Archive for the 'Technology' Category
GCHQ Has Developed Covert Tools to Seed the Internet with False Information
July 15th, 2014The headline is a huge understatement. Go through the document for a laundry list of stuff they’re up to. Via: First Look: The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web […]
A Contraceptive Implant with Remote Control
July 14th, 2014Date check: Nope, it’s not April Fool’s Day. Just make sure the firewall on your birth control chip is up to date… Via: MIT Technology Review: A startup has developed a contraceptive chip that could be deactivated and reactivated using a wireless remote. … Developed by MicroCHIPS of Lexington, Massachusetts, the device will begin pre-clinical […]
Apple’s New iPhone, Made in China—By Robots
July 14th, 2014Via: Fiscal Times: The worst kept secret of Apple and its Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn isn’t their poor labor conditions. It isn’t even the fact that they use robots to help bring together all the pieces that make up an iPhone. It’s that their robots are now performing more and more human-like functions. In the past, […]
U.S. Marines Test Robotic Mule at RIMPAC, Hawaii
July 14th, 2014That thing is loud. Pretty effective for announcing their presence. Via: BBC: US marines have tested a new robotic mule at the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise in Hawaii. The Legged Squad Support System (LS3) is operated by a sensor strapped to a human foot. Military footage shows Lance Corporal Brandon Dieckmann fitting the […]
Electronic Health Records Ripe for Theft
July 14th, 2014Via: Politico: America’s medical records systems are flirting with disaster, say the experts who monitor crime in cyberspace. A hack that exposes the medical and financial records of hundreds of thousands of patients is coming, they say — it’s only a matter of when. As health data become increasingly digital and the use of electronic […]
“How the CIA Partnered With Amazon and Changed Intelligence”
July 13th, 2014Via: DefenseOne: The intelligence community is about to get the equivalent of an adrenaline shot to the chest. This summer, a $600 million computing cloud developed by Amazon Web Services for the Central Intelligence Agency over the past year will begin servicing all 17 agencies that make up the intelligence community.
DARPA: .50-Caliber Bullets with Guidance Systems
July 13th, 2014I’d buy that for a dollar. Via: DARPA: For military snipers, acquiring moving targets in unfavorable conditions, such as high winds and dusty terrain commonly found in Afghanistan, is extremely challenging with current technology. It is critical that snipers be able to engage targets faster, and with better accuracy, since any shot that doesn’t hit […]
Binney: “The NSA lies about what it stores.”
July 13th, 2014Via: Guardian: William Binney is one of the highest-level whistleblowers to ever emerge from the NSA. He was a leading code-breaker against the Soviet Union during the Cold War but resigned soon after September 11, disgusted by Washington’s move towards mass surveillance. On 5 July he spoke at a conference in London organised by the […]
Can’t Beat Them? Grow Lettuce: In Japan, Idled Electronics Factories Find New Life in Farming
July 7th, 2014Via: Wall Street Journal: Haruyasu Miyabe used to oversee a computer-chip production line at a Fujitsu Ltd. plant here. One day last year, the plant manager told Mr. Miyabe to prepare for a career change. “Starting tomorrow, you are going to make lettuce,” he recalls being told. Amid troubled times in the Japanese electronics industry, […]
Foxconn May Replace ‘iPhone 6’ Assembly Line Workers with ‘Foxbot’ Robots
July 7th, 2014Via: Apple Insider: During a recent shareholder meeting, president and CEO of Apple partner manufacturer Foxconn said his company plans to roll out robots on assembly lines responsible for products like the iPhone, possibly in time for production of the so-called “iPhone 6.”
