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  • www.cgchannel.com
    html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Epic Games has made a set of 76 modular assets for creating a bakers shop available to download for free from Fab, its new online marketplace.Games asset firm CropCraft Studios Modular Bakery Shop is part of the latest set of time-limited free content released on Fab, and will be free until 28 January 2025.The asset pack was previously sold for up to $69.99.Scan-based modular 3D assets for creating a bakers shopThe Modular Bakery Shop consists of 76 static meshes for creating a bakers shop and cafe.The assets, which come with PBR materials, include walls, counters, chairs, tables, and 3D scanned baked goods like croissants and donuts.The scene itself is designed for use with Unreal Engine 5, including the Nanite virtualized geometry system, although most of the assets are relatively lightweight: the average triangle count is 4,200.Part of Epics new bi-weekly releases of free content on Fab The asset pack is part of the latest set of commercial assets to be made temporarily available for free under Epic Games updated Sponsored Content program.Under the program, a new set of commercial tools and assets will be made available for free on Fab every two weeks, for a period of two weeks.System requirements and availabilityThe Modular Bakery Shop Pack is available as an asset package for Unreal Engine 5.2+ under a Fab Standard license.The terms of the Fab Standard license permit content to be used in any engine or tool, including for commercial projects, subject to the restrictions set out in the Fab EULA.Get CropCraft Studios Modular Bakery Shop asset pack from Fab(Available free until 28 January 2025)Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.
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  • RedNote: what its like using the Chinese app TikTokers are flocking to
    www.theverge.com
    Instead of wallowing in misery about potentially losing access to their favorite short-form video app, many TikTokers are flocking to RedNote, a Chinese social media platform also called Xiaohongshu. Ive decided to spend some time on the platform myself, and it looks like so-called TikTok refugees are excited about interacting with a community mainly comprised of Chinese-speaking users and vice versa.Launched in 2013 as a shopping platform, RedNote has grown into one of Chinas most popular social apps featuring photos, videos, and written content. Now its seeing another spike in users from another part of the globe, with more than 700,000 users joining RedNote in just two days, according to a report from Reuters. The number is still small, at just a fraction of the 150 million Americans TikTok reported were already using the app in early 2023.As noted by CNN, the name Xiaohongshu translates to little red book, which could be seen as a tongue-in-cheek reference to a red-covered book of quotations from the founding father of Communist China, Mao Zedong. Many US users seem to be using the Chinese platform out of spite of the US governments plan to ban TikTok but in a deeply unserious way. Screenshot: The VergeAmongst all the Chinese-language posts depicting sleek fit checks, mouthwatering food videos, and memes I dont quite understand yet, is content from TikTok expats. Many joke about their sudden appearance on the app, with one user wondering what Chinese users might think after seeing an influx of US-based users and another showing their gradual transformation from a gun-wielding, Buc-ees merch-wearing American into a Chinese-speaking RedNote user. Others are simply saying hello to their new community some of whom have written captions in what Id assume is machine-translated Chinese.Even more interesting though, are all the RedNote users welcoming TikTokers with open arms. Several RedNote users are eager to introduce the app while also sharing some tips and tricks on how to navigate it. One creator says, nows the perfect time to dive into Chinese culture through RedNote with the Chinese New Year coming up, adding that users on the platform are obsessed with Luigi, Trump, and Squid Game. Some even offer to teach their new community members Chinese.But many TikTokers are equally curious about RedNote users in China, too. Chinese friends, post pictures of your meal or snacks for today! Curious to see what you typically eat, one user writes. Another asks, Im American. Do yall like us? We know yall not the enemy. Can we all be friends?The trend is actually kind of wholesome, and Im here for it, but Im not confident it will actually last. If these apps grow in popularity, they could potentially face a ban, too. But the migration to RedNote is likely just a trend and trends only last as long as it takes for another to replace it.
