we will increase our activities around classic games. This means a plethora of things – from preparing articles and interviews about those meaningful titles, running dedicated sales and special deals, through adding more digital goodies all the way to releasing even more classic games we all miss. As for the latter, obviously we’ll keep those surprises a secret for now, but looking at the classics we brought back in Q4 2021, like Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain or Star Trek: Armada I & II, you get what we’re aiming for.



Just like with the store experience, the same goes for classic games – you may have already seen our first activities around them. For some time now we’re cooperating with The Video Game History Foundation on the Throwback Thursday initiative. Putting a spotlight on our favorite “good old games”, and adding personal stories from the GOG Team members was a no-brainer and we don’t know why it took us so long! The formula is still evolving though, so expect some updates here as well.

During the Winter Sale, thanks to the Foundation’s huge archive of assets, we were able to add new bonus goodies to titles like Tomb Raider 1+2+3, Nox, Total Annihilation, Thief The Dark Project, and more. Your reception was amazing – for the very first time we’ve put on sale The Video Game History Foundation Support Pack, a bundle from which all proceeds go to the Foundation. Thanks to you, we managed to gather more than $4,000 USD that will support preserving, celebrating, and teaching the history of video games. You’re the best – thank you!



That is all for now – while we don’t want to spoil any specific features, releases, or activities, we hope you like this small heads-up from us at GOG. Let us know if this type of update is something you would like to see more often, what is missing that you would definitely want us to share (having in mind sometimes we just can’t reveal some of the stuff), and share constructive feedback about our plans for 2022!

01 Feb 21:25

Microsoft weighs in on Epic Games v. Apple ruling with concerns for "consumers and innovation"

by Kareem Anderson
01 Feb 21:24

Dying Light 2 fans miffed after a last-minute Denuvo reveal

by Dustin Bailey
Dying Light 2 fans miffed after a last-minute Denuvo reveal

Dying Light 2 will use the controversial Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM system. If you didn't know that, you're not alone. The information was quietly revealed through a back-end Steam update yesterday, and while the Steam store page now clearly labels its inclusion, fans are miffed about the last-minute reveal.

"Dying Light 2 Stay Human was in development for seven years," a Techland representative tells players on the Steam forums. "Throughout that period, over fifteen hundred people invested their time and talent into making the game. To protect the efforts of the whole team from piracy we suffered when we released Dying Light 1, we’ve included the Denuvo system, at least for the launch period. It’s a solution used widely for AAA games nowadays.

"Being gamers ourselves, we understand your concerns, and we want to ensure that it will not impact your gaming experience. We continue putting extra resources into testing the game, and at this stage, we do not see any noticeable impact on the performance. We’ll be actively reviewing feedback during the game’s launch. Do not hesitate to share yours with us too."

RELATED LINKS: Dying Light 2 release date, Dying Light 2 factions, Dying Light 2 trailer reveal
01 Feb 21:21

Never Cook These Things in Your Air Fryer

by Claire Lower

To some enthusiastic food bloggers, the air fryer is an intuitive appliance that can cook anything and everything. To certain members of my family, it is an inscrutable black box that exist to take up counter space. (“What should I use it for?” they ask, prompting me to spam them with my own content.) The truth lies…

Read more...

01 Feb 18:57

Nearly 21% Of Star Trek Fans Said This Was Their Favorite Movie In The Franchise

by Mike Shutt

(Welcome to Survey Says, a feature where we conduct a movie-related survey for a random group of people and explain why they're completely right, completely wrong, or somewhere in-between.)

It has been six years since a new "Star Trek" film has been released. You could fire up Paramount+ right now and consume plenty of recent television series to transport you to the final frontier, but in terms of big screen motion picture stories of Starfleet, we have nothing definitive on the horizon. There was talk of a Quentin Tarantino film, and a script from "Star Trek: Discovery" writer Kalinda Vazquez is underway. But who knows what will actually get made?

In the meantime, let's reflect on the thirteen "Star Trek" films that we have gotten since 1979. We conducted a poll to see which "Star Trek" movie that fans consider to be the pinnacle of a series that boldly goes where no man has gone before.

You Like Dishes Served Cold

Unsurprisingly, the film in the series that received the most votes was "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," garnering almost 21% of the votes cast. Director Nicolas Meyer, directing his first of three "Star Trek" pictures, pivoted away from the science and discovery-based tropes that the series was known for and made a tight, tense thriller. He reinvigorated the series by essentially telling a naval ship standoff story that replaced boats with spaceships. 

"The Wrath of Khan" was a direct response to Robert Wise's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." Dubbed by many as "The Motionless Picture," the heady, more abstract side of science-fiction that film was going for was a far cry from the "Star Wars" phenomenon the films were trying to cash in on. "The Wrath of Khan" satisfied those pulpier demands perfectly, and since then, this film has been what most every other "Star Trek" film has been chasing.

For the other films featuring the original series cast, Meyers' two other films in the franchise, "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," received almost 16% and just over 10% of the vote, respectively. "The Motion Picture," my personal favorite film of the franchise, managed a respectable nudge over 12% of the vote (we are a small but passionate group). As for "The Search for Spock" and "The Final Frontier" ... sorry, but your reputations proceed you.

How Did Next Gen And Kelvin Stack Up?

