Are the TikTok deepfake videos of Tom Cruise doing magic and playing golf a threat to global democracy? Not exactly. “[T]he reality is that they took a lot of time, technical expertise, and the skilled performance of a real actor,” reports VICE News. “Rather than predicting a dark future of disinformation for the masses, they’re simply another example of what can…
Tag: trick
Observer’s challenge: Moon and morning planets on February 8, 9 and 10
Before sunrise on February 8, 9 and 10, 2021, the old moon might guide you to 3 morning planets: Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. Fair warning. It won’t be easy to spot the planets so near the sunrise glare! Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-morning-planets-feb-8-9-10-2021…
Customized Apple-Themed Game Boy Color Doubles As An Apple TV Remote
Italian YouTuber Otto Climan modded an original Game Boy Color handheld to act as an Apple TV remote. Gizmodo reports: Otto Climan started with an original Game Boy Color handheld that they upgraded with a backlit LCD display because the GBC arrived well before Nintendo stopped using dim screens that strained your eyes. For the custom white case adorned with Apple’s…
MacOS Malware Used Run-Only AppleScripts To Avoid Detection For Five Years
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: For more than five years, macOS users have been the targets of a sneaky malware operation that used a clever trick to avoid detection and hijacked the hardware resources of infected users to mine cryptocurrency behind their backs. Named OSAMiner, the malware has been distributed in the wild since at least 2015 disguised…
Hackers Target Cryptocurrency Users With New ElectroRAT Malware
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Security firm Intezer Labs said it discovered a covert year-long malware operation where cybercriminals created fake cryptocurrency apps in order to trick users into installing a new strain of malware on their systems, with the obvious end goal of stealing victims’ funds. The campaign was discovered last month in December 2020, but researchers…
Moon, Mars, Uranus December 22 to 24
Uranus likely won’t be visible to the eye alone. But you’ll easily see red Mars near the moon on December 22, 23 and 24, 2020. Mars isn’t exactly blazing now. But it’s bright, and very red, still a stunning sight, high in the sky at nightfall. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-mars-uranus-december-22-24…
CloudLinux To Invest More Than a Million Dollars a Year Into CentOS Clone
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: When Red Hat, CentOS’s Linux parent company, announced it was “shifting focus from CentOS Linux, the rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), to CentOS Stream, which tracks just ahead of a current RHEL release,” it lost a lot of friends. CentOS co-founder, Gregory Kurtzer, immediately announced he’d create his own RHEL clone…
Google Considers ‘Severe’ Penalties For Allegedly Deceptive Chrome Extension Maker
Engadget reports:
The Wall Street Journal has learned that Google is considering “severe penalties” against internet giant IAC (InterActive Corp) over allegedly deceptive practices in its Chrome extensions. The browser extras reportedly promise features that never materialize, point users toward additional ads, or even trick users into installing them. A Google audit reportedly found that some of IAC’s voting ads not only…
Illegal Tampering By Diesel Pickup Owners Is Worsening Pollution, EPA Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The owners and operators of more than half a million diesel pickup trucks have been illegally disabling their vehicles’ emissions control technology over the past decade, allowing excess emissions equivalent to 9 million extra trucks on the road, a new federal report has concluded. The practice, described in a report…
Twisted Graphene Could Power a New Generation of Superconducting Electronics
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: In 2018, a group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) pulled off a dazzling materials science magic trick. They stacked two microscopic cards of graphene — sheets of carbon one atom thick — and twisted one ever so slightly. Applying an electric field transformed the stack from a conductor to an…