Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Bitcoin Slides as China’s Central Bank Launches Checks on Exchanges
January 11th, 2017Via: Reuters: China’s central bank launched spot checks on leading bitcoin exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai, ratcheting up pressure on potential capital outflows and knocking the price of the cryptocurrency down more than 12 percent against the dollar. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said its probe of bitcoin exchanges BTCC, Huobi and OKCoin was […]
‘Shadow Brokers’ Selling NSA Cyberweapons Targeting Windows
January 10th, 2017Via: Cyberscoop: A mysterious group that claims to have stolen tools once used by the NSA published material Sunday to show it is in possession of Microsoft Windows software exploits. Screenshots of the alleged exploits in use, along with a comprehensive list of filenames and directories were all shared by the enigmatic group the “Shadow […]
Pentagon Successfully Tests Micro-Drone Swarm
January 10th, 2017Via: Physorg: The Pentagon may soon be unleashing a 21st-century version of locusts on its adversaries after officials on Monday said it had successfully tested a swarm of 103 micro-drones. The important step in the development of new autonomous weapon systems was made possible by improvements in artificial intelligence, holding open the possibility that groups […]
Terror Suspects Could be Forced to Wear Electronic Tags Under Radical Proposal from German Justice Minister
January 9th, 2017Do you get it yet? Do you see what becomes possible when they create the problem in the first place? If you think this would just be used on “Islamic extremists,” read the statement from Heiko Maas carefully: “The use of ankle tags should not be only available for convicted criminals after release from prison, […]
Bitcoin Wreck
January 6th, 2017Warning: Nothing that appears on Cryptogon should be considered advice to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. — Someone wondered why I mentioned Bitcoin a couple of days before it crashed, after not mentioning it for a long time. Did I know something? Nope. But I don’t mess with potential double tops. So when […]
Tesla Starts Mass Production of New ‘2170’ Battery Cell at Gigafactory
January 5th, 2017Via: Electrek: For the past year, Tesla has been guiding “by the end of the year” for the start of battery cell production at the Gigafactory. The end of the year has come and gone, but Tesla didn’t confirm the start of production. As it turns out, Tesla, and its battery partner Panasonic, started production […]
Mining 24 Hours a Day with Robots
January 4th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review: Mining companies are rolling out autonomous trucks, drills, and trains, which will boost efficiency but also reduce the need for human employees. Each of these trucks is the size of a small two-story house. None has a driver or anyone else on board. Mining company Rio Tinto has 73 of these […]
IBM Watson Replaces Insurance Claim Workers at Japanese Insurance Company
January 4th, 2017Via: Quartz: Most of the attention around automation focuses on how factory robots and self-driving cars may fundamentally change our workforce, potentially eliminating millions of jobs. But AI that can handle knowledge-based, white-collar work are also becoming increasingly competent. One Japanese insurance company, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance, is reportedly replacing 34 human insurance claim workers […]
Ford Announces $4.5 Billion Investment in Electric Vehicles
January 4th, 2017Via: Ars Technica: Today at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant, Ford Motor Company CEO Mark Fields unveiled a large-scale electric vehicle initiative that will run through the company’s next five years. Ford plans to invest $4.5 billion in electric vehicle production by 2020, and the company said it will produce 13 new electric vehicles, including […]
Engineering Efforts Increasing with Quantum Computers
January 4th, 2017Via: Nature: “People are really building things,” says Christopher Monroe, a physicist at the University of Maryland in College Park who co-founded the start-up IonQ in 2015. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s no longer just research.” Google started working on a form of quantum computing that harnesses superconductivity in 2014. It hopes this […]
