Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Google’s Home Mini Needed a Software Patch to Stop Some of Them from Recording Everything
October 11th, 2017Mmm hmm. Via: The Verge: Categorize this under “one of the worst possible PR nightmares for a Google smart speaker.” According to Artem Russakovskii at Android Police, the Google Home Mini he was reviewing was randomly and near-constantly recording sounds in his home and transmitting them to Google. The company acknowledged the problem and is […]
GM to Buy Sensor-Tech Firm Strobe to Speed Up Self-Driving Car Push
October 10th, 2017Via: Reuters: No. 1 U.S. automaker General Motors Co (GM.N) said on Monday it would buy Strobe Inc, which uses LIDAR technology to help self-driving cars identify objects at a distance, to speed up development of autonomous vehicles and slash sensor costs. LIDAR is one of the major sensor technologies used in autonomous, or self-driving […]
Robotic Farm Completes 1st Fully Autonomous Harvest
October 8th, 2017Via: LiveScience: It’s harvest season in many parts of the world, but on one farm in the United Kingdom, robots — not humans — are doing all the heavy lifting. At Hands Free Hectare, an experimental farm run by researchers from Harper Adams University, in the village of Edgmond in the U.K., about 5 tons […]
Our Minds Can Be Hijacked: The Tech Insiders Who Fear a Smartphone Dystopia
October 6th, 2017Via: Guardian: There is growing concern that as well as addicting users, technology is contributing toward so-called “continuous partial attention”, severely limiting people’s ability to focus, and possibly lowering IQ. One recent study showed that the mere presence of smartphones damages cognitive capacity – even when the device is turned off. “Everyone is distracted,” Rosenstein […]
Solar Power Grew Faster Than Any Other Source of Fuel for the First Time in 2016
October 4th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: Bloomberg: Solar power grew faster than any other source of fuel for the first time in 2016, the International Energy Agency said in a report suggesting the technology will dominate renewables in the years ahead. The institution established after the first major oil crisis […]
‘Australia Presses for More Facial Recognition in Terror Fight’
October 4th, 2017Via: New York Times: The Australian government wants to strengthen its counterterrorism efforts by making use of a fundamental part of all Australian citizens: their faces. On Thursday, at a national security meeting in Canberra, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to pressure states and territories to hand over the driver’s license photos of every […]
Zucktown, USA
October 4th, 2017Via: The Baffler: Facebook, Amazon, and Google are reviving the ill-fated “company towns” of the Gilded Age.
With Widespread Power Failures, Puerto Rico Is Cash Only
October 1st, 2017Via: New York Times: Juan Jimenez squinted into the dark lobby of his bank early Friday, thinking about the paycheck sitting in his account, just behind the locked doors. If only he could get to it. With power failures and communications outages still widespread nine days after Hurricane Maria, much of Puerto Rico has become […]
Chaos and Hackers Stalk Investors on Cryptocurrency Exchanges
September 29th, 2017Cryptocurrency exchanges have always been a nightmare. I’ve never left any Bitcoins or cash in an exchange for any longer than it took to trade them. Then I’d immediately pull my money out. I always try to keep my overnight balance as close to zero as possible on Bitcoin exchanges. I just assume the thing […]
Mystery Surrounds Metal Towers Popping Up In Tunnels & Bridges
September 27th, 2017Nuke detectors is the obvious guess. But if not that, then what? Via: CBS: Mysterious metal towers are popping up at local tunnels, and soon they’ll start appearing at bridges, too. But even people on the MTA board in charge of the towers can’t say why they’re being used or what’s in them, CBS2’s Dave […]
