keyword: Internet

go-read-this-powerful-story-about-how-the-internet-never-lets-you-forget

Go read this powerful story about how the internet never lets you forget

The technology and social media we use every day constantly bombard us with things we’ve shared in the past or advertise to us based on who they think we are. Those past posts can be fun to relive, and every once in a while, those targeted ads do actually work. But Wired senior writer (and former Verge staffer) Lauren Goode published a powerful and personal story about how these technologies can also haunt us with memories of times we may want to forget.

In the essay, Goode describes how she called off her wedding in May 2019, and ever since, she has grappled with technology reminding her of her former relationship and the wedding that didn’t happen. Here is just one devastating passage:

Social media and photo apps were by now full-on services, infused with artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and an overwhelming amount of presumption. For months, photos of my ex appeared on the Google Home Hub next to my bed, the widgets on my iPad, and the tiny screen of my Apple Watch. So yeah: My ex’s face sometimes shows up on my wrist. As I write this, Facebook reminds me that nine years ago I visited him in Massachusetts and met his family’s dog.

Goode also writes about how difficult it is to escape these reminders because of the near-impossibility of removing your data from the internet:

I managed to do half the work. But that’s exactly it: It’s work. It’s designed that way. It requires a thankless amount of mental and emotional energy, just like some relationships. And even if you find the time or energy to navigate settings and submenus and customer support forms, you still won’t have ultimate control over the experience. In Apple Photos, you can go to Memories, go through the collage the app has assembled for you, delete a collage, untag a person or group of people, or tell the app you want to see fewer Memories like it. The one thing you can’t do? Opt out of the Memories feature entirely.

But she also shares how this technology and the data we keep can still give us meaning, even if it is from a time that may no longer represent what it once did:

Never mind that I’m wearing a white silk dress in the photo, that there’s a ring on my finger and a hazy row of bridal gowns on racks behind us. I still won’t delete it. I won’t archive photos from the half-marathon I ran with my ex, the one finish line we crossed, because I ran 13.1 miles and I’d prefer to remember how that felt on days when I have nothing left in the tank. I won’t delete the albums I have from half a dozen Christmases, because I need to believe holiday gatherings will happen again. I won’t unfollow our wedding photographer on Instagram, because—even though she never shot our photos—I appreciate her work as a keeper of other people’s memories.

No matter what I write here, I can’t do Goode’s incredible story justice. Just go read it.

once-again,-someone-tampered-with-an-entire-drinking-water-supply-via-the-internet

Once again, someone tampered with an entire drinking water supply via the internet

You would think that something as critical as a town or county’s drinking water supply would be well-protected — you know, like how America’s nuclear armament was isolated from the internet and even relied on eight-inch floppy disks until just recently? And yet we’ve now had two instances where someone was able to remotely log into a municipal water supply in a way that could have seriously harmed people.

Remember the story of the Florida water treatment facility where someone was able to change the chemical levels? Something similar happened in March 2019 in Kansas’ Ellsworth County, too, where 22-year-old Wyatt Travnichek now stands accused of shutting down the region’s water cleaning system “with the intention of harming” it, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

The wildest part is that in both cases, workers at these water resources left themselves wide open to tampering — they installed the remote access software themselves so employees could log in to monitor the systems! That’s what Travnichek was hired to do in Kansas, and authorities aren’t even accusing him of “hacking” the system in their indictment. He simply “logged in remotely” months after he left the job, began shutting things down, and is now facing up to 20 years in prison.

That sounds remarkably similar to what happened in Florida, where the water treatment plant never bothered to change the password or even remove an old piece of remote control software after they’d installed a newer one.

Maybe we should stop doing that. President Joe Biden is currently trying to push a $2 trillion infrastructure plan, including billions to deliver safe water and replace lead pipes, among other hazards. To keep the water safe, we also need to keep the water secure.

