Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the moving-forward department: Plumpaquatsch writes: Investigators teamed up with colleagues from the Balkans and Lebanon in raids set up by months of intense surveillance. Authorities say the operation thwarted over 10 million euro in damages and led to 21 arrests.
Dubbed 'Operation Pandora,' the sting began in Germany in December 2023, after a suspicious bank teller contacted police when a 76-year-old customer from Freiburg sought to hurriedly withdraw 120,000 euro ($128,232) from her savings account to hand over to a fake police officer. When real police investigators tracked the internet-based telephone number that had been used to lure the woman, they discovered a veritable goldmine.
Rather than shutting down the number, authorities instead went on the offensive, setting up their own call center in which hundreds of officers from Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin and Saxony worked around the clock monitoring some 1.3 million calls in real time, as the number from the initial scam was tied to an entire network of fraud call centers. Police were able to trace and record data from the calls, as well as warn potential victims of what was in fact happening, in turn winning valuable time to put together the April 18 sting. Police say their efforts allowed them to thwart some 10 million euro in damages in roughly 6,000 cases of attempted fraud.
Posted by Black Convoy from TFW2005
Via
Tmo Hobbies Store Facebook (China based), we have our first in-package look a the new Hot Wheels x Transformers G1 Bumblebee Car. While
we had some images of the toy itself some days ago, now we finally have a closer look at a carded item. This figure will be part of the 2024 Hot Wheels mainline K case. Time to get ready to hunt this Bee. Update: Via
WS Mart Diecast on YouTube, we have additional in-card images plus an image of the case assortment. Also, friend site and sponsor
Entertainment Earth has got a listing of the Hot Wheels » Continue Reading. The post
Hot Wheels x Transformers G1 Bumblebee Car In-Package Image & Additional Information appeared first on
Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the oops department: samleecole writes: Utah set up an online form for people to accuse other citizens and public establishments of violating the state's recently-enacted transphobic "bathroom bill." The submission form is being flooded with memes and troll comments, and the auditor also left the submissions database open to the public -- without a password, authentication, or any other protections that would keep anyone from viewing other people's submissions.
After 404 Media contacted the auditor's office for comment, they changed the permissions to require authentication. The form link has been posted to Twitter, and people have repeatedly posted screenshots of themselves uploading memes. In the database, those included photos of Barry Wood, characters from Bee Movie, and Shutterstock images of bull testicles. Twitter users have also found a link to the database that the form is connected to, which is hosted on a public Google cloud console bucket that as of Thursday, required no authentication to view. I tested the form, and found that my submission -- a photo of the yelling table cat meme -- appeared instantly in the Google Console bucket. The submission form offers anonymity with the option for the state auditor to contact submitters for more details. I haven't seen names and contact information shared in the database, but comments and image attachments were easily viewable.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the riding-on-the-walls department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Hyundai has agreed to spend nearly $1 billion on Motional, an investment that will give the automaker a majority stake while providing the self-driving startup with the necessary capital to keep operating. The Korean automaker invested $475 million directly into Motional as part of a broader deal that includes buying out joint venture partner Aptiv. As part of the deal, Hyundai will spend another $448 million to buy 11% of Aptiv's common equity interest in Motional, according to information revealed Thursday in Aptiv's first-quarter earnings report.
Aptiv also shared that it expects to reduce its common equity interest in Motional from 50% as of March 31 to about 15%, leaving Hyundai with the remaining 85% control. Aptiv Chairman and CEO Kevin Clark flagged in January that the company would reduce its ownership interest in Motional. The company said at the time that it would stop allocating capital towards Motional due to the high cost of commercializing a robotaxi business and the long road ahead to profits. Aptiv on Thursday reduced its full-year net sales forecast for 2024 to be between $20.85 billion and $21.45 billion, down from between $21.3 billion to $21.9 billion. Motional confirmed the new funding round and increased stake from Hyundai, but didn't confirm Aptiv's numbers. Hyundai, however, said the amounts listed in Aptiv's earnings report were accurate. "Motional started as Boston-based autonomous vehicle startup nuTonomy in 2013, before being acquired by Delphi for $450 million," reports TechCrunch. "Delphi would later split it's business with the Aptiv unit absorbing nuTonomy. The entity became Motional under a $4 billion Hyundai-Aptiv joint venture in 2019."
