Ronald.phillips

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Amongst other issues on the docket for the upcoming Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Conventional Weapons in Geneva, the United Nations wants to address the elephant in the, err, uhh, developing nation of autonomous death machines. But in true American form, the good ol' US-of-A thinks it can police itself well enough, thank you very much. — Read the rest

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While Ubuntu switched from LZ4 to Zstd for compressing its initramfs, they now are finding they were too aggressive in defaulting to Zstd with the highest compression level of 19. Due to speed and memory consumption concerns, they are looking at lowering their Zstd compression level...

Four episodes ago, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) had big plans to quickly take down whoever was prowling the streets dressed as Ronin and retrieve the black suit now haunting his life. With that taken care of, he'd be free to fly home for Christmas and spend some much needed quality time with his family. Unfortunately, Clint must've missed the memo that his Marvel series "Hawkeye" spans a full six episodes — meaning he has lots to overcome before he can bask in the twinkle-lit Christmas glow.

Pretty much nothing has gone right for Clint since the series started. In fact, the obstacles being thrown in his course have pretty much tripled in size, with a new enemy around every corner and the stakes rising with each passing episode. One of the many problems the Avenger now has to solve is getting his hands on a vintage Rolex watch. Why is Hawkeye so intent on keeping this watch safe? And who did it once belong to? Put on your speculation cap, because we have a couple of theories to burn through.

Spoilers ahead for the first four episodes of "Hawkeye."

What We Know About The Mysterious Watch

We first saw the mysterious Rolex way back in the series premiere, when Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) was creeping around the black-market auction that kickstarted her adventure with Clint. While #1 Ronin stans ​​Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton) and his uncle Armand Dunquesne III (Simon Callow) were busy bidding on the suit and sword that belonged to a post-blip Clint, the Tracksuit mafia were preparing to blow up a wall in search of, drumroll please... the Rolex! Four episodes of insight hints that Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) might've been so keen on getting this watch that she sent her crew in to bring it back. But this episode also reveals that Jack is wrapped up in the Tracksuit Mafia, and may have initiated this search himself. But however smoothly things were supposed to go, it all fell apart when Kate donned the Ronin suit and reignited Maya's need for vengeance.

The watch went unmentioned for a few episodes, but reemerges in "Partners, Am I Right?" when Clint realizes that watch was amongst the items stolen from the Avengers compound wreckage. Given how quickly he reworks the plan to retrieve the watch, the owner is someone close enough to our hero to inspire a real sense of urgency. All will probably be revealed in the upcoming final two episodes of the season, but waiting is very un-fun, so we're gonna get the creative juices flowing with a couple of possibilities.

Ronin

So far, most of the rocky roads in "Hawkeye" lead back to Ronin. Why should this be an exception? Clint's dark past life as a destroyer of all things in the criminal underworld saw him blowing off all that my-whole-family-blipped steam and making a ton of enemies. He's already doing his best to gather up the related artifacts — his sword and suit — so maybe that's also the deal with this watch. But all things considered, this answer is both boring and pretty unlikely. None of the other hints to the watch really align with the Ronin identity — why would he tell Kate that the Rolex belonged to someone "close to him," when she's already realized Clint and Ronin are one in the same? If he just let her know that it was another piece of the Ronin puzzle, she might ask a few less questions. Sure, Clint rarely choses to be straightforward with Kate, mostly offering cryptic non-answers, but it feels like the watch is pushing us towards an exciting revelation.

Tony Stark (...or Pepper Potts)

A Rolex, you say? Of the vintage variety? Who do we know that enjoys the finer things in life, expense and all? Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a reasonable guess based on taste alone, especially when you consider that this artifact was uncovered from the Avengers compound. Also, Tony kinda has a thing for nanotech and Clint tells Kate that the watch gives away its owner's identity. If someone moves a dial and some Iron Man armor comes out, I'm guessing that would be a major tell at the man behind the watch. But then again, Clint also expressed a lot of concern about someones cover being blown and um, I dunno if that would be a big problem for Tony Stark given his current ... circumstances. On the other hand, the "Hawkeye" series is about to reveal that Tony Stark is alive and well, living on a beach in total, secret bliss. That's the canon that I've always accepted, I just didn't think the Kevin Feige's of the world agreed!

Along these lines, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is another possibility. She fits Clint's description of someone who's been "out of the game" for a while, so maybe this was once her version of the Iron Man wrist-gauntlet that Tony showed off back in "Captain America: Civil War." Pepper Potts spin-off, anyone?

Laura Barton

Could it be?! Could Linda Cardellini actually have something to do in the MCU besides being Clint Barton's super secret and extremely understanding wife? This episode offered a rare moment of interaction between Clint and Laura Barton, in which we actually got a little bit more insight into their dynamic. Like a pro, Laura answered a phone call with her husband, ready to speak cryptically about sensitive information. With his suspicions growing, Clint shot his wife a text about looking into Sloan Limited, and she very quickly reported back. I'm guessing that the info she gathered wasn't just waiting on the first Google search page, so it seems like Laura did some real digging. It sounds like this isn't her first time investigating classified information.

"They've been out of the game a long time," Clint tells Kate of Rolex owner, "but their identity is still attached to that watch." Funnily enough, when Laura first arrived on the MCU scene in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," Tony's response to seeing Clint kiss his wife was to quippily guess, "This is an agent of some kind." Maybe the man best known for being a genius was onto something. When she asks if anything else might've gone missing from the compound, Clint immediately understands that she's referring to the mysterious watch. Concealing his wife's past secret identity sounds like the kind of thing that would jump high up on his priority list, so his determination to secure the watch lines up.

Given that we've never actually seen Linda in action, she also fits the bill of someone "out of the game," with a secret identity that needs to be hidden. As a former S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Laura may have used an alias now tied to the watch — she might even be Mockingbird, the comic character who fought crime alongside Marvel's Hawkeye, and eventually married him. The watch being found in Maya's apartment thus makes a lot of sense, given she's already digging into Clint's family.

Dr. Stephen Strange

This makes next to no sense, but hear me out: deep in the recesses of your brain, you may recall the part of "Doctor Strange" where Stephen (Benedict Cumberbatch) — our new favorite arrogant rich guy — pulls open a drawer of watches, as he prepares to attend a fancy conference. In that drawer we see many a Rolex, so maybe this is just one of the many from his stash. Now I'm not sure if Strange actually has a secret identity to conceal — it seems like he's just abandoned his past life and all who were involved to become a wizard, but who knows? Maybe he occasionally performs a surgery or two and really doesn't want anyone to know.

Old Man Steve

Old Man Steve (Chris Evans and lots of makeup) must be protected at all costs. He may be a super soldier, but he's all wrinkled and fragile now, so he might not be able to fend off the Tracksuit Mafia all by himself! And more importantly, he's supposed to be dead to the public so he can live a quiet life of peace in the boring suburbs, dancing to old timey music and yelling at kids to keep off his lawn. Old Man Steve checks a lot of the boxes that Clint referenced, as someone who's been undercover and used to work closely with the archer. Plus, his old teammate is certainly someone Clint would risk his life to protect — we've seen him do it many times before.

Maybe Chris Evans lied and is getting his Marvel reintroduction after all! You might think that "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" would've been a better place, but maybe you're not on the same galaxy brain wave length as me. This series starts by revealing an entire musical named after Steve Rogers — the bread crumbs have been leading to him all along! Well, the single bread crumb, anyway. And fine, a Rolex doesn't really sound like Steve's style, but it's vintage and Steve is old, so ... close enough.

