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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 17 Issue 17
Volume 17, Issue 17 Atari Online News, Etc. May 1, 2015
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2015
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1717 05/01/15
~ Great Atari "Reboot"! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Trinity Gaming PC!
~ Woman Blasts Porn to PCs ~ Browser Market Changes ~ Minecraft Updated!
~ Twitter Abuse Crackdown! ~ Are You A Web Troll? ~ When Trolls Attack!
~ Windows Edge Replaces IE ~ Canucks Love Their Poop ~ Man "Kills" His PC!
-* Global Cyber Threat Grows! *-
-* Mozilla's New Security Limitations! *-
-* Google Launches Security Feature for Chrome *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Apologies for last week's issue being a no-show, but we simply didn't
have enough content to make it worthwhile to put an issue out. But,
we're back this week with some great stuff - more material that tends
to be on the less "serious" side of things for a change!
So, rather than dwell on last week, let's dive right into this week's
issue and have a laugh or three!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - 'Destiny' Creators Seek To Atone for Missteps!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Minecraft Updated On Consoles!
Welcome to the Great Atari Reboot!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
'Destiny' Video Game Creators Seek To Atone for Missteps
The creators of "Destiny" are ready to unleash the wolves.
When the latest expansion to the hugely ambitious but frequently maligned
video game "Destiny" is released next month, it won't merely feature a
new social area, multiplayer mode and maps. "House of Wolves" will also
aim to right several wrongs as developer Bungie, publisher Activision and
the sci-fi shooter's Guardian protagonists look to the future.
Despite its popularity, many players have become frustrated with the
game's lack of content and unpredictable nature. "Destiny" randomly
rewards players with new gear, guns and parts, similar to a role-playing
title. Following the game's much-anticipated release last year, the
designers have sought to tweak as much as possible without alienating
fans.
Just how much have they changed?
"The short answer is everything," said multiplayer design lead Lars
Bakken. "We put out the game we thought 'Destiny' would be, and then it
took on a life of its own once it was in the wild. We probably touched
every system in the game. We've already done so many enhancements to
'Destiny.' I can't even keep them straight in my head at this point."
Unlike similar sci-fi shooters, such as "Gears of War" and "Killzone,"
most of the gorgeously detailed worlds found in "Destiny" are persistent
realms that can only be accessed online by players, who portray one of
the gun-toting, super-powered Guardians that must defend the last city
on Earth from oblivion. Simply put, it's "World of Warcraft" meets
"Halo."
Critically, "Destiny" was met with mixed reviews when the shared-world
shooter went online in September. The New York Times' Chris Sullentrop
said it was "monotonous and poorly paced," while Lou Kesten of The
Associated Press dubbed it "unimaginative." ''Destiny" currently has a
76 out of 100 rating on the review aggregator site Metacritic.com.
The so-so word of mouth didn't stop virtual sharpshooters from digging
into "Destiny." It was the third best-selling retail game in the U.S.
last year, behind "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" and "Madden NFL 15,"
according to industry tracker NPD Group. Activision said during a
February earnings call that 16 million players have registered for the
game.
Bungie should know a thing or two about sci-fi shooters. They created the
original trilogy of "Halo" games. However, even they weren't prepared for
how complicated "Destiny" had become or just how much time players would
invest in it. Bungie was also caught off guard by data-miners, players
who managed to unearth details embedded within the code.
The developers now regularly toss in phony bits to throw off the sleuths,
but not before the data-miners were able to discover that the
three-versus-three multiplayer mode called "Trials of Osiris," arguably
the most substantial part of the "House of Wolves" expansion coming
May 19, was originally slated to be a big part of the game from the
outset.
"When we were getting close to launch, we knew we weren't going to have
something that was compelling," said Bakken. "I had a conversation with
some of the other leads, and we came to the conclusion that it just
wasn't ready yet. The data was still there, but what 'Trials of Osiris'
has become is very different than what it would have been."
Other updates coming to "Destiny" in "House of Wolves" include daily
rewards for players who participate in "Crucible" multiplayer matches and
free access to the new maps from "The Dark Below," the game's previous
expansion, regardless whether players purchase "The Dark Below" or "House
of Wolves" for $19.99, or $34.99 for a bundle of both.
"They're going to be available for everybody as soon as 'House of Wolves'
comes out," said Bakken. "That's our way of not only enriching the game
and continually making the experience that people bought into last
September better, but it also helps us to not continually fracture the
matchmaking population going forward."
For the visionaries at Bungie, "House of Wolves" could very well redefine
their "Destiny."
Minecraft Updated On Consoles, Alex Skin Added And More
Minecraft, the successful game developed by Mojang now available on a
variety of formats, has received a new update on PlayStation 3,
PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
The new update, which is available right now in all regions and all
formats, comes with some new features and tweaks that will make the
experience more enjoyable for both those who are just starting to play
the game and those who have already put hours upon hours into the game.
The biggest new addition for all platforms is the Alex skin and some
variations of it. Thanks to these addition, players will now have more
options when creating characters, as the Alex skin and variations are
added to the default skins. The new update also includes a trial for some
extra skins inspired by one of the most popular TV Shows ever, The
Simpsons. The Simpsons Skin Pack trial will allow players to try out the
content inspired by the series created by Matt Groening before
purchasing it. Xbox 360 and Xbox One users wont be able to get these
skins, unfortunately, as they are only available on PlayStation
consoles.
