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Portions of Twitter's source code were reportedly leaked online

In yet another embarrassing development for new Twitter boss Elon Musk, court filings published Friday reveal that portions of the social media site's source code — the base programming that makes Twitter possible — have been leaked online, the New York Times reports.Per court filings, Twitter claimed copyright infringement in an effort to have the offending code taken down from the Github collaborative programming network, where it had been posted. While the code was removed the same day, details as to how long the code had been left up were not made available, nor were the leak's scope or depth. As part of the takedown request reminiscent of Raytheon's famous -- failed -- attempt at court-sanctioned doxxing, Twitter also asked the US District Court for the Northern District of California to order Github to reveal both the identity of the user who posted the code and those who accessed and downloaded it. The NYT reports that, per sources within the company privy to the internal investigation into the leak, Twitter executives strongly suspect it's the work of a disgruntled employee who had left, "within the last year." Coincidentally, Elon Musk purchased Twitter last October for the eye-watering price of $44 billion...
Netflix strikes last-minute deal to retain ‘Arrested Development’ streaming rights

Good news, Arrested Development fans. You can continue watching the highly acclaimed sitcom on Netflix. As The Verge outlines, all five seasons of the show, including the two financed by Netflix, were set to leave the service on March 15th. However, the series is now staying put, thanks to a licensing agreement the company reached with Disney-owned 20th Century Fox, the show’s original rights holder.The Bluths aren’t going anywhere! Arrested Development is staying on Netflix! And there’s only one way to celebrate: pic.twitter.com/NlrSoBYk8t— Netflix (@netflix) March 24, 2023According to Vulture, the new deal will see Netflix gain exclusive streaming rights to the series. As a result, the show’s first three seasons will not be available to watch on Hulu as of later this year. Notably, the deal reportedly gives Disney the option to sell the linear TV rights for all five seasons of Arrested Development. That means the show could end up on network television, much like BoJack Horseman did in 2018. Losing Arrested Development would have been a tough blow for Netflix. After Fox canceled the series in 2006, it found a home on the streaming service and was one of its early draws. It was also one of...
Elon Musk reportedly values Twitter at $20 billion

Elon Musk values Twitter at about $20 billion, according to an email seen by The Information and The New York Times. Musk shared the valuation, a significant drop from the $44 billion he paid to buy the company last fall, in a memo he sent to Twitter employees on Friday announcing a new stock compensation program. The billionaire reportedly warned Twitter’s significantly diminished workforce that the website was still in a precarious financial position. “Twitter is being reshaped rapidly,” he wrote, adding the company had, at one point, been four months away from running out of cash.Comp increases will be based on X Corp stock. Current grants are based on a $20b valuation. Musk says he sees a “clear but difficult path” to $250 billion valuation which would mean current grants could 10x. 3/— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) March 25, 2023According to Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer, Musk additionally told employees he sees a “clear but difficult path” to a $250 billion valuation, a hypothetical outcome that would make the company’s current stock grants worth 10 times as much in the future. Musk said Twitter would allow staff to sell stock every six months, a policy similar to one in place at SpaceX....
EU agrees to allow sales of e-fuel internal combustion engine cars past 2035

The European Union has agreed to make a carveout for synthetic fuels in its proposed 2035 ban on the sale of new combustion engine cars. Per the Associated Press, the bloc made a deal with Germany on Saturday to allow automakers to sell new ICE cars past 2035, provided those vehicles run on climate-neutral fuels only. The agreement ends a dispute that had threatened to scuttle the EU’s signature climate change policy. At the start of March, the European Parliament delayed a vote that would have codified the proposed ban after Germany, with support from automakers, said it would not back the mandate without an exemption for synthetic fuels.We have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of efuels in cars. We will work now on getting the CO2-standards for cars regulation adopted as soon as possible, and the Commission will follow-up swiftly with the necessary legal steps to implement recital 11.— Frans Timmermans (@TimmermansEU) March 25, 2023“We have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of e-fuels in cars,” Frans Timmermans, the executive vice president of European Green Deal, posted to Twitter on Saturday. “We will work now on getting the CO2 standards for cars...
Epic made a Rivian R1T demo to show off its latest Unreal Engine 5 tools

In 2020, Epic Games publicly demoed Unreal Engine 5 for the first time. Nearly three years later, gamers are still waiting for the tech to go mainstream. Outside of Fortnite and The Matrix Awakens, there aren’t any UE5 games you can play right now, and the first salvo probably won’t arrive until the end of the year at the earliest. None of that stopped Epic from showcasing the engine’s latest capabilities with a handful of new demos during its recent State of Unreal keynote at GDC 2023.Arguably the most impressive one saw Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 developer Ninja Theory show off Epic’s new MetaHuman Animator. The tool promises to make realistic facial capture accessible to indie developers by allowing them to use an iPhone, instead of dedicated equipment, to capture facial performances. As you can see from the two demos Epic shared, the tool makes it possible to quickly and accurately transform a closeup video of an actor into something a studio can use in-game. Epic said the animator would launch this summer.Separately, Epic showed off some of the enhancements coming to Unreal Engine 5.2 with a demo that featured, of all things, a digital recreation of Rivian’s R1T electric...
Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 Wireless headphones are cheaper than ever

