The Sims re-release shows what’s wrong with big publishers and single-player games
It’s the year 2000 all over again, because I’ve just spent the past week playing The Sims, a game that could have had a resurgent zeitgeist moment if only EA,…
National Institutes of Health radically cuts support to universities
Grants paid by the federal government have two components. One covers the direct costs of performing the research, paying for salaries, equipment, and consumables like chemicals or enzymes. But the…
Feds putting the kibosh on national EV charging program
The US Department of Transportation has ordered states to kill their implementation plans related to the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, according to a memo obtained by WIRED that was…
Malicious ML Models on Hugging Face Leverage Broken Pickle Format to Evade Detection
Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered two malicious machine learning (ML) models on Hugging Face that leveraged an unusual technique of “broken” pickle files to evade detection. “The pickle files extracted from…
This Week In Techdirt History: February 2nd – 8th
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, Facebook paid out a hefty settlement in a facial recognition lawsuit in Illinois, which looked like bad news for the also-just-sued new kid…
Federal Court Shuts Down Louisiana’s Unconstitutional ‘Police Buffer Zone’ Law
Last June, Louisiana became the third state to decide the US Constitution was subservient to cops’ wishes that they not be filmed while performing their public duties. Arizona had already…
KC Chiefs Entering Licensing Deal With Pat Riley For ‘Three-peat’ Trademark
And there you have it. It was a mere couple of weeks back that I wrote about the Kansas City Chiefs potential to reach the Super Bowl and go for…
Automakers Sue To Kill Maine’s Hugely Popular ‘Right To Repair’ Law
A little over a year ago, Maine residents voted overwhelmingly (83 percent) to pass a new state right to repair law designed to make auto repairs easier and more affordable.…
UK Orders Apple To Break Encryption Worldwide While World Is Distracted
In a stunning escalation that confirms our worst fears, the UK government has finally shown its true hand on encryption — and it’s even worse than we predicted. According to…
MAGA’s Sickening Hypocrisy: From ‘Save The Children’ To ‘Defund The Org That Actually Saves Children’
After years of screaming “save the children” while baselessly accusing others of exploiting kids, the Trump administration is now trying to destroy the actual infrastructure that saves children. This one…