‘Donkey Kong 64’ player finds rare collectible 17 years later

The 3D platformer Donkey Kong 64 was lauded for its expansive worlds and multitude of well-hidden collectibles when it launched on the Nintendo 64 in 1999. Like many games of the era, it has enjoyed a peculiar afterlife as speedrunners blitz through it in record time under various conditions, like picking up each of the 976 banana coins found within. Unfortunately, all those completionist runs now seem to be invalid: 17 years after the game came out, streamer Isotarge has found a 977th coin.

Turns out the collectible was hidden underground in the game’s fifth level, Fungi Forest, but the telltale patch of dirt indicating buried treasure in the game was hidden by a patch of tall grass. Isotarge was examining save data for that stage and discovered that the information for a particular pickup, rainbow coins, was incomplete. Using analysis tools, they pinpointed its location and unearthed it. While Isotarge is no stranger to using glitches to find out-of-bounds items likely leftover by developers, this particular coin is in fair territory and can be plucked from the ground using an ordinary character move.

@Znernicus yes, times have been removed in All Collectables, 949 banana coins (now 974), Fungi coins, DK coins, All Rainbow Coins

— Bismuth 🐌 (@Bismuthi) January 28, 2017

As noted above, this means the leaderboards for complete runs of Donkey Kong 64 will likely have to be reset. But as Kotaku points out, this new factor could shift player strategy in the game’s highly competitive speedrunning community. Discoveries like this are what revitalize even the most well-worn titles.

“Many runs were invalidated because of this discovery,” Isotage told Kotaku. “It’s one way to keep the community active. I’m looking forward to seeing speedrunners claim back those records”

Source: Kotaku

OnePlus 3 vs. OnePlus 3T: Which phone should you buy in India?

Unable to decide between the OnePlus 3 and the newer OnePlus 3T? We’re here to help.

OnePlus moved away from its usual summer release window last year by unveiling the OnePlus 3T in November — five months after the launch of the OnePlus 3. The OnePlus 3T is a mid-cycle refresh, offering a slightly faster SoC, 128GB storage option, larger battery, and a new front camera, accompanied by a minor price bump to the tune of $40.

OnePlus has since discontinued the older OnePlus 3 in most markets, and is now selling just the 3T. However, that isn’t the case in India, where both the OnePlus 3 and 3T are up for sale on Amazon, OnePlus’ exclusive sales partner in the country.

The OnePlus 3 is available for its launch price of ₹27,999 ($410), with the newer OnePlus 3T debuting for ₹29,999 ($440). The OnePlus 3 is sold in Graphite and Soft Gold color options, and the OnePlus 3T is available in a Gunmetal variant along with the Soft Gold option. Below are the major differences.

Newer hardware, same software

Visually, the OnePlus 3T is identical to the OnePlus 3. The OnePlus 3 didn’t break new ground with its minimalist aluminum design, but it set the bar for other mid-range phones thanks to its execution.

The craftsmanship and premium design made the OnePlus 3 stand out in this segment, and the same holds true for the OnePlus 3T. If anything, the gunmetal color option makes the phone look even more gorgeous.

Along with hardware similarities, both phones are on the same update cadence, and run the same version of OxygenOS. Both devices have picked up the Nougat update, and the user interface is clean and devoid of any bloat.

You do get a lot of customizability in the form of gestures, a system-wide dark mode, and other additions, but for the most part, OxygenOS is uncluttered and a lot of fun to use.

Similar camera, larger battery

The back camera is the same on both the OnePlus 3 and 3T, but it’s the front camera where you’ll notice a difference between the two devices. The OnePlus 3T has a 16MP sensor up front, an upgrade from the 8MP unit on the OnePlus 3. Photos from the rear camera are identical on both devices, and although the front camera is of a higher resolution on the OnePlus 3T, it doesn’t lead to better photos.

OnePlus 3 on the left, OnePlus 3T on the right.

The 3400mAh battery on the OnePlus 3T is 13% larger than the 3000mAh unit on the OnePlus 3, and it makes a difference in day-to-day usage. There were times when the battery life on the OnePlus 3 was flaky, but the OnePlus 3T lasted a day consistently without fail.

In situations where you need to top up the phone quickly, you can turn to Dash Charge. OnePlus’s proprietary charging tech is amazing, offering ridiculously-fast charging times. The only drawback is that you need to carry the OnePlus charger to use it.