Daredevil

Now that Kevin Feige has sort of (but not really) confirmed the return of Charlie Cox, I'll do pretty much anything to justify his immediate entry into the MCU. And if he's the owner of the mysterious Rolex in question, that means I get more Matt Murdock in my life as early as next Wednesday, so yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and make the case for Daredevil's return.

The tracksuits crashed the party (ahem, auction) in search of the watch, long before the return of Ronin was on their radar. It seems like the potential reappearance of the man who murdered her father is what made Maya go a little rogue, so the initial order to retrieve the watch may not have been hers after all — it could've come directly from someone higher up, like her Uncle. And who do we suspect is at the top of the Tracksuit Mafia food chain? Kingpin himself! Wilson Fisk being the archnemesis of Daredevil, it makes a lot of sense that he would blow up a wall or two in search of an item leading him to his least favorite spandex-wearing baddie. This would imply that Matt and Clint have worked together in the past, which isn't something we've ever been aware of but hey, maybe Matt will show up, reference their longtime friendship and all will make sense in the end! If it sounds like I'm grasping at straws, please keep that to yourself because I so badly want this to be true.

"Hawkeye" airs new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.

Read this next: 11 Marvel Comics Villains We Really Want To See In The MCU

The post Who Owns The Mysterious Rolex Watch in Hawkeye? appeared first on /Film.

The post Halo Infinite-CODEX appeared first on SceneSource.

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Intel Corporation's chief executive Mr. Patrick Gelsinger believes that it is unlikely China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) will catch up with its global peers in the race to manufacture semiconductors with leading edge fabrication processes. Mr. Gelsinger made these remarks, in addition to those surrounding the company's competition with chip designer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (AMD) and Intel's ability to manufacture a trillion transistor chip at the Credit Suisse technology conference earlier this month. During his talk, he also stressed on the importance of supporting U.S. chip companies due to Asian political instability.

Intel CEO Confident Company Can Regain Market Share Lost To AMD Over The Years

His talk at the event touched upon several topics including Intel's recent datacenter market performance, its upgraded technology roadmap, future compound annual growth rate (CAGR) estimates and the current outlook in the semiconductor industry.

Mr. Gelsinger outlined that repeated incursions in Taiwanese airspace by China's fighter jets presented a geopolitical risk to the semiconductor industry. The world's largest contract chip manufacturer, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is headquartered in the island and uses it to manufacture its latest chips and research and develop new technologies.

He would go on to repeat these comments at the Fortune Brainstorm Technology Conference later in the week. During the Credit Suisse event, the Intel chief stated that:

As I was flying down here yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that there were 27 Chinese planes in Taiwan airspace yesterday.

How do you feel about having your sole source foundry capability in Taiwan right now? I mean, this is a geopolitical risk. And as we've argued since the beginning of my 10-year, the world needs a more resilient, geopolitically balanced supply chain. So we're seeing a lot of enthusiasm to support us moving into that market.

The executive also stressed that if Intel maintained its current innovation rate, it could easily make the world's first trillion transistor chip by the end of this decade. He believes that:

And with that today, and I happen to just bring along, fancy that I actually have a show and tell this is the $100 billion transistor Ponte Vecchio, right. And what we said is we're going to maintain, if not go super Moore's Law, such that we will have our first trillion transistor chip, by the end of the decade. Just think about it, trillion frickin transistors on one package. But we're going to do so by leveraging two and a half and 3D packaging technology.

Prior to this, he also indirectly hinted that it is impossible for China's Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (SMIC) to catch up with its technologically advanced peers in the chipmaking world. SMIC, which is struggling to produce chips on a 7-nanometer (nm) process node, is China's best chipmakers.

According to Mr. Gelsinger:

Now the foundry business as well, there's only three companies in the world that can do leading edge process technology, and there's not going to be a fourth. The capital requirements and the R&D requirements are so extreme, it's not like somebody else is going to come running by and say, John, I got a great business idea. All I need to do is have a $5 billion R&D stream, and on the order of an invested $25 billion of capital, and I'll start doing foundry services five years from now. It's so extreme at this point.

We're now in the cycle of basic business 101, that it's a consolidation cycle, not an expansion cycle in the number of players in the foundry business.

Finally, in best for last, the Intel executive also commented on his company losing market share to AMD. In response to a question about capital allocation expenditure over the next five years, the CEO replied:

Yeah, if you think about the $25 billion to $28 billion, that's a net number. We hope to do more than that based on capital offsets from government investments, as well as customer prepays and other investment criteria for that. But the vast majority of the $25 billion and $28 billion is just to feed the core business. We have, in some regards, I haven't lost share to AMD, I've given share to AMD, because they didn't have capacity, right. So a lot of this is just catch up to our growing market and years of under investment. So the bulk of the $25 billion to $28 billion is just driven by the core business and catching up to the demand curve in the core business.

He also expressed optimism on Intel's ability to take away lost data center market share to AMD. While the latter continues to deliver strong growth in the area, Intel's performance has been rather muted.

For data center, Mr. Gelsinger explained that:

Ice Lake wasn't our greatest product, but it closed some of the gaps. Sapphire Rapids closes all the gaps. So we're now ahead with Sapphire Rapids coming in Q1 of next year. And on some of the benchmarks it's close to AMD, on other benchmarks, it's unquestionably the best product. And like the AI performance of Sapphire Rapids is now 50% of the highest end Nvidia specialty processor, right. It is dramatic, it's hundreds of percent better than AMD’s alternative at this point. So we're clearly having some very strong points of advantage with it.

But, AMD, we expect them to respond next year. So it's going to be a little bit nip and tuck over the next couple of years. And, as you suggest, it's going to be out a couple of years until we're back to unquestioned leadership in the data center. It takes a bit longer in the data center side, the development cycles are longer. And as our process technologies get better and better, our server roadmap takes a little bit longer to take advantage of that.

 

The post Intel Chief Doesn’t Think China Can Lead In Chipmaking, Talks About Trillion Transistor Chip by Ramish Zafar appeared first on Wccftech.

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George Orwell's estate has approved esteemed author Sandra Newman's feminist retelling of 1984 from the perspective of Julia, the lover of the original novel's primary protagonist Winston Smith. Newman's Julia will hit shelves next year. See you in Room 101!

From The Guardian:

In Julia by Sandra Newman, the incidents of Nineteen Eighty-Four are seen through the woman's eyes.

— Read the rest

I was on my couch imagining the death of my younger self when I suddenly realized that I had done nothing to prepare for my passing. I did not have a will and had not provided for my family in the event of my untimely and unfortunate demise. — Read the rest

U.S chip designer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (AMD) is likely to stick with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for its new products believes investment bank JPMorgan. AMD procures all of its latest central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) from the Taiwanese company, and as TSMC moves to newer technologies, supply chain rumors have suggested that AMD is interested in Korean giant Samsung's chip manufacturing capabilities.

AMD Will Only Outsource Low Volume Chips To Samsung Says Investment Bank

AMD and TSMC's partnership is a widely discussed topic in the semiconductor industry, as the former's chip designs coupled with the latter's advanced manufacturing technologies have enabled AMD to resurge in the processor and GPU market. With no fabrication facilities of its own, AMD is forced to pick out contract chip manufacturers to compete with its larger rival Intel Corporation.

