This Year's Steam Summer Sale Has Started

http://steamed.kotaku.com/this-years-steam-summer-sale-has-started-1782497448

<< If you've got a piggy bank, kiss it goodbye. If you don't, I guess stare deeply and lovingly into the imagined eyes of the Apple wallet icon on your phone or something. It's summer, which means It Is Time: the Steam Summer Sale is here. This year's sale is called the Summer Picnic Sale. It lasts until July 4. Sticking with recent Steam Sale trends, there are no daily deals or flash sales. There also doesn't appear to be a game or ARG associated with the sale. Bummer. You can, however, unlock trading cards by using your discovery queue. >>

The war on drugs is failing – decriminalisation is the only way forward

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/23/war-on-drugs-failing-decriminalisation-prohibition

<< It is generally accepted that the international "war on drugs" has had devastating and far-reaching consequences. These include public health crises, mass incarceration, corruption, and black market–fuelled violence. Even the United Nations Office on Drug Control (UNODC), responsible for monitoring and managing the international drug control conventions, acknowledges failure resulting from the creation of "a criminal black market of staggering proportions" that is a fundamental threat to global security.

On Sunday, the UN will promote the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, otherwise known as the International Anti-Drugs Day. Each year, the 26 June becomes an expression of global solidarity and determination to combat and eradicate drug abuse, and champion the "war on drugs". This year's theme is benignly titled Listen First, and attempts to encourage listening to children and youth in order to prevent drug use and protect their health and safety. It is a particularly apt theme, given the news this week of the three 12-year-old girls who were taken to hospital in Salford after having taken ecstasy pills marketed as "teddy" pills.

This recent incident highlights the flaws in prohibitionist drug policies, enshrined in the UN conventions. It is an example of how criminalising drug use can cause more harm than good. Drugs sold on the black market have no age restrictions, no labelling, no instructions for use, and for the most part you can't be sure what you are buying. Many of the health risks associated with drug use result from the fact that drug production and drug use is unregulated and controlled by black market forces. People take too much, don’t get help quickly enough, take adulterated substances, and are poorly educated on the substances they are taking. Additionally, new psychoactive substances ("legal highs") pose problems because health agencies have no idea what is in them, or how to deal with them when something goes wrong. >>

Is Mark Zuckerberg actually a lizard?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/16/is-mark-zuckerberg-a-lizard

<< When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted a livestreamed Q&A earlier this week, he was probably expecting questions about emergent tech and online entrepreneurism rather than someone asking whether he was, in fact, a shape-shifting alien reptile.

"Mark, are the allegations true that you're secretly a lizard?" Zuckerberg read aloud, before replying in the negative and declaring the question "very silly". Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?

Zuckerberg is hardly the first prominent public figure to be fingered as a reptilian alien: everyone from George W Bush and Donald Rumsfeld to Simon Cowell and Kris Kristofferson (!) have faced similar accusations in recent years. As unlikely as it seems, the whole "reptoid" thing has become something of a meme in the internet age. >>

Walmart Canada to stop accepting Visa cards

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/12/walmart-canada-to-stop-accepting-visa-cards-high-fees

<< Walmart Canada stores will stop accepting Visa cards, claiming the credit card provider charges merchants "unacceptably high" fees. Walmart has been unable to agree with Visa on an "acceptable fee", and will no longer accept the company's credit cards starting 18 July , it said in a statement. The move will not affect the US stores of parent Wal-Mart Stores.

A Visa spokeswoman said in a statement it offers "one of the lowest rates available to any merchant in the country" and said Walmart Canada's decision will have a negative impact on shoppers. Representatives of Walmart Canada and Visa declined to address questions on specifics of payment terms.

A Walmart Canada spokesman said the retailer pays more than C$100m ($78.27 m) in credit card fees every year, but specific transaction fees are part of "confidential agreements". Canadian retailers have long complained about what they call the high interchange fees they pay credit card companies. >>

O link para a página com informaçõe sobre taxas (acessível a partir deste tópico do FAQ) leva a uma página com a mensagem "The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable":

https://foxbit.com.br/taxas.html

"Surgeon Simulator" Will Now Let You Operate On Donald Trump

http://kotaku.com/surgeon-simulator-will-now-let-you-operate-on-donald-tr-1780113064

The fate of likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is now (virtually) in your hands, thanks to Surgeon Simulator. The Donald Trump stage is part of the launch for Surgeon Simulator: Anniversary Edition, which comes with updated graphics, new environments, additional achievements, stat tracking, and more.

