The myth of Mariana’s Web, the darkest corner of the internet
Chances are, like me, the first time you heard about the Dark Web it was described as a foul and depraved marketplace, where children, drugs, and pirated movies could be bought for mere Bitcoin. Tabloids paint it as a place where a veritable “Top 10” of our biggest fears resides. Opportunistic security companies sell threat intelligence services that allude to hunting for bad guys in dark dens that deal in organ harvesting, involuntary human experiments, and more.
Like most people, I find the siren song of lurid, spooky bullshit to be irresistible.
And the Dark Web’s boogeyman aura is all about spooky bullshit. That’s despite the fact that the Dark Web is host to a lot of communities that aren’t doing anything nefarious (unless you think furries are evil; there’s a huge Dark Web furry social network that simply wants privacy).
But the organ harvesting dramatics are nothing until we get to the “deepest part of the web, where people don’t want you to go,” the so-called “Mariana’s Web.”
The legend of Mariana’s Web appears to get its name from the deepest part of the ocean, Mariana’s Trench. It’s supposedly the deepest part of the web, a forbidden place of mysterious evil — or at least, that’s the mythos a subset of online believers has cultivated.
Depending on where you get your Mariana’s Web myths, it’s where you’ll find “the darkest secrets humanity has in its history,” the secret location of Atlantis and “the Vatican secret archives,” or a database of archives belonging to the most powerful intelligence agencies on Earth. Many believe that Mariana’s is home to an all-powerful, female artificial intelligence entity.
Mariana’s Web is certainly the definition of spooky BS, especially because it’s technically impossible; it’s supposedly only accessible through quantum computers — which currently only exist in science fiction.
Yet to the chagrin of people who love facts, it’s slowly starting to be reported as fact.
That’s probably not a surprise if you’ve been watching infosec-challenged traditional media try to cover the finer points of hacking, let alone anything outside Google’s reach. But seeing anecdotes and myth start to bubble up into areas that may affect people’s actual decisions about risk and safety … Well it’s entertaining, but also worrying when anecdote is substituted for data in an area that often involves law enforcement.
That infosec firm clients are asking for threat intel packages to include Mariana’s Web is information that is also anecdotal, though it’s my anecdote, and one I recently heard first-hand.
But that new twist, my friends, isn’t just the result of clickbait or security company sales drama — it’s the result of this fake infographic. An epic troll that people have interpreted as fact.
I don’t know why people don’t read things carefully, or avoid fact checking, or want to believe in Atlantis and invisible beings.
But I’m glad they do, because it sure makes doing research on dry-as-desert threat intel services way more entertaining. Fingers crossed that the TV take on the very fictional Mariana’s Web comes from The X-Files, and not CSI: Cyber — or CNN.
[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Play ‘Threes’ for free in your browser right now
Threes, the adorable number-squishing, tile-sliding puzzle game, is available to play for free (and without ads) in browsers via desktop and mobile devices. The game is otherwise free (with ads) on Android and iOS, or you can spend $2 for a version without commercial breaks. Designer Asher Vollmer and illustrator Greg Wohlwend announced the browser edition during a Reddit AMA on Thursday.
Threes debuted as a $2 mobile game in February 2014 and accidentally incited a flurry of clones, including 2048. When the developers launched the free, mobile version in June this year, Wohlwend reflected on Threes‘ clones and its premium pricing structure.
“After the clones started to crop up there were certainly discussions of, ‘Should we just put out a free version now?’ but I’m glad we didn’t,” Wohlwend said. “It would have been rushed and we would have made mistakes and probably treated the player poorly in some way like so many free games do.”
This isn’t the first time Threes has made its way to browsers — shortly after the game’s launch, fan Angela Li created a free, developer-approved version of the game for the web.
so nice to finally have Threes exist outside of unity :3 https://t.co/e0RCf1zB87
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) December 17, 2015
Via: Polygon
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes update adds new characters from ‘Force Awakens’
Fresh off of watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens last night, I was hoping I could find some way to sneak it into the news for the day. My wish has been granted, as Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes has now received a new update, bringing in characters from the latest Star Wars movie.
