The Federal Communications Commission has issued the waiver extension that was recently requested by the Entertainment Software Association to postpone a requirement that videogames comply with accessibility requirements in the United States mandated by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (thanks Gamasutra). This is the third such extension, and is said to be the final pass on these requirements. Word is:

By this Order, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB or Bureau) of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) grants to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) a one-year extension of its current waiver of the Commission’s accessibility requirements for advanced communications services (ACS) and equipment for video game software.

This class waiver will expire December 31, 2018, and is conditioned on ESA’s submission of a mid-year progress report to the Bureau on July 2, 2018.

2K Games introduces Chandragupta Maurya of India, another of the new factional leaders coming to Civilization VI in the upcoming Rise and Fall expansion for the turn-based strategy sequel. They offer this trailer with a look at the character and his civilization, and provide a load of details in this post. Here's a bit:

Master strategist. Respected diplomat. Honored student. Chandragupta Maurya of India was all of those things and became legend amongst his people because of it. In his time, he toppled a corrupt empire, then succeeded in pushing the boundaries of his kingdom and worked to better the lives of his subjects. Then he voluntarily walked away from it all.

Born sometime in the 3rd Century BCE, Chandragupta’s early life remains somewhat of a mystery. Though some accounts speak of his connection to a family with a noble warrior tradition, other accounts claim he was born a commoner, orphaned at an early age. Regardless, Chandragupta earned a reputation as a clever and charismatic man – so much so that the great Chanakya mentored him. Thanks to the legendary politician and philosopher, Chandragupta received a crash course in politics, the arts, and military tactics.

Ever the masterful strategist, Chanakya had a plan: he hoped his pupil could challenge the Nanda dynasty, a government widely perceived as corrupt. Chandragupta proved worthy of his tutor’s confidence, for he soon raised an army. By 322 BCE he overthrew the Nanda, installed himself as ruler of the kingdom of Magadha, and established the Mauryan dynasty.

Continue here to read the full story.

• Weekly Sale- Last-minute gift ideas, deals up to -85% - GOG.com.
• Steam Winter Sale 2017 Continues! Plus, Vote For The Steam Awards.

• Big titles must wait as Nintendo pushes back 64GB Switch game card rollout.
• January PlayStation Plus Lineup Includes Telltale's Batman And Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
• PlayStation Developers Pick Their Favorite Games of 2017.
• PlayStation Plus: Free Games for January 2018.

• Internet Archive gets $1 million donation from bitcoin fund.
• Will Smith's 'Bright' is terrible, but that doesn’t matter to Netflix.
• Fiber Broadband Sees Record Growth.
• Anti-adblock is a lot more common than anyone thought, but it's not hard to defeat.
• Publishers play dumb after buying traffic.

• Green tech will be everywhere in 2018.
• SilverStone Announces TP02-M2 M.2 Heatsink Kit. Thanks Hypothermia.

• Piracy Notices Can Mess With Your Thermostat, ISP Warns. Thanks [H]ardOCP.
• FBI Software For Analyzing Fingerprints Contains Russian-Made Code, Whistleblowers Say. Thanks [H]ardOCP.
• Putin wants to police social media ahead of Russian election.
• No More Ransom: a clearinghouse for removing ransomware without paying.

• These experts figured out why so many bogus patents get approved.

Thanks Ant.

• MAME version 0.193…
• Are You A Bad Person If You Hurt Your Sims…

Link of the Day: Rocket In The Sky Plus Accident (NSFW). Thanks Ant.

After days off for Christmas and Boxing Day, GfK Chart-Track now offers their charts tracking last week's game sales in the U.K. As noted in their summary there are no new entries, but Call of Duty: WWII tops their all-platforms chart for the eighth straight week. Here's that chart, where the top three are all the same as last week. The top three remain static on the PC top 30, where Football Manager 2018 retains its toehold on the top spot. An odd note is that Call of Duty: WWII seems to have fallen off the PC top 30, where it was number five last week. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare jumps from number 16 last week to the eighth spot, and has us wondering if there's been an error somewhere along the way. In any event, here's the PC top 10:

• Q&A: Battlefront 2 writer Mitch Dyer discusses forceful narrative design - Gamasutra.

• Die Young on Gaming Nexus.

• Super Meat Boy Switch Arriving On January 11 With Exclusive Race Mode.
• NES Golf Easter Egg Made Inaccessible From Switch Firmware.

• Elon Musk vows to build Tesla pickup truck 'right after' Model Y.
• WhatsApp will ditch Blackberry OS and Windows Phone by New Year's.

• WeChat poised to become China’s official electronic ID system. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
• Google's new Doodle is dedicated to Marlene Dietrich.

• World's coolest chip runs at near absolute zero.
• How Blockchain Technology is Redefining Trust.
• 10 Tech Products That Are Next to Impossible to Repair.
• The 1970s Xerox Conference That Predicted the Future of Work.
• Latency: why typing on old computers just feels better. Thanks Ant.
• FCC approves first wireless 'power-at-a-distance' charging system.
• Consumers in Germany were paid to use electricity this holiday season. Thanks Slashdot.

• Kremlin trolls burned across the Internet as Washington debated options.
• The state of Linux security in 2017 - Linux Audit. Thanks Linux Security via Ant.
• Hackers Can Rickroll Thousands of Sonos and Bose Speakers Over the Internet.
• Many Spotify accounts emails and passwords have been posted online in what appears to be a hack. Thanks [H]ardOCP.

• China Sentences Man to 5.5 Years for Selling VPN Service.

• L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files on GameSpot.
• Spintires: Mudrunner on Christ Centered Gamer.

• ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Extreme Motherboard on [H]ardOCP.
• SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB SSD (SDSSDH3-1T00) on Tech ARP.
• Seasonic PRIME Ultra 850W Titanium Power Supply on PC Perspective.
• VIZIO SmartCast M65-E0 4K UHD HDR Display on Benchmark Reviews.

• Lost Destiny symphonic album, complete with Paul McCartney, has totally leaked…

Well the change of seasons to winter once again worked like flipping a switch. The forecast for this area calls for low temperatures in the single digits for the next week, and it's supposed to be windy on top of that, so it's suddenly gotten real. This is apparently a national trend, as I see reports of similar cold in other places, and warnings about lake effect snow, with the poster child for this being Erie, Pennsylvania were they've had more than five feet of snow(!) since the 23rd, so I'm just going to bundle up, leave the shovel where it is, and count my blessings. Here's hoping everyone can stay safe and warm amid all this.

Frosty Links:	Thanks Ant.
Links:	‘Home Alone’ Is So Much Better if Kevin McCallister is Dead. Thanks Boing Boing.
Stories:	Hollow Earth Conspiracy Theory Says Planet Is Filled With Aliens and Nazis—But It Isn't. Thanks RedEye9. Coyotes Are Colonizing Cities. Step Forward the Urban Hunter. Thanks j.c.f. New Harmony, Utah boy rescued from icy pond on Christmas Day by 'hero'. Mark Hamill regrets trash talking 'The Last Jedi' version of Luke Skywalker.
Science:	Rethinking how the US grows beef. NASA hopes to send a probe to Alpha Centauri in 2069. Super Blue Blood-Moon 2018: When, Where and How to See It. Golf-ball-size meteor stuns New England.
Media:	SUPER MARIO 64 - Nintendo 64 (React: Retro Gaming). Best News Bloopers of 2017. Paint Job Goes Wrong Between Cousins.