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New year, new country, new persona – and yet Joe can’t seem to shake off his past in the brand-new trailer for YOU Season 4 Part 1 from Netflix, which you can check out below.

After his previous life went up in flames, Joe Goldberg has fled to Europe to escape his “messy” past, adopt a new identity, and, of course, to pursue true love. But Joe soon finds himself in the strange new role of reluctant detective as he discovers he may not be the only killer in London. Now, his future depends on identifying and stopping whoever’s targeting his new friend group of uber-wealthy socialites…

The latest season stars Penn Badgley, Tati Gabrielle, Charlotte Ritchie, Lukas Gage, Ed Speleers, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Niccy Lin, Aidan Cheng, Brad Alexander, Ozioma Whenu, and Eve Austin.

YOU S4 is inspired by the creeptastic novels by Caroline Kepnes. Showrunner Sera Gamble leads the way, developing the series alongside Greg Berlanti. The series is executive produced by Greg Berlanti, Sera Gamble, Gina Girolamo, Leslie Morgenstein, Sarah Schechter, and Michael Foley.

Writers on the season are 401: Sera Gamble & Leo Richardson, 402: Neil Reynolds & Kara Lee Corthron, 403: Mairin Reed & Justin W. Lo, 404: Amanda Johnson-Zetterström & Michael Foley, 405: Dylan Cohen & Hillary Benefiel, 406: Justin Lo & Leo Richardson, 407: Neil Reynolds & AB Chao, 408: Kara Lee Corthron & Mairin Reed, 409: Amanda Johnson-Zetterström & Hillary Benefiel, 410: Sera Gamble & Michael Foley.

Directors for the season are John Scott (401, 402, 406), Shamim Sarif (403), Harry Jierjian (404, 405, 410), Rachel Leiterman (407, 408), and Penn Badgley (409).

YOU S4 Part 1 launches only on Netflix February 9th.

The post [News] YOU S4 Trailer Takes Us to Europe for New Sights, New Kills appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

DOSBox Staging is a favourite of mine to follow that expands on the original DOSBox but with a focus on implementing new features and fixes. A new major update went out in December 2022 with some big additions.

Richard Yoo, who founded and helped build the website hosting company that became San Antonio's premier technology firm, believes he's watching its collapse. From a report: The reputation of the company now known as Rackspace Technology, he said, "is eroding rapidly" after years of shifting business plans, executive shuffles, financial losses, staff cuts and, finally, the Dec. 2 ransomware attack that left tens of thousands of customers without access to their email, contact and calendar data. "This is the beginning of the end," Yoo said last week. "It's already just a midsize business in San Antonio. This is not a company that's on a trajectory of growth. They're on a trajectory of death. It will not be around." He puts the blame for Rackspace's deepening financial struggles -- it's posted a steady string of quarterly losses, and the value of its stock has fallen 80 percent in the past year -- on its replacement of tech-oriented leadership with board members and managers "who don't have any connection with the product." He said there's "no culture" at the company after it laid off hundreds of local staffers while it expanded globally. And he scoffed at the idea of being a "Racker," saying he never adopted the term the company uses for its employees and identity.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back three years after lacerating a rich bunch of assholes in Knives Out, and Glass Onion throws an even bigger anti-wealthy mystery at him, proving Netflix was, er, on the money in shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars to turn the character into the next Sherlock Holmes.

Is the…

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Microsoft-owned code hosting platform GitHub is now providing developers with the option to have their code repositories automatically scanned for vulnerabilities.

Available as a ‘default setup’ option, the new feature is meant to help code builders find and resolve vulnerabilities faster.

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Files required to run an uncensored version of Fallout 1.2 on DOSBox.

Comedian Dana Carvey appeared as a regular cast member on "Saturday Night Live" from 1986 to 1993, and it could be argued those were some of the best years of the long-running sketch comedy show. And many of the accolades from that era go to Carvey. The list of his memorable characters is long and led to two successful "SNL"-inspired films, "Wayne's World" and "Wayne's World 2." Party on, Garth!

But Garth Algar is just the tip of the iceberg for Carvey's "SNL" career. President George Bush Sr., presidential candidate Ross Perot, Johnny Carson, and Tom Brokaw (Brokaw's pre-tapes remain one of my favorite "SNL" skits) were some of his memorable impersonations. Original characters included Hans from the weightlifting Hans and Franz duo, The Grumpy Old Man, and singer/songwriter Derek Stevens (you know you sang along about "Choppin' Broccoli").

But Church Lady ... oh, Church Lady. The indelible host of the fictional show "Church Chat" might just be Carvey's most beloved character. And her debut on Carvey's first-ever episode of the show had the comedian terrified.

Carvey Was So Nervous His Palms Were Sweating

SNL creator Lorne Michaels didn't give Dana Carvey much time to get comfortable before asking him to break out a potentially controversial character. Season 12 of the show premiered on October 11, 1986, and Carvey was featured in the cold open of the program. In an interview with the "New York Post" Carvey discussed his "SNL" debut:

"I was in the cold opening with Jan [Hooks] and Phil [Hartman] and I was a game-show psychic. I would answer before Phil could ask the question and kept saying 'meteor' using the Garth character I got from my brother Brad — and then a meteor comes down and knocks Jan out."

It was a funny debut, but certainly not memorable. That moment would come minutes later when Carvey adorned the now-familiar purple dress suit, black loafers, cat-rimmed eyeglasses, and gray wig, to transform into the pious Enid Strict. The character, of course, would become better known as Church Lady, the host of "Church Chat." Heading into the skit on his debut episode, Carvey was terrified. The comedian said:

"It was terrifying ... I can show you 'Church Chat' episodes early on where my hand is held up and it's drenched in sweat. I vetted the rhythms of the character in comedy clubs but wasn't sure it would work. I was on with Victoria Jackson and I went, 'Well, isn't that special?' and it got a huge laugh and that relaxed me. It was like, 'OK, they get it.'"

That line and others would soon enter the pop culture zeitgeist with great aplomb.

The Legacy Of The Church Lady

It's fascinating to watch the iconic debuts of iconic characters such as Carvey's Church Lady. Audiences aren't yet programmed to the familiar hooks, and you can hear them figure out the charm of the act in real-time. In Carvey's debut of the Church Lady in October of 1986, there's a smattering of laughter at her first quip of, "Well isn't that special." By the second time she uses the line, the audience's laughter doubles as they catch on to one of her signature lines.