Dash Charge offloads a bulk of the charging circuitry to the charger, and as a result you won’t get lightning-quick charging speeds without it. That said, you can it to rejuvenate your other devices around the house, since it’s backwards compatible with regular USB charging standards.

Which should you buy? OnePlus 3T

If you’re looking to buy a OnePlus phone, it’s an easy choice: just get the OnePlus 3T. The OnePlus 3 turned out to be one of the best mid-range phones of 2016, and the updates to the OnePlus 3T make it an even more compelling device.

For under ₹30,000, there isn’t a handset available today that offers as much as the OnePlus 3T. The 128GB variant is costlier at ₹34,999, and if you’re one to store a lot of media locally, the higher-storage variant is a better option considering the phone doesn’t have a microSD slot. Either way, you’re buying the best mid-range phone available in the market today.

See at Amazon

OnePlus 3T and OnePlus 3

• OnePlus 3T review: Rekindling a love story
• OnePlus 3T vs. OnePlus 3: What’s the difference?
• OnePlus 3T specs
• Latest OnePlus 3 news
• Discuss OnePlus 3T and 3 in the forums

OnePlus
Amazon

NYPD will equip all officers with body cameras by late 2019

New York City started trying police body cameras years ago, but it hasn’t had a formal agreement to roll them out across the entire force. It’s not for lack of trying, though — the city and the officers’ union have been locked in contract negotiations for ages. An agreement is finally in place, however. As part of a new contract, the NYPD will equip every officer with a body camera by the end of 2019. When there are over 34,000 officers patrolling the streets, this could easily be one of the most ambitious body camera projects to date.

As elsewhere, the move should theoretically improve police accountability by showing what really happened. Of course, theory and practice are two different things. Police in other cities have been accused of deleting or editing footage to cover up excessive uses of force, and the NYPD itself hasn’t been above manipulating articles to downplay brutality incidents. Body cameras will only be truly effective if the department makes sure that those cameras stay in use regardless of what happens in the line of duty.

Commissioner O’Neill and I are announcing that by the end of calendar year 2019, all NYPD patrol officers will be wearing body-worn cameras. pic.twitter.com/1jk8W30Uk5

— Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) January 31, 2017

Source: Bill de Blasio (Twitter)

Apple Considering Legal Options Against Immigration Executive Order

Apple is considering legal action to pressure the Trump administration into rescinding its executive order on immigration, Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal in a new interview. The news comes days after Microsoft, Amazon and other companies pledged declarations of support for Washington state’s legal fight against the executive order.

The order, signed last Friday, suspends entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, bans Syrian refugees for an indefinite amount of time and blocks citizens of 7 countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days. On Saturday, Cook sent an email to all Apple employees saying that the order “is not a policy we support,” and that Apple’s HR, Legal and Security teams were contacting employees who were affected.

Cook says hundreds of employees have been affected by the order and that he’s been contacting “very, very senior people in the White House” to tell them that rescinding the order is not only important for Apple, but because the U.S.’ strength comes from its immigrant background.

“More than any country in the world, this country is strong because of our immigrant background and our capacity and ability as people to welcome people from all kinds of backgrounds. That’s what makes us special,” said Mr. Cook. “We ought to pause and really think deeply through that.”

Numerous Apple employees have contacted Cook with “heart-wrenching stories” about how the ban will affect them, he says. One employee, according to the WSJ, is expecting a child and is afraid the future grandparents, which have Canadian and Iranian citizenship, wouldn’t be able to meet their grandchild.

Apple is still considering its legal options and Cook declined to elaborate on the possibilities, but did note the company wants to be both “productive” and “constructive” in its response. Opposing the order, Cook says, was a simple decision since Apple selling its devices in more than 180 countries makes it important for it to “look like the world.” Finally, Cook says that part of the reason Apple opposes the order is because it would not exist if the Syrian immigrant father of Steve Jobs did not have the opportunity to come to the U.S.

Last week, Cook spent a week in Washington, where he met with Utah senator Orrin Hatch to discuss the economy and tech industry and had dinner with Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, one of President Trump’s closest advisers.

Outside of legal action, Apple employees have been increasing their donations to refugee relief funds, with Apple matching donations 2-to-1. The move comes as other tech companies find alternative methods to opposing the order, including Airbnb providing free housing to immigrants displaced by the order and more than 2,000 Google employees around the world staging a walkout.

