Maxim Bange

The PlayStation 4 will not support the use of external hard drives to store downloaded games or other data, Sony confirmed today in a post on the PlayStation Blog.

As part of the Ultimate FAQ on the PlayStation Blog, Sony revealed that the ability to hook up external drives to the PS4 is a feature not supported by the console.

The FAQ notes that users will be able to swap out and replace the console's stock 500GB hard drive, which is a a 5400 RPM SATA 2 model. Users can swap in new hard drives so long as they comply with those standards, are larger than 160GB and do not exceed a thickness of 9.5mm.

In August, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida confirmed in a tweet that content downloaded on the PS4 could not be saved to...

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Torrent website is back, with new backers

hares of Facebook Inc. surrendered a 14% after-hours gain in the extended session Wednesday during its third-quarter earnings analyst call, while Expedia Inc. shares surge as the company’s quarterly results top consensus expectations on quarterly results.

Facebook reported strong third-quarter results on Thursday afternoon, though a rally on the social network’s stock fizzled after the company made some disclosures about declining teen user growth and a more cautious plan for ramping up Newsfeed ads.

Ach. Wat schattig. De PVV wil dus tuigvrij beroepsonderwijs. Pesters, geweldplegers en het vaag gedefinieerde 'ander tuig' moeten uit het normale onderwijs gezet worden en naar een speciale hufter-ROC verplaatst worden. Beertema (PVV) was namelijk helemaal ontdaan van het PowNews-item...

Humor. Dit waarschuwingsbord bij de TU in Delft dat fietsers adviseert af te stappen bij harde woei is deze week omgewoeid door de Oktoberstorm des Doods. Hoe is het toch mogelijk? Zouden De Weergoden, of misschien God zelf er iets...

A speedier successor to the ThinkPad Tablet 2 is being developed by Lenovo as the company tries to add more tablets to its mix of personal computing portfolio.

A number of HTC devices including its flagship HTC One smartphone infringe on a Nokia mobile networks standards patent, a U.K. court ruled Wednesday.

Google en Yahoo hebben enorm veel data doorgestuurd naar datacenters van de NSA. Die tapte vervolgens ook stiekem de systemen van Google af.

Google en Yahoo hebben veel data doorgestuurd naar datacenters van de NSA. Die tapte vervolgens ook stiekem de systemen van Google af.

In April, China took the drastic measure of shutting down 780 live poultry markets in order to stop the spread of H7N9 bird flu, a sometimes-lethal virus that had been quickly spreading. Reports of infection by the virus all but stopped following the shutdown, and researchers are now reporting that it was in fact the shutdown that caused the change. In a paper published tomorrow in The Lancet, researchers led from The University of Hong Kong report that shutting down live poultry markets brought about a "sudden and strong" 97 percent drop in the daily number of H7N9 infections in humans.

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De Amerikaanse inlichtingendienst NSA heeft vorig jaar december in Nederland 1,8 miljoen telefoongesprekken kunnen afluisteren. Minister Plasterk zei in Nieuwsuur dat hij daarvan van de NSA een schriftelijke bevestiging heeft gekregen.

Film over seksverslaving is pakkende mix tussen drama en feelgoodfilm.

Clive Owen en de rest van de cast houden Canets langdradige familiesaga boeiend.

Voortkabbelende roadmovie met Catherine Deneuve als sprankelend middelpunt.

Integer portret van een jonge vrouw met een verstandelijke beperking die haar emoties en hormonen de baas probeert te zijn. De officiële Canadese Oscarinzending.

Zwarte misdaadkomedie van de regisseur van Léon over een maffia-echtpaar (Robert de Niro en Michelle Pfeiffer) dat met hun gezin moet onderduiken in een Frans boerengehucht.

In afwachting van de volgende Avengers-bijeenkomst moet de blonde god met de hamer het weer even alleen doen. Gelukkig is Loki er nog.

Japan just published some impressive manufacturing numbers.

According to Market/JMMA, Japan's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) jumped to 54.2 in October from 52.5 in September.  This is a 41-month high.

Here are the key points from Markit:

• New order growth hits four-year high
• Output expands at fastest pace since December 2009
• Flat trend in employment for third successive month

From Markit economist Claudia Tillbrooke:

“October saw operating conditions in the Japanese manufacturing industry improve at the sharpest pace for over three years, driven by a surge in new orders. The data signalled that the latest expansion was largely demand-driven and apparently unimpeded by the Prime Minister’s recent confirmation of a sales tax hike next April.

“However, whilst new order growth hit a four-year high and production grew at a similarly sharp pace, employment failed to follow suit in October. Payroll numbers were broadly flat for a third consecutive month and appeared to have been thus far unaffected by the structural reforms constituting Prime Minister Abe’s “third arrow”.