The developers are also keeping track of whether people give Trump a gold-plated heart or one made of stone. So far, stone hearts are winning.



Surgeon Simulator: Inside Donald Trump (Game Trailer):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnnREKQ8EtQ

Spontaneous Windows 10 Update Prevents Game Dev From Checking Out Of Hotel

http://kotaku.com/spontaneous-windows-10-update-prevents-game-dev-from-ch-1778519338

Microsoft really wants people to upgrade their machines to Windows 10, to the point that computers will now install the new operating system without your knowledge. This lead to a frustrating (but darkly humorous) situation today for Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail, while checking out of a hotel.

"I woke up all chill and relaxed and then I accidentally booked a flight departing in an hour and a half so now I’m packing in a hurry", said Ismail on Twitter.

We’ve all been there before, but what happened next? Not so much.

"My hotel can't check me out because their computer decided to just go for it & is currently in the middle of updating itself to Windows 10", he said.

This isn't the first time Windows 10 upgrades have sprouted up at inopportune times. My own computer, for example, randomly upgraded to Windows 10 a few months back. Windows 10 even locked me out of my own files, due to a glitch. Not long ago, a news station computer decided it wanted to upgrade in the middle of a broadcast. "Don't you love when that pops up?" mused the reporter.



Thankfully, Ismail's hotel didn't keep him waiting around.

"They wrote down my name and room number on a piece of paper after giving it a few more minutes", he told me.

Source: Kotaku

On my own sites, I advise people NOT TO install any Win 7 platform updates released in 2015 and later. I don't trust even the so-called "security updates". I run Win 7 X64 mainly on a virtual machine under XP x64 (a six year-old install, still as fast as on the first day I installed it, and I dare anyone to try and hack me), and on a secondary HD. I've noticed that a few programs tend to crash with the most recent Win 7 updates, and I really don't believe that's a random thing.

Anyways, instead of using the built-in Windows Update, I recommend that people use one of the programs below (both free), which download the updates separately. The second one will even create an .iso file with the updates that you can use to install a bunch of updates at once like with a service pack CD/DVD.

http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com

http://www.wsusoffline.net

I've written a little script that uninstalls all Win 7 spyware updates and also some updates known to break stuff in Win 7. Please note that it will also uninstall the RDP update that you'll need if you use to remote desktop into a Squares 10 aka Win 10 machine (which is a nightmare to do, by the way). Worst case scenario, just reinstall that update later manually:

http://forums.noobsforever.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1367#p330432

Microsoft has ruined my day, and possibly my life

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/23/microsoft-windows-ten-10-software-update-problems-iplayer

An unwanted software update has moved my files, broken my printer and stopped the sound on iPlayer

I'm sitting at my computer, getting on with my work, when suddenly an unseen hand takes over. It stops my work and starts an update, which I can not stop, never asked for and do not want, from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Red alert! Where is my work? What the hell is happening to my computer?

"Your computer?" says Clayden scornfully, and he is right. I'm sitting in my home, at my desk, using a computer that I think belongs to me, but it doesn't. It seems to belong to Microsoft, because they're in charge of it. They've poked their way into my living room, stopped me working, sabotaged my printer, which was specially set up to match Windows 7, stopped the sound on iPlayer, wasted hours of my time while I fiddle about trying to find files and sort out how this wretched new system works. They've given me a fright, ruined my day, and possibly my life, because I think I've lost the bulk of my documents.

An annoying little notice rears up in the corner of my screen. "I'm Cortana", it says. "Ask me anything." Here's a machine telling me what to do, and I'm falling for it. Because I just wrote: "It says". No, it doesn't. It can't speak. It's a sodding machine, taking over.

I moan at Fielding, who's cheesed off with his Mac, which has also sabotaged his iPlayer. He must update it. It's only four years old. But this is the age of built-in obsolescence, AKA rubbish, guaranteed not to last.