Cyberscoop spoke to a customer service rep at the Kansas water utility, who claimed the incident didn’t harm residents’ drinking water.

online-only-outriders-can-be-paused-in-single-player-—-if-you-have-an-nvidia-gpu

Online-only Outriders can be paused in single-player — if you have an Nvidia GPU

Outriders, the online shooting, looting, and superpower-slinging game from People Can Fly, finally has a way to pause, but to do it you’ll need to be using an Nvidia graphics card (via Kotaku). Despite working as a single-player game, Outriders requires an internet connection to play, which means pausing in the middle of a battle was impossible until this workaround. Even with your menu open, enemies could still attack you.

Using Ansel, which is a feature of Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics cards that enables a kind of photo mode even in games without one built in, you can “pause” Outriders by pressing “Alt F2” on the fly, and get up and take care of business. Because Ansel is specific to the Nvidia’s Geforce Experience software, pausing is limited to PC players, which means anyone playing on console or with a different brand of graphics card is out of luck.

The handling of pausing and single-player content in Outriders is similar to Destiny 2, to which it shares some aesthetic and mechanical similarities. Destiny 2 sells a battle pass and yearly expansions with new story content, and it justifies — at least in part — it’s online-only requirements with the promise of new weekly and monthly changes in the form of live events and other features.

The difference is that Outriders is very explicitly sold as a more traditional single-player game, with the game’s publisher Square Enix addressing the issue on its site, “Outriders is a complete experience out of the box,” it writes. For some reason, an internet connection is still required, which, beyond hindering a basic feature like pausing the game, also seemed to contribute to Outriders’ launch on April 2nd being kind of a mess. Players had issues connecting with the game’s servers to play in single-player and multiplayer, for which developer People Can Fly acknowledged and apologized publicly.

The game seems to be working fine now, and this weird Nvidia loophole means the experience of playing single-player could be a little bit more comfortable, but Outriders definitely illustrates the ongoing problems of making a game online-only.

yahoo-answers-will-be-shut-down-forever-on-may-4th

Yahoo Answers will be shut down forever on May 4th

Yahoo Answers, one of the longest-running and most storied web Q&A platforms in the history of the internet, is shutting down on May 4th. That’s the day the Yahoo Answers website will start redirecting to the Yahoo homepage, and all of the platform’s archives will apparently cease to exist. The platform has been operating since 2005.

Yahoo, which is now part of Verizon Media Group following the company’s sale to the telecom for nearly $5 billion in 2017, announced the change at the top of the Yahoo Answers homepage. The message links to an FAQ, which details the timeline of the shutdown. Starting April 20th, the platform will no longer accept new submissions, the FAQ explains.

Users will also have until June 30th to request their data or it’ll be inaccessible after that. That includes “all user-generated content including your Questions list, Questions, Answers list, Answers, and any images,” Yahoo says, but “you won’t be able to download other users’ content, questions, or answers.”

A note sent to active Yahoo Answers members provides a little more detail as to why Yahoo is shutting down the platform, including that “it has become less popular over the years” and that the company “decided to shift our resources away” from the product to “focus on products that better serve our members.”

Dear Yahoo Answers Community,

We launched Yahoo Answers sixteen years ago to help people around the world connect and share information. With you and millions of other users, we built the best place on the web to ask and answer questions on a variety of topics, creating a community of global knowledge sharing. While we could not have been prouder of what we accomplished together, we are reaching out today to let you know that we have decided to shut down Yahoo Answers on May 4th, 2021.

While Yahoo Answers war once a key part of Yahoo’s products and services, it has become less popular over the years as the needs of our members have changed. To that end, we have decided to shift our resources away from Yahoo Answers to focus on products that better serve our members and deliver on Yahoo’s promise of providing premium trusted content.

Starting on April 20th you will no longer be able to post any new questions or answers. However, you can still view any posted questions and answers until May 4th. On May 4th the site will be shutting down. If you would like to download a copy of your questions and answers you have posted, you can do this by signing into Your Privacy Dashboard and requesting a download. You will be able to do this until June 30th, 2021 after which your Yahoo Answers data will be securely deleted and no longer available. The closure of Yahoo Answers will not affect your Yahoo account or other Yahoo services. For further information and instructions on how to download your data, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions or copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN35642.html

Thank you for contributing to Yahoo Answers — we’re proud and honored to have helped you connect with and learn from the Yahoo community these past sixteen years. If you’d like to provide feedback, please feel free to reach out to our team at yahoo_answers_sunset@verizonmedia.com.

