TWeaK
@TWeaK@lemm.ee
- Comment on Surprise! Nintendo Tracked Down Alleged Switch Pirate in Arizona via Reddit Posts and Repair Orders 1 month ago:
I still have one that isn’t paywalled (gratis) but I don’t think it’s had any new games in a while. I hardly ever play on it though and haven’t kept up much.
- Comment on Palworld Developer Reveals The Pokémon Patents Nintendo Claims It's Violating 1 month ago:
Looking it up, Palworld was announced in 2021, but not released (under early access) until 2024. However they were apparently designing the game back in 2020, if not earlier.
- Comment on GitHub projects targeted with malicious commits to frame researcher 1 month ago:
When accessed by BleepingComputer, however, the link returned a 404 (Not Found), and according to several others who tried to access the URL, no content ever existed at the location from the beginning.
This really doesn’t mean anything, it’s not unheard of for malicious actors to not set up their C&C servers until later on. This has actually been exploited by law enforcement in other cases also, they simply registered the domain themselves and took control away ahead of the attacker.
There’s a risk with setting up the C&C that it could be traced back to the attackers. By not setting it up until it’s needed you avoid that risk until it becomes necessary.
- Comment on Palworld Developer Reveals The Pokémon Patents Nintendo Claims It's Violating 1 month ago:
Obviously this depends on the exact details of the patents, which are all in Japanese, as well as the specifics of Japanese patent laws.
However, patents only last for 20 years, and they are undermined by public disclosure before filing. The first Pokemon game came out more than 20 years ago. However^2 not all of the features in the patents were present in the original games. All 3 patents were first filed in 2021, well after many of these features were established.
The first patent is about aiming something and entering into a fight mode. This wasn’t in the original game. Aiming at enemies and entering a fight mode almost certainly existed before Pokemon (Final Fantasy perhaps). Furthermore, Palworld doesn’t really have a fight mode - it isn’t a turn based game but real time. Throwing a sphere is just one way to start a “battle” but there is no mode change between “explore” and “battle” modes because they are functionally the same in Palworld. Pokemon Go and Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, which were all around in 2018, would seem to amount to public disclosure that undermines this patent.
The second patent has more detail about catching Pokemon outside of battles. This might have some elements of Palworld gameplay in it. However, again we have prior art that predates the patent.
The third patent is about riding characters. This has certainly existed in other games before Pokemon and before this patent. Off the top of my head, World of Warcraft had you riding mounts, Final Fantasy had you riding Chocobos, and Mega Man let you ride Rush.
However the big issue with all of these is that these challenges are always better off done before the patent is granted. With the patents established it is a massive uphill struggle trying to get them withdrawn. Given that each charge is only for $33,000, so about $100,000 total, I expect a settlement will be reached instead of going on this fight.
- Comment on Surprise! Nintendo Tracked Down Alleged Switch Pirate in Arizona via Reddit Posts and Repair Orders 1 month ago:
Yeah I read this article on another post, I’m not sure that’s the whole story.
From what I remember, he was running a few “shops”. These don’t actually sell games, but they can be accessed by a piece of homebrew software on the switch, and then you connect to the “shop” to download games directly to the device - this was done instead of manually copying install files to the SD card, installing, and then deleting the original files to save space; or instead of installing over USB. The shops were much easier, not least because removing the SD card to copy games from a PC required a reboot, and rebooting an OG hacked Switch could be kind of a pain.
I think the “sales” he did were actually just donations that got you early access to titles that weren’t widely available yet. However, it’s generally when you start taking money for these things that the shit hits the fan and the hammer comes down.
- Comment on wild seals 1 month ago:
- Comment on wild seals 1 month ago:
- Comment on xkcd #2992: UK Coal 2 months ago:
Except that the UK taxed all its locally produced coal so much that it was cheaper to import more dirty coal from China than use fresh, relatively clean coal excavated from Wales. If a power station wanted to use Chinese coal, they only had to pay import duty. But if they wanted to use cleaner Welsh coal they had to pay taxes on the extraction, refinement and then the same export tax they levied everywhere else. Welsh coal was some of the highest quality in the world, but it was exported and more toxic stuff burned locally because that was more profitable.
- Comment on Stupid ass star 3 months ago:
It’s one of the OG ones, ass-car: xkcd.com/37/
- Comment on I'm the developer of WalkScape, the RuneScape inspired fitness MMORPG where you progress by walking IRL. We're now accepting more people to the Closed Beta! 3 months ago:
Booo, someone already stole my username :(
- Comment on 3D printer maker Bambu Lab faces patent infringement lawsuits that could threaten hobbyist 3D printing in general 4 months ago:
Almost not surprising. Inventors and R&D businesses patent things all the time, then it takes a while to claim them. There was a guy in Australia who apparently invented WiFi (he calls it “wiffey”) and he successfully asserted his patent against WiFi manufacturers worldwide such that they paid him a couple pennies in royalties for every chip manufactured.
The saving grace is that patents only last for 20 years. After that, anyone can use the design, like Gillette’s double edged safety razor (which is why their modern razors are so silly and change every few years).