At this front, industry speculation has suggested that AMD and Qualcomm might be considering Samsung for their next generation chips. Right now, AMD's latest products should use TSMC's 5nm process, after Apple's processors took the lead this year. However, for the 3nm process, which is a generational upgrade over 5nm, AMD, according to rumors, might switch to Samsung, purportedly due to Apple and TSMC's strong relationship.

JPMorgan believes that while AMD will source some 3nm products from Samsung, TSMC will still be its primary manufacturing partner. The bank outlined this in a new research note sent out on Monday, which states that not only will AMD use Samsung for its Chromebook processors, but that even as 3nm becomes the dominant market player, the company will stick with TSMC.

TSM | JP Morgan research Overweight analysis gives a lot of clues to the other companies’ potential plans.$TSM $AAPL $QCOM $INTC $NVDA $AMD pic.twitter.com/HY7sIDNcIT

— Marc Moeldner (@MarcTheShark83) December 7, 2021

The research report also outlines that GPU designer NVIDIA Corporation will make the jump to TSMC for its gaming GPUs next year. NVIDIA's current strategy involves the company using TSMC for its data center products and Samsung for its gaming products, and according to JPMorgan, this calculus will change slightly in 2022 as NVIDIA taps the Taiwanese fab for its high end gaming GPUs through the N5 process.

Samsung's optimism for its 3nm process, which comes as the company expects to ship the first products manufactured through the process in H1 2022, has generated interest in its ability to catch up to TSMC, which is the world's largest contract chip manufacturer. JPMorgan believes that TSMC's dominance through the N5 technologies, which sees it command approximately 90% of the market share for the node will continue with N3 (or 3nm), through which it will retain a market share standing between eight to ninety percent.

The bank sticks with its estimate that TSMC can earn up to $100 billion in 2025 through high performance computing (HPC) products. This is a growing segment that is expected to beef up the fab's margins due to increased corporate spending over the next couple of years. A September JPMorgan report had outlined that HPC, when combined with TSMC's strong smartphone market share and other post fabrication technologies will result in the segment heavily contributing to the company's overall revenue.

Finally, the research also outlines that Intel will be TSMC's second largest 3nm customer in 2023, coming second presumably only to Apple. The 3nm process will enter production in the second half of next year and then continue to ramp output. Intel's share in the wafer output pie for 2023 is estimated to be at 20,000 wafers per month (wpm) and TSMC is expected to cross 40,000 wpm only in 2023 according to reports from Taiwan.

The post AMD To Stick With TSMC For Majority Of 3nm Products Says JPMorgan by Ramish Zafar appeared first on Wccftech.

Halo Infinite seems to be poised to become a relatively-rare video game redemption story. When the game’s campaign was first shown off in the summer of 2020, the reaction was scathing, but a bit over a year later press reviews are good (check out Wccftech’s here) and hype levels are high. With the game set to launch, a new article in Bloomberg provides some interesting new information about what went wrong with Halo Infinite and how Microsoft righted the ship.

Early teasers for Halo Infinite seemed to hint at a full open world, and indeed, Bloomberg reports the original plan was a Breath-of-the-Wild-style map, with missions that could be completed in whatever order the player preferred. Development of this version of the game continued for several years, but the Halo Slipspace Engine – still built on the back of technology left behind by Bungie many years earlier – didn’t prove up to the task of a full open-world adventure. Internal strife and departures at developer 343 Industries didn’t help matters.

Reportedly, Halo Infinite entered full-on “crisis mode” in the summer of 2019, and around two-thirds of the game’s planned content was cut in order to streamline the game into more of a “wide linear” design. Even with those cuts, the game was still not shaping up on schedule, and following the disastrous 2020 gameplay reveal, former Halo writer and Microsoft fixer Joseph Staten was brought on board to get things on track. Staten pushed Microsoft to give Halo Infinite as much extra time as possible for technical polishing, and wrote up a list of new features that could help the game, including its expanded system of operating bases and support marines.

Overall, it seems like the extra time and Staten’s leadership have paid off. Still, it’s interesting to think about what the original fully open-world vision of Halo Infinite might have been like.

Halo Infinite launches today on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

The post Halo Infinite Reportedly Began as a Full BOTW-Style Open World, Two-Thirds of Content Cut by Nathan Birch appeared first on Wccftech.

If you’ve ever eaten a cheeseball, you know that what’s on the outside is almost as important as what’s on the inside (cheese). A cheeseball’s outer layer should offer crunch, contrast, and intrigue. You should take one look at that ball of cheese and go, “Yeah, I’d like to dig in to that and see what it’s all about.”

Read more...

Windows 10 and Windows 11 have continued to raise the security bar for drivers running in the kernel. Kernel-mode driver publishers must pass the Hardware Lab Kit (HLK) compatibility tests, malware scanning, and prove their identity through extended validation (EV) certificates. This has significantly reduced the ability for malicious actors to run nefarious kernel code on Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices.

Vulnerable driver attacks

Increasingly, adversaries are leveraging legitimate drivers in the ecosystem and their security vulnerabilities to run malware. Multiple malware attacks, including RobinHood, Uroburos, Derusbi, GrayFish, and Sauron, have leveraged driver vulnerabilities (for example CVE-2008-3431,¹ CVE-2013-3956,² CVE-2009-0824,³ and CVE-2010-1592).⁴

Vulnerable driver attack campaigns target security vulnerabilities in well-intentioned drivers from trusted original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and hardware vendors to gain kernel privileges, modify kernel signing policies, and load their malicious unsigned driver into the kernel. In some cases, these unsigned drivers will disable antivirus products to avoid detection. From there, ransomware, spyware, and other types of malware can be executed.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Windows Security teams work diligently with driver publishers to detect security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious software. We also build automated mechanisms to help block vulnerable versions of drivers and help protect customers against vulnerability exploits based on the ecosystem and partner engagement.

Reporting vulnerabilities: Vulnerable and Malicious Driver Reporting Center

To help protect users against these types of attacks, Microsoft has created the new Vulnerable and Malicious Driver Reporting Center. The Reporting Center is designed to be easy-to-use and requires only the driver file and a few details to open a driver analysis case. Simply provide the driver binary for our analysis, details about the vulnerability or malicious behavior of the driver, and an email address for follow-up.

Figure 1: The Vulnerable and Malicious Driver Reporting Center.

The Reporting Center backend automatically analyzes the potentially vulnerable or malicious driver binary and identifies dangerous behaviors and security vulnerabilities including:

• Drivers with the ability to map arbitrary kernel, physical, or device memory to user mode.
• Drivers with the ability to read or write arbitrary kernel, physical, or device memory, including Port I/O and central processing unit (CPU) registers from user mode.
• Drivers that provide access to storage that bypass Windows access control.

The Reporting Center can scan and analyze Windows drivers built for x86 and x64 architectures. Vulnerable and malicious scanned drivers are flagged for analysis and investigation by Microsoft’s Vulnerable Driver team. This program is currently not eligible for the Microsoft Security Response Center’s Bug Bounty program.

Report a driver for analysis now.

