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10 May 03:27

We’ve got a Butterfly Labs Bitcoin miner, and it’s pretty darn fast

by Lee Hutchinson

Apparently, I'm a Bitcoin miner now, and it looks like I'm actually pretty good at it. Ars is currently in possession of one of the elusive but very real Butterfly Labs Bitcoin Miners. It's a tiny little black box that fits in the palm of my hand, and it contains a specialized ASIC adept at chewing through SHA-256 cryptographic functions—exactly the kind of calculations necessary to bring more Bitcoins into the world. Turns out, it's very good at what it does: it computes hashes at the rate of about 5.3 billion per second.

I've got any number of computers around the house here to try the Butterfly Labs box out with, but I took the masochistic route and chose to try it out on OS X. This took quite a bit of back-and-forth with John O'Mara, creator of the popular MacMiner Bitcoin mining application. After several hours of troubleshooting, we eventually arrived at success. Here it is, happily churning away:

The Butterfly Labs Bitcoin Miner chewing its way through calculations at more than five billion hashes per second.
Lee Hutchinson

According to my trusty Kill-A-Watt, the miner is drawing a pretty constant 50 watts at a similarly constant 0.73 amps. Its 120mm fan is whirring at what can only be described as "hair dryer" levels. According to MacMiner, the ASIC is generating a fair amount of heat, too—it's reporting a temperature of more than 80C.

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04 May 10:52

Jailbreaken of rooten geen gevolgen voor garantie

by info@gsmhelpdesk.nl (Tim Wijkman)

Jailbreaken of rooten geen gevolgen voor garantie

De afgelopen tijd hebben retailers en reparateurs geroote of gejailbreakte smartphones uitgesloten van garantie. Op basis van oudere wetgeving blijkt dit niet te mogen en moet garantie gegeven worden.

03 May 14:12

Twitter: gebruik Twitter niet tijdens het internetten

Twitter adviseert gebruikers om niet te internetten of te e-mailen met computers waarop Twitter wordt gebruikt.
03 May 14:09

Here's The Amazing Ad For The Porn Charity That Helps Disabled People Have Sex

by Dominic Green

Asta PhilpotCome4.org is a non-profit porn site that sells user-made porn to fund ethical causes.

The website's new ad, from agency Being Paris, features its first charitable venture: it is selling porn to fund the Asta Philpot Foundation, an organization working to raise awareness of sexual rights for the disabled.

The ad is voiced-over by Asta Philpot himself. Philpot describes his love for prostitution as the spot flashes sensual, provocative clips of men and women in brothels.

The clip climaxes when we see Philpot for the first time — he is sitting in an electric wheelchair, and says he has been his whole life.

"If you don't like me or my fantasies," he continues, "or you don't think I have the right...you can kiss my ass."

Philpot has arthrogryposis, a disorder that limits his movement. In spite of this, he has spent the past five years helping disable people discover "the wonders of sex," the Come4 ad informs us.

Even if he has to break prostitution laws to do it.

Warning: the following ad is NSFW:

SEE ALSO: How Cindy Gallop Is Changing The Future Of Porn

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03 May 13:19

Authors, composers want 3.4% of every Belgian’s Internet bill

by Joe Mullin

Content owners in nearly every country have tried various strategies to get compensation for losses due to piracy. But copyright owners in Belgium have a bold new tactic: go after Internet service providers in court, demanding 3.4 percent of the fees their customers pay for Internet service.

The lawsuit has been brought by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers, known as Sabam. The group's claim is similar to the blank-media levy that exists in Canada. It seems to be based on the assumption that a particular medium is used to break copyright law, and therefore all the users of that media should rightly be required to pay a tax. However, Canada's blank media tax was approved by its legislature. To get their 3.4 percent cut, Belgian authors, composers, and publishers are hoping to bypass the legislature with a lawsuit.

Belgium is a country where courts have a track record of favoring legacy media companies in their battles against Internet companies. Google, for instance, has fought lengthy court battles with newspapers in that country without much success. But the move to go after the nation's own ISPs is a new one.

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02 May 19:58

Apple Is Going To Copy Microsoft Design Cues For The Next Big iPhone Update, According To Report (AAPL, MSFT)

by Jay Yarow

bertrand serlet start photocopiers

At Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in 2006, top executive Bertrand Serlet stood on stage mocking Microsoft.

Two years before, Apple launched a new Mac operating system at WWDC. It hung banners at the event that said, "Redmond, start your photocopiers." Redmond is the home of Microsoft. The not-so-subtle implication was that Microsoft was going to copy whatever Apple did.

