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Hop from 4.12 to 4.14 fixes 'a boatload of bugs'. Hooray!

In contrast to the frenetic pace of updates now typical in the software industry, the team behind Xfce, a lightweight desktop for Linux, have released version 4.14 nearly four-and-a-half years since the last stable release, 4.12.…

Sanitised browser history sparked another investigation

One of the crew who hacked TalkTalk has been ordered to hand over £400,000 after seizing control of a high-profile Instagram account following a hack on Aussie telco Telstra.…

For the love of Windows, please leave that poor text editor alone

Roundup It's the summer holidays. A good time to do things while nobody's watching. Except The Register, of course. Aside from sneaking Notepad into the store, last week Microsoft gave Insiders a new 2020 Windows 10 build, added features back into Skype, rounded out Azure's persistent disk storage and prepared a Typescript update.…

Is the platform's abuse policy unfair to genuine developers?

Developer Patrick Godeau has claimed his business is under threat after his Google Play Publisher account was terminated without a specific reason given.…

Spec design flaw stiffs security of gizmos

Roundup Let's run through all the bits and bytes of security news beyond what we've already covered. Also, don't forget our articles from this year's Black Hat, DEF CON, and BSides Las Vegas conferences in the American desert.…

After inaction, technical changes promise better fraud defense

Three years ago, Google software engineer Ali Juma proposed that Chrome should be modified to ignore recently moved iframe elements on web pages as a defense against clickjacking.…

Bill approaching £9m compared to £4.1m for the system in 2016

Concerns have been raised over a key supplier of an e-counting system for the London Mayoral elections in 2020.…

Screen says 'Data save failed' so it must be true

Who, Me? The weekend is over and that means another tale of reader misdeeds to kick-start your Monday with our regular column, Who, Me?…

And Nvidia is pleased with its latest numbers

Roundup Our weekly AI roundup is back from a little summer break, and once again covering bits and pieces from the world of machine learning beyond what's already been reported by Team Register.…

A poker professional who routinely crisscrosses the States of America and the tournament poker circuit will have plenty of opportunities to meet and socialize with the people of this country (and, in some cases, the world). One of those poker pros allegedly took it a bit farther than that, bilking fellow travelers out of thousands of dollars in cash as he traveled the country in pursuit of poker glory.

Michael Borovetz Arrested in Detroit After Multiple Complaints

The interesting story of Michael Borovetz and his trip to Detroit earlier this week is one that many wouldn’t believe. According to police reports, Borovetz was traveling from Seattle to Miami and was connecting to his next flight in Detroit when airport police arrested him. From their investigations, Borovetz was accused of two counts of “false pretenses with intent to defraud,” according to the report.

“Borovetz is known at airports across the country for approaching passengers with a sad story in an attempt to get money, while promising to pay it back,” airport officials said in a statement that was released to the media. “Once Borovetz receives the money, the victims never hear from him again.” Apparently, this wasn’t the first time that Borovetz had done this; he apparently had run this ruse for at least four years but, without knowledge of his travel habits, the Detroit authorities couldn’t get a line on when he would be in their jurisdiction. When they received info about his travels to Miami earlier this week, airport law enforcement set a plan to capturing Borovetz.

While there was no dollar amount mentioned in coordination with this scam, it could be well into the thousands of dollars. Wayne County Airport Authority spokeswoman Lisa Gass stated that they were receiving “many” phone calls from others who potentially had been defrauded by Borovetz. Additionally, their investigation led them to find that Borovetz had a lengthy criminal past, including fraud convictions, that covered 13 states. Borovetz’s bond was set at $100,000 and, if convicted, he could face up to a year in jail on each count against him.

Borovetz Has Prior History

While it would be easy to dismiss the charges against Borovetz, he apparently has a prior history of such acts, especially in New Jersey. According to Daniel Smyth at CardsChat, Borovetz was arrested by the New Jersey Port Authority for allegedly bilking a fellow ferry rider out of $200. In April 2018, he was charged with “theft by deception,” but his comments after the arrest were what were the most interesting turn.

Smyth’s sleuthing revealed that Borovetz had allegedly admitted to such actions previously. In 2014 Borovetz, using the alias “PSUMike,” allegedly wrote a lengthy post on the chat boards at Two Plus Two regarding allegations brought on the forum. In that post, Borovetz admitted, “I just now read through the whole thread and let me state this emphatically: Everything the initial op has stated is 100% true.”

Smyth detailed out what Borovetz wrote on the Two Plus Two forum, which followed the modus operandi of the actions alleged by the Detroit authorities. Blaming a “gambling addiction,” Borovetz said he would:

1) Give story to try and [sic] get money.

