Mergify: July 2016

Kickass Torrents is back to the internet. [updated]

July 23, 2016Unknown

World's biggest torrent site is now "BUSTED".

July 21, 2016Unknown

Yes! you heard it correct. Apple and Facebook helped bust the most popular torrent-sharing website in the world, " Kickass Torrents", often called as KAT. It has gone offline after the United States government seized seven of its domains.

The 30-year-old Ukrainian Artem Vaulin also called as "tirm," owner and operator of Kickass Torrents, was arrested in Poland yesterday and is charged with criminal copyright infringement and money laundering and in addition, a federal court in Chicago has ordered the seizure of several KAT domain names.

The Government also accuses Tirm of stealing more than $1 billion in profits from the U.S. entertainment industry. The complaint said, "KAT receives more than 50 million unique visitors per month and that made KAT be the 69th most frequently visited website on the internet."

The complaint also reveals that the feds produce as an advertiser, which revealed a bank account associated with the site. Also "Apple" handed over personal details of Vaulin after the investigation cross-referenced an IP-address used for an iTunes transaction with an IP-address that was used to login to KAT's Facebook account.

The records provided by Apple showed that "tirm@me.com conducted an iTunes transaction using IP Address 109.86.226.203 on July 31, 2015. The same IP Address was used on the same day to login into the KAT Facebook".

Defenders of sites like KAT have argued that there is nothing wrong in providing links and it is up to individuals what they do with the information and many new sites are uprising to fill the void.

KAT uses BitTorrent or uTorrent for peer-to-peer file sharing, and it overtook Pirate Bay which does not host any illegal content itself but provides links to files that can download unauthorized copies of content from other users' computers. It has been under legal tangles often, changing its domain several times in the last five years.

So let's wait and see what's gonna happen next.

source: Torrentfreak, Google, Internet.

images: Google.

Biological featured Science

Do cats really hide when they are about to die ?

July 21, 2016Unknown

Though many people reading this might know this so called fact that cats generally disappear when they are about to die, I myself am listening for the first time so I thought I would share this with you guys !

So, the interesting thing is most of the cats disappear when they are about to die. But cats hide even when they are feeling ill or uncomfortable. Considering the above points, it cannot be said that all cats which hide are going to die. The cats probably might not know what exactly "death" is but they feel symptoms of illness and that is the reason why they just move out of the crowd. They prefer to be alone when they are not feeling well. There are cases been reported which states that few cats spent their last moments with their owner. That means even cats as individuals have their own preferences.

Another reason could be like when they are ill, they don't want themselves to be prey as they have got a lot of predators in this cruel world ! The reports say that cats are strong and capable enough to hide signs of their weakness. The same happens when a pregnant cat is about to deliver. It chooses some out of the way places to deliver and take care of its young ones for some days. So, hiding can be stated as a part of their life. Another probable reason is they just want themselves to be alone. Even we feel to be alone when we are not doing good. We can see many people locking up themselves in the room for hours. It is evident that one tends to feel so.

Even when a cat is injured, it hides. The reason probably being the same, that it is not feeling well. In addition to this, cats have this tendency of getting themselves into situations from which they cannot come out like we hear cats stuck on a tree. So if your cat is missing, you have to just be patient enough to search it in every hook and corner of your house. And it is suggested to take your cat to a vet to know the actual reason of hiding.

Courtesy : cat-world.com
Image credits : google

New Arrivals News Updates

Xiaomi ₹1 Flash deals

July 19, 2016Unknown

Space and Matter Technology

JUNO - a spacecraft which is going to reveal the secrets of JUPITER.

July 17, 2016Unknown

Have you ever wondered what causes the storm spin continuously for decades in the great red spot of Jupiter, well yes you might have thought and left it, as we all have no answers and clues either, but here is the NASA's daring mission to send a spacecraft to Jupiter's orbit.

JUNO - The NASA's most incredible spacecraft has arrived its expected destination after taking a long ride of five years. It was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 5, 2011, as part of the New Frontiers program, and entered Jupiter orbit on July 4, 2016. Juno is named after a Roman goddess who could see through clouds. The spacecraft has a diameter of about 3.5 meters about 12 feet and weighs 3,600 kg and the important spacecraft's "brain" is secured with an armored vault made of titanium and weighing almost 172kg (400lb).

Juno is designed to study and solve the mystery of what lies beneath the swirling storm clouds of great red spot and of course it will also study Jupiter's composition and gravitational and magnetic field, and search for clues about the planet's formation and the source of its raging winds, which can reach speeds of 384mph (618kph). It delivers stunning color photos via its JunoCam camera, which has a wide field of view geared for panoramic images. Juno has three huge solar panels, each 8.8 metres long and almost 2.8 metres wide (29ft by 9ft).

Juno's struggles:

The spacecraft is very huge for things to put in space. So it had to be launched on one of NASA's biggest rockets, the Atlas V. Next, Juno had to survive its five-year,1.7-billion-mile journey to reach Jupiter. In doing that, it had to cross the perilous asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Fortunately, each of the millions of asteroids is surrounded by billions of cubic meters of space. So, it turns out the probability of hitting an asteroid while passing through the belt is quite low. At last, as Juno approached the largest planet, it entered the riskiest phase of its mission. The spacecraft should have to travel at an incredible speed while being accelerated by Jupiter's gravity. This is the time where Juno was blasted with a big amount of radiation produced by Jupiter and tried to dodge debris around the planet.