"Are you sure you haven't turned yours off?" he asks. No. It's on. I can see the little lights glimmering. There's just no sound or sense to it.

How dare Microsoft intrude on my private life like this? What a bloody cheek. And I am not alone. They've been doing these updates since July last year, although they claim they don't install them without users' permission. Whatever's going on, they need to fix it like they promised. Because it's still happening. So I'm stuck here, waiting for them to come and fix it. How long do you think they'll be?

Michele Hanson for The Guardian

Has the age of quantum computing arrived?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/22/age-of-quantum-computing-d-wave

<< It's a mind-bending concept with the potential to change the world, and Canadian tech company D-Wave claims to have cracked the code. >>

D-Wave Systems is most disruptive company we've ever seen, says Paradigm

http://www.cantechletter.com/2016/04/d-wave-systems-disruptive-company-ever-seen-says-paradigm/

<< Canada is home to a company that is so disruptive that it could deliver returns similar to legendary names such as IBM and Intel, says Paradigm Capital analyst Daniel Kim. Burnaby-based D-Wave, which was founded in 1999 as a spin-off from the physics department of the University of British Columbia has become nothing less than the leading repository of quantum computing intellectual property in the world, says the analyst. He thinks D-Wave's customers will be positioned to gain massive competitive advantages because they will be able to solve problems that normal computers simply can't, such those in areas such as DNA sequencing, financial analysis, and artificial intelligence. >>

P.S.: we need a (general) Technology forum!

Portugal runs for four days straight on renewable energy alone

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/18/portugal-runs-for-four-days-straight-on-renewable-energy-alone

<< Portugal kept its lights on with renewable energy alone for four consecutive days last week in a clean energy milestone revealed by data analysis of national energy network figures. Electricity consumption in the Iberian country was fully covered by solar, wind and hydro power in an extraordinary 107-hour run that lasted from 6.45am on Saturday 7 May until 5.45pm the following Wednesday, the analysis says.

News of the zero emissions landmark comes just days after Germany announced that clean energy had powered almost all its electricity needs on Sunday 15 May, with power prices turning negative at several times in the day – effectively paying consumers to use it. Oliver Joy, a spokesman for the Wind Europe trade association said: "We are seeing trends like this spread across Europe - last year with Denmark and now in Portugal. The Iberian peninsula is a great resource for renewables and wind energy, not just for the region but for the whole of Europe."

James Watson, the CEO of SolarPower Europe said: "This is a significant achievement for a European country, but what seems extraordinary today will be commonplace in Europe in just a few years. The energy transition process is gathering momentum and records such as this will continue to be set and broken across Europe."

As recently as 2013, Portugal generated half its electricity from combustible fuels, with 27% coming from nuclear, 13% from hydro, 7.5% from wind and 3% from solar, according to Eurostat figures. By last year the figure had flipped, with wind providing 22% of electricity and all renewable sources together providing 48%, according to the Portuguese renewable energy association. >>

Face recognition app taking Russia by storm may bring end to public anonymity

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/17/findface-face-recognition-app-end-public-anonymity-vkontakte

<< If the founders of a new face recognition app get their way, anonymity in public could soon be a thing of the past. FindFace, launched two months ago and currently taking Russia by storm, allows users to photograph people in a crowd and work out their identities, with 70% reliability. It works by comparing photographs to profile pictures on Vkontakte, a social network popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union, with more than 200 million accounts. In future, the designers imagine a world where people walking past you on the street could find your social network profile by sneaking a photograph of you, and shops, advertisers and the police could pick your face out of crowds and track you down via social networks.

In the short time since the launch, Findface has amassed 500,000 users and processed nearly 3m searches, according to its founders, 26-year-old Artem Kukharenko, and 29-year-old Alexander Kabakov. (...) Unlike other face recognition technology, their algorithm allows quick searches in big data sets. "Three million searches in a database of nearly 1bn photographs: that's hundreds of trillions of comparisons, and all on four normal servers. With this algorithm, you can search through a billion photographs in less than a second from a normal computer", said Kabakov, during an interview at the company's modest central Moscow office. The app will give you the most likely match to the face that is uploaded, as well as 10 people it thinks look similar. >>

How to completely avoid upgrading to Windows 10... forever

http://betanews.com/2016/03/27/never-10

Since the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft has - for want of a better way of putting it - pissed off a tremendous number of people for the way it has tried to force the latest version of the operating system onto people. Some people found set up files were automatically downloaded, others were forcibly upgraded practically against their will, but plenty of people have been irritated by constant nagging about the availability of an upgrade they’re simply not interested in. Never 10 is a new tool that should mean the end of this pestering.

