It's the end of an era as Nintendo is shutting down its Wii U and 3DS eShops today (March 27th) at 5PM PST (8PM EST). After that, you'll no longer be able to purchase new games for those consoles, though you'll still be able to redownload titles you've already purchased for the time being. The company first warned of the eShop closures back in February 2022, and barred users from adding funds to their accounts on August 29th. Nintendo wrote at the time that that the move was "part of the natural lifecycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time."That may be true, but a trove of over 1,000 digital games will be lost in the shutdown, including Dr. Luigi, Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge, and Pokémon Picross, to name but a few. In total, 450 digital-only Wii U games, 600 digital-only 3DS games and 530 virtual console games will disappear, VGC reported. Of the latter, 335 aren't currently available on Nintendo Switch Online. That means the only option for folks who want to play these classic games will be physical copies, which have soared in value. Many other download-exclusive games, meanwhile, will disappear for good. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/its-your-last-chance-to-buy-from-nintendos-wii-u-and-3ds-eshops-072838697.html?src=rss
In yet another embarrassing development for new Twitter boss Elon Musk, court filings published Friday reveal that portions of the social media site's source code the base programming that makes Twitter possible have been leaked online, the New York Times reports.Per court filings, Twitter claimed copyright infringement in an effort to have the offending code taken down from the Github collaborative programming network, where it had been posted. While the code was removed the same day, details as to how long the code had been left up were not made available, nor were the leak's scope or depth. As part of the takedown request reminiscent of Raytheon's famous -- failed -- attempt at court-sanctioned doxxing, Twitter also asked the US District Court for the Northern District of California to order Github to reveal both the identity of the user who posted the code and those who accessed and downloaded it. The NYT reports that, per sources within the company privy to the internal investigation into the leak, Twitter executives strongly suspect it's the work of a disgruntled employee who had left, "within the last year." Coincidentally, Elon Musk purchased Twitter last October for the eye-watering price of $44 billion and proceeded to lay-off and otherwise lose 80 percent of the company's staff, not the 75 percent that everybody feared Musk would enact in the run-up to his purchase. The executive who spoke with the NYT are primarily concerned that revelations gleaned from the stolen code could empower future hacking efforts, either by revealing new exploits or allowing bad actors to access Twitter user data. If the increasingly temperamental page functionality wasn't enough to send the site's user base running for the hills that the site's resurgence of scammers and white nationalists since Elon's takeover didn't already scare off, will the threat of outright hacking be the final straw for advertisers and users alike? This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/portions-of-twitters-source-code-have-reportedly-leaked-online-234405620.html?src=rss
Good news, Arrested Development fans. You can continue watching the highly acclaimed sitcom on Netflix. As The Verge outlines, all five seasons of the show, including the two financed by Netflix, were set to leave the service on March 15th. However, the series is now staying put, thanks to a licensing agreement the company reached with Disney-owned 20th Century Fox, the shows original rights holder.The Bluths arent going anywhere! Arrested Development is staying on Netflix! And theres only one way to celebrate: pic.twitter.com/NlrSoBYk8t Netflix (@netflix) March 24, 2023According to Vulture, the new deal will see Netflix gain exclusive streaming rights to the series. As a result, the shows first three seasons will not be available to watch on Hulu as of later this year. Notably, the deal reportedly gives Disney the option to sell the linear TV rights for all five seasons of Arrested Development. That means the show could end up on network television, much like BoJack Horseman did in 2018. Losing Arrested Development would have been a tough blow for Netflix. After Fox canceled the series in 2006, it found a home on the streaming service and was one of its early draws. It was also one of the first Netflix Originals after the company and Fox commissioned a new season in 2011.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-strikes-last-minute-deal-to-retain-arrested-development-streaming-rights-210939960.html?src=rss