Carvey had impeccable timing with the debut of the character. "SNL" has always been able to reflect the pulse of the nation. When "Church Chat" debuted, the popularity of televangelists had made Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart household names. Most of us saw right through their acts. You just knew Church Lady was glued to the TV soaking it all in, all the while doing her "superior dance."

Church Lady became a recurring character during Carvey's SNL run and would appear in later episodes when he returned to host. She would also appear on the short-lived "Dana Carvey Show." The sketch made phrases like, "Could it be .... Satan!?" and "Well isn't that special?" everyday pop culture vernacular throughout Carvey's SNL run (and still today for some of us).

And whatever became of Enid Strict? According to her creator, she's found herself in a precarious situation. While guest hosting "Jimmy Kimmel Live" last year, Carvey offered an update. "The Church Lady is in jail," he joked. "The Church Lady is in jail for defrauding members of her mega-church, and we still have no idea where she was on January 6th."

Isn't that special, indeed?

Read this next: The 15 Best '90s Comedies Ranked

The post Dana Carvey Was Terrified To Play Saturday Night Live's Church Lady appeared first on /Film.

What is the most promising RPG of 2023? Check out the details to find out what games our editors think are most promising. Link to article

Jacob Ridley writes via PC Gamer: MSI Afterburner is an app used the world over for graphics card monitoring, overclocking, and undervolting. It's become pretty synonymous with general GPU tinkering, yet the app's developer has suggested it might not have long left to live in a forum post earlier this month. MSI disagrees, telling us "we fully intend to continue with MSI Afterburner." MSI Afterburner is developed by Alexey 'Unwinder' Nicolaychuk, a Russian national who has kept the overclocking app functioning over many years. Nicolaychuk is also responsible for the development of RivaTuner Statistics Server, which is part of the foundational software layer powering Afterburner. In a post on the Guru3D forums (via TechPowerUp), Nicolaychuk suggests that Afterburner's development has been "semi-abandoned." "...MSI afterburner project is probably dead," Nicolaychuk says. "War and politics are the reasons. I didn't mention it in MSI Afterburner development news thread, but the project is semi abandoned by company during quite a long time already. Actually we're approaching the one year mark since the day when MSI stopped performing their obligations under Afterburner license agreement due to 'politic [sic] situation'." Nicolaychuk says development of the app has continued over the past 11 months, but that may also be ending soon. "I tried to continue performing my obligations and worked on the project on my own during the last 11 months, but it resulted in nothing but disappointment; I have a feeling that I'm just beating a dead horse and waste energy on something that is no longer needed by company. "Anyway I'll try to continue supporting it myself while I have some free time, but will probably need to drop it and switch to something else, allowing me to pay my bills." Development of the RivaTuner Statistics Server -- software is pivotal to many of the functions of Afterburner -- is materially separate from Afterburner and will continue, Nicolaychuk notes. Nicolaychuk suggests the issue comes down to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and we've since confirmed with MSI that this is the case. MSI has stated to PC Gamer that the payments were halted due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, saying: "payments had been put on hold due to the RU/UA war and the economic regulations that entailed." [...] On this being the end for Afterburner, MSI disagrees. "We fully intend to continue with MSI Afterburner," MSI tells PC Gamer. "MSI have been working on a solution and expect it to be resolved soon."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In "Renfield," Nicolas Cage becomes the latest in a long line of actors to play Dracula. The actor previously played a creature of the night in "Vampire's Kiss," but this time, he's playing the lord of all ghouls. However, Cage's Dracula will merely be a supporting player; the star of the movie is his eponymous servant (Nicholas Hoult). After so many years at the Count's side, Renfield is reconsidering if he still wants the job. When your boss is a blood-sucking demon, the severance package probably isn't one you want.

"Reinfeld" looks like it will lean more on the latter side of "horror comedy," so if nothing else, Cage's expressive acting is a good fit. He's already said that he looked toward the utterly bonkers horror film "Malignant" for inspiration, so there's no telling how far he's going to take the character. With so many previous Draculas to draw on, from Bela Lugosi to Gary Oldman, which Dracula actors is Cage looking for in his performance? The actor has had a few words to say about this, some more surprising than others.

Piecing Together Dracula's Look

We'd previously seen set photos of Nicolas Cage dressed up as Dracula, but the trailer gave us our first in-context look and glimpse of his performance. In the trailer scene, Dracula wears rings across his fingers, a black overcoat with fur shoulders, and walks with a cane (presumably just for show). Rather than two thick fangs, his entire maw is filled with thin pointed teeth. His skin seems to be pale white, but the lighting makes it look sickly green.

Cage spoke to Collider about how Dracula's look was developed. According to Cage, not a lot of the look came from him:

"There were a ton of super-talented people on that movie that helped design the look. We wanted it to be more homage, more Christopher Lee. I favored Christopher Lee as Dracula and I liked his kind of '60s hairdo, but the wardrobe, the costume, and no, I didn't come up with the idea for the rings. That all came out of a wardrobe. They came in with all that. Maybe they sent something in me that I would like that, but that was really their contribution."

Sir Christopher Lee played Dracula in seven movies for Hammer Films, from "Dracula" in 1958 to "The Satanic Rites of Dracula" in 1973; he probably would have been the Dracula who Cage (born in 1964) grew up with. As for how the influence is manifesting — Cage does indeed have the same slicked-back hair as Lee's Dracula. While Dracula is famously Transylvanian, Lee kept his aristocratic British baritone for the part. Cage, based on the trailer, seems to be doing a British/Transatlantic accent as well.

Finding The Count's Voice

While speaking to Variety about his upcoming film "Butcher's Crossing," Nicolas Cage teased his Dracula voice and discussed its origins: "[It's] kind of an amalgamation of a sort mid-Atlantic August Coppola accent combined with some Christopher Lee, with some Anne Bancroft thrown in for good measure." Again Cage mentions Christopher Lee, but the other two inspirations are surprising. August Coppola, an academic focused on literature and the arts, was Cage's father. In another interview with Post Cred Pod, Cage talked about how and why he channeled his father to play Dracula:

"[My father] had a Mid-Atlantic accent [...] You want to know why I talk like this Nicolas? Because I made a decision to speak with distinction. I'm a literature professor, that's how I talk [...] So I just thought, Dad looks like Christopher Lee, Dad kind of sounds like he's in a Hammer Horror film, and I did Dad in 'Vampire's Kiss,' so I'm gonna bring him back from the afterlife as Dracula."

As for Anne Bancroft, you might remember her as Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate." Like Dracula, Robinson is a character who seduces others and maintains an imbalanced power dynamic. That makes the influence strangely fitting.