The tweaks and changes introduced by the new Minecraft 1.16 update dont
end here. The new update changes music tracks played in Creative mode and
on front-end menus to match Java version, brings forward change so that
shrubs can be placed in flower pots and fixes an issue which stops the
Steampunk Texture Pack from working in the PlayStation 3 version of the
game. New achievements and music have also been added in the Xbox 360
version of the game.
Minecraft is now available on a variety of platforms, including iOS,
Android, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox
One and PC. The new update is also available right now on consoles so
make sure to download away to enjoy the new Alex skin and and more.
CyberPower Trinity Gaming PC Looks More Like A Spaceship
We've seen our fair share of "eccentric" looking, to put it kindly,
gaming PCs that cater to gamers that have equally unusual tastes in
design. But we have to hand over the crown to CyberPower and its new
Trinity PC. Throwing out almost every traditional PC design convention
out the window, this gaming PC sports a unique structure and arrangement
that is, to put it mildly, really out of this world. Eschewing the boxed
form of many computers, the Trinity gives justice to its name and is
composed instead of three distinct "blades".
The design of the Trinity isn't completely based on a whim, though
CyberPower does somewhat admit that it is also somewhat of a case study,
and a very expensive case study at that. The purpose of this triple blade
arrangement is to separate the three biggest heat-generating components
of a PC into their own blade to facilitate better cooling and air flow as
well as make it easier to switch them out without having to affect the
others.
The "Performance Blade" houses the graphics card and it is large and long
enough to accommodate even the gigantic NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X or one
of AMD's Radeon R9 series. CyberPower doesn't mention anything about SLI
arrangements but notes that there is enough room to squeeze in some extra
SSDs if needed. The "Storage Blade" does what it says and is large enough
to fit 3 SSDs, 2 HDDs, and a slim optical drive if so desired. It
actually also houses the full-sized ATX power supply that juices up all
three blades. Last but definitely not the least, the "CPU Blade" fits a
mini ITX motherboard that can support both Intel and AMD processors and
have room for a maximum of 16 GB of DDR3 RAM. And to keep things even
cooler, it can optional have 120 mm liquid cooling.
The Trinity is definitely an exercise in creativity and imagination, but
fortunately its designers didn't keep their heads in the cloud too long
to bother about resilience. The case of the tri-blade gaming PC is made
of steel and weighs 10 lbs per blade, giving it both protection and
stability. It's so stable that CyberPower claims you can prop it up on a
flat surface on only a single blade, with the other two pointing upwards,
though you'll probably want to play it safe and stand the whole setup on
two blades instead.
There are three basic models of the Trinity gaming PC, each of which can
still be configured to your liking. At the lowest is the Trinity 100 with
an AMD A10-7700K, 8 GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GTX 750Ti, and a 120 GB + 1 TB
SSD combo, all for $955. The Trinity 200 takes it up a notch with an
Intel Core i5-4690K, 16 GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GTX 960, and a 240 GB SSD
plus a 2 TB HDD. The price also goes higher at $1,339. Then there's the
Trinity EXTREME, which is both extreme in specs and in its $1,795 price
tag. This one houses an Intel Core i7-5820K, 16 GB of RAM, an NVIDIA
GTX 970, and the same 240 GB SSD + 2 TB HDD setup. Shipping for all
three models start on May 1.
UK Pre-Orders Take A Nosedive As Gamers Grow Wary
UK pre-order numbers have plummeted as gamers react to delays and high
prices.
A report conducted by Ipsos MORIs GameTrack project on behalf of MCV
found 20 percent of UK gamers are either pre-ordering fewer titles or not
pre-ordering anything.
Nine percent of those asked responded saying they've cut back on
pre-orders in the last year, while 11 percent haven't pre-ordered
anything at all. Only five percent of those asked said they pre-ordered
more games, while 49 percent never pre-ordered anyway. About 10 percent
hadn't changed their pre-ordering habits, while the rest didn't know.
The data revealed the UK is the number one territory across Europe for
pre-orders, so the news it's also seeing the sharpest decline is likely
to concern publishers.
As for why a dip is happening, the biggest reasons are consumers spending
money on other non-gaming items instead, and waiting for prices to come
down. In fact, all of Europe is seeing a decline, with UK, France,
Germany and Spain pre-orders dropping 12 percent, meaning 10.3 million
gamers have stopped or reduced the number of titles they pre-order.
Pre-orders and, in particular, pre-order bonuses have come under intense
scrutiny lately with publishers seeming to go to ever-more desperate
routes to convince gamers to reserve copies in advance. Where once
pre-ordering was done to guarantee yourself a copy on launch day, it's
now done to save cash by netting extra content, as is the case with Goro
in Mortal Kombat X. Despite these efforts, however, it seems gamers
aren't taking the bait.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Welcome to the Great Atari Reboot
Fred Chesnais has plenty of ideas about how to rebuild a once-great video
game company. Among the most important to the chairman and CEO of Atari
the gaming brand whose cartridges, consoles and classic titles
dominated the industry more than 40 years ago before it slowly slid
into irrelevance is his belief that getting players to see you as
cool again starts with this rule:
Dont do the obvious thing.
Theres no point in trying to compete against the big companies or in
trying to do the next Call of Duty, says Chesnais, who bought Atari out
of bankruptcy in 2013 and has been iterating a turnaround plan since
then, which the company continues to pursue today.
Thats an uphill battle. The only thing you can do is try to think
forward two, three and four years down the road to try to catch the
next wave, if you will.