2) Gamble money to try and [sic] win more money so I don’t have to go to airport anymore.

3) Lose all of the money in the pit and go back to #1 or win money, leave, come back the next day thinking I can win more money and proceed to lose it all.”

Borovetz a Veteran of the Poker World

Since 2004, Borovetz has been a stalwart of the tournament poker world. He has racked up almost $600,000 in tournament cashes ($598,958, according to the Hendon Mob Database), with a victory on the World Series of Poker Circuit in 2006 in Atlantic City as the highlight. Over the span of his career, Borovetz was able to rack up 16 cashes in WSOP sanctioned events, along with that ring victory in 2006, and was a fixture on the World Poker Tour circuit.

There is no word on whether Borovetz has made bail as of yet nor any information as to court dates for him. Poker News Daily will continue to follow the case.

The post Poker Professional Michael Borovetz Arrested for Bilking Travelers appeared first on Poker News Daily.

After being shut down due to a raid by law enforcement earlier this year, there were questions as to whether Houston’s Prime Social Poker Club would ever reopen. Those questions have now been answered as the owners of the membership only poker club have stated they will reopen in September.

September 5 Official Date for Reopening

According to KPRC Houston Digital Editor Aaron Barker, spokesman Wayne Dolcefino issued a statement on the behalf of the ownership of Prime Social Poker Club with the details that many were waiting for. In that statement, Dolcefino said that September 5 would be the official reopening of the club, with the business contacting prior employees in a way of getting the business back up and running quicker. “We look forward to our 11,000 members coming back and bringing a bunch of friends with them,” Dolcefino said.

There was no statement from the club regarding any changes to the club with the reopening, but its business format was something that was sweeping Texas as a whole. Because of laws in the state prohibiting Texas Hold’em (and gambling as a whole), many entrepreneurs – the owners of Prime Social Poker Club – felt they had found a loophole in the laws. Opening up as “membership only” clubs and charging a membership fee for entrance, these new poker rooms offered cash games and tournament poker to a ravenous audience. The businesses didn’t take any rake – another issue that plagues poker businesses – and instead made revenues (after the membership fees) through the sale of refreshments.

For more than a year in Houston, these clubs were allowed to operate and became quite popular. In the city, Prime Social Poker Club and one of its rivals, Post Oak Poker Club (there has been no announcement as to a reopening for Post Oak), became the two biggest operations in the city, extremely popular with poker players who could now settle in for a game in their home town rather than take a long trip to Louisiana or Oklahoma. That was until this spring, however, when the local District Attorney started a strange journey that ended up leaving law enforcement highly embarrassed.

Ending Up with “Ogg” on Their Faces

In a stunning raid in May Houston law enforcement, acting at the behest of District Attorney Kim Ogg, entered both the Prime Social and Post Oak Poker Clubs, arrested the ownership of the operations (charging them with money laundering), seized over $200,000 in cash on the premises and froze their bank accounts. In total, nine people from both clubs were arrested and, naturally, the businesses were shut down after the raids. On the way to their day in court, however, a strange twist occurred.

Almost as stunningly as the raids happened, Ogg would drop the cases against the nine owners in July after evidence appeared that the two businesses had solicited the District Attorney’s office for legal guidance on their operations and had been given the go-ahead. In particular, a consultant to Ogg was allegedly paid $250,000 to work on an ordinance that would make the clubs fully legal in the city limits and avoid the potential for such a situation as what occurred in May. That ordinance never came to light (another long story), but it was enough to demonstrate that the DA’s office was not acting as a neutral arbiter in the case.

Faced with these mistakes, Ogg was left with no choice but to drop the charges against the Houston club owners. Another lawsuit, charging the clubs with violations of “nuisance” laws in the city, was dropped also because the criminal investigations that they came from were rendered moot by the dismissal of charges. The best that Ogg could do was to forward the case to the Federal Bureau of Investigations for further examination as her office was left highly embarrassed.

What Will Happen?

In roughly two weeks, Prime Social Poker Club will reopen and probably will have a throng of players waiting to get to the tables. Prime Social Poker Club has stated that they are “reviewing their options” as to reclaiming any lost revenue from being shut down since May, potentially revenues that could total into the high six-figures. But Prime Social Poker Club will be back come the beginning of September – and hopefully without the harassment from law enforcement.

The post Houston’s Prime Social Poker Club Announces Reopening Date appeared first on Poker News Daily.

Poker tournaments, and their specific Player of the Year races, haven’t usually gone the natural route of having a title sponsor. Unlike their tournament brethren in golf (which seems to have a sponsor for every tournament it runs), poker runs off the monies generated by the players themselves. Poker Central is looking to change that, however, by announcing a major sponsor for their High Roller of the Year race and simultaneously announcing the next dates for one of their popular “made for streaming” High Roller series.