One actor who Cage surprisingly hasn't mentioned as an influence is Klaus Kinski, who played Dracula in Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu the Vampyre." Cage once said he aspired to be the "California Klaus Kinski." In the Post Cred Pod interview, Cage does cite "Nosferatu" as an influence, but the 1922 original, where "Count Orlok" was played by Max Schreck.

Cage's Dracula certainly sounds like a melting pot of disparate influences. When a character's been around for so long and has been played by so many actors, such an approach makes sense.

Read this next: The Best Horror Movie Performances Of 2022

The post Nicolas Cage Looked to This Classic Dracula to Inspire His Performance in Renfield appeared first on /Film.

For so many of us, it's hard to remember a time when "Star Wars" wasn't a ubiquitous piece of western culture. It doesn't matter whether the prequels took you out of it all, if the originals are your favorite, if you loved or hated the sequels, or if you care at all about the Disney+ offerings. It's part of the world we live in, and it will always be a huge entry into the world of sci-fi and movies overall.

There was a time, however, before the first film came out in 1977 when very few people believed it would succeed. Creator George Lucas had seen some breakout success as the writer and director of "American Graffiti" in 1973, which opened the door to him getting to make "Star Wars," but sci-fi wasn't necessarily regarded as high art in the years before that. There were, of course, well-received sci-fi films prior to that (think "2001: A Space Odyssey"). Still, the genre didn't have the cache it does today. I remember asking my own father about it a few years ago, and he said, "No one thought this would be anything other than the usual sci-fi stuff. And then we saw it, and everything changed."

Among those who thought "Star Wars" might actually work were Harrison Ford -- or so the actor told Empire in a 2002 interview (rerun in 2019), in which he looked back at his legendary role as rogue pilot Han Solo in the franchise.

'It Was A Long Time Ago And Far, Far Away'

When "Star Wars" came around, Harrison Ford had already worked with George Lucas on "American Graffiti." It's a good thing he knew the director because he was only getting $2,000 a week "in wages and expenses" for the role of Han Solo, according to the Empire interview. Ford wasn't a fresh young actor like co-stars Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher. He was 35 at the time, and "had some degree of maturity and some degree of experience, yet physically I still looked young. That had been an impediment early on in my career, but then it turned out to be an advantage," he explained. Considering how good he still looks in 2023 playing Jacob Dutton in the TV series "1923," it's still working for him.

Though he joked about that first film being "a long time ago and far, far away," it still looms large. Ford believed in the film, particularly its mythological elements. He told Empire: 

"I was one of the few people who thought it was going to work, and I hadn't even seen any special effects. I just thought George [Lucas] had tapped into something primordial, some myth that I recognized the power of. The wise old warrior played by Alec Guinness, the callow prince played by Mark Hamill, the princess played by Carrie Fisher -- and I knew that I was the rapscallion of the universe. 

"And I thought it was funny. I always thought 'Star Wars' and 'Indiana Jones' were basically comedies. The humor came out of their relationships; it came out of the fact that we were basically types."

The Myth That Inspired Star Wars

The "myth" that Harrison Ford mentioned to Empire came from the world of mythologist Joseph Campbell, who wrote (among other titles) "The Hero With a Thousand Faces," something that heavily influenced George Lucas' work on "Star Wars." Campbell explored archetypes and universal themes that go along with so many stories of young heroes worldwide, across cultures and lands, and how the idea of a hero's journey speaks to something deep within us. Lucas had clearly tapped into that with his script.

The humor Ford brought up was also a huge part of "Star Wars" for me as a little girl, and remains so. Though Ford has voiced his criticism of Lucas' dialogue writing before (and to Lucas directly), I still find myself giggling at lines like, "We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?" despite the fact that I've heard it hundreds of times. (Okay, it's mostly for Ford's delivery, but still.)

Ford was obviously correct, as we can see all these years later, and friends, I recommend doing a rewatch of the original "Star Wars" film. I spent a bit watching clips for this story, and I feel compelled to give it yet another viewing, even though I can recite every line in my sleep. If you want to do the same, all the "Star Wars" films are currently streaming on Disney+.

Read this next: Star Wars Characters That Are More Important Than You Knew

The post Harrison Ford Was One Of The 'Few People' Who Actually Thought Star Wars Could Work appeared first on /Film.

I'm of two minds about "Renfield" after watching the trailer. On the one hand, the idea of dropping Dracula and his long-suffering familiar in a modern world where the toxic, unequal nature of their relationship is clear as day to anyone sounds like a great premise for a horror comedy. Nicholas Hoult has found his niche in playing characters like Renfield, e.g. people who are both kind of terrible, if not outright deplorable, yet oddly engaging, as seen in his work on films like "The Favourite" and "The Menu" (not to mention his ongoing turn as the lovable a-hole Peter III on "The Great").

On the other hand, the "Renfield" trailer is disconcertingly heavy on fight scenes for a movie with a setup that seems to lend itself more to a character-driven vampire comedy in the vein (darn it, that joke's too easy) of "What We Do in the Shadows," and having Renfield gain superpowers from eating bugs is certainly a choice. Still, director Chris McKay showed he can balance action with humor while getting to the heart of what makes a pop cultural icon tick with "The LEGO Batman Movie," so there's fair reason to believe he can do it again with "Renfield." That and it's possible, perhaps even likely, the trailer was edited to make McKay's film appear far more action-heavy than it really is.

Equally uncertain is Nicolas Cage's actual screen time as Count Vlad. The movie's trailer is mostly one long buildup to the reveal of the Oscar winner and meme generator as old Drac-y, yet the actor himself is already cautioning people: "Renfield" is very much Hoult's film and not his.

'It's Really Nick Hoult's Movie'

When you hire Nicolas Cage to play one of the most famous monsters in movie history, you know most people are going to assume he's the film's true star, no matter what it's called. So it has gone with "Renfield," a movie that was overshadowed by Cage's casting as Bram Stoker's legendary blood-sucker from the moment it was announced. Thankfully, the actor is taking the time to clarify his role in the film and adjust expectations, as he did in an interview with Collider:

"The movie's really not about me, Dracula rather, I don't have a lot of screen time. It's really Nick Hoult's movie, and it's about Renfield. I didn't have the time, like the two-hour narrative to really dig deep into Dracula's pathos per se. It's not that. But I did have enough screen time to be able to try to develop a pop-art style to the character that hopefully will be a nice contribution to the other performers that have done it, that have had their take on this legendary character in both literature and cinema."