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  • FBI Deletes PlugX Malware from 4,250 Hacked Computers in Multi-Month Operation
    thehackernews.com
    Jan 15, 2025Ravie LakshmananMalware / Threat IntelligenceThe U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday disclosed that a court-authorized operation allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to delete PlugX malware from over 4,250 infected computers as part of a "multi-month law enforcement operation."PlugX, also known as Korplug, is a remote access trojan (RAT) widely used by threat actors associated with the People's Republic of China (PRC), allowing for information theft and remote control of compromised devices.An affidavit filed by the FBI noted that the identified PlugX variant is linked to a state-sponsored hacking group called Mustang Panda, which is also referred to as BASIN, Bronze President, Camaro Dragon, Earth Preta, HoneyMyte, RedDelta, Red Lich, Stately Taurus, TA416, and Twill Typhoon."Since at least 2014, Mustang Panda hackers then infiltrated thousands of computer systems in campaigns targeting U.S. victims, as well as European and Asian governments and businesses, and Chinese dissident groups," the DoJ said.Some of the other targets of the threat actor's campaigns include Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, India, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Pakistan.The disruption is part of a larger "disinfection" effort that commenced in late July 2024 to rid compromised systems of the PlugX malware. Details of the activity were previously shared by the Paris Prosecutor's Office and cybersecurity firm Sekoia.As previously detailed by Sekoia, this specific variant of PlugX is known to spread to other systems via attached USB devices. The malware, once installed, beacons out to an attacker-controlled server ("45.142.166[.]112") to await further commands to gather data from the host.In late April 2024, the company also revealed it spent a mere $7 to sinkhole the server accessible on the IP address in question, thereby opening the door to issue a self-delete command to erase the malware from the infected machines.The command carried out the steps listed below -Delete the files created by the PlugX malware on the victim computerDelete the PlugX registry keys used to automatically run the PlugX application when the victim computer is startedCreate a temporary script file to delete the PlugX application after it is stoppedStop the PlugX applicationRun the temporary file to delete the PlugX application, delete the directory created on the victim computer by the PlugX malware to store the PlugX files, and delete the temporary file from the victim computerThe FBI said the self-delete command does not affect any legitimate functions or files on the targeted devices located within the U.S. nor transmit any other data from them.Last month, Sekoia said as many as 59,475 disinfection payloads targeting 5,539 IP addresses were issued as part of a legal framework that was established to conduct the PlugX disinfection process for 10 countries."This wide-ranging hack and long-term infection of thousands of Windows-based computers, including many home computers in the United States, demonstrates the recklessness and aggressiveness of PRC state-sponsored hackers," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's NFound this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE
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  • Best Internet Providers in Berkeley, California
    www.cnet.com
    With widespread fiber internet in Berkeley, residents have plenty of options. CNET helps you choose the best ISP for your needs.
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  • Blue Ghost, Third Private U.S. Lunar Lander, Launches to the Moon
    www.scientificamerican.com
    January 14, 20257 min readBlue Ghost, a Private U.S. Lunar Lander, Launches to the MoonA Texas-built lander named Blue Ghost marks another test of NASAs new lunar delivery initiativeBy Michael Greshko edited by Lee BillingsAn illustration of a private U.S. lander on the surface of the moon built by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace. The companys Blue Ghost lander is carrying a suite of scientific instruments to the moon, including an experiment to detect and use GPS satellite signals on the lunar surface. NASA/Dave RyanIn the classic country ballad Ghost Riders in the Sky, a cowboy receives a frightening vision: the devils herd of cows thundering through the clouds, chased by the souls of cowpokes who must ride forever on that range up in the sky / on horses snorting fire. At 1:11 A.M. EST on January 15 Blue Ghost, a lunar lander built by the Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace, rode its own fiery steed through the heavens, launching atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a mission to become just the second U.S. soft landing on the moon since the end of the Apollo program.Over the next four weeks, that missioncalled Ghost Riders in the Sky, or Blue Ghost Mission 1will see its spacecraft orbit around Earth at farther and farther distances. Carrying a suite of NASA-sourced scientific instruments, Blue Ghost will then make a run at the moon. The mission is flying under the U.S. space agencys Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which is encouraging private firms to take over the delivery of such instruments and lunar supplies as part of the nations ambitious Artemis moon program.[The moon] is kind of the gateway to our solar system; its this easy spot to go to and learn how to be productive, says Ray Allensworth, spacecraft program director at Firefly Aerospace. The basic science that were gathering on these CLPS missions really has applications, not just to Artemis but also to becoming interplanetary.