Koby

Disney is enlisting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as the company prepares to launch its upcoming streaming service. The entertainment giant is in early development on an ambitious plan for a number of limited series centered on popular characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These series will likely include shows centered on Loki and the Scarlet Witch, along with other beloved superheroes who have yet to appear in their own standalone movies. There’s an important distinction from other Marvel small screen efforts, however. The actors who portrayed these heroes and villains in the Avengers films and their spin-offs, such as Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen, are expected to play them in the streaming shows. Moreover, though sources close to the production are staying mum on the cost of the programming, the budgets are expected to be hefty rivaling those of a major studio productions. Each series is expected to include six to eight episodes. Marvel Studios will produce the shows and Kevin Feige, the guru of all things MCU, is expected to take a hands-on role in their development. The pricey gamble with one of the crown jewels of the Disney film empire is a sign of how much the company has riding on its direct-to-consumer platform. As companies such as Netflix and Amazon continue to grow their user base, Disney is trying to find a way to establish a toehold in the streaming revolution upending Hollywood. The company has kept the details of the service close to the vest, beyond saying that it will likely cost less than Netflix and will launch at some point in late 2019. Disney has already started to unwind its licensing deals in order to put as much premium content on the platform as possible. That’s meant that the company is forfeiting billions of dollars in profit, as well as shouldering the cost of developing the technology. The company has announced a number of high-profile projects, including a Star Wars series overseen by “Jungle Book” director Jon Favreau, a show based on “High School Musical,” and a live-action “Lady and the Tramp” film. The company also plans to offer several new releases when it launches, including its live-action “Dumbo” film and “Captain Marvel.” Many of these projects are expensive bets. The Star Wars series will reportedly cost $100 million and the movies are expected to carry budgets north of $25 million. However, Disney has to spend big to make an impression. Netflix, its main rival, has 125 million subscribers globally and has lured top talent like Ryan Murphy (“American Horror Story”), Kenya Barris (“Black-ish”), and Shonda Rhimes (“Grey’s Anatomy”) to its platform with record-setting deals. The Marvel series are in early development and writers have yet to be attached to the projects. Marvel TV Studios and Disney have been active with shows that include ABC’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and Netflix’s “Daredevil,” but sources say those shows will stay under Marvel TV banner with these limited series set under Marvel Studios. Storylines for each series are still being teased out, but Disney appears to be holding back some significant fire power for the big screen. Insiders stress the Avengers that have gotten their own movies like Iron Man and Captain America will not be featured in the series with the studios focusing on characters who have served as second tier characters in the MCU. When all is said and done, the Avengers shows could be the streaming service’s most ambitious project both in terms of their scope and budget. Most important, it gives the service something that will attract comic book fans and represents the type of content Netflix would love to get its hands on.

Netflix is set to produce a live-action series based on Nickelodeon’s mid-2000s animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and is bringing aboard original creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko as executive producers and showrunners. The new series will be made in partnership with Nickelodeon, with production to start next year. The original Avatar: The Last Airbender aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from February 2005-July 2008, winning an Emmy in 2017 and a Peabody Award among other honors. The series followed main protagonist Aang and his friends, who must save the world by defeating Fire Lord Ozai and ending the destructive war with the Fire Nation. A total of 61 episodes aired. “We’re thrilled for the opportunity to helm this live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender,” DiMartino and Konietzko said in a release announcing the project. “We can’t wait to realize Aang’s world as cinematically as we always imagined it to be, and with a culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build upon everyone’s great work on the original animated series and go even deeper into the characters, story, action, and world-building. Netflix is wholly dedicated to manifesting our vision for this retelling, and we’re incredibly grateful to be partnering with them.” The property has spawned a comic book and graphic novel series, and the home video compilation Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Complete Series is nearing $5 million in retail sales since its release earlier this year. “We are committed to honoring Bryan and Mike’s vision for this retelling and are thrilled to support them on creating a live-action event series, bringing Aang’s epic world of elemental magic to life for global audiences on Netflix,” said Netflix’s Melissa Cobb, VP Kids & Family Content. Source: Deadline

How so? Are you saying Apple products don't let you install other browsers or something?

