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Software glitch let 3,200 US prison inmates out early
Washington's Department of Corrections has been forced to admit that around three percent of the prison population has been released early since 2002. The issue, which was admitted yesterday by Governor Jay Inslee, surrounds a software glitch that's been incorrectly calculating the duration of inmates sentences. According to the Seattle Times, a Supreme Court ruling mandated that good time credits should be used to reduce prison terms. When the DoC's computer systems were amended to take that into consideration, however, there was an inaccurate calculation of how long a good time credit was. Unfortunately, it wasn't until 2012 when the family of a victim raised the issue of a prisoner's release, that the department became aware.
'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5' quietly comes to PS3 and Xbox 360
The previous-gen versions of Activision's poorly received Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 are quietly launching this week. Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games were due out November 13th, but have only hit the US today. Physical and digital versions are available in the US, while the UK launch appears to be digital only.
No, your Instagram account wasn't hacked earlier today
A host of Instagram users were logged out of the app earlier today, causing varying degrees of panic that their accounts had been hacked. Fret not! It turns out that no one was hacked, but rather a bug was the culprit. Users reported being logged out of the app with the error message that their password had been changed. Yes, cue panic. Instagram says that the app "experienced a bug" that triggered the action and inaccurate error notification. If you were affected by the glitch, you should be able to log back in, but it make take a bit longer than usual to do so. Instagram also confirmed that no passwords were actually changed as a result of the hiccup. Whew.[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Microsoft working on fix for phones borked by Windows 10 update
When Microsoft released Windows 10 Mobile build 10536 to Insider users earlier this week, it probably didn't expect it to break user's phones. It did. Turns out,the update was only meant for certain devices, but a device check glitch allowed non-support devices to see, download and apply the new build. That's bad -- but Microsoft is trying to fix it.
Quantum VJ puts a glitchy audio visualizer around your neck
Do pendants and other wearable ornaments lack pizzazz for you? Alexander Zolotov has a way to spice things up... if you're fond of 8-bit graphics gone haywire, at least. His Quantum VJ is small enough to hang around your neck, but clever enough to turn audio into wonderfully glitchy visuals on its 128 x 64 OLED display. As you'll see below, the result is at once modest yet mesmerizing -- plug in some tunes and you'll have a tiny, synchronized light show several inches away from your face. It runs for 20 hours on a typical coin-sized battery, too, so it can distract passers-by all day long. This is currently a one-of-a-kind device that doesn't even have video out, but Zolotov tells The Creators Project that future models might have output. If so, you may one day have a dance party backdrop dangling around your chest.
Trading stopped on New York Stock Exchange due to 'technical issue' (update)
It has been quite a day for tech problems. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange was halted due to a "technical issue" at around 11:30 AM ET this morning. On its status page, the NYSE posted that all trading had been suspended and any open orders would be cancelled -- with a more detailed explanation to follow. A NYSE spokesperson told Forbes that the stoppage came after the exchange "experienced a technical issue" that it's "working to resolve as quickly as possible." An hour before trading stopped, the NYSE reported a problem had been fixed concerning order acknowledgements and connectivity issues. NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex/Arca Options appear to be untouched by the larger issue as they are continuing to operate normally.
'Batman: Arkham Knight' for PCs pulled because of glitches
If you've been holding off from buying Batman: Arkham Knight for Windows due to reports of numerous performance issues, low quality textures and glitches, its publisher Warner Brother Games agrees. That's why it's pulling the game from sale "while we work to address these issues to satisfy our quality standards." If you've already purchased it you can still play, but in a forum post the team mentioned people can go to Steam or retail locations where they purchased the game for a refund. A couple of days ago, Warner made some suggestions on how users could get the game to run better, but those don't seem to help much. Right now, the game is showing a "Mostly Negative" review status on Steam with 8,700 reviews logged -- while it's certainly not the first bad PC port, hopefully this embarrassing episode will make it one of the last. (We can hope, right?)
Technical error prevents US from issuing passports and visas overseas
A technical issue has halted the State Department's issuing of passports and visas from its overseas offices. According to the department's guidance, anyone that applied for a passport from outside the US after May 26th is affected by the problem, the root of which is unclear. Simultaneously, but apparently separate to the passport issue, visa applications made on or after June 9th are not able to be processed. At least this time, the department has pinpointed the problem: a hardware failure is preventing biometric clearance requests from making their way to database for processing. In a statement given to The Hill, a spokeswoman said there was "no evidence the problem is cyber security related."