Sincerely, The Yahoo Answers team

Perhaps the shutdown is for the best, considering the site appears to be overrun with far-right conspiratorial garbage. The current Yahoo Answers homepage is highlighting such introspective gems in its discover section as, “Will America survive 4 years of Joe Biden?” and “Will this summer be record riots by BLM and antifa?,” as well as this instant classic, “Was Stalin right about everything?”

May all the wayward souls of Yahoo Answers now find the information they’re looking for somewhere more credible.

new-trailers:-black-widow,-rick-and-morty,-and-more

New trailers: Black Widow, Rick and Morty, and more

Hi, it’s Jay, and I’m holding down the fort for Kim today, which means I get to do a trailer roundup. I apparently picked a good week to take this responsibility, as there were a lot of good trailers to pick from — it seems like media companies are gearing up for a big year in movies and TV shows.

Let’s get right into it.

Black Widow

My wife and I spent the first part of this year watching the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and as we got further along, we couldn’t believe that Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow didn’t have her own movie yet. So as you might expect, we’re very excited to see Black Widow, especially after the new trailer that came out on Saturday.

Black Widow will debut on July 9th in theaters and on Disney Plus as a $30 Premiere Access title.

The Suicide Squad

Speaking of superhero films (or in this case, I guess antiheroes), Warner Bros. released a second trailer for The Suicide Squad less than a week after debuting the first one. The film, helmed by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, is packed with an all-star cast, including Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Idris Elba as Bloodsport, and even Sylvester Stallone as a giant CGI shark-man named King Shark.

The Suicide Squad premieres in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6th.

Rick and Morty season 5

I’m just going to be totally honest here: despite Rick and Morty being a constant thing on the internet and also being something that looks totally up my alley, I have never seen a single episode and know basically nothing about it. But if you’ve been looking forward to season five, an official trailer hit this week. The new season premieres on Adult Swim on June 20th.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a new animated series heading to Disney Plus. “Members of Bad Batch—a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army—each possess a singular exceptional skill that makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew,” according to Disney. It’s executive produced by Dave Filoni, who also executive produced The Clone Wars, Rebels, and the The Mandalorian.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch debuts May 4th (aka Star Wars Day).

Shadow and Bone

Shadow and Bone is a new Netflix series based on the hit young adult novel trilogy. “Dark forces conspire against orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov when she unleashes an extraordinary power that could change the fate of her war-torn world,” according to a description by Netflix. I actually just got the first book in the series from the library, and I’m looking forward to reading it ahead of Shadow and Bone’s premiere on April 23rd.

Yasuke

Yasuke is a new Neflix anime that’s based on a true story of a Black samurai from the 16th century. The main character is voiced by LaKeith Stanfield (Atlanta, Judas and the Black Messiah) and the show has a soundtrack from Flying Lotus. It debuts on Netflix on April 29th.

Space Jam: A New Legacy

Warner Bros. debuted the first trailer to Space Jam’s long-awaited sequel on Saturday. Space Jam: A New Legacy stars LeBron James and the classic Looney Tunes characters, but will also include appearances from iconic Warner Bros. characters like the Iron Giant, King Kong, and even Fred Flintstone. (Warner Bros. multiverse incoming, I guess.)

Space Jam: A New Legacy premieres in theaters and on HBO Max on July 16th. (And if you were wondering: the old-school 1996 Space Jam website lives on.)

a-cable-company-that-prided-itself-on-no-data-caps-says-you’re-getting-data-caps-because-pizza

A cable company that prided itself on no data caps says you’re getting data caps because pizza

Internet data caps are not like pizza — where taking a slice could mean fewer slices for everyone else. I don’t think Verge readers have trouble understanding this concept? It’s been well-established that ISPs have no trouble delivering unlimited data, even during — say — a global pandemic when vast throngs of the population have suddenly found themselves working from home.