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Blue Ghost Mission 1 marks a new chapter for Firefly, which has developed and launched its own rocket but has never flown anything to the moon before. Its also another major test for CLPS, which will pay out as much as $2.6 billion to private companies for lunar deliveries. NASA hopes to save substantial money through the program. In February 2021 Firefly received a NASA contract for Blue Ghost Mission 1 that is now worth $101 million, less than the agency would have spent to build its own lunar lander.A lander on the surface of the moon, done in the traditional way, is north of a half a billion [dollars].... Ive never seen a quote thats less, says Thomas Zurbuchen, who led NASAs Science Mission Directorate as its associate administrator from 2016 to 2022 and championed the development of CLPS. Every one of these shots on goal is doing it without that overhead and with their own systems.NASA also hopes that CLPS will increase the frequency of robotic moon missions. Blue Ghost is the third spacecraft launched under the CLPS banner since January 2024, and at least one more launch is on the books for later this year. Before CLPS, the last U.S. soft landings on the moon occurred during the Apollo program, which ended in 1972.Theres a significant portion of NASA and the scientific community who have not been alive, or at least not in the workforce, to see a landing on the moon, says lunar scientist Ryan Watkins, a program scientist at NASAs Exploration Science Strategy and Integration Office. To finally have a chance to get on the surface and get at some of these questions in situ is really exciting.But in exchange for lower costs and faster turnaround times, NASA is letting private companies design and operate their own lunar landersa trade-off that, on balance, boosts the odds for any given CLPS mission failing. From the programs inception, NASA leaders, including Zurbuchen, have emphasized that each initial CLPS mission has a roughly 5050 chance of success.As predicted, the programs results so far have been mixed. Last January the Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic launched a moon lander with an assortment of NASA and non-NASA payloads, only for the spacecraft to suffer a critical anomaly soon after launch. Then, the following month, a robotic lander built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines flew a CLPS mission to the moons south polar region. Though the spacecraft survived the descenta first for any commercial moon missionone of its legs broke during touchdown, partially tipping the lander over.I want [CLPS] to work, but this is an experiment, and we dont know that its going to work, says Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the nonprofit Planetary Society.Standing about two meters tall and 3.5 meters wideroughly the size of two Volkswagen Beetles parked side by sideFireflys Blue Ghost lander is designed to carry up to 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of payload to the moons surface. On Blue Ghost Mission 1, the lander is flying 10 NASA instruments, the largest number of agency payloads yet launched on a single CLPS mission.For Fireflys corps of engineers, many of whom are still in their 20s, building Blue Ghost has amounted to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunityand challenge. Its kind of mind-blowing, Allensworth says. It is really special, but it also can be scary at times because none of us have built a lunar lander before.Perhaps no system onboard Blue Ghost exemplifies this challenge more than the rocket engines responsible for setting the lander on the moons surface. Soon after completing a major review of Blue Ghosts design in October 2021, Firefly engineers realized that they needed to build their own reaction control system (RCS) thrusters, which control a spacecrafts orientation and stabilize its position. In August 2024less than three years after starting its worka team led by engineer Ryan Cole finished qualifying the engines for flight.Conventional wisdom would have said, Well, youre never going to make an RCS engine in less than three years, Cole says. But none of us had it in our heads that that was impossible.Blue Ghost now faces a roughly six-week journey before putting those engines to the ultimate test. After 25 days orbiting Earth, the lander will spend four days flying toward the moon. It will then spend another 16 days in lunar orbit before making a landing attempt in early March. As it happens, Blue Ghost isnt the only spacecraft that is journeying to the moon. The lander shared its launch with Hakuto-R Mission 2, a lunar lander and rover developed by the Japanese company ispace, whose first landing attempt in April 2023 failed just kilometers above the moons surface.At NASAs request, Blue Ghost Mission 1 is targeting a landing site at Mare Crisium, a dark-colored basin some 560 kilometers (350 miles) across that formed long ago when lunar lava filled a then fresh impact crater. The area is thought to better represent the moons average composition than the Apollo landing sites. Blue Ghosts goal is to operate there for 14 days, including up to five hours of the long and brutally cold lunar night.Some of Blue Ghosts payloads will demonstrate new technologies. For one, Blue Ghost is flying an instrument that will test whether moon landers can detect and make use of signals from GPS satellites orbiting Earth. Another payload will try to combat moon dusttiny, jagged particles that are awful for astronauts and hardware alikeby using electric fields to knock it off of a surface.Other instruments will study the lunar interior. One, called LISTER (Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity), is designed to measure how heat flows out of the moon, which should help clarify the deep structure of our natural satellite and its evolution over eons. The device consists of a thermometer at the tip of a probe that will drill up