Archive.org Gets Knocked Off Internet By Protestors

Daily Tech News Show Briefing (Ad Free)

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Archive.org Gets Knocked Off Internet By Protestors

Tom Merritt

Oct 10, 2024

Transcript

It's Thursday, everyone,

I usually say "happy," but it's less happy today with the Archive.org DDoS attacks underway. That's the big story. But we also have new chips from Intel and Amazon selling you Apple TV+. Those two—remember when they used to hate each other?

Onward!

— Tom

Big Story

Internet Archive Hacked, Data Breach Impacts 31 Million Users

A malicious attacker compromised the Internet Archive's "Wayback Machine," leaving a popup to prove they had done it. Troy Hunt's "Have I Been Pwned" database, which helps users track if their information has appeared in a breach, said that database contents from the Internet Archive were shared publicly and include 31 million records with email addresses, screen names, password change timestamps, Bcrypt-hashed passwords, and other internal data as recent as September 28. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Internet Archive suffered a denial of service attack that was claimed to be done by a group advocating for Palestinian rights. The same group has taken credit for previous denial of service attacks against other organizations, like the UAE bank and the Internet Archive in May. That group claims it attacks the Archive because it "belongs to the USA." It is not believed that the denial of service attack is being conducted by the same people who executed the data breach.

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1996 with the goal of preserving internet history and making information freely available to all. The organization makes money from donations and some revenue from web-crawling services, with a budget of $37 million annually. It is designated as a library by the State of California, where it is headquartered.

Both these attacks on the Archive seem aimed at publicity and are, therefore, succeeding. The Archive is one of the least likely targets for any other reason. Unless maybe you are an intellectual property holder that has a beef with the Archive's maximalist interpretation of fair use.

Briefs

"Amazon Adds Apple TV+ to Its Channels Store for Streaming - Bloomberg"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-10/amazon-adds-apple-tv-to-its-channels-store-for-streaming-videos
"Apple TV Plus is coming to Prime Video - The Verge"
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/10/24266763/apple-tv-plus-amazon-prime-video-add-on-subscription
"DirecTV to Launch Free FAST Service"
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/directv-free-fast-ads-streaming-1236173322/

Amazon announced it will sell Apple TV+ as an add-on to its Amazon Prime Video feature. Amazon has more than 100 add-on channels like Max, Paramount+ and more. That leaves Netflix, Disney+ and Peacock as the major streaming platforms not available in Prime Video. This is another move in the continuing development of platforms that can manage your subscriptions in one place. Cable TV companies are also doing this, though generally they are offering multiple streaming services, along with traditional cable, for one price. Amazon charges per channel you add on.

To that end, it’s worth noting that DirecTV, which is in the process of merging with Dish next year, has said it wants to be the place people go to pay for all their streaming services in one place. It just announced it’s launching a FAST service - Free Ad-supported TV - called MyFree DirecTV on November 15 in the US.

"TikTok owner ByteDance unveils its first earbuds in China"
https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/tiktok-owner-bytedance-unveils-its-first-earbuds-in-china-143507603.html

Bytedance - the folks who own TikTok - have launched their Ola Friends earbuds in China for $170. The buds use Bytedance's generative voice assistant, Doubao. The Doubao app has 47 million monthly active users, making it the most popular generative chatbot app in China. The earbuds come from the Oladance company Bytedance acquired earlier this year. Pre-orders are open now, shipping October 17.

"Intel pins hopes on Arrow Lake desktop processor refresh • The Register"
https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/10/intel_arrow_lake_deep_dive/
"Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake H laptop chips will offer beefier GPUs for AI workloads"
https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/intels-upcoming-arrow-lake-h-laptop-chips-will-offer-beefier-gpus-for-ai-workloads-150021214.html?src=rss
"Intel's 15th-gen CPUs are all about power efficiency and thermals"
https://www.engadget.com/computing/intels-15th-gen-cpus-are-all-about-power-efficiency-and-thermals-150024246.html?src=rss

Intel's Arrow Lake desktop processors will arrive October 24. It's the first Intel desktop chip to integrate the Neural Processing Unit. TSMC is manufacturing the tiles for compute, graphics, I/O and the SoC, and Intel's own foundry packages the tiles into its Foveros 3D stacking packaging. So you may hear TSMC is making the chips, which is partly true, but they still come out of an Intel Foundry in the end.