That, for example, is why Chesnais says the company synonymous with retro
classics like Pong and Asteroids isnt gearing its new releases mostly to
teens or only focusing on a limited geography in an attempt to reinvent
itself. Rather, Ataris top executive says he has a more expansive view
of where he wants to take the company admittedly, a company thats a
shell of its former self, employing 12 people today compared to a staff
that numbered in the thousands in Ataris heyday and of how he wants
to get there.
It involves things like releasing the LGBT-themed game Pridefest in the
coming weeks, a social-sim game for tablets and mobile devices in
which players will create and launch their own personalized pride
parades in cities of their choosing. In the game, players will
customize parade flotillas with decorations, in addition to keeping
their town attractive and happy. To unlock new parade and festival
supplies, as well as receiving other bonuses, players will solve a
variety of challenges and complete quests.
Its a very colorful game, and its part of our new DNA as a company of
trying to push the envelope, Chesnais said, adding that the game
should be out by June.
Meanwhile, the Atari comeback he lays out also entails expanding the
brand to other markets around the world like Brazil, which Chesnais says
is a very significant gaming market today in terms of revenue. (They
love their games there.) And the plan also calls for taking a broader
view of the player community, with Chesnais pointing to opportunities
to expand the companys audience by gearing some titles toward
non-traditional players, like those between the ages of 40 and 60.
A critic might dismiss Ataris plan as too scattershot to make a
difference. But thinking big is the point for the Atari of today in
fact, Chesnais doesnt even refer to it as a video game company so much
as an interactive entertainment production company, to use his phrase.
Weve also started the launch of a casino platform in Europe, he says.
Teaming up with gaming technology company Pariplay, in the fall Atari
announced the release of Atari Casino, a real-money gaming website
including Atari-themed games across a variety of platforms.
In recent weeks, Atari also released Atari Fit for iOS and Android
devices, a fitness app that offers workout plans and rewards users with
coins that can be used to unlock classic Atari games Centipede, Pong
and Super Breakout. The company also re-introduced its RollerCoaster
Tycoon game last year, and in February Atari announced the upcoming
release of Asteroids: Outpost for PC, a re-imagining of Ataris
renowned 1979 arcade shooter.
Weve also licensed some of our IP to Hollywood, Chesnais says. Our
vision is very simple. Its to keep expanding the brand in the
entertainment space and on a worldwide scale.
It helps, of course, when yours is a brand that touches a deep
undercurrent of nostalgia among gamers of a certain vintage. Indeed,
Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell tells BGR there was something special
about Atari from the beginning, and that it still has a path toward
relevancy today.
Anytime you have an iconic brand, that helps, said Bushnell, who sold
Atari to Warner Communications in 1976 the first in a long and
tortuously complicated chain of ownership that would result in the Atari
that Chesnais leads today.
To the extent they do good engineering, good design they have every
opportunity to be a good success. Will they be another Microsoft or Sony?
Probably not. But they could easily be a Zynga, capturing good games with
the right dynamics.
One thing that wont be part of the companys future, Chesnais says, is a
console. But thats not to say Atari doesnt see a future in hardware. Not
wanting to spill too much, Chesnais points to a device like the Apple
Watch its not a console, but it is hardware along the lines of where
Atari envisions its efforts possibly going.
Were just trying to do the right thing for the brand, Chesnais says.
Were making mistakes. Were trying to be very humble, trying and
testing the market. Weve had a great success with RollerCoaster Tycoon,
less success with other games. As long as were humble and try to listen
to the community and change things when they need to change thats how
we work. It just takes time, thats all.
Nominees Announced for New World Video Game Hall of Fame
Fifteen video games that have engrossed gamers for untold hours were
named finalists Tuesday for the new World Video Game Hall of Fame.
The list includes arcade trailblazers Pong and Space Invaders, smartphone
favorites Angry Birds and Minecraft and an array of others for console
and computer.
They are: Doom, FIFA Soccer, the Legend of Zelda, the Oregon Trail,
Pac-Man, Pokemon, the Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., Tetris
and World of Warcraft.
Only a handful will make up the hall of fame's inaugural class, to be
chosen by an international selection committee of journalists, scholars
and other video game experts.
The induction ceremony is scheduled for June 4 inside The Strong museum
in Rochester, which also houses the National Toy Hall of Fame.
"The 15 finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame span decades,
gaming platforms and geographies," said Jon-Paul Dyson, director of The
Strong's International Center for the History of Electronic Games.
"Whether it's the groundbreaking game Pong or a more recent viral
sensation like Minecraft, all of these games have helped shape the way
that people across the globe play and relate to one another."
To make it into the hall of fame, games must have icon status, prove to
be more than a passing fad and leave a mark on other games or forms of
entertainment, pop culture or society in general.
The Strong said it received thousands of nominations since February, when
it announced creation of the video game hall to recognize the impact of
electronic games through the years. Anyone can nominate a game online.
The Strong's electronic games center has more than 55,000 video games and
related artifacts in its collection, along with personal papers and
corporate records that document the history of video games.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Pentagon Says Evicted Russian Hackers, Global Cyber Threat Grows
The United States on Thursday disclosed a cyber intrusion this year by
Russian hackers who accessed an unclassified U.S. military network, in a
episode Defense Secretary Ash Carter said showed the growing threat and
the improving U.S. ability to respond.
Carter cited the newly declassified incident during an address at
Stanford University, in which he also warned the Pentagon was ready to
help defend America's networks and to use cyber weaponry, if needed.
The doctrine was articulated in a new Pentagon cyber strategy unveiled on
Thursday. Reuters obtained a copy on Wednesday.
