Linking ideas with the world
Avis Rent A Car System has alerted 299,006 customers across multiple US states that their personal information was stolen in an August data breach. The digital break-in occurred between August 3 and August 6, according to the car rental giant in filings with the Maine and California attorneys general. On August 14, Avis determined that Read more about Avis alerts 300k US car renters that insider crooks stole their info[…]
Resistance to the Hungarian presidency’s approach to the EU’s draft law to combat online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) was still palpable during a member states’ meeting on Wednesday (4 September). The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU aims to secure consensus on the proposed law to combat online child sexual abuse material Read more about Resistance to Hungarian presidency’s new push for child sexual abuse prevention regulation – because it’s a draconian spying law asking for 100% coverage of digital comms[…]
Consumer and digital rights activists are calling on the US Federal Trade Commission to stop device-makers using software to reduce product functionality, bricking unloved kit, or adding surprise fees post-purchase. In an eight-page letter [PDF] to the Commission (FTC), the activists mentioned the Google/Levis collaboration on a denim jacket that contained sensors enabling it to Read more about Finaly people urge FTC to ban hardware tethering – downgrades, transferral costs, sudden bricking, unexpected subscriptions[…]
A simple change in how new lithium-ion batteries are charged can boost their total lifespans by 50 per cent on average – and battery manufacturers everywhere can immediately put the discovery into action. Extended battery lifespans could prove especially crucial for improving electric vehicles and energy storage for electricity grids. “The cool thing is that Read more about AI helps find simple charging trick to boost li-ion battery lifespan[…]
Airvine Scientific has a product that could make life easier for IT staff. WaveCore is designed to beam a network signal through thick concrete walls, eliminating the need to drill holes or route your cabling via a circuitous course. The Silicon Valley wireless company says its newly introduced kit is quick to deploy and can Read more about WaveCore beams gigabit network bridge link through concrete wall[…]
What would you think if an author told you they would have written a book, but they wouldn’t bother because it would be available to be borrowed for free from a library? You’d probably think they were delusional. Yet that argument has now carried the day in putting a knife into the back of the Read more about Second Circuit Says Libraries Disincentivize Authors To Write Books By Lending Them For Free[…]
The Internet Archive’s appeal could spell further trouble for the non-profit, as it is in the middle of a another copyright lawsuit with music publishers that could cost more than $400m if it loses. The Internet Archive has been dealt a serious blow in court, as it lost an appeal case to share scanned books Read more about Internet Archive loses appeal – 4 greedy publishers shut down major library in insane luddite US law system[…]
The EU, UK, US, and Israel signed the world’s first treaty protection human rights in AI technology in a ceremony in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Thursday (5 September), but civil society groups say the text has been watered down. The Framework Convention on artificial intelligence and human rights, democracy, and the rule of law was adopted Read more about EU, UK, US and more sign world’s first International treaty on AI – but the US makes sure it’s pretty much useless[…]
The YubiKey 5, the most widely used hardware token for two-factor authentication based on the FIDO standard, contains a cryptographic flaw that makes the finger-size device vulnerable to cloning when an attacker gains temporary physical access to it, researchers said Tuesday. The cryptographic flaw, known as a side channel, resides in a small microcontroller used Read more about YubiKeys are vulnerable to unpatchable cloning attacks thanks to newly discovered physical side channel[…]
Ukraine has developed a balloon-carried electronic surveillance system designed to detect enemy drone operators, which can then be targeted, offering a more comprehensive solution than tackling individual drones. While the current status of the system, known as Aero Azimuth, is unclear, its unveiling points to a resurgence in interest in elevated sensors mounted on aerostats. Read more about Balloon-Based Sensor That Pinpoints Location Of Drone Operators Emerges In Ukraine[…]
[…] What happens when connected cars become disconnected cars? […] The phenomenon was chronicled in Rest of World, which spoke to multiple owners of EVs produced by financially troubled Chinese automakers. China kickstarted its EV industry with aggressive subsidies that lured dozens, if not hundreds of companies to produce cars. When those subsidies ceased, an Read more about China’s Connected Car Crashes Are a Warning[…]
Clearview AI is back in hot — and expensive — water, with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) fining the company €30.5 million ($33.6 million) for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The release explains that Clearview created “an illegal database with billions of photos of faces,” including Dutch individuals, and has failed to Read more about Dutch DPA fines Clearview €30.5 million for violating the GDPR[…]
