Nintendo Takes Down Fan-Made Metroid 2 Remake

I honestly don't understand why Nintendo had to hit these guys with a DMCA takedown notice. It's a game made by Metroid fans, for Metroid fans and it was free.

Thirty years ago, Nintendo released its action-adventure game Metroid on the Famicom platform. This Saturday, to coincide with the anniversary, a group of game makers pooled their resources and released their AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake) game, for free. In response, Nintendo sent in the lawyers.

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Chinese Elevated Bus Is A Scam?

Remember that crazy elevated bus concept we showed you a few months ago? Well, after a recent public demonstration the Chinese media is calling the whole thing a "scam."

Several state media outlets have published articles alleging that the company in charge of developing the TEB crowdfunded their project illegally and misled investors. Despite the hype surrounding the trial run, both domestic and abroad, it seems that the company may have blown the occassion out of proportion. Not only was the test run just 300 meters long and completely failed to mimic real-life traffic conditions, but authorities in Qinhuangdao city also were not aware of it even happening, People's Daily reports. The firm later verified that it wasn't a "road test," but simply part of "internal testing."

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Case Mods On Display At QuakeCon

There were a handful of cool case mods on display at QuakeCon this year. My personal favorite had to be the Nuka Cola machine. The level of detail on that thing is just insane. You can hit this link for a list of specs and complete build guide from 3D printing to final assembly.

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All CORSAIR VOID Headsets Attain Full Discord Certification

CORSAIR®, a leader in high-performance gaming hardware, today announced that its entire range of VOID gaming headsets have achieved full certification from Discord, a leading voice and text chat application for gamers. With Discord certification, CORSAIR VOID owners can play with the confidence that their headset’s microphone and audio have been tested and evaluated to the highest of standards ensuring clear communication and great sound whatever game they play. Discord, one of the fastest growing communication programs, offers gamers an all-in-one, high-quality voice and chat experience. Where other gaming communication programs have gone unchanged for years, Discord constantly offers new content and updates based on what users want. Discord works on desktop and phone and is completely free.

Getting the best out of Discord needs audio hardware that’s up to the task, and that’s where Discord certification comes in. It’s a comprehensive array of tests and evaluations that ensures gaming headsets not only work flawlessly with Discord, but also a wide range of the most popular PC games played today. Headsets are analyzed using studio level equipment to test both microphone and audio quality, with extreme tolerances for crackle, static and pops that might degrade the auditory experience. Headsets must also pass a rigorous comfort and compatibility play test in a wide array of today’s most popular games, from Triple A to Indie.

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Gaming [H]eadlines

AMD Radeon RX 460 Official Specification Information

If you want the lowdown on the low end of AMD's lineup of Polaris architecture GPUs, make sure you take a moment to read our AMD Radeon RX 460 Official Specification Information article. If you are looking for a budget gaming card, this will definitely be of interest to you (and your wallet).

AMD is launching the AMD Radeon RX 460 today, completing its lineup of Polaris architecture GPUs in the sub-$250 product space. Here is all the press information, specifications, and pricing in regards to the AMD Radeon RX 460 in today's launch. No card was sent for review. All three Polaris GPUs are now on the table.

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Facebook Denies Reluctance To Give Data To German Investigators

Look, it's not that Facebook is reluctant to hand over data to authorities, it's just that Germany hasn't realized that Facebook does what it wants, when it wants, when it damn well pleases.

Facebook rejected on Monday claims made by Germany's state authorities that it was reluctant to co-operate with them on criminal investigations, saying many of the requests it received for user data were incorrectly formulated. Several regional interior ministers have complained that the social media group is hesitant to respond to requests for data and have called on the Federal Justice Ministry to introduce new laws.

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How To Solve Windows 10 Crashes In Less Than A Minute

I don't know about the whole "less than a minute" part but this article does have some solid tips on diagnosing Windows 10 crashes. If you don't like this method, the author does have a tried and true way of finding fixes for Windows 10 crashes...use Google to find the answer.

Just to be clear, this article deals with system crashes, not application crashes or system hangs. In a full system crash, the operating system has concluded that something has gone so wrong (such as memory corruption) that continued operation could cause serious or catastrophic results. Therefore, the OS attempts to shut down as cleanly as possible – saving system state information in the process – then restarts (if set to do so) as a refreshed environment and with debug information ready to be analyzed.

