OpenRA, the open source project that takes Westwood’s classic RTS games and makes them prettier (and better) on modern systems, has just turned 10. Here’s a new trailer to celebrate.
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OpenRA, the open source project that takes Westwood’s classic RTS games and makes them prettier (and better) on modern systems, has just turned 10. Here’s a new trailer to celebrate.
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Image by Jim Cooke
If you’re daydreaming about buying a home or need to lower the payment on the one you already have, you might pay a visit to the Quicken Loans mortgage calculator. You’ll be asked a quick succession of questions that reveal how much cash you have on hand or how much your home is worth and how close you are to paying it off. Then Quicken will tell you how much you’d owe per month if you got a loan from them and asks for your name, email address, and phone number.
You might fill in the contact form, but then have second thoughts. Do you really want to tell this company how much you’re worth or how in debt you are? You change your mind and close the page before clicking the Submit button and agreeing to Quicken’s privacy policy.
But it’s too late. Your email address and phone number have already been sent to a server at “murdoog.com,†which is owned by NaviStone, a company that advertises its ability to unmask anonymous website visitors and figure out their home addresses. NaviStone’s code on Quicken’s site invisibly grabbed each piece of your information as you filled it out, before you could hit the “Submit†button.
During a recent investigation into how a drug-trial recruitment company called Acurian Health tracks down people who look online for information about their medical conditions, we discovered NaviStone’s code on sites run by Acurian, Quicken Loans, a continuing education center, a clothing store for plus-sized women, and a host of other retailers. Using Javascript, those sites were transmitting information from people as soon as they typed or auto-filled it into an online form. That way, the company would have it even if those people immediately changed their minds and closed the page. (It’s yet another way auto-fill can compromise your privacy.)
NaviStone is an Ohio-based startup in the business of identifying “ready to engage†customers and matching “previously anonymous website visitors to postal names and addresses.†It says it can send postcards to the homes of anonymous website shoppers within a day or two of their visit, and that it’s capable of matching “60-70% of your anonymous site traffic to Postal names and addresses.â€
In yesterday’s report on Acurian Health, University of Washington law professor Ryan Calo told Gizmodo that giving users a “send†or “submit†button, but then sending the entered information regardless of whether the button is pressed or not, clearly violates a user’s expectation of what will happen. Calo said it could violate a federal law against unfair and deceptive practices, as well as laws against deceptive trade practices in California and Massachusetts. A complaint on those grounds, Calo said, “would not be laughed out of court.â€
In the summer of 2015, Alexandra Franco got a letter in the mail from a company she had never heard …
There are at least 100 sites using NaviStone’s code according to Builtwith.com, a service that tells you what technologies sites employ. We visited dozens of them to see the code in action. The majority of sites captured visitors’ email addresses only, but some sites also captured their home addresses and other entered information.
(To see it in action for yourself, check out our tutorial at the end of this post.)
Only one site of the dozens we reviewed, Gardeners.com, explicitly revealed in its privacy policy what it was doing. It read, “Information you enter is collected even if you cancel or do not complete an order.†The rest of the sites had the usual legalese in their policies about using standard tracking tech such as cookies and Web beacons, which did not describe the way this particular information capture works.
We sent media inquiries to dozens of sites about why and how they are using the information they’re capturing. Two responded. Quicken Loans did not respond to multiple media inquires.
Road Scholar, a non-profit that arranges educational travel and had NaviStone’s code on its site collecting email addresses before users hit “submit,†told us it uses the NaviStone tool on its website “primarily to re-activate inquirers who have already expressed an interest in Road Scholar and are already on our mailing list.â€
A spokesperson for home goods company Wayfair, which was using the Navistone tool on its clothing site JossandMain.com to collect email addresses, told us that the company is “committed to upholding the highest standards for responsible marketing practices across all channels.â€
“We do not email users who have not formally submitted their email address to our site,†Wayfair spokesperson Susan Frechette wrote in an email. “We work with NaviStone to support our direct mail programs.â€
We asked whether email addresses are collected in order to identify the person and try to find out their home address in order to send them direct mail. Email addresses, after all, much like mobile phone numbers and social security numbers, have become a unique identifier that can be used as a key to unlock other information about us. Frechette declined further comment and referred us to NaviStone.