Feedback loop: Vulnerable drivers are automatically blocked in the ecosystem

Our security teams work closely with the driver publisher to help analyze and patch the vulnerability and update in-market affected devices. Once the driver publisher patches the vulnerability, updates to all affected drivers are distributed by the driver publisher, typically through Windows Update (WU). Once affected devices receive the latest security patches, drivers with confirmed security vulnerabilities will be blocked on Windows 10 devices in the ecosystem using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint attack surface reduction (ASR) and Microsoft Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) technologies to protect devices against exploits involving vulnerable drivers to gain access to the kernel.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint attack surface reduction rules

Vulnerable drivers ASR rule

E3 and E5 enterprise customers will gain the benefit of using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint’s ASR rules to block malicious and vulnerable drivers. ASR rules target and block entry points and code behavior used by malware and abused by attackers, preventing attacks from beginning in the first place. The vulnerable signed driver ASR rule prevents an application from writing a signed vulnerable driver to the system.

Vulnerable and malicious drivers are added to the vulnerable driver ASR rule to protect Microsoft Defender for Endpoint users against driver malware campaigns without any user intervention. ASR rules are supported in the following versions:

• Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, version 1709 or later.
• Windows Server 1803 or later.
• Windows Server 2019.

Configuring the vulnerable driver ASR rule

The vulnerable driver ASR rule can be enabled and configured using Intune, mobile device management (MDM), Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, Group Policy, and PowerShell. To enable the vulnerable driver ASR rule by each method, please refer to the Microsoft documentation Use attack surface reduction to prevent malware infection.

ASR rules offer the following four settings:

1. Not configured: Disable the ASR rule.
2. Block: Enable the ASR rule.
3. Audit: Evaluate how the ASR rule would impact your organization if enabled.
4. Warn: Enable the ASR rule but allow the user to bypass the block.

The vulnerable driver ASR GUID is 56a863a9-875e-4185-98a7-b882c64b5ce5. The Intune name is Block abuse of exploited vulnerable signed drivers.

For the full list of ASR rule’s feature differences between E3 and E5 licenses, please refer to the Microsoft documentation Attack surface reduction features across Windows versions.

Windows Defender Application Control

Microsoft driver blocklist

Driver vulnerabilities confirmed by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Windows Security teams, including those reported by our security community through the Vulnerable Driver Reporting Center, are blocked by the Microsoft-supplied policy. This policy is automatically updated and pushed down through WU to Secured-core devices, Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI) enabled, and Windows in 10 S mode devices, by default. These classes of devices use WDAC and HVCI technology to block vulnerable and malicious drivers from running on devices before they are loaded into the kernel. The vulnerable driver blocklist policy is regularly updated and pushed out through WU to help protect against the latest kernel exploits.

To learn how to turn on HVCI in Windows 10 to opt into the automated Microsoft driver blocklist, or to verify if HVCI is enabled, visit Enable virtualization-based protection of code integrity.

Defending your devices against vulnerable and malicious drivers

Creating custom WDAC block policies

Windows users can create and apply custom driver block policies to gain security parity with the Microsoft-supplied driver block policy. Microsoft publishes the block policy and recommends all customers apply kernel block rules to help prevent drivers with vulnerabilities from running on your devices or being exploited. By default, the policy is in audit mode. In this mode, drivers are not blocked from executing but will provide audit logging events. We recommend placing new policies in audit mode before enforcing them to determine the impact and scope of the blocked binaries using the audit logging events. For more information about interpreting log events, please refer to the Microsoft documentation Use audit events to create WDAC policy rules.

WDAC driver block policies are easy to create and deploy. Microsoft supplies both built-in PowerShell Cmdlets and the WDAC Wizard desktop application to create, edit, and merge WDAC policies. Below is an example of the steps to deploy the driver block policy in enforcement mode.

Step 1. Initialize the variables to be used in the script.

$PolicyXML="$env:windir\schemas\CodeIntegrity\ExamplePolicies\RecommendedDriverBlock_Enforced.xml"

 

"$DestinationBinary=$env:windir+\System32\CodeIntegrity\SiPolicy.p7b"

Step 2. Run the following to convert the XML file to binary in an elevated PowerShell host.

ConvertFrom-CIPolicy $PolicyXML $DestinationBinary

Step 3. Deploy and activate the driver control policy using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).

Invoke-CimMethod -Namespace root\Microsoft\Windows\CI -ClassName PS_UpdateAndCompareCIPolicy -MethodName Update -Arguments @{FilePath = $DestinationBinary}

Learn more

For more information about deploying WDAC policies, see the Microsoft documentation Deploy WDAC policies using script.

In addition to kernel-mode block and allow rules, rules can also be created for user-mode software. See our Microsoft recommended block rules for more information. For general information about WDAC technology and policies, please see the Windows Defender Application Control official documentation.

If you are a driver developer, follow the driver security checklist and the development best practices to reduce the risk of security vulnerabilities. You can also open a driver analysis case through the new Vulnerable and Malicious Driver Reporting Center.

If you have questions about the program or suspect a driver is vulnerable or malicious, please contact vulnerabledrivers@microsoft.com.

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.

 

---

¹CVE-2008-3431, CVE Details. 11 October 2018.

²CVE-2013-3956, CVE Details. 22 August 2013.

³CVE-2009-0824, CVE Details. 10 October 2018.

⁴CVE-2010-1592, CVE Details. 29 April 2010.

 

The post Improve kernel security with the new Microsoft Vulnerable and Malicious Driver Reporting Center appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

The CEO of a company named "Better," Vishal Garg, has apologized to the wrong people for the wrong thing, but he is trying.

This is from his posted apology:

I want to apologize for the way I handled the layoffs last week.

— Read the rest

Unlike other mixed reality headsets, Apple is expected to make a relatively lightweight one, according to the latest report. However, it is still expected to be heavier than the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which weighs in at 240 grams, and if you have ever held Apple’s flagship iPhone in your hands, you will immediately notice its heft.

Apple’s AR Headset Could Weigh Between 300-400 Grams, but It May Not Be Felt Since It Will Be a Larger Product

In his latest research note spotted by MacRumors, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple’s AR headset will weigh around 300-400 grams and will be able to seamlessly switch between displaying augmented reality and virtual reality content. This will mean that the product will be versatile in displaying content of different formats, and the low weight means the wearer will not experience fatigue during long hours of use.

Sure, the AR headset will reportedly be heavier than the iPhone 13 Pro Max, but since it will be larger than Apple’s latest flagship, the weight will be distributed more evenly, thereby alleviating the mass when it is attached to your head. Unfortunately, you will need to carry around some extra weight in your pocket because the AR headset may need to be tethered to your iPhone to unlock its full capabilities.

Then again, an AR headset that is said to be this light and tout powerful processing capabilities will be an impressive feat. According to Kuo in a previous prediction, the mixed reality headset is said to feature two chipsets; one will deliver computing performance equal to the M1, while the second one will tackle sensor-related computations to handle 4K VR-related content that will reportedly be projected through a pair of micro-OLED panels sourced from Sony.

Aside from consuming media, Apple’s AR headset may also double as a gaming device, and with the hardware it is predicted to house, it could easily handle that operation. Unfortunately, it is a matter of how much it will cost the consumer. While the pricing rumors are all over the place, it is expected that the AR headset may set you back by $1,000, which is not cheap, but remember that Apple introduced a $1,000 iPhone back in 2017, so the aforementioned price may not look so ridiculous.

We advise our readers to treat this report with a pinch of salt, and we will be back with more updates in the future, so stay tuned.

The post Apple’s First AR Headset Weight Details Shared, New Report States It Will Seamlessly Switch Between Augmented and Virtual Reality by Omar Sohail appeared first on Wccftech.