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.

Tags: Tim Cook, Immigration
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Facebook tweaks the feed to bury fake news and clickbait

Just how much fake news trending all over Facebook actually influenced the election is still up for debate, but the question pushed the social media company into crackdown mode. In the last few months, it cut off ad funding for dubious posts and added a button to let users flag questionable content for review by third-party fact-checkers. To more actively combat shady stories, the social media giant is tweaking its News Feed algorithm to promote more legitimate and viral content.

In a blog post, Facebook noted that users considered stories “authentic” when they were “genuine and not misleading, sensational or spammy.” The tweaks to individuals’ News Feeds will reflect that preference — not just by burying fake news, but also by lowering the visibility of clickbait stories and Pages that urge folks to like, share and subscribe. To train their system to cull non-authentic posts, Facebook identified Pages that begged for engagement and/or that users had manually hidden, then fed that activity into a computer model to detect similarly low-quality content as it’s posted.

The new tweaks will also boost viral stories. Individual Pages posts or topics across Facebook getting lots of engagement will be pushed higher in users’ personal News Feeds, at least temporarily. Both adjustments are more about presenting more relevant and resonant content than expressly combating fake news, but refining the News Feed’s algorithms will hopefully improve the quality of posts churning in front of users’ eyes.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Facebook newsroom

Got $20 in your pocket? 2016 W-2 tax forms can now be bought on the dark web

Why it matters to you

This is an example of how companies handling private and financial data need to crack down on internal security to keep hackers out.

Security researcher Brian Krebs reports that hackers are now selling W-2 tax forms on the dark web, a collection of websites that requires special software or authorization to access and can’t be found using Google or Bing. It’s an online world where pirated software can be obtained and cybercriminal shops can thrive, selling goods like PayPal account credentials, stolen credit cards, and now apparently last year’s tax forms.

According to Krebs, the W-2 tax form data was up for sale on an unnamed dark web shop under the “other” category. The data stemmed from more than 3,600 residents from Florida and included their employer’s name, employer ID, and employer address. The info also included the taxpayer’s personal information such as address, social security number, 2016 wage information, and the taxes withheld.

More: Gotta catch all the hackers: Thousands of players banned from ‘Pokémon Sun,’ ‘Moon’

The stolen W-2 records required Bitcoins to purchase and their cost depended on the wage made by the taxpayer, ranging between $4 and $20 each. Thus, the higher the wage, the more money thieves could possibly land if they are successful in tricking the Internal Revenue Service with a fraudulent tax form filed using the purchased taxpayer information.

The tax information may have stemmed from a Florida-based firm called The Payroll Professionals. Krebs figured this out after a source purchased two of the listed W-2 forms stemming from Kirai Restaurant Group LLC. Krebs contacted the restaurant company who said it outsources employee tax forms to The Payroll Professionals.

A representative of The Payroll Professionals confirmed with Krebs that the company was aware of a “potential hacking” and was currently informing customers of the potential problem. Krebs found additional W-2 tax forms on the dark web storefront stemming from companies that use The Payroll Professionals to handle their payroll.

How The Payroll Professionals was hacked is unknown. In a typical scenario, scammers would spoof a bogus email to resemble a high-ranking official in a company and send it to human resources and the payroll department. The email would demand a copy of all employee W-2 data to be returned immediately.

Just days ago, a hacker impersonated Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich in an email sent to the company’s payroll department and received employee W-2 forms for 2016. The hacker got away with “a substantial portion” of the company’s current and former employee personal and financial information. Luckily, Sunrun’s customer database was not affected by the phishing scam.

“Sunrun recognized the issue within one hour of the scam and immediately began working with the proper authorities,” the company said Friday. “We are committed to the safety and security of our employees’ information and will continue to work diligently to increase the security of our systems and implement tighter controls.”

Taxpayers worried about hackers filing fraudulent claims on behalf of their information can use file form 14039 (pdf) if they believe they are victims of identity theft. Taxpayers can also request a six-digit Identity Protection PIN to help combat fraudulent tax returns.

Office Insiders get Outlook collaboration in January 2017 Slow Ring update

Why it matters to you

If you’re a heavy Microsoft Office user, then you can join the Office Insider program for early access to new features like those released in the January 2017 update.