The "Star Trek: The Next Generation" cast did not have as many bites at the apple as the originals did for film, four entires instead of six, and their batting average was not as good either. Only "Star Trek: First Contact," the second "Next Gen" film, made a dent in the voting with a healthy 14% of the vote. Their translation to film never was as smooth, as contemporary action cinema of the 1990s was nowhere close to what made "The Next Generation" the great show that it was. If this were a poll of the worst films of the series, I imagine "Star Trek: Nemesis" would make quite a run for first place.

As for the Kelvin timeline (AKA the J.J. Abrams reboot series), the 2009 "Star Trek" also received 14% of the vote, though it does have the distinction of being 0.18% higher. The reboot presented a much needed shot in the arm to the franchise, and it looked like it was to be smooth sailing from there. Then "Stark Trek Into Darkness" showed up, a film that would rival "Star Trek: Nemesis" for worst of the series, and squandered interest in the rebooted franchise. That's a real shame because "Star Trek Beyond," which received about 12.5% of the vote, deserved so much better than it got at the time and perfectly course corrected from the previous film's mistakes. That percentage is certainly higher than I thought it would be, but I am glad people seem to be finding the film.

While "The Wrath of Khan" takes the win, it was not a runaway favorite by any means. Over half the films received a decent number of votes. That shows the strength of the "Star Trek" film series overall. So many people can have a different favorite film, and none of them seem like that crazy a choice. Okay, if their favorite was "The Final Frontier," maybe you can raise an eyebrow.

Almost all of the "Star Trek" movies are streaming on Paramount+ right now.

Read this next: Star Trek: The Next Generation's 10 Best Episodes

The post Nearly 21% of Star Trek Fans Said This Was Their Favorite Movie in the Franchise appeared first on /Film.

01 Feb 17:09

Why Christopher Lloyd Was Nervous About Recasting Marty McFly In Back To The Future

by Ryan Scott

There are few movies that will ever be as roundly beloved as "Back to the Future." Director Robert Zemeckis brought to life one of the all-time great blockbusters, which paved the way for an entire trilogy that has endured for decades, and will certainly continue to endure for decades to come. An enormous part of that is owed to Christopher Lloyd's pitch-perfect performance as Doc Brown, and much of that success comes down to his chemistry with Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly. But as many film fans know, it was originally Eric Stoltz in the role before he was recast well into production.

Virtually anyone would tell you, in hindsight, this was an outstanding decision. This is particularly true for Lloyd, who gained his most iconic role by working alongside Fox, not Stoltz. However, Lloyd had some concerns about the change when it happened initially, and it all had to do with how the recasting was going to influence his performance.

Christopher Lloyd's Concern

Christopher Lloyd recently discussed the recasting decision in a career retrospective for GQ. During the nearly 20-minute video, the actor naturally discusses his role in "Back to the Future." On the subject of bringing in Fox to replace Stoltz, Lloyd explained that he didn't know about the change ahead of time. What's more, they had already been filming for about six weeks, which is a very long time on a big movie. That is where the issue arose for him, as he was concerned about being able to get his performance back up to the level where it needed to be all over again:

"They just decided that they needed somebody with a comic flair. Stoltz is a wonderful actor. I had no idea the change was coming. My biggest fear, because I was really working to get Doc right, I thought, 'I don't know if I can get it up to do that again.' So I was worried about it. But, it all worked out."

As Lloyd says, it did indeed all work out. Fox absolutely had the comic flair and his playing off Doc Brown's over-the-top nature is the engine that truly helps drive the movie. That dynamic is difficult to imagine any other way, especially with an actor who is perhaps taking the role of Marty McFly a bit too seriously. Such was the case with Stoltz, and it's not just the filmmakers who thought so.

The Problem With Stoltz

While it has been known for many, many years that Eric Stoltz was not only cast as Marty but had filmed on the movie for weeks before being fired, the problems with the actor run a little deeper than him not just being right for the part in the eyes of the studio. Tom Wilson, who plays Biff in the "Back to the Future" trilogy, once talked about the issue at length on the Nerdist podcast. Wilson explained that Stoltz was very much into not breaking character and needed to be referred to as Marty on set. During a confrontation scene between Biff and Marty, Wilson explained that Stoltz was committing a bit too much to the role:

"Eric got fired a couple of days before he was just going to get his head pounded in because in the scene in the cafeteria... he was driving the heels of his hands hard into my collarbones, I mean really pushing me."

To Lloyd's point, the comic flare seemingly wasn't there with Stoltz. This kept going until the scene in question was finished and Wilson says that he had huge bruises on his chest and collarbone from the confrontation. His account is not pretty, and that is certainly not the Marty McFly many of us know and love. In putting the whole picture together, the change seems to make sense.

Everything Worked Out

Despite the hurdles and concerns, everything worked out perfectly in the end. "Back to the Future" was released in theaters in the summer of 1985 and went on to become a global smash hit. Against a budget of just $19 million, it grossed $385 million worldwide according to The Numbers, paving the way for "Back to the Future Part II" and "Back to the Future Part III" to have similar success in 1989 and 1990. It remains one of the most successful and beloved trilogies in Hollywood history.

There have been whispers at various points of remakes or sequels, but nothing ever comes to pass. A huge part of that has to do with the fact that it would be nearly impossible to imagine anyone else doing these roles, or matching what came before. This is one of the few truly sacred cows in all of movie history that won't be messed with -- at least not any time soon. Would it have been nearly as successful without the change? It's not easy to predict would-be scenarios, but removing any element of the magic that exists would certainly risk upsetting the balance. Despite Lloyd's initial concerns, this was a legendarily good move to make.