Get the hiker in your life some great gear this holiday season that they'll actually take out on the trail. We've rounded up a selection of the best gifts for hikers, based on years of personal hiking experience.

Ubuntu, the Debian-based Linux OS, has been around since 2004; ever since, it has spawned some excellent distributions that are, in turn, based on Ubuntu’s source code.

The original Psychonauts became a cult classic in quick order, and a sequel had been craved for years. Eventually, Schafer decided to try crowdfunding again after Broken Age to get a sequel made, though this time with the aim of drumming up interest from a possible publisher to fully fund development, even making a quick VR game called The Rhombus of Ruin meant to tie the first game and sequel together. It wasn’t anything special, mainly just gave supporting villain Dr. Loboto a backstory, and a sort of side attempt to secure needed funding with a lower effort project. Finally, Double Fine was sold to Microsoft, and while that decision is extremely questionable if you know about Schafer’s poor luck with large publishers, it did at least bring Psychonauts 2 over the finish line.

Something changed in the process. The original Psychonauts was a messy game that was loved for its personality and the adventure game touches, like the puzzle heavy levels. Psychonauts 2 is a proper action focused platformer, with tweaked physics and balance, and surprisingly robust combat. The game starts shortly after The Rhombus of Ruin, where the team managed to save Lili’s father, chairman Truman Zanotto, from the clutches of Dr. Loboto and Raz gave Loboto back his moral compass (that detail not mentioned here, strangely). An attempt to trick Loboto into explaining who his boss is fails, as Loboto is extremely intimidated, particularly by the threat of the return of Maligula, the Deluge of Grulovia. She was a water controlling psychic who broke apart the original six founders of the psychonauts and died shortly after, though her followers are obsessed with bringing her back, and Raz may end up in the middle of this fight.

Though he is also dealing with having to join the psychonauts intern program (turns out Ford Cruller can’t officially give someone agent rank) where he struggles to earn the respect of his peers, and further complications with chairman Zanotto entrusting him with putting back together Agent Cruller’s mind to help find a mole in the psychonauts who may be trying to bring back Maligula. What soon follows is a series of revelations Raz may not be ready to discover, especially when they start to cross over with his family’s history, forced to see his childhood heroes in a much more dim light.

Despite only being set a few days since the first game, Psychonauts 2 is a refreshing experience in the modern day. With a heavy trend towards cynicism, the optimistic vibe here is a great change of pace, even with the even darker subject matter. While the first game had some dark edges, Psychonauts 2 deals much more directly with themes of trauma, mental health, addiction, and even straight up mentions of killing and death, and it manages to handle them all with a delicate hand and a good deal of empathy. The tutorial levels outside the first are gone, leaving the majority of the game based around the first game’s second half with the asylum patients, Raz having to help people with their mental hangups and pain. The first level even cleverly handles explaining the concept of consent for younger players. It’s sort of like old school PG family films in terms of tone, where they weren’t afraid to get grim, managing a great balance of fun and thoughtfulness.

This allows for some inventive level design. For example, one part of the game has you putting a brain that has been stuck in a jar for decades in a brainless body, and going in to find said brain is having massive sensory overload, resulting in trippy 70s psychedelic colors through the mind world. It also summons a panic attack, one of many new enemy types. Instead of enemies based around level theme with minimal mechanical differences, enemies are now a pool of various mental concepts, like bad ideas, regrets, and enablers. They all function like their names would imply, enablers being the most clever as they enable other bad habits to make them stronger and faster, and have to be taken out first to weaken their bad buddies. Panic attacks, in particular, are extremely fast and aggressive, twitchy and colorful creatures with disfigured skull faces.

Thankfully, you have the skills to take them on. Raz can now equip four powers at once and easily switch through them with a menu that pops up and closes with no delay. From the first game are psi blasts for shooting at a distance, levitation for platforming (now nerfed a bit so as not to break the platforming challenges), psychokinesis changed to a chargeable AOE, telekinesis that now has some auto-targeting to make it easier to use, and clairvoyance. That last one is mostly for finding extra psitanium (the new currency), but is used for a late game enemy type called bad moods to find the source of said bad mood and defeat them. You also get mental connection to pull in enemies or pull yourself to bigger enemies, plus grapple around stray thoughts to find new areas, a time slow for the expected uses, and projection. It’s the coolest power in concept, summoning a little paper Raz for helping with puzzles, but he has little combat uses beyond distracting an enemy or two. At least he’s voiced by Rikki Simons, giving us a little Invader Zim reunion.

Raz having four power slots tied to buttons is important, as it means he can use his powers all at the same time. Combat is now based around a dedicated dodge button, allowing you to avoid attacks, and using your powers as you move. Blast enemies when dragging them in with mental connection, set enemies on fire to deal with any gooey doubts while throwing back a hammer at a judge with your telekinesis, go blow for blow while setting an enemy in a time slow bubble for extra damage, etc. It’s fun stuff, bordering on character action levels of complexity only off set by how chaotic the fights can get and the lack of time to read certain animations. The lock on can be tricky to latch to the right enemy, but it’s a minor issue.

Puzzles have been cut down for the sake of platforming challenges (even so far as to remove the inventory wheel), made workable by your wide swatch of powers fitting into the collectathon nature of the game, along with extra secrets and paths you can find with them. Figments remain obnoxious (the last banana in Bob’s Bottles is on a palm tree to the left of the pink bottle in the island area, you’re welcome) but are easier to spot with higher resolution textures and slight animation. Otherwise, everything is a delight to track down, including in the multiple areas around Psychonauts HQ, and it all feeds into your rank.

Speaking of which, ranks unlock points you can put into your powers instead of a single power bonus line like before. A nice touch that helps you customize your build to what you find most useful or fun (though that launch jump in levitation is a absolute must). If you go for full completion, you’ll end up getting everything, but that can’t happen until the post game. Also worth mentioning that half a brains are the new way to increase Raz’s health, a new brain on the bar for every two you find in each mind world.

It feels like a huge change of pace for the platforming in a Psychonauts game to feel genuinely good to perform. Where the previous game had issues with having to adjust yourself so much with swinging and pole climbing, not to mention bar to bar swings placed in a way where being in the wrong place on a bar would drop you in a pit, this one never has any real moments of frustration. It feels good to move, and you can even unlock a useful mid-air dive to finish hard jumps by completing one of the handful of side quests. Even the boss battles are massively improved, fairly simple but satisfying to finish and huge spectacles in their own right. No more janky behemoths and gimmicky puzzle fights, now they’re either proper platformer rule of three affairs with complications each phase, or full on skirmishes with attacks coming at you from every angle. The final boss isn’t terribly difficult, but it’s a great test of all your skills, powers, and know how with using them.

You can even buy pins now, which grant extra bonuses, able to equip three at a time. This is where you can get pick up magnetism, along with stuff like extra psi blast ricochet with the right upgrade, larger time slow bubbles, and most importantly, the Bobby Zilch dance on idle and the ability to pet animals with your telekinesis. Also, be sure to visit Otto Mentalis, the gadgeteer of the psychonauts, to get both photo mode and a thought tuner that reveals more stray thoughts in the overworlds. If you’re going for a completionist run, it can take up to thirty hours easily, and it’s a great time, and you will need that thought tuner.