Circling back to "The LEGO Batman Movie," one of the many things Chris McKay did so well in that film is create a version of Bat's arch-nemesis, the Joker, who is multi-faceted and unlike any other onscreen iteration of the super-villain, yet never pulls attention away from the Caped Crusader and his own personal journey. Ideally, in between scenes of Dracula feasting on his victims and Renfield deploying his insect-powered fisticuffs (even Wednesday Addams knows kung fu now, it's just the world we live in), the director will succeed in doing something similar with Cage's creature of the night. Gotta start 2023 off hopeful, right?

"Renfield" hits theaters on April 7, 2023.

Read this next: Horror Movies That Make Us Root For The Villain

The post Nicolas Cage Says He Doesn't Have a Lot of Screentime in Renfield appeared first on /Film.

"Creed III," the ninth film in the overall series of "Rocky" films that first started in 1976, is a vast departure from every other movie in the franchise thus far for one key reason: the absence of Sylvester Stallone. What began as a passion project Stallone had to fight to be a part of soon transformed into a series of films about the indomitable human spirit (featuring some truly inspiring and incredibly training montages). The legacy sequel "Creed," released in 2015 and directed by Ryan Coogler, brought Rocky back into the spotlight in a new and dramatic way, as the film focused on Apollo Creed's illegitimate son Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) as he trains under the tutelage of Balboa. The film even earned Stallone an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The success "Creed" had in revitalizing the "Rocky" franchise led to the 2018 sequel "Creed II," which brought back old rival Ivan Drago from the legendary "Rocky IV," a film that's been jokingly said to have singlehandedly ended the Cold War. Adonis Creed's journey from being an unknown boxer to being thrust into the spotlight and facing the demons from his father's past put Rocky in a substantial supporting role. However, "Creed II" ended on a melancholic note for Stallone's character; after the climactic fight ended, Rocky told Adonis, "It's your time." As it turns out, this foreshadows the character's absence in "Creed III," although from the sound of it, Stallone bowed out of the upcoming sequel because he had different ideas for where it should go.

Creed III Is 'A Different Philosophy'

In a piece from The Hollywood Reporter focusing on Stallone and his career, the actor talked about his absence from "Creed III." Stallone is usually very involved in the behind-the-scenes creative process with the "Rocky" films, having directed most of them save for the original, "Rocky V," and the "Creed" films. Stallone has also received writing credits for every film in the franchise except for "Creed" as well as "Creed III." Unfortunately, his departure from "Creed III" was mainly because first-time director Michael B. Jordan and others involved with the project wanted to take the series somewhere different, both tonally and philosophically:

"That's a regretful situation because I know what it could have been. It was taken in a direction that is quite different than I would've taken it. It's a different philosophy — Irwin Winkler's [Producer] and Michael B. Jordan's."

There's no ill will towards the team making "Creed III," as Stallone only sees the film as something darker than he expects for the franchise he created. The focus on Adonis and his childhood friend Damian (Jonathan Majors) will have more intense undertones that the Rocky actor would have stayed away from:

"I wish them well, but I'm much more of a sentimentalist. I like my heroes getting beat up, but I just don't want them going into that dark space. I just feel people have enough darkness."

A Departure From The 'Rocky Tempo'

We can speculate about what exactly Stallone would have changed about the script, whether it be making the opponent in the film another legacy character or making the film more lighthearted. However, the real question should be why Stallone decided not to participate in the movie. The actor is very vocal on social media about his involvement in the films he makes, and he wasn't shy when talking about the changes he made to the scripts to fit the "Rocky tempo," as he described in an Instagram post. In that same message, Stallone said about the "Creed" films that "every scene I was in those films, I wrote too, so it would be very comfortable for me to perform in."

The first trailer for "Creed III" hints that this could be the most personal for Adonis, as Jonathan Majors' character is a close friend of Creed's from childhood. The film looks to capture the similar tone and feel of the first "Creed," especially the opening scene, which showed a young Adonis in a youth detention center. The focus on this past relationship may have left little room for the character of Rocky Balboa, and when pairing that with what Stallone suggests to be a darker film, it makes more sense why the actor decided to bow out entirely. Nevertheless, the track record of these films indicates Rocky's absence is all in service of telling an engaging story. It will be interesting to see how audiences receive "Creed III" when the film releases on March 3, 2023.

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

The post If Sylvester Stallone Had Written Creed III, It Would Have Gone In A Different Direction appeared first on /Film.

(Welcome to Animation Celebration, a recurring feature where we explore the limitless possibilities of animation as a medium. In this edition: "I Married a Strange Person!")

In the 1990s, MTV ran an animated showcase called "Liquid Television," which was a groundbreaking collection of early computer-animated shorts, highly-influential hand-drawn shorts, and was the launchpad for several high-profile originals, like Mike Judge's "Beavis and Butt-Head" and "Æon Flux." MTV snagged some of the most adventurous and experimental shorts from seasoned animators and designers of the era, including Charles Burns, Richard Sala, David Daniels, and Bill Plympton.

The latter was behind the 1987 Academy Awards-nominated short, "Your Face," which featured a man singing about the face of his love, as his own face begins to distort into increasingly unusual positions. He would go on to direct the animated musical feature, "The Tune," which was self-funded and incorporated footage from his shorts "The Wiseman," "Dig My Do," and "Tango Schmango." His success with "The Tune" proved that Plympton could pull off a feature film, but his follow-up, "I Married a Strange Person!" is arguably his magnum opus.

"I Married a Strange Person!" is about a man named Grant Boyer who is struck by a beam of mysterious energy from a satellite dish, that completely changes the way he experiences reality. Suddenly, Grant has the ability to change the state of things, people, and objects to whatever he desires or imagines. Sometimes it's an act of revenge, like making his judgemental in-laws eat bugs, or sometimes it's absolutely absurd, like turning his new wife's breasts into balloon animals. His newly developed ability puts a strain on his new marriage, quickly making him the target of those hoping to manipulate his power for their own whims.

Bill Plympton Is An Animation God

Bill Plympton's animation style is so specifically unique, it can only be described in reference to the man who made it. It's scratchy, intentionally imperfect, exaggerated, chaotic, and impossible to ignore. His character designs look like the result of the early sketches of a Tex Avery Cartoon crashing headfirst with the surreal body horror of a David Cronenberg film. At the same time, the sex and violence play out like a 1970s exploitation illustrated with children's colored pencils and boasts a sense of humor that feels at home with the filmography of John Waters. "I Married a Strange Person!" encapsulates all of these elements with ease, and knowing that he single-handedly drew the entire film on his own is nothing short of miraculous.