An invisible, weak energy field wrapped around our planet Earth has finally been detected and measured. It’s called the ambipolar field, an electric field first hypothesized more than 60 years ago […] “Any planet with an atmosphere should have an ambipolar field,” says astronomer Glyn Collinson of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Now that we’ve Read more about Scientists Detect Invisible Electric Field Around Earth For First Time[…]
A doughnut-shaped region thousands of kilometers beneath our feet within Earth’s liquid core has been discovered by scientists from The Australian National University (ANU), providing new clues about the dynamics of our planet’s magnetic field. The structure within Earth’s liquid core is found only at low latitudes and sits parallel to the equator. According to Read more about Doughnut-shaped region found inside Earth’s core deepens understanding of planet’s magnetic field[…]
Countries with greater inequalities — whether economic, pollution or disease-based — exhibited older brain ages, according to a study published in Nature Medicine, involving the University of Surrey. The pace at which the brain ages can vary significantly among individuals, leading to a gap between the estimated biological age of the brain and the chronological Read more about Your brain ages at different paces according to social and physical environments – especially fast with greater inequality[…]
Europe is going to talk again about the possibility of checking all chat messages of citizens for child abuse. On September 4, a (secret) consultation will take place, says Patrick Breyer , former MEP for the Pirate Party. A few years ago, the European Commission came up with the plan to monitor all chat messages Read more about Proposal to spy on all chat messages back on European political agenda[…]
[…] most recently in January 2024, when physicists Arnab Priya Saha and Aninda Sinha of the Indian Institute of Science presented a completely new formula for calculating it, which they later published in Physical Review Letters. Saha and Sinha are not mathematicians. They were not even looking for a novel pi equation. Rather, these two Read more about String Theorists Accidentally Find a New Formula for Pi[…]
Researchers at Cornell University tapped into fungal mycelia to power a pair of proof-of-concept robots. Mycelia, the underground fungal network that can sprout mushrooms as its above-ground fruit, can sense light and chemical reactions and communicate through electrical signals. This makes it a novel component in hybrid robotics that could someday detect crop conditions otherwise Read more about These robots move through the magic of mushrooms[…]
So this is a pin a bit larger than an AA battery which does one thing: it transcribes your musings and makes notes. Where does the AI come in? Speech and speaker recognition, audio trimming, summarisation and mind-maps. You see a lot of doubtful reviews on this thing out there, mostly on the basis of Read more about PLAUD NotePin: A Wearable AI Memory Capsule that just might work[…]
Lobbying groups across most of the device manufacturing industry—from tractor manufacturers to companies that make fridges, consumer devices, motorcycles, and medical equipment—are lobbying against legislation that would require military contractors to make it easier for the U.S. military to fix the equipment they buy, according to a document obtained by 404 Media. The anti-repair lobbying Read more about Appliance and Tractor Companies Lobby Against Giving the Military the Right to Repair, which apparently you can’t do to stuff that sees combat – well done capitalsim[…]
Mozilla will soon remove its telemetry service Adjust from the Android and iOS versions of browsers Firefox and Firefox Focus. It appeared that the developer was collecting data on the effectiveness of Firefox ad campaigns without disclosing that. Mozilla, the developers of Firefox, until recently used the telemetry service Adjust to collect data from its Read more about Mozilla removes telemetry service Adjust from mobile Firefox versions – it was spying on you secretly it turns out[…]
It’s not an update, it’s a destroyer of functionality Removal of Video Station Support: The update no longer supports Video Station, which has upset users who rely on this feature for media management and playback. Incompatibility with Plex: The DSM 7.2.2 update has caused issues with Plex, requiring users to update to a new version Read more about Synology Release DSM 7.2.2 Removes a LOT of features. Think hard about upgrading.[…]
Clearview’s status as an international pariah really hasn’t changed much over the past few years. It may be generating fewer headlines, but nothing’s really changed about the way it does business. Clearview has spent years scraping the web, compiling as much personal info as possible to couple with the billions of photos it has collected. Read more about Australian Regulators Decide To Write A Strongly Worded Letter About Clearview’s Privacy Law Violations, leave it at that[…]
[…] researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have used silicon photonic microchip components to perform a quantum sensing technique called atom interferometry, an ultra-precise way of measuring acceleration. It is the latest milestone toward developing a kind of quantum compass for navigation when GPS signals are unavailable. Sandia National Laboratories scientist Jongmin Lee, left, prepares a Read more about Revolutionary Quantum Compass Could Soon Make GPS-Free Navigation a Reality[…]
Privacy authorities in the Netherlands have imposed a €290 million ($324 million) fine on ride-share giant Uber for sending driver data to servers in the United States – “a serious violation” of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA), Uber spent years sending sensitive driver information from Read more about Dutch officials fine Uber €290M for GDPR violations[…]