This, however, did not stop WideOpenWest (aka WOW!) from using pizza to justify brand-new, possibly-never-before-seen data caps for its cable internet subscribers, starting June 1st, 2021, as Ars Technica reports.

Here’s a portion of the email subscribers are receiving:

What’s a monthly data usage plan? Let us illustrate …

Imagine that the WOW! network is a pizza. Piping hot. Toppings galore. Every WOW! customer gets their own slice of pizza, but the size of their slice is dependent on their Internet service plan. While customers who subscribe to 1 Gig get the largest slices, those with Internet 500 get a slightly smaller piece, and so on. But, it’s all the same delicious, high-speed pizza that you know and love.

Now, say you’re not full after your slice and you grab another. That extra slice is like a data overage. Don’t worry—we got extra pizza… umm, data… just in case. If you exceed your data allowance, we’ll automatically apply increments of 50GB for $10 to your account for the remainder of the current calendar month. Total overage charges will not exceed $50 per billing statement no matter how much data you use. Even better—the first time you experience a data overage, we’ll proactively waive fees.

To explain how nonsensical that is, here’s a paragraph from a story I wrote late last year which I think you might enjoy reading as well:

Forget for a moment that Comcast itself was caught red-handed explaining that data caps have nothing to do with network congestion. Forget that the CEOs of several smaller ISPs have admitted that internet capacity is anything but scarce. Forget that Comcast disabled its own congestion management system because it found it was unnecessary. Forget even that Comcast is a wildly profitable company whose cable division spends only a tenth of its yearly revenues on keeping that network strong. The proof that data caps are a swindle is something you probably witnessed yourself earlier this year: Comcast, AT&T, and T-Mobile all suspended their data caps when the pandemic hit, and the internet kept on working without a hitch.

The kicker here is that WOW knows full well its network is nothing like pizza — because for years, including during the pandemic, the company proudly marketed its lack of data caps. It was the reason to pick WOW over Comcast, one subscriber told Ars Technica.

Some evidence:

Part of a larger press release (PDF).

“No data caps” means unlimited access to your world. As a WOW! Internet customer, you are not limited by data caps. In times like these, it’s important that you have this benefit so you never have to worry about data usage – and it’s already included with WOW! Internet. #WOWWay pic.twitter.com/JkdMapzGAr

— WOW! (@WOW_WAY) March 26, 2020

WOW! has no #datacaps and will provide a fair, neutral Internet¬ – no matter what. WOW! does not bias content. We put customers first. -Ryan

— WOW! (@WOW_WAY) December 14, 2017

To which I say: wow.

What would cause WOW to abandon its values for profit? I can’t say for sure, but I’d hazard a guess it might have been emboldened by Comcast’s recent decision to make data caps the norm across the United States starting March July sometime next year. Because that’s the state of internet “competition” in the United States: so few real choices that when one ISP turns up the profits, it’s probably safe for neighboring ISPs to do same. If you’re locked into just one or two bad choices where you live, I’d recommend telling the FCC.

25-years-later,-space-jam-has-a-new-website-—-and-the-first-trailer-for-the-sequel

25 years later, Space Jam has a new website — and the first trailer for the sequel

Since 1996, spacejam.com has been an internet time capsule like few others still in existence — a largely pristine sample of the early World Wide Web and all the most advanced multimedia offerings available at the time, such as animated GIFs and Windows 95 screensavers. But 25 years later, it’s finally been supplanted; the new sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy, starring LeBron James, has taken over the URL to showcase the new movie’s very first trailer.

Here’s what spacejam.com looks like today:

But before you go boycotting the sequel, you should probably know that the original Space Jam website isn’t dead yet. In fact, it’s just one click away at spacejam.com/1996, and the new website lets you that original Space Jam logo (in the upper-right-hand corner) to go back in time again.

Here’s that new trailer for the LeBron James version — featuring both a cartoon LeBron James, and upscaled CGI versions of the Looney Toons crew as well. Looks like they’ll be breaking into the real world once again!