Elon Musk values Twitter at about $20 billion, according to an email seen by The Information and The New York Times. Musk shared the valuation, a significant drop from the $44 billion he paid to buy the company last fall, in a memo he sent to Twitter employees on Friday announcing a new stock compensation program. The billionaire reportedly warned Twitters significantly diminished workforce that the website was still in a precarious financial position. Twitter is being reshaped rapidly, he wrote, adding the company had, at one point, been four months away from running out of cash.Comp increases will be based on X Corp stock. Current grants are based on a $20b valuation. Musk says he sees a clear but difficult path to $250 billion valuation which would mean current grants could 10x. 3/ Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) March 25, 2023According to Platformers Zoë Schiffer, Musk additionally told employees he sees a clear but difficult path to a $250 billion valuation, a hypothetical outcome that would make the companys current stock grants worth 10 times as much in the future. Musk said Twitter would allow staff to sell stock every six months, a policy similar to one in place at SpaceX. According to Musk, the program would give employees liquid stock while shielding them from the price chaos that comes with equity at a publicly traded company.To put Musks valuation in context, at $20 billion, Twitter would be worth more than Snapchat creator Snap, a company with nearly 140 million more daily active users. Its also worth noting that the estimate likely reflects the difficulties Twitter has faced as a direct result of Musks decisions. At the start of 2023, the companys daily revenue was reportedly down 40 percent from a year ago after more than 500 of its top advertising partners had paused spending on the platform. Many of those companies left following the firms messy relaunch of Twitter Blue, which saw verified trolls abuse the service to impersonate brands. Based on recent reporting from The Information, there were only about 180,000 Twitter Blue subscribers in the US at the beginning of February, suggesting the service is nowhere close to making up for the financial downturn Twitter has experienced since Musks takeover.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-reportedly-values-twitter-at-20-billion-200841233.html?src=rss
The European Union has agreed to make a carveout for synthetic fuels in its proposed 2035 ban on the sale of new combustion engine cars. Per the Associated Press, the bloc made a deal with Germany on Saturday to allow automakers to sell new ICE cars past 2035, provided those vehicles run on climate-neutral fuels only. The agreement ends a dispute that had threatened to scuttle the EUs signature climate change policy. At the start of March, the European Parliament delayed a vote that would have codified the proposed ban after Germany, with support from automakers, said it would not back the mandate without an exemption for synthetic fuels.We have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of efuels in cars. We will work now on getting the CO2-standards for cars regulation adopted as soon as possible, and the Commission will follow-up swiftly with the necessary legal steps to implement recital 11. Frans Timmermans (@TimmermansEU) March 25, 2023We have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of e-fuels in cars, Frans Timmermans, the executive vice president of European Green Deal, posted to Twitter on Saturday. We will work now on getting the CO2 standards for cars regulation adopted as soon as possible. Environmental group Greenpeace criticized the agreement. This lazy compromise undermines climate protection in transport, and it harms Europe, the organization wrote in a statement.As The Guardian notes, making synthetic fuels is incredibly energy intensive. Moreover, without direct air capture tech, e-fuel cars produce almost as many greenhouse emissions as their conventional ICE counterparts. According to one estimate published before Saturdays announcement, a carveout for synthetic fuels could result in as many as 46 million fewer cumulative EV sales in Europe by 2050 without providing any additional CO2 savings. Its also worth noting that no company is producing synthetic fuels at scale yet. Thats a significant point because e-fuels are unlikely to save European drivers money. By 2030, Transport & Environment estimates the average EU driver will pay 782 a year more to fill their car's tank with synthetic fuel than conventional gas.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/eu-agrees-to-allow-sales-of-e-fuel-internal-combustion-engine-cars-past-2035-173328144.html?src=rss
One of Engadgets favorite pair of noise-canceling headphones is on sale at Amazon. After a nearly $85 discount, you can get the Sennheiser Momentum 4 for $265. If youre not fussy about color, the white model is an additional $6 off. Either way, thats a new all-time low for Sennheisers flagship Bluetooth headphones.Engadget Senior Editor Billy Steele awarded the Momentum 4 a score of 82. He came away with their audio quality, noting they were among the best-sounding Bluetooth headphones he tested in 2022. Also impressive was their ANC performance and battery life. With noise cancellation turned on, Steele found he could get up to 60 hours of playtime on a single charge. Thats double what most noise-canceling headphones offer. If you dont mind the Momentum 4s somewhat forgettable design, theyre a great pair of headphones. I'll also note here Amazon has a handful of other Sennheiser products on sale, including the company's excellent HD 599 SE headphones. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sennheisers-momentum-4-wireless-headphones-are-cheaper-than-ever-151139441.html?src=rss
