Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Human Rights Watch Sues DEA Over Bulk Collection of Americans’ Telephone Records
April 8th, 2015Via: EFF: Human Rights Watch, a nonpartisan organization that fights human rights abuses across the globe, filed suit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration late Tuesday for illegally collecting records of its telephone calls to certain foreign countries as part of yet another government bulk surveillance program. The group is represented by the Electronic Frontier […]
Robotic Co-Pilots
April 7th, 2015Via: New York Times: This summer, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon research organization, will take the next step in plane automation with the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System, or Alias. Sometime this year, the agency will begin flight testing a robot that can be quickly installed in the right seat of military […]
‘BMW’s New Sensors Do the Braking for You’
April 7th, 2015Via: Bloomberg: More than 90 percent of auto-related crashes are due to human error: a distraction, a mistake. With its new “Active Assist” technology, BMW is trying to do everything it can to take those errors out of the equation. Using laser sensors, the system effectively keeps a 360-degree vigil and will automatically and gently […]
Stanford: New Aluminum-Ion Battery, “7,500 Cycles Without Any Loss of Capacity”
April 7th, 2015Non toxic. Very safe. Does it scale? Hope so. It’s nowhere near market ready, but exciting anyway. Via: Stanford University: Stanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that’s fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive. Researchers say the new technology offers a safe alternative to many commercial batteries in wide use today. “We have developed […]
Inexpensive Electric Cars Sooner Rather Than Later?
April 6th, 2015Via: MIT Technology Review: Electric cars may seem like a niche product that only wealthy people can afford, but a new analysis suggests that they may be close to competing with or even beating gas cars on cost. The true cost of lithium-ion batteries in electric cars is a secret closely held by manufacturers. And […]
Sea-Based X-Band Radar: Another Multi Billion Dollar Pentagon Boondoggle
April 5th, 2015Via: Los Angeles Times: Leaders of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency were effusive about the new technology. It was the most powerful radar of its kind in the world, they told Congress. So powerful it could detect a baseball over San Francisco from the other side of the country. If North Korea launched a sneak […]
Car Completes 99% of 3,400-Mile U.S. Road Trip in Autonomous Mode
April 3rd, 2015Via: AP: An autonomous car’s recent 3,400-mile U.S. road trip proves there’s at least one thing computers do better than humans: Follow the speed limit. Auto supplier Delphi Corp. fitted an Audi Q5 with radar, cameras and laser sensors to navigate the 15-state journey from San Francisco to New York, mostly traveling on highways. The […]
AI Interns: Software Already Taking Jobs from Humans
April 1st, 2015Via: New Scientist: Humans used to manually move data between the relevant systems to complete these tasks, copying a phone number from one database to another, for instance. The user still has to call up and speak to a human, but now an AI does the actual work. To train the AI, it watches and […]
Amazon Tests Delivery Drones at Secret Canadian Site After U.S. Frustration
March 31st, 2015Via: Guardian: Amazon is testing its drone delivery service at a secret site in Canada, following repeated warnings by the e-commerce giant that it would go outside the US to bypass what it sees as the US federal government’s lethargic approach to the new technology. The largest internet retailer in the world is keeping the […]
“The messengers do talk… They end up asking each other which apps they work for”
March 25th, 2015It’s not Portlandia. Baylandia? Oh yeah, Silicon Valley. Via: Medium: Angel the concierge stands behind a lobby desk at a luxe apartment building in downtown San Francisco, and describes the residents of this imperial, 37-story tower. “Ubers, Squares, a few Twitters,” she says. “A lot of work-from-homers.” And by late afternoon on a Tuesday, they’re […]
