Comcast expanding internet usage caps to more areas
Now that cord-cutting is taking off, thanks to web services like Sling TV and Hulu Plus, Comcast won’t let that dictate how much money it’s going to make going forward. The company, which runs cable and internet operations across the US (among other things), recently started testing bandwidth caps on Xfinity customers in Atlanta, Miami and Nashville. These internet users have a 300GB monthly limit and, if they go over it, there’s an overage fee of $10 for every 50 gigabytes. Now, despite customer backlash, Comcast is expanding the plan to more places, including Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; Houma, LaPlace and Shreveport, Louisiana; Chattanooga, Greenville, Johnson City/Gray, Tennessee; Charleston, South Carolina; and Galax, Virginia.
Source: DSLReports
Drone fights fires by dropping flaming balls
The thought of a fire-starting robot would normally have us fleeing in terror, but we’ll make an exception for this one. Researchers are developing a drone, the Unmanned Aerial System for Fire Fighting (UAS-FF), that helps contain and prevent fires by dropping ping pong-sized flaming balls. If you need to burn grass before it fuels an uncontrolled blaze, you just program the drone to drop its chemically-ignited cargo in a specific pattern — you don’t have to send in a costly aircraft or face the risks of starting fires on the ground. It’ll be a while before you see UAS-FF in service, but it’s already nice to see a drone that helps firefighting instead of getting in the way.
[Image credit: Craig Chandler/University Communications]
Via: Phys.org
Source: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Time Warner CEO: DC Comics shows could be slow to hit Netflix and Hulu
If you’re waiting to catch up on Gotham or Arrow, the wait could get even longer. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes told analysts this week that past seasons of DC Comics television shows could be slow to arrive on Hulu and Netflix. Why? Well, the chief executive said that the company would give preference to cable customers first, making those older seasons available elsewhere several years after they air. In case you didn’t know, Time Warner owns DC Comics. Bewkes explained that Time Warner is set on “delivering even more value to consumers, especially those who subscribe to the traditional bundle.” Eight DC Comics shows are now on the air, including the recent addition of Supergirl on CBS.
Source: New York Times
The cyberpsychologist is in
My first session with a cyberpsychologist didn’t go so well.
She asked me to lay back on the couch, relax, and “think of cyber.”
“You know,” she said, “what you do when you’re angry.”
“Well, I don’t really cyber when I’m angry-” She cut in, “Do you have penetration problems?”
“No!” I stammered, “I … I have I guess what you’d call cyber … toys? I mean, when I want to penetrate a-“
“Oh,” she said acidly. “Then you must be dealing with feelings of cyber-castration. You were cut off from a network as a child, weren’t you?”
“Network!? Wait. Do you mean cyber, or do you mean cyber?”
Okay, so my first cyberpsychology session might have actually been all in my head, but I’m far from alone in my confusion about whether the spokesperson for cyberpsychology — apparently a real term — means cyber (as in security) or cyber (as in sex).
Anonymous posts the names of people it believes are KKK members
Online activist group Anonymous has followed through on its promise to divulge the names of people it believes are involved in the Ku Klux Klan. On November 2nd, Anonymous outlined its plan to release about 1,000 names, with a chosen date of November 5th for the full info dump. An early leak of the list claimed to name politicians and police officers as KKK members, though many of those “outed” at the time denied their involvement. The list released today includes fewer than 1,000 names, though it claims to reveal popular online gathering spaces for KKK members and the names of regional groups. Anonymous notes that it collected the data over 11 months through interviews with experts, public documents and “digital espionage.” In some cases, purported KKK affiliates spoke with Anonymous members via chat services, the group says. “You never know who you are talking to on the internet,” Anonymous writes.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Hussein Malla]
Source: @Operation_KKK
NASA photos show the Antares rocket explosion in gritty detail
When Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket exploded last year, your only real view at the time was a grainy video. However, you should now have a much better sense of what happened: NASA has posted large photos from the failed launch on Flickr. They not only show the incident in exceptional (almost uncomfortable) detail, but do a better job of illustrating the magnitude of what happened. This was a very large vehicle coming down very quickly, and the impact enveloped much of the launch site in fire and smoke.
Via: SpaceNews
Source: NASA (Flickr)
Playdate: Clambering around London in ‘Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate’
It’s autumn, so that means it’s time for a new Assassin’s Creed game. This time out the franchise has gone back to London’s industrial age with Syndicate. A period when kids worked in factories and hooded folks jumped off of tall buildings to kill members of the Knights Templar. That last part might not be historically accurate. Maybe. There are a lot of variables at play here. Regardless, the last few AC releases haven’t been great, but I’m determined to give Syndicate the old college try to see if it can recapture the franchise’s highpoint, 2009’s Assassin’s Creed 2. This time you can come along for the ride with Sean and myself as we explore London’s seedy underbelly starting at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific. As always, we’ll be playing for two hours and you can tune in either on this post, the Engadget Gaming homepage or Twitch.tv/Joystiq if you’d like to join us in chat.
The federal prison bureau needs help stopping contraband drones
The Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a Request for Information on Wednesday soliciting ideas and proposals for “countering, mitigating and/or interdicting the impact and possible nefarious intent of unmanned aerial systems.” That is, the Feds need some help countering the drones they suspect are routinely delivering drugs, weapons and other contraband into America’s 122 prison facilities.
Via: Network World
Source: FBO
Uber event service makes sure you get home from the party
If you’re hosting a big shindig, you frequently need to find ways to get people home at the end of the night — and a shuttle bus may be a waste if only some of your guests actually need it. This is where Uber might come to the rescue. It just announced the US rollout of UberEvents, a service that lets organizers pay for bulk rides to and from their venues. All you do is create an event and hand out codes to your attendees. You only pay when someone uses the code, and you can specify just when and where those codes apply so that there’s no room for abuse. If you’re determined to host the biggest party you can and don’t want friends either paying for their own rides or crashing at your place, this might hit the spot.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Uber Newsroom
New strain of Android malware is ‘virtually impossible’ to remove
Do you remember the bad old days of computer viruses so invasive that it was easier to nuke your software and start over than fix the problem? They’re back… in mobile form. Lookout has noticed a trend toward Android malware that masquerades as a popular app, but quietly gets root-level access to your phone and buries itself deep in the operating system. If that happens, you’re in serious trouble. Unless you can walk through loading a fresh ROM or carefully modify system files over ADB, it may be easier to just replace the device, or have your phone company reflash it — a simple factory reset won’t get the job done. Some of the bogus apps are little more than shells for ads, but others will work properly while they compromise your device.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Lookout
AIVAnet 