Archive for the 'Technology' Category
New Apple Headquarters: That’s No Roof
April 19th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Make sure to watch this in fullscreen mode and at the highest resolution your display supports. At first I thought, haha whatever roofing material they’re using looks like solar panels. *squint at screen* “That’s not… Can’t be. Is it?” Yep. It is. Aesthetically, I get […]
Courts Are Using AI to Sentence Criminals
April 18th, 2017Via: Wired: Algorithms pervade our lives today, from music recommendations to credit scores to now, bail and sentencing decisions. But there is little oversight and transparency regarding how they work. Nowhere is this lack of oversight more stark than in the criminal justice system. Without proper safeguards, these tools risk eroding the rule of law […]
Apple Receives Permit in California to Test Self-Driving Cars
April 15th, 2017Via: Reuters: Apple Inc has secured a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California, fuelling speculation that it is working on self-driving car technology in a crowded arena of companies hoping to offer those cars to the masses. The permit allows it to conduct test drives in three vehicles with six drivers, the state Department […]
Burger King Trolls Google Home Devices
April 13th, 2017Update: Amazon’s Alexa Could Soon Recognize Users by Their Voices If Amazon is working on it, the rest of them probably are. Via: Ars Technica: Amazon’s Alexa may be about to get smarter. According to a report from Time, the online retailer is working on voice identification software for Alexa that would allow the service […]
Delivery Robots: A Revolutionary Step or Sidewalk-Clogging Nightmare?
April 12th, 2017Via: Guardian: Sharing a sidewalk with one of DoorDash’s delivery robots is a bit like getting stuck behind someone playing Pokémon Go on his smartphone. The robot moves a little bit slower than you want to; every few meters it pauses, jerking to the left or right, perhaps turning around, then turning again before continuing […]
World’s Largest Solar+Battery Project Announced in South Australia
April 11th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. Via: Electrek: A new project put in motion in South Australia in order to help with the region’s energy problems is likely to become the largest solar plus battery project in the world. Lyon Group, an energy company backed by Mitsubishi, Blackstone and Magnetar Capital, has […]
Chinese Firm Halves Worker Costs by Hiring Army of Robots to Sort Out 200,000 Packages a Day
April 11th, 2017Via: South China Morning Post: A viral video showing an army of little orange robots sorting out packages in a warehouse in eastern China is the latest example of how machines are increasingly taking over menial factory work on the mainland. The behind-the-scenes footage of the self-charging robot army in a sorting centre of Chinese […]
‘An Estimated $3 Trillion in Daily Commerce Flows Through COBOL Systems’
April 10th, 2017Via: Reuters: The Common Business-Oriented Language was developed nearly 60 years ago and has been gradually replaced by newer, more versatile languages such as Java, C and Python. Although few universities still offer COBOL courses, the language remains crucial to businesses and institutions around the world. In the United States, the financial sector, major corporations […]
Farmers Look For Ways To Circumvent Tractor Software Locks
April 10th, 2017Via: NPR: A new tractor often costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, but one thing not included in that price is the right to repair it. That has put farmers on the front lines of a battle pitting consumers against the makers of all kinds of consumer goods, from tractors to refrigerators to smartphones. Modern […]
Android Devices Can be Fatally Hacked by Malicious Wi-Fi Networks, iOS Patched on Monday
April 6th, 2017Via: Ars Technica: A broad array of Android phones are vulnerable to attacks that use booby-trapped Wi-Fi signals to achieve full device takeover, a researcher has demonstrated. The vulnerability resides in a widely used Wi-Fi chipset manufactured by Broadcom and used in both iOS and Android devices. Apple patched the vulnerability with Monday’s release of […]