Read this next: 12 Awesome Sci-Fi Movies That Never Got Sequels

The post Why Christopher Lloyd Was Nervous About Recasting Marty McFly in Back to the Future appeared first on /Film.

01 Feb 17:09

How Quentin Tarantino Helped Josh Brolin Land His No Country For Old Men Role

by Mike Shutt

An actor putting themselves on tape for an audition is always a tricky proposition. Sure, it gives the casting agents and filmmakers a decent idea of how you read on camera, but it also places the actor in the strange posidtion of performing the scene in some place at their home, perhaps without even a scene partner. They are also responsible for choosing the right camera angle and setting up some lighting to best capture their own performance, which isn't in the job description of an actor. Taped auditions are unavoidable, though, and are a key part in finding the right people for the right roles.

Sometimes, you get lucky and a friend helps you out with your audition and films it in such a way to maximize your performance. Sometimes, the friend has no idea how to work a camera and ruins an audition you might have otherwise nailed. Sometimes, you happen to be working on a movie with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, and they shoot your audition tape. Such was the case for Josh Brolin when he was trying to get the part of Llewelyn Moss in the Coen Brothers' Best Picture winning film "No Country for Old Men."

Planet Terror Wasn't A Total Waste

Remember how excited we all were for "Grindhouse?" The retro exploitation double feature experiment by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino came right at the height of these two directors perceived at their most badass. Rodriguez had just done "Sin City," which was seen as a major accomplishment in pushing visual effects (though its horrendous sequel certainly has made that bloom fall off the rose). Tarantino was coming off of the two "Kill Bill" films, which saw him work on massive scale he had yet to tackle. "Grindhouse" was sure to be a hit, right? Wrong. It was quite a financial disappointment, making not even half of its budget. Though Tarantino's half of the project, "Death Proof," has its fans, many would call it his worst film, including Tarantino himself. "Planet Terror," outside of the image of Rose McGowan with a machine gun leg, has no cultural footprint whatsoever.

However, Josh Brolin was one of the stars of "Planet Terror." (To be completely honest, I did not even remember him being in the movie until writing this piece.) One day on set, he had Tarantino and Rodriguez shoot his "No Country for Old Men" audition during a lunch break. In an interview, Brolin told Collider that they used the Panavision Genesis camera that "Planet Terror" was being shot on for the audition. Funnily enough, the professionally shot audition from two directors with distinct styles took emphasis away from Brolin's performance on the tape. Brolin recalled, "It was turned down. They watched it and their response was, 'Who lit it?'" It was not until a meeting with the Coens themselves that they saw he could really do the part. Not only did Brolin get the part, but the film won Best Picture, so you could say it worked out in the end.

Josh Brolin Is Now A Coen Regular

Like so many of the great filmmakers, the Coen Brothers have a stable of actors they return to time and time again. John Goodman, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Turturro, and the late, great Jon Polito are just a few of these actors who the brothers can pluck out at anytime and place them in their worlds. Josh Brolin has become one of those stock company players. He went on to appear in two more films by the Coens, and both roles couldn't be more different from Llewelyn Moss. First was as the dimwitted murderer Tom Chaney in their adaptation of "True Grit." Then, he was the Hollywood studio fixer Eddie Mannix in their highly underrated showbiz comedy "Hail, Caesar!"

At his core, Josh Brolin is a character actor. That's probably he why he never became a traditional leading man in Hollywood. Thankfully, the Coen Brothers feast on character actors. They might not have seen that potential in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's rendering of him with that initial audition tape, but I bet having such a unique audition tape made an impression on the filmmaking duo. They obviously didn't throw him aside completely if they were willing to meet with the actor. Luckily, his talent shined through the bells and whistles, and now we can just enjoy the films they make together, as Brolin's work with the Coens stands as the best of his career. Whether he is delivering a deadpan joke or is in extreme terror, the range that this actor/director combo can provide has not failed to entertain yet.

Read this next: The Best Movies Of 2021

The post How Quentin Tarantino Helped Josh Brolin Land His No Country For Old Men Role appeared first on /Film.

01 Feb 17:08

Resident Evil 5: Introduction

by Shamus

Tonight, at 7pm Chris and I are going to be playing Resident Evil 5 together on his Twitch channel. The game was designed for Co-Op, building the combat around the two-person team of Chris Redfield and Sheva. If you play it single-player – which is how I played this back in 2009 – then Sheva is run by an AI. This will be my first time experiencing the game as it was intended to be played.

Chris is the expert on this series, so I’ll let him put the whole thing in context…

The games industry was a weird place in 2008. The Microsoft Xbox had completely changed the console gaming landscape in no small part by making their system the easiest to develop for. This brought in Western developers that would never have crafted experiences for console before, as well as introducing genres to controller holders that held no equal at the time. Launching with Halo: Combat Evolved and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was almost a mission statement, and being the only console to have Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 before the next-generation landed was a hallmark achievement. The birth of Xbox Live also introduced the console gaming world to online multiplayer, transforming not only what was being played, but by whom. As the Xbox 360 heralded the dawn of the seventh generation of consoles, it was no longer the Japanese games industry that was dominating the gaming couch.