One of Engadget’s favorite pair of noise-canceling headphones is on sale at Amazon. After a nearly $85 discount, you can get the Sennheiser Momentum 4 for $265. If you’re not fussy about color, the white model is an additional $6 off. Either way, that’s a new all-time low for Sennheiser’s flagship Bluetooth headphones.Engadget Senior Editor Billy Steele awarded the Momentum 4 a score of 82. He came away with their audio quality, noting they were among the best-sounding Bluetooth headphones he tested in 2022. Also impressive was their ANC performance and battery life. With noise cancellation turned on, Steele found he could get up to 60 hours of playtime on a single charge. That’s double what most noise-canceling headphones offer. If you don’t mind the Momentum 4’s somewhat forgettable design, they’re a great pair of headphones. I'll also note here Amazon has a handful of other Sennheiser products on sale, including the company's excellent HD 599 SE headphones. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sennheisers-momentum-4-wireless-headphones-are-cheaper-than-ever-151139441.html?src=rss
Hitting the Books: How the 'Godfather of Cybercrime' got his start on eBay

The internet has connected nearly everybody on the planet to a global network of information and influence, enabling humanity's best and brightest minds unparalleled collaborative capabilities. At least that was the idea, more often than not these days, it serves as a popular medium for scamming your more terminally-online relatives out of large sums of money. Just ask Brett Johnson, a reformed scam artist who at his rube-bilking pinnacle, was good at separating fools from their cash that he founded an entire online learning forum to train a new generation of digital scam artist.Johnson's cautionary tale in one of many in the new book, Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry, from Harvard Business Review Press. In it, Professor of Forensic Accounting at DePaul University, Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope, chronicles some of the 20th and 21st century's most heinous financial misdeeds — from Bernie Madoff's pyramid schemes to Enron and VW, and all the Nigerian Princes in between — exploring how the grifts worked and why they often left their marks none the wiser.Harvard Business Review PressReprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press. Excerpted from Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the...
Microsoft releases fix for Windows 11 screenshot privacy bug

Microsoft has released a pair of emergency updates to address the “aCropalypse” security flaw found within its native Windows 10 and 11 screenshot editing apps. As Bleeping Computer reports, the company began testing a fix for the vulnerability earlier this week shortly after it was discovered by retired software engineer Chris Blume.On Friday evening,
Microsoft began rolling out public updates for Windows 11’s Snipping Tool as well as Windows 10’s Snip & Sketch app. You can manually prompt Windows to patch the app you use by opening the
Microsoft Store and clicking on “Library,” followed by “Get Updates.”
Microsoft recommends all users install the updates.The aCropalypse flaw was first discovered on Pixel devices, and subsequently addressed by Google in Android’s recent March security update. In the case of Windows 11’s Snipping Tool, it turned out the utility wasn’t properly overwriting cropped PNG data. The issue did not affect all PNG files, but the concern was that bad actors could exploit the vulnerability to partially recover edited images, particularly those that had been cropped to omit sensitive information. As with Google's March Android update, Microsoft's patches won't protect images that were previously created with its screenshot tools. This article originally appeared on Engadget...
Internet Archive violated publisher copyrights by lending ebooks, court rules

A federal judge has ruled against the Internet Archive in its high-profile case against a group of four US publishers led by Hachette Book Group. Per Reuters, Judge John G. Koeltl declared on Friday the nonprofit had infringed on the group’s copyrights by lending out digitally scanned copies of their books.The lawsuit originated from the Internet Archive’s decision to launch the “National Emergency Library” during the early days of the pandemic. The program saw the organization offer more than 1.4 million free ebooks, including copyrighted works, in response to libraries worldwide closing their doors due to coronavirus lockdown measures.Before March 2020, the Internet Archive’s Open Library program operated under what’s known as a “controlled digital lending” system, meaning there was often a waitlist to borrow a book from its collection. When the pandemic hit, the Internet Archive lifted those restrictions to make it easier for people to access reading material while stuck at home. The Copyright Alliance was quick to take issue with the effort. And in June 2020, Hachette, as well as HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and John Wiley & Sons, sued The Internet Archive, accusing the organization of enabling “willful mass copyright infringement.” That same month, the Internet...
Intel co-founder Gordon Moore has passed away

Gordon Moore, co-founder and former CEO of Intel, has passed away at 94. He was the last surviving member of the Intel Trinity, which also included his fellow founder Robert Noyce and their first hire Andy Grove. Moore and Noyce previously worked with the co-inventor of the transistor, William Shockley, before helping found Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1968, the two struck out on their own and founded NM Electronics, which eventually became Intel. A few years before that, in 1965, Moore wrote a paper that envisioned the miniaturization of computers. To be precise, he predicted that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every year, leading to the creation and production of smaller and more powerful chips that would, in turn, enable advancements in technology. His prediction was dubbed "Moore's Law," and it was proven accurate in the years that followed. By 1975, he adjusted his estimate for the doubling of transistors to every two years, though now top chipmakers disagree on whether Moore's Law still holds. In 1979, Moore was named chairman of the board and CEO at Intel before giving up the latter role in 1987. He apparently served as mediator between Noyce and Grove, and he and...

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