New unlockable characters include the movie’s villain, Kylo Ren, as well as hero characters such as Finn and Rey. Just for signing in after updating between the 18th and 24th of December, you’ll automatically get Captain Phasma and a Resistance Trooper.
Here’s the full list of Force Awakens characters that can be unlocked with the update:
- Finn: Resistance Tank that keeps the pressure up with a balance between offense and defense
- Kylo Ren: Versatile First Order attacker that evades projectiles and can reuse special attacks when damaged
- Captain Phasma: High damage leader that can grant First Order allies many extra attacks
- Poe Dameron: Resistance Tank with a Taunt that inflicts Expose for big reversals
- Rey: Risky Attacker with high damage and evasion, but is vulnerable to debuffs
- First Order Stormtrooper: First Order Tank that uses Advantage to disrupt enemies
- First Order Officer: First Order support that grants Advantage and can manipulate both ally and enemy Turn Meters
- First TIE Order Pilot: First Order attacker that can deal extreme damage in a single turn with Advantage
- Resistance Pilot: Resistance attacker that can use Expose, Foresight, and Turn Meter gains to surprise enemies
- Resistance Trooper: Opportunistic Resistance attacker that can deal heavy damage to debuffed enemies
See also: 32 Best RPGs for Android
If you’re unfamiliar with Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, the game is a turn-based RPG that lets you fight using iconic Star Wars characters from the movies, television shows, and more. This includes Han Solo, Luke, Darth vader, Ahsoka, and much more. The goal is to build up a team of great players and win as many battles as you can on various planets across the galaxy. The more you play and win, the higher chances you have of unlocking new characters. You can also buy new characters as in-app purchases of course.
For those that have the update already, what’s your favorite new character so far?
Next – Best Android games
Tim Cook Calls Apple’s Tax Avoidance Accusations ‘Total Political Crap’
60 Minutes has shared a preview of Tim Cook’s latest interview with journalist Charlie Rose, in which the Apple CEO emphatically counters the idea that Apple has created elaborate schemes to pay little or no U.S. corporate taxes on its overseas revenue.
JUST IN: Apple CEO tells "60 Minutes" that the notion of the tech giant avoiding taxes is "total political crap".
https://t.co/yGoxhM29fZ
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) December 18, 2015
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsCook described the tax avoidance accusations as “total political crap,” and deflected blame on the U.S. tax code for being far outdated. He added that repatriating the money in the U.S. is not “a reasonable thing to do” due to high corporate tax rates.
Rose: You also have more money overseas probably than any other American company. […] Why don’t you bring that home?
Cook: “It would cost me 40% to bring it home, and I don’t think that’s a reasonable thing to do. This is a tax code that was made for the industrial age, not the digital age. It’s backwards. It’s awful for America. It should have been fixed many years ago. It’s past time to get it done.”
Rose: Here’s what they concluded: “Apple is engaged in a sophisticated scheme to pay little or no corporate taxes on $74 billion in revenue held overseas.”
Cook: “That is total political crap. There is no truth behind it. Apple pays every tax dollar we owe.”
Apple’s tax policies have been closely investigated over the past few years in Europe. Earlier this year, for example, Italian regulators accused Apple of booking profits generated in the country through an Irish subsidiary in an effort to lower its taxable income base and save nearly 900 million euros from 2008 through 2013. The investigation was completed in March 2015.
The European Commission began an investigation of Apple’s tax policies in June 2014, and the Brussels-based executive body formally accused the company of receiving illegal state aid from Ireland in September 2014. The commission has since requested more information from Apple, likely delaying a decision in the tax probe until at least after the Irish elections in early 2016.