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the years-in-the-making department: "Aamrok 3.0, ported to Qt5/KDE Frameworks 5, has been released," writes Slashdot reader serafean. "With the heavy lifting being done, the Qt6/KF6 version is expected later in the year." Originally developed for Linux as part of the KDE desktop environment, Amarok is a free, cross-platform music player that supports various audio formats and a user interface that can be tailored to individual preferences. These are the main features/changes, as highlighted in a KDE blog post: FEATURES:
- Added a visual hint that context view applets can be resized in edit mode.
- Display missing metadata errors in Wikipedia applet UI.
- Add a button to stop automatic Wikipedia page updating. (BR 485813)
CHANGES:
- Replace defunct lyricwiki with lyrics.ovh as lyrics provider for now. (BR 455937)
- Show only relevant items in wikipedia applet right click menu (BR 323941), use monobook skin for opened links and silently ignore non-wikipedia links.
- Don't show non-functional play mode controls in dynamic mode (BR 287055) The changelog is available here. You can find the package on download.kde.org.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the always-connected department: Aria Alamalhodaei reports via TechCrunch: Hubble Network has become the first company in history to establish a Bluetooth connection directly to a satellite -- a critical technology validation for the company, potentially opening the door to connecting millions more devices anywhere in the world. The Seattle-based startup launched its first two satellites to orbit on SpaceX's Transporter-10 ride-share mission in March; since that time, the company confirmed that it has received signals from the onboard 3.5mm Bluetooth chips from over 600 kilometers away.
The sky is truly the limit for space-enabled Bluetooth devices: the startup says its technology can be used in markets including logistics, cattle tracking, smart collars for pets, GPS watches for kids, car inventory, construction sites, and soil temperature monitoring. Haro said the low-hanging fruit is those industries that are desperate for network coverage even once per day, like remote asset monitoring for the oil and gas industry. As the constellation scales, Hubble will turn its attention to sectors that may need more frequent updates, like soil monitoring, to continuous coverage use cases like fall monitoring for the elderly. Once its up and running, a customer would simply need to integrate their devices' chipsets with a piece of firmware to enable connection to Hubble's network.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Dragonflight Hotfixes - May 2, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Classes
Druid
Feral
Fixed an issue preventing Smoldering Frenzy (Season 4 (2) Set Bonus) from triggering effects like Seal of Diurna’s Chosen.
Dungeons and Raids
Algeth’ar Academy
Echo of Doragosa
Arcane Rift now spawns Uncontrolled Energy 20% less frequently.
Overwhelming Power now spawns Arcane Rift at 4 stacks (was 3).
The Nokhud Offensive
Addressed an issue where the rim visual on Static Spear and Crackling Upheaval can disappear under certain situations.
Items
Fixed an issue that prevented Eye of Awakening from functioning on rings purchased from Antique Bronze Bullion vendors.
Fixed an issue that prevented Tiered Medallion Setting from functioning on necklaces purchased from Antique Bronze Bullion vendors.
Rings and necklaces purchased from Bullion vendors should now be eligible for socket upgrades. This fix is retroactive.
Non-player Characters
Vaskarn in the Emerald Dream no longer erroneously mentions that they can upgrade your gear with the use of Flightstones. Vaskarn in Valdrakken is unchanged.
Quests
While Time Rifts are empowered, Cache of Embers will now be awarded once per character per week from the quest for defeating a Time Rift Boss.
Prince Farondis drank his Conjured Protein Shakes and bulked up, allowing players to complete “Save Yourself”.
Cataclysm Classic Hotfixes - May 2, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Cataclysm Classic
< This article continues on their website >
As far as superheroes on film go, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is one of the most iconic portrayals of a comic book character ever. From the first X-Men movie in 2000 to 2017’s Logan, Jackman was synonymous with the character until he hung up the claws. But the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine sees him convinced to pick them… 
I’m having a great time with Stellar Blade, the new character action game from developer Shift Up that launched as a PS5 exclusive on April 26. As I embark on a second playthrough thanks to New Game Plus, I fall ever more in love with the combat, the story, and the world. I’m also finding more and more outfits for our… 
Loot Reborn is being positioned as Diablo IV’s most important update since launch. While a bit shorter than most seasons and seemingly lighter on new story content and activities, the underlying rework of the action-RPG’s loot chase and end game grind has players excited. Blizzard recently published the full patch… 
Among the myriad scourges that make playing games in 2024 so tiresome, the need for multiple different accounts to various services ranks high. Helldivers 2 players have just been told by Sony that come next week, they’ll have to link their Steam account with a PlayStation Network account, something it’s been working… 
Hyundai Spending Nearly $1 Billion To Keep Self-Driving Startup 'Motional' Alive 2024-05-03 06:45:01
