Ronald.phillips

It’s been a while since a site update – since the shenanigans that happened last week, I suppose an update is deserved. However, I’ve been extremely busy trying to catch-up on putting out content, so unfortunately, this post didn’t make it out before the end of the weekend.

A Downtime Out of Nowhere

On February 19, 2023 at 02:27 AM AEDT, I received a ping from my uptime monitor that told me the site was down. As I was in bed, and given the time, I had assumed it was ordinary server maintenance that sometimes occurs on such hosting services and went back to sleep.

Waking up at 6am that Sunday, I noticed the site was still down. Pinging the server was fine, but I couldn’t get any response from the HTTP/HTTPS server at all – all it did was time out. I tried the host’s own webpage … no dice. Uh oh. Usually the host keeps their own site up in preference to their customers – their own site is important as that’s their shopfront and also their ticketing system. But now that it’s down, we’re all in the dark.

Over the next hour, I scoured around and managed to find the host’s personal mobile number online – the only contact I could find. I gave that a ring at about 6:50am and no answer. I waited another 10 minutes and gave them another ring at 7am – an obviously groggy individual answered the line and I told them simply – “Everything’s down and timing out. Even your own site. Ticketing is down.” They asked for my name and number to get back to me and I said simply – “This is big, no need to contact me back specifically as I’ll be busy throughout the day – fix it for everyone and that will make everyone happy.”

By now, it’s 11am and I notice the site still isn’t up. Surely something could have been done about most issues within this timeframe, so something must have gone really wrong. Out of concern and a desire to learn an ETA on restoration, I phone up again to see what’s going on. I was told that I was the first to report the outage and that their own monitoring did not spot it because the server still responded to pings. The cause was a failed SSD RAID array that could not be repaired and they decided to just cut their losses and start fresh with a hardware replacement, reload of operating system and restore of backups from yesterday (to avoid any potential backup corruption). But to do this, they had to first contact their “multinational” upstream custom VPS provider to have someone at the Sydney datacentre work on their computer, with a full post-mortem to come later. I was assured that once the reload finishes, we should be back up.

At this point I felt rather sorry for the bloke that I phoned up – it’s a Sunday morning and he surely didn’t need this stress. Devices fail, sometimes out-of-the-blue. I’ve experienced a SSD RAID10 go down pretty much without warning, so it’s not like it’s impossible. But then again, this is the life of a sysadmin and service provider.

But things were not so rosy, as by the evening at about 5pm, their own front page came back up but my site was still down. Trying to get into cPanel was fruitless, and their own CRM was down too since ioncube PHP Loader was somehow broken. It seems the reload had not gone to plan, but they were trying.

By now, it was Monday and I was busy at work – no time to hassle the staff! I noticed that their own site had gone down again, suggesting to me that they were having another shot at the problem. Without fanfare, full service appeared to be back based on monitoring at 12:42:21 PM AEDT on 20 February 2023 but with minor instability for a few hours afterward. This time, my site came up before theirs! Total downtime was 1 day and 10 hours, instantly wiping out the hosts claimed “99.9% uptime guarantee”. Thankfully for them, this “guarantee” that was advertised was not backed up by any SLA and is not codified in their terms, or else I’d be knocking at their doors for some compensation.

I did phone them up later just to follow-up on a few things and they revealed to me that their upstream VPS provider provided a supported OS image that was somehow broken and resulted in an installation that couldn’t be configured to their needs. Even getting their staff involved for over six hours of troubleshooting got them nowhere and instead, the provider gave them another image which thankfully worked. That misadventure cost a whole day – but a full block-backup was not a silver bullet either.

Unfortunately, there was no broader communications from the company more broadly about what happened to their customers – I was only able to glean such valuable insight thanks to phoning up the personal mobile of someone obviously very senior in the company. In the process, we also managed to deduce another issue – Telstra’s routing to the server was very sub-optimal, bouncing my traffic from Sydney to Singapore, to France, to London, to USA, to Tokyo, then back to Sydney for a 400+ms RTT.

This has been flagged for resolution and the route has now been “pruned” a little – Sydney to Singapore, to Tokyo then back to Sydney for about 130ms RTT. It seems it’s all because Telstra refuses to peer with providers connected to the hosting service used. Other providers (Optus, TPG/Vodafone, AARnet) that I’ve tested either peer directly or go over an interexchange,making them very fast (sub-20ms RTT). In the meantime, some minor configuration differences seem to exist in this new set-up – I guess I’ll need to lodge a ticket to get them to fix that.

In the end, it was the record longest downtime in the history of the site since it has been online. I’m not proud of it, but there wasn’t much I could do about it without throwing money at another host and frantically uploading all the data from a backup and trying to reconfigure all my services. I was prepared to do it if it seemed they wouldn’t be back anytime soon. But it just underscores the importance of having a disaster recovery plan (DRP) and making sure it works … and that includes users keeping their own private backups even when a host has daily backups. I’m glad they were able to bring me back online losing only a day of drafts (which really wasn’t anything major). Having to suddenly upload a 6GB chunk to restore my site while living on LTE would be a bit more of an inconvenience …

It has me wondering whether my experience was somehow prophetic – perhaps SSD reliability is going downhill, even in the enterprise space.

You may see that I’ve not named the host in question. You may be able to deduce it in previous postings, but I’ve decided not to name them because I felt that they did a decent job all things considered for the price I paid and I’m afraid the host may be sensitive to such “reviews” – I’ve seen other sites get “evicted” from their hosts for daring to criticise. Needless to say, I’ll be happy to stick with these guys based on their experience and willingness to discuss the internals with me as they are a smaller company. Such transparency would be hard to obtain from a larger host.

Hard Disk Corner & Optical Disc Corner Updates

It’s been a while, so I thought that as part of some data migration and refreshing, I would refresh the Hard Disk Corner with some new drives. It’s probably not something that would enthrall everyone, but I bought another 27 drives to the collection as part of a 2023 refresh. This was a bit of a marathon effort to shuffle data and test – they were done one-by-one just in case multiple drive operation caused interference in the form of vibration or bus contention.

• Fujitsu MHV2120BH PL (2.5″ 120GB 2006)
• Hitachi HDP725025GLA380 Deskstar (3.5″ 250GB 2009)
• Hitachi HDS5C3030BLE630 / Toshiba DT01ABA300 (3.5″ 3TB 2012)
• Hitachi HDS723030BLE640 / Toshiba DT01ACA300 (3.5″ 3TB 2012)
• Samsung HD204UI SpinPoint F4EG (3.5″ 2TB 2010)
• Samsung HD502IJ SpinPoint F1 (3.5″ 500GB 2009)
• Samsung MP0804H Spinpoint M40 (2.5″ 80GB 2005)
• Seagate ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB Momentus (2.5″ 1TB 2014)
• Seagate ST2000DL003-9VT166 Barracuda Green (3.5″ 2TB 2011)
• Seagate ST32000542AS Barracuda LP (3.5″ 2TB 2011)
• Seagate ST380011A Barracuda 7200.7 (3.5″ 80GB 2004)
• Seagate ST4000DM000-1F2168 Barracuda LP (3.5″ 4TB 2014)
• Seagate ST5000DM000-1FK178 Desktop HDD (3.5″ 5TB 2015)
• Seagate ST500DM002-1BD142 Barracuda (3.5″ 500GB 2015)
• Seagate ST500LM021-1KJ152 Laptop Thin HDD (2.5″ 500GB 2017)
• Seagate ST9160821AS Momentus 5400.3 (2.5″ 160GB 2007)
• Seagate ST9200420AS Momentus 7200.2 (2.5″ 200GB 2009)
• WD WD10EACS-00ZJB0 Caviar SE16 GreenPower (3.5″ 1TB 2007)
• WD WD10EURX-63UY4Y0 GreenPower AV (3.5″ 1TB 2015)
• WD WD2002FAEX-007BA0 Caviar Black (3.5″ 2TB 2013)
• WD WD20EARX-00PASB0 Caviar Green (3.5″ 2TB 2012)
• WD WD30EZRX-00MMMB0 Caviar Green (3.5″ 3TB 2011)
• WD WD40EZRX-00SPEB0 Green (3.5″ 4TB 2014)
• WD WD5000AACS-00ZUB0 Caviar GP GreenPower (3.5″ 500GB 2008)
• WD WD5000AAKX-603CA0 Caviar Blue (3.5″ 500GB 2011)
• WD WD60EZRX-00MVLB1 Green (3.5″ 6TB 2015)
• WD WD7500BPVT-80HXZT3 Scorpio Blue (2.5″ 750GB 2012)

Of course, there are more drives that I still own but have not been able to test, but I am quite surprised just how many drives I’ve handled in my relatively “recent” past, considering I don’t work for a computer shop and don’t build computers all the time. That being said … I have really laid off buying hard drives. The last purchase was back in 2019 when I bought a 10TB Western Digital Elements external drive. Perhaps my drive appetite will thin out.