"Adversaries should know that our preference for deterrence and our
defensive posture don't diminish our willingness to use cyber options if
necessary," Carter said in prepared remarks.
Carter said that sensors guarding the Pentagon's unclassified networks
detected the intrusion by Russian hackers, who discovered an old
vulnerability that had not been patched.
"While it's worrisome they achieved some unauthorized access to our
unclassified network, we quickly identified the compromise and had a
crack team of incident responders hunting the intruders within 24 hours,"
Carter said.
"After learning valuable information about their tactics, we analyzed
their network activity, associated it with Russia, and then quickly
kicked them off the network, in a way that minimized their chances of
returning," he added.
The Pentagon's new cyber strategy document singles out Russia and China,
saying both had developed advanced cyber capabilities and strategies.
"Russian actors are stealthy in their cyber tradecraft and their
intentions are sometimes difficult to discern," the strategy document
said.
Iran and North Korea had "less developed cyber capabilities" but overt
hostile intent toward U.S. interests, it said.
On Thursday, Carter stressed the U.S. military needed closer cooperation
with California's Silicon Valley, particularly after high-profile attacks
on companies like Sony Pictures Entertainment.
"As tech companies see every day, the cyber threat against U.S. interests
is increasing in severity and sophistication," he said. "While the North
Korean cyberattack on Sony was the most destructive on a U.S. entity so
far, this threat affects us all."
Carter's trip to Stanford, in the heart of Silicon Valley, is the latest
example of the U.S. government's efforts to improve relationships with
tech companies after damaging revelations over digital surveillance by
former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Carter acknowledged part of his job will be overcoming those concerns.
"There are also really great opportunities to be seized through a new
level of partnership between the Pentagon and Silicon Valley," he said.
Twitter Clamps Down on Abuse With Vow To Ban Anyone Who
'Promotes Violence Against Others'
Twitter has vowed to tackle online abuse with a promise to ban trolls who
bombard other users with violent threats.
It has released a new set of guidelines designed to make the network less
anti-social.
Shreyas Doshi, director of product management, said: "We believe that
users must feel safe on Twitter in order to fully express themselves and
we need to ensure that voices are not silenced because people are afraid
to speak up.
"To that end, we are today announcing our latest product and policy
updates that will help us in continuing to develop a platform on which
users can safely engage with the world at large."
Doshi announced a number of policy changes designed to make the
Twittersphere a happier place.
Firstly, it has banned threats of violence against others or promoting
violence against others.
This toughens up on a previous policy which only prohibited "direct,
specific" threats to harm other people, which Doshi described as "unduly
narrow".
The social network now has the ability to lock abusive accounts for a
period of time.
"This option gives us leverage in a variety of contexts, particularly
where multiple users begin harassing a particular person or group of
people," Doshi wrote.
Twitter will also begin identifying abusive tweets and then making sure
they don't reach people who might be threatened by them - even if the
tweet is popular or written by a well-known person.
A dedicated safety team will keep an eye on new accounts, to make sure
they aren't started up with the specific intention of throwing out abuse.
This will be useful in dealing with extremists including ISIS supporters,
who are often banned and simply reappear with new accounts.
Twitter Expands Privacy on Direct Messages
Twitter said Monday it was making it easier to take direct messages
private, carving out a bigger space for targeted exchanges on the popular
microblogging service.
Previously, direct messaging could only occur between two Twitter users
"following" each other, which basically allowed both parties to see
whatever they posted publicly.
As of Monday, a user can change the settings on his accounts to allow
receipt of a direct message from anyone, including those who do not
follow the user. In turn, the user can reply with a direct message to
the sender, regardless of whether the sender follows the user, Twitter
announced in a blog on its website.
Users who opt in can still take steps to block unwanted direct messages
from a specific sender.
"We hope these changes help you connect more easily - and directly - on
Twitter with the people, causes and businesses you care about most,"
Twitter said.
At the end of 2014, Twitter had 288 million monthly active users, sending
500 million tweets per day, according to the San Francisco-based company.
Mozilla To Limit New Firefox Features to Secure Sites
Mozilla is leading the charge for Web encryption.
The Firefox maker on Thursday announced a plan to favor websites that
enable HTTPS.
"There's a pretty broad agreement that HTTPS is the way forward," Richard
Barnes, Firefox Security Lead, wrote in a blog post, citing statements of
support from IETF, IAB, W3C, and the U.S. government.
Eventually, Mozilla wants to make new Firefox features available to
encrypted websites only. Then, it wants to phase out access to certain
existing browser features to non-secure sites.
That, of course, will require some coordination. According to Barnes, the
community must first agree on a date, after which all new features will
be available only to secure websites. They will also need to decide what
qualifies as a "new" feature.
"For example, one definition of 'new' could be 'features that cannot be
polyfilled,'" Barnes wrote. "That would allow things like CSS and other
rendering features to still be used by insecure websites, since the page
can draw effects on its own. But it would still restrict qualitatively
new features, such as access to new hardware capabilities."
Once those elements are in place, Mozilla will gradually phase out access
to browser features for non-secure websites. A move which, Barnes pointed
out, will likely cause some sites to break.
"So we will have to monitor the degree of breakage and balance it with
the security benefit," he said.
The company is also considering "softer limitations" to be overlaid onto
functions when used by non-secure pages, like Firefox already does for
camera and microphone access.
Mozilla is also considering limiting the scope of non-secure cookies.
"Since the goal of this effort is to send a message to the Web developer
community that they need to be secure, our work here will be most
effective if coordinated across the Web community," Barnes wrote. "We
expect to be making some proposals to the W3C WebAppSec Working Group
soon."