"I Married a Strange Person!" showcases how animation is the perfect medium to tell not-so-child-friendly stories, as the imaginative world of Grant Boyer would look truly ridiculous if set in the realm of possibility. The specific tone Plympton achieves would be lost if the story was told in any other way, as the over-exaggerated physical features would end up looking like something out of Willy Wonka's factory. The proportions are out of control, bodies are manipulated beyond recognition, and no matter how grotesque the imagery is, every frame is mesmerizing beauty. During the film's climax, when Grant literally explodes a man in front of a live studio audience, it feels like the natural conclusion for his unchecked powers. This is the moment the entire film has been building toward, and you can't help but cheer when the film finally goes for it. It's gruesome, it's beautiful, and it's purely Plympton.

The Heart Of American-Made Animation

Bill Plympton's style is, at its core, alternative and underground. Every scene in "I Married a Strange Person!" is reminiscent of the kinds of illustrated sketches found in dirty magazines, or the childish, absurd monstrosities that fascinated college kids in the '90s in the pages of zines. Everything about Plympton's work is reminiscent of the adventurous styles of American animation that don't always get the credit they deserve. Ralph Bakshi was instrumental in laying the groundwork so folks like Plympton could thrive, but considering he made "The Lord of the Rings" and the Brad Pitt-starring "Cool World," in addition to his more provocative works like "Fritz the Cat," he's easily cited for future generations to check out.

Plympton is still working today but is seldom brought up in the same conversations, despite absolutely deserving to be there. His work is just as bombastic, extravagant, and loaded with sex, politics, and violence, and yet he's still self-financing his features, like "Cheatin'" and "Revengeance." More than 180 of Plympton's items are held at the Academy Film Archive (as they should be) and he's still crafting shorts, music videos, and commercials, and raised over $84,000 on Kickstarter for his animated comedy western, "Slide." If there's any evidence needed to prove that Hollywood doesn't appreciate the animated medium the way it should, it's the fact a two-time Oscar winner with an unbelievable catalog is forced to crowdfund his projects.

Bill Plympton is a seminal figure in the world of animation, and thanks to the accessibility of films like "I Married a Strange Person!" on streaming services like Tubi TV and Plex, there's no better time to fall in love with his work and keep the world of Plymptoons alive.

Read this next: The Best Animation For Adults Of 2022

The post Bill Plympton's I Married A Strange Person! Is A Glorious, Grotesque, And Gutsy Display Of Alternative Animation appeared first on /Film.

Can you imagine a world without the magic of the "M3GAN" dance? For TikTok users, horror fans, and queer people everywhere, the killer android doll's hallway dance has already become an indelible and endlessly entertaining part of the pop cultural zeitgeist. Even before audiences caught the movie on the big screen and witnessed M3GAN twirling and flailing to Skatt Bros' "Walk the Night" like a glitched-out ballerina, we knew and loved the dance after catching the movie's first trailer. 

M3GAN's reputation preceded her, as the surprise box office hit earned strong buzz from folks who watched the dance again and again — even attempting to recreate it — back in October. Apparently, though, the man behind the movie initially didn't want audiences to see M3GAN bust a move before theatrical release.

M3GAN's Killer Dance Took The Internet By Storm

In an interview with Variety, filmmaker Gerard Johnstone reveals that he originally voiced concerns that the trailer was revealing too much, including the dance scene that comes late in the film during a particularly satisfying and hilarious death scene. "I was so happy to be proved wrong by Universal," Johnstone says, "who didn't really listen to me when I said that we were giving away too much." The trailer frankly does give a lot away, from the scene in which M3GAN chases a schoolboy through the woods on all fours to the moment when she brandishes a power tool at her owner's neighbor.

But including the dance sequence in nearly its entirety, cross-cut with other shots in a way that make it even funnier, turned out to be a stroke of genius. The #M3GAN tag on TikTok currently has 964 million views on TikTok, thanks in large part to the dance performed by actor Amie Donald and the countless imitations it inspired. The moves caught on in part because they're so weird, incorporating a front flip and a random wall grab before M3GAN starts menacingly brandishing a large metal paper cutter blade. According to Johnstone, Donald and her dance coach came up with a handful of choreography options for the dance itself, and while they were a lot different than the "shimmy" the filmmaker imagined, they turned out to be perfect.

It's 'The Gift That Keeps On Giving'

"They were all very strange and not what I had in mind at all, but they were all kind of great and weird and disturbing," Johnstone tells Variety. Still, the filmmaker apparently wanted to keep some of the best moments of "M3GAN" out of the trailers (mission accomplished, I'd say, because we still got "Titanium" in theaters only). In the end, Johnstone calls the dance "the gift that keeps on giving." He describes the cast and crew of the movie as in a bubble ahead of its release, unsure how the rest of the world would react to the kooky dance number. "The bubble burst in a big way when that trailer dropped," he says.

Producer James Wan was apparently just as surprised by the ubiquity of the dance after the trailer's debut. "That came organically," he told SyFy Wire, adding, "You can't really force something to go viral. When something latches on to the zeitgeist, it just does." And boy, did M3GAN's dance latch on like a tiny animatronic hand clutching a blade the size of a robot girl's body. "M3GAN" trailer editor, we bow down to you.

"M3GAN" is now in theaters

Read this next: Horror Movies You Don't Want To Miss In 2023

The post M3GAN Director Gerard Johnstone Didn't Originally Want The Viral Dance Number In The Trailer appeared first on /Film.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Amendments to Building Regulations 2010 were announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) on January 6th that mandate new homes constructed in England to be fitted with infrastructure and connections required to achieve gigabit internet connectivity. Connection costs will be capped at £2,000 per home, and developers must still install gigabit-ready infrastructure (including ducts, chambers, and termination points) and the fastest-available connection if they're unable to secure a gigabit connection within the cost cap. The UK government estimates that 98 percent of installations will fall comfortably under that cap, so it's likely been put in place to avoid spiraling chargings in remote, rural areas that need widescale line upgrades. Properties constructed in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland may be exempt from this new legislation as each country sets its own building regulations independently from England. The new legislation was introduced on December 26th, 2022, following a 12-month technical consultation that indicated around 12 percent of 171,190 new homes constructed in England didn't have gigabit broadband access upon completion. DCMS claims that gigabit broadband is currently available in over 72 percent of UK households and is targeting full nationwide gigabit-capable broadband coverage across the UK by 2030. In order to meet that goal, another law has also been introduced to make it easier to install faster internet connections into existing flats and apartments. Previously, millions of tenants living in the UK's estimated 480,000 multi-dwelling units (MDUs) needed to obtain permission from the landowner to allow a broadband operator to install connection upgrades. Broadband companies estimate that around 40 percent of these requests are ignored by landlords, leaving tenants unable to upgrade their services even if they're unfit for use. Now, the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act 2021 (TILPA) allows broadband providers in England and Wales to seek access rights via court if landlords and land owners don't respond to installation requests within 35 days. "An additional 2,100 residential buildings a year are estimated to be connected to faster broadband speeds as a result of these new rules, and similar legislation is due to come into force in Scotland later this year," adds the report. "The existing appeals process that allows landlords to refuse access requests will not be affected."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Foundation cracks can be the stuff of nightmares for homeowners. They conjure visions of excessive repair bills or worse–turning a once-functional structure into a teardown. But not all foundations are equal, and not all foundation cracks are either. There are some cracks that aren’t such a big deal, and some that can…