I’ve also had a chance encounter with two additions to the Optical Disc Corner in the form of two Imation DVD retail discs that I salvaged from being disposed of. No big deal by comparison to the hard disk updates but an update nonetheless.

Conclusion

There’s always lots of content to put up … but the time needed is enormous. The downtime really put a roadblock up last week, so now I’m playing catch-up, but things should well get back to normal as soon as I have the time. In the interim, work has been absurdly busy and there are reviews and tests happening in the background. I’m also part of a “Save the Bees” design challenge over at element14 which will take some more time away from me. As usual, I’ll be posting whenever I can, but chances are that it will be erratic.

In the meantime, sorry for the downtime, but unexpected things just happen and this was definitely not foreseen. It’s not something to be happy or proud about, but I’m glad that I didn’t have to do anything to have it come back up. I do feel a bit sorry for the crew having been given this stress on a Sunday morning … but I suppose that’s also part of the sysadmin life.

I am super excited to be releasing Jedi Knight Remastered 3.0! This versions major change gives us the OpenJKDF2 as the new backbone of the mod! This unlike the JKGFXMOD, OpenJKDF2 recreates the Jedi Knight Engine into C++ making possible to have Ultra Wide support, in game configuration options and eliminates the Stuttering problems we had with the JKGFXMOD all together! Since it recreates the engine we are now no longer tied to the limitations of the original game Engine!

The Biden administration today issued its vision for beefing up the nation’s collective cybersecurity posture, including calls for legislation establishing liability for software products and services that are sold with little regard for security. The White House’s new national cybersecurity strategy also envisions a more active role by cloud providers and the U.S. military in disrupting cybercriminal infrastructure, and it names China as the single biggest cyber threat to U.S. interests.

The strategy says the White House will work with Congress and the private sector to develop legislation that would prevent companies from disavowing responsibility for the security of their software products or services.

Coupled with this stick would be a carrot: An as-yet-undefined “safe harbor framework” that would lay out what these companies could do to demonstrate that they are making cybersecurity a central concern of their design and operations.

“Any such legislation should prevent manufacturers and software publishers with market power from fully disclaiming liability by contract, and establish higher standards of care for software in specific high-risk scenarios,” the strategy explains. “To begin to shape standards of care for secure software development, the Administration will drive the development of an adaptable safe harbor framework to shield from liability companies that securely develop and maintain their software products and services.”

Brian Fox, chief technology officer and founder of the software supply chain security firm Sonatype, called the software liability push a landmark moment for the industry.

“Market forces are leading to a race to the bottom in certain industries, while contract law allows software vendors of all kinds to shield themselves from liability,” Fox said. “Regulations for other industries went through a similar transformation, and we saw a positive result — there’s now an expectation of appropriate due care, and accountability for those who fail to comply. Establishing the concept of safe harbors allows the industry to mature incrementally, leveling up security best practices in order to retain a liability shield, versus calling for sweeping reform and unrealistic outcomes as previous regulatory attempts have.”

THE MOST ACTIVE, PERSISTENT THREAT

In 2012 (approximately three national cyber strategies ago), then director of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) Keith Alexander made headlines when he remarked that years of successful cyber espionage campaigns from Chinese state-sponsored hackers represented “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.”

The document released today says the People’s Republic of China (PRC) “now presents the broadest, most active, and most persistent threat to both government and private sector networks,” and says China is “the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do so.”

Many of the U.S. government’s efforts to restrain China’s technology prowess involve ongoing initiatives like the CHIPS Act, a new law signed by President Biden last year that sets aside more than $50 billion to expand U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing and research and to make the U.S. less dependent on foreign suppliers; the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative; and the National Strategy to Secure 5G.

As the maker of most consumer gizmos with a computer chip inside, China is also the source of an incredible number of low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are not only poorly secured, but are probably more accurately described as insecure by design.

The Biden administration said it would continue its previously announced plans to develop a system of labeling that could be applied to various IoT products and give consumers some idea of how secure the products may be. But it remains unclear how those labels might apply to products made by companies outside of the United States.

FIGHTING BADNESS IN THE CLOUD

One could convincingly make the case that the world has witnessed yet another historic transfer of wealth and trade secrets over the past decade — in the form of ransomware and data ransom attacks by Russia-based cybercriminal syndicates, as well as Russian intelligence agency operations like the U.S. government-wide Solar Winds compromise.

On the ransomware front, the White House strategy seems to focus heavily on building the capability to disrupt the digital infrastructure used by adversaries that are threatening vital U.S. cyber interests. The document points to the 2021 takedown of the Emotet botnet — a cybercrime machine that was heavily used by multiple Russian ransomware groups — as a model for this activity, but says those disruptive operations need to happen faster and more often.

To that end, the Biden administration says it will expand the capacity of the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF), the primary federal agency for coordinating cyber threat investigations across law enforcement agencies, the intelligence community, and the Department of Defense.

“To increase the volume and speed of these integrated disruption campaigns, the Federal Government must further develop technological and organizational platforms that enable continuous, coordinated operations,” the strategy observes. “The NCIJTF will expand its capacity to coordinate takedown and disruption campaigns with greater speed, scale, and frequency. Similarly, DoD and the Intelligence Community are committed to bringing to bear their full range of complementary authorities to disruption campaigns.”

The strategy anticipates the U.S. government working more closely with cloud and other Internet infrastructure providers to quickly identify malicious use of U.S.-based infrastructure, share reports of malicious use with the government, and make it easier for victims to report abuse of these systems.

“Given the interest of the cybersecurity community and digital infrastructure owners and operators in continuing this approach, we must sustain and expand upon this model so that collaborative disruption operations can be carried out on a continuous basis,” the strategy argues. “Threat specific collaboration should take the form of nimble, temporary cells, comprised of a small number of trusted operators, hosted and supported by a relevant hub. Using virtual collaboration platforms, members of the cell would share information bidirectionally and work rapidly to disrupt adversaries.”

But here, again, there is a carrot-and-stick approach: The administration said it is taking steps to implement Executive Order (EO) 13984 –issued by the Trump administration in January 2021 — which requires cloud providers to verify the identity of foreign persons using their services.

“All service providers must make reasonable attempts to secure the use of their infrastructure against abuse or other criminal behavior,” the strategy states. “The Administration will prioritize adoption and enforcement of a risk-based approach to cybersecurity across Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers that addresses known methods and indicators of malicious activity including through implementation of EO 13984.”

Ted Schlein, founding partner of the cybersecurity venture capital firm Ballistic Ventures, said how this gets implemented will determine whether it can be effective.

“Adversaries know the NSA, which is the elite portion of the nation’s cyber defense, cannot monitor U.S.-based infrastructure, so they just use U.S.-based cloud infrastructure to perpetrate their attacks,” Schlein said. “We have to fix this. I believe some of this section is a bit pollyannaish, as it assumes a bad actor with a desire to do a bad thing will self-identify themselves, as the major recommendation here is around KYC (‘know your customer’).”

