Archive for the 'Technology' Category
NSA Blimp Spied in the United States
April 24th, 2017Via: The Intercept: To residents of Maryland, catching an occasional glimpse of a huge white blimp floating in the sky is not unusual. For more than a decade, the military has used the state as a proving ground for new airships destined for Afghanistan or Iraq. But less known is that the test flights have […]
Japan Made Secret Deals with the NSA that Expanded Global Surveillance
April 24th, 2017Via: The Intercept: The documents, published Monday in collaboration with Japanese news broadcaster NHK, reveal the complicated relationship the NSA has maintained with Japan over a period of more than six decades. Japan has allowed NSA to maintain at least three bases on its territory and contributed more than half a billion dollars to help […]
Leaked NSA Tools Compromising Vulnerable, Unpatched Windows Systems
April 23rd, 2017Exposing SMB to the Internet on unpatched Windows machines… *shaking head while chortling deeply* NSA exploits or no NSA exploits, people who do this on purpose are idiots and better make their time. Via: Register: The NSA’s Equation Group hacking tools, leaked last Friday by the Shadow Brokers, have now been used to infect thousands […]
The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI
April 22nd, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review: Last year, a strange self-driving car was released onto the quiet roads of Monmouth County, New Jersey. The experimental vehicle, developed by researchers at the chip maker Nvidia, didn’t look different from other autonomous cars, but it was unlike anything demonstrated by Google, Tesla, or General Motors, and it showed the […]
First Coal-Free Day in Britain Since Industrial Revolution
April 21st, 2017Via: BBC: Britain went a full day without using coal to generate electricity for the first time since the Industrial Revolution, the National Grid says. The energy provider said Friday’s lack of coal usage was a “watershed” moment. Britain’s longest continuous energy period without coal until now was 19 hours – first achieved last May, […]
Google Home Capable of Voice Printing Multiple Users
April 20th, 2017Back on April 13: Is that Google Home device capable of voice printing people? If so, maybe the phones are too. Well, that didn’t take long. Via: Google: We’re adding the ability for up to six people to connect their account to one Google Home. So now when I ask my Google Assistant for help, […]
The Lilium Jet: Maiden Flight of All-Electric VTOL Aircraft
April 20th, 2017300km range? That’s what they’re claiming. Hint: If you have any aviation enthusiast children, call them over to your screen, don’t tell them what they’re about to watch and hit play. I wish I had a picture of my nine-year-old’s face when he saw this. But when I said he’d have to let the computer […]
Facebook Envisions Using Brain Waves to Control Mobile Phones, Input Data at 100 Words Per Minute
April 20th, 2017I already watch what I say around my mobile phone, so how about a brain computer interface from Facebook? This is so far down the no-fucking-way path for me that it’s almost hilarious. Even if people were willing to use such a thing, it’s not coming anytime soon. Here’s why: Long ago, I worked for […]
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 […]