For the next two years, the spinning, solar-powered will trace loops around the solar system's largest planet as it attempts to solve mysteries. The spacecraft is also carrying a plaque with words from the astronomer Galileo, who discovered the first moons of Jupiter, and three Lego mini-figures of Galileo and the Roman Gods Jupiter and Juno. Juno is, in fact, an apt name for the mission. According to Roman mythology, Jupiter drew a veil of cloud around himself to hide his mischiefs. But Juno,his wife found a way to peer through those clouds. The spacecraft Juno is going to try and do the same thing, under the gassy layer of Jupiter.

These are the LEGO figures flying aboard the Juno spacecraft.

So, let's relax and watch the upcoming solved mysteries of JUPITER and hope for the best of Juno - a NASA's great adventure.

For more information: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html

News Technology

John Hanke - Person behind Pokemon Go and the company's idea

July 15, 2016Apuroop

People are obsessed with Pokemon Go in 2016, resembling 2004. But did you know the man who took twenty years to get overnight success?

He is John Hanke, Founder of Niantic Inc.

John Hanke is an American entrepreneur. He currently runs Niantic Labs, a company which explores experimental mobile, social, and local applications such as Ingress and 'Pokémon Go'. Prior to joining Google, Hanke founded and was CEO at Keyhole, Inc.. Google acquired Keyhole in 2004, at which point Keyhole's flagship product was renamed to Google Earth.After Keyhole's acquisition, Hanke spent several years as Vice President of Product Management for Google's "Geo" division (Google Earth, Google Maps, Local, StreetView, SketchUp, and Panoramio).

The Niantic team had three big goals in mind when building "Pokemon Go," Hanke says.

Exercise: A lot of fitness apps come with a lot of "baggage" that end up making you feel like "a failed Olympic athlete" when you're just trying to get fit, Hanke says. "Pokemon Go" is designed to get you up and moving by promising you Pokemon as rewards, rather than placing pressure on you.
"To see the world with new eyes:" The game is intended to "give you a little nudge" towards cool and interesting things in your neighborhood by turning real-life landmarks and historical sites into Pokestops and Gyms where players power up and battle. By encouraging exploration, "Pokemon Go" can "make your life better in some small way," Hanke says.
Breaking the ice: All over the world, players are organizing "Pokemon Go" outings, cruising around their area and trawling for Pokemon. At higher levels, players need to team up with fellow players to conquer those Gyms. This is by design: Hanke describes "Pokemon Go" as an "icebreaker" that "gives people a reason to spend time together."

It's like no other game out there, Pokemon or otherwise. That's great news for Nintendo and its share price, which has skyrocketed on the indication that it can thrive in a smartphone-driven world.

And while "Pokemon Go" may be an overnight sensation, it took a lot of work, a lot of hard thinking, and a little bit of luck over the last few years to make it what it is.

Where the idea came from

Before "Pokemon Go," Niantic was best known for "Ingress" - the Android and iPhone game that challenged players to explore the world around them and claim territory. At its peak, "Ingress" counted millions of players around the world.

"Pokemon Go" is like a spiritual sequel to "Ingress." Niantic took a lot of the "Ingress" data, and a lot of the lessons it learned about keeping players safe, to make "Pokemon Go" work and populate its world.

To hear Hanke tell it, that's because "Ingress" was always intended to be kind of a proof-of-concept for ways in which Google and Niantic could help outside partners and customers build their own games.

"Our intent was to make a platform for many different experiences," Hanke says.

And Pokemon was a natural fit.

Enter the Pokemon Company - the joint venture that co-owns the Pokemon copyright, with Pokemon game developer Game Freak, toy maker Creatures, and Nintendo all holding an equal stake.

Google and the Pokemon Company first connected on April Fools' Day 2014, when a short-lived but extremely viral game challenged players to find Pokemon via the Google Maps mobile apps. People loved it: Google Maps plus Pokemon was "like chocolate and peanut butter," Hanke says. And an idea was born.

Emboldened by the success of the April Fools' Day joke, Niantic pitched Nintendo and the Pokemon Company on the game that would become "Pokemon Go." It turned out that Pokemon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara was already a high-level "Ingress" player in Japan, which made those conversations much easier.

And the late, beloved Nintendo CEO Saotoru Iwata gave his highest approval to the project, recognizing that the company was late to the smartphone era, and willing to bet on Niantic to help turn things around.

"They totally got where we were coming from," Hanke says.

The Google split

In early 2015, around the same time that Google was beginning to talk internally about spinning non-core businesses off into a holding company called Alphabet, the idea of Niantic "perhaps becoming its own thing surfaced," Hanke says.

The logic, he says, was that "we were always kind of bumping up against Google's desire to stay neutral," Hanke says.

