Night Hunter

UPDATE: Respawn has issued a fix for the account reset issue introduced in update 1.1. Evidently, the bug was caused by a simple server discrepancy. After downloading the update, players were mistakenly put onto the wrong servers which didn't have their progression saved, so naturally, nothing showed up on their accounts. "Fortunately, your progress up until the update was still safe and sound," Respawn said in a Reddit post. "We shut down all live servers so we could remove players from the wrong place and roll up the correct servers with your progress. Once we confirmed internally that we had fixed the issue we started rolling out the right servers starting with Xbox and staggered the updates to PS4 and PC." "Any in-game purchases and progress acquired during the time between 1.1 going live and the fix will be reverted - levels earned, items unlocked, packs opened, and spent currency," Respawn added. "If you continued to play and didn't patch then this will not affect you." Source https://www.gamesradar.com/apex-legends-reset-bug/

Ethiopian aviation authorities discussed a preliminary report on the Ethiopian Airlines crash at a press conference Thursday, concluding that the pilots did everything they were trained to do to regain control of the plane. The main takeaways are as follows: Software may have played a role in the crash: The automated anti-stall software called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) is under suspicion. No sign yet of a problem with the sensor: Although it doesn't rule out a possibly faulty sensor, a top Ethiopian accident investigator said Thursday they have not identified any damage to the aircraft's sensors that could have contributed to the crash. MCAS training didn't appear to help prevent the crash: Overall, Ethiopian aviation authorities are making it clear that pilot error does not appear to be an issue in the crash and the pressure is now on Boeing to ensure the 737 Max is safe. 9:10 a.m. ET, April 4, 2019 Aviation expert: The FAA has blown its reputation CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo has criticized the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its oversight of Boeing. The FAA has come in for criticism for its role in approving the Boeing 737 Max aircraft that were involved in fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Schiavo questioned the quality of the FAA's oversight of Boeing and claimed that the administration's previous reputation for excellence has been tarnished. "The FAA has finally blown that image," said Schiavo. There should be triple redundancy for different systems to ensure safety, said Schiavo, but the MCAS software systems aboard both crashed Max 8s were fed by only one angle of attack (AOA) sensor. Schiavo claims this reliance on just one sensor begs the question as to why Boeing didn't originally build the planes with two AOA sensors, and why the FAA did not require it. Another issue with the 737 Max is its tendency to point slightly upward due to the use of larger engines which altered its aerodynamics compared to previous 737s. Boeing tried to remedy this using the MCAS software, but Schiavo questioned why the FAA approved a software fix for the issue. "Why was MCAS put in to solve what looks like a center of gravity problem, a pitch up problem?" she said. 8:33 a.m. ET, April 4, 2019 'The onus is on Boeing' -- Quest During a press conference Thursday, Ethiopian investigators looking into the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March said the pilots were qualified and operated the plane as Boeing intended, even down to trying to override an anti-stall software known as MCAS. CNN anchor and aviation expert Richard Quest believes that Boeing is under pressure following the press conference, despite its excellent reputation. "The focus does turn firmly, fairly and squarely onto Boeing," said Quest. Boeing has a superb reputation, he added, but the MCAS system was an "operating force" in both the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes and the company has to "restore confidence in their planes." "The onus is on Boeing." 7:46 a.m. ET, April 4, 2019 Still no sign of a published report Hours after this morning's press conference there has still been no news on when the preliminary crash report on the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people in March will be published. "Boeing will be reviewing the published report as it is released," said company spokesman Peter Pedraza on Thursday. The Ethiopian Accident Information Bureau told CNN it had given the report to Boeing on Monday. In an earlier press conference on Thursday, Ethiopian investigators announced the findings of the preliminary report, but it has not yet been published. At the time CNN anchor and aviation expert Richard Quest described the move as "unusual." "We are slightly taking their word for what they are saying is in the report," Quest said. CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien believes the 737 Max fleet should have been grounded before the Ethiopian Airlines crash. O'Brien said there was enough information for Boeing to ground the planes in the aftermath of the Lion Air accident, also involving a 737 Max 8 jet, in October 2018. That plane crashed into the sea off Indonesia shortly after take off, killing 189 people, and some similarities have been discovered with the Ethiopian Airlines crash. "Why wasn't the aircraft grounded then?" he asked. Source https://edition.cnn.com/africa/live-news/ethiopian-airlines-black-box-report/index.html

