Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 83
September 11, 2017
PewDiePie: YouTube megastar’s N-word outburst sparks developer backlash
YouTube’s best-paid star Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, has yet again used a racial slur on the video-sharing site.
The 27-year-old video blogger called an opponent a “fucking nigger” while live-streaming playing the online game Playerunknown Battlegrounds, before correcting himself to “fucking asshole”, adding: “I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”
It isn’t the first time the YouTube star has crossed the line. In February this year, he lost partnerships with Disney and YouTube after an expose of his regular use of antisemitism and Nazi imagery as props for shock humour.
This time, his racist outburst has prompted a bottom-up response, with games companies stating they will fight his attempts to use their work to create his videos. Sean Vanaman, the co-founder of games developer Campo Santo, tweeted that he would be filing a copyright claim in order to force YouTube to remove Kjellberg’s video of Vanaman’s game Firewatch.
The video has almost 6m views on YouTube, rendering it a potent source of publicity for Campo Santo and a revenue stream for Kjellberg.
Vanaman said: “I am sick of this child getting more and more chances to make money off of what we make.
“I’d urge other developers and will be reaching out to folks much larger than us to cut him off from the content that has made him a millionaire.”
Kjellberg has almost 60 million subscribers on YouTube, and reportedly earned $15m (£11m) from the site in 2016. But the revelations over the course of 2017 may mean his earnings drop substantially.
An investigation earlier this year revealed at least nine videos over a six month period contained either antisemitic jokes or Nazi imagery, and led to Kjellberg losing valuable revenue streams. Disney-owned Maker Studios co-launched Revelmode – a multichannel network that produced videos, mobile apps and merchandise – with the YouTube star, until the partnership was dissolved following the revelations.
Google’s YouTube also parted ways with Kjellberg. The company removed him from its premium advertising network, which pays better rates than the company’s programmatic adverts and attracts prestige clients. He had also been producing a series with YouTube’s subscription service, YouTube Red until Google pulled the plug.
The YouTube star eventually hit back with an angry video accusing the media of “out-of-context” reports in an attempt to destroy his career. “Old-school media does not like internet personalities because they are scared of us. We have so much influence and such a large voice, and I don’t think they understand that,” he said.
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Stephen King’s ‘It’ Officially Opens to Massive $123 Million
The New Line and Warner Bros. adaptation of Stephen King’s novel is officially shattering box office records during its opening weekend. The R-rated horror film made a whopping $123.1 million from 4,103 locations, as of Monday morning. On Sunday, the studio gave a more cautious estimate of $117.2 million, taking into account the potential effects of Hurricane Irma and the NFL. So “It” officially has the third-largest opening weekend of 2017, more than “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” which made $117 million. Only “Beauty and the Beast” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” earned more this year. Imax screens accounted for $6.7 million of the total.
“There’s something really special about the story itself, the way the movie was made, and the marketing,” Jeff Goldstein, distribution chief at Warner Bros said on Sunday. “The stars aligned on this, and we still have some room to grow for the weekend.”
“It” earned a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 87% and a B+ CinemaScore. Its gender breakdown is reportedly 51% female and 49% male. About two thirds of the audience has been over 25 years old.
“It’s” opening is mostly unprecedented, crushing the record for largest September debut set by “Hotel Transylvania 2” in 2015 with $48.5 million, and the biggest opening weekend banked by a horror or supernatural film — “Paranormal Activity 3” earned $52.6 million in 2011. When it comes to R-rated movie launches, “It” falls only to “Deadpool,” which changed the game in 2016 with a massive $132.4 million opening. This, during a weekend when Hurricane Irma threatens huge portions of Florida and Georgia, which could dent attendance by as much as 5%.
In addition to its domestic grosses, the horror hit is expected to pull in $62 million from 46 markets overseas, giving “It” a $185 million global debut. That’s a huge win for a movie with an estimated $35 million production budget.
Horror films often have lower budgets than other more CGI-dense blockbusters, so the return on investment has potential to be massive. Goldstein said the genre is one that New Line particularly excels in, and there is potential to see more horror in the future if the right story comes along. “If we were able to find more films in this genre, we’d be thrilled to make them,” he said.
