Archive for the 'Technology' Category
The World Cracks Down on the Internet
December 6th, 2014Via: The New Yorker: On Thursday, Freedom House published its fifth annual report on Internet freedom around the world. As in years past, China is again near the bottom of the rankings, which include sixty-five countries. Only Syria and Iran got worse scores, while Iceland and Estonia fared the best. (The report was funded partly […]
Operation Auroragold: How the NSA Hacks Cellphone Networks Worldwide
December 6th, 2014Via: First Look: According to documents contained in the archive of material provided to The Intercept by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the NSA has spied on hundreds of companies and organizations internationally, including in countries closely allied to the United States, in an effort to find security weaknesses in cellphone technology that it can exploit for […]
Enphase Says Solar + Solar Market “Infinite,” Ahead of Australia Battery Pilot
December 5th, 2014Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in NZ. Via: RenewEconomy: When the world’s biggest supplier of solar inverters (sometimes described as the “brains” of solar PV systems) sets up camp in Australia, it’s probably a development worth noting. California-based “solar-tech” company Enphase opened offices in Sydney and Melbourne around 18 months ago, and since then, […]
Discarded Laptop Batteries Keep the Lights On
December 4th, 2014Via: MIT Technology Review: Many of the estimated 50 million lithium-ion laptop batteries discarded every year could provide electricity storage sufficient to light homes in poor countries, researchers at IBM say. In work being aired this week at a conference in San Jose, researchers at IBM Research India in Bangalore found that at least 70 […]
Google’s Intelligence Designer
December 3rd, 2014Via: MIT Technology Review: But Hassabis sounds more excited when he talks about going beyond just tweaking the algorithms behind today’s products. He dreams of creating “AI scientists” that could do things like generate and test new hypotheses about disease in the lab. When prodded, he also says that DeepMind’s software could also be useful […]
Stephen Hawking Warns Artificial Intelligence Could End Mankind
December 2nd, 2014Via: BBC: Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain’s pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence. He told the BBC:”The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” His warning came in response to a question about a revamp of the […]
U.S. Navy Pushes Solar Energy Storage Solution
December 1st, 2014Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. Via: CleanTechnica: We just got wind of a major new oil industry campaign to tear down California’s clean energy rules, but we’re thinking these guys are going to be outflanked by the shockingly rapid growth of the energy storage sector. Case in point: the Navy Mobile […]
INCENSER
December 1st, 2014Via: Electrospaces: Recently disclosed documents show that the NSA’s fourth-largest cable tapping program, codenamed INCENSER, pulls its data from just one single source: a submarine fiber optic cable linking Asia with Europe. Until now, it was only known that INCENSER was a sub-program of WINDSTOP and that it collected some 14 billion pieces of internet […]
Pizza Hut: Eye-Tracking Menu
November 30th, 2014Via: Engadget: Pizza Hut wants to help you skip your super-ego middleman and just let your id order that triple-cheese bacon pepperoni pie directly. It’s “Subconscious Menu” uses Tobii’s eye-tracking tech to figure out which of 20 different ingredients you’re looking at on a screen (see the video below). It then takes all of three […]
Bird Bomb? Afghan Police Kill Bird Bearing Antenna, Explosives
November 30th, 2014Via: NBC: Afghan police said they are investigating how a wild bird came to bear an antenna, electronic devices and explosives. Police came across the strange sight around 8 a.m. in the northern Faryab province, a volatile region ravaged by Taliban violence. When police spotted the white bird — which isn’t native to the area […]