INSURING THE INSURERS

One brief but interesting section of the strategy titled “Explore a Federal Cyber Insurance Backdrop” contemplates the government’s liability and response to a too-big-to-fail scenario or “catastrophic cyber incident.”

“We will explore how the government can stabilize insurance markets against catastrophic risk to drive better cybersecurity practices and to provide market certainty when catastrophic events do occur,” the strategy reads.

When the Bush administration released the first U.S. national cybersecurity strategy 20 years ago after the 9/11 attacks, the popular term for that same scenario was a “digital Pearl Harbor,” and there was a great deal of talk then about how the cyber insurance market would soon help companies shore up their cybersecurity practices.

In the wake of countless ransomware intrusions, many companies now hold cybersecurity insurance to help cover the considerable costs of responding to such intrusions. Leaving aside the question of whether insurance coverage has helped companies improve security, what happens if every one of these companies has to make a claim at the same time?

The notion of a Digital Pearl Harbor incident struck many experts at the time as a hyperbolic justification for expanding the government’s digital surveillance capabilities, and an overstatement of the capabilities of our adversaries. But back in 2003, most of the world’s companies didn’t host their entire business in the cloud.

Today, nobody questions the capabilities, goals and outcomes of dozens of nation-state level cyber adversaries. And these days, a catastrophic cyber incident could be little more than an extended, simultaneous outage at multiple cloud providers.

The full national cybersecurity strategy is available from the White House website (PDF).

Get the surreal action adventure game Figment free on Steam from March 2nd to March 9th.

The post Get Figment for free on Steam for a limited time appeared first on Indie Game Bundles.

According to Reuters, Elon Musk's medical device company, Neuralink, was denied permission last year to begin human trials of a revolutionary brain implant to treat intractable conditions such as paralysis and blindness. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) outlined dozens of issues the company must address before human testing can begin, according to seven current and former employees. From the report: The agency's major safety concerns involved the device's lithium battery; the potential for the implant's tiny wires to migrate to other areas of the brain; and questions over whether and how the device can be removed without damaging brain tissue, the employees said. A year after the rejection, Neuralink is still working through the agency's concerns. Three staffers said they were skeptical the company could quickly resolve the issues -- despite Musk's latest prediction at a Nov. 30 presentation that the company would secure FDA human-trial approval this spring. Neuralink has not disclosed details of its trial application, the FDA's rejection or the extent of the agency's concerns. As a private company, it is not required to disclose such regulatory interactions to investors. During the hours-long November presentation, Musk said the company had submitted "most of our paperwork" to the agency, without specifying any formal application, and Neuralink officials acknowledged the FDA had asked safety questions in what they characterized as an ongoing conversation. Such FDA rejections do not mean a company will ultimately fail to gain the agency's human-testing approval. But the agency's pushback signals substantial concerns, according to more than a dozen experts in FDA device-approval processes. The rejection also raises the stakes and the difficulty of the company's subsequent requests for trial approval, the experts said. The FDA says it has approved about two-thirds of all human-trial applications for devices on the first attempt over the past three years. That total rose to 85% of all requests after a second review. But firms often give up after three attempts to resolve FDA concerns rather than invest more time and money in expensive research, several of the experts said. Companies that do secure human-testing approval typically conduct at least two rounds of trials before applying for FDA approval to commercially market a device.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Biden administration is promising to hold software developers and critical infrastructure to tougher security standards and apply more pressure on ransomware gangs as part of its first national cybersecurity strategy, released Thursday. From a report: The nearly 40-page document provides a roadmap for new laws and regulations over the next few years aimed at helping the United States prepare for and fight emerging cyber threats. The strategy -- which was crafted by the two-year-old Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) -- has five "pillars": defend critical infrastructure; disrupt and dismantle threat actors; shape market forces to drive security and resilience; invest in a resilient future; and forge international partnerships. The strategy includes a wide range of tasks, from modernizing federal systems' cybersecurity defenses to increasing offensive hacking capabilities in the intelligence community. The administration will start working with Congress and the private sector on legislation that would hold software makers liable for security flaws if they fail to follow security best practices, like those developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CISA has released a free and open source tool that makes it easier to map an attacker’s TTPs to the Mitre ATT&CK framework.

The post New CISA Tool ‘Decider’ Maps Attacker Behavior to ATT&CK Framework appeared first on SecurityWeek.

As a primary working interface, the browser plays a significant role in today's corporate environment. The browser is constantly used by employees to access websites, SaaS applications and internal applications, from both managed and unmanaged devices. A new report published by LayerX, a browser security vendor, finds that attackers are exploiting this reality and are targeting it in increasing

US National Cybersecurity Strategy pushes regulation, aggressive 'hack-back' operations.

The post White House Releases National Cybersecurity Strategy appeared first on SecurityWeek.

A sophisticated attack campaign dubbed SCARLETEEL is targeting containerized environments to perpetrate theft of proprietary data and software. "The attacker exploited a containerized workload and then leveraged it to perform privilege escalation into an AWS account in order to steal proprietary software and credentials," Sysdig said in a new report. The advanced cloud attack also entailed the

The White House is relying on more than an executive order to bolster online security. The Biden administration has issued a National Cybersecurity Strategy meant to "rebalance" responsibilities toward the larger companies and organizations best-equipped to handle threats. The initiative will most notably expand the use of minimum security standards for critical infrastructure, and establish a common set of regulations to make it easier to comply with that baseline. 

Accordingly, the administration also wants improved public-private alliances that can more effectively defend infrastructure. The federal government would also modernize its networks and response policies to safeguard against threats.

Companies may also be on the hook for sloppy behavior. The strategy would shift some liability for software and services to developers that ignore recommended cybersecurity practices or ship products with known vulnerabilities. The White House hopes to work with Congress and companies on legislation that bars total liability and sets tougher standards for "specific high-risk scenarios." A safe harbor provision would protect companies that make a sincere effort to develop secure products.

The plan would also invest more in cybersecurity research and workforces. The administration hopes to cut back on "systemic" vulnerabilities at the internet's core, and to adapt to emerging technologies such as postquantum encryption (that is, protection against quantum-based hacks) and digital IDs. Some policies will be largely unchanged. The government will proactively "disrupt and dismantle" threats, including international cooperation on fighting ransomware.

The implementation has already begun, the administration says. As Cyberscooppoints out, though, there's no certainty the strategy will work as promised. The outline largely delegates responsibilities to individual agencies, Congress and in some cases state regulators. The result may not be as harmonious as hoped. It's also unclear if developers will welcome laws that make them liable for security holes. Still, the approach sets expectations for how federal officials will tackle digital threats going forward.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bidens-cybersecurity-plan-expands-requirements-for-critical-infrastructure-145019627.html?src=rss

Many of us have memories of early mornings in a cold car, waiting for the engine to “warm up” before beginning to drive. And back then, it made some sense. But if you’re warming up your car for more than a minute today, you’re probably just wasting gas, money, and time.

Read more...

This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Picard" season 3.

Previously in the pages of /Film, it was argued that Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) was often given the short shrift on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." While Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) was often given complex and interesting stories, Dr. Crusher was only given a few episodes of her own, more often filling out an ensemble than leading it. I have argued that Dr. Crusher rarely got her own stories because, frankly, she was too complete a character. Her moral code was very clear. She was already the chief medical officer on the Enterprise, so her career was where she wanted it to be. She was an adult who made good decisions. In short, she had her s*** together. Because of these qualities, writers seemed stymied as to what her overall personal drama might be. She was the mother of a teenage son, but stories about the two of them relating became less common as he grew up. 

The richest unexplored drama of Dr. Crusher was perhaps her relationship with the captain. He, too, has his s*** together, and both of them were intelligent leaders. They had a past as well, albeit a dark one; Picard was leading the away mission on which Crusher's first husband was killed. Despite this, the two had clearly grown close and frequently expressed their attraction to one another. In the episode "Allegiance" (March 26, 1990), a duplicate of Picard asked if there was any hope of a relationship. Crusher admitted that it's a fun idea, but remaining professional colleagues was preferable. These notions would come back in "Attached" (November 8, 1993) where Picard and Beverly were psychically linked ... and discovered the depths of their mutual affection. 