It is in this environment that Capcom, one of the giants of console games throughout the 90’s, would find themselves. With most of the original creative staff of the franchise either gone or working on other projects, it was up to Keiji Inafune and Jun Takeuchi to decide where to go. Resident Evil 4 was perceived as a success in part due to its departure from franchise norms, and so, rather than try and recreate the prior game, they chose to modify it with a new and popular trend: multiplayer.

If you play Resident Evil 5 solo, it is a relentlessly frustrating experience whose A.I. partner seems dim-witted and even traitorous. Played with a friend, however, it’s… actually an enjoyable experience like no other. Which isn’t the high praise it sounds like! It’s more that you don’t really have a co-op game that does what Resident Evil 5 does, for good or ill. By deciding on “partnership” as the theme upon which the game would be built, Capcom would implement a series of set-pieces and puzzles that demanded two players work together and cooperate in ways only Hazelight Studio (developers of A Way Out and It Takes Two) has really approached. It is, perhaps, for this reason that I find the game to be a guilty pleasure.

Nonetheless, I found it interesting that so many who voted for it did so in hopes of hearing Shamus scream. It’s easy to treat Resident Evil 5 as a punching bag, especially for its nonsensical story. While it has the advantage of looking somewhat more beautiful beside its rather homely looking sibling Resident Evil 6, it is still clear that the game never recovered from its reputation developed at launch. For my part, however, I want to go into this playthrough with the intention of finding what Resident Evil 5 does well, even if my finely honed cynicism and sarcasm will be urging me to point out the title’s every deficiency. This is especially true as I now also compare it to Resident Evil 4, a game whose strengths I’ve better begun to understand over the past year. Does Resident Evil 5 manage to fulfill those same strengths? Does it carve out its own new positives? Or, is it simply cursed to be a lesser version of Resident Evil 4, only this time with co-op?

I’m excited to discuss these observations and bounce my thoughts off of Shamus to see what his perspective is, especially as he gets to experience it with a human companion rather than an A.I. Admittedly, I am also excited to occasionally laugh, mock, and groan with him at the sheer stupidity of the story. I look forward to seeing some of you join us on this journey through nonsense and violence.

I really hope you’ll join us tonight on Chris’ channel.

01 Feb 17:06

Buffet brawl erupts after Golden Corral "runs out of steak"

by Rob Beschizza

A brawl resulted Friday night at the Golden Corral restaurant in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, after it allegedly ran out of steak. The footage shows diners swinging punches, hurling chairs and screaming insults, with one man plaintively calling out "all I wanted was some steak" during a lull in the melee. — Read the rest

01 Feb 11:49

The Walking Dead Actor Moses J. Moseley Has Died At 31

by Ariel Fisher

Moses J. Moseley, the young actor who got his big break playing Michonne's (Danai Gurira) "iconic pet zombie" on "The Walking Dead," has died. He was 31 years old.

He had been working as a model and actor since 2010, and started to create an impressive CV, including bit parts in "Watchmen," "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," and "Queen of the South." According to Variety, Moseley's body was found in Stockbridge, Georgia, late last week by authorities. The details are still fairly sparse, but it seems an investigation is currently underway. 

Moseley was represented by Avery Sisters Entertainment, who confirmed the news. They posted a touching tribute to the young actor on the agency's official Facebook page, writing:

With a heavy heart, we at Avery Sisters Entertainment offer our sincerest and deepest condolences to the family and friends of our actor, Moses J. Moseley. We are truly saddened. Moses was a phenomenal actor who has appeared in movies such as "The Walking Dead," "Queen of the South," and "American Soul," but MUCH more than that, he was an AMAZING person! For those who knew him, he was the kindest, sweetest, most generous person you would ever meet. We will miss you dearly! Rest in Heaven! ❤️‍

The "Walking Dead" team also paid tribute to the actor, sharing a photo of Moseley on Twitter. The tweet read, "Our thoughts and prayers are with our 'The Walking Dead' family member Moses J. Moseley."

He Dreamt Of Stardom

Moseley's IMDb bio feels like a tiny glimpse into his mind. "Moses Moseley has been modeling since 2010," it reads. 

He didn't begin to seriously pursue his dreams of modeling and acting until he reached his ideal weight. At the age of 16 he tilted the scales at 300 pounds. Two years through diet and exercise he lost over 150 pounds and his dreams of becoming a model and actor proved to be within his grasp. Moses got his first taste at stardom walking out of his class at Georgia State. Moses is best known for playing the role of Michonne's iconic pet zombie on the hit show "The Walking Dead" and being on the cover of Entertainment Weekly for "The Walking Dead." He has since then costarred in the HBO series "Watchmen." He also has co-starring roles in USA Network's "Queen of the South," BET "Tales," and BET's "American Soul."

It feels as though he was just starting to get his footing in the industry and was making a name for himself. He had two projects in post-production, both of which were horror projects: "Hank" and "Descending." As with his Instagram post above, he seemed to recognize that the world lay ahead of him, full of possibility. His passing hits fans of "The Walking Dead," and shocks everyone who knew him. 

Read this next: The Best Movies Of 2021

The post The Walking Dead Actor Moses J. Moseley Has Died At 31 appeared first on /Film.

