Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
‘Either Write the Software that Eats the World, or Be Eaten’
August 24th, 2013Via: TechCrunch: Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe everything will be fine. Maybe the “widening gap between rich and poor” is temporary. Maybe the steady growth in the proportion of jobs that are part-time and/or low-paid will soon reverse. Or maybe the idea that all the homeless need are old laptops and a few JavaScript textbooks is […]
DARPA Wants a Synthetic Neocortex
August 23rd, 2013Via: Network World: The military’s advanced research group recently put out a call, or Request For information, on how it could develop systems that go beyond machine learning, Bayesian techniques, and graphical technology to solve “extraordinarily difficult recognition problems in real-time.” Current systems offer partial solutions to this problem, but are limited in their ability […]
X-47B Lands on U.S. Aircraft Carrier
August 14th, 2013Via: Wired: The Navy’s X-47B drone completed its newest round of tests off the Virginia shore last week, making it the first pilotless unmanned jet in history to land aboard a moving aircraft carrier — one of aviation’s most challenging maneuvers. The Navy heralded the achievement as the future of warfare. “It isn’t very often […]
Democracy Now On Amazon and Jeff Bezos
August 14th, 2013Disclosure: I have an affiliate relationship with Amazon. The Democracy Now discussion below contains some legitimate gripes about Amazon, which I’ve covered on here in the past. The most disturbing thing about Amazon (to me) is their work with CIA to build the agency’s new cloud computing infrastructure (news circa March 2013). That’s bad. But […]
‘The Era of Ubiquitous Listening Dawns’
August 13th, 2013Via: MIT Technology Review: The Moto X, the new smartphone from Google’s Motorola Mobility, might be remembered best someday for helping to usher in the era of ubiquitous listening. Unlike earlier phones, the Moto X includes two low-power chips whose only function is to process data from a microphone and other sensors—without tapping the main […]
Clean Green Surveillance Drone
August 13th, 2013Via: Wired: A new small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) boasts something no other has been able to do thus far: continuous flight for 9 hours and all on the clean energy of solar power. AeroVironment‘s 13-pound Puma AE can be assembled and hand-launched in minutes and requires no infrastructure for launch or landing, making them […]
Google Searches Result in Visit from Joint Terrorism Task Force
August 2nd, 2013Any lawyers who click through are likely to experience grand mal seizures when they read about how the suspect dealt with this bogus fishing expedition. Suspect: Invited Joint Terrorism Task Force (mainly FBI, but could actually include people from a variety of agencies) inside his house. Suspect: Consented to a search of his house. Suspect: […]
FBI Using Drones for Warrantless Surveillance Inside U.S.
July 28th, 2013Via: The Verge: Earlier this year, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) publicly revealed for the first time in a hearing that it has been using drones to conduct surveillance operations inside the country, a striking admission, given that domestic drone is a subject of intense debate and there’s still not a clear set […]
DARPA Hydra: Mothership That Deploys Both Submersible and Aerial Drones
July 24th, 2013Via: NBC: Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are in the news constantly, but what about unmanned underwater vehicles? They could also be important in both war and peace, which is why the Defense Department’s research arm, DARPA, is looking into a mobile submarine base from which to launch drones. The project, still in the earliest […]
Leaked Report Shows High Civilian Death Toll from CIA Drone Strikes
July 23rd, 2013This only covers the period from 2006 to 2009. Via: Salon: A secret document obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals for the first time the Pakistan government’s internal assessment of dozens of drone strikes, and shows scores of civilian casualties. The United States has consistently claimed only a tiny number of non-combatants have […]
