Archive for the 'Outsourced' Category
FBI Used Best Buy’s Geek Squad To Increase Secret Public Surveillance
March 11th, 2017Via: OC Weekly: Recently unsealed records reveal a much more extensive secret relationship than previously known between the FBI and Best Buy’s Geek Squad, including evidence the agency trained company technicians on law-enforcement operational tactics, shared lists of targeted citizens and, to covertly increase surveillance of the public, encouraged searches of computers even when unrelated […]
Meet Flippy, a Burger-Grilling Robot
March 9th, 2017Via: Tech Crunch: Flipping burgers is a hot and greasy job. Slips, trips, burns and cuts are common hazards associated with the work. But global demand for burgers is tremendous. Top burger chains racked up more than $75.5 billion in annual sales in 2016. To help keep human cooks out of harm’s way while fulfilling […]
Why Amazon’s Data Centers Are Hidden in Spy Country
March 2nd, 2017Yeah, I guess you’d be nuts to think that Amazon built out infrastructure in this area to be in close proximity to CIA. That’s just a coincidence, as usual: The fact that northern Virginia is home to major intelligence operations and to major nodes of network infrastructure isn’t exactly a sign of government conspiracy so […]
Congress Told to Brace for ‘Robotic Soldiers’
March 1st, 2017In other news: Via: The Hill: House lawmakers were warned Wednesday that artificial intelligence could soon be used by potential adversaries in military operations. Jason Healey, a senior fellow on the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative, told members of a House panel with oversight of the Pentagon that he expects the capabilities to be developed […]
RCMP Commissioner Warns Continued IT Failures Will Have ‘Catastrophic’ Consequences
February 27th, 2017Via: CBC: Canada’s top cop is warning that ongoing computer network failures and slipshod service from Shared Services Canada could have “catastrophic” consequences for police and the public. CBC News has obtained a blistering Jan. 20, 2017, memo to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale in which Commissioner Bob Paulson details how critical IT failures have […]
Private Prisons Back In Mix For Federal Inmates
February 23rd, 2017Via: NPR: New Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding an Obama-era memo that directed the Justice Department to reduce the use of private prisons, NPR’s Carrie Johnson reports Sessions writes in the order that returning to the Bureau of Prisons’ earlier approach would provide flexibility. “The memorandum changed long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the […]
Flashback 2013: Jeff Bezos Is Doing Huge Business with the CIA, While Keeping His Washington Post Readers in the Dark
February 17th, 2017Not only do I buy a lot of homeschooling books for my children from Amazon, but Cryptogon depends on affiliate commissions from Amazon. Several retailers in New Zealand simply buy stuff at retail from Amazon and then send it over to NZ. (That should give you an idea of how broken retailing is in NZ […]
The AI Threat Isn’t Skynet, It’s the End of the Middle Class
February 11th, 2017Via: Wired: At a time when the Trump administration is promising to make America great again by restoring old-school manufacturing jobs, AI researchers aren’t taking him too seriously. They know that these jobs are never coming back, thanks in no small part to their own research, which will eliminate so many other kinds of jobs […]
Inside Amazon’s Robot-Run Supermarket that Needs Just 3 Human Workers
February 6th, 2017Via: New York Post: The ground level of the futuristic prototype — a supermarket-sized version of its recently unveiled “Amazon Go” convenience store, with a bigger layout that could span anywhere between 10,000 and 40,000 square feet — would be devoted to goods that shoppers typically like to touch, sources briefed on the plans told […]
The End of Employees
February 3rd, 2017Via: Wall Street Journal: Never before have American companies tried so hard to employ so few people. The outsourcing wave that moved apparel-making jobs to China and call-center operations to India is now just as likely to happen inside companies across the U.S. and in almost every industry.