The internet has connected nearly everybody on the planet to a global network of information and influence, enabling humanity's best and brightest minds unparalleled collaborative capabilities. At least that was the idea, more often than not these days, it serves as a popular medium for scamming your more terminally-online relatives out of large sums of money. Just ask Brett Johnson, a reformed scam artist who at his rube-bilking pinnacle, was good at separating fools from their cash that he founded an entire online learning forum to train a new generation of digital scam artist.Johnson's cautionary tale in one of many in the new book, Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry, from Harvard Business Review Press. In it, Professor of Forensic Accounting at DePaul University, Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope, chronicles some of the 20th and 21st century's most heinous financial misdeeds from Bernie Madoff's pyramid schemes to Enron and VW, and all the Nigerian Princes in between exploring how the grifts worked and why they often left their marks none the wiser.Harvard Business Review PressReprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press. Excerpted from Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry by Kelly Richmond Pope. Copyright 2023 Kelly Richmond Pope. All rights reserved.Cyber MondayI was doing my morning reading before class, and a story about a reformed cybercriminal caught my attention. I always wanted to learn more about cybercrime, but Id never interacted with a convicted cyber offender. Here was my chance.I did a quick Google search and found his personal website. I reached out, explained my interest in his story, and waited. By evening, I had an email from gollum@anglerphish.com. I was immediately suspicious, but it was a legit address of Brett Johnson, the man from the article.After a few email exchanges, we got on a call. He was super friendly and had the voice of a radio DJ. I invited him to come speak to my class at DePaul.I teach on Monday nights for the next eight weeks, so whatever works for you will work for me, I said.How about I hop in my car and come visit your class this coming Monday? he said.I was a little shockedBirmingham, Alabama was a long drive but I immediately took him up on his offer.Brett was born and raised in Hazard, Kentucky, one of these areas like the Florida Panhandle and parts of Louisiana, where if youre not fortunate enough to have a job, you may be involved in some sort of scam, hustle, fraud, whatever you want to call it, he said.Maybe there was something in the water because his entire family engaged in fraud. Insurance fraud, document forgery, drug trafficking, mining illegal coal. You name it, Bretts family did it.Young Brett was a natural liar. As he grew up, he participated in the family scams.Eventually, he branched out on his own. His first scam: in 1994, he faked his own car accident. Second scam: eBay fraud.He reached his peak in the mid-90s, during the Beanie Baby heyday. The Royal Blue Peanut, essentially a cobalt stuffed elephant toy, sold for as much as $1,700. Only five hundred of the dolls were manufactured, making it one of the most valuable Beanie Babies.Brett was trying to earn some extra money. A Beanie Baby scam seemed easy and quick.He advertised on eBay that he was selling Royal Blue Peanut for $1,500. Except he was actually selling a gray Beanie Baby that he dipped in blue dye to look like Royal Blue Peanut for $1,500.He accepted a bid and instructed the winner to send a US postal money order. It protects us both, he said via email. As soon as I get that and it clears, Ill send you your elephant.The bidder sent Brett the money order; Brett cashed it and sent her his version of the blue Beanie Baby. The phone rang almost immediately.This is not what I ordered! yelled a voice on the other line.Bretts response was swift. Lady, you ordered a blue elephant. I sent you a blue-ish elephant.Brett gave her the runaround for a few weeks until she finally disappeared.This experience taught Brett two very important lessons about cybercrime:Delay the victim as long as possible.Victims rarely report the crime and eventually go away.Brett continued to perfect his skills and graduated to selling pirated software. From pirated software, he moved to install mod chips (a small electronic device used to disable artificial restrictions of computers or entertainment devices) into gaming systems so owners could play the pirated games. Then he began installing mod chips in the cable boxes that would turn on all the pay-per-view on clients TV channels for free. Then it was programming satellite DSS cards (the satellite DSS card allows access to tv channels).He was getting requests for his cable boxes from customers all over the United States and Canada. He was on a roll. Finally, it occurred to him: Why even fulfill the cable box order? Just take the money and run. He knew that no customer would complain about losing money in an illegal transaction. He stole even more money with this updated version of his cable box scam but soon worried that hed get flagged for