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Security researchers at Microsoft are flagging ransomware attacks on Apple’s flagship macOS operating system, warning that financially motivated cybercriminals are abusing legitimate macOS functionalities to exploit vulnerabilities, evade defenses, or coerce users to infect their devices.

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We're back for the new year with lots to talk about, including a rundown of gaming-related stuff at CES, our holiday break comfort games, Potioncraft, Potionomics (those are two different games!), Against the Storm, and more! This week's music:  Cellar Door - Death

A new attack vector targeting the Visual Studio Code extensions marketplace could be leveraged to upload rogue extensions masquerading as their legitimate counterparts with the goal of mounting supply chain attacks. The technique "could act as an entry point for an attack on many organizations," Aqua security researcher Ilay Goldman said in a report published last week. VS Code extensions,

The country’s surge in cases is a human tragedy but isn’t showing signs of changing the Covid picture in the West—where the virus is already running free.

Earlier this year, threat actors infiltrated Mailchimp, the popular SaaS email marketing platform. They viewed over 300 Mailchimp customer accounts and exported audience data from 102 of them. The breach was preceded by a successful phishing attempt and led to malicious attacks against Mailchimp’s customers’ end users. Three months later, Mailchimp was hit with another attack. Once again, an

I grew up in upstate New York without a garage, so I consider myself fairly skilled in the art of car de-icing—or so I thought. Ice storms have become more common in Portland since I moved here over a decade ago, and with each storm I get less confident in my ability to liberate my windshield. As it turns out, I…

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While RTX Remix is not yet available to the public, modders continue injecting the files from Portal RTX into classic PC games with promising results.

YouTube user ALG46 shared a video showcase of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, which the RTX Remix ray traced renderer literally transforms into a near-modern-looking game. Morrowind was one of the games picked by NVIDIA for its RTX Remix showcase, though it won't get the full remake treatment like Portal RTX. ALG46 also noted that currently, the game crashes when trying to load exteriors. Hopefully, a fix can be found sooner than later.

Another popular game among RTX Remix modders is Valve's Half-Life 2. The current version (unlike the proper one that will be released by NVIDIA) of RTX Remix is very limited, so the user GalaxyHighMarshal from the main Discord server has begun reworking Half-Life 2 textures with Physically Based Rendering (PBR) properties via NVIDIA's Omniverse. As you'll remember from our earlier articles, Omniverse is tightly connected with RTX Remix, so modders will be able to port their work onto the software once it is released.

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Another interesting showcase comes from YouTube user @bagger288, who is working on an RTX Remix test of Blizzard's World of Warcraft (Wrath of the Lich King 3.3.5 patch).

In the video above, you can witness Ironforge, the capital of the dwarves, rendered with physically based materials. The modder often toggles the enhanced PBR assets on and off, showcasing a big graphical improvement. However, he also clarified in the YouTube comments that all terrain and grass texture are currently missing when loading the game.

At CES 2023, NVIDIA did not provide a concrete release date for RTX Remix. However, they did say public early access would be coming soon. We also know they have already sent the tool to the original creators of the Portal: Prelude fan-made prequel.

The post RTX Remix Early Showcases Greatly Boost Visuals of Morrowind, Half-Life 2, and WoW by Alessio Palumbo appeared first on Wccftech.

Identity thieves have been exploiting a glaring security weakness in the website of Experian, one of the big three consumer credit reporting bureaus. Normally, Experian requires that those seeking a copy of their credit report successfully answer several multiple choice questions about their financial history. But until the end of 2022, Experian’s website allowed anyone to bypass these questions and go straight to the consumer’s report. All that was needed was the person’s name, address, birthday and Social Security number.

In December, KrebsOnSecurity heard from Jenya Kushnir, a security researcher living in Ukraine who said he discovered the method being used by identity thieves after spending time on Telegram chat channels dedicated to the cashing out of compromised identities.

“I want to try and help to put a stop to it and make it more difficult for [ID thieves] to access, since [Experian is] not doing shit and regular people struggle,” Kushnir wrote in an email to KrebsOnSecurity explaining his motivations for reaching out. “If somehow I can make small change and help to improve this, inside myself I can feel that I did something that actually matters and helped others.”

Kushnir said the crooks learned they could trick Experian into giving them access to anyone’s credit report, just by editing the address displayed in the browser URL bar at a specific point in Experian’s identity verification process.

Following Kushnir’s instructions, I sought a copy of my credit report from Experian via annualcreditreport.com — a website that is required to provide all Americans with a free copy of their credit report from each of the three major reporting bureaus, once per year.

Annualcreditreport.com begins by asking for your name, address, SSN and birthday. After I supplied that and told Annualcreditreport.com I wanted my report from Experian, I was taken to Experian.com to complete the identity verification process.

Normally at this point, Experian’s website would present four or five multiple-guess questions, such as “Which of the following addresses have you lived at?”

Kushnir told me that when the questions page loads, you simply change the last part of the URL from “/acr/oow/” to “/acr/report,” and the site would display the consumer’s full credit report.

But when I tried to get my report from Experian via annualcreditreport.com, Experian’s website said it didn’t have enough information to validate my identity. It wouldn’t even show me the four multiple-guess questions. Experian said I had three options for a free credit report at this point: Mail a request along with identity documents, call a phone number for Experian, or upload proof of identity via the website.

But that didn’t stop Experian from showing me my full credit report after I changed the Experian URL as Kushnir had instructed — modifying the error page’s trailing URL from “/acr/OcwError” to simply “/acr/report”.

