Linking ideas with the world
Two days before Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the NASA-Japan Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite captured a 3-D view of the storm. At the time Maria was a Category 1 hurricane. The 3-D view reveals the processes inside the hurricane that would fuel the storm’s intensification to a category 5 within 24 hours. For Read more about Inside Hurricane Maria in 360°[…]
In less than two years, anything that can connect to the internet will come with a unique password — that is, if it’s produced or sold in California. The “Information Privacy: Connected Devices” bill that comes into effect on January 1, 2020, effectively bans pre-installed and hard-coded default passwords. It only took the authorities about Read more about California bans default passwords on any internet-connected device[…]
According to Mic, Reddit user Robert Peterson created a trick using the virtual assistant, Siri, that lowers the phone’s brightness, turns on Do Not Disturb, texts the iPhone owner’s location to an emergency contact and lets them know you have been pulled over by police. The shortcut will also automatically start recording video and, when Read more about iPhone Shortcut Automatically Records Police, turns off face and fingerprint ID[…]
We’re all used to skimming past the boring parts of a reading assignment or a web article. But when researchers from RMIT University in Australia printed information in a weird, hard-to-read font, they found that people were more likely to remember what they read. There’s a sweet spot, their experiments suggest: If the font is Read more about Sans Forgetica font May Help You Remember What You Read[…]
For the first time, an international team of researchers has used a quantum computer to create artificial life—a simulation of living organisms that scientists can use to understand life at the level of whole populations all the way down to cellular interactions. With the quantum computer, individual living organisms represented at a microscopic level with Read more about Researchers Created ‘Quantum Artificial Life’ For the First Time[…]
The Oryu is the eleventh submarine based on the Soryu’s design. Soryu-class vessels, which started being built in 2005, are among the largest diesel-electric submarines in the world. But the Oryu is a vastly updated version of the Soryu, the biggest change being the replacement of lead-acid batteries with lithium-ion ones. Mitsubishi Heavy tapped GS Yuasa Read more about Japan’s silent submarines extend range with li-ion batteries[…]
Instagram is currently testing a feature that would allow it to share your location data with Facebook, even when you’re not using the app, reports app researcher Jane Manchun Wong (via TechCrunch). The option, which Wong notes is being tested as a setting you have to opt-in to, allows Facebook products to “build and use Read more about Instagram explores sharing your precise location history with Facebook even when not using the app[…]
Lawyers representing Vizio TV owners have asked a federal judge in Orange County, California to sign off on a proposed class-action settlement with the company for $17 million, for an affected class of 16 million people, who must opt-in to get any money. Vizio also agrees to delete all data that it collected. Notice of Read more about Lawyers for Vizio data grabbing Smart TV owners propose final deal, around $20 per person. Lawyers themselves get $5.6 million.[…]
Three US researchers have pulled off a sophisticated hoax by publishing fake research with ridiculous conclusions in sociology journals to expose what they see as ideological bias and a lack of rigorous vetting at these publications. Seven of the 20 fake articles written by the trio were accepted by journals after being approved by peer-review Read more about ‘Real’ fake research hoodwinks US journals, shows bias against white men gets published regardless of content[…]
In its ongoing exploration of Intel’s Management Engine (ME), security biz Positive Technologies has reaffirmed the shortsightedness of security through obscurity and underscored the value of open source silicon. The Intel ME, included on most Intel chipsets since 2008, is controversial because it expands the attack surface of Intel-based hardware. If compromised, it becomes side-channel Read more about Apple forgot to lock Intel Management Engine in laptops, so get patching[…]
MLflow is inspired by existing ML platforms, but it is designed to be open in two senses: Open interface: MLflow is designed to work with any ML library, algorithm, deployment tool or language. It’s built around REST APIs and simple data formats (e.g., a model can be viewed as a lambda function) that can be Read more about Introducing MLflow: an Open Source Machine Learning Platform for tracking, projects and models[…]
A wave of reports about hijacked WhatsApp accounts in Israel has forced the government’s cyber-security agency to send out a nation-wide security alert on Tuesday, ZDNet has learned. The alert, authored by the Israel National Cyber Security Authority, warns about a relatively new method of hijacking WhatsApp accounts using mobile providers’ voicemail systems. This new Read more about Recent wave of hijacked WhatsApp accounts traced back to voicemail hacking[…]
On 13 April 2018, with support from the Netherlands General Intelligence and Security Service and UK counterparts, the Netherlands Defence Intelligence and Security Service (DISS) disrupted a cyber operation being carried out by a Russian military intelligence (GRU) team. The Russian operation had targeted the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Read more about Netherlands Defence Intelligence and Security Service disrupts Russian cyber operation targeting OPCW[…]