Oh yes, and Beverly kissed Picard -- deliberately and romantically -- in NextGen's final episode. And now, that relationship has been taken to the next level.

Will They? Won't They? They Did. They Regret It.

In "Seventeen Seconds," the newest episode of "Star Trek: Picard," it is revealed Picard and Dr. Crusher did indeed consummate their relationship, much to their mutual chagrin. Picard mentioned in an earlier episode that he and Beverly attempted to instigate a romantic relationship about five time to date, and it simply never took. One can look at each character and see how a relationship would be perfect ... and just as immediately how it would be a bad idea. With two powerful, intelligent people, neither would necessarily want to cede to the other. They complemented each other well as colleagues, but wouldn't necessarily mesh outside the purview of Starfleet. 

When Crusher and Picard finally confront one another in "Seventeen Seconds," it's an outpouring of animosity. As it turns out, the last time Picard and Crusher saw each other was over 20 years before during an ill-fated sexual tryst. Beverly became pregnant with her son, Jack, and never wanted to tell Picard about his existence. Jack (Ed Speelers) is now grown, and travels the galaxy with his mom distributing medicine to worlds outside of the Federation. 

Why didn't Beverly call Jean-Luc? Why aren't they married or living together as a family unit? As it so happens, it was Picard's career -- and it's propensity for constant crisis -- that drove a wedge between them. Beverly says that she was able to protect her own son, but the son of a famous Starfleet admiral who is often kidnapped or in mortal peril? Not so easy. Picard is naturally upset that Dr. Crusher kept the secret from him, saying that he cannot be penalized for his absentee fatherhood when he was never told he had a child. 

The History

The reunion of Jean-Luc and Beverly in "Star Trek: Picard" may be more satisfying than any on-screen romance from back in the 1990s. Let us Trekkies cast our minds briefly into a fictional eighth season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." In this fictional season, Picard and Dr. Crusher began dating in earnest, or perhaps even married. They shared quarters, confided in one another, and struggled with maintaining a relationship despite their dangerous job. One can almost sense how out-of-character that would have been for both of them. It's hard to picture scenes of Picard going back to his quarters after a shift and experiencing connubial bliss, or Dr. Crusher clocking out and putting her feet up and coming home to a nice meal replicated by her husband. These two were always too professional for that sort of domesticity. 

Seeing them having tried -- and failed -- feels more correct. It's also fair that they, when reunited, would lay out their mutual grievances openly. 

The Picard/Crusher relationship was always mildly frustrating in the same way that many long-term will-they-won't-they relationships are on any long-running TV series. The tension can only last so long before it is broken by sex or romance. But after the tension is broken, the following drama is rarely as interesting as all the speculation that led up to it. In this regard, one might also think of Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) from "The X-Files." The tension is the more exciting thing. Once they get married, at least from a teleplay-writing perspective, the thrill is gone. 

Picard and Crusher tried. It didn't work out. And that feels very true to the characters. 

Read this next: Every Star Trek Series Ranked From Worst To Best

The post And Just Like That, Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Just Forever Redefined a Key Next Generation Relationship appeared first on /Film.

Michael Dorn's complicated Klingon, Worf, is one of the most beloved of all "Star Trek" characters, and for good reason. The first Klingon Starfleet officer appears in more episodes of "Star Trek" than any other character, with regular roles in three different "Star Trek" series. He seems somewhat simple on the surface, as his stoic attitude and appreciation for oddly mundane/human things like prune juice and opera make him seem like your basic space curmudgeon, your grumpy Gus with a laser pistol. He's so much more than that, however, in large part because the actor who plays him, Michael Dorn, has invested so much into both the character and the Klingon culture that helped shape him. 

Fans have gotten to watch Worf grow over the years, first appearing as a command officer on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" before becoming the Enterprise-D's chief of security after the death of Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby). He served under Captain Picard until the Enterprise-D crashed in the film "Star Trek: Generations," after which he took an assignment on the titular space station of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Now, he's back one last time on "Star Trek: Picard," and even though his hair has gone white and he preaches pacifism, he's still the same old Worf. It's unusual for a fictional character to continue for this many years with such a protective and creative steward, but Dorn and the rest of the "Star Trek" team have ensured that his saga is a satisfying one. 

A Chaotic Origin Story

Klingons were terrifying adversaries in the original series of "Star Trek," but their culture and society were largely ignored. With "The Next Generation," audiences were introduced to the first Klingon Starfleet officer ever: Worf, son of Mogh. Descended from a noble house but raised by humans after the tragic deaths of his parents in the Romulan attack on Khitomer, Worf became an interesting mix of his Klingon nature and human upbringing. Raised by the Rozhenko family, partially in their ancestral homeland of Russia, Worf learned many human traits and tendencies. When he was a teenager, he left to stay with Klingon relatives and undergo his rite of MajQa, which serves as a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood for Klingons. While undergoing the MajQa, the spirit of the great Klingon hero Kahless appears before him and tells him that he will do something no other Klingon has ever done before. 

Worf ends up accomplishing many things that no other Klingon had done before and helps relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, eventually becoming the Federation Ambassador to the Klingon homeworld, Qo'noS. He also took the fall for the Klingon Empire and lost his house's honor in order to do the right thing, then cleared his family's name with the help of his half-human mate, K'Ehleyr, and killed the man who framed him. He helped raise a son named Alexander, married the incredible Trill science officer Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), and even defeated the mad Chancellor of the empire, Gowron, before passing on being Chancellor himself and giving the title to General Martok (John Garman Hertzler Jr.). He is, in no uncertain terms, a total badass. 

Don't Judge A Klingon By His Ridges

Despite being a rather stoic Klingon warrior who follows a very strict code of conduct, Worf is full of surprises. Many of his best appearances on "The Next Generation" put him in situations where he doesn't know how to reconcile his human and Klingon sides, sometimes in unexpected ways. Holodeck episodes can be hit or miss, but in "A Fistful of Datas," Worf, ship's counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), and young Alexander become trapped in an old west simulation with real stakes, and Worf has to learn to fit into a whole new set of rules very quickly. Watching Worf blossom into a sheriff protecting his town is a joy, and shows that he's so much more than just a curmudgeonly Klingon who really loves his operas. 

Just as he is steadfast in his beliefs, Worf is devoted in all of his relationships. He would do anything he could to be a good father (even as he often failed), tried to pledge himself to K'Ehleyr when she showed up on the Enterprise with Alexander, was good to his brother Kurn at every turn, and was fiercely loyal to his crewmates. Worf's attempts at romance were all doomed in one way or another. His will-they-won't-they with Troi was mostly a mess, and he barely had a chance to know K'Ehleyr, who understood him pretty well as a half-Klingon herself, but once he boarded Deep Space Nine and met Jadzia Dax, Worf was changed forever. 

The Greatest Romance In The Galaxy

Worf could let his hair down every once in a while on "The Next Generation," but he was still pretty rigid most of the time. Then he met the Trill Starfleet officer Jadzia Dax, whose former incarnation was Curzon Dax, renowned among Klingons, and they got to know one another. On their first meeting, Worf asks her if she hosts the same symbiont as Curzon, and she replies in flawless Klingon to tell him that she is, but she's much better looking. Worf is flustered and stays flustered through the rest of their romance, which is a beautifully healthy thing where they truly encourage one another to be better, more fully realized people. Unfortunately, Worf seems truly doomed to tragic romances, because Jadzia is murdered by a possessed Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) in the Bajoran temple on Deep Space Nine. It would be easy for Worf to slide back into his old ways of thinking and acting as a result of his grief, but Jadzia changed him permanently. 