01 Feb 11:49

Behind The Buzzword: Four Ways to Assess Your Zero Trust Security Posture

by noreply@blogger.com (The Hacker News)
With just about everything delivered from the cloud these days, employees can now collaborate and access what they need from anywhere and on any device. While this newfound flexibility has changed the way we think about productivity, it has also created new cybersecurity challenges for organizations. Historically, enterprise data was stored inside data centers and guarded by perimeter-based
01 Feb 11:18

Reasons Why Every Business is a Target of DDoS Attacks

by noreply@blogger.com (The Hacker News)
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks are making headlines almost every day. 2021 saw a 434% upsurge in DDoS attacks, 5.5 times higher than 2020. Q3 2021 saw a 24% increase in the number of DDoS attacks in comparison to Q3 2020.  Advanced DDoS attacks that are typically targeted, known as smart attacks, rose by 31% in the same period. Further, 73% of DDoS attacks in Q3 2021 were
01 Feb 11:16

Underrail Development Update - New Year's Resolution

by ValH

With Stygian Software setting their sights on the standalone Underrail: Infusion, they bring us what they expect to be the last free major update for the original Underrail. Apart from a heap of fixes and tweaks, this update overhauls the game's UI in order to let you adjust its size, which is always a great thing to have.

Here's the full changelog, plus some extra info about some potential future Underrail content:

Hi guys,

Today we're releasing our last major free content update for Underrail. It's been just a bit over six years since the full release of the base game, and I think that's a nice and round number to rest at. After this we're going to transition to working at about 95% of our collective capacity on our next project known under codename Infusion. You can see what's this project about and follow its development here: stygiansoftware.com/infusion. We should start posting dev logs there more regularly soon.

However, this does not mean that we're completely done with this game. We intend to support it as long as we exist as a company and also periodically release small content updates which will mostly feature mechanical tweaks, as well new items and abilities. We have quite a robust system for creating interesting items at this point, which we intend to use to further extend Underrail's playstyle catalogue so to speak.

Also we have some bigger features planned for the future, such as better adapting the game's UI and controls to Steam Deck, creating tools for community translation projects, potentially porting the game to other platforms, and more.

Another distinct possibility is an additon of a small paid DLC for Underrail, as there are some substantial gameplay mechanics that we initially planned to add in the second DLC (following Expedition), but were left in a state of limbo after we decided to move onto Infusion instead.

Exactly when any of these things will come about, I do not know. They will mostly require me to spend my programming time on them, which I will not have much to spare as Infusion is going to occupy most of it in the coming years. So don't expect rapid progress in any of the things mentioned above.

Before I hit you with all the bullet points, here's an important notice: due to the nature and quantity of changes made, the update will first be deployed onto the Experimental branch.

To play experimental branch on Steam, you right click the game in your library and go to "Betas" tab. To do so on GOG Galaxy, you go to Manage Installation -> Configure. Make sure you don't override all your live version saves just in case something goes horribly wrong.

Now, without further ado, here's the list of changes and additions that come with this update, minus the secret stuff, of course:

MAJOR STUFF
  • Implemented, new slightly visually touched up, UI that is available in 3 sizes; classic UI still available
  • The game will now automatically be zoomed on higher resolutions (which can then be changed through manual zooming if it's enabled)
  • Introduced a brand new Core City questline as an alternative to joining an oligarch
  • Improved nearly all unique and some rare weapons and armor - go check them out
  • You can refurbish your old world firearms at one of the firearm enthusiasts
  • Characters can now save up to 10 action points at the end of their turn and add those to their next turn
  • Base ability values are no longer capped at 20, but instead the maximum bonus on top of the base value that you can accumulate is 10
UI
  • Implemented borderless windowed display mode
  • Item's special abilities/attacks will now have icon in the item's tooltip next to the description
  • Fixed character's speech bubble and health bar offsets when zoomed in
  • Zooming step changed to 25% (down from 50%)
  • Added an option to follow the player character (default hotkey: F3). This is kind of an experimental feature, so be sure to let me know if you discover any bugs
Feats
  • Opportunist - description now specifies it only works against living targets
  • Pummel - will now list the action point cost
  • Fend - Base action point cost changed to 60% of normal attack ap cost (down from 100%)
Specializations
  • Fend: Action Point Cost - Ap cost reduction per point changed to 8% (down from 10%)
Items
  • Item effects (such as poisons and gun oil) will now display a small icon in the corner of the parent item
  • You can now use poisons to coat suitable melee weapons if you have the required Biology skill level; the poisoned weapons will then apply that poison in a certain number of attacks; you can coat a weapon with only one poison at a time
  • Added Sharpening Stone - Can sharpen a bladed melee weapon, increasing its damage by 10% for the next 30 strikes, but permanently reducing its max durability by 5%
  • Added Firecracker Cap item enhancement that can be applied to sledgehammers and crowbars to cause an explosion on the next hit
  • All-in now decreases intelligence by 3 instead of increasing it
  • Commando Belt moved to static loot
  • [Expedition] Frogfish biology requirement changed to 50 (up from 25)
  • [Expedition] Add a new unique spear and sword that can be found before going to Black Sea
Ammo
  • W2C bullets now ignore 35%-45% of mechanical damage resistance depending on bullet caliber (down from fixed 65%), threshold interaction remains he same
  • 5mm Shock Round - Damage changed to 8-15 (up from 5-10) and now has 3% chance to daze target for 1 turn
  • 7.62mm Micro-shrapnel Round - The damage that penetrates the armor is increased by 25% against organic targets
  • 8.6mm Incendiary Round - Now also deals 10-20 heat damage on impact
  • 9mm Acid Round - Acid damage changed to 15-30 (up from 10-20)
  • .44 Explosive Round - Heat and mechanical explosion damage changed to 23-45 (up from 15-30)
Crafting
  • Steel and tungsten plates requirement is now capped at 30 mechanics when crafting bullets
  • W2C Bullets blueprint now requires hexogen instead of raw tnt and produces 20 bullets (down from 30)
  • JHP Bullets blueprint now produces 20 bullets (down from 30)
  • Changed enriched health hypo critical chance to 10% (up from 5%)
  • Large intestine biology requirement changed to 45 (down from 50)
  • Taurine biology requirement changed to 45 (down from 50)
  • Anglerfish biology requirement changed to 90 (down from 100)
  • Fusing Enzyme biology requirement changed to 90 (down from 100)
Quests / Zones / NPCs
  • Increased t-boss health on dominating difficulty, and his damage resistance on all difficulties
  • Expanded upon Motion and Motioners; this drug is now both better and worse
  • You can now bring Gorsky high-quality energy shields from other sources as an alternative to raiding Port Zenith
  • Added an agility check that allows you to climb up and down between the Caerus Residential Block square and SW building second floor
  • Added fireplaces to certain locations in Deep Caverns
  • Added a hacking check to Cytosine Outpost storeroom
  • Added more hydraulic fluid canisters to Deep Caverns
  • Certain gate components can now be found at multiple locations in Deep Caverns
  • You can now use electronics skill to optimize Arke power plant turbine output for more total power
  • A certain important encounter with the Faceless will now feature some of them having their infusions active from the start (only on Dominating difficulty)
  • Added an extra Thought Control check to the DC mindreading that allows the player to conceal his mischievous behavior
  • You can now bring super steel refining data to Bernard in order to improve the quality of super steel plates; also raised the max quality from 160 to 180 for players who have Expedition installed
  • Leonie will now offer the Infused Leather blueprint as soon as you show her you have super steel plates (currently you have to do the melting process with Bernard first)
  • You can turn metal scraps into low-quality steel plates at Leonie's
  • Added more ways to learn about a certain Foundry arms merchant
  • Added more entries to the super secret organization database, and placed some of the existing ones behind higher access levels
  • Added more options to save Maura
  • You can now borrow (or "borrow") AK from Kokoschka
  • Becket now also offers psi inhalants alongside psi boosters when giving you your equipment package
  • Added Underrail Express tickets which can be pickpocketed from NPCs and used for a single ride
  • New models and portraits for Jon the Beautiful, Sergio the Wizard, and some super secret folks
  • New random events, some of them seasonal, and some related to the player's house
  • Introduced Jookhela's drawing skills to the world
  • Increased requirements for achieving Brutalizer/Brutalette gladiator nicknames, so they shouldn't be so predominant now
  • The Black Crawler now drops an oddity item when killed
  • New entries in the Institute of Tchort library, some of which contain blueprints and will require a special card
  • New skill checks for Octavia, Vuk and Kiro that will unlock certain items for trading
  • [Expedition] Naval mines will now be heard detonating in the distance when someone attacks the camp
  • [Expedition] Added ways to break yourself free from a certain man's mechanical grasp
  • [Expedition] Added certain dialog options to Doc Savage and Marcus that were only available through navcom
Tweaks
  • Optimized faction data relations serialization which should improve save/load times of mid and late game savegames somewhat
  • Fixed the pathfinding prioritization to prevent player from getting stuck in place when a lot of NPC pathfinding is taking place
  • Being in turn-based mode will now count as being in combat for purpose of changing equipment
Bugs
  • Game will no longer accept mouse clicks in windowed mode when the game window is not focused
  • Fixed the bug that would cause the carried weight to not immediately update when consuming/expending items in a stack
  • Pseudo-spatial Projection will now properly affect Spear Throw
  • Fixed the bug that allowed some items to make the player's mechanical resistance sometimes exceed the normal limit
  • Fixed the bug that cause the item tooltip to not correctly indicate which effects are unavailable due to unmet requirements when the item is not currently equipped
  • Fixed the bug that would cause Bone Breaker to trigger irrespectively of the amount of damage dealt
  • Negative effects of equipped items will now still properly apply even if you do not meet the item requirements
  • Fixed the bug that would cause assault rifle burst attack and pistol rapid fire to calculate each burst hit with the wrong bullet from the magazine (it was offset by 1)
  • Fixed the bug that would cause the Needler's Piercing Shot to hit the pass-through targets twice
  • NPCs will now properly use crossbow to fire special bolts instead of switching weapons when they are out of regular bolts
  • You can no longer trigger Escape Bonds when you're completely encumbered
  • Plasma Beam will now properly hit all targets in the target tile (the ones highlighted when targeting)
  • Fixed the bug that caused psi beetles to try to neural overload force fields
  • Fixed some esoteric explosion bugs
  • You can no longer climb a certain ladder before releasing the very, very bad gas in an under-passages hideout (unless you kill the person supervising you)
  • Captain Rastko will no longer charge double for a single ride
  • Fixed the Green Galaxy furniture set not appearing when switching between it and other bought sets
  • Fixed not being able to report Newton's death if he was killed in certain ways
  • Attacking Jack Quicksilver will now properly register who attacked him and will not instead be attributed to the player for certain quest purposes
  • Killing Vivian at a certain location will now fail the quest and prevent the player from doing certain things which might get them permanently stuck
  • [Expedition] Spear guard triggered from spear attacks will now properly replace a more powerful existing spear guard effect if the latter is about to expire
  • [Expedition] Spear throw will now destealth the thrower after the throw instead before
  • [Expedition] Fixed Improved Naval Combat checking for effective instead of base Agility value in Razor's dialog
  • [Expedition] Fixed a bug which in certain cases prevents players from sleeping in the camp bed more than once
  • [Expedition] Fixed Aran not despawning when he should in certain cases
  • [Expedition] Fixed Ferryman being stuck in the "I'm moving out." phase and not wanting to talk to the player
  • [Expedition] Fixed Dude sometimes not having certain dialogue options when waiting for the player to find something important in his cave home
  • [Expedition] Fixed Briggs getting stuck at the "Shouldn't you be looking for a microchip implant?" line in certain very specific instances
  • [Expedition] Fixed Professor Oldfield not following you when he should
  • [Expedition] Fixed receiving certain NavCom messages if you stole/looted it but never joined the expedition
  • [Expedition] Fixed being able to sail across certain cliffs in the Mutie Refuge zone
  • [Expedition] Fixed wrong closing sounds for one type of Lemurian boxes
  • [Expedition] Fixed infinite Black Eel jet skiers bug
  • Various minor dialog and zone fixes
Secret stuff
  • It's a secret
Let us know how you like the additions and changes.

