The Plotquisition
Netflix drops to 480p for some Philips TVs, because of Widevine issues
Webgl Fluid Simulation
Just a trippy browser-based fluid simulation
We Hacked Apple for 3 Months: Here’s What We Found
Sam Curry, Brett Buerhaus, Ben Sadeghipour, Samuel Erb, and Tanner Barnes hack into Apple's infrastructure and find some serious issues
Rock Icon Eddie Van Halen Dies At 65
Sad to see a legend go
Clash of the Geeks, Ten Years On
A ripped Wil Wheaton, battling an Orc John Scalzi while riding a Unicorn Pegasus Kitten
These students figured out their tests were graded by AI — and the easy way to cheat
Automatic test grading grades almost purely based on the presence of keywords. Students live on a healthy dose of word salad!
The Pharaoh video game is getting a remake
:)
The Harmful Impact of Audible Exclusive Audiobooks
Unsurprisingly, exclusives hurt the industry, and that extends to audiobooks too
I’ve worn Alexa-enabled glasses for two weeks. They’re driving me bananas
It's like a secretary constantly whispering into your ear. In theory super cool, in real life sort of eerie.
A ride that takes 10^20k years to complete in Roller Coaster Tycoon 2
Due to some pathfinding preferenes in RCT2 a well crafted mazes takes aged for our little visitors
Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices
You can still use your current device, but…
Epic and the iOS App Store
Apple tells Epic that they’ll terminate their developer account. This is starting to turn into a full fledged shit hurricane
Fastest star ever seen is moving at 8% the speed of light
Wheeeeeeeeeee
Amazon bans podcasts that criticize Amazon
Amazon bans (and then lifts ban) podcasts complaining about Amazon on Amazon owned platforms. Because of ”Intellectual Property”
Hubble finds that Betelgeuse's mysterious dimming is due to a traumatic outburst
A bunch of ejected dust was causing Betelgeuse to dim
Mozilla signs fresh Google search deal worth mega-millions as 25% staff cut hits Servo, MDN, security teams
Google continues to pay Mozilla to be their default search engine
Mozilla vows MDN ‘isn’t going anywhere’ as layoffs cause panic among developers
MDN will continue to exist despite layoffs. I’m wondering in what state though.
When Microsoft's ambitious 'Netflix of gaming' service launches in September, it won't arrive on Apple devices – here's why
Apple doesn’t like having Microsoft’s xCloud in the App Store, because they’re control freaks
Mozilla lays off 250ish people
Mozilla lays off 250+ people (a quarter of their workforce), changes their business focus
Infecting macOS via macro-laden documents and 0days
A well written blog entry explaining how macros in Microsoft Office documents can escape the sandbox and infect macOS
Contextual ads can save media
Why contextual ads are not only better for the user, but also better for the site who is running them
Latest Firefox rolls out Enhanced Tracking Protection 2.0
Firefox gets a better Enhanced Tracking Protection which now also blocks redirect trackers
Apple erroneously revokes Charlie Monroe's developer certificate
Apple revokes a developer certificate, causing a scary malware warning for the users of the app, because some automated process wrongfully flagged the account
Dinosaurs - Behind The Scenes
NASA Astronauts in SpaceX Capsule Make First Water Landing Since 1975
SpaceX launched Crew Dragon with two Astronauts. It docked at the ISS and now returned safely back with both of them
Three people have been charged for Twitter’s huge hack, and a Florida teen is in jail
The FBI got three people for the Twitter hack, mainly due to their stupidity.
Bacteria live despite burial in seafloor mud for 100 million years
Turns out, there is super old bacteria in seafloor mud
The real science behind SETI’s hunt for intelligent aliens
Mars 2020 is on its way, with a couple new experiments
The real science behind SETI’s hunt for intelligent aliens
A nice article on Ars, summarising the idea, history, and current state of SETI
Steve Wozniak sues YouTube over ongoing bitcoin scams
Scammers use Woz to scam Youtube users. Woz is not amused
BLM footage censored by copyright bots
Some BLM videos are getting removed, because they have musicologists playing during the protests
IPv4, IPv6, and a sudden change in attitude
An interesting read about the IP protocol
Fixing Mass Effect black blobs on modern AMD CPUs
An in-depth look at what’s up with Mass Effect’s black blobs
Worms Armageddon Patch 3.8
Worms Armageddon gets a new patch!