Various tools and techniques have been spawned as a result of things, providing fans of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 with ways to avoid Windows 10 and Microsoft's adverts for it. Maybe you're holding out for more feature-complete builds from the Redstone branch, or perhaps you just don’t like change. You would think that Microsoft would understand that 'no' means 'no' but there have been countless stories of people who have declined the Windows 10 upgrade finding themselves subjected to continued nagging. A registry hack can be used to block nags and upgrades, but Never 10 is a free portable app that does the hard work for you.

Never 10 is a free tool from Gibson Research Corporation which places users firmly in control of whether Windows 10 is installed or not. While the name might imply that it is all about avoiding Windows 10, this is just part of the story. It's entirely possible that you might change your mind further down the line, and Never 10 can also be used to lift the upgrade block once you have put it in place.
But the primary purpose of Never 10 is to prevent Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 from being upgraded to Windows 10. As the authors say:

"Many users of Windows 7 and 8.1 are happy with their current version of Windows and have no wish to upgrade to Windows 10. There are many reasons for this, but among them is the fact that Windows 10 has become quite controversial due to Microsoft's evolution of their Windows operating system platform into a service which, among other things, aggressively monitors and reports on its users' activities. This alone makes many users uncomfortable enough to cause them to choose to wait. Additionally, a few months into 2016, Windows 10 started displaying unsolicited advertisements on its users' desktops."

If you run it on a Windows 10 computer, Never 10 can do nothing for you - although you may still be able to manually roll back to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Otherwise, you will be given the option of disabling or enabling the upgrade to Windows 10, as well as ensuring that you have the latest version of Windows Update installed.

The beauty of Never 10 is its simplicity. It's a portable app, so there's no need to even install it; if you're the technological go-to-guy/gal, it's a valuable tool to stick on a USB drive to use on friends' and family's computers.

Download your free copy of Never 10 from Gibson Research Corporation.

Source: BetaNews

Go ahead, touch yourself: eight things to know for masturbation month

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/10/masturbation-month-sex-toys-tips-sexual-health

<< As I'm sure you're well aware, we find ourselves in the midst of international masturbation month. Now, before you go thinking that this piece is the result of a marketing ploy by sex toy manufacturers who have chosen May for no reason other than its alliterative qualities, let me assure you that your cynicism is misplaced: I've been interested in this topic long before the press release landed in my inbox.

For years, people have asked me about what constitutes "normal" when it comes to masturbation: how much is too much? How long should it last? Who masturbates more – men or women? There is a wealth of data available on how and why we touch ourselves. Here are eight things to know. >>

The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China's political convulsion

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/11/the-cultural-revolution-50-years-on-all-you-need-to-know-about-chinas-political-convulsion

<< Fifty years ago one of the bloodiest eras in Chinese history began, in which as many as two million people died. But who started it and what was it for? >>

Panama Papers: US launches crackdown on international tax evasion

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/may/06/panama-papers-us-launches-crackdown-on-international-tax-evasion

<< Barack Obama is launching a crackdown on international tax evasion in response to recent disclosures in the Panama Papers revealing the scale of offshore financial activity. In a series of initiatives announced by the White House on Thursday night, the president will take executive action to close loopholes used by foreigners in the US and call on Congress to pass legislation. Though the later steps may hit political obstacles in an election year, the package of measures are among the most comprehensive response yet to the Panama Papers revelations, disclosed by a consortium of international journalists including The Guardian.