Cheers.
01 Feb 11:15

Iranian Hackers Using New PowerShell Backdoor in Cyber Espionage Attacks

by noreply@blogger.com (Ravie Lakshmanan)
An advanced persistent threat group with links to Iran has updated its malware toolset to include a novel PowerShell-based implant called PowerLess Backdoor, according to new research published by Cybereason. The Boston-headquartered cybersecurity company attributed the malware to a hacking group known as Charming Kitten (aka Phosphorous, APT35, or TA453), while also calling out the backdoor's
01 Feb 11:15

Native The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time PC Port Receives First Gameplay Showcase

by Aernout van de Velde

ocarina of time pc

The first gameplay showcase for the unofficial native The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time PC port has been released.

Back in July of 2020, the source codes for various major N64 titles leaked online, including the ever-popular Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, and Mario Kart 64. Some skilled programmers already managed to reverse-engineer Mario 64, and we now have someone working on an unofficial PC port of Ocarina of Time, complete with widescreen and upscaling support. You can watch for the first gameplay of Ocarina of Time running on PC down below:

In addition to widescreen and upscaling support, Ocarina of Time on PC will also support 60FPS in the near future. According to the creator of this native PC port, the project is nearly fully playable, but as expected, there are still some noticeable bugs and glitches. These, however, will soon be resolved.

For more information, check out the Discord server for this project.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released on the Nintendo 64 back in 1998. The game is considered one of the best games ever made, and many are still hoping for a proper next-gen remake. A remastered with 3D support was released for the Nintendo 3DS back in 2011.

With phenomenally re-mastered graphics and new stunning 3D visuals, fans of the original game and newcomers alike will be able to marvel at this gaming classic to join the daring adventures of one of video-gaming’s greatest heroes – Link!

Guide Link – a young boy who is tasked with saving the land of Hyrule from Ganondorf, the Gerudo King of Thieves. The evil Ganondorf is intent on gaining mastery both over the land of Hyrule and time itself and he is led by his ambition to overthrow the current Royal Family of Htrule. It is up to Link to stop him in his tracks as you guide him on a magical journey through time. Explore vast landscapes, mythical temples, dungeons, towns and villages, as well as interact with many different characters and battle various enemies – all in stunning 3D.

The post Native The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time PC Port Receives First Gameplay Showcase by Aernout van de Velde appeared first on Wccftech.

31 Jan 23:19

What Is a Subnet? How Do You Calculate Subnets?

by Chioma Ibeakanma

If you use the internet in a corporate organization, it’s almost certainly part of a subnet. But what is a subnet, why is subnetting important, and how do you find out what subnet you are on?

31 Jan 23:17

Interview: Ann Dowd on 'Mass' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' and staying humble when the offers come.

by NATHANIEL R

by Nathaniel R

As Ann Dowd and I sat down to talk about Mass, we talked briefly about some work she'd been doing with acting students (not as much as she'd like) and reminisced briefly about the time she guest blogged for The Film Experience seven years ago. In one piece she wrote for the site she doled out advice for young actors about "attending to your life" as she puts it and seeking help if it's needed rather than purposefully 'Suffering for Art'. I reminded her of her own words:

You need an understanding of suffering and pain but you do not need to spend your life doing that to make the work good! 

This advice seems especially relevant today given the heavy themes of her current drama Mass which is about two married couples meeting for the first time years after a tragic school shooting has permanently altered their lives. [This interview has been edited for length and clarity]...

31 Jan 23:09

Your Graphics Card Fingerprint Can Be Used to Track Your Activities Across the Web

by noreply@blogger.com (Ravie Lakshmanan)
Researchers have demonstrated a new type of fingerprinting technique that exploits a machine's graphics processing unit (GPU) as a means to persistently track users across the web. Dubbed DrawnApart, the method "identifies a device from the unique properties of its GPU stack," researchers from Australia, France, and Israel said in a new paper, adding "variations in speed among the multiple
31 Jan 23:04

The Meaning Of Ruth's Cookie Jar In Ozark Season 4 Explained

by Valerie Ettenhofer

This post contains spoilers for the new season of "Ozark."