WASHINGTON — Boeing confirmed April 2 it will delay the uncrewed test flight of its commercial crew vehicle, citing a tight schedule and conflicts with another launch. In a statement to SpaceNews, Boeing said the first flight of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, called the Orbital Flight Test, is now scheduled for August on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral, Florida. That launch had been scheduled for this spring. In the statement, Boeing said it had entered the "final phases of production" of the Starliner that will fly that uncrewed test flight. "Our Starliner team continues to press toward a launch readiness date later this spring," the company said, which also included the completion of a final set of testing milestones. Related: Get an Up-Close Look at Boeing's New CST-100 Starliner Spaceship (Photos) Boeing, though, said the issue was a pad conflict with the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) 5 military communications satellite, scheduled to launch in late June on another Atlas V from the same pad. Boeing said they had only a two-day launch window in May available for the Starliner launch before they would have to stand down for the AEHF-5 launch. "In order to avoid unnecessary schedule pressure, not interfere with a critical national security payload, and allow appropriate schedule margin to ensure the Boeing, United Launch Alliance and NASA teams are able to perform a successful first launch of Starliner, we made the most responsible decision available to us and will be ready for the next launch pad availability in August," the company said. That delay will, in turn, push back the second test flight of the vehicle, which had been scheduled for no earlier than August. Boeing said that, even with the delay in the uncrewed test, it expects to carry out that crewed test flight, which will carry two NASA astronauts and Boeing test pilot Chris Ferguson, "later this year." That's likely to be no earlier than November, according to industry sources. NASA last published the schedule of commercial crew test flights Feb. 6, despite statements last fall by the agency that it would update schedules "approximately monthly" as the test flights approached. Since that last update, SpaceX carried out its first commercial crew mission, the uncrewed Demo-1 test flight, launching March 2 and returning to Earth six days later. That most recent schedule called for a crewed flight test of SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle, carrying two NASA astronauts, in July. That date is also expected to slip, although neither NASA nor SpaceX have provided an update on the schedule for that mission or the status of reviews of the Demo-1 test flight. Despite the delays, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said April 2 he believed crewed test flights would take place this year. "We are in the midst of watching commercial crew continue to show advancements," he said in opening remarks at a House Science Committee hearing about the agency's fiscal year 2020 budget request. "By the end of this year, we will be launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil to the International Space Station." Source https://www.space.com/boeing-delays-starliner-test-flights.html

A new Apex Legends update went live today—about 45 minutes ago as I write this, in case you're curious—bringing with it some changes, some fixes, some secret anti-cheat improvements, and, finally, the ability the reconnect with the rando squad from your last match. Unfortunately, with the good news comes the bad: There is apparently an issue that's resetting the progress of some accounts, and Respawn recommends that players do not buy or craft anything until it's cleared up. s for the actual patch notes, I think the new "Last Squad" option is the big one for me. More than once I've finished a pickup match with friendly, easy-going, skilled players, and thought to myself, "I'd really like to play with them again—if only I could remember their names." Following the update, buttons will appear on the lobby screen at the end of a match that will give you the ability to invite the players from your previous match into your squad. Invites can be sent separately, in case one of your rando squaddies was cool and the other was a jerk, and you can choose to opt out of the system entirely if you don't want to be bothered. Here's the rest: Quality of Life: Additional behind-the-scenes improvements for squashing cheaters. Added Mute button during the intro and Legend selection. When using the Report Player button for PC, you now have the option of selecting Cheat or Other. Added informative messages that appear on PC for crashes due to running out of memory or CPU errors best explained by overclocking/overheating. Added better collision to the turrets on Supply Ships. Stability fixes to all platforms. Bug Fixes: Fixed issue where the Battle Pass rewards page would not have a default item selected, resulting in a mostly blank page. Fixed bug for PS4 and X1 where sometimes attempting to use a keyboard to chat could cause a fatal script error. Fixed bug with Banner Cards not showing up during and at the end of a match. Jump Pad Phase Walk Interactions: Octane’s Jump Pad no longer affects players when using Into the Void ability. The Apex Legends 1.1 update is live now, and you'll need to download and install it through Origin before you can play. You may want to wait on that, though, given the current troubles: We'll let you know when Respawn sounds the all clear. Source https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-11-update-is-live-but-may-be-resetting-player-accounts/

