Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Why Are U.S. Corporate Profits So High? Because Wages Are So Low
January 27th, 2014Automation is the key, but this piece doesn’t mention it. The companies have, “Still managed to boost profits beyond anything ever seen before because they’ve got away with employing as few workers as possible at as low a rate as possible.” I’ve got news for Jamie McGeever at Reuters: Companies only ever employ as few […]
Google Chrome Bug Lets Websites Listen to Your Conversations
January 26th, 2014Via: IBTimes: A bug in Google’s Chrome web browser enables malicious websites to activate your microphone and spy on conversations that happen next to your computer, even after you’ve left the website. Tal Ater, a web developer in Israel discovered the exploit while working on a JavaScript Speech Recognition library called annyang. The internet giant […]
Watchdog Report Says NSA Program Is Illegal and Should End
January 23rd, 2014Captain Obvious checking in on Cryptogon this morning. Via: New York Times: An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agency’s program to collect bulk phone call records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal and should be shut down. The findings are laid out in a 238-page report, […]
Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
January 21st, 2014Via: Military Times: During remarks at the Army Aviation Symposium in Arlington, Va., on Jan. 15, Cone quietly dropped a bomb. The Army, he said, is considering the feasibility of shrinking the size of the brigade combat team from about 4,000 soldiers to 3,000 over the coming years, and replacing the lost soldiers with robots […]
Chinese Bootcamps for Internet Addicts
January 21st, 2014Via: news.com.au: CHINA is the first country to label internet addiction a clinical disorder. But instead of shutting the laptop and going for a stroll, in China there are guarded boot camps intended to deprogram hooked teens. … This addiction and social detachment is striking nationwide concern across China, so to stamp it out the […]
Ukraine Tracks Protesters Through Cellphones
January 21st, 2014Via: New York Times: The Ukrainian government used telephone technology to pinpoint the locations of cellphones in use near clashes between riot police officers and protesters early on Tuesday, illustrating that techniques that can be used to target commercial information can serve law enforcement as well. People near the fighting between riot police and protesters […]
Botnet Made Up of Hacked Refrigerators and Other Appliances Sent Hundreds of Thousands of Spam Emails
January 21st, 2014Via: The Age: Call it the attack of the zombie refrigerators. Computer security researchers say they have discovered a large “botnet” which infected internet-connected home appliances and then delivered more than 750,000 malicious emails. The California security firm Proofpoint, which announced its findings, said this may be the first proven “internet of things” based cyber […]
Tesla Motors Does Over-the-Air Repairs
January 21st, 2014Wow. I wonder what else they can do to those cars from remote? I wonder if they have disabled one for any reason? Via: MIT Technology Review: Tesla and GM have both issued fire-related recalls, but Tesla’s fix doesn’t require owners to bring their cars in. Tesla Motors is using over-the-air software updates to quickly […]
Spoiled Onions: Exposing Bad Tor Exit Relays
January 21st, 2014Via: Spoiled Onions: As of January 2014, the Tor anonymity network consists of 5,000 relays of which almost 1,000 are exit relays. As the diagram to the right illustrates, exit relays bridge the gap between the Tor network and the “open” Internet. As a result, exit relays are able to see anonymised network traffic as […]
47% Of Today’s Jobs Automated In Next Two Decades, “No Country Is Ready For It”
January 20th, 2014What’s the solution, according to the The Economist? Online classes and video games! Via: The Economist: Today’s governments would do well to start making the changes needed before their people get angry.