NaviStone wasn’t keen to reveal how it unmasks anonymous website visitors, saying that its technology is proprietary and awaiting a patent. Allen Abbott, NaviStone’s chief operating officer, wrote via email that NaviStone doesn’t “use email addresses in any way to link with postal addresses or any other form of PII.†He said the company’s primary business is helping their clients send personalized direct mail.
“Rather than use email addresses to generate advertising communications, we actually use the presence of an email address as a suppression factor, since it indicates that email, and not direct mail, is their preferred method of receiving advertising messages,†Abbott wrote.
At least one other company is known to monitor the things you don’t send: Facebook takes note of the existence of status messages that you compose but don’t post. But this goes beyond that. In some cases, the companies using NaviStone code didn’t have an existing relationship with their visitors and were collecting contact information those consumers had ultimately decided not to give them.
We decided to test how the code works by pretending to shop on sites that use it and then browsing away without finalizing the purchase. Three sites—hardware site Rockler.com, gift site CollectionsEtc.com, and clothing site BostonProper.com—sent us emails about items we’d left in our shopping carts using the email addresses we’d typed onto the site but had not formally submitted. Although Gizmodo was able to see the email address information being sent to Navistone, the company said that it was not responsible for those emails.
Businesses seem to be doing all they can to strip away consumers’ ability to anonymously browse the Web, sacrificing privacy at the altar of commerce. And it’s illustrative of the way your sense of control online can be an illusion, the “submit†feature becoming just another placebo button.
As a result of our reporting, though, NaviStone says it will no longer collect email addresses from people this way.
“While we believe our technology has been appropriately used, we have decided to change the system operation such that email addresses are not captured until the visitor hits the ‘submit’ button,†Abbott wrote.
Alternatively, if you don’t trust sites not to collect your information this way, consider using a tool such as UBlock Origin that prevents invisible claws from descending into the toy chest of data in your browser.
***
Want to see this happen for yourself?Â
Web browsers have developer tools that let you see what information a website is transmitting and receiving—both the visible and invisible stuff. You can use these developer tools to see this trick. These instructions are for Chrome but the same basic technique should work on Firefox and Safari too, with small differences in the interface.
1. In the Chrome menu, go to “View,†then “Developer,†and select “Developer Tools.â€
2. The developer tools should pop up either from the bottom of your browser or the side. To see all the data coming and going from the browser, select the Network tab. You just want to monitor the traffic between the browser and murdoog.com, a website affiliated with NaviStone, to which it is sending the captured information. In the filter in developer tools, type “murdoog.â€
3. After our reporting, NaviStone stopped collecting information pre-Submit on most of the sites it was working with. But as of publication time, it was still active on the Quicken Loans mortgage calculator contact page, so head there to check it out.
4. You’re have to choose “Refinance†or “Purchase†and then hand over some financial information. If you qualify, you’ll get to a contact page and need to fill in the requested information: name, phone number, and email address. Be creative because this information is going to be captured. Each time you hit the tab button, or move to a new field, you should see data being sent to murdoog.com. (If not, you may have a blocker enabled.)
5. Click on the data just sent, click “Headers,†and scroll down to “Query String Parameters,†which are the specific pieces of information your browser is sending to the server. To view these parameters, make sure you’re on the Headers tab and scroll all the way to the bottom. There will be separate, seemingly random strings listed under the labels v, m, se, and d. The longest of these, labeled d, is the one you want. It will look something like this:
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
6. That incomprehensible-looking block of text is encoded using a common web technique called Base64 encoding. Usually it’s used to convert binary data like images into strings of text, making them easier to send. Copy the text after the “d:†as shown below and paste it into this online converter.