The Lion Cove performance cores promise a 9 percent improvement over Raptor Lake. The Skymont efficiency cores are promising 32% performance increases and up to 72 percent for floating point over Gracemont. The GPU promises twice the performance of the previous version. Overall, Intel says the chip should use 40% less power than Raptor Lake. Intel also claims it will run on average about 13 degrees Celsius cooler during game loads.

There's a new socket called LGA 1851, which means new motherboards to support Arrow Lake and its Z890 chipset, though existing coolers should still work with the new motherboard. Depending on the maker, the motherboards can support USB4, Thunderbolt 4, WiFi 7 and 10 Gig ethernet. Prices range from $284 for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF up to $589 for the flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 285K on sale October 24. Intel also announced that its Core Ultra H and HX series for gaming laptops should arrive in Q1 with an emphasis on the GPU offering four times the AI workload and double the ray tracing, though the NPU will not pass Lunar Lake. So Arrow Lake H is for gaming and productivity, not AI. More details will likely be announced at CES.

"WordPress vs WP Engine battle gets stupid, with new login box"
https://9to5mac.com/2024/10/10/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-battle-gets-seriously-stupid-with-new-login-requirement/

Just keeping you up to date in the long and somewhat annoying dispute between WordPress's Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine. When registering a new account or logging into WordPress.org, users must click a checkbox to confirm they are not “affiliated with WP Engine in any way, financially or otherwise.”

"Sunderfolk is a couch co-op tactical RPG you play with a phone. No, really. - Ars Technica"
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/10/sunderfolk-is-a-couch-co-op-tactical-rpg-you-play-with-a-phone-no-really/

Blizzard veteran Chris Sigaty's Secret Door has released details about its upcoming mobile game, Sunderfolk. It's a turn-based tactical RPG you can play on a phone. It is by all accounts easy to set up for co-op, Kevin Purdy compares setup to Jackbox. It's meant to offer the experience of a tabletop game with friends, using your phones as controllers and connected to one main screen everyone can see. The game is due out in 2025 for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. It's being published by former Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime's Dreamhaven.

"Threshold’s Wi-Fi sensing plugs offer caregiver monitoring without cameras - The Verge"
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/10/24266406/threshold-wi-fi-sensing-plugs-motion-detection

We've talked on Daily Tech News Show about using radio wave detection to sense motion without having to put a camera on someone. Threshold Care is now selling Motion Wi-Fi Sensing Plugs that can monitor people for healthcare reasons without having to stream video of them. The plugs go into electric outlets and monitor WiFi interference caused by people moving about. That way you know when someone wakes up in the morning or if they get up in the middle of the night. They don't act as smart plugs. The plugs are available in a three-pack for $59.99.

"Someone claims to have used AI to apply to 2,843 jobs | TechCrunch"
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/10/a-reporter-used-ai-to-apply-to-2843-jobs/

404 Media reports that someone claims to have used a program called AI Hawk to submit job applications at a rate of 17 an hour until they had submitted a total of 2,843. The tool was able to navigate submission protocols to submit a bio, resume, customized cover letter and other paperwork requirements. TechCrunch reports that 42% of companies admit to using generative tools to screen applicants. So it seems fair that the applicants can use the tools too. You know, as long as there's a human at either end.

"China Detains Employees at Apple iPhone Factory Run by Foxconn - WSJ"
https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-detains-employees-at-apple-iphone-factory-run-by-foxconn-c5f38f6d

Officials in Taiwan say four people from Taiwan who work at Foxconn factories that make products for Apple have been detained by mainland Chinese authorities. The reports say they were accused of something like a breach of trust, but the exact allegations could not be determined. Foxconn said it did not suffer any financial loss as a result of the actions of the employees, ruling out some kind of embezzlement or certain types of fraud. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council described the allegations as bizarre and warned that improper detention could hurt investor confidence. Something China has been building back lately. China recently toughened rules against promoting Taiwan independence.

"Nintendo is looking for 10,000 testers for a new Switch Online feature"
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-is-looking-for-10000-testers-for-a-new-switch-online-feature-123032431.html

If you pay for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, you can apply to be one of 10,000 testers who get first access to an unnamed Switch Online feature. Testers must be 18 years old or older and have an account registered in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK or the US. Applications can be submitted now until November 5th at 7:59 PM Eastern time, or when it receives 10,000 applications.