Gearbox confirmed Borderlands 3's existence at its PAX East panel today, as well as calling 2019 "The Year of Borderlands." We managed to learn quite a bit from the Mask of Mayhem teaser, but the trailer accompanying the announcement—take a look above—is considerably meatier and chock-full of action and character reveals. Along with giving us our first proper look at the four new Vault Hunters, including a new Siren with fancy magic arms and a big robot fella, the trailer speeds through the roster of new and returning friends and foes from across the previous games. It's a lot to digest. Old Vault Hunters are returning, and yes, Claptrap is back, along with that guy you buy guns from and a bunch of spin-off characters. If they didn't die in the other games, there's a good chance you'll see them. Beyond the characters, the highlight is obviously the news that Borderlands 3 won't be restricted to one planet. Most of the games have been set on Pandora (the Pre-Sequel was on its moon) but the trailer shows off a bunch of distinct worlds that we'll be able to visit. And then fill with bullet holes. It wouldn't be Borderlands without an obscene number of weapons, and it looks like 3 won't disappoint. More than a billion guns, apparently, which is just ridiculous. Obviously they're not bespoke, but that's still a lot of firepower exploding out of enemy corpses. Source https://www.pcgamer.com/watch-the-first-gameplay-trailer-for-borderlands-3/

it's free for the weekend on Steam. Go build a utopia, or flood an entire city with poo. You've got until Monday to create your own city, which is plenty of time—just don't expect to do anything else this weekend. If it gets its hooks into you, the base game and DLC are all on sale, too. You can get Skylines and the Deluxe Edition for 75 percent off, while the DLC is 50 percent off, aside from Industrial and Synthetic Radio DLC, which have both been discounted by 20 percent. Out of all the DLC, Mass Transit and After Dark are probably the most indispensable, adding loads of transport options and districts. I'm also rather partial to Park Life, which lets you build custom parks, theme parks and zoos. It's a lovely palate cleanser after building a gross, smoggy dystopia. We've written a lot about Skylines since it launched four years ago—it's sold six million copies in that time—including what happens when four players try to run one city. There were casualties. Source https://www.pcgamer.com/cities-skylines-is-free-this-weekend/

An alarming new report says that the two fatal Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes which killed almost 350 people were missing safety features which were sold as optional extras by the manufacturer, and not included as standard. As entire fleets of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft remain grounded across the globe amid investigations into safety practices at the airline giant, details have emerged about missing safety features, including additional sensors that would have operated as fail safes for the existing ones on board the aircraft and alerted the pilots to any potential issues. The “angle of attack (AOA) disagree” light warns the pilot when the plane is about to stall based on factors such as the airflow and nose direction, but this does not come as standard when airlines purchase the aircraft. Another missing feature was the AOA indicator which gives pilots a visual representation of the airflow relative to the aircraft’s nose. The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) is designed to detect an imminent stall and adjust the plane’s stabilizers to pitch the nose forward to increase airspeed, thus preventing a stall. However, when this is improperly timed, it can be fatal. To make matters worse, another anti-stall system that does come as standard on the Boeing 737 Max planes reportedly only used one sensor at a time despite having two. Had the additional sensors been fitted and in use, the pilots could potentially have overridden the MCAS and prevented the tragic loss of life. In response to the tragedies involving Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10 and Lion Air Flight 610 five months earlier, Boeing will add the AOA disagree light as an update by the end of April, a source told the New York Times, and both sensors will operate by default. The AOA indicator will still be considered an optional extra, however. Boeing charges extra for things ranging from superficial things like leather seats to back-up fire extinguishers. Brazilian carrier Gol Airlines reportedly paid $6,700 extra for crew oxygen masks, and $11,900 for a weather radar system control panel. Former Boeing engineers have reported that the company may have misled the Federal Aviation Authority about the efficacy of and risk associated with the MCAS, adding that Boeing didn’t have any external oversight for the aircraft’s safety certification. Source https://www.rt.com/news/454489-boeing-737-max-optional-extras/