- Comment on Technically Correct 4 months ago:
It’s because all the shops inside want you to buy their shit.
- Comment on BrewDog abandons its pledge to be 'carbon negative' in latest crisis 5 months ago:
Yep. There’s a good BBC documentary podcast about it.
- Comment on Shopping app Temu is “dangerous malware,” spying on your texts, lawsuit claims 5 months ago:
Erm, WhatsApp would suggest otherwise.
WhatsApp was the vector for zero click access to a target’s phone from Israel’s weapons grade hacking Pegasus toolkit. They would send a video call, typically in the middle of the night, and with no input from the used they’d get full access. My personal belief is that they used functionality WhatsApp itself uses to access user data.
There was also an encrypted phone called ANOM, which had this trick calculator app with a hidden encrypted messager. “Made for criminals, by criminals”. Except, when the guy started his business he got investment from the FBI and Australian Federal Police to pay for the servers and some of the phones themselves. Basically every time it sent an encrypted message it sent a separate encrypted message to the ANOM servers. It’s entirely possible (perhaps even likely) that WhatsApp would do this also.
As for Google, they’re truly insidious. Lots of banks now require you to connect to Google captcha servers - they don’t give you the pictures, it’s just the back end, basically the tracking parts. Then there’s the controversy about them collecting location data when users have said no. They absolutely do collect data they shouldn’t.
- Comment on Dangerous? Signal Blasts Google Effort to Use AI to Scan for Scam Phone Calls 7 months ago:
But downloading an app won’t install it as a system app.
- Comment on I thought umm.. 7 months ago:
Those are some strange panties.
- Comment on TikTok wants to be YouTube now, tests 60-minute video uploads 7 months ago:
Hasn’t Telegram always been a Russian asset?
- Comment on Dangerous? Signal Blasts Google Effort to Use AI to Scan for Scam Phone Calls 7 months ago:
It’s available on all phones, but they all have their own version, forked from long ago. Even the standard AOSP Phone app has long split from Google (who have ceased open source development of the app).
- Comment on Dangerous? Signal Blasts Google Effort to Use AI to Scan for Scam Phone Calls 7 months ago:
I feel like this would require cooperation from the manufacturer, as Google doesn’t actually provide the Phone app (except when they are the manufacturer).
- Comment on Marvels Rivals requires creators to sign a contract that removes your right to give a negative review to access the playtest 7 months ago:
Yeah, I think they normally do full embargoes for that exact reason.
- Comment on Marvels Rivals requires creators to sign a contract that removes your right to give a negative review to access the playtest 7 months ago:
Well normally they just tell you you aren’t allowed to talk about the game period. This is a slightly relaxed position from that stance.
- Comment on That one band... 7 months ago:
Completely aside but Diego Luna (the actor who plays Andor) always looks like :<
- Comment on [deleted] 7 months ago:
Moderators don’t own the community, but they own the community address - they have absolute control over it and can set the rules. If the community don’t like that, they’re free to move to a new address and make their own, with blackjack and hookers, etc.
The admin owns the instance, which in turn can overrule the moderators. If the community don’t like that, they’re free to move to a new instance, with blackjack and hookers, etc.
Basically the whole system was set up so everyone will eventually have blackjack and hookers.
- Comment on [deleted] 8 months ago:
Back in my day it was just boob edits.
- Comment on Tech brands are forcing AI into your gadgets—whether you asked for it or not 8 months ago:
Data collection is theft. Every one of us is being robbed at least $50 per year. That’s how Facebook and Google are worth billions.
- Comment on Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem. As electricity prices go negative, the Golden State is struggling to offload a glut of solar power 8 months ago:
Yes I’m aware of that, and even quite fond of it, but it’s very dependent on geography (as you need a very large body of water so you can’t really just use a water tower) and also incredibly expensive. There are generally more effective and profitable uses for land.
Meanwhile BESS is tiny, something like 30MW per acre.
- Comment on Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem. As electricity prices go negative, the Golden State is struggling to offload a glut of solar power 8 months ago:
They keep it in line by curtailing or switching off generation. The generator typically still gets paid as if it were generating whatever it has available, which is perhaps an issue, but the total generation is reduced to meet the demand.
This is why there is negative pricing, it’s cheaper to sell electricity in the negative than to pay a generator to be offline.
They can’t direct excess generation to batteries if the batteries aren’t there yet. They’re being installed, but the overall capacity is still relatively low. Transferring it to other grids also has limits, and in particular if there’s an excess of solar in one region the neighbouring regions also probably have an excess, so there really is no other option but to curtail.
- Comment on Brb 8 months ago:
I don’t think so, it also includes at least 4 trackers.
- Comment on Brb 8 months ago:
WhoBIRD has been working well for me. Doesn’t have the visual ID stuff that Merlin has, but it’s FOSS and identifies by sound, based on location and time of year.
Granted, I don’t know enough to know when it’s wrong, and I bet it’s not great for identifying rare birds, but it’s fun.
- Comment on Netflix Doc ‘What Jennifer Did’ Uses AI Images to Create False Historical Record 8 months ago:
Paywall :/