Apple is said to utilize multiple foreign subsidiaries in Ireland to move around overseas money, which Cook says accounts for two-thirds of Apple’s revenue, without being subject to high corporate tax rates in the U.S. and elsewhere. Apple has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and Ireland vows to take the European Commission to court over any negative ruling.
Cook’s wide-ranging interview will also touch upon encryption technology and manufacturing products in China. In the same episode, Rose will also offer a rare inside look at Jony Ive’s “secret design studio” at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. 60 Minutes airs on CBS this Sunday, December 20 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time and 7 p.m. Pacific Time.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
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Amazon renews ‘The Man in the High Castle’ for a second season
Amazon’s Original Series The Man in the High Castle was the retailers most-watched pilot, and it seems the first season was popular was well. The company renewed the show for a second season today, following its opening 10-episode run that debuted on Amazon Prime November 20th. If you’re not familiar, The Man in the High Castle is an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name. The story chronicles what life in the US would be like under German and Japanese rule if the Axis Powers had been victorious in World War II.
There’s no word on the premiere date for the second season just yet, but it’s expected sometime in 2016. The Man in the High Castle follows Transparent and other Amazon original shows that have garnered their fair share of attention as of late, with the latter nabbing both award wins and a quite a few nominations. You’ll need a Prime subscription to watch any of the Amazon series, and The Man in the High Castle is worth a look.
Via: Variety
Apple is being sued over another data-gobbling bug
Apple is fending off another lawsuit regarding its phones helping themselves to cellular data even when supposedly running on WiFi. As you may recall, a California couple took Apple to court in October over iOS 9’s WiFi Assist, which would clandestinely switch the phone from WiFi to LTE and eat through the user’s data allotment. Now, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple for a similar, earlier, data-sucking bug.
The law firm alleges that iPhone 5 and 5c’s running iOS 6 and 7 would also silently switch back to LTE from WiFi. This Apple reportedly patched the issue for Verizon customers in September, 2012. Hagens et al accuse Apple of then waiting more than two years to apply the patch for AT&T customers and failed to disclose the problem in duration. This, the legal firm argues, violates California consumer laws, “including the Unfair Competition Law, the Consumers Legal Remedies Act and the False Advertising Law.”
[Image Credit: Getty]
Via: 9 to 5 Mac
Source: Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
HTC Vive to demo a ‘very big’ breakthrough in VR at CES
Regular folks who are eager to get hold of the HTC Vive would have been bummed by the news that it’s been pushed to April 2016, but in return, we’ll actually be getting a much improved version. At today’s Vive Unbound developers forum in Beijing, CEO Cher Wang teased that two weeks ago, Valve and her team made “a very, very big technological breakthrough” with their virtual reality system, so big that they decided to just skip the original version and ship this new one, albeit missing the Q1 date. “We shouldn’t make our users swap their systems later just so we could meet the December shipping date.” That said, Wang remained mum on what this upgrade is all about, except that it’ll be unveiled at CES early next month.
Another big mystery surrounding HTC’s next big thing is its retail price. After all, it may take some more incentive to attract a crowd towards this brand new system, especially with many simpler but very affordable alternatives now readily available. After some nagging from this author, Wang finally gave a vague hint: In a recent survey conducted with her engineers, 80 percent of the group raised their hands when she gave a price considered to be affordable for them, based on their pay. According to recruitment site Glassdoor, the base salary of a software engineer at HTC ranges from NT$51,500 (about US$1,560) to NT$57,077 (about US$1,730) per month. Nope, still not helping here.
Regardless, it’s safe to assume that this kit will cost much more than existing offerings due to its extra hardware, though Wang remains confident that people will prefer the Vive’s more complete user experience, immersive feeling and quality of content. “Why would I buy a handicapped product? You won’t like it.” That’s mainly referring to the Oculus Rift’s lack of object tracking, though the exec acknowledged that from developers’ perspective, they need these low-end platforms as well to achieve a sizeable market, which is also why HTC never even considered enforcing an exclusivity with Valve’s SteamVR gaming platform right from the start.