Quantum seemed to be a bit faster to me than previous builds (especially since it ditched the heavy themed tab setup for a much lighter method), but uses roughly the same amount of ram, which is still less than 1/5 what Chrome uses in my case. I just find the extreme loss of users concerning... Considering as little as 3 years ago, more than 50% of internet users used FireFox and now it's barely in double digits. That is a major drop. On the other spectrum, Safari has seen a huge surge of users adopt it as their browser of choice, as it now sits at roughly 31%.

You apparently didn't read the thread as it has nothing to do with people using Edge, but rather about Microsoft trying to push it's use on people who are choosing other options. As for "no one uses Edge", actually quite a few people just stick to defaults for everything, including web browsers. As of the last consensus report in 2018, about 12% of people on the internet use either IE or Edge. Oddly enough, "best browser" FireFox has seen rapid declines in usage and is down to about 11% of internet users. So technically more people use Microsoft browsers than FireFox these days, despite FireFox arguably being the best option between the "big 3".

When I stop being lazy (and actually have the time to do it too) and apply the updates I'll check up to see when those actually expire and renew them. It's okay to let the themes subscription expire until updates are needed, but we need to maintain an active IPS subscription for the usage of the spam database & frequent security updates among other things.

Thanks guys/gals. Everyone appreciates your support. I've added you to the Donator group on the forum ( @Beave, since you were in Uploader, I added you as a secondary group, but if you'd prefer the purple tag as dominate I can swap em out just let me know). If y'all are on Discord or IRC let someone of rank know and they'll add you to the donator and/or voice ranks in those chans too.

"Microsoft no longer plans to include this warning in the upcoming Windows 10 October 2018 Update that will ship next month, but that the company may continue to test these types of prompts in future updates." So backing away for the moment, but not out of the game. "The company has also issued notifications to Chrome users in the past warning them that Google’s browser is “draining your battery fast.” LOL I hadn't even heard about this one, but damn... Microsoft also tried to force Windows 10 Mail users to use Edge for all email links, ignoring any default browser set in the operating system. This change was also tested with Windows 10 users and the feedback forced the company to rethink its plans. Wow... totally ignoring "default browser settings". Thankfully feedback made them reverse that change in the past. They seem determined to push their own products at every step of the way until pushed into the corner from backlash. Definitely doesn't seem like they care about the freedom of choice of their consumers.

uTorrent 3.x+ has a major security hole that allows people to access files on your computer among other things, and certain versions came pre-bundled with bitcoin miners. In any case, uTorrent 3.x and everything after has fully been banned at pretty much any torrent tracker that blacklists bad clients, including every private tracker I'm a member of.

I barely have time to watch shows I do enjoy, so if I'm not enjoying something I tend to drop it. If it's close to being done I'll sometimes power through it or run it in the background, but hell I've dropped some series where only a few episodes were left that I just couldn't bring myself to finishing before. Like Uraboku, I think I had like 6 of the 24 episodes left when I dropped it and a few where I was 8 out of 12 into it. This season I should have dropped Island, but every time I was ready to call the last episode, something somewhat interesting happened that made me continue on only to regret not dropping it... and now I'm 8 episodes into a 12 episode run and questioning why I haven't dropped it, lol.

When you try to install the Firefox or Chrome web browser on a recent Windows 10 version 1809 Insider build, you may notice that the installation gets interrupted by the operating system. The intermediary screen that interrupts the installation states that Edge is installed on the device and that it is safer and faster than the browser that the user was about to install on the device. Options provided are to open Microsoft Edge or install the other browser anyway. There is also an option to disable the warning type in the future but that leads to the Apps listing of the Settings application and no option to do anything about that. While there is certainly a chance that Microsoft is just testing things in preview versions of Windows, it is equally possible that such a setting will land in the next feature update for Windows 10. Companies like Google or Microsoft have used their market position in the past to push their own products. Google pushes Chrome on all of its properties when users use different browsers to connect to them, and Microsoft too displayed notifications on the Windows 10 platform to users who used other browsers that Edge was more secure or power friendly. The intercepting of installers on Windows is a new low, however. A user who initiates the installation of a browser does so on purpose. The prompt that Microsoft displays claims that Edge is safer and faster, and it puts the Open Microsoft Edge button on focus and not the "install anyway" button. It seems likely that such a prompt would result in higher than usual exits from installation if the intercepting prompt lands in stable versions of Windows. There is also a chance that Microsoft would push its own products when users attempt to install other products: think a third-party media player, screenshot tool, image editor, or text editor. While it seems that Microsoft plans to integrate an option to disable these "warnings", it remains to be seen how that will look like. Judging from the current implementation it will be opt-out which means that the intercepting prompts are displayed to all users by default who attempt third-party software installations. Again, this happens only in Windows 10 version 1809 on the Insider channel. Whether the intercepting will land in the soon to be released stable version of Windows 10 version 1809, the October 2018 Update, remains to be seen. Microsoft Edge is not doing so well despite the fact that it is the default web browser on Windows 10. Microsoft stated in 2017 that Edge usage had doubled but third-party usage tracking service still see the browser lag behind Chrome, Firefox and even Internet Explorer in usage share. Microsoft has released Edge for Android and the browser has been well received by Android users.