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[H]ardware Round-Up

BBC Will Use Wi-Fi Detection Vans To Catch TV Pirates

Someone in the UK will have to explain to me how the BBC can get away with something like this. On the bright side, it should be easy to identify the vans in your neighborhood.

The BBC is apparently going to use Wi-Fi detection vans to catch people who don’t pay the TV licence but continue to watch the iPlayer. The organisation’s new system can establish if someone is watching the online service on a PC, mobile device or laptop, according to the National Audit Office. It will do this by using data from Wi-Fi networks in private homes.

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Tesla Autopilot Takes Driver Safely to Hospital

How about some GOOD news about Tesla's Autopilot feature for a change? Apparently some guy suffering from a pulmonary embolism drove to the hospital using Autopilot and was not involved in an accident on the way.

A man suffering from a pulmonary embolism was driven 20 miles to a hospital by the Autopilot system on his Tesla car, according to reports. Joshua Neally, a 37-year-old from Missouri, was driving home when he experienced the medical emergency. Deciding the best course of action was to get to a hospital in his car, Neally let the Autopilot system of his Model X take control on the highway. He was then able to finish the final section of the journey from the highway to the hospital by himself.

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New Android Vulnerabilities in Over 900 Million Devices

During a presentation at the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas this week, security researchers from Check Point Software Technologies say that four flaws found in Qualcomm chips have left over 900 million Android devices open to attack. If you own an Android phone, make sure you read this article.

QuadRooter is a set of four vulnerabilities affecting Android devices built using Qualcomm chipsets. Qualcomm is the world’s leading designer of LTE chipsets with a 65% share of the LTE modem baseband market. If any one of the four vulnerabilities is exploited, an attacker can trigger privilege escalations for the purpose of gaining root access to a device.

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Cool Blue Flame Tornado Video

This video of a blue fire tornado is really neat to watch. I do find it odd that the scientists that discovered this phenomenon weren't smart enough to rotate the phone while recording this video. Who uses a cell phone to record stuff like this anyway?

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Amazon Japan Raided On Suspicion Of Antitrust Practices

According to anonymous sources, the Japanese Fair Trade Commission has supposedly raided Amazon's offices in that country on suspicion of antitrust behavior. There has been no confirmation of this report as of yet, the best anyone can come up with right now is the quote from the Japanese Fair Trade Commission below.

Japan's Fair Trade Commission has raided the offices of Amazon.com Inc's local unit on suspicion of pressuring retailers to offer products at lower prices than on rival sites, the Nikkei business daily said on Monday. The paper, which cited unidentified sources with knowledge of the case, did not say when the raid took place. A Japan Fair Trade Commission spokesman said he could not confirm the report but added: "I won't say the contents are incorrect."

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Start Folding With The [H] Today!

Joining the best folding team on the planet (Team #33) is now easier than ever. We don't give you money to join and we can't promise you cash or other incentives, we do this simply because it is our passion and that is why we've had the best folding community around...for years. So, if you want to make a difference with a group of people that honestly care about what they are doing, join team Team #33 today.

Folding is a wonderful way to help your fellow man using your spare CPU cycles and now, thanks to the Quick Setup V7 Guide for Windows, it is easier than ever to get started. Remember to put the number 33 in the "team" field and you’ll be folding with the [H]orde in no time! Thanks to all our team members for the wonderful job they are doing.

How GPUs Help Track, Protect and Cook Our Food

On the other side of the planet, a team at the University of Sydney is working on a solar-powered robot, dubbed SwagBot, that will play the role of high-tech cowboy to help monitor livestock. SwagBot will roam among grazing cows, horses and sheep, herding them at times, while also providing video and other data that will help ranchers improve operations as well as animal health.

Currently focused on the drive train and articulation of the robot, the team will soon move on to developing autonomy for the robot’s software and numerous sensors, said project leader Salah Sukkarieh, professor of robotics and intelligent systems. Sukkarieh said his team is using the GeForce GTX TITAN X for offline training of machine learning models that will support SwagBot’s autonomy.

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Republic of Gamers is Official Hardware Provider for The International 2016

Republic of Gamers is excited to be sponsoring the world's biggest Dota 2 gaming competition - The International 6 (TI6). Last year, Evil Geniuses defeated CDEC three games to one in the grand finals to take home the biggest prize money (6.6 million USD) in eSports history for TI5, the prize pool of $18 million surpassed even the SuperBowl. This year, the rise of eSports is evident in that the prize pool for TI6 has reached over $20 million. Not bad for playing computer games! The International 2016 will be held at KeyArena, Seattle from 8th to 13th August, 2016, and ROG will be the official hardware provider for the event. ROG Strix GL702 and ROG Swift PG248Q have been selected as the official gaming laptop and monitor for the prestigious event. TI6 is the sixth edition of The International, this annual Dota 2 tournament is where 16 teams compete for the gargantuan prize pool.

