Feb 20
Feb 19
A loophole in Google’s popular Chrome browser which enables websites to not only detect but block users who access their sites through the browser’s Incognito mode is going to be fixed. Many users rely on the mode to not store local records of their browsing history. Websites are also prevented from tracking the user with cookies when they’re in Incognito mode.
9to5Google reports that future versions of the Chrome browser are going to address the issue which enables websites to block users that may be accessing their sites with Chrome in Incognito mode.
Websites require the tracking data for ad revenue and that’s one major reason why some sites prevent users from accessing their content if they’re using Incognito mode, this includes websites like the MIT Technology Review. Sites try to identify such users with the “FileSystem” API which is disabled when Incognito mode is being used as it allows permanent files to be created.
Recent commits to Chromium’s source code suggest that the browser may soon begin tricking websites that the FireSystem API is always operational. It would thus close the loophole that allows them to identify visitors using Incognito mode. It would do that by creating a virtual file system in RAM which will get deleted at the end of the Incognito session. It’s expected that this functionality might be rolled out to the public with the stable version of Chrome 76 that’s due in a couple of months.
Chrome Loophole Which Enables Incognito Mode Blocking To Be Fixed
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Feb 19
The Democratic senator from New York was in Iowa City talking to voters about the 2020 election.
Feb 19
If you think you’ve collected all of the Transformers toys, think again. There’s one Transformers toy that’s missing from your collection. That’s because the Transformers Generations Collaborative: Ghostbusters Mash-Up, Ecto-1 Ectotron Figure is not available yet.
But you can pre-order it now from GameStop – with shipping starting this July. This is the Transformers/ Ghostbusters mashup you never knew you needed until now. The iconic Ecto-1 Cadillac from the 1984 Ghostbusters movie is now a Transformers robot called “Ectotron.” The 7-inch long figure comes with his own Proton Pack accessory and a Slimer accessory. It converts between Ecto-1 and robot modes in 22 steps. This piece has some great detail and is going to look amazing in your collection whether you display it in Ecto-1 mode or as a robot. I prefer the car to the robot myself.
Who ya gonna call? Hasbro apparently. Now if we could only transform the Ghostbusters reboot into something decent, life would be perfect. Can you help with that Hasbro? I wish you could. But this is a start to helping me forget about it.
[via Geekologie]
Feb 19
For the first time later this week, a privately developed moon lander will launch aboard a privately built rocket, organized by a private launch coordinator. It’s an historic moment in space and the Israeli mission stands to make history again if it touches down on the Moon’s surface as planned on April 11.
The Beresheet (“Genesis”) program was originally conceived as an entry into the ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful Google Lunar Xprize in 2010, which challenged people to accomplish a lunar landing, with $30 million in prizes as the incentive. The prize closed last year with no winner but as these Xprize competitions aim to do, it had already spurred great interest and investment in a private moon mission.
SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries worked together on the mission, which will bring cameras, a magnetometer, and a capsule filled with items from the country to, hopefully, a safe rest on the lunar surface.
The Beresheet lander ahead of packaging for launch.
The launch plan as of now (these things do change with weather, technical delays, and so on) is for takeoff at 5:45 Pacific time on Thursday — 8:45 PM in Cape Canaveral — aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. A live stream should be available shortly before, which I’ll add here later or in a new post.
30 minutes after takeoff the payload will detach and make contact with mission control, then begin the process of closing the distance to the Moon, during which time it will circle the Earth six times.
Russia, China, and of course the U.S. are the only ones ever to successfully land on the Moon; China’s Chang’e 4 lander was the first to soft-land (as opposed to impact) the “dark” (though really only far — it’s often light) side and is currently functional.
But although there has been one successful private lunar flyby mission (the Manfred Memorial probe) no one but a major country has ever touched down. If Beresheet is a success it would be both the first Israeli moon mission and the first private mission to do so. It would also be the first lunar landing to be accomplished with a privately built rocket, and the lightest spacecraft on the Moon, and at around $100M in costs, the cheapest as well.
Landing on the Moon is, of course, terribly difficult. Just as geosynchronous orbit is far more difficult than low Earth orbit, a lunar insertion orbit is even harder, a stable such orbit even harder, and accomplishing a controlled landing on target even harder than that. The only thing more difficult would be to take off again and return to Earth, as Apollo 11 did in 1969 and other missions several times after. Kind of amazing when you think about it.
Seattle’s Spaceflight coordinated the launch, and technically Beresheet is the secondary payload; the primary is the Air Force Research Labs’ S5 experimental satellite, which the launch vehicle will take to geosynchronous orbit after the lunar module detaches.
Although Beresheet may very well be the first, it will likely be the first of many: other contenders in the Lunar Xprize, as well as companies funded or partnering with NASA and other space agencies, will soon be making their own attempts at making tracks in the regolith.
Feb 19
If you have a soft spot for the Logitech MX518, then here’s a bit of good news: Logitech is reviving the famous gaming mouse and outfitting it with some new hardware. Logitech says that its fans – many of whom consider the MX518 to be “the finest gaming mouse of all time” – have been asking the company to bring … Continue reading
Feb 19
Earlier today, President Donald Trump signed a directive to create the Space Force, what will become the sixth branch of the U.S. military—but the new branch will be placed under the purview of the U.S. Air Force, rather than being a separate and autonomous branch, as the president had initially hoped.
Feb 19
Last summer, voice actor Vic Mignogna went into a booth with a few others to record audio for a video game. At one point, Mignogna asked the client, who was overseeing the session, if she was okay with his performance. When she didn’t answer right away, he followed up with: “You know the old Latin—or is it Greek?…
Feb 19
“Just as we’ve done in ages past, the…
Feb 19
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