7. What you should see amid everything else is the information you just typed into the form. It was sent to murdoog.com, a site registered to NaviStone.
This story was produced by Gizmodo Media Group’s Special Projects Desk. Email senior reporter Kashmir Hill at kashmir.hill@gizmodomedia.com and data reporter Surya Mattu at surya.mattu@gizmodomedia.com.
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Netflix has unveiled the first three shows to offer an interactive story mode. There’s bad news for Android and Apple TV users though.
Reports about the concept broke back in March when rumor had it Netflix would test the idea with a children’s show before extending it to adult stories.
The first show, Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale, launches today featuring a version of the fairy tale character that’s at the very least influenced by the incarnation from Shrek. Another kids’ show, Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile, will debut on July 14 and a Stretch Armstrong show will follow next year.
For now the shows will all be straightforward “choose your own adventure†stories for children. The original reports suggested adult shows using the branching technology could be more complex, for example by telling stories out of chronological order. Netflix says it’s starting with children because they are more inclined to interacting with devices and familiar with playing with games incorporating familiar characters.
The interactive stories will work on most Smart TVs, media players, consoles and iOS devices, though they may need an app update. For now the feature isn’t available on Android, Apple TV, the Netflix website, or through Chromecasting. In these cases the show will simply play as a linear experience with pre-determined choices.
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Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has found a few new licensee clients for its Hyperloop technology, a group of South Korean entities including the government and two of its educational institutions, who will use HTT’s research and tech to construct a full-scale Hyperloop network. HTT and South Korea will also work together on research and development, help develop a safety platform and safety standards, and figure out the passenger experience.
The South Korean Hyperloop project will be called the HyperTube Express, and it’s backed by the Korean Department of Technological Innovation and infrastructure. The schools involved are the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) as well as Hanyang University, which is South Korea’s leading engineering research school.
Back in January, reports suggested that South Korea was working on a Hyperloop-like high-speed rail network for the country, spearheaded by the Korea Railroad Research Institute. Said project was said to be called the Hyper Tube Express at the time, but the involvement of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, which is a multi-year partner owing to the licensing deal, wasn’t previously announced.
The HyperTube Express, should it go as planned, would be able to bring passengers from Seoul to Busan in just under 20 minutes, which is much shorter than the current three-hour car ride required to make that trip.
Written by Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch.
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Broadband industry lobby groups want to stop individual states from investigating the speed claims made by Internet service providers, and they are citing the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules in their effort to hinder the state-level actions.
The industry attempt to undercut state investigations comes a few months after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against Charter and its Time Warner Cable (TWC) subsidiary that claims the ISP defrauded and misled New Yorkers by promising Internet speeds the company knew it could not deliver.
NCTA- The Internet & Television Association and USTelecom, lobby groups for the cable and telecom industries, last month petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for a declaratory ruling that would help ISPs defend themselves against state-level investigations. The FCC should declare that advertisements of speeds “up to” a certain level of megabits per second are consistent with federal law as long as ISPs meet their disclosure obligations under the net neutrality rules, the groups said. There should be a national standard enforced by the FCC instead of a state-by-state “patchwork of inconsistent requirements,” they argue.
Another cable lobby group, the American Cable Association (ACA), asked the FCC to approve the petition in a filing on Friday. An FCC ruling in favor of the petition wouldn’t completely prevent states from filing lawsuits, but such a ruling would make it far more difficult for the states to protect consumers from false speed claims.
Consumer advocacy groups urged the FCC to reject the petition, arguing that the commission doesn’t have authority to preempt states in this matter and that the state investigations are important for protecting consumers. If the FCC “allow[s] providers to make unrealistic claims with an asterisk,” then “services with vastly different peak performance characteristics may be advertised as equal with true differences in performance revealed only on a web page somewhere that explains the actual inferiority of their service,” the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) said in a filing on Friday.
