Jonah Hill passes on starring in The Batman

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Oct 16, 2019 10:16 PM CDT

There was a bunch of hype around the news that Superbad and Wolf of Wall Street star Jonah Hill being offred a role in Matt Reeves' upcoming The Batman, but Hill has "moved on from the project" reports Variety.

Jonah Hill passes on starring in The Batman

We don't know why Hill passed on the role in The Batman, with insiders telling Variety that "when the news was initially reported, it was very early in the negotiations and that a deal was far from closing". It was barely 24 hours ago that Zoe Kravitz was confirmed as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, who will join Robert Pattinson in the titular role.

Matt Reeves and Warner Bros. will now have to re-think what they're going to do with the role that Hill was reportedly up for, which was either the Penguin or Riddler. They will have to find a new actor to take on those role/s, but I was actually kind of keen to see what Jonah would've done in either of those roles.

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Corsair unveils suped-up Corsair ONE and Corsair ONE PRO gaming PCs

Anthony Garreffa | Computer Systems | Oct 16, 2019 9:43 PM CDT

Corsair has just updated its Corsair ONE family of gaming PCs, adding the new Corsair ONE i145, ONE i64, and ONE PRO i82.

Corsair unveils suped-up Corsair ONE and Corsair ONE PRO gaming PCs

Starting with the new Corsair ONE PRO i82 which can be configured to be quite the beast of a gaming PC, with Corsair offering up a HEDT monster with an Intel Core i9-9920X (12C/24T) processor and X299-based motherboard.

Inside, you can configure the Corsair ONE PRO i82 with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (heck, even the $2499 monster TITAN RTX) while Corsair provides up to 64GB of DDR4-2666 RAM and a 750W Platinum-rated SFF power supply.

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Dutch family hid in secret room for 9 years waiting for 'end of time'

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Oct 16, 2019 9:11 PM CDT

I don't even know how to start this story, but a Dutch family was found to be living inside of a hidden room in their farmhouse -- for, get this... 9 years. The family was "waiting for the end of time" according to BBC News.

Dutch family hid in secret room for 9 years waiting for 'end of time'

The family included the 58-year-old father and 6 of his sons aged 18-25, but then one of them escaped and fled to a nearby pub. The boy downed 5 beers (I'd be drinking more if I thought the world was going to end) and told the bar owner that he had escaped and needed some help.

BBC News reports that police officers then visited the farmhouse and searched it, discovering a hidden staircase that was behind a cupboard in the living room. Going down the staircase let them to a secret room where the family was hiding out for "the end of time". The 58-year-old man was arrested, and is now under investigation after refusing to cooperate.

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So, medieval battle royale games is now a thing with RAN: Lost Islands

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 16, 2019 8:51 PM CDT

We all know that battle royale games are the new VR, which was the new 3D -- but with Apex Legends and PUBG dominating the battle royale space, there's always room for more... I guess?

So, medieval battle royale games is now a thing with RAN: Lost Islands

Enter RAN: Lost Islands which will arrive later this year through Steam Early Access , set in medieval times making it a huge departure from trhe world of sniper rifles, charge rifles, shields, and chicken dinners. You'll have flintlock pistols, swords, ship-versus-ship combat, horses, and freaking gliders.

Jolly Roger Game Studio is behind RAN: Lost Islands, with the developer explaining: "In RAN: Lost Islands, mastery of quick action and strategy rules the day as an arsenal of period weapons from different factions, and an exhilarating mix of traditional combat controls and combo techniques add high replay value and depth".

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Duke Nukem 64, Mario Kart 64 teased with AI-powered HD texture packs

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 16, 2019 8:28 PM CDT

Some of my very fondest gaming memories took place on the Nintendo 64, but now over 150 games have received AI-enhanced HD texture packs including Duke Nukem 64, Mario Kart 64, and many others.

Duke Nukem 64, Mario Kart 64 teased with AI-powered HD texture packs

The folks over at Gaming Revived have, well, revived some classic Nintendo 64 games using TopazGigaPixel in order to upscale the original textures of classic Nintendo 64 games. It's not perfect, with some parts of the game and textures looking worse in some cases, while other parts look much better -- including the UI in some of the games looking much better.

Most of the AI-enhanced HD texture packs for the Nintendo 64 games are around 1-2GB a pop, which isn't too bad at all. The HD texture packs work with RetroArch using Mupen64-Next "Core" and its most recent release, but they also work with Project64 as well as Mupen64plus through GlideN64 3.0 or GlideN64 4.0. Grab the AI-enhanced HD texture packs here.

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Wanna see Tesla Model 3s wrecked in crash test lab? Watch this!

