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Silk Road founder is sentenced to two life terms without parole

May29
by on May 29, 2015 at 9:52 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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Ross Ulbricht, convicted founder of the Silk Road online drug marketplace, was sentenced by a US federal judge to two life prison terms without parole. He also received several other sentences for convictions on lesser charges and was ordered to forfeit $184 million of the $187 million his site made before it was shut down two years ago. Ulbricht was convicted of trafficking drugs on the internet, and conspiracy for narcotics-trafficking, computer-hacking, money-laundering and running a criminal enterprise which generated some $1.2 billion in illegal bitcoin-based drug transactions. The sentence exceeds the 20-year mandatory minimum for the crimes, despite the defendant’s…

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US reportedly tried to destroy North Korea’s nuclear program with a Stuxnet-type virus

May29
by on May 29, 2015 at 8:33 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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It was five years ago and it ended in failure. But the details are trickling out now about how the US tried to infect North Korea’s nuclear weapons program with a version of the Stuxnet computer virus. A Reuters report has it that the operation took place around the same time as a more successful attack on the Iranian nuclear program that demolished some 1000 uranium enriching centrifuges. A related virus targeted North Korean computers, but was thwarted by that government’s secrecy and the extreme isolation surrounding its communication networks. Whereas in North Korea you need police permission to even…

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GifLab brings super-simple GIF creation to your iPhone

May29
by on May 29, 2015 at 7:22 pm
Posted In: animated gifs, Apps, Around the Web, gifs

GifLab
With Facebook finally rolling out support for GIFs, now’s the perfect time for you to up your GIF game. Thankfully, a new app that’s ideal for creating DIY animated snaps has arrived. That app is GifLab, and it claims to be the “easiest way to create GIFs on your iOS device”. Created by Museworks, GifLab lets you snap new footage or use existing video and quickly turn it into a shareable GIF. You can also apply a range of filters, impose text and place emoji over your creations. The apps super easy user interface also lets you tweak both the speed and quality of the resulting file…

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Google’s new Cardboard experiences convinced me VR is here to stay

May29
by on May 29, 2015 at 6:45 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google, Insider

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I have a confession: unlike my fellow tech reporters, I’ve never been totally convinced virtual reality was much more than a fad. Not that I don’t want it to succeed. I’ve lusted over the Oculus Rift, marveled at Microsoft’s HoloLens from afar, and had fun with the original Cardboard, but content has seemed too scarce, inconvenient, or uninteresting outside of solo gaming. Google’s VR push at this year’s I/O has started to convince me otherwise – the new Jump and Expeditions experiences in particular. The New Cardboard Before we get to that, there’s that new Cardboard device. The hardware isn’t…

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Hands-on with Google Photos: Brand new app is impressive, but the service is not unique

May29
by on May 29, 2015 at 6:39 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google

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One of the more popular announcements of yesterday’s Google I/O keynote was the immediate launch of Google Photos. This online photo service, which the company severed from its Google+ social network, was rolled out as a brand new photo app for Android, iOS and the Web. It is designed to provide a place for all your photos and videos to reside, help you organize and get creative with your photos and share and save the ones that are meaningful to you. An auto backup and syncing option is also available. With Google Photos, you can back up and store an unlimited number of high-quality photos and videos for…

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