Attorneys general from New York, 33 other states, and the District of Columbia also urged the FCC to reject the petition, which they said is “nothing more than the industry’s effort to shield itself from state law enforcement.” Representing liberal states such as Massachusetts and conservative states such as Texas, the 35 attorneys general described themselves as a “bipartisan group” that seeks to enforce consumer protection laws in their states.
The broadband lobby groups argue that states should not investigate ISPs’ speed claims because the ISPs already follow speed disclosure rules set down by the FCC as part of its 2010 net neutrality order. These network transparency rules are the only major portion of the FCC’s 2010 net neutrality order that remained in place after Verizon’s lawsuit against the FCC eliminated the core net neutrality rules in 2014.
The FCC’s transparency rules “created a specific safe harbor for [broadband] providers that disclose their average downstream and upstream speeds during the period of peak demand,” the lobby groups argued. “The Commission should prevent this framework from being undermined by issuing a declaratory ruling confirming that a broadband provider’s description of speeds based on this average peak-hour metric complies with the Commission’s transparency requirements.”
Disclosures on the providers’ websites are enough to meet the federal standard, the petition said. The FCC’s treatment of broadband as an interstate service should also preempt state actions, the petition argued.
The lobby groups also cited the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules and classification of ISPs as common carriers—even as FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is planning to eliminate the 2015 rules that have been consistently opposed by these same lobby groups. For as long as the 2015 order remains in place, the FCC should declare that ISPs’ current disclosures meet the order’s standard that providers’ practices must be “just and reasonable,” NCTA and USTelecom argued.
The FCC’s ongoing deliberations on what the existing net neutrality rules should be replaced with provides another reason to hinder state lawsuits, the groups claim.
“Protecting the Commission’s authority to establish national, uniform rules is particularly important at this time, as the Commission is about to launch a proceeding to put in place a national ‘light-touch framework’ to govern [broadband] providers and preserve a free and open Internet,” they wrote.
The 35 attorneys general say the industry petition “ignores the Federal Communications Act’s preservation of concurrent state authority over unfair and deceptive practices,” as well as the history, purpose, and text of the FCC’s transparency rule. There is also nothing in the Communications Act that “preempts state anti-fraud or consumer-protection claims or reflects any intention by Congress to make federal law the exclusive means of bringing such claims against broadband providers,” the states’ law enforcement officials said.
Disclosures made to comply with federal law do not alter companies’ obligations under state law, the attorneys general wrote.
“[I]t appears that the petition is really seeking to alter disclosure obligations under state law, including state consumer protection laws’ prohibitions on false and misleading statements and material omissions in consumer-facing advertisements,” they wrote. “Such a ruling would plainly exceed the scope of the Commission’s authority granted by Congress, and would be improper.”
There is also “no factual basis” to determine that ISPs’ speed disclosures meet the FCC’s “just and reasonable” standard, they argued. “The request is plainly seeking a factual finding, despite the complete lack of any factual record to support such a conclusion,” they wrote.
State-level speed tests aren’t necessary, the cable and telecom lobby groups argued, because the FCC runs the Measuring Broadband America program to verify whether the largest ISPs’ in-home broadband speeds match the providers’ speed claims.
“The New York Complaint, however, relies on different, unofficial measurement tools as its basis for alleging that TWC subscribers “received speeds that were consistently well below the speeds that they paid for,” NCTA and USTelecom wrote. “Such state-level actions are causing significant uncertainty, confusion, and potential unwarranted liability.”
ISPs that follow the FCC’s guidance should not be subjected to “inconsistent standards” applied in each state, the lobby groups wrote. The lobby groups are worried about states holding ISPs to their promises that speeds will be “up to” a certain amount, since Internet speeds are often slower than the maximum level. The NCTA and USTelecom petition said:
These state investigations have sought to determine, among other things, whether the typical advertising practice of offering ‘up to’ a particular speed threshold (e.g., ‘download speeds up to 50Mbps’) accurately describes the ‘actual’ performance of the service.
