NSA hacked encrypted UN communications, where's the uproar?

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Aug 26, 2013 5:29 AM CDT

Julian Assange. Bradley Manning. Michael Hastings. Edward Snowden. These are all men who are either dead, stuck in another country, in jail or are in the run because they exposed US government secrets. This is wrong, and the reverse should be happening.

These men should be awarded for exposing the lies from within the biggest government in the world, but instead, they're paying the price for exposing things that the Obama administration promised would be more 'transparent.' Now there's news that the National Security Agency (NSA) hacked into encrypted communications of the United Nations' internal video conferencing system.

The news is coming from Germany's Der Spiegel, a source we used when we were the first mainstream site to report that a German government official considered Microsoft's Xbox One console a "monitoring device." This even landed us on the front page of Reddit, with multitudes of sites reporting on the story afterwards.

Continue reading: NSA hacked encrypted UN communications, where's the uproar? (full post)

Diablo III expansion could reach consoles, teases games director

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 25, 2013 10:32 PM CDT

We already know that Diablo III has been experimented with on consoles, but it looks like the upcoming expansion for the game, Reaper of Souls, could hit the consoles, too.

Diablo III will be released on consoles on September 3, but there are those who are wondering if the expansion will be released onto consoles, too. During an interview with Polygon, game director Josh Mosquiera teased that this might just happen. He said: "We've got Diablo 3 on PC, we released it and then a small team splintered off to work on Diablo for the current consoles. Now the team's really focused on Reaper of Souls for PC. So if you look at the past, you can probably infer what the future might bring."

Continue reading: Diablo III expansion could reach consoles, teases games director (full post)

Sony apologizes for Grand Theft Auto V leaks

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 25, 2013 9:31 PM CDT

One of the biggest releases of the year is nearly upon us: Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto V. But, over the last couple of days, there has been some controversy over the open-world title about to break sales records.

Leaks of gameplay and story details made their way to the Internet, all from a file in the European PlayStation Store's digital pre-order download of the game, forcing Sony and Rockstar to both make announcements regarding the leak. PlayStation Social Media Manager, Sid Shuman, said that the pre-order file has since been removed, and has apologized to "Rockstar and GTA fans across the world who were exposed to the spoiler content."

Rockstar also made a statement, on a Rockstar Newswire post, where it was "deeply disappointed by leaks and spoilers being spread in advance of the game's launch. GTA5 represents years of hard work by many people across the world, and we all couldn't be more excited to finally share it with you properly this September 17."

Continue reading: Sony apologizes for Grand Theft Auto V leaks (full post)

Steve Ballmer's biggest regret while CEO of Microsoft? Windows Vista

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Aug 24, 2013 11:32 PM CDT

Steve Ballmer, the current CEO of Microsoft, has announced he's stepping down in 2014, but what is his biggest regret as his time as Chief Executive Officer at the biggest software company in the world?

Oh, you guessed it already: Windows Vista. Ballmer spoke with ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, where he said: "I would say probably the thing I regret most is the, what shall I call it, the loopedy-loo that we did that was sort of Longhorn to Vista. I would say that's probably the thing I regret most. And, you know, there are side effects of that when you tie up a big team to do something that doesn't prove out to be as valuable."

But, from the doom and gloom of Windows Vista was one of Microsoft's most successful operating systems: Windows 7. This was while Ballmer was CEO of course, so he can at least give himself credit for something big.

Continue reading: Steve Ballmer's biggest regret while CEO of Microsoft? Windows Vista (full post)

PS4 will see a 'steady flow' of post-launch titles

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 24, 2013 8:32 PM CDT

Before the new year rings in, Sony's next-generation console, the PlayStation 4, will have seen 33 titles. These 33 games will be a mix of first- and third-party games, as well as these titles being a mix of physical and digital titles.

What about post-launch? Sony Worldwide Studios' president, Shuhei Yoshida, has said he's confident that the post-launch stall of last-generation consoles won't be repeated and that Sony is pushing for a developer-friendly approach this time around. Yoshida spoke with Polygon during Gamescom, pointing out that the indie community in particular is cranking along well, with a slew of original games and ports that will keep the PS4 library growing.

He said: "We started preparing for the Gamescom press conference after we finished E3, and at that point, we had no idea what we'd be able to announce from these smaller teams. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was informed by our third party teams that this was the lineup of games we had prepared. I was like, 'Oh! That's amazing."

Continue reading: PS4 will see a 'steady flow' of post-launch titles (full post)

Deep Silver says there are more Metro games to come

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 24, 2013 12:34 PM CDT

The Metro series of games has been popular for publisher Deep Silver, who has revealed that they will continue developing more games in the series. Deep Silver recently acquired the rights to Metro from THQ earlier in the year for $5.9 million.