Enough good things can’t be said about Schafer’s script either. Maligula might go down as one of his best villains in his entire catalog, and the new characters are all diverse and fun to hang around, even managing to shave down the first game’s tendency towards ableist humor. Raz’s fellow interns are all fun to be around, if underused, distinct and able to actually take Raz out of his comfort zone (unlike that clown Bobby Zilch). His full family are a bunch of goofballs with realistic interactions with the little nerd, and the characters you deal with in the last stretch are all wonderfully sympathetic and complex in their own right. There’s even a canonical gay couple here, one of them voiced by Jack Black, and their depiction is beautiful in how human it is.

The game’s art style also transitions to HD with out a hitch. Everything looks familiar but off, as expected, while managing to keep every person looking expressive but not off putting, no matter how weird they get. Even Loboto manages to show some surprising facial range, which you wouldn’t expect from that character design. It’s also extremely necessary for the game’s last act dark turns, as it helps keep the tone balanced. Without going into detail, Maligula isn’t called the Deluge of Grulovia for nothing. Peter McConnell also returns to do the score and it’s every bit as goofy and deranged as before.

Psychonauts 2 isn’t just a fantastic sequel, it’s Double Fine’s shining jewel, a testament to their creative spirit and showing how much they’ve learned as developers in the sheer level of polish on display, down to the large bits of dialog and flavor text to uncover. It’s worth considering as one of the classics of the 3D platformer canon, a game that manages to not only be charming, hilarious, and even thought provoking, but a good time in its own right on just a base play level. The wait was more than worth it, and if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get a third, but ending here would be satisfying.

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Psychonauts 2 was first posted on December 8, 2021 at 11:33 am.
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The list of NVIDIA DLSS supported games and applications has now grown to be over 140 strong with the latest additions of Horizon Zero Dawn, Icarus, Chorus, and Lemnis Gate.

Let's start with Guerrilla's Horizon Zero Dawn. Today, with Patch 1.11, the Dutch developer unexpectedly added both NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR support to the open world action roleplaying game. According to NVIDIA, DLSS can improve performance in Horizon Zero Dawn by up to 50%.

Here's a video from YouTuber Bang4BuckPC Gamer, who promptly compared native, DLSS, and FSR in Guerrilla's title.

Icarus, the sci-fi survival game from Dean Hall's RocketWerkz, launched earlier this week on Steam Early Access with support for NVIDIA DLSS. The game is also the first to utilize RTX Global Illumination Infinite Scrolling Volumes, as we previously covered.

Chorus, the new single player space combat game from Deep Silver Fishlabs, also supports both ray traced reflections and NVIDIA DLSS, with the latter improving frame rates by up to 45% according to NVIDIA. In Wccftech's review of the game, Chorus was rated 6 out of 10 by Chris Wray.

Chorus is undoubtedly ambitious, with Fishlabs undeniably putting in a lot of effort into their first full title. Aesthetically, there's a lot to praise the game for, with a photo mode that genuinely feels useful to capture the visual splendour of space and the action of combat. Combat here is also fun, responsive, and generally great to play, even if it can feel overused due to a significant lack of variety in the rest of the game. Add this lack of variety to an ambitious story, but poorly developed, and you get Chorus. For every positive, there is an undeniable negative. Is it worth playing? I would say yes, but how much mileage you get out of it will be very subjective.

Last but not least, NVIDIA revealed today that Lemnis Gate, the unique turn-based combat strategy FPS, will get NVIDIA DLSS support on December 14th. Performance improvements should be huge in this title, with NVIDIA promising up to 2X frame rates.

In Wccftech's review of the game, Lemnis Gate got a 7.5 out of 10 score from Nathan Birch.

Lemnis Gate is a game at odds with itself. Its well-executed time loop mechanics could potentially appeal beyond the usual hardcore shooter crowd, but the game’s matchmaking shortcomings and lack of single-player content will keep that wider audience at arm’s length. Lemnis Gate is fun, but it feels like a concept that needed more resources to fully realize its promise. That said, if you are a dedicated shooter fan looking for something a little different, you may find yourself doing the time warp again (and again and again).

The post NVIDIA DLSS Now Supported in 140+ Titles with the Additions to Chorus, Lemnis Gate, Icarus, and Horizon Zero Dawn by Alessio Palumbo appeared first on Wccftech.

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The new Disney+ Star Wars series, "The Book of Boba Fett," is almost here, and the folks at Disney have given us another tiny taste of what's to come with a new trailer called "The Return." The trailer highlights the return of former bounty hunter Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) to the city of Mos Eisley, once run by the notorious Jabba the Hutt. While his travels to Tatooine almost killed the younger Fett in "Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi," he is clearly now ready to rule the roost and become the godfather of the desert planet's organized crime. 

Guess Who's Back?

"Left for dead, on the sands of Tatooine, I am Boba Fett."

Morrison's gravelly voice speak the only words in the trailer, a simple statement on the legacy of Boba Fett in the original trilogy. Fett has not only returned to the "Star Wars" universe, but he has returned to the very place where his story almost came to an end. Joined by Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), he plans on taking over the organized crime on Tatooine after the power vacuum left by Jabba's death at the hands of Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher). There are some great shots of familiar locales, including the entrance to Jabba's palace, the Hutt's former throne, and even the trap door that leads to the rancor pit. 

All of this is more confirmation that "The Book of Boba Fett" will be the first "Star Wars" crime story, and that rules. The gritty, grimy setting of Tatooine's underworld is one that didn't get quite enough exploration in the "Star Wars" movies, despite being some of the most fun locations. Whether it's Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's moisture farm, the Jawa sandcrawler, the Mos Eisley cantina, Mos Espa's pod-racetrack, Jabba's palace, or just the expansive sandy plain, Tatooine is instantly recognizable to "Star Wars" fans. Returning to the desert planet not only gives the storytellers a chance to expand the canon, but to drop in tons of delicious Easter eggs. 

Fett's Not Impressed With The Rancor

The moment this "Star Wars" fan is most excited about is that brief moment where Fett and Shand move Jabba's throne forward to peer into the rancor pit. They don't look particularly impressed, which leads me to believe the corpse of the dearly departed rancor is still down there, trapped beneath the giant gate. That probably doesn't smell too great, even if it's been a few decades.

Just the idea of returning to Jabba's palace has me over-the-moons excited. "The Book of Boba Fett" can't get here soon enough, but thankfully I don't have to wait long. "The Book of Boba Fett" will premiere exclusively streaming on Disney+ on December 29, 2021. 

Read this next: Star Wars Movie Villains Ranked Least To Most Powerful

The post The Book of Boba Fett Trailer: A Crime Lord is Born appeared first on /Film.

When it comes to potlucks, it’s hard to beat a church supper, particularly if you’re in the South or Midwest. Casseroles, fried foods of all kinds, fruity whipped salads, and entire tables devoted to desserts—everyone brings their A game, and everyone goes home full and happy.

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Back when erstwhile PlayStation exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn launched on PC last year, it was a bit of a lucky dip whether you got a smooth-running port or a constantly crashing mess. These days, though, the PC version is in far better shape, and has just today received a major upgrade in the form of support for Nvidia DLSS (Deep Learning Super-Sampling) and AMD FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution).