…
As litigation proceeds in New York, there is a significant risk that other jurisdictions will commence their own parallel actions, arguing that state law mandates the disclosure of broadband speeds measured under approaches that diverge from those approved and encouraged by the Commission.
The FCC “should confirm that it is consistent with federal law for broadband providers to advertise the maximum (‘up to’) speeds available to subscribers on a particular tier, so long as the provider otherwise meets its obligations under the Commission’s transparency rules,” they wrote.
The ACA, which represents small and medium-sized cable operators, told the FCC that lawsuits filed by states could disproportionately harm small ISPs.
“The action brought by the New York State Attorney General is already problematic for [broadband] providers, particularly smaller providers, who reasonably fear their states may follow New York’s lead,” the ACA wrote. “Defending oneself in such an enforcement action incurs significant costs, which would be especially burdensome for smaller providers with limited staff and resources.”
Consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge urged the FCC to reject the industry petition in a filing last week, saying that states have the authority and the expertise to regulate ISPs’ speed claims. Although broadband network traffic is interstate, ISPs’ communications with consumers are intrastate and can thus be regulated by individual states, the group argued.
Moreover, Congress has not clearly authorized the FCC to preempt the ability of states to prevent fraud and misrepresentation, Public Knowledge said.
“The marketplace needs honest information to workâ€
“[T]he federal measurement scheme can coexist with state consumer protection laws,” and “states are equipped with the expertise and personnel to police fraudulent and deceptive business practices carried out within the state,” Public Knowledge wrote.
The ILSR argued that the FCC “does not have authority to simply remove states’ ability and authority to protect their [broadband] subscribers from misleading or potentially dishonest claims about advertised services.”
State actions are important because FCC rules require that ISPs post average speeds, “but national averages may not be particularly useful for a given state,” the ILSR wrote.
“The marketplace needs honest information to work—some networks use technologies that are capable of consistently delivering advertised speeds whereas others use technologies more likely to have bottlenecks during high demand,” the ILSR wrote. “A fundamental question is whether some providers mislead customers by advertising rates that are not achievable under common conditions, regardless of whether providers make some additional information available at a location unlikely to be visited by someone shopping for broadband.”
Disclosure: The Advance/Newhouse Partnership, which owns about 13 percent of Charter, is part of Advance Publications. Advance Publications owns Condé Nast, which owns Ars Technica.
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About 20 percent of baby food samples tested over a decade-long period had detectable levels of lead, according to a new report from Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit group.
The group evaluated data collected by the Food and Drug Administration from 2003 to 2013. This included 2,164 baby food samples. They found 89 percent of grape juice samples, 86 percent of sweet potatoes samples and 47 percent of teething biscuits samples contained detectable levels of lead.
“The levels we found were relatively low, but when you add them up — with all the foods children eat … it’s significant,” says study author Tom Neltner of the Environmental Defense Fund.
None of the baby food samples seemed to exceed the Food and Drug Administration’s allowable levels of lead. However, the FDA is in the process of reviewing its standards, and there’s concern that current standards do not reflect the latest science about the potential health risks, especially for young children.
“I think the onus is really on FDA and industry to change their standards to reflect what we know, that there is no safe lead level,” said pediatrician Jennifer Lowry. She chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Environmental Health.
The FDA has “old standards … and they haven’t been updated in decades,” Lowry said.
In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated guidance on lead in children. The CDC considers a level of 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood to be high in children, but no level of lead is considered safe.
The CDC concluded that “even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect IQ, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. And effects of lead exposure cannot be corrected.”
Pediatricians recommend children eat lots of different kinds of fruits and vegetables. This can help minimize the risk from a single food. And as we’ve reported, diets high in iron, calcium and vitamin C can limit the absorption of lead.
Also, parents can limit the amount of fruit juice their children consume. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended new limits on juice consumption. The pediatric group recommends that children under 1 year should not drink any juice.
The FDA says its goal is to protect human health by “ensuring that exposure to lead is limited to the greatest extent feasible.” However, it also points out that traces of lead in food can come from the environment.