Poker Central, Automotive Giant Jeep Partner for POY Award

Already running their High Roller of the Year competition, Poker Central signed up Jeep as their new partner, officially making it the Jeep High Roller of the Year. For most of 2019, players have been taking part in a select list of 35 High Roller events. These events have buy-ins that range from $10,000 up to $100,000 and bring in a select group of players that have become recognized as some of the best in the game.

“The ongoing success of the High Roller of the Year structure and the growth of Poker Central’s events domestically and globally are evident as we welcome Jeep as our partner,” said Sam Simmons, the president of Poker Central. “Jeep’s support of the High Roller of the Year award demonstrates the broad appeal of poker and the passionate community that surrounds it.”

The High Roller of the Year competition includes many of the featured tournaments on Poker Central’s streaming outlet PokerGO, including the Super High Roller Bowl, the U. S. Poker Open and the Poker Masters. In its inaugural season, Sam Soverel was the overall champion and, in 2019, he’s well on his way to defending his title. Currently he sits atop the 2019 High Roller of the Year standings, but there are some strong players that are stalking him on the leaderboard:

1. Sam Soverel, 1160 points
2. Ali Imsirovic, 995
3. Cary Katz, 925
4. Stephen Chidwick, 910
5. David Peters, 865
6. Sean Winter, 810
7. Keith Tilston, 665
8. Jake Schindler, 660
9. Brandon Adams, 590
10. Nick Schulman, 410

At this time, there is no information on whether Jeep’s new sponsorship deal will add anything as to an award for the ultimate champion.

2019 Poker Masters Dates Announced

While announcing the new partnership with Jeep, Poker Central also revealed the dates for the upcoming Poker Masters series. The dates for the schedule will be November 1-10 at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, with 10 High Roller tournaments set to be played out. It all starts with a $10,000 buy in tournament on November 1 and concludes with the $100,000 buy-in Main Event. Last year, the champion of the $100,000 Main Event was David Peters, but it was Imsirovic who had the best series of all and won the coveted Poker Masters purple jacket.

While the Poker Masters looms on the horizon, it is the inaugural event for Poker Central and PokerGO in London that many have their eyes on. The British Poker Open, a 10-event schedule of High Roller tournaments, will begin on September 2 and should draw the deepest pocketed pros from across the European continent for battle. After the conclusion of the British Poker Open, the Super High Roller Bowl London will take place beginning on September 13.

Poker Central seems to have gone, no pun intended, all in with the High Roller format. These tournaments have gained in popularity over the past few years, but little is known as to how successful they are as far as viewership goes (for that matter, it isn’t known what PokerGO’s viewership is; as a private entity and a streaming outlet, there are few ways to measure their audience). And with the new sponsorship with Jeep, Poker Central is beginning to market these tournaments so that they might stick around.

The post Poker Central Names New Sponsor, Reveals Dates for 2019 Poker Masters appeared first on Poker News Daily.

Just what is Patrick Byrne's role in the Deep State? He's here to tell you

Comment How much of a company's value is tied up in its leadership?…

Alerted to exposed credentials, users do something about it roughly a quarter of the time

Between February and March this year, after Google released a Chrome extension called Password Checkup to check whether people's username and password combinations had been stolen and leaked from website databases, computer scientists at the biz and Stanford University gathered anonymous telemetry from 670,000 people who installed the add-on.…

You never know, we might figure out how not to screw up in future

Analysis In the clearest possible sign that the US intelligence services live within their own political bubble, the director of national intelligence has asked Congress to reauthorize a spying program that the NSA itself decided to shut down after it repeatedly – and illegally – gathered the call records of millions of innocent Americans.…

Write once, run anywhere? You must be joking

Dropbox has abandoned a longstanding technical strategy of sharing C++ code between its applications for iOS and Android, saying the overhead of writing code twice is less than the cost of making code-sharing work.…

400MHz ought to be enough for anyone?

An intermittent but longstanding issue where Microsoft Surface Pro 6 and Surface Book 2 devices run super slow continues to frustrate users.…

Sandbox services are bursting with sensitive info from unwitting companies

Companies are inadvertently leaving confidential files on the internet for anyone to download – after uploading the documents to malware-scanning websites that make everything public.…

The conference call equivalent of being taken round the back and...

Oracle is shuttering its flash storage division and laying off at least 300 employees, according to various sources.…

Cloud biz still dwarfed by retail but everything's up

Alibaba, China's nearest equivalent to Amazon, is weathering the "uncertain economic" landscape caused in part by the "trade war" between the US and Middle Kingdom governments.…