Microsoft announced a new feature for Windows 10 today that will let Android phone users view and use any app on their device from a Windows desktop. The feature, which Microsoft is referring to as app mirroring and shows up in Windows as an app called Your Phone, seems to be work best with Android Read more about Microsoft announces app mirroring to let you use any Android app on Windows 10[…]
Customs laws in New Zealand now allow border agents to demand travellers unlock their phones or face an NZ$5,000 (around US$3,300) fine. The law was passed during 2017 with its provisions coming into effect on October 1. The security conscious of you will also be pleased to know Kiwi officials still need a “reasonable” suspicion Read more about New Zealand border cops warn travelers that without handing over electronic passwords ‘You shall not pass!’[…]
Party chairman Brandon Lewis was planning to sell the “interactive” app – which will allow attendees to give feedback on speeches as they happen – as evidence that the ruling party was embracing tech in a bid to win over the youth vote (another idea was to have the culture secretary appear as a hologram). Read more about UK ruling party’s conference app editable by world+dog, blabs members’ digits[…]
Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, thinks it’s broken and he has a plan to fix it. The British computer scientist has announced a new project that he hopes will radically change his creation by giving people full control over their data. Tim Berners-Lee: This is why I have, over recent years, Read more about Tim Berners-Lee Announces Solid, an Open Source Project Which Would Aim To Decentralize the Web[…]
Before there was Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Ubisoft’s game about piloting the original Enterprise, there was Star Trek Stage-9, a fan project recreating the Enterprise-D from The Next Generation in Unreal Engine. This week the project is no more, following a cease and desist demand by CBS. One of the leads on the project, who Read more about CBS Shuts Down Ambitious Fan Effort To Make A Virtual Starship Enterprise[…]
New York – Sept. 26, 2018 – NantEnergy today announced a breakthrough in its six-year mission to develop the world’s first scalable air breathing, zinc rechargeable battery system at a manufacturing cost below $100 kWh and to operate this intelligent digitally controlled system on a global scale. This green rechargeable battery, an air-breathing cell, uses just zinc and air, integrated with digitally controlled intelligence. The energy system is monitored in real time in the cloud and has been Read more about NantEnergy Announces Largest Global Deployment of Novel Air Breathing Zinc Rechargeable Battery System and Breakthrough in Cost Barrier[…]
In August, Tesla CEO Elon Musk set off an entirely preventable and catastrophic chain of events by tweeting that he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” Musk provided no financing details, and the Securities and Exchange Commission later determined that he never finalized any kind of deal with the Saudi sovereign wealth Read more about Elon Musk to Resign as Tesla Chairman, Pay 2x $20 Million Fine in SEC Settlement Over Catastrophic ‘420’ Tweet[…]
Facebook’s stunning disclosure of a massive hack on Friday in which attackers gained access tokens to at least 50 million accounts—bypassing security measures and potentially giving them full control of both profiles and linked apps—has already stirred the threat of a $1.63 billion dollar fine in the European Union, according to the Wall Street Journal. Read more about Facebook Could Face Up to $1.63 Billion Fine for 50m User Hack Under the GDPR[…]
A rootkit is a piece of software that hides itself on computer systems, and uses its root or administrator-level privileges to steal and alter documents, spy on users, and cause other mischief and headaches. A UEFI rootkit lurks in the motherboard firmware, meaning it starts up before the operating system and antivirus suites run, allowing Read more about Resident evil: Inside a UEFI rootkit used to spy on govts, made by you-know-who (hi, Russia)[…]
Hackers probing America’s electronic voting systems have painted an astonishing picture of the state of US election security, less than six weeks before the November midterms. The full 50-page report [PDF], released Thursday during a presentation in Washington DC, was put together by the organizers of the DEF CON hacking conference’s Voting Village. It recaps Read more about DEFCON hackers’ dossier on US voting machine security is just as grim as feared[…]
Last week, I ran an ad on Facebook that was targeted at a computer science professor named Alan Mislove. Mislove studies how privacy works on social networks and had a theory that Facebook is letting advertisers reach users with contact information collected in surprising ways. I was helping him test the theory by targeting him Read more about Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access to Your Shadow Contact Information – and you can’t find out what that is[…]
Jeff Chen, an AI techie and entrepreneur at Stanford University in the US, believes that a suitable machine can be built for about $3,000 (~£2,300) without including tax. At the heart of the beast is an Nvidia GeForce 1080Ti GPU, a 12-core AMD Threadripper processor, 64GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD card for data. Read more about Building your own PC for AI is 10x cheaper than renting out GPUs on cloud, apparently[…]