Jadzia and Worf are one of the best, if not the best, "Star Trek" couples, and the behind-the-scenes friendship between Dorn and Farrell really helped make it sing. The two were excited for Jadzia and Worf to get together because it meant they would get to have more scenes together, and their onscreen chemistry is brilliant. Worf begins his time on "Deep Space Nine" with much of the same bad attitude that he had on "The Next Generation," but by the end, he's a changed man who manages to enjoy the holodeck and sort-of befriend the Ferengi bartender he would have previously only wanted to throttle. The crew of the Enterprise-E was calling, however, and Worf had to get back to space-trekking business.

Forced To Get Serious Once More

Worf would reunite with the crew from "The Next Generation" for three more movies: "Star Trek: First Contact," "Star Trek: Insurrection," and "Star Trek: Nemesis." Most of the "Next Gen" movies are not exactly beloved by fans or critics, though Worf fans at least get a chance to see him kick serious Borg butt in "First Contact." He's responsible for helping ensure that first contact between the Vulcans and humans happens due to some time-traveling silliness, making him a hero for the ages even more than he already was. He also maybe finally got over his lifelong hatred of Romulans in "Nemesis," but that was the last we would see of Worf for 20 years, both in-canon and in real life. 

Between Worf's last appearance in "Nemesis" in 2002 and his first appearance in season 3 of "Star Trek: Picard" in 2023, the only hints we had as to his future were tiny tidbits or vague in nature. He served as Captain of the Enterprise-E for a short while, according to the official Star Trek Logs on Instagram, but he stepped down after an incident on Krillar Prime. Now it looks like he's working with Starfleet Intelligence as the handler of undercover Commander Raffaela "Raffi" Musiker (Michelle Hurd) as she tries to investigate the theft of a powerful weapon from Daystrom Institute. In his first appearance on the show, he had to rescue her from a bad situation with a nasty Ferengi named Sneed, giving fans just a taste of who he's become in the past two decades. Worf has always been a tiny bit mysterious, but this version is extremely enigmatic. 

A Wizened Warrior

It's hard to imagine Worf as a pacifist, and many fans (myself included) were extremely skeptical of how he would be handled in season 3 of "Picard." Thankfully, Dorn was careful to steward the character as he always has, taking him from a Viking berserker to more of a skilled samurai. He is still capable of some serious violence, but he avoids it if possible. The trajectory makes a lot of sense given the amount of loss that Worf has endured even his newfound, Buddhism-influenced philosophy. In an interview with /Film's Vanessa Armstrong, Dorn explained that he had plans for the character before he was even approached for "Picard":

"[...] I had written a screenplay or pilot where it was a spin-off of the Worf character. And part of that was he has gone back to this planet, like a martial arts place, and they taught him about meditation and what is the mark of a true warrior. And he has really gone further in that realm, because it's more in keeping with who he is and his journey. And I told the producers that, 'Yeah, he still is very dangerous, but he has tempered that with a wisdom that his meditation and his teachings has kind of added to who he is.' And they were very good with that."

They also gave him a reluctant student of sorts in Raffi, which reminded Dorn of the relationship between assassin Beatrix Kiddo and her master Pai Mei in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill Vol. 2" and felt like the right direction for the character. Worf has gone from an angry, lost young man to a wise warrior with a truly legendary legacy, and season 3 of "Star Trek: Picard" feels like it will be a proper sendoff. Qapla'!

You can check out silver fox samurai Worf when new episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" air Thursdays on Paramount+.

Read this next: The Main Star Trek Captains Ranked Worst To Best

The post Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Has Given Worf One Heck of a Character Arc appeared first on /Film.

This post contains spoilers for season 3's third episode of "Star Trek: Picard."

Worf is back! And he's a changed Klingon (kind of). We saw a glimpse of him in last week's episode of "Star Trek: Picard" when he removed a Ferengi drug dealer's head from his shoulders, but this week we got lots more of Worf, played as always by Michael Dorn, as he helps Raffi (Michelle Hurd) recover from her drug trip with some ... chamomile tea.

That's right, Worf is now really into meditation and decaffeinated hot beverages, and when I talked to Dorn in the lead-up to the season 3 premiere, he told me the idea to give his character this backstory came from him. "I had written a screenplay or pilot where it was a spin-off of the Worf character," he said. "And part of that was he has gone back to this planet, like a martial arts place, and they taught him about meditation and what is the mark of a true warrior. And he has really gone further in that realm, because it's more in keeping with who he is and his journey."

It turns out that the creatives behind "Picard" were open to Dorn's suggested turn with Worf. "I told the producers that, 'Yeah, he still is very dangerous, but he has tempered that with a wisdom that his meditation and his teachings has kind of added to who he is.' And they were very good with that," Dorn said.

A Bat'leth And A Cuppa

In "Picard," it looks like Worf will be teaming up with Raffi in at least the short term, which Dorn said was an addition he appreciated. "It's sort of like they gave me a student [Michelle Hurd's Raffi], but she's not a student," Dorn said before adding:

"She's not like somebody who just walks up and goes, 'Oh, I want to be taught.' She has her own thing and it just happens to be, our lives are coinciding in a way, and she can look at me and I can look at her and we get something from each other. And I think that was their doing, the writers and the producers. They understood that. And I've always had, I would say, good luck. I've always said, 'Hey, look, this is what I think,' and they'll take off with it. And I never had to really go up and yell and scream about parts and stuff like that."

What Dorn didn't share was the status of that Worf spin-off script. We know that the "Star Trek" universe will expand with new shows in the pipeline — could a Worf-centered series be part of that? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to watch Worf in say, a show with a detective bent, where the Klingon gets zen on chamomile as he solves murders.

In the meantime, we'll get to see how chill Worf remains when new episodes of season 3 are released every Thursday on Paramount+.

Read this next: 11 Reasons Why The Next Generation Is The Best Star Trek Show

The post Worf's Zen-Like Shift in Star Trek: Picard Came From An Unproduced Spin-Off Script Written By Michael Dorn [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.

This post contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard" season 3, up to and including episode 3, "Seventeen Seconds."

The third episode of "Star Trek: Picard" is probably the most uneven one so far in season 3, but at least it has one thing going for it — the full return of Worf, played by Michael Dorn. By now, "Picard" has jettisoned most of its season 1 and 2 cast in favor of a hard reset that is, nominally, giving the fans what they want: a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" reunion. However, one character still kicking around from the first two seasons is Raffi (Michelle Hurd), whose subplot has been largely disconnected from the main action ... until now.

If nothing else, Worf's insertion into this subplot might get old-school "Next Generation" fans to perk up and pay a little more attention to Raffi's scenes, though what they do with Worf in those scenes and whether it's the right creative choice is another question entirely.

Let's accentuate the positives first. Worf makes what is, hands down, the best entrance of any legacy "Star Trek" character in "Picard" season 3. Raffi's tense episode 2 confrontation with a Ferengi crime lord named Sneed puts both her life and soul in peril until Worf shows up.

First, Raffi is forced to relapse into her old drug addiction, only to realize that her cover's blown anyway because Sneed has already beheaded T'Luco, the Romulun triggerman Raffi claimed to be working for. Sneed knows Raffi is a narc for Starfleet, and just when it looks like it's curtains for her (as an old-timey gangster, Ferengi or otherwise, might say), Worf swoops in with his Klingon blade. Supposedly a pacifist this season, he nonetheless impales all of Sneed's henchmen, then beheads the Ferengi.

Raffi's Missing Scene Partner Arrives

Compare Worf's rousing entrance in "Picard" season 3 with that of his old flame, Deanna Troi, current wife of William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes). Marina Sirtis is dialed all the way up to 11 in her all-too-brief return as Troi, who breaks up Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Riker's digitally de-aged bar conversation with the news, "Your son just vomited all over engineering!"

On the one hand, episode 3 does give Picard and Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) a scene with some real gravitas when he confronts her about why she skipped out on him for the last 20 years with the son he never knew he had. On the other hand, that scene is at odds, tonally, with Raffi's subplot, which gets goofier this episode and is now dragging Worf along with it.