It’s not clear whether the lead detected in baby food is coming from soils or other sources.
If lead is in the soil, it can be absorbed by crops growing in that soil. So lead “cannot simply be removed,” according to an FDA fact sheet.
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Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. is showing off its new jet — known as the MRJ — at the Paris Air Show this week. The 92-passenger plane promises to reshape regional flying in the U.S. and upend a market long dominated by Canada’s Bombardier (BDRAF) and Embraer (ERJ) of Brazil.
But the MRJ is less of a revolution than an evolution of a familiar package: two engines, two wings, and a slightly roomier cabin than its competition. It does have one unmistakable feature, though — a sharply aerodynamic nose that resembles some of Japan’s famous bullet trains.
Here’s Mitsubishi’s pitch to airlines: This plane will save you money by using 20% less fuel thanks to its all-new aerodynamic design and a pair of advanced engines.
Those features can help open new short routes that aren’t profitable with an older generation aircraft today. The MRJ’s new Pratt & Whitney engines also mean less noise and lower emissions, allowing it to fly in and out of tightly restricted airports.
The MRJ with its eye-catching nose on display at the Paris Air Show.
Test flights over the U.S.
The Japanese jet won’t be carrying regular passengers until 2020. But for the next few years, the MRJ fleet will be flying over the U.S.
There’s not enough open sky in Japan to test the new airliner, so Mitsubishi has set up shop in eastern Washington state to put its current fleet of four test aircraft through their paces.
Related: Boeing takes a swing at Airbus with bigger 737 Max
While it’s built in Nagoya, Japan, the MRJ is a global collaboration.
Half of the jet’s parts are made by U.S. manufacturers. Its avionics come from Rockwell Collins (COL), for example, and its engines from Pratt & Whitney. That means the plane is supporting manufacturing and engineering jobs in both countries.
Japan’s All Nippon Airways will be the first to fly the MRJ. But about 80% of the plane’s more than 400 orders and commitments come from U.S. regional airlines that fly for Delta (DAL), American (AAL) and United (UAL).
Mitsubishi joins the big leagues
The huge Japanese conglomerate behind the MRJ, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHVYF), has been making complex parts for plane makers like Boeing for decades.
In the 2000s, it decided it wanted to go further. Mitsubishi set out to prove it could design and build an entire aircraft itself, weaving all the different pieces of a design together — a skill few nations have developed.
Related: What to expect at the Paris Air Show
"We’re setting the foundation of a new industry in Japan," said Alex Bellamy, the 37-year-old head of MRJ’s program office who joined Mitsubishi from Bombardier last year.
The MRJ was originally supposed to start flying passengers in 2013, but didn’t get airborne until 2015. And in 2016, Mitsubishi discovered its own inexperience was causing major headaches.
The MRJ making its first test flight over Japan in 2015.
Cascading problems
It needed to rearrange something as apparently simple as a cabinet of electronics equipment. But one small change would cause another, cascading across the jet. It would eventually force Mitsubishi to redesign miles and miles of the jet’s wiring. Two more years would be required to sort everything out, pushing its passenger debut to 2020.
"This was a big wake up call to the program," Bellamy said in a recent interview. "When you stumble across something as complicated as this that has such a major program impact, it would negligent of us not to stop and think."
Related: Japan’s first passenger jet delayed by another 2 years
So Mitsubishi pressed pause and went out in search of young and ambitious experts like Bellamy who had worked on recent new aircraft programs in the U.S., Europe and Canada. They re-checked every part of the plane.
Thirteen of its program leaders now hail from 10 different countries. And many top engineers and managers are under 40.
Mitsubishi believes it’s getting back on track now, but there are still big tests to go that could reveal issues. And despite all the MRJ’s struggles, its rivals aren’t being complacent.
"It’s a new competitor," Embraer CEO Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva said in an interview Monday. "We take them very seriously."
CNNMoney (Paris) First published June 20, 2017: 2:44 AM ET
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