Anthony Garreffa | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Oct 16, 2019 8:08 PM CDT

Admit it -- you've always wanted to see what a Tesla vehicle would look like in a crash test environment, and now you've got your chance.

Wanna see Tesla Model 3s wrecked in crash test lab? Watch this!

Tesla has provided an insider look at its internal Crash Lab, where it crashes its electric vehicles to find out how it can make its vehicles even safer. Before using actual Model 3 vehicles, Tesla Motors will (like any other automaker) use computer modeling to find issues with its cars before smashing them at high speeds into walls.

Tesla's latest Model 3 has specially-designed front passenger airbags that in the case of an accident, will wrap the passenger in the airbag to keep them from smashing into the interior of the Model 3. Tesla claims that its Model 3 vehicle is one of "the safest cars on the road".

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Blizzard bans more Hearthstone players for 'free Hong Kong' signs

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 16, 2019 7:47 PM CDT

I don't know how things could get worse for Activision-Blizzard, where the drama all started when the World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch developer banned Ng "Blitzchung" Wai Chung from Hearthstone, forcing him to forfeit his winnings from the Hearthstone tournament.

Blizzard bans more Hearthstone players for 'free Hong Kong' signs

Blizzard slowly backed away from this and lessened his ban and gave back his prize money, while handing out 1000-year bans on its forums for anyone speaking up about Hong Kong. But then the developer cancelled the huge Overwatch for the Nintendo Switch launch event at NintendoNYC, and now... well now... they're back again by handing out 3 new suspensions to American University Hearthstone players over holding up a sign during a livestream that said "Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz".

Obviously the Hearthstone players knew this was going to land them in hot water, with the players quitting the team after the protest. This didn't happen overnight, but rather it took place over a week ago and only saw Blizzard bring the ban hammer down recently.

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SpaceX files documents to launch 30,000 satellites into space

Elon Musk must never sleep -- I think that much is a given, with SpaceX filing the necessary paperwork with the International Telecommunications Union (which governs the international use of global bandwidth) for its Starlink initiative. Starlink is SpaceX's grand plans of launching the world's largest low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation.

SpaceX files documents to launch 30,000 satellites into space

SpaceX wants to send 30,000 satellites into orbit for its Starlink global broadband constellation, with the private space firm already approved to launch 12,000 satellites. SpaceX needs more because it wants to ensure great network speed and wants to meet demand "responsibly".

In a statement to TechCrunch, a SpaceX spokesperson explained: "As demand escalates for fast, reliable internet around the world, especially for those where connectivity is non-existent, too expensive or unreliable, SpaceX is taking steps to responsibly scale Starlink's total network capacity and data density to meet the growth in users' anticipated needs".

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Bitcoin helps track down a massive pedophile ring

Shannon Robb | Cryptocurrency & Mining | Oct 16, 2019 7:20 PM CDT

In a massive win for Bitcoin, authorities were able to use the Bitcoin ledger to locate and apprehend an enormous child porn website operator and 337 pedophiles from several countries.

Bitcoin helps track down a massive pedophile ring

To many who are not well versed in how cryptocurrency works, it has always had a veil of shrouded secrecy or nefarious undertones. In reality, transactions via Bitcoin are far more traceable than cash transactions. I'm sure this will come to a surprise for many of you, but as the story progresses, I will do my best to explain how this all works in a basic form.

The dark web child pornography site labeled "welcome to video" was operated by a Korean citizen identified as Jong Woo Son. Washington D.C.investigators just uncovered this information as they were able to trace and deanonymize Bitcoin transactions to the dark web based website.

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Riot making its own League of Legends Diablo game

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Oct 16, 2019 6:20 PM CDT

Riot puts the squeeze on Blizzard with a new Diablo-like ARPG set in the League of Legends universe.

Riot making its own League of Legends Diablo game

Riot Games is making a ton of new League of Legends games outside of the MOBA camp. New titles include a tactical hero shooter that's like Counter-Strike meets Overwatch, a new standalone LoL MOBA game for consoles and mobiles, a fighting game with League characters codenamed Project L, the Legends of Runeterra card game, and even a point-and-click multiplayer game that borrows Diablo's isometric view.

The new Diablo-like ARPG is codenamed Project F, but Riot says it won't be ready for a long time (hey just like Diablo IV, am I right?). Next to no information was revealed on the game, and we only got one small sliver of gameplay. But it was enough to confirm an isometric view, which could mean lots of grinding for loot, taking on huge bosses, and distinct character classes that mesh with the League roster. We also saw three friends teaming up so expect it to be a three-player game.

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