Experian’s website then immediately displayed my entire credit file.

Even though Experian said it couldn’t tell that I was actually me, it still coughed up my report. And thank goodness it did. The report contains so many errors that it’s probably going to take a good deal of effort on my part to straighten out.

Now I know why Experian has NEVER let me view my own file via their website. For example, there were four phone numbers on my Experian credit file: Only one of them was mine, and that one hasn’t been mine for ages.

I was so dumbfounded by Experian’s incompetence that I asked a close friend and trusted security source to try the method on her identity file at Experian. Sure enough, when she got to the part where Experian asked questions, changing the last part of the URL in her address bar to “/report” bypassed the questions and immediately displayed her full credit report. Her report also was replete with errors.

KrebsOnSecurity shared Kushnir’s findings with Experian on Dec. 23, 2022. On Dec. 27, 2022, Experian’s PR team acknowledged receipt of my Dec. 23 notification, but the company has so far ignored multiple requests for comment or clarification.

By the time Experian confirmed receipt of my report, the “exploit” Kushnir said he learned from the identity thieves on Telegram had been patched and no longer worked. But it remains unclear how long Experian’s website was making it so easy to access anyone’s credit report.

In response to information shared by KrebsOnSecurity, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said he was disappointed — but not at all surprised — to hear about yet another cybersecurity lapse at Experian.

“The credit bureaus are poorly regulated, act as if they are above the law and have thumbed their noses at Congressional oversight,” Wyden said in a written statement. “Just last year, Experian ignored repeated briefing requests from my office after you revealed another cybersecurity lapse the company.”

Sen. Wyden’s quote above references a story published here in July 2022, which broke the news that identity thieves were hijacking consumer accounts at Experian.com just by signing up as them at Experian once more, supplying the target’s static, personal information (name, DoB/SSN, address) but a different email address.

From interviews with multiple victims who contacted KrebsOnSecurity after that story, it emerged that Experian’s own customer support representatives were actually telling consumers who got locked out of their Experian accounts to recreate their accounts using their personal information and a new email address. This was Experian’s advice even for people who’d just explained that this method was what identity thieves had used to lock them in out in the first place.

Clearly, Experian found it simpler to respond this way, rather than acknowledging the problem and addressing the root causes (lazy authentication and abhorrent account recovery practices). It’s also worth mentioning that reports of hijacked Experian.com accounts persisted into late 2022. That screw-up has since prompted a class action lawsuit against Experian.

Sen. Wyden said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) need to do much more to protect Americans from screw-ups by the credit bureaus.

“If they don’t believe they have the authority to do so, they should endorse legislation like my Mind Your Own Business Act, which gives the FTC power to set tough mandatory cybersecurity standards for companies like Experian,” Wyden said.

Sadly, none of this is terribly shocking behavior for Experian, which has shown itself a completely negligent custodian of obscene amounts of highly sensitive consumer information.

In April 2021, KrebsOnSecurity revealed how identity thieves were exploiting lax authentication on Experian’s PIN retrieval page to unfreeze consumer credit files. In those cases, Experian failed to send any notice via email when a freeze PIN was retrieved, nor did it require the PIN to be sent to an email address already associated with the consumer’s account.

A few days after that April 2021 story, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that an Experian API was exposing the credit scores of most Americans.

It’s bad enough that we can’t really opt out of companies like Experian making $2.6 billion each quarter collecting and selling gobs of our personal and financial information. But there has to be some meaningful accountability when these monopolistic companies engage in negligent and reckless behavior with the very same consumer data that feeds their quarterly profits. Or when security and privacy shortcuts are found to be intentional, like for cost-saving reasons.

And as we saw with Equifax’s consolidated class-action settlement in response to letting state-sponsored hackers from China steal data on nearly 150 million Americans back in 2017, class-actions and more laughable “free credit monitoring” services from the very same companies that created the problem aren’t going to cut it.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

It is easy to adopt a defeatist attitude with the credit bureaus, who often foul things up royally even for consumers who are quite diligent about watching their consumer credit files and disputing any inaccuracies.

But there are some concrete steps that everyone can take which will dramatically lower the risk that identity thieves will ruin your financial future. And happily, most of these steps have the side benefit of costing the credit bureaus money, or at least causing the data they collect about you to become less valuable over time.

The first step is awareness. Find out what these companies are saying about you behind your back. Keep in mind that — fair or not — your credit score as collectively determined by these bureaus can affect whether you get that loan, apartment, or job. In that context, even small, unintentional errors that are unrelated to identity theft can have outsized consequences for consumers down the road.

Each bureau is required to provide a free copy of your credit report every year. The easiest way to get yours is through annualcreditreport.com.

Some consumers report that this site never works for them, and that each bureau will insist they don’t have enough information to provide a report. I am definitely in this camp. Thankfully, a financial institution that I already have a relationship with offers the ability to view your credit file through them. Your mileage on this front may vary, and you may end up having to send copies of your identity documents through the mail or website.

When you get your report, look for anything that isn’t yours, and then document and file a dispute with the corresponding credit bureau. And after you’ve reviewed your report, set a calendar reminder to recur every four months, reminding you it’s time to get another free copy of your credit file.

If you haven’t already done so, consider making 2023 the year that you freeze your credit files at the three major reporting bureaus, including Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. It is now free to people in all 50 U.S. states to place a security freeze on their credit files. It is also free to do this for your partner and/or your dependents.

Freezing your credit means no one who doesn’t already have a financial relationship with you can view your credit file, making it unlikely that potential creditors will grant new lines of credit in your name to identity thieves. Freezing your credit file also means Experian and its brethren can no longer sell peeks at your credit history to others.

Anytime you wish to apply for new credit or a new job, or open an account at a utility or communications provider, you can quickly thaw a freeze on your credit file, and set it to freeze automatically again after a specified length of time.

Please don’t confuse a credit freeze (a.k.a. “security freeze”) with the alternative that the bureaus will likely steer you towards when you ask for a freeze: “Credit lock” services.

The bureaus pitch these credit lock services as a way for consumers to easily toggle their credit file availability with push of a button on a mobile app, but they do little to prevent the bureaus from continuing to sell your information to others.

My advice: Ignore the lock services, and just freeze your credit files already.

One final note. Frequent readers here will have noticed that I’ve criticized these so-called “knowledge-based authentication” or KBA questions that Experian’s website failed to ask as part of its consumer verification process.

