The Linkielist

Linking ideas with the world

To drive faster we all need to keep the same distance to the car behind us as the car in front

Posted on by Robin Edgar

a new study in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems mathematically models the implications of the larger problem: You’re not keeping the right distance from the car behind you. That may seem counterintuitive, since you don’t have much control over how far you are from the car behind you—especially when that person is a tailgater. Read more about To drive faster we all need to keep the same distance to the car behind us as the car in front[…]

Forever 21: Yes, hackers breached our payment system for half of 2017

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A breach at Forever 21 left customer payment card information exposed to hackers, the retailer confirmed Thursday. The company didn’t specify how many customers had information stolen, but said various point of sales terminals were affected between April 3 and November 18, 2017. Hackers collected credit card numbers, expiration dates, verification codes and sometimes cardholder Read more about Forever 21: Yes, hackers breached our payment system for half of 2017[…]

Hackers Can Rickroll Thousands of Sonos and Bose Speakers Over the Internet

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Perhaps you’ve been hearing strange sounds in your home—ghostly creaks and moans, random Rick Astley tunes, Alexa commands issued in someone else’s voice. If so, you haven’t necessarily lost your mind. Instead, if you own one of a few models of internet-connected speaker and you’ve been careless with your network settings, you might be one Read more about Hackers Can Rickroll Thousands of Sonos and Bose Speakers Over the Internet[…]

The evidence-based medicine problem: US doctors cling to procedures that don’t work. Just under half of expensive operations.

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The recent news that stents inserted in patients with heart disease to keep arteries open work no better than a placebo ought to be shocking. Each year, hundreds of thousands of American patients receive stents for the relief of chest pain, and the cost of the procedure ranges from $11,000 to $41,000 in US hospitals. Read more about The evidence-based medicine problem: US doctors cling to procedures that don’t work. Just under half of expensive operations.[…]

Canada to use AI to Study ‘Suicide-Related Behavior’ on Social Media

Posted on by Robin Edgar

his month the Canadian government is launching a pilot program to research and predict suicide rates in the country using artificial intelligence. The pilot will mine Canadians’ social media posts “in order to identify patterns associated with users who discuss suicide-related behavior,” according to a recently published contract document. Source: Canada Is Using AI to Read more about Canada to use AI to Study ‘Suicide-Related Behavior’ on Social Media[…]

‘Kernel memory leaking’ Intel / ARM processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows, OSX redesign, massive slowdowns to be expected

Posted on by Robin Edgar

t is understood the bug is present in modern Intel processors produced in the past decade. It allows normal user programs – from database applications to JavaScript in web browsers – to discern to some extent the layout or contents of protected kernel memory areas.The fix is to separate the kernel’s memory completely from user Read more about ‘Kernel memory leaking’ Intel / ARM processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows, OSX redesign, massive slowdowns to be expected[…]

Using stickers in the field of view to fool image recognition AIs

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In a research paper presented in December through a workshop at the 31st Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS 2017) and made available last week through ArXiv, a team of researchers from Google discuss a technique for creating an adversarial patch. This patch, sticker, or cutout consists of a psychedelic graphic which, when placed Read more about Using stickers in the field of view to fool image recognition AIs[…]

Nvidia: bans using cheap GeForce, Titan GPUs in servers through EULA. Is that legal?!

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The chip-design giant updated its GeForce and Titan software licensing in the past few days, adding a new clause that reads: “No Datacenter Deployment. The SOFTWARE is not licensed for datacenter deployment, except that blockchain processing in a datacenter is permitted.” In other words, if you wanted to bung a bunch of GeForce GPUs into Read more about Nvidia: bans using cheap GeForce, Titan GPUs in servers through EULA. Is that legal?![…]

Coinbase Freezes Bitcoin Cash Trades, Launches Insider Trading Probe

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Coinbase, one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency apps, surprised its users by adding Bitcoin Cash to its offerings on Tuesday. But it appears that not everyone trading in the altcoin was blindsided by the move. Before the announcement, prices for Bitcoin Cash began climbing in other markets, and now a self-investigation of possible insider Read more about Coinbase Freezes Bitcoin Cash Trades, Launches Insider Trading Probe[…]

Lightwear: Introducing Magic Leap’s $1.9 Billion Dollar Invstement Mixed Reality Goggles

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Magic Leap today revealed a mixed reality headset that it believes reinvents the way people will interact with computers and reality. Unlike the opaque diver’s masks of virtual reality – which replace the real world with a virtual one – Magic Leap’s device, called Lightwear, resembles goggles, which you can see through as if you’re Read more about Lightwear: Introducing Magic Leap’s $1.9 Billion Dollar Invstement Mixed Reality Goggles[…]

Bitcoin exchange Youbit shuts after second hack attack – BBC News

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A crypto-currency exchange in South Korea is shutting down after it was hacked for the second time in less than eight months. Youbit, which lets people buy and sell bitcoins and other virtual currencies, has filed for bankruptcy after losing 17% of its assets in the cyber-attack. It did not disclose how much the assets Read more about Bitcoin exchange Youbit shuts after second hack attack – BBC News[…]

Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Verizon is among dozens of the nation’s leading employers — including Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Target and Facebook itself — that placed recruitment ads limited to particular age groups, an investigation by ProPublica and The New York Times has found. The ability of advertisers to deliver their message to the precise audience most likely to respond Read more about Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers[…]

Windows 10 Facial Recognition Feature Can Be Bypassed with a low res Photo

Posted on by Robin Edgar

You can bypass Windows Hello with a low-res printed photoIn a report published yesterday, German pen-testing company SySS GmbH says it discovered that Windows Hello is vulnerable to the simplest and most common attack against facial recognition biometrics software — the doomsday scenario of using a printed photo of the device’s owner.Researchers say that by Read more about Windows 10 Facial Recognition Feature Can Be Bypassed with a low res Photo[…]

Hackers Used DC Police Surveillance System to Distribute Ransomware

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A Romanian man and woman are accused of hacking into the outdoor surveillance system deployed by Washington DC police, which they used to distribute ransomware.The two suspects are named Mihai Alexandru Isvanca and Eveline Cismaru, Romanian nationals, both arrested last week by Romanian authorities part of Operation Bakovia that culminated with the arrest of five Read more about Hackers Used DC Police Surveillance System to Distribute Ransomware[…]

Nissan Canada Finance hacked, up to 1.1m Canucks exposed

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Nissan Canada’s vehicle-financing wing has been hacked, putting personal information on as many as 1.13 million customers in the hands of miscreants. […] According to Nissan Canada, the exposed data includes at least customer names, addresses, vehicle makes and models, vehicle identification numbers (VINs), credit scores, loan amounts and monthly payment figures. “We are still Read more about Nissan Canada Finance hacked, up to 1.1m Canucks exposed[…]

 Gemini • Psion come alive again running linux and android

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Gemini brings the Psion Series 5 design into the 21st century. Psion’s designer, Martin Riddiford of Therefore, has devised a new keyboard and hinge, which allows the machine to spring open and snap shut, just like Psions used to, and stand firmly on a flat surface without keeling over. Inside is a full phone board, Read more about  Gemini • Psion come alive again running linux and android[…]

Yes, your old iPhone is slowing down: iOS hits brakes on CPUs as batteries wear out

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It turns out Apple’s mobile operating system includes a throttling mechanism for devices with weary batteries, designed to limit CPU utilization in order to prevent peak power demands that the battery is no longer capable of providing. In other words, the OS secretly stalls the CPU on older iPhones to stop them rapidly draining their Read more about Yes, your old iPhone is slowing down: iOS hits brakes on CPUs as batteries wear out[…]

Chinese Adups Backdoor Still Active on Many Android Devices

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Back in mid-November 2016, US cyber-security firm Kryptowire revealed it discovered that firmware code created by a Chinese company called Adups was collecting vasts amount of user information and sending it to servers located in China.According to Kryptowire, the backdoor code was collecting SMS messages, call history, address books, app lists, phone hardware identifiers, but Read more about Chinese Adups Backdoor Still Active on Many Android Devices[…]

Ghostery, uBlock, Privacy Badger lead the anti-tracking browser extensions

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A group of researchers in France and Japan say RequestPolicyContinued and NoScript have the toughest policies, while Ghostery and uBlock Origin offer good blocking performance and a better user experience. The study also gave a nod to the EFF’s Privacy Badger, which uses heuristics rather than block lists, but once trained is nearly as good Read more about Ghostery, uBlock, Privacy Badger lead the anti-tracking browser extensions[…]

Another AI attack, this time against ‘black box’ machine learning

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Unlike adversarial models that attack AIs “from the inside”, attacks developed for black boxes could be used against closed system like autonomous cars, security (facial recognition, for example), or speech recognition (Alexa or Cortana).The tool, called Foolbox, is currently under review for presentation at next year’s International Conference on Learning Representations (kicking off at the Read more about Another AI attack, this time against ‘black box’ machine learning[…]

Older Adults’ Forgetfulness Tied To non syncing Brain Rhythms In Sleep

Posted on by Robin Edgar

During deep sleep, older people have less coordination between two brain waves that are important to saving new memories, a team reports in the journal Neuron. To find out, Walker and a team of scientists had 20 young adults learn 120 pairs of words. “Then we put electrodes on their head and we had them Read more about Older Adults’ Forgetfulness Tied To non syncing Brain Rhythms In Sleep[…]

Seagate’s lightbulb moment: Make read-write heads operate independently

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Seagate is increasing IO performance in disk drives by separating read-write heads into two separate sets which can operate independently and in parallel.The heads are positioned at one end of actuator arms which rotate around a post at their other end to move the heads across the platter surfaces. Thus, with an eight-platter drive, each Read more about Seagate’s lightbulb moment: Make read-write heads operate independently[…]

KLM uses AI to answer questions on social media

Posted on by Robin Edgar

olgens KLM worden wekelijks 30.000 gesprekken gevoerd door de 250 socialmediamedewerkers. De luchtvaartmaatschappij wordt wekelijks ruim 130.000 keer genoemd op social media. Gemiddeld bestaat een gesprek tussen KLM en een klant uit vijf tot zes vragen en antwoorden. De veelgestelde vragen die met behulp van kunstmatige intelligentie automatisch kunnen worden beantwoord, worden meestal aan het Read more about KLM uses AI to answer questions on social media[…]