Will LeBron go Googling for the original Space Jam website in the film (or, perhaps, will Daffy or Bugs remark that it’s still there?) I think it’s a safe bet. It’ll arrive on July 16th in theaters and HBO Max simultaneously.

google-wifi-router-management-is-getting-rolled-into-the-google-home-app

Google Wifi router management is getting rolled into the Google Home app

Google is killing off its dedicated Google Wifi app for managing its routers, rolling that functionality over to the Google Home app as the company continues to “help our customers control and manage all their connected products in one place and enable routines across them.”

The switchover to the Google Home app will come in two phases: first, Google will disable most of the functionality of the Google Wifi app on May 25th. Starting then, users will only be able to view the current status of their networks — but any changes, including adding new routers or access points — will have to be done in the Google Home app.

Then, sometime in June, Google will remove the Wifi app from the Play Store and iOS App Store, funneling all users to exclusively use the Google Home app. (It’ll also stop supporting the old app at that time for existing users, too.)

Google points out that migrating existing Wifi setups to the Google Home app will offer some new benefits, including the ability to use Google Assistant for things like pausing the Wi-Fi connection, testing your current internet speed, and (in a neat bit of product synergy) showing a guest Wi-Fi password on a Google Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max display.

Migrating a network setup seems to be a relatively simple process, although Google’s how-to warns it’s a one-way street: once you switch over to the Google Home app, you can’t go back.

myanmar’s-government-shuts-down-internet-indefinitely-in-response-to-protests

Myanmar’s government shuts down internet indefinitely in response to protests

Myanmar’s acting military leadership has shut down broadband internet service indefinitely in response to ongoing protests, according to a report from The Washington Post on Thursday. The move comes two months after a military junta staged a coup to depose the country’s democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The shutdown applies to wireless broadband service, while a separate order banning mobile internet at night remains in effect, Reuters reports. The orders were given to state telecoms, though no official reason has been given.

IMPORTANT⛔️ Fixed wireless will not be turned on in morning. Confirmed. No Ananda/MMNet/Ooreddoo/etc. With mobile data already off, only fixed-line will remain. Order is temporary but open-ended. Everyone should be making whatever plans are possible.#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

— Free Expression Myanmar (@FreeExpressMm) April 1, 2021

NetBlocks, an advocacy group that tracks internet disruptions and shutdowns aimed at quashing dissent, has also confirmed the ongoing Myanmar shutdown timeline.

Myanmar is currently embroiled in protests against the military government, which has responded with increasingly totalitarian surveillance and censorship measures in addition to violence that has left more than 500 dead and thousands arrested since February, The Washington Post reports.

The internet shutdowns have now reached a new level of severity, with multiple telecoms ordered to shut off various internet services like mobile data, roaming, and public Wi-Fi for different lengths of time. The efforts appear designed to interfere with protestor organizing and to prevent Myanmar citizens, journalists, and human rights activists from more easily broadcasting what’s happening on the ground to the rest of the world.

In addition to the communications blackout and physical violence, The New York Times reports Myanmar’s military is using surveillance drones, phone-hacking devices (including European-made iPhone hacking tools), and software for cracking personal computer security as part of a widespread digital offensive against the opposition.

youtube-stars-the-stokes-twins-avoid-jail-after-pleading-guilty-over-fake-bank-robbery-pranks

YouTube stars the Stokes Twins avoid jail after pleading guilty over fake bank robbery pranks

Alan and Alex Stokes, twin brothers who rose to fame on YouTube filming prank videos, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment and reporting false emergencies in connection with a pair of now-removed videos they filmed in the fall of 2019 in which they pretended to have just robbed a bank. The 23-year-old brothers were charged in August of last year.

They faced a maximum of five years in prison if convicted on all counts, leading to the guilty plea in exchange for reduced sentences, according to a press release put out dated March 31st by the office of the district attorney of Orange County, California.

“The guilty pleas were in exchange for a judge reducing the felony false imprisonment charge to a misdemeanor. Prosecutors objected on the record and in a trial brief to the court’s offer to reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor,” the press release states.

Both received a sentence including 160 hours of community service and one year of probation in addition to both having to pay restitution. The Stokes brothers are also barred from returning to the University of California Irvine, where they filmed the prank videos, and they were also ordered not to produce any more videos “that mimic criminal behavior.”