It’s worth pointing out that the Vive isn’t just for consumers. Wang added that next year, Audi will be installing Vives in pretty much all of its flagship stores to offer virtual test drive. This will apparently be followed by “many of the major car brands that you can think of.” HTC is also pitching to hospitals with the use case of inspecting a 3D scan of a patient’s brain to better prep for surgery. Even schools can take advantage here: Wang likes the idea of letting kids learn about the human body by flowing around as a blood cell inside. As awesome as these ideas sound, we’ll reserve our judgement until HTC finally pushes this baby out into the market.
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 variant containing 128GB of onboard storage launches in South Korea
Ever since the launch of the Galaxy Note 5, there’s been a number of complaints pertaining to the removal of the microSD card slot. At launch, Samsung limited the options to only 32GB and 64GB of non-expandable internal storage, which left many wanting more.
Earlier today Samsung launched a 128GB variant of the Galaxy Note 5 that it’s calling the ‘Winter Edition.’ The handset is only available in South Korea at the moment, however there’s still a possibility that Samsung will introduce the Winter Edition Galaxy Note 5 in more countries down the road.
The Galaxy Note 5 Winter Edition is available in choice of titanium silver and gold platinum. Samsung said it chose these two color options because of their high popularity. The 128GB variant will carry a 999,900 KRW price tag, which is equivalent to approximately $846 USD.
Source: Samsung
Via: PhoneArena
Come comment on this article: Samsung Galaxy Note 5 variant containing 128GB of onboard storage launches in South Korea
Audi’s Q7 SUV tries to make you a better driver
I’m sitting in the passenger seat of the new 2017 Audi Q7 as it prepares to turn left. Another car is barreling towards us in the opposite lane. An Audi engineer sitting behind the wheel assures me everything will be fine. Suddenly, at the last minute, the driver turns the wheel and punches the gas. We should have lurched into path of the oncoming vehicle and caused an accident. Instead, the car’s onboard safety technology slammed on the brakes and alerted the driver to the mistake. This all went down on a closed course in Northern California, but it happens all the time to real drivers on real roads. Audi is hoping to reduce those incidents with an SUV that’s not just smart, but actually fun to drive.Slideshow-349417
While the Audi e-tron we saw recently is the company’s plug-in hybrid, the Q7 is its flagship SUV. It’s a refined all-wheel-drive vehicle with top-of-its-class acceleration (zero to 60 in 5.7 seconds) with seating for seven. But it also ushers in technology that keeps the driver (and all those passengers) safer. The Q7 counteracts your bad habits, or at least attempts to by nudging you back into your lane and stopping the car before you hit a pedestrian or other vehicle. In short, it’s the nanny of cars. But not the boring babysitter that makes you eat broccoli and do extra credit homework before your parents get home. Instead, it’s Mary Poppins, guiding you down the right path while making everything funner than it should be.
Because let’s be perfectly honest here. You’re probably a bad driver. You tailgate. You wait until the last minute to brake at stop lights. You insist on racing everyone on the road and you really need to stop texting, tweeting, Facebooking and Snapchatting while you’re behind the wheel. The Q7 might not cure you of your on-the-road shortcomings, but it adds an extra level of safety. While you might be distracted, the car’s pre sense system of cameras and sensors is always watching.
The standard “city” feature with pedestrian and vehicle detection and a braking system can mean the difference between a warning from the car and a potentially life-threatening collision. During demos on a closed course when the vehicle was speeding toward a foam-core car or child-sized mannequin, the Q7 gave the driver the opportunity to either brake or steer around the object. If the driver fails to react, the seat belts tighten and the brakes engage to bring the car to a complete stop just short of the object. Just for good measure, it also closes the windows so that in case there’s an impact minimal debris will make its way into the car.