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Microsoft Reduces Windows 10 Roll-Back Grace Period

PSA: If you decide that you hate Windows 10, you’ve only got 10 days instead of 30 now to roll back. This also applies to reverting to a previous build of Windows 10 for testers participating in the Insider program.

With last week's Anniversary Update, aka version 1607, the 30 days were reduced to 10. (Microsoft identifies its major upgrades using numerals representing year and month of the release.) Microsoft said that the behind-the-scenes change had been triggered by data gleaned from the voluminous telemetry it collects from Windows 10 devices. "Based on our user research, we noticed most users who choose to go back to a previous version of Windows do it within the first several days," a spokesman said in an email. "As such, we changed the setting to 10 days to free storage space used by previous copies."

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Australia: Science And IT Students Struggle To Get Jobs Upon Graduation

While majoring in a science or IT major is probably still a better idea than, say, theater arts, a report out of Australia would suggest that prospects aren’t as ideal as some would hope. Blame is being placed on lackluster education programs, as the number of graduates and available IT positions are comparable.

In 2015 only half of bachelor degree science graduates seeking full-time work had found it four months after completing their degrees, 17% below the average for all graduates. "Although many recent science graduates struggle in the labour market, things improve over time," it said. "For 2011 bachelor degree science graduates, their full-time employment rate four months later was 65%, but three years later, in 2014, 82% of those who were looking for full-time work had found it. "While this is a considerable increase, it is below the 89% rate for all graduates."

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Shatner: Star Trek Wouldn't Exist Without Star Wars

Does this make Star Wars superior? Basically, Trek had been cancelled and Star Wars was what convinced Paramount executives to give the former another shot. Shatner notes that his series is human oriented, while Star Wars is more of an opera.

"First of all, 'Star Wars' created 'Star Trek.' You know that?" he asked, as fans gasped and looked puzzled. Actually, the original TV series "Star Trek" aired from 1966 to 1969. "Star Wars" didn't hit theaters until 1977. But Shatner clarified what he was saying: The blockbuster success of George Lucas's "Star Wars" film brought "Star Trek" back to life. "Every year there was the threat to be canceled. The third year, we were canceled, and everybody accepted it," he said. But then "Star Wars: A New Hope" made a mind-blowing $775 million at the box office.

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President Prepares To Boost U.S. Military's Cyber Role

The Administration is planning to give more power to Pentagon’s Cyber Command so they can better develop cyber weapons and mount stronger electronic offensives/defensives. The move is expected to make the division, which has strong associations with the NSA, more self-reliant. Cyber attacks exercised by the organization thus far remain highly classified.

Cyber Command would be separated from the National Security Agency, a spy agency responsible for electronic eavesdropping, the officials said. That would give Cyber Command leaders a larger voice in arguing for the use of both offensive and defensive cyber tools in future conflicts. Both organizations are based at Fort Meade, Maryland, about 30 miles north of Washington, and led by the same officer, Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers. A former senior intelligence official with knowledge of the plan said it reflects the growing role that cyber operations play in modern warfare, and the different missions of the Cyber Command and the NSA. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

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DRAM Industry Might Face Upheaval

Micron is in trouble and is fending off hostile takeovers from Chinese firms due to their losses and declining stock prices. Micron is one of the big three DRAM manufacturers but is falling behind due to processing technology that is leading to higher production costs and lower profitability.

Samsung Electronics, which has the most advanced technology in fine process, is mass producing 18-nanometer (nm) DRAM chips. SK Hynix is mass producing DRAM products using its 21nm technology, whereas Micron has 20nm technology. The smaller the line width, the more dense circuits are, which leads to more production. The more advanced technology will lower production costs and improve profitability. The semiconductor industry sources say, "As the price of DRAM products has continuously dropped, the soundness of each firm has been shown." It means that Micron doesn’t have the competitiveness to make profits with the current DRAM prices.

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First 13 Years Of Nintendo Power Available Free Online

Archive.org has over a decade of Nintendo Power issues that you can flip through if you’re feeling nostalgic. Those of you who grew up with these publications should remember at least a handful of these covers—I just don’t have the heart to throw out the issues of NP, EGM, and GamePro still stacked in one of my closets.