Microsoft works extra hard to make its latest software available for testing days or weeks before making its way into production environments. The Windows Insider program is the mechanism to make Windows 10 the best it can be, and the Office Insider program does the same for Microsoft’s productivity suite.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced the availability of the January 2017 update for Office Insiders in the Slow Ring, meaning those people who are brave enough to try the latest bits but not so brave as to live on the real bleeding edge. Update version 7766.2039 isn’t terribly significant, but it does add in a couple of smaller updates to go with one nice collaboration update for Outlook 2016.

More: Don’t lose your email! Here’s how to export and import your Outlook inbox

First up is the latest update for Microsoft’s primary communications tool. Outlook 2016 has gained some new real-time collaborative functionality that makes it easier to work with colleagues. Now, you can upload an email attachment to OneDrive and access a simple drop-down menu to upload a revise version or save a new version.

Next, the Surface pen gets more functionality in Word 2016. Specifically, you can now use the pen’s “grab object” handles to resize, rotate, move, and perform even more actions on objects.

Visio also received some new functionality in the Add-in for Database Modeling, which assists when planning a new database or gaining insight into an existing one. You can download the Visio Add-in for Database Modeling here, and learn more about reverse-engineering an existing database here.

Finally, Microsoft has provided more value for students and teachers in Office 2016 with new templates and sample diagrams. Topics include algebra, chemistry, physics, and more.

As always, you’ll need to be enrolled in the Office Insider program, and placed in the Slow Ring, to get access to the latest update. You can go here to learn more, and if you’re already a member then you can go to File > Account > Office Updates to check your status or manually kick off the latest update.

Lexar’s latest CFast card packs a whopping 512GB of storage

Why it matters to you

The new high capacity sets a record for the CFast format, bringing workflow improvements to professional image makers.

Lexar unveiled its latest CFast 2.0 memory card Tuesday with a huge 512-gigabyte capacity. The Lexar Professional 3500x series card easily breaks through CFast 2.0’s previous 256GB barrier, while delivering read speeds up to 525 megabytes per second and write speeds of 445MB per second. The card is designed for high-bandwidth professional imaging workflows, including RAW 4K video production, high-speed continuous still photography, time-lapse imaging, and more. It also carries a price tag that will reserve it squarely for such users: $1,700. Although, like most memory products, it can be found for less (B&H currently lists it at $1,300.)

The high price really comes as no surprise, however: Canon’s $6,000 EOS 1D X Mark II is the closest thing to a consumer camera that accepts CFast cards (which allow it to churn out bursts of up to 170 RAW files at 14 frames per second). And in creating the card, Lexar worked with Arri, the cinema camera manufacturer, to optimize it for use in cameras like the Amira, which start at around $40,000.

In these professional environments, however, the move to 512GB is significant. “When shooting 200fps on a high-end, production-level camera, it’s easy to fill up an entire 256GB card with content in just 17 minutes,” said Lexar’s product marketing director, Jennifer Lee, in a statement. Larger cards therefore improve workflow efficiency, potentially cutting the number of card swaps in half.

More: Lexar explains why not all memory cards are created equal

All Lexar Professional CFast 2.0 cards come with a lifetime copy of Image Rescue software. Image Rescue allows users to recover “most photo and select video” files from the card if they’ve been accidentally erased and even if the card has been corrupted.

While it is Lexar’s 3500x series to first reach 512GB, the company said its faster 3600x CFast 2.0 cards would be available in the same capacity later this year. The 3500x series is now available 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities, while the 3600x series comes in just 128GB and 256GB for now.

New brain-computer interface breaks through locked-in syndrome

Researchers have been using brain-computer interfaces to interact with patients suffering from locked-in syndrome for a few years now. But a new system from the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Switzerland may finally allow even the most immobile patients communicate with the outside world.

There are degrees to locked-in syndrome. The lesser variety only allows those suffering from it to raise or lower their eyes and blink, they’re fully paralyzed otherwise. Fully locked-in syndrome prohibits even that degree of movement. So rather than rely on optical keyboards as previous studies have, the Wyss team developed a means of reading patient’s minds directly by measuring the flow of oxygenated blood flowing through their brains. The study was published Tuesday on the journal PLOS.