European Union lawmakers today adopted a revised negotiating position on a series of controversial copyright rules known as the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. European Parliament members voted 438 to 226 on the reforms that seek fair compensation for copyrighted material, but which still face opposition over concerns the regs could be a blow to a free and open internet. At the heart of what has been a heated debate are Articles 11 and 13. The former includes what has been dubbed by the opposition as a “link tax” whereby websites would pay a fee for printing excerpts of news stories or linking to them. Article 13 would make digital platforms, think YouTube and Facebook, liable for any copyright infringements on uploaded content, and could require a filter to block illegal postings. The copyright reform was originally put forth by the European Commission two years ago, but this past July, Parliament voted against, handing a temporary victory to Silicon Valley. Tweaks were made ahead of today’s vote including safeguards to protect small firms and freedom of expression. According to the European Parliament, many of the changes to the EU Commission’s original proposal aim to make certain that artists, notably musicians, performers and screenwriters, as well as news publishers and journalists, are paid for their work when it is used by sharing platforms and news aggregators. Among the chief positions are what is referred to as a strengthening of negotiating rights of authors and performers. Per the text, they will be enabled to claim additional remuneration from the party exploiting their rights when the remuneration originally agreed is disproportionately low compared to the benefits derived. These benefits should include indirect revenues and would empower authors and performers to revoke or terminate the exclusivity of an exploitation license for their work if the party holding the exploitation rights is deemed not to be exercising this right. Parliament’s position will also apply to snippets, where only a small part of a news publisher’s text is displayed. In practice, this liability requires these parties to pay right holders for copyrighted material that they make available. Parliament’s text also specifically requires that journalists themselves, and not just their publishing houses, benefit from remuneration stemming from this liability requirement. The text also includes provisions to ensure that copyright law is observed online without unfairly hampering freedom of expression. So, sharing hyperlinks to articles, together with “individual words” to describe them, will be free of copyright constraints. At the same time, in an attempt to encourage start-ups and innovation, the text now exempts small and micro platforms from the directive. Wikipedia and open source software platforms will likewise not be affected. During the recent Venice Film Festival, some 165 leading screenwriters and directors, including Jacques Audiard, Paolo Sorrentino Lázló Nemes and Pawel Pawlikowski, signed a petition calling on Parliament to adopt the latest version of the EU Copyright Directive. But earlier this week, YouTube’s Chief Business Officer weighed in saying that Article 13 risked “discouraging or even prohibiting platforms from hosting user-generated content.” After the vote today, MEP Axel Voss said, “I am convinced that once the dust has settled, the internet will be as free as it is today, creators and journalists will be earning a fairer share of the revenues generated by their works and we will be wondering what all the fuss was about.” Vocal Directive opponent and MEP Julia Reda who has nicknamed Article 13 #UploadFilters, tweeted her distaste for today’s decision and encouraged winning back the vote next spring. The European Commission, Parliament and Council will now enter trilogue discussions in order to adopt a definitive text which will then be voted again at Parliament. After that, it would be entered into law in the individual member states.

FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” spinoff “Mayans M.C.” premiered on September 4th and now ratings are in with the series premiere breaking multiple records. It was the most-watched cable series premiere of 2018, the most-watched series premiere on FX, and the highest-rated basic cable drama series premiere in Adults 18-49 since January 2016. The premiere averaged 6.8 million total viewers – including three encore runs and digital streaming. On top of that, the episode beat the numbers for the original “Sons of Anarchy” premiere by 46%. Set in a post-Jax Teller world, EZ Reyes (JD Pardo) is a prospect in the Mayan MC charter on the Cali/Mexi border. Now EZ must carve out his new outlaw identity in a town where he once was the golden boy who had the American Dream within his grasp. Edward James Olmos, Sarah Bolger, Clayton Cardenas, Richard Cabral, Michael Irby, Raoul Trujillo, Antonio Jaramillo and Carla Baratta star. The series has a ten-episode order for its first season. Episodes air on FX every Tuesday night.

Jesse Alexander, who replaced Bryan Fuller and Michael Green on the second season of the troubled series, has been asked to stop working on the Starz drama. Insiders say Alexander was asked to stop working on American Gods, an adaptation of a Neil Gaiman novel, about a month ago. The word "fired" was not used internally, and a representative for Alexander said that characterization was not accurate. But Alexander, an executive producer, is no longer working on the hyper-stylized drama as a writer or showrunner, and has been asked not to sit in on editing, be involved on set or participate in any other areas of production or post-production. One source described Alexander's role as effectively "fired but not fired,” as he has been relegated to the sidelines on season two but has yet to be replaced. Sources note that Fremantle, the show's studio, would rather exile Alexander than endure the negative attention that would come with dismissing a second showrunner in two seasons. Alexander turned in multiple drafts of the show's season two finale, but executives at both Starz and Fremantle have rejected those scripts and are up to what sources described as a seventh draft. Production on the drama, which is six weeks behind and recently was forced to go on a hiatus, is in disarray. Cast members have not received copies of the script for the show's season two finale because, as one source put it, "there is no script." Another source says it’s possible the crew has received a far-from-finished version of the finale script, but whatever has been partially distributed is almost guaranteed to go through extensive changes. Instead of shooting the season finale, which should have been in production already, American Gods has been filming pickups and re-shoots of earlier episodes. "We are all working very hard to make American Gods the series that its fans want and deserve," Alexander said in a statement to THR. Multiple sources cited ongoing friction between Starz and Fremantle, as well as efforts by author Gaiman to assert greater control over the drama, as the core sources of tension. Actors have been rewriting script pages, and Fremantle, which had hoped to trim the budget in the show's second season, is now spending frantically in order to simply finish the season. Due to all the issues that have bedeviled this saga of clashing deities, the second season of American Gods will not arrive until 2019 — two years after the first debuted to generally positive reviews. "American Gods has a deep and complex mythology and a unique visual style that makes this series one of the most ambitious productions on television, and one that we remain committed to delivering for our audience," a spokesperson for Starz said in a statement. "We are confident that when the fans get their first look at season two in just a few weeks at New York Comic-Con, they will agree it was worth the wait." Added Fremantle in its own statement: "We stand by our network partner's statement and share in their confidence that season two will exceed expectations. Our cast and crew are extremely passionate about the show and have delivered something that remains loyal to the source material and true to the creative vision of Neil Gaiman. We think fans will feel the same when we share a first look at New York Comic-Con in a few weeks.” "There are a lot of people who had a lot of different visions for what the book would look like on air," says one source with extensive knowledge of the show's history. There was conflict in the first season — much of it documented when Green and Fuller were fired in November 2017 — and if anything, things got worse in season two, multiple sources note. Starz largely let Fremantle run the show, but Fremantle's stable of programs are mostly in the reality realm, which made the stakes surrounding Gods — one of the studio's rare scripted programs — all the higher. Insiders say Fremantle meddled, and not in ways that helped the show sustain a coherent creative vision or keep the production on track. Stefanie Burk, a Gods executive producer and Fremantle executive who brought the show to the studio after a development attempt at HBO stalled, was characterized by one source as the "glue" holding the series together. However, Burk recently left Fremantle for a position at Film Nation. "I don't know which problems came from Starz and which came from Fremantle, but I know that there was serious disagreement about what they were making," one source says. In the second season, a great deal of power belonged to Gaiman, according to sources who say