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Monitors Are Vulnerable To Hijacking And Spying

Researchers have found a way to hack into monitors so they can see what is being displayed, as well as manipulate pixels so they can display different images. One billion monitors are reportedly susceptible, as most use the same processor that is vulnerable to this exploit.

…if a hacker can get you to visit a malicious website or click on a phishing link, they can then target the monitor’s embedded computer, specifically its firmware. This is the computer that controls the menu to change brightness and other simple settings on the monitor. The hacker can then put an implant there programmed to wait for further instructions. Then, the way the hacker can communicate with the implant is rather shrewd. The implant can be programmed to wait for commands sent over by a blinking pixel, which could be included in any video or a website. Essentially, that pixel is uploading code to the monitor. At that point, the hacker can mess with your monitor.

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Apple Should Stop Selling Four-Year-Old Computers

Does Apple even care about their computing line anymore? The answer must be a resounding "no," as the company is still selling years-old hardware for substantial change. Things must be really bad if pro-Mac sites proclaim that only one product out of seven is worth buying these days.

The Retina MacBook Pro is 442 days into its current cycle, despite refreshes coming every 268 days on average in the past. The Mac mini has gone 657 days since its last update, which was controversial in itself since Apple removed quad-core options and made the product harder to upgrade after purchase. And the Mac Pro, released in December 2013 following much "Can’t innovate any more, my ass"-fueled fanfare? It hasn’t received a single update since then. "This is without a doubt the future of the pro desktop," Phil Schiller said when announcing the Mac Pro on stage that year. Did he mean that this was the precise model Apple expects professional users to use literally forever?

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No Man's Sky's Day-One Patch Changes The Entire Game

In what is being described as a massive overhaul, No Man’s Sky is getting a launch-day patch that includes newly written story paths, altered "rules of the universe," and changes to aiming mechanics and upgrade stats. I’m really interested in seeing whether this title lives up to the hype.

The entire notes are here but in sum they describe a game that is functionally not at all what some people or press are playing right now. One person paid $1,300 for a copy of the game nearly two weeks before its launch date (which is Aug. 9) and began streaming his playthrough and offering detailed thoughts on how the game plays. Publications such as Polygon and Kotaku also acquired the game early from retailers and also posted streams.

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Fire Station Of The Future Costs $32 Million

NYC’s Rescue Company 2 is getting a brand-new home in 2018, and it’s a huge upgrade to their current station. The building features plenty of open spaces, which are inspired by firemen’s frequenting of voids during rescues.

…Rescue Company 2's firemen have always responded to New York City's most dangerous emergencies. For the last 31 years, they have worked and trained at their station in Brownsville, Brooklyn. But by summer 2018, they will get a massive, new, state-of-the-art home. Designed by architecture and urban design firm Studio Gang, the 20,000-square-foot station will feature an obstacle course and a pit to practice underground rescues. On the edge of the roof terrace will be hooks to practice scaling the building — which firemen often need to do in real-life situations.

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IBM Watson AI Saves Woman From Leukemia

One day, doctors may be able to just "plug in the right data and start the healing process." In what I assume is the world’s first case in which an AI made a medical professional look really bad, Watson, in 10 minutes, discovered that a patient’s ailment was misidentified and offered the correct diagnosis.

University of Tokyo doctors report that the artificial intelligence diagnosed a 60-year-old woman's rare form of leukemia that had been incorrectly identified months earlier. The analytical machine took just 10 minutes to compare the patient's genetic changes with a database of 20 million cancer research papers, delivering an accurate diagnosis and leading to proper treatment that had proven elusive. Watson has also identified another rare form of leukemia in another patient, the university says.

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NASA Rocket Test Shot With Incredible New HDR High Speed Camera

The trouble with capturing booster tests is the incredibly bright conditions, but NASA’s got new HDR gear that can handle multiple exposures and capture footage at high speeds. Now we can now see details in plumes and components that we’ve never been able to before. Thanks to Etherton for the link.

"The HiDyRS-X project originated from a problem that exists when trying to film rocket motor tests," explains NASA. "Rocket motor plumes, in addition to being extremely loud, are also extremely bright, making them difficult to record without drastically cutting down the exposure settings on the camera. Doing so, however, darkens the rest of the image, obscuring other important components on the motor." The HiDyRS-X gives researchers the best of both worlds, and this QM-2 booster test was the camera’s first real world dry-run.

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