And sure enough, in the eyes of Serlet, that's what happened. He talked about the banners, saying, "It was only a joke, but they actually took it seriously." He then flashed images of Apple's Mac operating system and Microsoft's Vista, accusing Microsoft of copying Apple.

At this year's WWDC, things could be reversed. It could be Apple standing on stage, showing a new design language it copied from Microsoft.

Apple is reportedly going to unveil a new look for iOS, the software that powers iPhones and iPads. Apple blogger Mark Gurman hears from a source the new iOS is going to be "very, very flat."

"Flat" is the latest fad in mobile design. It's an extreme reaction to look promoted by Apple, which has a lot of shading, animation, and illustrations that mimic real life objects.

htc windows phone 8xMicrosoft committed to a flat design before any other major company. Its Windows Phone design has colored tiles with no shading, and copies no real-life objects. Another source tells Gurman Apple's new design could be approaching Microsoft's level of flatness, which is pretty extreme.

If Apple is really going to start taking design cues from Microsoft, it should be careful. Too much of a thing can hurt.

Windows Phone, and Windows 8, which also uses a flat look, have not been smashing successes. Windows Phone has just 3% of the smartphone market last year, according to Gartner. Windows 8 has been accused of causing the PC industry to shrink faster than expected.

The look of Windows isn't the only reason its phones aren't selling. It doesn't have enough apps. It doesn't have the brand, or marketing power of the iPhone. It doesn't have the support of phone-makers like Android.

However, if people really liked Microsoft's flat-design, it would probably have more users.

It's true that Apple's design can be a bit excessive at times. Fake legal pads, fake leather, digital stitching, and fake gaming table felt can look gaudy.

However, overall, the shading and highlights in iOS make the phone comfortable for first-time users. Dropping all of that to chase the latest fad is a big risk.

Plus, it's going to be mighty awkward for Apple, a company that routinely mocked Microsoft for copying Apple's design, if it suddenly starts to make iOS look like Windows.

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02 May 14:25

'Android en Windows Phone worden populairder ten koste van concurrenten'

by Jelle Stuip
In de eerste drie maanden van 2013 is het marktaandeel van Android in vijf grote Europese markten, de VS en Australië ten opzichte van 2012 wederom gestegen. Ook het Windows Phone-aandeel blijkt een stijging door te maken. Apple's iOS, BlackBerry OS en Symbian leveren in.
02 May 14:22

Aantal vrouwelijke it'ers stijgt sterk in de VS

Het percentage vrouwelijke werknemers in de Amerikaanse IT-sector is sterk stijgende. Dat blijkt uit een onderzoek.
02 May 12:18

Pirate Party Enters Iceland’s National Parliament After Historic Election Win

by Ernesto

pp-icelandFounded in 2006, the Pirate party movement has scored some big and small victories over the years.

Their biggest success came in 2009 when the party won two seats at the European Parliament. During the last year this was followed by dozens more seats in German state parliaments.

Today a new milestone can be added after Iceland’s Pirate Party scored an important victory in the national parliamentary elections. With 5.1% of the total vote (95% counted) the Pirates (just) exceed the required 5% threshold, making it the first Pirate party to enter a national parliament, with 3 MPs.

Today’s success is not totally unexpected as the party has been polling very well in recent weeks. Nevertheless, the accomplishment is truly astonishing when taking into account that it was founded just five months ago.

The Icelandic Pirate Party was formed in November 2012, by activist Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a former Member of Parliament for ‘The Movement’.

Birgitta rose to international attention following the Wikileaks investigations when she was targeted by the U.S. Government for her association with the whistleblower organisation. Her pirate credentials were boosted when FBI agents conducting a low-key investigation into her activities were kicked out of the country in August 2011.

In just a matter of months the new Pirate Party achieved a lot of positive press and hundreds of people signed up to become a member. After today’s election win the party is expected to grow even further.

Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party, is currently in Iceland to celebrate the victory.

“I’m delighted every time another country gets pirates elected. Some old media and obsolete industries have insisted we were just a flash in the pan. I love it when those stories are exposed as wishful thinking,” Falkvinge tells TorrentFreak.

With the newly gained Parliament seats the Icelandic Pirate Party will focus on a wide range of issues, ranging from the prevention of copyright abuse, through political transparency, to protection of freedom of speech and privacy.