As a newer character, Raffi likely won't have as many viewers invested in her as these other hallowed veterans. But I'll say this much for her: watching her interact remotely with Worf (before we knew it was Worf) might be weirdly relatable for anyone who's grown accustomed to the maddening vagaries of online communication.

There's a scene in episode 2 where Raffi sits in front of an impersonal screen, talking via a secure channel to Worf, whose voice is masked to sound like the computer and whose true identity hasn't been revealed yet. Raffi is alone in the room, but she gets upset, stands up, and in true TV melodrama (or "Incredibles" villain) form, gets to monologuing. It's a very one-sided scene that asks a lot of an actor, since Michelle Hurd's only scene partner, as it were, is the proverbial black mirror. Thank God Worf actually shows up in person later to give her a real partner.

Good Cop, Bad Cop, And Changeling Slop

Yes, Raffi and Worf are partners now: it's been officially decided and declared by Worf himself onscreen. The writing doesn't do them any favors, but maybe it will bounce back?

When Raffi wakes up in Worf's loft and he lists off all his titles ("slayer of Gowron," etc.) before ending with, "I have made some chamomile tea," it's played for a laugh. There's nothing wrong with that, but then we get the line, "I have been, as humans say, working on myself," and it starts to feel like this version of "Trek" and Worf is a little too self-aware. It's as if we're watching some woefully underlit, post-modern bit of "Trek" fan fiction, where the best scene transition they could come up with was a dramatic pause, followed by Raffi deadpanning, "Cool."

There's an idea that holds a genre is dead once it lapses into self-parody. I'm not sure that's what's happening with Worf, but it does seem like they've turned him into a more constant stream of comic relief, as he offers one-liners like, "Beheadings are on Wednesdays." That said, we do get a nice allusion to Odo and Worf's "Deep Space Nine" history as he and Raffi uncover the changeling conspiracy that seems destined to bring their subplot and the main plot of "Picard" season 3 together.

As they interrogate one changeling, Worf and Raffi play good cop and bad cop, respectively, before the changeling's solid form destabilizes and it turns into a puddle of goo. I don't know when Worf will link up with Picard, but as long as the Klingon's around, I guess I'll be along for the ride, hoping the plot of "Picard" season 3 doesn't itself liquefy.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" hit Paramount+ every Thursday.

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

The post Worf Has Rescued the Worst Subplot in Star Trek: Picard Season 3 appeared first on /Film.

Jonathan Frakes has always seen "Star Trek" as an action/adventure franchise, as he once admitted during a behind-the-scenes interview for "Star Trek: First Contact," which he directed. As the man who played Cmdr. William Riker on seven seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," it makes logical sense that he would see things that way. Riker was a man of action, always in charge of away missions, and a jocular cowboy when in command. This persona would be played with to great effect decades later on "Star Trek: Lower Decks," wherein Riker was finally depicted working as a starship captain — a long-sought position — and laughing heartily as he plunged his crew into danger. 

As an actor, Frakes began his career in the late 1970s, appearing on the soap opera "The Doctors." As a director, Frakes started working on episodes of NextGen during its third season, helming the episode "The Offspring." He would go on to direct seven additional episodes, as well as three episodes of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and three episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager" before making "First Contact" and the 1998 follow-up "Star Trek: Insurrection." These credits would be impressive enough, but they were but the start of an extensive directing career for Frakes who would go on to oversee episodes of "Roswell," "Leverage," "Castle," "NCIS: Los Angeles," "Burn Notice," "Falling Skies," "The Librarians," and some of the newer Trek shows to boot. 

Now 70, Frakes is a veteran of the industry, capably handling an episode of TV just as well as his character could a starship. His most recent credit is episode three of the third season of "Star Trek: Picard," called "Seventeen Seconds." It's the most action-packed yet, and Frakes' professional stamp is all over it. 

Riker, Now Stern

In "Picard," Riker is now an old man, likely in his 80s (medicine is excellent in the 25th century, so he only looks to be 69 or 70). While Riker spent the bulk of "Next Generation" fretting about his career and gunning for command of a starship, he wouldn't achieve that goal until the end of "Star Trek: Nemesis" when he took command of the U.S.S. Titan. In "Picard," he still holds the rank of Captain but has long since retired, now spending time with Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) as a colleague. 

The idea of a retired Riker is almost antithetical to the character, meaning Frakes was free to explore him on a more personal level. For instance, how do he and Picard relate now that one is no longer the other's boss? Picard still technically outranks Riker — Picard is an Admiral — but neither has to answer to the other. With the power dynamic evened out, the two men communicate differently. Riker is now free to take the lead, to explain to Picard what needs to be done and, in one notable scene of "Seventeen Seconds," berate Picard for his bad decisions. It's incredibly jarring to see Riker yell "You're out of line!" to his old commanding officer. 

Additionally, what happens to the careerist when his career goals have all been achieved? It seems that Riker is now a devoted husband and father, and Trekkies can now see how much Riker's jocular personality has come to influence every aspect of his life. He still has the laidback demeanor of the poker-playing Commander Trekkies once knew so well, but has not affected a serious note of protective sternness to his interactions, revealing that he is now working for personal reasons and not professional ones.

Frakes As Director

As stated above, Frakes has liked to present "Star Trek" as being more adventure-forward than its cerebral reputation would have one believe. It's telling that his Trek films are both slick and feature notable starship battles. "First Contact" even began with a Borg invasion of Earth, and the SFX on the space vessels still looks good today. 

As a director, Frakes often strained to make the banal, everyday TV shooting schedule into something more interesting. As previously mentioned in the pages of /Film, Frakes was once asked to direct a NextGen episode called "Cause and Effect" (March 23, 1992), wherein the U.S.S. Enterprise encountered a time loop, and several scenes were repeated. Frakes had to find ways to shoot different scenes with identical dialogue, communicating to audiences that time was repeating itself. Over the course of the episode, Frakes found new places to put the camera, new ways to light the set, and new ways to make the filmmaking more crisp and dynamic. Frakes' knack for special effects and action filmmaking led him to direct bright, kid-friendly adventure films like "Clockstoppers" and "Thunderbirds," both films with a great deal of Trek-like vehicle- and tech-fetish. 

In "Seventeen Seconds," Frakes pulls double duty. The episode is largely about a nebula battle — bearing shades of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" — and Frakes employs exciting space exteriors and tense starship interiors to wring every possible thrill from the scenario. He also displays a new depth to Riker's character, showing that, yes, even the careerist can grow up. 

Frakes started in soap operas and has been on a steady upward trajectory ever since. One can't help but admire him.

Read this next: The Strongest Star Trek Villains Ranked

The post Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 3 is a Showcase for the Talents of Jonathan Frakes appeared first on /Film.

Amazingly enough, the ninth entry in the "Rocky" franchise and the third (and final?) entry to the "Creed" saga is hitting theaters this weekend in the form of "Creed III." Directed by star Michael B. Jordan, who has played Adonis Creed since this trilogy kicked off in 2015 (read out interview with him here), this is a wholly unique entry amongst the long-running boxing series. Primarily because it's the first time that Sylvester Stallone will not be appearing as Rocky Balboa. That difference did, however, allow Jordan to expand the universe in his feature directorial debut.

Jordan recently spoke with MovieMaker and, for the most part, dodged the Stallone/Rocky of it all saying, "It's important to have Adonis grow up. Adonis had to grow up, man." Beyond that, though, the actor and director felt he had a great handle on where the story can and should go, with or without Mr. Balboa.

"I felt like with Creed III, it was knowing that I had the best handle and insight on this character and this world because I lived with it the longest. And where I was in my life, the things that I was going through just being 35 years old — 32 at the time; s*** I guess I was 32 — I wanted to tell this story. I know where I want the Creed family to go and I have ideas and thoughts of where the franchise can go and how to expand the Creed-verse as we call it. I wanted to take this IP and these characters on a ride and expand that universe."