money laundering. He decided he needed a fake drivers license so he could open up a bank account and launder the money through cash taken out of the ATM.He found a person online who sold fake licenses. He sent a picture, $200, and waited. He waited and waited. Then reality punched him in the face: Hed been scammed. The nerve.No one hates being deceived more than someone who deceives for a living. Brett was so frustrated he started ShadowCrew.com, an online forum where people could learn the ins and outs of cybercrime. Forbes called it a one-stop marketplace for identity theft. The ShadowCrew operated from August 2002 through November 2004, attracting as many as four thousand criminals or aspiring criminals. Its consdered the forerunner of todays cybercrime forums and marketplaces; Brett is known as the Godfather of Cybercrime.Before ShadowCrew, the only avenue you had to commit online crime was a rolling chat board, he told my students. Its called a IRC chat session and stands for Internet Relay Chat. The problem with these rolling chat screens was that you had no idea if you were talking to a cop or a crook. Either was possible.ShadowCrew gave criminals a trust mechanism. It was a large communication channel where people in different time zones could reference conversations. By looking at someones screen name, you could tell if you could trust that person, if you could network with that person, or if you could learn from that person, he said. The screen name on the dark web became the criminals brand name. They keep this brand name throughout their entire criminal tenure and it helps establish trust with others, so the screen name matters.When Brett was in class, he showed my students how information ended up on the dark web. You can find social security numbers, home addresses, drivers license numbers, credit card numbers on the dark web for $3, he explained. All the information is there, practically begging to be taken.In 2004, authorities arrested twenty-eight men in six countries, claiming they had swapped 1.7 million stolen card numbers and caused $4.3 million in losses. But Brett escaped. He was placed on the Secret Services Most Wanted list. After four months on the run, he was arrested.Brett has been in and out of prison five times and spent 7.5 years in federal prison. Today he considers himself a reformed white-collar offender.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hitting-the-books-fool-me-once-kelly-richmond-pope-harvard-business-review-press-143031129.html?src=rss
This list is really for me not to forget the ingredients and why they are important. Dr. Sinclairs supplement and longevity drug stack likely looks as follows: Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN): 1g per day, in the morningResveratrol: 1g per day, in the morningMetformin: 800 mg, in the eveningVitamin D3: ideally 4,000 to 5,000 IU per dayVitamin […]
The post Nerding out on David Sinclair’s Longevity Supplements. appeared first on Kevin Lee Random Research & Musings.
In 2020, Epic Games publicly demoed Unreal Engine 5 for the first time. Nearly three years later, gamers are still waiting for the tech to go mainstream. Outside of Fortnite and The Matrix Awakens, there arent any UE5 games you can play right now, and the first salvo probably wont arrive until the end of the year at the earliest. None of that stopped Epic from showcasing the engines latest capabilities with a handful of new demos during its recent State of Unreal keynote at GDC 2023.Arguably the most impressive one saw Senuas Saga: Hellblade 2 developer Ninja Theory show off Epics new MetaHuman Animator. The tool promises to make realistic facial capture accessible to indie developers by allowing them to use an iPhone, instead of dedicated equipment, to capture facial performances. As you can see from the two demos Epic shared, the tool makes it possible to quickly and accurately transform a closeup video of an actor into something a studio can use in-game. Epic said the animator would launch this summer.Separately, Epic showed off some of the enhancements coming to Unreal Engine 5.2 with a demo that featured, of all things, a digital recreation of Rivians R1T electric truck. The EV turned out to be the perfect showcase for UE 5s new Substrate shading system. The technology allows artists to create different shading models and layer them as they see fit. In the demo, Epic gave the R1T an opal body to show how Substrate can allow different material layers to interact with one another without creating lighting artifacts. The demo was also a showcase for Epics new set of Procedural Content Generation tools. They allow artists to create expansive, highly detailed levels from a small set of hand-crafted assets.If all goes according to plan, it wont be much longer before the first slate of Unreal Engine 5 games arrive. Provided its not delayed again, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is slated to release this year. Lords of the Fallen and Black Myth: Wukong, two other UE5 projects, dont have a release date yet but have been in development for a few years now.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/epic-made-a-rivian-r1t-demo-to-show-off-its-latest-unreal-engine-5-tools-214300199.html?src=rss