The team relied on the help of four patients who suffer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease), a motor neuron disorder that progressively destroys the nervous system’s ability to control the body’s muscles. The Wyss researchers first used near-infrared spectroscopy and electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the brain’s blood oxygenation and electrical activity levels. The patients were then asked basic yes or no questions while the machines recorded changes in those metrics.

“The machine records the blood flow… and calculates how (it) changes during “yes” and during “no”, and the computer develops an idea, a pattern,” Wyss neuroscientist, Niels Birbaumer, told Reuters. “And after a while, we know what the patient is thinking, when he thinks “yes”, or when he thinks “no”, and from that we calculate the answer.”

After enough training, the system managed a 70 percent accuracy rate for standard Y/N questions like, “Is this your husband?” More interestingly, when asked “Are you happy?” all four respondents, 100 percent of the time, answered “yes”.

The team hopes to leverage this data into future research in hopes that people paralyzed by disease or injury can lead fuller lives.

Via: Reuters

Source: PLOS

Game developers take a stand against Trump’s immigration ban

The opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration ban has spread far and wide. Video game developers are joining the chorus against what some see as an unconstitutional policy put forth with no thought or consideration of the outcome. For a number of studios, that means making donations to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the non-profit organization that successfully challenged the ban in court over this past weekend.

iNK Stories, the studio behind one of our favorite games from last year, 1979 Revolution, has announced it will donate sales sales proceeds to the ACLU. That’s for purchases made between February 1st and the 10th.

“While it’s easy to be immobilized by hurt and hopelessness, I believe that now more than ever we are confronted with an obligation, where we must dig in, resist and unite,” 1979 creator Navid Khonsari said in a statement.

As Mashable points out, Khonsari isn’t alone. On Saturay, developer Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail (Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box) tweeted that for 24 hours, all revenue would be donated to the ACLU. In an op-ed for The Guardian, Ismail wrote that thanks to this executive order, many Muslims who spent years of their savings to make the trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco would no longer be able to attend.

“Even if they’d be allowed into the US, many are afraid of anti-Muslim sentiment from a population that can elect a president like Donald Trump, especially in the country with the highest homicide rate with guns in the Western world,” he said.

.@dots is taking a stand. We are showing this to all of our players. 3-4 million people will see this soon #MuslimBan (thx @karaswisher) pic.twitter.com/5qwrVkuNF1

— Paul Murphy (@paulbz) January 29, 2017

Dain Saint of developer Cipher Prime (Duet, Auditorium) penned a blog post on Medium advising people to be selfish — but in a way that benefits others. For America, Saint said to make the country’s future “the brightest it can be by stealing the best and brightest from every country on the planet.” He further said to steal the best minds from other nations. “Lure them in with the promise of freedom, and keep them here with high-paying jobs.”

The folks behind mobile puzzlers Dots, Two Dots and Dots and Co. temporarily changed the splash screen of their games to include the following message:

“Everyone welcome. We welcome players from all over the world.

As an American company, we value the diversity of our team and players. We believe America should be a welcoming place, particularly for those most in need, wherever they come from and whatever their religion.

Please join us in standing up for civil rights.”

Below that was a link to the ACCU’s donation page.

CNN reported that as of Monday, January 30th that the ACLU racked up $24.1 million in donations over the weekend — some 600 percent more than the organization gets in an average year. It’s important to note that actors and musicians were also imploring their social media followings to donate to the ACLU as well.

Over the weekend, there was also a “NerdWalk” from the PAX South convention to the offices of Texas Senator John Cornyn, Ars Technica reported. Of the two reasons for the march, one was the immigration ban. The other was the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act. The organizer, Cards Against Humanity’s self-described “businesswoman,” Trin Garritano, said that storming the office to have the senator sign a bill wasn’t the goal.

“That was never the idea, it was just to show solidarity,” she said.

We at @insomniacgames are standing up for what we believe is right: https://t.co/e82dCgZqat

— Ted Price (@igTedPrice) January 31, 2017

Over the weekend, Insomniac Games’ CEO Ted Price joined the masses of tech companies railing against the immigration ban. The Entertainment Software Association (the governing body responsible for the Electronics Entertainment Expo, or E3 for short) also spoke out, asking the White House to “exercise caution with regard to vital immigration and foreign worker programs.”

Source: Ars Technica, Mashable