During an interview with Joystiq, Deep Silver CEO, Dr. Klemens Kundratitz said: "I'm very glad we acquired that brand. While it launched in a very dry space in the gaming calendar this year, it still got a lot of attention. Our ambition is to absolutely continue with that brand."

Deep Silver will need to acquire the rights from Dmitry Glukhovsky, who wrote the series of Metro novels, in order to continue with a sequel to Metro: Last Light. Kundratitz said this shouldn't be too hard, as Glukhovsky is a huge fan of the games, and has enjoyed contributing to them. Kundratitz also added: "He has been very positive contributing to the last game. I think he can play an active role for whatever comes in the future."

Continue reading: Deep Silver says there are more Metro games to come (full post)

NSA paid millions to US tech companies for their cooperation

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Aug 24, 2013 8:31 AM CDT

Can it get any worse? When will the people of the United States realize the Constitution is, and has been worthless for years? This latest news should help boil that kettle a little hotter...

The Guardian, who also broke the NSA PRISM news thanks to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, is now reporting that US-based tech giants such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook all received funds from the NSA so they could meet new certification demands after a ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court.

This was declassified by the Obama administration during the week, but happened back in October of 2011. The document states something that Edward Snowden himself talked about, the Special Source Operations division which he called the "crown jewel" of NSA's PRISM system, and that they relied on "corporate partnerships" with telecommunications companies and ISPs in order to access communications data. Mad yet?

Continue reading: NSA paid millions to US tech companies for their cooperation (full post)

ScienceFriday: Two UK students develop a Raspberry Pi Weather Station

Charles Gantt | | Aug 23, 2013 4:04 PM CDT

Everyone knows that I am an avid maker of things, and when I see two young students taking ordinary hardware and building extraordinary devices, I feel a special warmness in my heart. Alyssa Dayan and Tom Hartley, a pair of secondary school students, have developed an amazing all-in-one weather station based on the Raspberry Pi.

Dubbed the AirPi, the device was designed as an entry for the PA Consulting Raspberry Pi competition held earlier this year. Contestants had to design something around the Raspberry Pi that "makes the world a better place." The two students say that the AirPi is an open source weather and pollution monitoring system that is capable of recording and streaming data, and it does it all of that for just $90 US.

After some successful research and development, the two students decided to sell the device as a kit on electronics hobbyist fundraising website Tindie. For a mere $90, you get a build-it-yourself kit that features sensors to measure humidity, UV, NO2, CO2, light, temperature, and air pressure. Keeping with the open source mantra, the students have released all of the source code, instructions, and bill of materials needed to build your own. They even released the PCB files and schematics online. Head over to Source #2 for the Tindie campaign to get your own, and to Source #3 for all of the open source files.

Continue reading: ScienceFriday: Two UK students develop a Raspberry Pi Weather Station (full post)

US Feds seize $2.1 million more from Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox

Charles Gantt | Business, Financial & Legal | Aug 23, 2013 2:59 PM CDT

The hits just keep coming for Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. Earlier this year, the US Department of Homeland Security had seized $2.9 million from Mt. Gox's Dwolla account, and now reports are coming in that say an additional $2.1 million was seized from the company's Wells Fargo accounts.

That brings the total of the seizures up to $5 million and explains why recent withdrawal attempts from Bitcoin traders failed to process. On June 19, the $2.1 million held in Wells Fargo accounts was seized, which was one day before Mt. Gox suspended all US withdrawals.

The legal issues arose when Mt. Gox opened a Wells Fargo business account for Mutum Sigillum LLC (Mt. Gox's American subsidiary) but declared it as a business not engaged in money services. This was a falsification and the US government does not like it when you falsify financial documents. Head over to Source #2 to read the full seizure warrants.

Continue reading: US Feds seize $2.1 million more from Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox (full post)

ScienceFriday: The Sun unleashes massive solar storm aimed at Earth

It's that time again: it's Friday and that means more Science Friday news posts here at TweakTown! Today, a new report straight from NASA says the sun fired off an intense solar storm in the form of a Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME, that was aimed directly at the Earth early Wednesday morning.

The event took place around 1:24 AM EDT and sent billions of tons of charged particles steaming full speed ahead straight at Earth at a rate of 380 miles per second, or 1.3 million miles per hour. The storm is expected to reach the Earth on Saturday, however, do not let that scare you as our atmosphere will effectively block all of the harmful radiation that is headed our way. Those in the extreme north and south of both hemispheres can expect to see some awesome aurora over the next few days.

A statement from NASA confirmed that no one need to fear as this sort of event happens all the time. "These particles cannot travel through the atmosphere to harm humans on Earth, but they can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground," NASA officials explained in a statement. Head over to Source #2 to see an animated GIF of Wednesdays CME taking place.

Continue reading: ScienceFriday: The Sun unleashes massive solar storm aimed at Earth (full post)