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Box Office: Stephen King’s ‘It’ Officially Opens to Massive $123 Million
South Korean Court Declares Bitcoin Confiscation Illegal
After Police seized 216 Bitcoins from an individual that was suspected to be involved in illegal activities with the digital currency, it was ruled by a South Korean court that the seizure was illegitimate.
The Suwon district court set a groundbreaking precedent in legitimizing the seizer, by ruling that Bitcoin and associated digital currencies are not subject to confiscation.
Sending a message to regulators
While South Korea is one of the more progressive nations towards Bitcoin and its legalization, as well as its regulation, this move by the courts could send shockwaves through regulatory bodies in the country as well as across the globe.
There are contrasting attitudes towards the digital currency, as China’s recent foray into its regulation has seen the socialist country take a hardline stance towards this innovative technology.
However, with the judiciary in Korea setting a precedent indicating its belief that Bitcoin should not be a confiscatable commodity, it could set a trend for many other nations to follow.
‘Cannot assume an objective standard value’
According to local reports from Kyunghyang Shinmun, it seems as if Bitcoin’s volatility may well be its saving grace in this matter, as the confiscation was deemed illegitimate because:
[it is]“not appropriate to confiscate Bitcoins as they cannot assume an objective standard value.”
Furthermore, the indication is that Bitcoin, as a digital currency, has no physical representation, and thus there is essentially nothing to be confiscated, according to the courts.
This also seems to suggest that the courts see Bitcoin as having a value, but it is an ever changing one, which could well mean they would be looking to instate certain rules surrounding digital currencies on their own.
Pornography Bitcoins
The case in which those judgement arose from involved an individual who was charged with running an illegal pornography website. The site had many members, but the operator never reported the membership fees which, may or may not, have been directly collected as Bitcoin – or perhaps transferred into digital currency at a later date.
Source:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korean-court-declares-bitcoin-confiscation-illegal
Facebook plans to spend up to $1B on original shows in 2018
Facebook could spend as much as $1 billion to fund original content initiatives for its new Watch video platform, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. The amount might seem familiar – it’s the same investment Apple is said to have earmarked for original shows and movies through 2018.
Facebook’s spend could vary depending on the success of programming, but it’s also a figure that extends through next year. This would also be a new high-water mark for Facebook spending on video content specific for its platform, exceeding past initiatives like incentives paid to encourage live streaming from media outlets.
Facebook launched Watch to all U.S. users this week – the new tab in the Facebook app houses original shows from Facebook partners, including content from Freethink Media, MLB, Discovery Channel and more. It’s hoping to drive more engagement on the platform with its original video content initiative, and the shows resemble a lot of the videos that naturally receive a lot of interaction on the platform when shared, covering sports, science and other ‘shareable’ topics.
This kind of spending on original content, even if Facebook extends to the top end of its proposed budget, is still behind what dedicated companies like Netflix and Amazon spend on their own shows. But it’s not far off from HBO’s annual content creation spend, and could go a long way if Facebook is spending more of it on less ambitious programming relative to something like Game of Thrones.
Streaming platforms so far have shown that destination programming is key – Facebook’s approach seems to be a blend of the Netflix and YouTube methods for obtaining said programming. Next year definitely sounds like it’ll be interesting for the original content realm – should give us plenty to talk about.
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Facebook plans to spend up to $1B on original shows in 2018
September 10, 2017
China to ban petrol and diesel cars, state media reports
China is joining France and Britain in announcing plans to end sales of petrol and diesel cars.
China’s industry ministry is developing a timetable to end production and sale of traditional fuel cars and will promote development of electric technology, state media on Sunday cited a Cabinet official as saying.
The reports gave no possible target date, but Beijing is stepping up pressure on automakers to accelerate development of electrics.
China is the biggest auto market by number of vehicles sold, giving any policy changes outsize importance for the global industry.
A deputy industry minister, Xin Guobin, said at an auto industry forum on Saturday his ministry has begun “research on formulating a timetable to stop production and sales of traditional energy vehicles,” according to the Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily.
France and Britain announced in July they will stop sales of petrol and diesel automobiles by 2040 as part of efforts to reduce pollution and carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
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September 9, 2017
September 8, 2017
Google begins rolling out HDR YouTube support for smartphones
Google is starting to roll out support for HDR videos in the mobile YouTube app. The Vergehas been able to confirm that the update is live and offers support for HDR playback at up to 1080p resolution and 60 fps when manually changing video quality. The software update seems to have quietly rolled out yesterday, according to reports on Reddit and SamMobile, which first spotted the update.