Julia Garner's Ruth Langmore has always been a bright spot in the dark world of "Ozark." It's not that she's particularly happy -- her family has been through one tragedy of their own making after another -- but that she's worth rooting for. Ruth is ambitious, determined to make something of her life even if it's in the criminal underworld Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) introduced her to.

She's also careful to seem strong, wavering in her emotions only occasionally. One of these moments comes up in the show's latest season, when Ruth buys a goat cookie jar for Ben's (Tom Pelphrey) ashes and bursts into tears.

Viewers should remember Ben as Ruth's former boyfriend and Wendy's (Laura Linney) brother. Ben was bipolar, and died last season after Wendy left him at a diner, knowing he would be picked up and executed by cartel associates. Pelphrey's performance was a high point not just of the season, but the entire series. Although he's gone in season 4, Ben's presence lingers over the show's penultimate stretch of episodes, bleeding through in Wendy's guilt and Ruth's grief.

Goats Were In Ruth And Ben's Future

The second episode of the new season, "Let The Great World Spin," sees Ruth shopping at a thrift store. When the employee asks, she says she's "just looking," but Ruth is deliberately opening jars and examining whatever ceramic containers she sees. She gravitates towards a funky-looking cookie jar in the shape of a goat. "You don't really think of goats and cookies together, do you?" the store clerk says. Ruth brings the goat jar home, carrying it like an unwieldy baby. When she gets to her trailer, she sets it on a table, stares at it, and breaks down crying.

So what's the deal with this ugly jar? We haven't seen it before, but its meaning is deep for Ruth. As Men's Health points out, it can be traced back to the final conversation Wendy has with Ben. She asks him what he wants for his life in five years. He's unaware that his life is about to end, and answers simply and with a laugh: "It's easy. Ruth. Dogs. House. Garden. Job. And I'd like goats, but I feel like that's more eight to ten years."

In the new season, Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) steals Ben's ashes from Wendy to give to Ruth. The goat cookie jar, then, will become Ben's final resting place. We didn't actually see him and Ruth discuss their future or the goats they wanted to buy, but they were very in love, so it's not a stretch to assume they discussed it. The store clerk mentioned her husband thinks goats are satanic; this, too, feels right for Ben, who often saw the best in bad situations.

This second episode cold open is a tragic moment made all the more absurd by the utter ugliness of the goat cookie jar. If Ben was there, he probably would've laughed at it with Ruth. But he's not, and Ruth can only cry for a moment, alone, before putting on a brave face for the world.

Read this next: Shows Like Breaking Bad That You Can Binge Watch Today

The post The Meaning of Ruth's Cookie Jar in Ozark Season 4 Explained appeared first on /Film.

31 Jan 23:03

Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 13.0

Tiny Core Linux is a 16 MB graphical Linux desktop. It is based on a recent Linux kernel, BusyBox, Tiny X, Fltk, and Flwm. The core runs entirely in memory and boots very quickly. The project has published a new update, version 13.0, which provides new kernel and....
31 Jan 22:58

Still Think Microsoft Defender Is Bad? Think Again, Says AV-TEST

by Simon Batt

For a long time, it was common advice to never make do with programs that Microsoft offered you. Whether it wanted you to scan your PC with its Defender antivirus or to browse the web with Edge, people suggested forgoing these offers and download a third-party offering instead.

31 Jan 22:55

I could not finish 'Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League'

by Jason Weisberger

I feel obligated to review Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League. Generally, when I do not like a book, movie, tv-show, podcast, or something that someone else invested a lot of time or effort into I skip reviewing it. Other people might really like it and its not fair to shit all over someone's baby. — Read the rest

31 Jan 22:53

Intel “working hard” to sort out graphics card shortages with Arc GPUs

by James Archer

Intel’s Arc graphics cards are, despite apparent delays, likely to launch this year. And not just with the expectation of being good GPUs, but with the hope that they can fix one of the biggest vexations in PC gaming: a years-long component shortage that’s made all of the best graphics cards nearly impossible to buy at fair prices.

Intel graphics chief Raja Koduri is at least well aware of the pressure, tweeting that the company is “working hard to find a path towards the mission - getting millions of Arc GPUs into the hands of PC gamers every year.” Koduri was responding to an open letter from our friends at PC Gamer, calling on Intel to finally toss an escape rope down the hardware hellmouth we’ve all found ourselves trapped in. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger also responded, claiming “We’re on it.”

Read more

31 Jan 22:52

CISA's 'Must Patch' List Puts Spotlight on Vulnerability Management Processes

by Eduard Kovacs

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities can be useful not only for helping organizations patch high-risk vulnerabilities in their systems, but also to help them build or improve vulnerability management processes.

read more

31 Jan 22:52

North Korean Hackers Abuse Windows Update Client in Attacks on Defense Industry

by Ionut Arghire

The North Korean threat group Lazarus was observed abusing the Windows Update client for the execution of malicious code during a campaign this month, Malwarebytes reports.

read more

31 Jan 22:51

Numerous Linux/X11 Display Drivers Can No Longer Even Properly Build

While many Linux enthusiasts like to cite Linux's stellar support for older hardware platforms, in reality that isn't always the case. For instance with many old X.Org user-space mode-setting drivers for powering old graphics cards at least for display purposes, they can no longer even build with with modern toolchains / software components. Given the lack of bug reports around such issues, there are very likely few users trying some of these vintage hardware combinations...