One billion drive hours and counting: Q1 2016 hard drive stats For Q1 2016 we are reporting on 61,590 operational hard drives used to store encrypted customer data in our data center. There are 9.5% more hard drives in this review versus our last review when we evaluated 56,224 drives. In Q1 2016, the hard drives in our data center, past and present, totaled over one billion hours in operation to date. That's nearly 42 million days or 114,155 years worth of spinning hard drives. Let's take a look at what these hard drives have been up to. BackBlaze
Windows malware tries to avoid 400 security products Malware authors are constantly trying to build their malicious files to remain undetected by security products and pack their malicious programs with anti-virus detection capabilities, but the newly observed "Furtim" malware is one of a kind in this regard. The malware's name comes from Latin and means "stealthy," Yotam Gottesman, a Senior Security Researcher at enSilo explains, adding that the program goes through great lengths to avoid being caught by security parties...SecurityWeek
OneCore to rule them all: How Windows Everywhere finally happened The Windows 10 Anniversary update, due later this summer, represents a major landmark for Microsoft. As well as being a significant update for Windows 10 on the desktop and Windows 10 Mobile on phones, the release is also coming to the Xbox One. For the first time, the Xbox One will be running essentially the same operating system as desktop Windows. Critically, it will also be able to run many of the same applications as desktop Windows. Ars Technica
A look at how playing games on YouTube is replacing TV There have been so many good video games in 2016, so it's not a surprise there's been a plethora of good writing, too. Worth Reading, our weekly guide to the best pieces around, will point you in the right direction. OK, technically, this is an essay about the changing nature of television---in fact, it tries to wrestle with the very definition of TV in the Internet age---but Film Crit Hulk uses Polygon's Monster Factory series as a launching pad. Kotaku
Iraq shuts down internet for entire country to prevent exam cheating Iraq has done it again. The country's Ministry of Communications has shut down Internet access in the entire country for the second year in a row just to make it harder for Iraqi students to cheat on their exams. This year, the country's Internet went dark on May 14, 15, and 16, between 05:00 AM and 08:00 AM GMT. Adding timezone differences, that's 08:00 to 11:00 AM, the time and dates for Iraq's official exams for secondary and high schools. Softpedia
If you clicked anything online, Google probably knows about it Princeton Assistant Professor Arvind Narayanan and graduate student Steven Englehardt have conducted a massive study on how websites track users using different techniques. The results of the Princeton Web Census research, which they claim to be the biggest to date, show that Google, through multiple domains, is tracking users on around 80 percent of all Top 1 Million domains. Softpedia (also, We know where you live and Online tracking: A 1-million-site measurement and analysis)
Lore - Doom lore in a minute! In the future, mega-conglomerate, The Union Aerospace Corporation has expanded to Mars and its moons, Phobos and Deimos, establishing some super shady laboratories and a strong military presence, just in case. As UAC experimented with teleportation, they developed dimensional gateways and opened a gateway to actual hell. Eventually, one scientist, Dr. Olivia Pierce, made a deal with the devil.
Vegas is looking to start taking bets on eSports In a recent Gaming Policy Committee meeting, representatives from Nevada's casino industry discussed the potential of expanding into the world of eSports. The state does not have laws against gambling with eSports, so it could happen. Rather just get involved in the competitive action? Then try one of the best multiplayer games on PC. PC Games (also, How viable is the World Esports Association?)
Microsoft: Still no plans to bring full Halo 5 to PC, June expansion detailed As it's said before, Microsoft developer 343 Industries has stressed that it has no plans to bring Xbox One shooter Halo 5: Guardians to PC. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that Halo 5's Forge tools are coming to Windows 10 later this year. And while 343 has said this is "just the beginning" for Halo's PC push, don't expect the full version of Halo 5 to come to PC. GameSpot
Reverse engineering a mysterious UDP stream in my hotel Hey everyone, I have been staying at a hotel for a while. It's one of those modern ones with smart TVs and other connected goodies. I got curious and opened Wireshark, as any tinkerer would do. I was very surprised to see a huge amount of UDP traffic on port 2046. I looked it up but the results were far from useful. This wasn't a standard port, so I would have to figure it out manually. gkbrk
Behind the biggest bitcoin heist in history: Inside the implosion of Mt. Gox When Mark Karpeles, the CEO of what was once the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, said that the company had gone bankrupt because 800,000 bitcoins (worth nearly half a billion dollars at the time) had been hacked, he wasn't exactly lying. He wasn't exactly telling the whole truth, either, but there was an intriguing element of fact. The Daily Beast
IMAX plans foray into virtual reality IMAX Corp., best known for extra-large movie screens, is now betting on a far more intimate viewing format: virtual reality. The company, later this year, will begin launching VR experiences in locations such as multiplexes and malls, using its connections with movie theaters and Hollywood talent along with new partnerships in the tech community to build the new business. The WSJ
How militarized cops use the intrusive technology Stingray, and much more, to intrude on our rights Can't you see the writing on the touchscreen? A techno-utopia is upon us. We've gone from smartphones at the turn of the twenty-first century to smart fridges and smart cars. The revolutionary changes to our everyday life will no doubt keep barreling along. Alternet
How we can stamp out trolls and make the internet a happier, safer place "I feel pretty lucky that the worst I've encountered has been, 'You're a fat, unfunny cunt and you have bad hair.' It stings, but I've been able to move on. However, I'm a white, cis woman so I've got a lot of privilege in these spaces in terms of how I'm viewed and how people choose to speak to me." Vice
Hyper-Reality Hyper-Reality presents a provocative and kaleidoscopic new vision of the future, where physical and virtual realities have merged, and the city is saturated in media. If you are interested in supporting the project, sponsoring the next work or would like to find out more, please send a hello to info@km.cx Vimeo
China fakes 488 million social media posts a year China's government fabricates about 488 million social media comments a year – nearly the same as one day of Twitter's total global volume – in a massive effort to distract its citizens from bad news and sensitive political debates, according to a study. Bloomberg
How technology hijacks people's minds – from a magician and Google's design ethicist I'm an expert on how technology hijacks our psychological vulnerabilities. That's why I spent the last three years as Google's Design Ethicist caring about how to design things in a way that defends a billion people's minds from getting hijacked. Medium