The videos in question involved the Stokes brothers dressing in black garb with face masks filming themselves interacting with strangers, some of whom were distraught at the prospect of encountering what they believed were on-the-run criminals.

In one poorly thought-out situation filmed for the videos, the brothers called an Uber driver and demanded they be taken somewhere. The driver refused, but he was later questioned by law enforcement who initially approached the man with their guns drawn, mistakenly believing he was involved after numerous bystanders called law enforcement on the brothers for thinking they were attempting to carjack the driver.

The brothers pulled this prank twice in the same day on October 15th, 2019, choosing to film the second of the two videos at the University of California Irvine after already having been questioned and released by police elsewhere in Orange County earlier in the day.

“These crimes could have easily resulted in someone being seriously hurt or killed,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “An active bank robbery is not a casual police response and these police officers were literally risking their lives to help people they believed were in danger. It is irresponsible and reckless that these two individuals cared more about increasing their number of followers on the internet than the safety of those police officers or the safety of the innocent Uber driver who was ordered out of his car at gunpoint.”

The Stokes Twins YouTube channel remains active with more than 6.6 million subscribers. The most recent video, titled “FUNNY April Fool’s Pranks on Friends!,” was posted two days ago, and it’s already amassed 1.4 million views.

nvidia’s-mining-limiter-is-dead: farm-uses-7-rtx-3060s

Nvidia’s Mining Limiter is Dead: Farm Uses 7 RTX 3060s

GeForce RTX 3060
(Image credit: Quasar Zone)

It’s true that nothing lasts forever, but Nvidia’s anti-mining limiter on the GeForce RTX 3060 didn’t last long at all. Cryptocurrency miners have circumvented the algorithm in a little over one month since the official announcement.

Intentional or not, Nvidia played a huge role in helping cryptocurrency miners crack the anti-mining limiter. The chipmaker released a GeForce beta driver that partially disabled the algorithm, and everything just went downhill afterwards. Some may argue that it was just a matter of time before cryptocurrency miners figured out a solution, but the driver was pivotal for bypassing the limiter.

Nvidia had immediately removed the GeForce driver, but it’s the Internet so nothing really disappears for good. With the GeForce driver in hand and some cheap HDMI dummy plugs, mining on multiple GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards was possible once again. Figuring a way to mine with more than four graphics cards was the last piece to the puzzle.

To make a long story short, the anti-mining mechanism essentially runs two checks: if the GeForce RTX 3060 is running on a PCIe 3.0 x8 expansion slot and if a display is connected to the Ampere graphics card. Since you can fool the latter with HDMI dummy plugs, the only thing missing is to find a motherboard with a generous amount of PCIe 3.0 x8 expansion slots.

GeForce RTX 3060 (Image credit: Quasar Zone)

A user from Quasar Zone successfully put together a 7-way GeForce RTX 3060 mining rig. Collectively, the seven Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Twin Edge OC were delivering a hash rate up to 337 MH/s. According to the user, his setup was pulling around 1,020W of power from the wall. It’s impossible to install more than four graphics cards on a motherboard. Therefore, the user employed PCIe 3.0 x16 riser cables to connect the graphics cards to the motherboard, while mounting them on a rack. The owner didn’t reveal which motherboard or processor he’s using for his mining operation.

Contrary to popular belief, many motherboards offer a plethora of PCIe 3.0 x16 expansion slots, since the usage of PLX chips is pretty common nowadays. Just to name some examples, the Asus P9X79-E WS, X99-E WS and ASRock X79 Extreme11 are equipped with seven PCIe 3.0 x16 expansion slots. Or, if you want more modern offerings, the Asus WS X299 Sage and Gigabyte X299-WU8 are valid options as well.

Cryptocurrency mining doesn’t require one of the best CPUs, which is why miners favor old-gen platforms that are dirt cheap. The biggest challenge now is finding these outdated motherboards. Of course, there’s also the alternative where you can pick up an enterprise motherboard with a cheap Xeon chip and call it a day.

If you’re interested in mining, check out our list of best mining GPUs and our advice on how to optimize your GPU for Ethereum mining.