YouTube added support for HDR video back in November 2016, but until now the company hasn’t rolled it out to any of the various smartphones that offer HDR screens. HDR support is available on the Galaxy S8, Note 8, Pixel, LG V30, and Xperia XZ Premium, and it’s easy to imagine that Google will continue to build out support for the higher-quality video format on other devices in the near future.
Update September 8th, 12:45pm: Google is rolling out HDR support for the Pixel, LG V30, and Sony Xperia XZ Premium, in addition to the Galaxy S8 and Note 8. This post has been updated accordingly.
Source:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/8/16273408/galaxy-s8-note-8-hdr-youtube-app-update-first-phones
Red Cross to start testing drones in disaster relief efforts
The American Red has teamed up with the UPS Foundation and drone manufacturer CyPhy Works to bring drones to sites of natural disasters. The goal is to use drones tethered to the ground to assess damages through constant aerial observations. This is where CyPhy Works comes in.
The pilot program utilizes CyPhy Works’ Persistent Aerial Reconnaissance and Communications (PARC) platform. In this test the platform will provide constant power to a drone flying stationary at 400ft through the use of a tether. Since the drone is tied to the ground, constant power can be provided from a ground-based generator thus providing uninterrupted surveillance for days or weeks at a time. A 30X zoom camera will then be used to surveil tens of miles around the drone and would be able to assess the impact of a disaster to best direct relief efforts and later to accelerate insurance payout.
The parties involved agreed to launch a one week, onsite trial in an area heavily flooded by Hurricane Harvey. If successful, it could be used again following Hurricane Irma.
The Boston-based CyPhy Works has been testing this tethered platform in different scenarios. During Forth of July fireworks and the Boston Marathon, CyPhy works provided hours of aerial surveillance to the Boston Police Department. The test with the Red Cross takes CyPhy Works out of Boston and potentially in locations without a power grid or general utilities.
Source:
Red Cross to start testing drones in disaster relief efforts
U.S. House unanimously approves sweeping self-driving car measure
The U.S. House on Wednesday unanimously approved a sweeping proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls by putting federal regulators in the driver’s seat and barring states from blocking autonomous vehicles.
The House measure, the first significant federal legislation aimed at speeding self-driving cars to market, would allow automakers to obtain exemptions to deploy up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards in the first year. The cap would rise over three years to 100,000 vehicles annually.
Representative Doris Matsui said the bill “puts us on a path towards innovation which, up until recently, seemed unimaginable.”
Automakers, business groups, and advocates for the blind praised the House measure. But one consumer group said the House bill did not do enough to ensure self-driving cars would be safe.
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Under the bill, manufacturers seeking exemptions must demonstrate self-driving cars are at least as safe as existing vehicles. States could still set rules on registration, licensing, liability, insurance and safety inspections, but not performance standards.
Automakers would have to submit safety assessment reports to regulators, but the bill would not require pre-market approval of advanced vehicle technologies. The measure now goes to the Senate, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers has been working on similar legislation.
Automakers and technology companies, including General Motors Co and Alphabet Inc’s self-driving unit Waymo, hope to begin deploying vehicles around 2020. They have been pushing for new federal rules making it easier to deploy self-driving technology, but some consumer groups have sought additional safeguards.
Current federal rules bar self-driving cars without human controls on U.S. roads. States have issued a variety of different rules in the absence of clear federal guidance, and automakers have complained that California’s rules are too restrictive.
The policy group Transportation for America said cities are worried the House “legislation will preempt local authorities from managing their own streets and fail to give local leaders the confidence that manufacturers and operators will be aware of and follow local laws and regulations.”
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao will unveil revised self-driving guidelines next Tuesday in Ann Arbor, Michigan, citing sources, and the department confirmed plans to unveil the new guidelines next week. The House bill would require compliance with the guidelines.
GM said in a statement that “while more work is needed,” the House measure is “good progress toward a law that will facilitate realization of the safety, mobility, and environmental benefits of self-driving vehicles.”
The House bill would also require automakers to add a driver alert to check rear seating in an effort to prevent children from being left behind, and to consider performance standards for headlights.
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