The Maybe Messy Future Of Rocky And Creed

As for what that expansion means? Maybe it's just "Creed III" where these characters end up, or maybe it's a future "Creed IV." Whatever the case, Jordan seems confident that he was able to steer the ship without Stallone. Though that does leave us in an interesting place when it comes to the future, as it has the potential to get a little messy. Stallone has called his lack of participation in the current entry a "regretful situation," while acknowledging that he would have taken the story in a different direction.

The other important thing to note is that Stallone has actively been calling out longtime series producer Irwin Winkler (though not directly by name), expressing his frustration with the fact that he doesn't own a piece of the "Rocky" rights, despite the fact that he is very largely responsible for turning it into a $1.5 billion franchise at the box office. He even had ideas for a version of "Rocky VII" that will never come to be. So, have we seen the end of Rocky on screen? Is it purely Creed's show from here on out? Could we have dueling "Rocky" and "Creed" movies? That last one seems unlikely, I must admit. Whatever the case, expansion of the franchise could mean leaving Rocky Balboa behind.

"Creed III" hits theaters on March 3.

Read this next: Butkus To Punchy: Ranking All 8 'Rocky' Movies From Worst To Best

The post Creed III Was A Major Opportunity for Michael B. Jordan to 'Expand' The Universe appeared first on /Film.

HBO has spent the past few months hyping up the release of "The Idol," a limited series created by Sam Levinson (of "Euphoria" acclaim) and Abel Tesfaye (best known as musical artist The Weeknd). But recent reports have put a damper on the buzz by revealing behind-the-scenes chaos.

Yesterday, Rolling Stone produced a report that claims HBO's "The Idol" has "gone wildly, disgustingly off the rails." Interviews from 13 cast and crew members allege that Sam Levinson stepped in (taking over from director Amy Seimetz) when the show was 80% complete for a creative overhaul that increased the disturbing sexual content and nudity while contributing to an already chaotic and tense work environment. Overall criticisms from the anonymous sources claim the show was being reshot and rewritten in real-time, ramping up the sexual violence and diluting the original message of the show so that it was more akin to "sexual torture porn."

In an official statement, HBO said otherwise, explaining that Levinson stepped in because the initial approach did not meet HBO's standards and adding that "the creative team has been committed to creating a safe, collaborative, and mutually respectful working environment." HBO has since provided Lily-Rose Depp's statement to /Film, where the lead actress dubs Levinson "the best director" she has ever worked with. Here's the statement in full:

"Sam is, for so many reasons, the best director I have ever worked with. Never have I felt more supported or respected in a creative space, my input and opinions more valued. Working with Sam is a true collaboration in every way - it matters to him, more than anything, not only what his actors think about the work, but how we feel performing it. He hires people whose work he esteems and has always created an environment in which I felt seen, heard, and appreciated."

The Weeknd Responds To The Backlash

Co-creator and star Tesfaye has also weighed in on the controversy: he responded to the report by sharing a clip from the series via Twitter and Instagram. The scene — where his character calls Rolling Stone "irrelevant" — tagged the publication with the caption, "did we upset you?" Rolling Stone Editor-in-Chief Noah Shachtman replied "Not at all," with images of The Weeknd's prior cover stories.

.@RollingStone did we upset you? pic.twitter.com/Uyx06lyRgx

— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) March 1, 2023

The scene sees a publicist (played by Dan Levy) pitching Tedros (Tesfaye) and pop star Jocelyn (Depp) on a photo shoot for the cover of Rolling Stone. Tedros shoots the idea down, arguing "Rolling Stone has 6 million followers on Instagram, half of them probably bots. And Jocelyn has 78 million followers, all real I'd assume. So she does a photo shoot, she tags them, they get her followers. More money for Rolling Stone, nothing for Jocelyn."

Other Sources Have Spoken Out

Other claims from the Rolling Stone report have since been disputed. A dueling report from TMZ cites production sources close to "The Idol" who claim that no one who spoke with Rolling Stone has seen the final product and allege that it is "misleading" for them to imply that the controversial scenes described in the article will make the final cut.

The TMZ sources also deny the claim — originally reported in April 2022 — that The Weeknd felt Seimetz's version of the show was too focused on the female perspective, saying that "if anything, the whole show is about a woman who wants to control her own narrative in showbiz." Another HBO insider told IndieWire that Seimetz was "fired from production due to creative issues, and Levinson took over as director to save the program's original vision."

The news coming out of "The Idol" is particularly concerning because similar reports were made about Levinson on the set of "Euphoria" season 2. A separate piece from The Daily Beast written back in February 2022 included interviews from crew members who cited grueling 17-hour workdays caused by last-minute rewrites and Levinson failing to arrive with a shot list. Another report from that same year claims that there were "multiple complaints made to SAG-AFTRA over the production failing to provide them meals on time and refusing to let people use the bathroom." Sources also told the publication that the set "didn't have a proper holding area for the extras" adding that "there were so many complaints called into SAG-AFTRA that a union rep turned up to set." (HBO later responded that "there were never any formal inquiries raised.") The most infamous incident was a blow-out fight between Levinson and series star Barbie Ferreira, who exited the show after the season wrapped.

So far, there's no official word on when "The Idol" will debut.

Read this next: The 15 Best Anthology TV Series Ranked

The post Lily Rose-Depp and The Weeknd Deny Claims Against Sam Levinson in The Idol Controversy appeared first on /Film.

ReverseEngineeringGamer has released a pretty cool first-person mod for the original/classic 2008 version of Dead Space. In order to provide this first-person perspective, ReverseEngineeringGamer used CheatEngine, and then fine-tuned it. As the modder claimed: “The fine tuning of this mod is what took several months. I have to locate functions, compare variables, stabilize pointers, write … Continue reading First-Person Mod released for Dead Space Classic (2008) →

The post First-Person Mod released for Dead Space Classic (2008) appeared first on DSOGaming.

GitHub this week made secret scanning generally available and free for all public repositories.

The post GitHub Secret Scanning Now Generally Available appeared first on SecurityWeek.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The mysterious set of symptoms known as "Havana syndrome" was not caused by an energy weapon or foreign adversary, US intelligence has concluded. The assessment concludes a multi-year investigation into approximately 1,000 "anomalous health incidents" (AHIs) among US diplomats, spies and other employees in US embassies and missions around the world. Victims reported brain injuries, hearing loss, vertigo and strange auditory sensations, among other symptoms. Many suspected they had been victims of a targeted attack using some kind of directed energy weapon. Of the seven intelligence agencies that undertook the investigation, five determined that "available intelligence consistently points against the involvement of US adversaries in causing the reported incidents," according to an unclassified version of the report released Wednesday by the House intelligence committee. Those five agencies deemed foreign adversary involvement "very unlikely." One considered it "unlikely" and one declined to state a conclusion. The assessment involved a painstaking effort to analyze syndrome cases for patterns that could link them, as well as a search, using forensics and geolocation data, for evidence of a directed energy weapon, unnamed officials told the Post. "There was nothing," one official said. The officials told the Post they were open to new evidence that a foreign adversary had developed an energy weapon, but did not believe Russia or any other adversary was involved in these cases. The intelligence agencies "judge that there is no credible evidence that a foreign adversary has a weapon or collection device that is causing AHIs", according to the unclassified report. "In light of this and the evidence that points away from a foreign adversary, causal mechanism, or unique syndrome linked to AHIs, IC agencies assess that symptoms reported by US personnel were probably the result of factors that did not involve a foreign adversary, such as preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses, and environmental factors," the report reads. Three agencies have "high confidence" in that assessment, three have "moderate confidence" and one has "low confidence."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

dcblogs writes: Despite the demand of employers like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, AT&T and others, nearly 40% of software engineers preferred only remote roles, and if their employers mandated a return to the office, 21% indicated they would quit immediately, while another 49% said they would start looking for another job, according to Hired's 2023 State of Software Engineers. This report gathered its data from 68,500 software engineering candidates and a survey of more than 1,300 software engineers and 120 talent professionals. Employers open to remote workers "are able to get better-quality talent that's a better fit for the organization," said Josh Brenner, CEO of Hired, a job-matching platform for technology jobs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It also works in more than 200 countries.

