Columbia

Feds arrest founder of bitcoin ‘mixer’ they say laundered $335 million over ten years

The Department of Justice said it has arrested a Russian-Swedish national who allegedly operated a long-running cryptocurrency laundering site. According to a news release from the DOJ, Roman Sterlingov ran Bitcoin Fog, a cryptocurrency tumbler or “mixer”— which hides a cryptocurrency’s source by mixing it with other funds. Bitcoin Fog gained “notoriety as a go-to… Read more

If you’re more into hi-fi than music, that’s a problem

Home Features (Image credit: Future / Leben / Fyne Audio / Columbia / Antonio Guillem / Shutterstock) Always give your opinion piece an incendiary or inflammatory headline, and then follow that up with a provocative statement and a hardline stance you’ll spend the rest of the article attempting to climb down from: There is no… Read more

Here’s how the Internet Archive digitizes 78rpm records

The Internet Archive, in partnership with George Blood LP, has been working since 2016 to digitize thousands of 78rpm records, some of which were made in the early 1900s. Over 250,000 records have been preserved, and the archive posted a Twitter thread yesterday detailing how each record is cleaned and filed away. At the Internet… Read more

The tech some countries are betting on to reach new climate goals

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. At last week’s climate summit, there was a lot of talk about climate tech and how it could help countries meet their splashy new climate goals. A couple of the emerging technologies that got the most hype… Read more

College student sues Proctorio after source code copyright claim

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a lawsuit against the remote testing company Proctorio on behalf of Miami University student Erik Johnson. The lawsuit is intended to “quash a campaign of harassment designed to undermine important concerns” about the company’s remote test-proctoring software, according to the EFF. It’s the latest legal battle for the… Read more

Google Earth’s historical 3D time lapses show the ravages of climate change

Google Earth is getting a new 3D time-lapse feature that lets you observe how Earth has changed from 1984 to 2020, allowing you to see just how much the devastating effects of climate change have already shaped the geography of the planet. “It’s best for a landscape view of our world,” Rebecca Moore, director of… Read more

Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ soundtrack has seven CDs’ worth of island vibes

You can put down your Switch, you can retire from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but you can never quite leave the island behind. Now, thanks to a new a multi-CD imported soundtrack for the game, you won’t have to. With seven — yes, seven — compact discs of Animal Crossing music, you can quite literally… Read more

Nils Frahm: “When I like something I want to know why; I want to understand the principle”

Home Features (Image credit: Leiter Verlag) “I suppose you can’t have true respect for something unless you’re willing to challenge it,” we posit to Nils Frahm. “Exactly,” he replies. “Exactly.” It feels good to have Frahm agree with you. Not only because his music is as much part of our homes – and the What Hi-Fi?… Read more

Lego announces its biggest and most detailed Space Shuttle set yet

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle launch, Lego is releasing a new Space Shuttle Discovery set in collaboration with NASA. Discovery was not the first shuttle to take flight — that would be Columbia, which likely stirs up too many sad feelings for a Lego set — but it was… Read more

Biden to nominate tech antitrust pioneer Lina Khan for FTC commissioner

President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate Lina Khan, a legal scholar and leading voice in the growing tech antitrust movement, to serve as a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. The pick signals that the Biden administration is preparing to take on some of the tech industry’s most powerful and influential companies…. Read more

Tim Wu, the ‘father of net neutrality,’ is joining the Biden administration

Tim Wu — the Columbia law professor who coined the term “net neutrality” — is joining the Biden administration, where he’ll be working on technology and competition policy at the National Economic Council. Happy to say I’m joining the Biden White House to work on Technology and Competition Policy at the National Economic Council. Putting… Read more

Long COVID patients say they feel better after getting vaccinated

Someone gets their COVID-19 vaccine at a site in Los Angeles specifically for teachers. The shots might help people with chronic symptoms Daniel Griffin wasn’t sure what to expect when his patients with chronic COVID-19 symptoms started getting vaccinated. There was some concern that the shots might make things worse by triggering the immune system. Luckily,… Read more

All-in-One Device Combines Condenser Mic, Webcam, Ring Light

Home News (Image credit: Movo) Having all your telecommuting equipment in one dedicated device is an enticing promise, which is probably why ring-light equipped webcams like the Razer Kiyo exist. But as someone who still attends work meetings with a headset, even the best webcams still leave me wanting a separate microphone. That leaves demand… Read more

Comcast is delaying its rollout of 1.2TB data caps that would have hit 12 states in March

If you live in one of the twelve states where Comcast is planning to roll out 1.2TB data caps, we have some moderately good news: you won’t have to start monitoring your bill for extra charges until July. The ISP had planned to start charging customers $10-and-up fees for using more than 1.2TB of data… Read more

Bjarne Stroustrup: Every C ++ standard is a snapshot

Bjarne Stroustrup has achieved some fame as the father of the C ++ programming language; even today he is still involved in the standardization of C ++. In an interview with heise Developer, Stroustrup explains what will be of long-term importance for developers in C ++ 20 and how the others will Future programming language… Read more