A federal grand jury has indicted Tyler Barriss on two counts of making hoax bomb threats, including one that famously delayed the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to repeal net neutrality in December, Engadget reports. He called a similar bomb threat into the FBI headquarters later that same month. Barriss was already in police custody, however, charged with manslaughter for orchestrating a “swatting” that resulted in the death of 28-year-old Andrew Finch in Wichita, Kansas, also last December.
The December 14 bomb threat to the FCC only temporarily delayed Chairman Ajit Pai’s effort to repeal Barack Obama-era regulations for ensuring a fair and open internet. The U.S. Senate recently voted by a narrow margin to overturn the FCC’s ruling, but the bill faces an uphill battle through the House of Representatives and a particularly business-friendly White House in order to keep net neutrality alive.
“Swatting” is the practice of calling in extreme hoax threats (hostage situations and the like) on unsuspecting victims, severe enough that the police will send in a SWAT team. In this case, it’s particularly popular among gamers and has gained traction in recent years as streamers make juicy targets for such a cruel, dangerous and non-consensual show. According to court documents, Casey Viner, 18, and Shane Gaskill, 19, got into an argument as teammates while playing Call of Duty: WWII, leading Viner to ask Barriss to swat Gaskill. Gaskill dared Barriss to do so but gave him the address of a home his parents owned and rented to Finch and family. While only Barriss is being charged with manslaughter for directly instigating the swatting, both teens are being charged with some combination of conspiracy, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice for their roles in the incident, as well as its cover-up by deleting direct messages after processing the severity of what went down.
Barriss’ association with the bomb threats should come as no surprise to anyone that knows him, as he has a history of similar incidents. In 2015, Barriss was arrested and charged for calling in a bomb threat to CNN affiliate KABC in Los Angeles, for which he served a two-year sentence.
Remember when transparent gadgets were the coolest things you could own? Sony is bringing that late '90s aesthetic back with its new PS5 Prism Collection. The gorgeous lineup gives your DualSense controller and PS5 console a glossy, see-through makeover in three eye-catching colors.
https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/2115459064981512662?s=19
For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.
I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.