Tesla's production capacities are in store for a significant growth spurt, CEO Elon Musk told the crowd assembled at the company's Austin, Texas Gigafactory for Investor Day 2023 — and AI will apparently be the magic bullet that gets them there. It's all part of what Musk is calling Master Plan part 3.

This is indeed Musk's third such Master Plan, the first two coming in 2006 and 2016, respectively. These have served as a roadmap for the company's growth and development over the past 17 years as Tesla has grown from neophyte startup to the world's leading EV automaker. "There is a clear path to a sustainable energy Earth by 2050 and it does not require destroying natural habitats," Musk said during the keynote address. 

"You could support a civilization much bigger than Earth [currently does]. Much more than the 8 billion humans could actually be supported sustainably on Earth and I'm just often shocked and surprised by how few people realize this," he continued. He promised that the company would release a "detailed whitepaper with calculations & assumptions," via Twitter during the event.

The Master Plan aims to establish a sustainable energy economy by developing 240 terraWatt hours (TWH) of energy storage and 30 TWH of renewable power generation, which would require an estimated $10 trillion investment, roughly 10 percent of the global GDP. Musk notes, however, that figure is less than half of what we spend currently on internal combustion economy. In all, he anticipates we'd need less than 0.2 percent of the world's land area to create the necessary solar and wind generation capacity. 

"All cars will go to fully electric and autonomous," Musk declared, arguing once again that ICE vehicles will soon be viewed in the same disdain as the horse and buggy. He also teased potential plans to electrify aircraft and ships. "As we improve the energy density of batteries, you’ll see all transportation go fully electric, with the exception of rockets,” he said. No further details as to when or how that might be accomplished were shared.

“A sustainable energy economy is within reach and we should accelerate it,” Drew Baglino, Tesla's SVP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering, added.

Following Musk's opening statement, Tesla executives Lars Moravy and Franz von Holzhausen took the stage to discuss the company's "production hell" and the challenges of building the Cybertruck out of stainless steel. However, the lessons learned from that, Moravy argued will help Tesla build its Gen 3 vehicles more efficiently, and do so within a far smaller factory footprint. von Holzhausen announced to a rousing round of applause that the Cybertruck will arrive later this year, a significantly closer date than Musk's previous public estimate that production wouldn't begin until next year. 

Unfortunately, there will be no new vehicle reveal at this event, von Holzhausen said. That announce will happen "at a later date."  

The company did tease a new video featuring the Tesla Robot walking independently and without the aide of a support frame though there was no live demonstration of the same. Despite difficulties finding suitable off-the-shelf actuators and motors for the humanoid robot platform, "we should bring and actual produce to market at scale that is useful far faster than anyone else," Musk said. 

He further expects the company's robots to become so successful that we may soon see a day where they outnumber humans. "I think we might exceed a one-to-one ratio of robots to humans," he added. "It's not even clear what an economy means at that point."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-lays-out-his-vision-for-teslas-future-at-the-companys-investor-day-2023-215737642.html?src=rss

Hello Games has just deployed No Man's Sky Fractal Patch 4.12 across all platforms, packing various fixes for encountered issues.

After last week's major 4.1 Fractal update, the studio has now rolled out a smaller hotfix. As said, this patch addresses various issues there were encountered following the release of last week's big update, including specific fixes for PSVR2 and PlayStation 5. In addition, this update also includes a fix for sky rendering on Xbox One and addresses several crashing issues. Down below you'll find the official release notes, as released by Hello Games.

No Man's Sky Fractal Patch 4.12 Release Notes

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused bases built next to some building types to become buried in the ground.
• Fixed an issue that prevented recolouring of portable base building objects constructed outside of a base.
• Fixed an issue that caused ship cockpit screens to flicker.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Galactic Trade Room on freighters to be non-interactable.
• Fixed an issue that allowed cursor or stick sensitivity to be set to 0, preventing cursor use.
• Fixed a bug that caused farmable plants to appear in the wrong visual state.
• Fixed an issue that caused ByteBeat recordings to fail to save correctly.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Featured Bases from being available to PSVR2 players.
• The volume of the VR wrist projector’s opening sound effect has been reduced.
• Fixed a hang that could occur when exiting an Exocraft in VR.

• Fixed an issue that prevented terrain tessellation detail from being rendered on PlayStation 5.
• Fixed an issue that prevented controller vibration from functioning correctly on PlayStation 5.
• Fixed a PlayStation 5 issue that could cause graphical corruption during warp.

• Fixed an issue with sky rendering on Xbox One.

• Fixed an issue that prevented system language selection from working correctly.
• Fixed a number of issues that could cause stuttering.
• Fixed an issue that caused some metadata used by mods to be stripped.

• Fixed an issue that could prevent discoveries from showing.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent expedition data from being successfully downloaded.
• Fixed an issue that could cause incorrect discovery counts to be reported for discovery-based expedition milestones.
• Fixed a number of network connectivity issues.

• Fixed a crash that could occur when playing with a controller on Linux OS.
• Fixed a crash on boot that could affect PC players with integrated/multiple GPUs.
• Fixed a crash related to derelict freighter procedural generation.
• Fixed a number of rendering-related crashes.
• Fixed a number of crashes related to multiplayer.
• Fixed a rare crash[red.] related to planet rendering.

No Man's Sky is available globally now for PC and consoles.

The post Latest No Man’s Sky Fractal Patch 4.12 Packs Various Fixes, Including PSVR2 and PS5-Specific Ones by Aernout van de Velde appeared first on Wccftech.

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Last time, you decided that elaborate corridor architecture is better than funicular fights. I wholeheartedly agree with you, but needed to check because the number of video game funicular fights compared to real-world funicular fights did suggest they might be wildly popular. Now we know. As we continue the mission, this week I ask you to choose between the evils of violence and money. What's better: Quake 2's railgun or the currency 'Gold'?

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China says a ban on the use of TikTok by official European Union institutions will harm business confidence in Europe. From a report: In the latest salvo in the battle over the Chinese-owned video sharing app, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council have banned TikTok from being installed on official devices. [...] China has been pushing back, though its ruling Communist Party has long blocked many foreign social media platforms and messaging apps, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram -- and TikTok. A Chinese version of the app, Douyin, is permitted, but its content is not the same as that found on TikTok. "The EU claims to be the most open market in the world, but recently it has been taking restrictive measures and unreasonably suppressing other countries' companies on the grounds of national security," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing Wednesday. "This will dampen the international community's confidence in the business environment in the EU. The EU should match its words with deeds, respect the market economy and fair competition, stop overstretching and abusing the concept of national security and provide an open, fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for all companies," Mao said.

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Dish Network, one of the largest television providers in the United States, confirmed on Tuesday that a previously disclosed "network outage" was the result of a cybersecurity breach that affected the company's internal communications systems and customer-facing support sites. CNBC reports: "Certain data was extracted," the company said in a statement Tuesday. The acknowledgment is an evolution from last week's earnings call, where it was described as an "internal outage." Dish Networks' website was down for multiple days beginning last week, but the company has now disclosed that "internal communications [and] customer call centers" remain affected by the breach. Dish said it had retained outside experts to assist in evaluating the problem. The intrusion took place on the morning of Feb. 23, the same day the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings. "This morning, we experienced an internal outage that's continuing to affect our internal servers and IT telephony," Dish CEO W. Erik Carlson said at that time. "We're analyzing the root causes and any consequences of the outage, while we work to restore the affected systems as quickly as possible." According to Bleeping Computer, the Black Basta ransomware gang is behind the attack, first breaching Boost Mobile and then the Dish corporate network.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.