Google builds products like Maps, and marketplaces like the Google Play Store, as a "horizontal, low-level platform," Hanke says. It meant that Niantic couldn't be given special treatment over any other developer using Google platforms, or those other developers might get upset and look for alternatives.

Plus, it opens up the door for Niantic to work with other customers and partners who might have been scared off by the prospect of working with a superpower like Google. The values and needs of certain customers were "not always aligned with Google," Hanke says.

At the same time, it was thought that it would only help Niantic's collaboration with Nintendo and the Pokemon Company if they held a financial stake in the venture, and they could "open up and share more" if they had some percentage of ownership in the finished product.

Everything "kind of lined up," and in late 2015, Niantic spun off with Google, Nintendo, and the Pokemon Company all participating in a $20 million investment round to kick things off.

Working with The Pokemon Company

Hanke has only praise for the process of working with The Pokemon Company, its main collaborator on the project.

There was a funny thing, though: The Pokemon Company loved "Ingress," and Niantic loved the Pokemon series, and they each wanted the game to be more like the other.

"We were trying to pull things from Pokemon, and they were more from 'Ingress,'" Hanke says.

The two companies shared crucial elements like the three-dimensional models and sounds for the Pokemon themselves, saving a lot of time while also ensuring "Pokemon Go" was as true to the classic games as possible.

The music, notably, is similar to the original Pokemon games - Junichi Masuda, the composer of the classic low-fi soundtrack on the original "Pokemon Red and Blue," wrote a new score for "Pokemon Go."

Masuda, who has since become the director of the modern Pokemon games, including the forthcoming "Pokemon Sun and Moon," also helped Niantic develop "Pokemon Go's" signature "capture" mechanic of throwing Poke Balls with precision at the monsters, Hanke says.

The goal was to make something that was recognizable to fans of the classic Pokemon games, including catching and battling, but that was "more accessible" to people who don't have the time or willingness to learn the more "demanding" systems of the original games. Catching Pokemon, especially, is supposed to be easy to learn, as an easy on-ramp to later-game mechanics like battling and capturing Gyms.

In fact, Hanke says, Niantic almost didn't include the Pokemon games' key element of "evolving" a Pokemon into a new form to make it stronger, because they were afraid it might be too complicated for new players. But they eventually relented. And sooner rather than later, Hanke says, more classic features like Pokemon trading with friends is coming.

"We honored the spirit of the original game," Hanke says. "I like where we landed."

So if you're a part of the "Pokemon Go" phenomenon, understand it was a series of very deliberate choices that got you hooked, the culmination of a long road that began many years ago.

Oh, and I caught the Pikachu.

References: BI, Wikipedia

Image credits: Pokemon Go App, Google

New Arrivals Technology Updates

Hangouts for Android now supports video messaging

July 13, 2016Unknown

Increase your facebook privacy

July 12, 2016Unknown

News

Pokémon Go steals privacy

July 12, 2016Unknown

Pokémon Go is a free-to-play, GPS based augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. It was initially released in July 2016. The game allows players to capture, battle, and train virtual Pokémon who appear throughout the real world. Although the game is free-to-play, it supports in-app purchases.

An optional companion Bluetooth wearable device, the Pokémon Go Plus, is planned for future release and will alert users when a Pokémon is nearby.

'Pokémon Go' could dig deep into linked google accounts!

If you are the one wandering around capturing pokémon's on your phone, you're likely one of millions addicted to Pokémon Go, the latest mobile game sensation. But if you played the game on your and signed in with your Google account, you also just handed the keys to your entire Google account to Niantic, the developer behind the game. the sign up process indicates that you're giving the app full access to your account.Indeed, according to the Google help page, this means that the application will now be able to see and modify nearly all information in your Google account. That means that Niantic and more importantly anyone who has access to Niantic's servers will be able to read and access all your email, your Google drive docs, your search history, your private Google Photos and a lot more. To be clear, this wouldn't be a problem if you signed up for the game using Pokemon's own "Trainer Club" account, but Pokemon's servers appear to be down. Also, while this full access issue appears to happen predominantly on iOS and Android.
What can u do to meanwhile?
For now, however, we recommend revoking Pokemon Go's full account access by heading to this link and clicking "Remove." The game should still function if you have it open, but you'll probably have to reauthorize (and re-revoke) on future sign-ins.

Update: Good news! Niantic Labs and The Pokémon Company issued a response that it's not actually reading your emails. Still, it has far more access than is necessary for the game and the company says that while it's working on a fix for the client to only request the correct permission, Google will reduce Pokémon Go's access on it soon.

Google will soon reduce Pokémon Go's permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon Go needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves.

Kickass Torrents is back to the internet. [updated]

World's biggest torrent site is now "BUSTED".

Do cats really hide when they are about to die ?

Xiaomi ₹1 Flash deals

JUNO - a spacecraft which is going to reveal the secrets of JUPITER.

John Hanke - Person behind Pokemon Go and the company's idea

Where the idea came from

The Google split

Working with The Pokemon Company

Hangouts for Android now supports video messaging

Increase your facebook privacy

Phone number

Pokémon Go steals privacy

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