The move comes shortly after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
last month complained that "dozens" of government tiplines are insecure.
Google Launches Security Feature for Chrome Web Browser
Google Inc on Wednesday announced a free extension for its Chrome web
browser that better protects Google accounts, including email, against
online attackers trying to steal passwords and other personal
information.
The extension, called Password Alert, can be downloaded on Google Chrome
and warns users before they enter account information on "phishing"
pages, or imitation sites designed to steal passwords and access personal
information, such as emails or online bank accounts.
Millions of phishing emails and websites are sent every day, Google said.
Nearly 2 percent of messages sent through Gmail, Google's email service,
are designed to steal passwords.
"Right now, it's left up to the user to decide whether or not to enter
their password," said Drew Hintz, the lead engineer for Password Alert.
"We expect users to know the difference between these sites, and that's
an unreasonable request to make of users."
The new extension, which took about three years to create, is an addition
to Google's other security measures, including safe browsing technology
that warns users against potentially malicious sites and verification
tools that help protect private accounts.
8 Sure Signs Youre an Internet Troll
Theyre the scourge of the Internet, as common as cockroaches and even
harder to exterminate. Theyre Internet trolls, and they live to make the
rest of us miserable.
The good news? Academics at Stanford and Cornell believe theyve found a
way to quickly identify trolls. The researchers examined comments at
three popular, heavily moderated websites CNN, IGN, and Breitbart to
determine characteristics that are common among users who were
eventually banned because of the vile things they said. The idea is to
come up with an automated method for banishing trolls so the rest of us
can have a civil conversation for a change.
Their study, titled Antisocial Behavior in Online Discussion
Communities, is filled with charts, acronyms, and academic-speak. So we
took the trouble of translating its key findings into eight simple rules
you can use to identify whether you are a troll.
Note: The study uses the terms Future Banned Users for people whose
noxious behavior eventually led to their being banished and Non
Banned Users (everyone else). For clarity, weve substituted the terms
troll and nontroll. Youre welcome.
How do you know if youre an Internet troll?
1. You post all the friggin time.
Per the study: Trolls tend to post more frequently than average users
(prior to getting banned): on CNN, a typical [troll] makes 264 posts,
but an average user makes only 22 posts.
Translation: Your keyboard runneth over. Please stop.
2. But almost never on topic.
We find that the average text similarity of posts written by [trolls] is
significantly lower than that of [nontrolls]
suggesting that [trolls]
make less of an effort to integrate or stay on-topic.
Translation: Every discussion, no matter how innocuous, is an opportunity
to launch into a paranoid rant about Obama, Bush, the 9/11 commission,
the alleged moon landing, the Holocaust, Benghazi, the World Bank, the
Bermuda Triangle, or the Infield Fly Rule.
3. You get way more replies than average.
Trolls receive more replies than average users, suggesting that they
might be successful in luring others into fruitless, time-consuming
discussions.
Translation: You have no life.
4. Youre quasi-literate.
We measure each post with respect to several readability tests,
including the Automated Readability Index (ARI), which are designed to
gauge how understandable a piece of text is. While posts written by
[trolls] and [nontrolls] have similar word counts, those written by
[trolls] have a higher ARI, and thus appear to be less readable than
those written by [nontrolls].
Translation: Ewe dun no how too rat gud, dew ewe?
5. Youre a $@#&%!! potty mouth.
[Trolls] are less likely to use positive words
are also more likely
to swear or use less tentative or conciliatory language.
Translation: You probably shouldnt kiss your mama with that mouth
or
anyone else.
6. Your comments get worse over time.
Not only do [trolls] enter a community writing worse posts than
[nontrolls], but the quality of their posts also worsens more over
time.
Translation: You enter the discussion as an idiot; you leave it a
drooling imbecile.
7. And get deleted more often.
On average, the deletion rate of a [trolls] posts tends to increase
over their life in a community. In contrast, the deletion rate for
[nontrolls] remains relatively constant.
Posts written later in a
[trolls] life are more likely to be deleted, regardless of whether they
are actually worse.
Translation: Were all effin tired of your BS.
8. But at least youre consistent.
We can predict with over 80% [confidence] whether a user will be
subsequently banned. In fact, we only need to observe 5 to 10 users posts
before a classifier is able to make a reliable prediction. Further,
crossdomain classification performance remains high, suggesting that the
features indicative of antisocial behavior that we discover are not
community-specific.
Translation: If youre a jackass here, youre probably a jackass
everywhere, and more likely to be banned. But not to worry: Were sure
youll find another virtual bridge to lurk under.
When Trolls Attack: 6 Things You Can Do to Protect Yourself
As anyone whos ever participated in an online discussion knows, its
getting really ugly out there. Web trolls Golem-like creatures whose
sole aim in life is to obliterate civil conversation as we know it are
taking over the Internet.
In February 2014, researchers at the University of Manitoba published the
results of a study of roughly 400 U.S. adults who are active online.
Nearly 6 percent identified themselves as trolls. (Other surveys have put
the number as high as 28 percent.) The researchers also found a high
correlation between online trolls and people who exhibit signs of sadism.
Anyone surprised by that?
If the low percentage is accurate, it still puts the number of trolls in
the U.S. at more than 10 million. Little wonder then that some large Web
sites, like Popular Science, have abandoned their commenting systems,
and celebrities like Lena Dunham, Iggy Azalea, and Louis C.K. have
recently left Twitter.