Russia has entered a new space competition, according to the head of the country's space agency, Roscosmos. The new “competition” is focused on manned space flight and deep space exploration. “Now we are entering a new stage of a certain competition with leading space powers, related to future manned programs, including in deep space,” Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said Friday. Rogozin also revealed that he recently talked to the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev and discussed the details of the Moon program and specifications of payloads needed for that. Given the complexity of space exploration any “space race” – contemporary or the one belonging to the Cold War era – is actually a sort of “cooperative competition,” Nathan Eysmont, chief fellow at Russian Institute of Space Studies, believes. “It doesn’t mean that everybody is working with their elbows and racing somewhere to be the first one. It might be surprising, but without cooperation there won’t be any competition altogether,” Eysmont told RT. The first Russian cosmonauts are expected to walk on the surface of the Earth's only natural satellite by 2030. The Moon program involves development of a super-heavy lifter and landing/ take-off module. Ahead of the much anticipated Moon mission itself, Roscosmos will need to perform a number of test launches, including of a Don-type super-heavy carrier rocket. The Don-type rocket is expected to be able to carry a payload of a whopping 130 tons to the low Earth orbit and up to 32 tons to the orbit of the Moon. The manned mission to the Moon will be also preceded by a launch of a, yet-unnamed, lunar module. Aside from performing the Moon mission, Rogozin mulled establishing a permanent base on the satellite last year. The base, if it comes to fruition, will be inhabited by remotely-controlled “avatar” robots, according to the Roscosmos chief. Source https://www.rt.com/russia/454498-russia-deep-space-race/

Hello, nice to see you mate!. Welcome!

March's full moon is a special one. Not only is it a slightly larger than the usual "supermoon," but it also will mark the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and fall in the Southern Hemisphere. The exact moment the “Super Worm Moon” turns full is Wednesday (March 20) at 9:43 p.m. EDT (0143 GMT on March 21), just 4 hours after the vernal equinox. That's when day and night on Earth are the same length, signaling the changing of the seasons. The full moon will also happen just one day after it reaches its closest point to Earth in its elliptical or oval-shaped orbit, making it a supermoon since it appears a little larger than the typical full moon. (But at only 10 percent larger than usual, don't expect to see a big difference.) Luckily for sky observers, the moon is very easy to spot – even if you are in an area with a lot of lights. It will be visible in the constellation Virgo. The moon will rise about 7 p.m. local time on Wednesday and remain visible through the night, setting around 7:30 a.m. on Thursday (March 21), according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. There's no need to use fancy equipment – the moon is visible with your bare eyes – but if you have binoculars or a telescope, you might be able to pick out some features on the surface. However, it's easier to spot craters and mountains when the moon is in partial shadow and shadows around these features are visible on the surface. If it's cloudy or too cold to go outside, you're also covered with virtual webcasts. The Virtual Telescope Project will host the supermoon rising above the famous monuments of Rome starting on Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT). The event is run in conjunction with the Dark Skies for All project of the International Astronomical Union, an initiative to promote awareness about light pollution and advocate for solutions to keep the sky dark for astronomy. The full broadcast will run at https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/ Slooh will also broadcast live coverage on Wednesday starting at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT). Slooh's resident storyteller, Helen Avery, will do a broadcast from Stonehenge — a famous World Heritage Site featuring stone pillars, and a traditional gathering spot for the equinox. Also on the show will be astrophotographer Mike Shaw, as well as Slooh hosts Paul Cox and Paige Godfrey. Source https://www.space.com/super-worm-moon-equinox-webcasts.html