While the semi-autonomous features of the SUV are part of a larger journey toward fully self-driving cars, I can’t stress enough how important the baby steps being made by automakers like Audi and Tesla are. The chance to sit back and relax in your car while it drives you to work makes the future sound very chill. In reality, these cars will be more than just napping machines. They will reduce accidents on the road by taking you (and your horrible driving) out of the equation. An auto-braking feature should squelch the concerns of a driver who’s wary of autonomous vehicles the first time it keeps them out of an accident.
For now, at least, the Q7 is somewhat autonomous. While safety is a huge selling point, removing stress from the daily drive is also one of the company’s objectives. The active lane assist and adaptive cruise control features make commuting slightly less infuriating by matching the speed of the vehicles directly in front of your while maintaining the speed limit and keeping you centered in the road. On the freeway it’s great, but on two-lane back roads its ability to implement the lane tracking while navigating sharp curves is especially impressive.
While driving the curvy mountain roads of Northern California, the A7 tracked both the vehicle ahead of me and speed limit signs along a narrow two-lane path. It kept me a safe distance behind the car in front of me, and slowed to a more pedestrian-friendly speed when we passed through various towns along the way. There was a moment when the vehicle felt like it was entering a hairpin turn too quickly, which is a good reminder to pay attention and that we’re not ready to give up the steering wheel just yet.
The active lane assist is equally impressive, but can be a bit overzealous. While hitting corners, the steering wheel consistently tried to adjust the placement of the car. Get too close to the yellow or white lines and the wheel nudges the vehicle to the center of the lane. If you’re holding onto to the wheel even with one hand it’s easy to overcome, but it can be annoying. It wasn’t so much a fight with the car; more of a low-key argument in which the Q7 insisted on having the last word. After adjusting the lane correction to “late” instead of “early” the nudging became less of an issue. On the open freeway, though, it’s helpful for those moments when you might not be paying attention because, again, you’re a bad driver.
While lane assist is clearly not intended for someone to drive without their hands on the wheel, I tried it and was impressed how well it kept the car from careening into a ditch or oncoming traffic. After a few moments the vehicle realized what I was doing and insisted I take the wheel, which I was glad to do.
The 3.0-liter supercharged V6, 333 horsepower Q7 handles better than any SUV should. Carving through the twisty redwood-lined roads of Northern California the car felt like operating a sedan. The engine and eight-speed automatic Tiptronic transmission reacted quickly with a stomp of the accelerator from a dead stop or while passing without the Q7 jerking between gears.
Continuing our tour, the interior feels high-end but not ostentatious. Audi has also flattened its dashboard infotainment menu structure to make fine tuning the driving experience easier. About 80 percent of the time getting to where you want to go within its MMI system is quick and easy, thanks to the round navigation button and touchscreen. But there were times when finding a feature seemed unnecessarily complicated. That said, there are dedicated buttons for the most frequently used features (navigation, telephone, media) so that you don’t have to reach up from the center console.
Even if you removed the tech and fancy navigation system, anyone looking for a high-end SUV should definitely give the 2017 Q7 3.0 TFSI Quattro (starting at $54,800) a spin before throwing down the cash for a BMW X5 or Mercedes GLE. But it’s the technology that makes it special and most of the time, it’s a welcome addition to an outstanding driving experience.
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ up for pre-order on Google Play
Millions of people worldwide are flooding movie theaters this weekend to see the latest installment of Star Wars. The newest film, The Force Awakens, returns the franchise to the big screen for the first time in ten years. If you don’t plan on seeing the film during its theatrical release or just want to secure your digital copy next year, Google Play is already accepting pre-orders.
While the standard definition copy is $14.99, Google is charging $19.99 for the nicer high definition copy. Once the film is released digitally, Google will automatically add it to your library.
The soundtrack for The Force Awakens, though, is currently available for $11.49 and includes more than twenty tracks. So before and after you see the film, enjoy the sounds of it over and over again.
[Google Play – Star Wars: The Force Awakens] [Google Play – Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)]
Come comment on this article: ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ up for pre-order on Google Play
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