I recently got a taste of this myself when I posted a story about a
crowdfunding campaign for Memories Pizza, the Indiana restaurant at the
center of a fight over gay rights and religious freedom laws. Before my
story even appeared, I was bombarded with nasty tweets, egged on by the
conservative talk-show hosts who had created the campaign. It quickly
mushroomed into a conspiracy theory that I was trying to root out the
personal information of anonymous donors to that campaign.
For the record: I was not. Why would I care?
I got off easy. All I had to do was endure about a week of taunting,
insults, and veiled threats on Twitter and Facebook. Others have had it
far worse. A reporter for a local TV news station in Virginia questioned
the legitimacy of the campaign on Twitter and was bombarded with more
than 35,000 angry and sometimes violent tweets, many of them calling for
the station to fire her. The women targeted by the Gamergate trolls on
Twitter last fall had to vacate their homes due to physical threats. Then
there are the tragic stories of teenagers who committed suicide after
being cyberbullied.
But being in the crosshairs for a brief time was illuminating, to say
the least. And it posed a difficult question: What exactly are you
supposed to do when total strangers attack you online?
Being the target of a Twitstorm or a comments war is like fighting a
swarm of gnats the size of an aircraft carrier. Swatting at one just
sends the rest of them into a frenzy. The normal rules of polite
discourse wont get you anywhere, but neither will lashing out. Theres
no easy solution, but there are ways to deal with it.
1. Issue a mea culpa. Lets say you did or said something stupid online
and it went viral. Own it, apologize quickly, and move on. This wont
stop the trolls from attacking you it will just give them something
else to attack you about but it will earn credibility with anyone
reasonable who might be watching, like your employer, co-workers, or
customers.
2. Correct the record. If your attackers are spreading falsehoods about
you and its almost certain they will, given enough time you need to
point out the facts of the matter as clearly and coolly as possible.
Post it to your blog, Facebook page, or Twitter account, and point
people to the corrected record. Again, youre doing this for the
reasonable people in the audience, who (hopefully) are the ones who can
impact your life in a meaningful way.
3. Dont argue, even if youre right. Trolls live to fight. The thing
they want most of all is for you to fight back on their terms. One of my
favorite sayings comes in handy here. Never pick a fight with a drunk,
an imbecile, or a lunatic after two minutes nobody else will be able
to tell you apart. Dont let strangers mistake you for a drunk, an
idiot, or a crazy person.
4. Gather your allies. You dont have to go it alone. Unless you did or
said something so stupid even your friends are hiding, ask your
supporters to weigh in on your behalf. Just make sure they apply the
same rules: Patiently explain the facts, like youre talking to a
4-year-old, and be prepared to get angry, semiliterate responses on
social media.
5. Report the jerks. Theres reasonable disagreement, and then theres
harassment, abuse, and threats. If someone crosses the line into the
latter, or exposes your personal information in the hope that others
will, dont ignore it report them to the abuse department at the site
where they did it. If they threaten violence, contact local law
enforcement.
6. Deploy the rope-a-dope. Once youve apologized and/or corrected the
record, sometimes the only option you have left is to sit there and take
it until your opponents punch themselves out. Fortunately, they also
tend to have the attention spans of gnats and will eventually move on to
another target.
In response to the alarming spike in online trolling, Twitter and
Facebook have improved their abuse reporting tools
slightly. Theyre
far from satisfying, but theyre better than no tools at all.
If someone sends you a nasty message via Facebook, you can click the
settings icon in the top right corner of the message (it looks like a
gear) and select Report spam or abuse from the drop-down menu.
In the next dialog, select Report conversation participants for
harassing or threatening me and click OK. Click Close in the next
window. Presumably, Facebook will then investigate the user for possible
violations of its terms of service.
Facebook has more instructions on how to report nasty posts to your
timeline, comments, photos, and the like.
On Twitter, you click the three dots on the bottom right-hand side of the
offensive tweet and decide whether you want to mute that account (so you
never again see what they post), block them (so they cant see your
tweets either), or report them so Twitter can investigate further.
If you select Report, Twitter takes you through a series of dialogs
where you identify why youve flagged the tweet, how its abusive or
harmful, whether its targeting you or someone else, whether theyre
merely being offensive or threatening physical harm, and what you want to
do about it. (Twitter offers more info on how to report violations here.)
I reported around a dozen Twits who were insulting and harassing me and
two who threatened me. Twitter support determined that one of those two
had not violated its terms; it briefly locked the other account,
pending corrective actions. Heres the email Twitter sent me:
Later that day, that account was back online and spewing vitriol again.
It appears the only corrective action required by Twitter was to make
him/her/it delete the offensive tweet directed at me. It did, however,
permanently block that account from ever seeing what I post to Twitter,
and vice versa.
Since then, Twitter has updated its policies about how it responds to
abusive tweeters. So hopefully future reports will result in stronger
measures and maybe a few banishments.
The good news is that blocking this person means I never have to see that
hateful stuff again. One troll down, 10 million more to go.
Microsoft Edge Is Windows 10s Internet Explorer Replacement
Say goodbye to Microsoft Internet Explorer and hello to Microsoft Edge.
Shown off at the annual Microsoft Build developer conference, the Edge
browser will be available for Windows 10 when it is released this summer.
Edge is designed to take on Googles Chrome, Apples Safari, and
Mozillas Firefox and to once again make Microsoft the king of Web
browsers.
We saw and even used Edge before when it was called Project Spartan, but
this is the first time Microsoft has divulged the browsers official
name.