“Firms’ reluctance to hire may well indicate uncertainty regarding the future, but could also stem from the inflexibility of Japan’s labour market. The sustainability of the recent growth trend looks set to be tested by the labour market rigidities, as backlogs of work continue to rise.”

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Een metershoog standbeeld van de Franse ex-voetballer Zinedine Zidane is na een paar weken alweer weggehaald van een boulevard in Qatar. Een kunstenaar had uitgebeeld hoe Zidane tijdens de finale van het WK voetbal in 2006 een kopstoot gaf aan de Italiaan Marco Materazzi.

Op sociale media werd volop gesproken over het standbeeld. Veel inwoners van het islamitische Qatar vonden het beeld ongepast omdat het geweld zou stimuleren.

Gisteren verschenen plotseling een vrachtauto en drie gemeentewerkers en werd het beeld verwijderd. Het krijgt binnenkort een plek in het Arab Museum of Modern Art in de hoofdstad Doha.

WK-bid

Zidane was een van de gezichten achter het succesvolle bid van Qatar voor het WK voetbal in 2022. De Franse middenvelder is razend populair in het oliestaatje.

De kopstoot in de WK finale in Berlijn betekende het roemloze einde van Zidanes carrière. Hij werd met rood van het veld gestuurd en beëindigde zijn actieve loopbaan.

The director of the Monster Hunter series, Kaname Fujioka, never intended to create a multi-million dollar franchise, according to a recent interview with Famitsu magazine. He just wanted to draw, and he happened to be going to school in Osaka right in the middle of the Street Fighter 2 boom.

"SF2 was this game with really big and expressive characters, and it impressed in me everything that made games really cool," he told Famitsu. "I played a lot of non-Capcom games too, but I'd say Mega Man 2 on the NES was my favorite. Capcom had this image back then for making really tough, difficult games, but they weren't just difficult — if you thought up the right strategies, they were balanced to be beatable, and that attracted me as a kid....

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Customs agents found tea kettles and irons bugged with freaky Spyware chips that exploit WiFi connections, reports Rosbalt, the local news outlet out of St. Petersberg.

The chips, the paper claims, can exploit WiFi without passwords at a range of "up to 200 meters" and then “sends some data to the foreign server.”

The Register did some digging and found the story legit. They also surmise the supposed bugging could be pulled off with ease:

We see no reason why not: the components are small and cheap enough. One last wrinkle: could one convert Russia's 220v electricity supply to power a small electronic device without frying it, and without making an iron or kettle look rather odd? The answer is yes: all manner of tiny PCB transformers can be had to do the job.

The Register's "one problem" with the story stems from the customs agents' claim that they found the chips because the shipments were overweight.

"We surmise that whoever made the killer kettles and infiltrated irons cobbled them together with unlovely components that made their presence obvious," writes Simon Sharwood of The Register.

Well, aside from China's (cheap) "cobbled together" products (that spy on people), we have one other problem: why spy on regular people.

Unless, of course, they were just a test for a more surreptitious operation to plant such wifi microchips.

Maybe, they'll do like Russia and hand out thumb drives at the next G20 meeting?

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The helicopter dunk tank scenario is not a favorite of the Marines, but still, it saves lives.

In it, Marines mount up into a modified helicopter hull and strap in. Then the hull dunks into the water and rolls over. The Marines have 30 seconds to clear the vehicle.

The simulation is intended to simulate a belly landing in the water, which would result in a roll-over due to the top heavy nature of most helicopters.

The troops undergo extensive training prior to this exercise, and qualified instructors remain onhand.

Still, some Marines can't help but freak out:

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Russia Spying On G20 Leaders? Kremlin Denies Italian Reports Of Skullduggery Huffington Post ROME/MOSCOW, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Russia has denied reports that its intelligence services spied on hundreds of foreign delegates at a Group of 20 summit in St Petersburg in September using gifts such as teddy bears, diaries and free USB keys. Quoting a ... and more »

NPR

New York City Council Raises Legal Age for Tobacco to 21 Bloomberg New York's City Council voted to raise the legal age to buy tobacco products and electronic cigarettes to 21 from 18, to keep young people from smoking. The change would make New York the first major U.S. city to raise the minimum age to 21 to buy ... NYC Council gets tough on tobacco, approves raising purchase age to 21CNN New York City Council votes to raise tobacco purchasing age to 21Reuters NYC to raise minimum age for buying cigarettes from 18 to 21CBS News Wall Street Journal -Reading Eagle all 134 news articles »

De invoering van een tolvignet voor Duitse snelwegen is een stap dichterbij gekomen. De Europese Commissie ziet geen juridische bezwaren voor zo'n vignet, blijkt uit een brief van eurocommissaris Kallas van Vervoer.