KrebsOnSecurity has long assailed KBA as weak authentication because the questions and answers are drawn largely from consumer records that are public and easily accessible to organized identity theft groups.

That said, given that these KBA questions appear to be the ONLY thing standing between me and my Experian credit report, it seems like maybe they should at least take care to ensure that those questions actually get asked.

[link] [58 comments]

The characters of "Stranger Things" have been through a lot. For starters, there's that whole "one of my best friends disappeared into the woods one night and now no one knows where he is" thing that kicked everything off in season 1. From there, though, things have just kind of snowballed. It turns out that living in Hawkins, Indiana is as eventful as building your home in a guaranteed flood zone, only with decidedly more demogorgons and you know, cracks in the fabric of time and space that lead to another, more hellish version of your world. 

And even though Will, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and their friends definitely do not get paid enough to deal with all the near-death experiences that they consistently seem to find themselves in, the actors who play them absolutely do. In fact, the most recent salaries for the cast of the show are enough to make anyone's mind flay for real.

Cost Of Living In Hawkins, Indiana

Unless you've been living in the upside down for the last six years, you know that "Stranger Things" is kind of a big deal. It's one of Netflix's most-watched shows, and its popularity no doubt helped the stars of the series in cashing out much bigger paydays for the upcoming final season. In a recent article on Puck News, the results of salary negotiations were revealed (a process that sounded fairly complex due in large part to a specific California Law that allowed lawyers to re-negotiate their clients' contracts), and the numbers are mind-boggling. 

According to Puck News, the salaries were arranged in tiers with the most prominent actors (I.E. Winona Ryder and David Harbour) placed in the highest category. Tier 1 sees Ryder and Harbour bringing in a whopping $9.5 million for the whole season, while tier 2 is set to pay the show's arguably most important actors — Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, and Sadie Sink — a staggering $7 million. Sink, who plays fan-favorite Max Mayfield, reportedly made a strong argument for why she should be included amongst the tier 2 actors despite her character first being introduced in season 2. Tier 3 of the pay scale consists of the show's other heavy hitters — Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, and Maya Hawke — and they are set to make only slightly less than their tier 2 comrades at $6 million for the season. Tier 4 is the tier for everyone else involved, who Puck News reports will make "much less."

The Missing Number

Glaringly absent from any of the tiers is Millie Bobby Brown who was not part of the salary negotiations for season 5. This is because Brown has her own deal with Netflix that keeps her comfortable. She reportedly made $10 million alone to star in the "Enola Holmes" sequel, and she will also be in the Netflix-released 2024 sci-fi flick, "The Electric State." 

Puck News is quick to point out that while the individual salaries of each cast member are not that ludicrous for a show as insanely popular as "Stranger Things," because there are so many series regulars in the Upside Down, those numbers start to add up pretty quickly making season 5 a "pretty pricey season of TV." It should also be noted that the salaries for each actor are for 10 episodes even though the show's last season will only consist of eight, a move that seeks to bring down the on-paper cost that each actor is making per episode so that the company has an easier time negotiating payments for other shows (sneaky). The extra money is also meant to make up for the longer episodes in season 4 and possibly season 5.

Indie Wire states that other major TV shows like "Game of Thrones" and "Friends" saw the main actors making similar, if not bigger, salaries for their work on these major shows. Still, it's pretty impressive to see just how much it costs to populate Hawkins, Indiana. Though, I personally feel that Noah Schnapp can't be paid enough to sport one of the most frightening haircuts to ever grace our TV screens. 

Read this next: The 15 Best Anthology TV Series Ranked

The post The Stranger Things Cast Will Make Enough Money to Buy the Upside Down in Season 5 appeared first on /Film.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and machinery manufacturer Deere signed a memorandum of understanding on Sunday that ensures farmers have the right to repair their own farm equipment or go to an independent technician. From a report: As the agriculture sector accelerates its adoption of technology, the reliance on high-tech machinery such as GPS-guided combines and tractors has become more common-place. But equipment makers such as Deere have generally required customers to use their parts and service divisions for repairs and until recently, only allowed authorized dealers the means and tools to access the complex computerized systems of their tractors and other machinery. The Farm Bureau's memorandum of understanding with Deere "will ensure farmers everywhere are able to repair our own equipment," Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall said, speaking at the federation's convention in Puerto Rico.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Identity thieves have been exploiting a glaring security weakness in the website of Experian, one of the big three consumer credit reporting bureausBrian Krebs reported Monday. From the report: Normally, Experian requires that those seeking a copy of their credit report successfully answer several multiple choice questions about their financial history. But until the end of 2022, Experian's website allowed anyone to bypass these questions and go straight to the consumer's report. All that was needed was the person's name, address, birthday and Social Security number. In December, KrebsOnSecurity heard from Jenya Kushnir, a security researcher living in Ukraine who said he discovered the method being used by identity thieves after spending time on Telegram chat channels dedicated to the cashing out of compromised identities. "I want to try and help to put a stop to it and make it more difficult for [ID thieves] to access, since [Experian is] not doing shit and regular people struggle," Kushnir wrote in an email to KrebsOnSecurity explaining his motivations for reaching out. "If somehow I can make small change and help to improve this, inside myself I can feel that I did something that actually matters and helped others." Kushnir said the crooks learned they could trick Experian into giving them access to anyone's credit report, just by editing the address displayed in the browser URL bar at a specific point in Experian's identity verification process.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In a move that could change how more than a billion people write documents, presentations and emails, Microsoft has discussed incorporating OpenAI's artificial intelligence in Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and other apps so customers can automatically generate text using simple prompts, The Information reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the effort. From a report: These goals won't be easy to accomplish. For more than a year, Microsoft's engineers and researchers have worked to create personalized AI tools for composing emails and documents by applying OpenAI's machine-learning models to customers' private data, said another person with direct knowledge of the plan, which hasn't previously been reported. Engineers are developing methods to train these models on the customer data without it leaking to other customers or falling into the hands of bad actors, this person said. The AI-powered writing and editing tools also run the risk of turning off customers if those features introduce mistakes. Since 2019, the year Microsoft struck a pact to work with OpenAI on new technologies, both companies have been largely mum about how Microsoft would implement and commercialize them. Microsoft last year released Copilot, a highly touted tool that uses OpenAI technology to help programmers write computer code automatically. Then on Tuesday, The Information reported that Microsoft's Bing search plans to use OpenAI's ChatGPT technology, which can understand and generate polished text, to answer some search queries with full sentences rather than just showing a list of links. The machine-learning models behind ChatGPT are similar to the ones that power Copilot.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.