Archive for the 'Technology' Category
U.S. Government Owned 5G Network?
January 29th, 2018Update: Trump Team Idea to Nationalize 5G Network to Counter China Is Rejected — Via: Reuters: President Donald Trump’s national security team is looking at options to counter the threat of China spying on U.S. phone calls that include the government building a super-fast 5G wireless network, a senior administration official said on Sunday. The […]
Artificial Intelligence Is Going to Supercharge Surveillance
January 29th, 2018Via: The Verge: Artificial intelligence is giving surveillance cameras digital brains to match their eyes, letting them analyze live video with no humans necessary. This could be good news for public safety, helping police and first responders more easily spot crimes and accidents and have a range of scientific and industrial applications. But it also […]
With Teen Mental Health Deteriorating Over Five Years, There’s a Likely Culprit
January 28th, 2018“All signs point to the screen.” Via: The Conversation: Around 2012, something started going wrong in the lives of teens. In just the five years between 2010 and 2015, the number of U.S. teens who felt useless and joyless – classic symptoms of depression – surged 33 percent in large national surveys. Teen suicide attempts […]
Plug Wars: The Battle for Electric Car Supremacy
January 27th, 2018Via: Reuters: German carmakers hope a network of high-power charging stations they are rolling out with Ford will set an industry standard for plugs and protocols that will give them an edge over electric car rivals. At the moment, Tesla and carmakers in Japan and Germany use different plugs and communication protocols to link batteries […]
ICE Is About to Start Tracking License Plates Across the U.S.
January 27th, 2018Via: The Verge: The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has officially gained agency-wide access to a nationwide license plate recognition database, according to a contract finalized earlier this month. The system gives the agency access to billions of license plate records and new powers of real-time location tracking, raising significant concerns from civil libertarians. […]
USAF Is Jamming GPS In The Western U.S. For Largest Ever Red Flag Air War Exercise
January 27th, 2018Via: The Drive: The year’s first iteration of the USAF’s premier set of aerial war games, known commonly as Red Flag, is kicking off today at Nellis Air Force Base just outside of Las Vegas, but this exercise will be different than any in the past. Not only is it the largest of its kind […]
Tesla Gigafactory Production Problems Worse than Previously Disclosed
January 26th, 2018The Hacker News comments on this are interesting. Via: CNBC: Tesla’s problems with battery production at the company’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, are worse than the company has acknowledged and could cause further delays and quality issues for the new Model 3, according to a number of current and former Tesla employees. These problems include […]
Biggest Washington DC Lobbyist Is Now Google
January 25th, 2018Via: Register: For the first time, an internet company has become the largest lobbyist in Washington DC. With the release of fourth quarter lobbying figures – a legal requirement – it has been revealed that Google (well, Alphabet) spent no less than $18m in 2017 to lobby lawmakers in the US capital: a 17 per […]
When It Comes to Voice Identification, the “NSA Reigns Supreme”
January 23rd, 2018Via: The Intercept: These and other classified documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reveal that the NSA has developed technology not just to record and transcribe private conversations but to automatically identify the speakers. Americans most regularly encounter this technology, known as speaker recognition, or speaker identification, when they wake up Amazon’s Alexa […]
Amazon’s Automated Grocery Store of the Future Opens Monday
January 21st, 2018haha Via: Reuters: But there have been challenges, according to a person familiar with the matter. These included correctly identifying shoppers with similar body types, the person said. When children were brought into the store during the trial, they caused havoc by moving items to incorrect places, the person added.