Een tolvignet voor buitenlanders is een harde eis van de regeringspartij CSU bij de coalitie-onderhandelingen. De partij vindt het oneerlijk dat Duitsers in de meeste buurlanden moeten betalen voor het gebruik van snelwegen, terwijl buitenlanders gratis door Duitsland mogen rijden. Om Duitse automobilisten te compenseren, wil de CSU de wegenbelasting verlagen.

Discriminatie

De CDU van bondskanselier Merkel en de sociaal-democratische SPD wilden aanvankelijk niets weten van die constructie, omdat die in strijd zou zijn met EU-wetgeving. De partijen kregen steun van deskundigen. Die vermoedden ook dat Brussel dwars zou liggen als alleen buitenlanders moesten betalen.

Kallas heeft die bezwaren nu van tafel geveegd. Volgens hem is er geen sprake van discriminatie als een EU-lidstaat besluit dat buitenlandse weggebruikers moeten meebetalen.

De invoering van een tolvignet is een van de grootste strijdpunten bij de coalitie-onderhandelingen tussen CDU, CSU en SPD.

During the past 15 years or so, online file-sharing has transformed from a relatively niche hobby into a mainstream activity. As Internet speeds and file availability have increased, most Internet users have contributed to the growth of the sharing phenomenon over the past decade.

But of course, as more and more copyrighted files such as music, movies and TV shows have been shared online over the years, rightsholders have employed varying techniques to try and bring that to a halt. Their latest tool is the blocking of entire domains by Internet service providers and thanks to the efforts of the music industry, the UK will today become the world leader.

As predicted by TorrentFreak back in May, the BPI have been building cases against more than 20 sites that they say are infringing their members’ copyrights. Today that work will come to fruition when six ISPs – BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk – begin blocking them at the ISP level.

The range is the broadest so far, hitting BitTorrent indexing sites, a torrent meta-search engine, a cyberlocker search engine, and several MP3 search engines/download sites.

Torrent sites: 1337x, BitSnoop, ExtraTorrent, Monova, TorrentCrazy, TorrentDownloads, TorrentHound, Torrentreactor and Torrentz.

Others: Abmp3, BeeMP3, Bomb-MP3, FileCrop, FilesTube, MP3Juices, eMP3World, MP3Lemon, MP3Raid, MP3Skull, NewAlbumReleases and Rapidlibrary.

The list is almost identical to the original list sent by the BPI to record companies earlier in the year, but has a couple of interesting omissions.

Gone from the blocking proposals are music streaming service GrooveShark and music download service Dilandau. The former now holds several music licensing deals while the latter is the third most DMCA’d domain on the Internet according to Google’s Transparency Report. IsoHunt is also absent, having shut down earlier this month.

Speaking with TorrentFreak, the BPI said that over the summer they had contacted all 21 sites with a request that they “stop infringing copyright.”

“Unfortunately they declined to co-operate in any meaningful way, so BPI applied to the High Court, where the judge considered the evidence and decided that the sites should no longer be accessible in the UK. The new blocks will come into force by Wednesday, 30 October 2013,” a spokesman said.

The music industry group, which represents all the major labels, defended its action as both “fair” and “proportionate”.

“All of the sites were given a chance to stop infringing copyright before we went to Court, and the Orders were then only made once a High Court judge had fully considered our detailed evidence,” the BPI said. “We also believe that it is fair that the people who work to create music should be rewarded when it is downloaded, rather than sites overseas that are exploiting this music without permission.”

Interestingly, when conducting a review of the Top 10 Torrent Sites 2013 as published earlier this year, after today none of them will be directly accessible in the UK, either due to BPI blocking or in the case of H33T and isoHunt, being taken offline following legal action.

The BPI told us that they accept that blocking can never be 100% effective, and that is something the team at The Pirate Bay know quite a bit about. Earlier this year they released PirateBrowser, an anti-censorsip tool designed to facilitate access to any blocked site.

PirateBrowser has been downloaded more than a million times and will be in even greater demand after today. TorrentFreak is informed that a fresh update will include bookmarks for all the blocked sites so that users can gain easy access.

Source: Top BitTorrent and Music Download Sites Pushed Underground in the UK

De invoering van een tolvignet voor de snelwegen in Duitsland is een stap dichterbij gekomen. Eurocommissaris Kallas van Vervoer zegt in een brief dat er tegen een vignet geen juridische bezwaren zijn.