Edge isnt just some Internet Explorer knockoff. The browser is a
completely new piece of software and comes with a host of new features.
In addition to its name, Microsoft also debuted a new tab page for Edge.
Joe Belfiore, a corporate vice president in Microsofts Operating Systems
Group, said that Internet Explorers new tab page, the page you see when
you open a new tab in the browser, is opened 1 billion times a day, so
Microsoft wanted to help people get the most out of Edges new tab page.
When you open a new tab, youre met with a universal search bar that lets
you perform a search using Microsofts Bing or enter a Web address. Below
that is a list of your most visited websites.
If there is an app for one of your top sites, you see a Get the app
button that takes you to the Microsoft Store, where you can download it.
Under that is a collection of news stories from various sources, and to
the right is a Featured apps list for downloading. At the far right of
the page is a list of some of your favorite information from Microsofts
personal assistant Cortana, Microsofts answer to Apples Siri and Google
Now.
Like Googles Chrome and Mozillas Firefox, Edge supports browser
plug-ins. But rather than making developers create the plug-ins from
scratch, Edge will support plug-ins from Chrome and Mozilla with just a
few modifications, making it easier for developers to bring their
existing extensions over.
We previously talked about some of the more interesting features coming
to Edge, such as the ability to annotate webpages by writing directly on
them with a stylus, as well as a reader mode that cuts extraneous
information from a webpage.
Cortana also works with Edges search feature. So if you have an upcoming
flight, and you search for your airline, Cortana will automatically pull
up your flight information in a separate browser pop-up box.
Edge is a massive departure from Internet Explorer in both form and
function, and from what weve seen, its an extremely promising browser.
As Belfiore said during his presentation,The E button in the [Windows]
task bar
now has a completely different and better meaning than it has
for a while.
Chrome Passes 25% Market Share, IE and Firefox Slip
In April 2015, we saw the naming of Microsoft Edge, the release of
Chrome 42, and the first full month of Firefox 37 availability. Now were
learning that Googles browser has finally passed the 25 percent market
share mark.
Between March and April, here is how the browser market changed,
according to the latest figures from Net Applications:
Internet Explorer: down 0.71 points to 55.83 percent
Chrome: up 0.69 points to 25.68 percent
Firefox: down 0.19 points to 11.70 percent
Safari: up 0.12 points to 5.12
Opera: up 0.05 points to 0.48 percent
Breaking the IE figure down further shows good news for Microsofts
browser: The latest version, IE11, grew 0.82 percentage points back over
the 25 percent mark. IE10 and IE9 both slipped a bit (0.17 and 0.21
percentage points respectively), while IE8 fell a solid 1.26 percentage
points.
In October, IE11 managed to pass IE8 to become the worlds most popular
browser, and the gap continues to widen. This new trend became possible
when Windows XP, whose users cant upgrade past IE8, started to lose
significant share. As a result, IE11 can grow unchallenged, until, of
course, Edge arrives.
Among the really old versions, IE7 gained just 0.03 points to 0.37 percent
and IE6 fell 0.06 points to 0.92 percent.
Googles Chrome gained 0.69 percentage points this past month, and for
the first time has passed the 25 percent mark. In other words, one in
four Web users now use Chrome.
Chrome 42 captured 7.69 percent, Chrome 41 slipped 1.80 percent, and
Chrome 40 fell 5.56 points. Older versions will continue to plummet as
the latest version takes over, as is typical with Googles numbers.
As weve noted before, Mozillas Firefox has been hitting new lows for
months. The browser hit a new low of 11.6 percent in February, and its
back down very close to that figure once again.
Thankfully, Firefoxs built-in upgrade system continues to work well.
Firefox 37 grabbed 6.12 points to hit 6.45 percent, while Firefox 36
dropped 5.24 percentage points and Firefox 35 fell 1.21 percentage
points.
Net Applications uses data captured from 160 million unique visitors each
month by monitoring some 40,000 websites for its clients. This means it
measures user market share.
Solitaire Is Coming Back on Windows 10
The much-loved card game will once again be just a few clicks away when
Microsoft's next OS launches this summer.
Awesome news for bored people everywhere: Solitaire is about to make a
huge comeback on Windows 10.
The much-loved card game will once again be just a few clicks away when
Microsoft's next OS launches this summer. As The Verge first reported,
Redmond is planning to once again make Solitaire a built-in game on
Windows 10.
This means you'll no longer have to go through the trouble of separately
downloading it like you need to do on Windows 8. Microsoft previously
admitted that Solitaire, along with Minesweeper and Hearts, have a
"devoted following," but decided not to pre-install them on Windows 8.
Windows 10 also marks the return of the beloved Start menu, so it looks
like Microsoft is really embracing its roots with this OS. Here's hoping
Microsoft decides to bring back Minesweeper and Hearts as well. At this
point, it looks like you'll still have to search for them online and
install them separately.
Meanwhile, Microsoft this week released another version of the Windows 10
technical preview that adds new Mail and Calendar apps. The new build
also includes improvements to the Start, Taskbar, and Action Center,
Continuum, Task View, and Virtual Desktop.
Windows traditionalists will also be happy to hear that the power button
has been moved from the top-right of the screen back to the bottom left.
Microsoft has yet to announce an official launch date for its next-gen
OS, but its partner AMD may have let the cat out of the bag earlier this
week. During a first-quarter earnings call, AMD CEO Lisa Su let slip that
the OS is slated for an "end of July" debut.
Canadians Top The World in Smiling Poop Emoji Use
Canadians are the biggest smiling poop emoji fans in the world, according
to an international report on emoji use by country.