Read more

Pfizer and BioNTech said initial lab studies show a third dose of their Covid-19 vaccine neutralizes the omicron variant, results that will accelerate booster shot drives around the world. From a report: A booster with the current version of the vaccine increased antibodies 25-fold, providing a similar level as observed after two doses against the original virus and other variants, the companies said Wednesday. Blood plasma from people immunized with two doses of the vaccine has neutralizing antibody levels more than 25-fold less versus omicron than against the original strain of the virus, the companies said. "It's clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with a third dose," Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said in a statement. The initial data show a third dose could offer still offer enough protection from disease, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tech-driven changes are coming fast and furiously to airports, including advancements in biometrics that verify identity and shorten security procedures for those passengers who opt into the programs. From a report: If it's been a year or more since you traveled, particularly internationally, you may notice something different at airports in the United States: More steps -- from checking a bag to clearing customs -- are being automated using biometrics. Biometrics are unique individual traits, such as fingerprints, that can be used to automate and verify identity. They promise both more security and efficiency in moving travelers through an airport where, at steps from check-in to boarding, passengers are normally required to show government-issued photo identification. In the travel hiatus caused by the pandemic, many airports, airlines, tech companies and government agencies like the Transportation Security Administration and United States Customs and Border Protection continued to invest in biometric advancements. The need for social distancing and contactless interactions only added to the urgency. "The technologies have gotten much more sophisticated and the accuracy rate much higher," said Robert Tappan, the managing director for the trade group International Biometrics + Identity Association, who called the impetus to ease crowds and reduce contact through these instruments "COVID-accelerated." Many of the latest biometric developments use facial recognition, which the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently found is at least 99.5 percent accurate, rather than iris-scanning or fingerprints. "Iris-scanning has been touted as the most foolproof," said Sherry Stein, the head of technology in the Americas for SITA, a Switzerland-based biometrics tech company. "For biometrics to work, you have to be able to match to a known trusted source of data because you're trying to compare it to a record on file. The face is the easiest because all the documents we use that prove your identity -- driver's licenses, passports etc. -- rely on face." Shortly after 9/11, Congress mandated an entry and exit system using biometric technology to secure U.S. borders. Some travelers have expressed concerns about privacy, and while companies and agencies using the technology say they do not retain the images, the systems largely rely on willing travelers who agree to their use.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Back to the Future" is one of the greatest movies of all time. Since its release in 1985, the seminal sci-fi comedy from Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale has spawned two equally beloved sequels (even though the third one still doesn't get enough love), an animated series, a hit West End musical, volumes of comic books, one of the greatest theme park attractions of all time (RIP), and legions of fans that have cherished the tale of Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty McFly for decades to the point of introducing it to their children and their children's children.

If you're an avid /Film reader, there's probably a very good chance that you are well acquainted with "Back to the Future" already. Although, it never hurts to revisit an old favorite from time to time. That's why we're heading back to 1955 with the DeLorean to take another look at its ending.

However, in case you haven't seen this enduring pop culture touchstone, now would be a good time to open a new window in your phone or computer, find it on Amazon Prime, Peacock, Vudu, or Google Play, and come back when the credits roll. Or, if you'd rather just crank this baby up to 88 miles per hour and keep reading, get ready for some serious sh*t. How's that for a spoiler warning?

Rhythmic Ceremonial Ritual

In "Back to the Future," 17-year-old Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox) is accidentally sent back in time after his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown (portrayed by the incomparable Christopher Lloyd) is gunned down by terrorists for stealing their plutonium to power his time-traveling DeLorean. After seeking the help of the younger Doc, Marty finds himself stuck in 1955 for a week until the famous Hill Valley Lightning Storm, which can provide a lightning bolt to produce the 1.21 gigawatts of power needed to jumpstart the time machine and send him back to the future.

This would be completely manageable if Marty hadn't accidentally stopped his parents from meeting and falling in love on his way to Doc's house. Now, McFly must play matchmaker with his teenaged parents so he doesn't accidentally erase himself and his siblings from the timeline. In order to do this, he has to make sure that his dad George McFly (who is a budding sci-fi writer and apparently a peeping tom) and his mom Lorraine Baines (who has fallen in love with her son from the future after her dad hit him with the car instead of her future husband) get together at the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance for their first kiss.

My Density Has Brought Me To You

With Marty accidentally stealing the affections of Lorraine, he comes up with a plan for George to win her over. First, he sneaks into George's room one night while dressed in a hazmat suit to scare his father into thinking that an alien wants him to romantically pursue Lorraine. Then, on the night of the dance, George will approach Marty's car and yank him off of Lorraine because he's being extremely inappropriate with her. Finally, George and Lorraine will dance in the gym and share their first kiss, launching them into their happily ever after. Well, some kind of "ever after" that might not be super happy, but it involves Marty still being alive in 1985.

All of this happens, but not in the way that Marty and George originally planned out. Instead of Marty being in the car, George finds bully Biff Tannen in the car with Lorraine instead of Marty. Seeing that she needs help, the young Daddy-O played by Crispin Glover overcomes his fear of Biff and punches him right in the face. With his newfound confidence, George also dispatches another jerk on the dance floor before passionately kissing Lorraine while Marty looks on from the stage as he plays with the band.

In the meantime, Doc Brown prepares the DeLorean and the clock tower to harness the energy from the lightning bolt to power the Flux Capacitor. Once things are wrapped up at the high school, Marty makes it to the town square with just enough time to successfully complete the experiment and return to 1985. (Seriously, this is one of the most thrilling scenes in all of cinematic history. Check it out in its entirety if you've never seen it because this brief paragraph and YouTube clips don't do it justice.)

The Power Of Love

Back in 1985, Marty finds that things have changed for the better. Not only did Doc Brown wear a life-saving bulletproof vest on the night that Marty travels back in time (warned by Marty in a letter that he at first refused to open), but no cars are totaled by Biff, and no weekend at the lake is ruined. All is well at the McFly house. Because George stood up to Biff in 1955, he used the confidence he gained from that experience and the encouraging words of Marty to pursue his dream of writing a science-fiction novel. It's not really explained what else George and Lorraine did in the 30 years since the dance to earn such a glow-up in their house and lives from the beginning of the movie, but the important thing is that they're happy. George is no longer a submissive coward succumbing to Biff's every demand. Lorraine isn't a pessimistic alcoholic. Marty's brother Dave has a higher paying job at an office instead of a fast food joint. Marty's sister Linda has a thriving social life and a mother that supports her and Marty's blossoming romances. And all of these changes can be traced back to one sentence: "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything." Well, that sentence and Marty unintentionally changing the past in 1955.

But when you really think about it, that sentence is the center of "Back to the Future," both the first movie and the trilogy as a whole. Originally uttered by Doc Brown, Marty's girlfriend Jennifer reminds him of the phrase when he's feeling down about sending his band's demo tape to a record company after they were rejected by Huey Lewis at the Battle of the Bands. Then Marty brings it up when George is sharing his insecurities about anyone reading his stories. There's even a full circle moment of Marty sharing the mantra with 1955 Doc when he doubts that he discovered time travel in the future. 

At the very core of these movies is the act of building each other up and encouraging your loved ones to live their best lives. It's such a wholesome message that endures for audiences today and beyond. Whether it's writing science-fiction, playing music, or creating time machines, you can do it if you put your mind to it. And if you're worried about what the future holds for you and your dreams, it's never too late to change things up. Just remember what Doc Brown says in "Back to the Future Part III," "Your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one."

Read this next: 20 Movies About Time Travel Ranked Worst To Best

The post Back to the Future Ending Explained: If You Put Your Mind to It, You Can Accomplish Anything appeared first on /Film.