to three meters into the lunar soil by puffing out blasts of compressed gas. If successful, LISTER will set the record for the deepest that any mission has ever dug into the lunar surface.Gas, in vacuum, is like a grenade.... So we thought, Why not excavate deep holes with it? says Kris Zacny, vice president of exploration systems at Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Originowned firm that developed LISTER. Its sort of like taking a garden hose pointing into the soil and creating a trench.Regardless of what happens with Blue Ghost Mission 1whether it lands on the moons surface in one piece or severalexperts interviewed by Scientific American say that for now, the CLPS initiative probably will survive into the second term of incoming U.S. president Donald Trump, who assumes office on January 20. Along with Artemis as a whole, CLPS was created during the first Trump administration and continued during the Biden administration. This was the first time since Apollo that an ambitious U.S. moon program survived a presidential transition intact.I believe this particular launch should, by itself, not change the program, no matter what the [outcome] is, Zurbuchen says. We would feel all more excited [if] it went all down the middle, exactly like we hoped.... If it was not successful, I would just basically say, Hey, we never said that any one of those things needs to be successful.[CLPS] is not a national standard-bearer program, Dreier adds. In a sense, if it works, it creates a fundamentally new capability.That said, the structure of Artemis may see more changes this time around. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who ardently supports a Mars-first human space exploration strategy, was a major backer of Trumps 2024 campaign and has enormous influence on the incoming administrations policy agenda. An Ars Technica report last December suggested that Trumps transition team was considering changes to Artemis and NASA writ large, including the possible cancelation of the space agencys costly Space Launch System rocket, a linchpin of the current Artemis plan.Any such proposal will have to make it through Congress, however, which has repeatedly stated its preference for a moon-first strategy in line with Artemiss status quo. Major changes could also risk disrupting existing agreements with commercial firms and other countries space agencies. Theres frustration, you see, that [Artemis] is not optimized for results; its optimized for politics. But youve got to work with politics at the end of the day, Dreier says. We should not throw away a hard-earned coalition like this.
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  • Meta Tells Brazil It Won't End Fact-checks Outside US 'At This Time'
    www.barrons.com
    Meta Tells Brazil It Won't End Fact-checks Outside US 'At This Time'By AFP - Agence France Presse January 14, 2025 Text sizeSocial media giant Meta told Brazil it would not end fact-checking outside the United States until it had fully tested the changes, according to a note from the company published Tuesday. Meta is "at this time ending its independent fact-checking program in the United States only, where we will test and refine Community Ratings before beginning any expansion to other countries," the company said, responding to a 72-hour deadline to explain its fact-checking policy for Brazil. fb/sms The Barron's news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This article was produced by AFP. For more information go to AFP.com. Agence France-Presse READ MORE FROM BARRONS
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  • Video: Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered "Meet The Bosses" Trailer Showcase
    www.nintendolife.com
    Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube792kIn case you missed it, the famous video game mascot Lara Croft returns in Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered next month on Valentine's Day.In the lead up, Aspyr has been detailing certain aspects of the game, and the latest trailer showcases the many boss battles Lara will encounter across this trilogy of games. Pre-orders for the collection have also gone live on Nintendo's eShop.There's currently a sale as well in selection regions, reducing the game from $29.99 / 26.99 to $26.99 / 24.29 (that's 10% off). This offer is valid until the game's release.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube792kWatch on YouTube This updated collection will include not only the original graphics but also the new remastered graphics, which you can once again swap between on the fly. Here's a bit more about each game (via Nintendo.com):Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Lara Croft discovers the lost tomb of the Egyptian God Set, unwittingly unleashing him and fulfilling an ancient prophecyone that plunges mankind into darkness.Tomb Raider: Chronicles Following the events of The Last Revelation, Lara Croft is buried in an Egyptian tomb and is presumed dead. At her memorial, those closest to her reminisce about secrets from her past.Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Accused of murder, Lara becomes a fugitive on the run, while uncovering a sinister conspiracy involving alchemical experiments and the search for ancient artifacts.In some related news, Aspyr is also releasing Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles next week on 23rd January 2025. Smile, LaraFixes, changes, improvements and much moreI've got a bad feeling about thisWill you be grabbing this collection? Did you take on any of these bosses back in the day? Let us know in the comments.Related GamesSee AlsoShare:00 Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesReview: Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Switch) - Aping A Retro ClassicThat's what you get for not hailing to the chimpTalking Point: Everyone Else Is Busy Revealing Switch 2 - What Gives, Nintendo?It's the notes you don't play