Source: Pirate Party Enters Iceland’s National Parliament After Historic Election Win

17 Apr 20:54

Lego rebuilt its empire by playing nice with big brands and suing knock-offs

by Carl Franzen
Dsc_5988_large

Building a toy empire isn't all fun and games. Just ask the people in charge of Lego, the plastic brick company from Denmark, profiled in fascinating detail by Adweek. Just about 10 years ago, Lego attempted to diversify its products by building theme parks, making more video games, and new, non-Lego toys, which nearly bankrupt the company. Now under new direction, Lego has sold some of those assets off and come roaring back, securing licensing deals for Lego toys with characters from huge entertainment rivals, including Disney (which owns Marvel and Lucasfilm) and Warner Brothers (Harry Potter and DC Comics characters). Lego has also aggressively sued knock-off toy lines that resemble its iconic plastic bricks for trademark...

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17 Apr 20:34

How an accountant created an entire RPG inside an Excel spreadsheet

by Casey Johnston
A communique from the emperor, above, expresses interest at my formidable skill in killing bunnies and koalas with rocks.

Sometimes it's not always easy (or possible) to install your favorite games on your work computer. Sometimes, some Solitaire or maybe a little collaborative Bomberman is as much as you can get away with when you can't install anything downloaded from the Internet. And you'd better make sure whatever you're playing actually looks like work to any nearby screen snoopers around the office.

Throughout a few months ending this past February, Cary Walkin created the perfect solution to this problem: an entire RPG made of a spreadsheet and many macros. The game, called Arena.Xlsm, is a turn-based RPG encompassed entirely in an Excel file. Users can download that and use it to progress through levels, collect items, and battle enemies and bosses with melee and ranged attacks as well as spells.

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17 Apr 08:57

'Windows 8.1 ziet terugkeer startknop en maakt startscherm optioneel'

by Dimitri Reijerman
Microsoft is van plan om aan Windows 8.1, ook bekend onder codenaam 'Blue', een optie toe te voegen die de gebruiker na het opstarten direct naar de klassieke desktop stuurt. Daarmee wordt het startscherm van Windows 8 overgeslagen. Ook de startknop komt mogelijk terug.
16 Apr 17:00

Amsterdammer ontvangt rekening van 20.000 euro

by info@gsmhelpdesk.nl (Tim Wijkman)

Amsterdammer ontvangt rekening van 20.000 euro

Een inwoner van Amsterdam heeft onlangs een telefoonrekening van 20.000 euro op de mat gekregen. Volgens provider Telfort had de man veel mobiel internet gebruikt zonder internetbundel.

15 Apr 22:22

Body being dumped into a Dutch canal, caught on Google Maps

by Alex Turnbull

We’re not sure what’s going on here, but it sure does look like someone (or perhaps a pair of someones) has dragged a bloody corpse along this pier in order to dump it into this Dutch canal.

Does anyone want to have a go at providing an alternative suggestion of what might be going on here?

body

Via @myfangrykitty.

Locations: Netherlands / Categories: Bridges, Crowds, Watercraft

View in Google Earth



You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
13 Apr 13:13

Acer schikt zaak over Windows Vista-notebook met te weinig geheugen

by Olaf van Miltenburg
Acer heeft in de VS een class action-rechtszaak over een Windows Vista-notebook met 1GB geheugen geschikt. Kopers van de notebook, die claimden dat Acer wist dat 1GB te weinig was om het OS soepel te draaien, krijgen extra geheugen, 10 dollar of een flashdisk van 16GB.
13 Apr 11:34

Rechter: artiesten moeten EU-brede licenties uit kunnen geven

by Bauke Schievink
Artiesten hoeven zich slechts bij één auteursrechtenorganisatie aan te sluiten om licentiegelden in de gehele Europese Unie te kunnen incasseren, zo heeft een Europese rechter besloten. Vooral voor online muziekdiensten is het maken van afspraken per land een doorn in het oog.
13 Apr 08:14

The spammer who logged into my PC and installed Microsoft Office

by Jon Brodkin

(credit: Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock)

It's Memorial Day, all Ars staff is off, and we're grateful for it (running a site remains tough work). But on a normal Monday, inevitably we'd continue to monitor the security world. Our Jon Brodkin willingly embraced a firsthand experience with low-grade scammers in April 2013, and we're resurfacing his piece for your holiday reading pleasure.

It all began with an annoying text message sent to an Ars reader. Accompanied by a Microsoft Office logo, the message came from a Yahoo e-mail address and read, "Hi, Do u want Microsoft Office 2010. I Can Remotely Install in a Computer."

An offer I couldn't refuse.

The recipient promptly answered "No!" and then got in touch with us. Saying the spam text reminded him of the "'your computer has a virus' scam," the reader noted that "this seems to be something that promises the same capabilities, control of your computer and a request for your credit card info. Has anyone else seen this proposal?"