'Ultra Street Fighter IV' for PlayStation 4 has big issues
Turns out the PS4 port of Street Fighter IV isn't all that Ultra. Sony secured a next-gen exclusive for the fighting game and its sequel, but its release has been marred by complaints. The internet is awash with reports of severe slowdown in menus, moves not working as they're supposed to, sound glitches and bizarre visual bugs. Although we haven't noticed some of the more egregious issues, the game does appear to have some input lag, which is a massive problem for a title that is all about timing. The entire thing feels like you're playing online with a weak connection right now.
American Airlines flights delayed because of iPad app glitch
A couple of years ago, American Airlines swapped out its pilots' "flight bag" for iPads loaded with the terminal charts and other reference materials they're required to carry. Losing the 35 lbs of materials for a tablet (some 8,000 of them) was a good tradeoff, but tonight an apparent glitch is grounding some of the airline's flights. American Airlines confirmed the issue in a statement to Engadget, saying "Some flights are experiencing an issue with a software application on pilot iPads", and that some of the flights had to return to the gate for a WiFi connection to fix the issue. According to the Dallas Morning News several dozen flights are affected, although it's not clear what caused the glitch.
'Halo' tournament canceled because Xbox One game is still broken
Halo: Combat Evolved may have been one of the first console shooters to hit the competitive gaming circuit but a recent tournament was derailed because almost six months later, The Master Chief Collection is still broken. The official Halo eSports league, Halo Championship Series, had to cancel the first online cup of the regular season over the weekend due to connectivity issues. Seriously. As Eurogamer reports, games took place on Saturday but went off the rails on Sunday for the competition's conclusion.
Pelicans' Holiday is T-Rexing in NBA 2K15 glitch video
We're fairly certain that New Orleans Pelicans basketball player Jrue Holiday has perfectly functional arms in real life. As demonstrated by YouTube user wEEman33, it appears that NBA 2K15 disagrees. As seen in the video shared shared above, a recent glitch in the game caused Holiday's arms to seemingly retreat into his body following a server-side update to its MyTeam mode, leaving his hands to jut out from his shoulders like fish fins with opposable thumbs. To make matters worse, the shirtless Holiday was also missing part of his torso and occasionally disappeared, but none of it stopped him from sinking multiple three-point shots. According to Operation Sports, the special armless "Sapphire" version of Holiday no longer exists, as Visual Concepts issued a patch to squash the bug yesterday. 2K Sports' basketball game is no stranger to horrifying glitches; NBA 2K15's face-scanning feature resulted in numerous monstrosities for created players. The publisher had fun with the issue, offering fans Halloween masks based on the face-scan glitch to print out and wear. [Image: 2K Sports]
OS X Spotlight Search glitch can expose your IP address and other details to spammers
If you use Spotlight Search and the OS X Mail application, you should take a moment to look at your settings. A recently uncovered glitch in Spotlight Search for OS X may leak private information, such as your IP address, to email spammers. The glitch causes Spotlight's preview functionality to ignore Mail's remote content settings, meaning it can unintentionally transmit data to some email senders. The glitch has been tested and confirmed by IDG News Service. When an email is shown in the preview window of Spotlight Search it also loads images shown in the email, even if Mail's "load remote content in messages" setting is turned off. Some email spammers include tracking pixels in their messages, which send information back to the spammer when they're loaded. At the moment the only way to fix the glitch is to turn off "Mail & Messages" in your Spotlight settings. You can find these settings in the System Preferences of your Mac.
The Daily Grind: What's an underrated MMO feature that needs love?
Lost now to the ages (at least until player teams finish rebuilding the game) is the crafting system of Glitch, a wee and sunsetted indie MMORPG dismissed out of hand by those who cluelessly believe browser-MMOs without ultrarealistic gore are for grandmas. But Glitch's crafting system was way ahead of its time, with hyperlinking inside every crafting panel so that you never, ever needed to fumble and backtrack or switch tools or count mats to make anything. Hardcore crafters might not have been entirely impressed with the economy, but the crafting process itself was damn smooth. I can think of lots of underrated features in some other MMOs. City of Heroes' sidekicking has trickled into a handful of games, for example, but its group-and-instance difficulty scaling feature has seldom been seen since. Yet it ensured that groups of all sizes and class-makeups and skill-levels could always tackle content. It was a brilliant way to capture a varied playerbase ranging from casuals to powergamers, and yet no one else is even bothering to try it. What other underrated MMO features really deserve some love and copypastaing in the genre? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Eleven alpha tester: Game is 'identical to Glitch'
"Incredible! I didn't expect it to be identical to Glitch, which it is." So sayeth one of Eleven's select few alpha testers, some of whom posted testimonials on the site about their experience. While a second tester cited "overwhelming" nostalgia, others were more critical of bugs, reloads, and generic visuals. The fan remake of Glitch has more than doubled its alpha test pool, from 13 to 31 players, and continues to advance the project as a whole. "This has been a great success, with many improvements being made to help improve the stability and experience while some other work is ongoing in order to bring over some more features," the devs said.