Introducing a new and improved Twitter API
The new Twitter API fixes some of the more annoying issues with the current one
Webb space telescope launch delayed seven more months to late 2021
James Webb Telescope launch delay to October 31, 2021
EU court kills data-sharing deal with USA
The EU court rules against yet another data-sharing deal with the USA
ATP 387: USB4, TB4, ARM Macs
Another great ATP episode, this time with an extended follow up, insightful comments about ARM Macs and Thunderbolt 4 for dummies
Following defeat, European Commission doubles down on Apple tax critiques
The General Court of the European Union said that Apple pays all the taxes it needs to, the European Commission isn’t thrilled about it
Hackers Convinced Twitter Employee to Help Them Hijack Accounts
Twitter got hacked, a bunch of high-profile accounts tweet out Bitcoin scamming tweets
A Moment of Clarity Regarding the Raison d’Etre for the App Store
Gruber talks about the Gmail app and split-screen on iPadOS
What Is Intelligence? Where Does it Begin?
Kurzgesagt is talking about intelligence
Facebook’s iOS SDK caused another slew of app crashes
Facebook broke a crapton of apps. Again.
Grant Imahara has passed away
😢
Intel reveals Thunderbolt 4
Thunderbolt 4 details are out. No extra bandwidth, but a few other goodies
New Mac ransomware is even more sinister than it appears
ThiefQuest (formerly EvilQuest) is even worse than we thought, it doesn’t only encrypt your crap, it seems passwords and CC data too!
Where Am I?
Google’s AMP confuses users about which site they’re on. This could cause some serious phishing issues
MEPs blast ‘Apple-only‘ voting app
The new, internally developed, voting app for the European Parliament only runs on iOS, which causes issues for some
Fixers Know What ‘Repairable’ Means—Now There’s a Standard for It
The EU published its EN45554 standard, defining 5 categories of repairability
Europe officially sets its sights on a giant LHC successor
Europe is planning to build a 100km long successor to the LHC
Apple makes a tiny step towards developers and doesn't block guideline violations in bug-fix updates
Apple updates their review policy for apps, adds feedback channel for developers
Patagonia Joins the Stop Hate for Profit Campaign
Patagonia, Upwork, REI, and The North Face join "Stop Hate For Profit"
Apple, HEY, and the Path Forward
The Hey app got their update approved!
Malware authors lock their crap behind CAPTCHAs to avoid automated analysis
The group behind the information-stealing Trojan GraceWire is now using websites with CAPTCHA to avoid automated analysis
Scientists have made Bose-Einstein condensates in space for the first time
The CAL on board the ISS is starting to provide results by creating longer lasting Bose-Einstein condensates than on earth
Apple's Developer macOS App
Apple releases their Developer app on macOS. It’s very Catalyst.
Theft of CIAs hacking tools in 2017 happened because the CIA were being idiots
CIA’s hacking tools went public, because the CIA is incapable of doing security
The Flimsiness of ‘Business vs. Consumer’ as a Justification for Apple’s Rejection of Hey From the App Store for Not Using In-App Purchases
Apple is making up bullshit arguments about why “Hey” can’t be on the App Store
EC opens antitrust probe into Apple Pay, Apple’s App Store
The European Commission is investigating Apple for its App Store and Apple Pay
Unauthorized Water
General Electric adds DRM to their fridge
OpenZFS removed offensive terminology from its code
The founding of OpenZFS submitted a patch to replace slave with dependent ; Pricks on the internet lose their shit
Static Ad Removal: Accidental Tech Podcast launches a membership program
ATP launches a membership program to lower their dependency on sponsors
Apple plans to announce ARM transition for all Macs at WWDC 2020
Rumor about Apple announcing custom ARM chips for their Mac lineup are manifesting again
What causes Saturn’s strange polar cloud hexagon?
A new proof-of-concept study about Saturns Hexagons and what could cause them
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter.
Instagram just threw users of its embedding API under the bus
Instagrams declares that users embedding their content don't have the license to embed other people's content
Black holes could store information like holograms
Physicists theories that we could think of black holes as holograms and hold information
AMC's bankruptcy is the first domino in monopolist collapse
AMC is going bankrupt, blames the current situation. Lots of monopolies involved too.
iMessage for Windows: A labor of love that will never see light of day (2018)
Building an iMeesage client for Windows