Read 22 remaining paragraphs | Comments

13 Apr 07:06

You can now tell Google what to do with your account in the afterlife

by Florence Ion

There's no better way to start off the afternoon than coming to terms with your mortality, which you'll need to do if you want to take advantage of Google's new Inactive Account Manager. Google launched the service on its account settings page to give users options with their account should it remain inactive for an extended period of time.

It's simple to set up: choose a timeout period—three, six, nine, or twelve months of inactivity—and from there you can direct Google on what to do with your Gmail messages, Blogger posts, Contacts, Google+ account, Google Voice, and YouTube accounts. (Basically, any Google services you've used in the past.) After that time period of inactivity, Google will send out a text message and e-mail the secondary address you provide. If you don't respond, it will assume... well, the worst. "We hope that this new feature will enable you to plan your digital afterlife," Google concluded in the blog post.

If you have intentions of allowing a friend or family member to have access to that data, you can set up the service to notify up to 10 people that your account has been inactive for the time you've specified. Google will then ask for verification details for the listed people, like a phone number and e-mail address. When you're ready, you can send out an e-mail to those people you've entrusted with your data should anything happen to you.

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13 Apr 06:48

New music 'rewarding for the brain'

MRI scans reveal that listening to new music is rewarding for the brain.
13 Apr 06:36

Overname Pulse moet van LinkedIn een nieuwsbron maken

by redactie@webwereld.nl (Chris Koenis)
Zakelijk sociaal netwerk LinkedIn richt zijn pijlen op meer nieuwsvoorziening en urgentie van zijn newsfeed. Met de overname van feedreader Pulse moet dat ook nog visueel aantrekkelijk worden.
10 Apr 17:28

iPhone Maker Foxconn Has A 19% Sales Drop Because Of Disappointing iPhone Sales

by Reuters

iphone 5 Apple store

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, the main manufacturer of Apple Inc products, posted a 19 percent decline in sales in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, hurt by disappointing demand for the iPhone.

From January to March, Hon Hai's sales totaled T$808.97 billion ($26.96 billion), down from T$988.34 billion in the fourth quarter and T$1 trillion in the first quarter last year.

"A quarterly decline was expected, but not a yearly decline," said KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo. "This shows that Hon Hai's revenue depends too much on Apple, and iPhone orders corrected more than expected."

Kao expected the Taiwanese contract manufacturer to post flat sales in the second quarter compared with the first, adding that its net profit is also likely to come under pressure in the first half of this year.

Hon Hai draws an estimated 60 to 70 percent of its revenue assembling Apple's iPhones and iPads, and carrying out other work for the California-based company.

Apple missed Wall Street's revenue forecast for the December quarter. Disappointing holiday sales reinforced fears it is losing its dominance in smartphones.

Shares in Hon Hai edged up 0.12 percent on Wednesday, versus a 0.31 rise in broader market

($1 = 30.0010 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

Copyright (2013) Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions

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08 Apr 22:20

Truck vol chocopasta geplunderd

Uit een vrachtwagen in Duitsland is een lading Nutella gestolen, in totaal 5000 kilo. De vrachtwagen stond op een parkeerplaats bij Niederaula in de deelstaat Hessen.

De chauffeur ontdekte de diefstal afgelopen nacht. De dieven hadden het slot van de aanhanger opengebroken om bij de duizenden potten chocolade-hazelnootpasta te kunnen.

De waarde van de buit is ongeveer 15.000 euro.

Op dezelfde parkeerplaats zijn vaker vrachtwagens leeggeroofd. Dieven gingen er onder meer met een lading energy-drinks vandoor.

08 Apr 21:44

Windows XP heeft nog 1 jaar te leven

by redactie@webwereld.nl (Jasper Bakker)
Maxim Bange

RIP XP 2001/08/24 - 2014/04/08

Windows XP heeft vanaf vandaag nog één jaar 'te leven'. Microsoft beëindigt op 8 april 2014 de support voor het nog altijd veelgebruikte besturingssysteem.
07 Apr 13:52

Now Available on Steam - DayZ Mod for Arma II

by Valve
The DayZ mod for Arma II: Combined Operations is now available on Steam!

Join the scores of desperate survivors in the free award-winning and massively popular persistent multiplayer mod for Arma 2: Combined Operations!
Go Solo, team up with friends or take on the world as you choose your path in this brutal and chilling landscape using whatever means you stumble upon to survive. However the infected are not your only threat. You will be forced to fight for your life against other survivors, over rare necessities like food and water, in your constant battle to survive in this wicked world.

06 Apr 08:44

Zuid-Korea wil groot aantal F-35's en F-15's bestellen

Maxim Bange

Misschien dan toch een JSF voor NL.