Amazon UK glitch sells thousands of products for a penny
Christmas is always an expensive time of year, but for some lucky Brits ordering gifts on Amazon, the festive celebrations may have kicked off a little early. You see, between 7pm and 8pm last Friday, listings on the website were affected by a price glitch, which discounted thousands of marketplace products to the insanely low price of 1p. However, Amazon wasn't directly to blame; the temporary price crash was actually triggered by Repricer Express, a service that third-party sellers use to automatically adjust their prices. The problem was quickly rectified though and Amazon says it cancelled the "vast majority" of purchases that did go through. Now that the dust has settled, the company is reviewing the transactions that were processed and says it'll follow up with disgruntled sellers directly, some of which have taken orders for stock worth tens of thousands of pounds. In other words, if you did manage to snap up an incredible penny bargain, it could soon be overturned, and if you were oblivious to the Friday night frenzy, you can now rest a little easier.
Steam auction on hold after users find exploit, pilfer online currency (updated)
Valve's Steam Holiday Auction was supposed to bring users together to swap community items and bid on games, but things seem to have gone horribly wrong. The idea was to acquire Steam "gems" by trading cards and other objects then use them to bid on nearly 2,000 games. Unfortunately, some Reddit users noticed that certain accounts were showing billions of gems (worth thousands of dollars of auction value) in a very short time, possibly obtained by exploiting a site glitch. That prompted Valve to shut down the site and post a notice saying "there have been some issues with Gems and the Steam Holiday Auction is temporarily closed."
Steam Holiday Auction in a gem of a jam, temporarily closed [update]
Update [1.45PM ET]: Valve's updated the Holiday Auction page, announcing the auction will return "shortly." The event will be reset and Gems will return to inventories. The note reads: We apologize for the interruption. The Yeti has been contained. We had an issue with Gems that means we need to reset and start again. All Gems created by you will be returned to your inventory All Gem purchases from the Community Market will be reimbursed All Auction bids have been canceled and the Auction will be reset Trades involving Gems are being investigated on a case-by-case basis Original Story: Steam launched its "Holiday Auction" overnight, promising that 100 copies of nearly 2,000 games would go up for grabs. However, things got off to a rocky start, and Valve "temporarily closed" the event mere hours after it begun, amid suspected exploits. Valve's official line is "there have been some issues with Gems," these being the currency users put forward to bid on each round of auctions. You create Gems by "recycling" Steam community items like Steam trading cards, backgrounds and so on. Gems can also be used to create trading card booster packs. The auctions run across December 15-18, with the highest bidder in each round winning that game while all other bids carry over to the next round. We've approached Valve for further word on why the auction was closed, but multiple Reddit threads outline a duplication glitch that screwed up the economy. Going by user reports, the bug allowed various opportunists to earn huge amounts of Gems, which in turn drove down the price of Gems to minuscule amounts.
Eleven (the Glitch resurrection project) is moving into alpha
It's been two years since Glitch shut down, and there are two possible responses to that. The first is to be sad that the MMO landscape lost an attractive, quirky, interesting little game. The second is to be quite happy because Eleven, the project that seeks to restore the original functionality of Glitch with a new team as a labor of love, is entering its alpha test phase. How awesome is that? The first phase of testing is not a particularly large one: The amount of functional stuff in the game is tiny, and only 13 people are getting let in for test purposes. But it does mean that the project is moving along, and those lucky 13 people are going to get to play a game whose fans have been mourning ever since its shutdown. It's also a project done with Tiny Speck's blessing, ensuring that a successful alpha test now is the first step toward opening the doors of this world once more.
Report: Destiny DLC countdown locking out players on PS4
The PlayStation 4 version of Bungie's online multiplayer FPS Destiny is currently unplayable for a handful of users who have purchased the upcoming expansion The Dark Below, reports from Reddit indicate. When booting up Destiny after purchasing the content, affected users see a timer counting down to the launch of The Dark Below. The screen reportedly prevents players from starting the game or accessing existing Destiny content. Reddit user Grit45 confirms that deleting and re-installing Destiny fixed the issue in their case. While others remain locked out of the game even after restoring their PS4 system licenses, the issue could potentially resolve itself when the countdown concludes and The Dark Below launches on December 9 at 1:00 a.m. PST. [Image: RamiBlack]