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  • Synthesia snaps up $180M at a $2.1B valuation for its B2B AI video platform
    techcrunch.com
    As the world continues to work through how to handle the explosion of deepfake content online, it seems that not all AI-created videos are stirring controversy. Synthesia, a London startup building products around highly realistic AI avatar technology, says its a big hit with enterprises, with some 60,000 of them 1 million users tapping the tech to build avatar-based videos from text documents, for sales and marketing, for training and more.Now VCs also want to get in on the action. Synthesia today confirmed that it has closed a funding round of $180 million, a Series D that catapults the companys valuation to $2.1 billion. NEA is leading the round, with participation from new investors WiL (World Innovation Lab), Atlassian Ventures, and PSP Growth, plus previous backers GV and MMC Ventures. Synthesia has raised $330 million to date.The startup plans to use the funding for hiring, particularly to expand in Asia Pacific the bulk of Synthesias business today is in Europe and North America and to continue evolving its products.Were doubling down on all the things were already doing right, said CEO and co-founder Victor Riparbelli, in an interview. We want to make our avatars better. He said the companys long roadmap includes more realistic motion; being able to port avatars into different environments; avatars that can interact with objects to, for example, provide physical demonstrations; and avatars that can interact with users. Its also going to be eating some of its own dogfood by building more agents to help customers create avatar-based content more easily.One area where its not chasing activity is in M&A. Synthesia to date has made no acquisitions and Riparbelli said its preference is for building its technology in house, alongside using APIs for what it does not build itself. For example, it works with Eleven Labs for voice, and it taps and fine-tunes a variety of third-party Large Language Models instead of building its own.Synthesias round has been in the works for at least a few months: The Information reported that it was raising $150 million in November 2024. For a little more fundraising context, its been about 18 months since Synthesia last disclosed funding: in June 2023, it closed a $90 million round on a $1 billion valuation with previous backers including Kleiner Perkins and Accel.In the interim, AI companies have been a huge magnet for VCs, providing a bright spot in a somewhat lackluster funding landscape. AI startups accounted for more than 37% of the $368.5 billion invested across all startups in 2024 globally, according to PitchBook data. In the U.S. the proportion was even more stark, with AI startups garnering nearly 50% of the $209 billion invested last year.And yes, issues abound the field of AI. The power consumption required to train and run AI models, major copyright issues around how models are trained, AI getting weaponized as in the case of deepfakes or malicious hacking, AI replacing humans and their work, and AI getting it wrong all huge problems that have yet to be resolved meaningfully. But there are also some significant advocates who will push the AI industry into even loftier, hyped-up heights. Synthesia was one of the companies name-checked by the U.K. government this week when it launched its big AI action plan, with an intention to dole out billions in deals to AI companies to rebuild public services and the economy.Synthesia says it now has 60,000 businesses as customers, compared to 50,000 in June 2023, and its aim has been to carve out its own niche in the space as the go-to platform for enterprises that are looking to build out their video interactions.Its doing so at a time when advanced AI video functionality is getting increasingly more common. There are startups that are working on the ability to extrapolate full product videos out of basic documents, while others aim to build avatars capable of real-time interactions and real-time video assistants. Some claim to be able to create lifelike avatars of their users from just one minute of video. (A simple test to see just how crowded the market is here is to put Synthesia into Google, and check out how many companies are buying search ads against its name. There are a lot.)Synthesia is not immune to the product race. Its been building a 2.0 version of its platform for a while now and has already released a number of related features, including its own take on personal avatars that users can make with a laptop camera or phone that feature emotions; a Chrome extension that builds basic videos based on screen data; its own version of an AI video assistant that can convert documents into videos; multi language options; and collaboration features for people to edit a video simultaneously.More to the point, though, Riparbelli believes that the company has an edge by focusing itself squarely on business users, and its investors say that is what makes the startup attractive.Synthesia is one of only a handful of AI companies that can take real cutting edge AI and actually translate those into something with real utility, said Vidu Shanmugarajah, a partner at Google Ventures in London, in an interview. It has extreme customer focus. They are obsessed with driving value in a practical setting. Putting that together in a platform thats safe and compliant is super hard to do.Its interesting, too, to see Atlassian investing in this round.The company has been injecting AI functionality into its various apps, and it seems only a matter of time that a platform like Jira might start adding in more video tools into that mix, opening the door for a collaboration with its portfolio company.
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