A new report on the popularity of specific emojis by country reveals that
Canadians may not be quite as polite as our reputation suggests.
In fact, we're twice as likely to use "raunchy" emojis in personal
communications than residents of any other country and our rates of
"violent" emoji usage are the highest in the entire world, at more than
double the average.
We also like the smiling poop emoji. A lot.
Popular among smartphone users worldwide, the "smiling poop emoji" has
inspired everything from housewares and jewelery to lengthy thinkpieces
about its origin in recent years. (emojidictionary.com)
These are but a few of the insights gleaned from a comprehensive
international mobile language report published on Tuesday by SwiftKey, a
British technology
irm that develops smartphone keyboard software.
In its 18 page "emoji report," SwiftKey analyzed more than one billion
pieces of emoji data from 16 different regions and languages across the
world sent between October 2014 and January 2015.
Researchers broke the more than 800 emojis available on the Unicode
standard keyboard into 60 different categories and then analyzed rates of
use to determine "language leaders" for each category.
The report's "findings of note" section indicates that when it comes to
romance, French speakers lead the pack by using four times as many heart
emojis as speakers of any other language.
Australians were found to use the most alcohol and drug emojis, Arabic
speakers love flowers and plants, and Americans hold the top spot in a
"random assortment of emoji & categories, including skulls, birthday cake,
fire, tech, LGBT, meat and female-oriented emoji."
According to Canadian emoji use, ours is the land of guns, eggplants and
smiling poop.
"Canada scores highest for interests some might consider more 'American',
including guns & violent emoji (1.52% vs .97% avg), money (.47% vs .25%
avg) and raunchy humour (.28% vs .14% avg)," the report reads.
Under the "raunchy" category, SwiftKey lists such emojis as banana, raised
fist, eggplant, peach, cherries and the Cancer astrological symbol.
Canada uses the poop, gun and money emojis more than any other
English-speaking country analyzed for SwiftKey's newly-released "emoji
report."
Canadian English speakers are also the "most violent in their emoji usage
(1.52%), which is more than 50% higher than the average" and partial to
gun, knife, punching fist, fire, explosion, skull and bomb emojis
according to the report.
Judging by the internet's reaction, however, SwiftKey's most significant
finding relates to the infamous "smiling pile of poop" emoji.
"Funny emoji (farts and poop) are used by Malaysian speakers at nearly
double the average rate," the report notes, though "most of Malay's win
comes from the fart emoji... Canadians use the poop emoji most."
SwiftKey provides no hypothesis as to why this may be, but reaction to the
news on Twitter shows that many Canadians do indeed love the poop emoji
and are proud to be leading the world in this area.
Colorado Man Cited for 'Killing' Uncooperative Computer With Handgun
Police in Colorado have cited a 37-year-old man for carrying his computer
into an alley then shooting it eight times with a handgun after what
authorities said had been a long battle with the uncooperative machine.
Lucas Hinch was cited for discharging a firearm within city limits after
officers responded to a "shots fired" call early on Monday evening, the
Colorado Springs Police Department said in a statement.
"Investigation revealed a resident was fed up with fighting his computer
for the last several months," said the statement, entitled "Man Kills His
Computer."
"He took the computer into the back alley and fired eight shots into the
computer with a handgun, effectively disabling it," it added.
The Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper cited police as saying Hinch was
good-natured about the citation, and that he told officers he had not
realized he was breaking the law.
A judge will decide what penalty the citation carries.
Canadian Woman Blasts Porn to Neighbors' PCs
It probably goes without saying that hacking can land you in jail, but it
can do so even if you dont steal a single dollar. This is a lesson that
Valérie Gignac, a Quebecoise hacker, learned recently. Mounties arrested
her and took her into custody after they became aware that she hosted her
own botnet for the explicit purpose of messing with her neighbors via
eavesdropping, talking through their speakers and exposing their children
to extreme pornography.
Canadian news organization CBC News reported on the story, which the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police first made public. Gignac belongs to a
popular hacking forum (neither source would reveal which one, although
it has approximately 35,000 members), and used remote-access Trojans
(RATs) to hijack neighbors computers. From there, antagonizing their
owners was as simple as keeping an eye on their activities and picking
her poison.
The police allege that Gignac used RATs to infect her victims computers,
although they incorrectly identify the software as Remote
Administration Tools. In actuality, remote administration tools can be
totally legitimate, like desktop-sharing in Microsoft Windows. If Gignac
misused legitimate software rather than used malware as advertised, it
could change the case against her considerably.
After Mounties took her into custody, Gignac was released on bail, but
with the provision that she could not access a computer or the Internet
for the time being. Her court case is ongoing, but she is being charged
with four counts of unauthorized use of a computer and misuse of data.
Interestingly, Gignacs supposed wrongdoing was not ongoing, but
seemingly relegated to a four-day span back in 2012.
Since Gignac did not seek any financial gain from her endeavors, her
lawyer has pitched the entire incident as a bad prank, which is likely
true. Hackers are notorious for tampering with the status quo just for
the heck of it, or for the lulz, as a popular meme says.
Still, the law is the law, and the victims of Gignacs pranks had every
right to bring legal action against her. Whether mild intrusions like
this really warrant jailing a woman is something that legal scholars
will likely have a field day discussing in the near future.
If you want to keep yourself safe from unwanted interference from
mischievous neighbors, the protocol is the same as keeping yourself safe
online in general. Run a good antivirus program, password-protect your
computer and router, and dont install suspicious programs.
=~=~=~=
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