that Fremantle is very keen to keep the author pleased, given that the studio had a first-look deal with him at the time. (That pact, signed in 2016, expired earlier this year.) Gaiman, an executive producer, co-wrote the second-season premiere and weighed in on other creative decisions and directions, but he was not a regular presence around the Gods production offices or the Toronto set despite, after the season two shake-up, being billed as "co-showrunner." Gaiman noted on Twitter in January that he's "already showrunning [Fremantle's] Good Omens [for Amazon] and I won't be physically showrunning two shows. But I plan to work really closely with the new showrunner, and to help plot and guide and build American Gods, just as I did when Bryan and Michael came on as showrunners." Sources concur that Alexander, who arrived in February, was the day-to-day showrunner, and he was seen as Gaiman's choice for that role. There was so much wariness in the creative community about trying to take over from Green and Fuller that, according to multiple sources, many potential showrunners turned down the job before Alexander agreed to step in. And once he arrived, his take on the material did not necessarily mesh with that of several members of the cast, as well as crew members and executives who preferred to sustain aspects of the previous showrunners' vision. Insiders stress that Fremantle opted to go with Alexander because the studio believed they could have a level of control over him that they couldn't with Fuller and Green. Alexander is said to have also appealed to Gaiman because the scripts he oversaw would stick largely to the novel. The way that Fuller and Green built out and developed the world of American Gods in the first season was a source of irritation for Gaiman, insiders say. From the moment Green and Fuller were fired — largely at the behest of Fremantle, and "fired" is the word Green has used on social media — efforts were made to bring Gods more in line with what Gaiman wanted, sources say. Gaiman's level of involvement in that dismissal is unclear, but insiders note it’s unlikely Fremantle would have done something so extreme without his consent. In any event, season two represents an attempt to bring the show closer to his 2001 book, insiders say. As THR previously reported, Green and Fuller had already written the first six episodes of season two before they departed. Fremantle tossed those scripts and started from scratch with Alexander, who then moved to get things running smoothly, which some sources note was a difficult task. Under Alexander, the season-two episode order was also trimmed back from 10 to eight — which also occurred in season one in an effort to trim the budget following the high cost of shooting Fuller and Green's early scripts. The fact that Alexander was Gaiman's choice makes it all the more surprising that he was pushed aside before the second season ended. That said, there were clashes over scripts from the day of the first table read. Sources note that season two scripts were often rewritten on the set, as many involved in the series wanted to honor the original vision and protect what they saw as important aspects of the characters and plot. After some actors, including star Ian McShane (Mr. Wednesday), began taking passes at improving dialogue, the production was forced to enlist co-star Orlando Jones (Mr. Nancy) as a writer on the series so a member of the WGA would be credited with writing instead of having actors violating guild rules. Others say some writers were coming to set with hand-written notebook pages — rewrites on scripts Alexander oversaw — amid "screaming matches" between the showrunner and McShane. Starz is also said to be unhappy with Alexander, who, according to several accounts, took Gods in a more conventional direction. Though Fremantle and Gaiman supported Alexander — at least until recently — the premium cable network, sources say, balked at that evolution, and wanted more of the atmospheric, hypnotic tone that Green and Fuller had created. After Alexander was sidelined, an attempt was made to promote another writer to the showrunner position, but sources say that the unnamed individual left the production almost immediately after being elevated. Now, in the absence of a showrunner, producing director Chris Byrne and line producer Lisa Kussner are trying to steer the ship. Such is the level of disarray that the show recently took a hiatus to sort things out. Reshoots have been a major factor in season two, and they are ongoing. Multiple sources say that executives at Starz were unhappy with a number of season two episodes, and thought some looked "cheap." There was particular dismay, insiders say, around the third and fourth installments, which has led to extensive reworking of those episodes. The departure of Green and Fuller was partly said to be driven by budget disagreements — the freshman run came in an estimated $30 million over budget, THR reported in February — but the spending on season two has notably outstripped its original budget as well. "Now they're spending to spice up what was flat on the page," one source says. The show, which also stars Ricky Whittle, Emily Browning, Yetide Badaki, Pablo Schreiber, Crispin Glover, Bruce Langley, saw the departure of guest star Gillian Anderson after Green and Fuller exited. This year, American Gods added roles for Sakina Jaffrey, Dean Winters, Devery Jacobs and Kahyun Kim. Multiple insiders say there was a strong effort to get Kristin Chenoweth back for the second season of Gods, but scheduling issues prevented her return. Source: THR