"In recent weeks, the disclosure of the so-called 'Panama Papers' – millions of leaked documents reportedly revealing the use of anonymous offshore shell companies – has brought the issues of illicit financial activity and tax evasion into the spotlight", said the White House in a statement. "The Panama Papers underscore the importance of the efforts the United States has taken domestically, and the efforts we have undertaken with our international partners, to address these shared challenges."  >>

WhatsApp block in Brazil overturned after court appeal and user complaints

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/03/brazil-whatsapp-block-ruling-overturned

<< A Brazilian judge has overturned a suspension of Facebook Inc's WhatsApp messaging application that affected some 100 million users, after many people voiced frustration at the second such freeze in five months in the South American country.

On Monday, a judge in the north-eastern state of Sergipe had ordered Brazil's five main wireless operators to block access to WhatsApp for 72 hours. The reason for the order was not made public due to legal secrecy in an ongoing case before the state court. However, a different judge from the state tribunal intervened on Tuesday to cancel the ruling following an appeal from WhatsApp's lawyers, the court said in a statement. >>

Valve Launches new anti-cheat policy

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/valve-launches-new-anti-cheat-policy.html

According to the updated VAC support page, gamers will now be banned on the basis of the linked phone numbers. As a result, those having multiple accounts linked with that number will also be banned from the same game as the original cheater.

In case the other accounts do not own the game, they won't be able to purchase it, while new accounts will not be able to link the same phone number for a period of three months. Currently, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, one of the most popular multiplayer games on Steam, has enabled the phone number ban. However, it is at the discretion of the developers to introduce it for their games and may not be implemented by everyone. As per the CS: GO blog, the latest update already supports phone bans, so players with known hacks should stay wary.

Source: Guru3D

Oklahoma court: oral sex is not rape if victim is unconscious from drinking

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/27/oral-sex-rape-ruling-tulsa-oklahoma-alcohol-consent

<< An Oklahoma court has stunned local prosecutors with a declaration that state law doesn’t criminalize oral sex with a victim who is completely unconscious. The ruling, a unanimous decision by the state's criminal appeals court, is sparking outrage among critics who say the judicial system was engaged in victim-blaming and buying outdated notions about rape. But legal experts and victims' advocates said they viewed the ruling as a sign of something larger: the troubling gaps that still exist between the nation's patchwork of laws and evolving ideas about rape and consent.

The case involved allegations that a 17-year-old boy assaulted a girl, 16, after volunteering to give her a ride home. The two had been drinking in a Tulsa park with a group of friends when it became clear that the girl was badly intoxicated. Witnesses recalled that she had to be carried into the defendant's car. Another boy, who briefly rode in the car, recalled her coming in and out of consciousness. The boy later brought the girl to her grandmother’s house. Still unconscious, the girl was taken to a hospital, where a test put her blood alcohol content above .34. She awoke as staff were conducting a sexual assault examination.

Tests would later confirm that the young man's DNA was found on the back of her leg and around her mouth. The boy claimed to investigators that the girl had consented to performing oral sex. The girl said she didn't have any memories after leaving the park. Tulsa County prosecutors charged the young man with forcible oral sodomy. But the trial judge dismissed the case. And the appeals court ruling, on 24 March, affirmed that prosecutors could not apply the law to a victim who was incapacitated by alcohol.

"Forcible sodomy cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation", the decision read. Its reasoning, the court said, was that the statute listed several circumstances that constitute force, and yet was silent on incapacitation due to the victim drinking alcohol. "We will not, in order to justify prosecution of a person for an offense, enlarge a statute beyond the fair meaning of its language." >>

RuMMS: The Latest Family of Android Malware Attacking Users in Russia Via SMS Phishing

https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2016/04/rumms-android-malware.html

FireEye, a U.S. network security company, uncovered a new Android malware family infecting smartphones in Russia through SMS phishing

Recently we observed an Android malware family being used to attack users in Russia. The malware samples were mainly distributed through a series of malicious subdomains registered under a legitimate domain belonging to a well-known shared hosting service provider in Russia. Because all the URLs used in this campaign have the form of hxxp://yyyyyyyy[.]XXXX.ru/mms.apk (where XXXX.ru represents the hosting provider’s domain), we named this malware family RuMMS.

To lure the victims to download the malware, threat actors use SMS phishing – sending a short SMS message containing a malicious URL to the potential victims. Unwary users who click the seemingly innocuous link will have their device infected with RuMMS malware. Figure 1 describes this infection process and the main behaviors of RuMMS.