WASHINGTON - Zuid-Korea wil 120 gevechtsvliegtuigen aanschaffen in de Verenigde Staten. Het gaat om zestig Boeing F-15 Silent Eagles en evenveel Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. Met de gezamenlijke order is een bedrag van 13,2 miljard dollar gemoeid.

03 Apr 00:00

'Game of Thrones' Season 4 confirmed for next year

by Adi Robertson
E1shot_560_large

Game of Thrones will be coming back for a fourth season, Entertainment Weekly confirms. HBO has renewed another 10 episodes to premiere in 2014 — given the series' success so far, that's completely unsurprising, though executive producer David Benioff did note last month that it hadn't been renewed at that point. No further details are forthcoming right now, but it's generally accepted that a fourth season will cover the second half of A Storm of Swords, the third book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

The first episode of Season 3 premiered on Sunday, garnering both high traditional viewership and a massive illicit audience, as is now expected for what could be the most-pirated show on television. Now, fans of...

Continue reading…

01 Apr 12:51

HBO: Game of Thrones Piracy is a Compliment, Doesn’t Hurt Sales

by Andy

With a head-spinning 4.3 million downloads per episode, Game of Thrones became the most-pirated TV show on the Internet last year.

These figures understandably caused much debate, but left show director David Petrarca quite unruffled. During a panel discussion at the University of Western Australia the 47-year-old said that shows like Game of Thrones thrive on “cultural buzz” and benefit from the social commentary they generate. Piracy, he said, helps to oil those wheels.

But Petrarca wasn’t the only show associate with the impression that piracy might have its benefits. Just a couple of weeks later and the show’s actors were weighing in, with Rose Leslie, who plays Ygritte, describing it as a plus.

“I don’t think HBO will be too happy, but yes, one way or another that’s a huge compliment. Not just to me but to the show as a whole,” she said.

With Season 3 of the smash-hit series getting underway last night, HBO have also commented on the piracy situation but in a quite unexpected way. Rather than come out guns blazing they actually agree with Leslie – piracy is indeed a form of flattery.

“I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts,” HBO programming president Michael Lombardo told EW. “[Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network.”

For HBO to publicly admit that piracy is even a partial positive comes as quite a surprise, but it becomes even more interesting when Lombardo talks about its effect on revenue streams.

Last month Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the actor who plays Jaime Lannister in the show, said that although people watch the show online, he hoped they would still go out and buy the DVD or Blu-ray. And guess what? According to HBO, they do.

“The demand is there,” Lombardo said. “And it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales.”

These comments from HBO are significant and underline what many observers have suspected all along. If you have a great product you should expect piracy, but you can also count on large numbers of people to support your efforts financially too. Every viewer – paid or unpaid – is a potential ambassador for the show and therefore a valuable part of the marketing cycle.

It’s too early to say whether Episode 1 of Season 3 will break last year’s download stats but the signs are already there. Last night’s show rocketed straight to the top of The Pirate Bay’s charts for most active torrent, driving way ahead of its nearest competitor, episode 16 of season 3 of The Walking Dead.

Source: HBO: Game of Thrones Piracy is a Compliment, Doesn’t Hurt Sales

30 Mar 17:28

Belgische moonwalksite in 2009 misbruikt voor grote internetaanval op Zuid-Korea

by Olaf van Miltenburg
Een grootscheepse aanval die in 2009 voor traag internet en haperende sites in Zuid-Korea zorgde, werd vanuit Noord-Korea uitgevoerd en maakte deels gebruik van pc's die vanaf een Belgische site besmet werden. Een populaire site voor moonwalkfilmpjes serveerde zijn bezoekers malware.
29 Mar 04:40

First 'express' flight to the International Space Station cuts travel time from two days to six hours

by Nathan Ingraham
429387main_s130e012141_hi_large

Typically, trips from the earth to the International Space Station take about two days — but today, the first manned "express" flight to the ISS took off and expects to make the journey in only six hours. The flight, manned by one NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts, took off today at 4:43 PM EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan; it's expected to dock by 12:10 AM EDT tonight. While this is the first manned flight to make this express flight (in which the Soyuz spacecraft makes four orbits of the earth before reaching the ISS), a number of unmanned cargo flights have already made the quick journey. Once the Soyuz spacecraft arrives, the three astronauts will stay at the ISS for the next six months. If you're interested...

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26 Mar 14:48

IAEA’s Nuclear Energy Management School Opens in U.S.A.

Texas NEMAfter successful stints in Italy, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, the IAEA’s School for Nuclear Energy Management is now underway in Texas, USA.