cuz hes an uber nub :)) <33

Ubisoft is taking a new approach to deal with Rainbow Six Siege's teamkilling problem. In a new blog post, Ubi detailed the new rules going into testing. Instead of kicking players after two teamkills, all damage dealt to the offender after the first teamkill will be reversed onto them. If the teamkill was truly an accident, the victim is able to "forgive" and not activate a penalty. "The goal of this system is to contain the impact of players abusing the friendly fire mechanic, while maintaining a degree of flexibility for accidents," reads the post. When the reverse damage mechanic was first tested in the last test server, some players worried it was too harsh a punishment for a truly accidental teamkill. The piece of the puzzle that seemed to be missing was the forgive option. Players have been asking for a forgive option for years, but Ubi has been strangely silent on the subject until recently. For the pure of heart who don't teamkill on purpose, the changes shouldn't have much of an impact for you. With the status quo, a griefer could get away with two TKs before being booted from the match. Now, the griefer will get one kill in, assumedly be unforgiven, and no longer be able to cause harm to anyone but themselves. This also goes for gadget damage, apparently. If reverse damage is active and you shoot a teammate with a shock drone, the damage is reversed onto the drone, not the user. I'd really like to see a shock drone suddenly self destruct. The new system leaves a significant loophole for griefing still open: Caveira. With her Luison pistol that sends players into DBNO, she can down all of her teammates before leaving the match and losing the round. Because of this exploit, some think reverse damage should activate after a certain amount of friendly damage is inflicted, not complete teamkills. I'm a little mixed on the new rules. It's great that griefers can't do as much damage anymore, but it also feels like their behavior is going unpunished in the long term. I'd rather kick a griefer and be down one player than be distracted by their shenanigans. Ubi's plan for penalties is a bit wishy washy under the new rules. "We will continue to track team kills, and we may issue appropriate sanctions after multiple offenses." The "may" does a lot of work there. Without a clear-cut ban for multiple TKs, Ubi is possibly obfuscating what a real griefer looks like in their data. Unless someone looks very closely, it might be hard to properly punish someone that is griefing in every match. I guess the devs are hoping reverse damage ruins the fun of being a jerk, but I wouldn't count on that. Ubi will be testing the new teamkill system on the test server and iterate based on feedback before releasing on the live servers. The devs seem pretty confident in what they've got here, so I don't foresee many changes before it's live. Source https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-is-finally-letting-rainbow-six-siege-players-forgive-teamkills/

Generation Zero, Avalanche's sandbox FPS, is breaking out of the '80s and launching next week, and you can get a taste of what you'll need to do to survive—walk around the Swedish countryside shooting robots, mostly—in the new trailer. Come launch, you'll be able to join up to three mates in the digital Swedish countryside, now home to deadly, roving robots. There's a hint of survival, with weapons and supplies waiting to be discovered inside abandoned buildings, but it's all in an effort to get tough enough to take down the big machines. Samuel called it "a fun but simple co-op FPS" in his Generation Zero preview, but I found myself bouncing off the beta very quickly. I didn't bring any friends along for the ride—you can play alone if you want—and found myself quickly getting tired of hoofing it across the mostly empty countryside looking for robots to shoot. Comparisons have been drawn to the work of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag. Among other things, Stålenhag created Tales from the Loop, a collection of art and stories set in a alternate '80s Sweden where the mundane is juxtaposed to huge robots, monolithic factories and other sci-fi elements. It's since been turned into a tabletop RPG, and a TV show is also in the works. Avalanche claims it wasn't inspired by Tales from the Loop, but the broad strokes do seem similar. Generation Zero is a lot more understated, however. You'd never know it was set in the '80s from the trailers, and aside from the robots, the Swedish countryside looks pretty much how you'd expect. Generation Zero is due out on Steam on March 26. Source https://www.pcgamer.com/generation-zero-launch-trailer-shows-off-loads-of-monstrous-robots/

There exist shady corners of the web where malware runs rampant, and even if you make an effort to avoid them, you may find yourself somewhere unsafe anyway as the result of a redirect and/or a hijacked website. Hey, it happens. To help deal with that, Microsoft is porting its Defender Application Guard extension for Edge over to Chrome and Firefox. There's a catch, though. Defender Application Guard is a container technology to isolate browsing sessions—and some of the nasty things that may come with it—from the operating system. This is otherwise known as a sandbox, which browsers like Chrome already use to a certain extent. Microsoft's extension is a more restrictive sandbox. It's also tied to its Edge browser, so those secure browsing sessions initiated by the extension don't actually take place in Chrome or Firefox. "When users navigate to a site, the extension checks the URL against a list of trusted sites defined by enterprise administrators. If the site is determined to be untrusted, the user is redirected to an isolated Microsoft Edge session. In the isolated Microsoft Edge session, the user can freely navigate to any site that has not been explicitly defined as trusted by their organization without any risk to the rest of system," Microsoft explains. It works essentially the same way it does in Edge, because the extension is still relying on Edge rather than creating an actual barrier in Chrome or Firefox. That said, it does feature a dynamic switching capability. "If the user tries to go to a trusted site when in an isolated Microsoft Edge session, the user is taken back to the default browser," Microsoft says. Microsoft is currently testing the extension in its Windows Insider program and expects to make it generally available "very soon" to Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise users. Windows 10 Home users will not have the same option. It's not clear if this will seamlessly port over to the new version of Edge, once Microsoft guts its browser and rebuilds it atop Chromium, the open source code that Google's own Chrome browser is based on. Source https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-is-developing-defender-security-extensions-for-chrome-and-firefox/