Odd and terrible things can happen on movie sets, from animals wandering into a shot to stunts going horribly wrong. One of the wildest stories we've heard happened decades ago on an iconic action film.

Blake Brown, professor of history at St. Mary's in Canada, recently tweeted about a gun heist on the set of the 1982 Sylvester Stallone film "First Blood." It's a pretty crazy story that was picked up by Vancouver media at the time and here's a taste:

"During the filming of First Blood in Vancouver in 1982, thieves stole a small aresenal [sic] used in the movie. The press reported that the stolen guns included two M-60 machine guns, fourteen M-16s, and eleven AR-15 semi-automatic rifles."

"First Blood" was directed by Ted Kotcheff and co-written by Stallone. He starred as Vietnam vet John Rambo, a character which would go on to appear in four other movies, including "Rambo: First Blood Part II," "Rambo III," "Rambo," and "Rambo 5: Last Blood." It even inspired an animated series, comics, video games, and a Bollywood remake. "First Blood" (which is also called "Rambo: First Blood") also starred Richard Crenna and Brian Dennehy.

Heavy Guns

Blake included a screenshot of a newspaper clipping from when this robbery happened. 

It says:

Heist netted heavy guns

Two light machine-guns have been added to the list of weapons stolen from the props truck on a movie set in this Vancouver suburb during the weekend.

Added to the list of weapons stolen from a locked and guarded truck at the First Blood Productions location in a forested area are two 7.62-calibre M-60 machine-guns.

Live ammunition

The machine-guns are belt-fed weapons mounted on tripods with a potential effective range of 1,000 meters when metal plugs in their barrels are removed to allow live ammunition to be fired at the rate of 500-650 rounds a minute

Also reported missing are: 14 automatic M-16 carbines, 11 semi-automatic rifles, two Belgian-weapons could be easily converted to fire live ammunition.

"At this point it's sketchy as to what happened and how the thieves got access to the weapons," said Elias.

The theft was discovered by production staff at 9 a.m. Saturday. The weapons were being used as props for a $12 million movie called First Blood which will star Sylvester Stallone, Kirk Douglas, Richard Crenna and Brian Dennehy.

Most Of The Guns Were Recovered At Least

In the thread, Blake mentions that some of the guns were recovered and that three men faced charges:

"Three men, all members of the Canadian militia, were later charged with theft of the guns from the set of First Blood. By late 1984, authorities had recovered 15 of the 47 stolen guns, including the two M-60 machine guns."

The article clip attached to the second tweet says:

Three in court on weapons charges

Three Lower Mainland men — all members of the Canadian militia — appeared in North Vancouver provincial court Thursday, charged with the theft of weapons from the movie set of First Blood.

Richard Edward Gallant, 26, of 1081210 Falcon, Coquitlam, is charged with possession of stolen property and possession of a restricted weapon.

He was remanded in custody until today when he was to appear in court again.

Doublas Burgess, 20, of 4444 Gladstone, Vancouver, is charged with possession of stolen property and possession of a prohibited weapon.

He was released on bail of $1,000.

John Krahn, 29, of 3527 Tanner, Vancouver, is charged with possession of stolen property.

He was released without bail.

All three are members of the B.C. Regiment, said a police spokesman.

The weapons were stolen from the movie set of First Blood, starring Sylvester Stallone, during filming near Cleveland Dam on Jan. 23, 1982.

Police recovered 15 of 47 weapons, including two M-60 heavy machine-guns.

Also recovered were 12-gauge pump shotguns, M-16 U.S. military assault rifles, and AR-15 rifles, civilian versions of the M-16.

When the weapons were stolen, a Los Angeles gun expert said the weapons could be easily converted from firing blanks to live ammunition by removing a plug with a crescent wrench.

All three have been ordered to appear in court Jan. 4.

The Guns Were Supposed To Fire Blanks

Of course, the guns were not supposed to be firing anything other than blanks. However, as an AFI catalogue article on the film states:

"Superintendent Roy Byrne, investigating for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, noted that it would be fairly easy to make the stolen weapons fully operational."

After the incident, the set was reportedly put under heavy guard. Considering some of the tragic incidents that have occurred on film sets with blank-firing guns (the shootings on the sets of "Rust" and "The Crow" immediately come to mind), this is a perfect example of being better safe than sorry. After all, there were a number of issues on the set already, including some injuries sustained by Sylvester Stallone.

It's a fascinating thing to learn about, especially because film reporting wasn't as comprehensive (read: exhaustive) as it is these days with social media. Can you imagine the tweets about the Rambo gun heist if this had happened today?

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

The post The Massive Gun Heist That Hit the Set of Rambo: First Blood appeared first on /Film.

From the time they both broke into "Saturday Night Live" in 1995, writer/director Adam McKay and his writer/star cohort Will Ferrell had one of those Kurt and Goldie-type partnerships that endured over nearly 25 years, five major movies, and four presidencies. Sadly the "Anchorman" pair began to drift apart once McKay's career shifted into less comedic, more dramatic territory like "The Big Short," "Vice," and his latest "Don't Look Up," leading to their split in 2019. 

But it wasn't just the gradual estrangement from Ferrell that led to McKay abandoning the comedy genre he mined so successfully in films like "The Other Guys" and "Step Brothers." According to a new interview in The Hollywood Reporter, McKay says it was a more overall cultural erosion that made his brand of broad satires feel suddenly out-of-touch: 

"More and more, I started realizing the world was shifting away from the golden age of comedy we had from the late 1990s through the 2000s. The themes of those comedies were about sort of empty-suit white guys, and that's what Will and I riffed on. That's what really made us laugh. But then you started to see the ravages of that culture, and it wasn't so funny anymore. Big, powerful tectonic stuff started to happen: the financial collapse, the rise of the extreme right wing, the climate crisis and the soaring income inequality. It became almost bizarre to do those old-style comedies and didn't make sense at that point. I was just very excited to go at things from a bunch of different directions, and, God bless Will Ferrell, he just didn't have that same appetite that I had. Will's the greatest, most laid-back guy. And he's just like, 'Well, I like producing a couple things, but I don't know if I want to do 20 things.'"

All Bro With Nothin' To Show

As if the actual George W. Bush quote in the opening of 2008's "Step Brothers" wasn't enough of a tip-off, that now-classic comedy in which Ferrell and John C. Reilly play two entitled middle-aged dolts was (while extremely funny) very much a broadside against the burgeoning "bro" culture that eventually devolved into the toxic incel, QAnon and men's rights movement folks who became the target audience of right-wing American politicians. Looking back on "Step Brothers" now might seem a bit like watching Charlie Chaplin's 1940 comedy "The Great Dictator" anytime after 1946 when the full weight of WWII atrocities muted its intended humor. 

So it's understandable that McKay sought a sea change in his output, all around the same time that his one-time producing partner Judd Apatow recognized that the protagonists in films like "Funny People" and "This is 40" were becoming un-relatable, and thus shifted to telling younger comedians' (Amy Schumer, Pete Davidson) stories. Every artist, even those that dwell in that most populist of genres — the comedy — have the right to reinvent themselves so their output doesn't become calcified. If you think that McKay's newer, more political work has become problematically polemic you might be right, but someone of his talent deserves the chance to branch out rather than just grinding out a third, fourth, and fifth "Anchorman" movie. 

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