This page lets you view, listen to and delete all of your Google Audio history. To delete all, find the 3 dots -> delete options -> advanced
Source: Google – Voice & Audio Activity
Google – Voice & Audio Activity
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The law is nuts: Tinder to stop facilitating under 18s dating due to legal worries
Tinder is discontinuing use of the app for everyone under the age of 18 starting next week, according to a statement from Tinder VP of Communications Rosette..
Source: Tinder discontinues service for users under 18
If you are held responsible for what happens during human interaction because you facilitate the meeting of the humans, there is something very wrong with the law.
Unintended consequences of AI: Amazon Echo seems to condition kids to be rude
Alexa will put up with just about anything. She has a remarkable tolerance for annoying behavior, and she certainly doesn’t care if you forget your please and thank yous.
But while artificial intelligence technology can blow past such indignities, parents are still irked by their kids’ poor manners when interacting with Alexa, the assistant that lives inside the Amazon Echo.
“I’ve found my kids pushing the virtual assistant further than they would push a human,” says Avi Greengart, a tech analyst and father of five who lives in Teaneck, New Jersey. “[Alexa] never says ‘That was rude’ or ‘I’m tired of you asking me the same question over and over again.’”
[…]
The syntax is generally simple and straightforward, but it doesn’t exactly reward niceties like “please.” Adding to this, extraneous words can often trip up the speaker’s artificial intelligence. When it comes to chatting with Alexa, it pays to be direct—curt even. “If it’s not natural language, one of the first things you cut away is the little courtesies,” says Dennis Mortensen, who founded a calendar-scheduling startup called x.ai.
[…]
this is a box you speak to as if it were a person who does not require social graces.”
It’s this combination that worries Hunter Walk, a tech investor in San Francisco. In a blog post, he described the Amazon Echo as “magical” while expressing fears it’s “turning our daughter into a raging asshole.”
Source: Parents are worried the Amazon Echo is conditioning their kids to be rude
Unintended consequences of AI!
Apple services down for 8 hours, no explanation given
Apple’s U.S. web page showed all applications had resumed as of 11:55 p.m.
“There are no reported issues at this time,” the company said a few minutes later on its web page.
The iPhone maker said services related to iCloud and the Photos application have also resumed.
The issues appear to have started just before 4 p.m., according to a timeline provided on the tech giant’s support page.
Source: Apple Offers No Explanation for Outage, but Says All Services Back to Normal – NBC News
Isn’t the cloud great sometimes?
WebGazer.js: Democratizing Webcam Eye Tracking on the Browser
WebGazer.js is an eye tracking library that uses common webcams to infer the eye-gaze locations of web visitors on a page in real time. The eye tracking model it contains self-calibrates by watching web visitors interact with the web page and trains a mapping between the features of the eye and positions on the screen. WebGazer.js is written entirely in JavaScript and with only a few lines of code can be integrated in any website that wishes to better understand their visitors and transform their user experience. WebGazer.js runs entirely in the client browser, so no video data needs to be sent to a server. WebGazer.js runs only if the user consents in giving access to their webcam.
Source: WebGazer.js: Democratizing Webcam Eye Tracking on the Browser
Microsoft removes the X to close the Windows 10 update after they decided the closing X meant yes, do it now
Recently, Microsoft’s policy had been to throw up a dialogue box asking you whether you wanted to install Windows 10.
If you clicked the red “X” to close the box – the tried-and-tested way to make dialogue boxes vanish without agreeing to do anything – Microsoft began taking that as permission for the upgrade to go ahead.
Now Microsoft is changing gears.
It has eliminated the option to re-schedule a chosen upgrade time once you’ve confirmed it while also removing the red “X” close option from the screen.
Hackers Stole 65 Million Passwords From Tumblr, New Analysis Reveals
Troy Hunt, a security researcher who maintains the data breach awareness portal Have I Been Pwned, recently obtained a copy of the stolen data set. Hunt told Motherboard that the data contained 65,469,298 unique emails and passwords.
Source: Hackers Stole 65 Million Passwords From Tumblr, New Analysis Reveals | Motherboard
systemd unilaterally changes value to kill background processes after user logs out
Source: #825394 – systemd kill background processes after user logs out – Debian Bug report logs
And amazingly defends their choice with a “we are wiser than thou, you don’t know what you need” argument whilst telling world + dog how system administration should be done. Idiots. Nobody expects programs on a server to be killed for them and nobody uses Debian for a desktop.
You Can Absolutely Be Identified Just By How You Drive
Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego did an experiment to see what could be learned from just the information many cars are already recording. The result was that the way people drove was as identifiable as a fingerprint. […] When it was given data from all 16 sensors for the whole drive, the match was made 100 percent of the time. When it was given data from five sensors, three sensors, and even just the brake pedal, the match was made 100 percent of the time.
On just 15 minutes of data and all 16 sensors, the match was made 100 percent of the time. Just the brake pedal was 87 percent accurate.
This research reveals just how much data your car is actually collecting—and that turning over all that data through apps or insurance company dongles may be revealing more about yourself than you realize. Tesla, with its auto-uploading feature, probably knows a lot about its drivers.
Source: You Can Absolutely Be Identified Just By How You Drive
Microsoft now upgrades to Windows 10 even if you click the big red X to close the nagware window!
Redmond assumes closing nagware dialog means ‘yes’, says that’s by design […] Redmond recently created a new Windows 10 nagware reminder that presented a dialog asking you to install the OS. But if users clicked the red “X” to close the dialog – standard behaviour for dispelling a dialog without agreeing to do anything – Microsoft took that as permission for the upgrade.
Source: Microsoft won’t back down from Windows 10 nagware ‘trick’
Fuckers, we don’t want your Windows 10 spyware!
Twitter abuse – each gender sends misogynistic tweets as often as the other
A study into abusive tweets sent from UK Twitter accounts suggests large-scale misogyny, with women responsible for half of such tweets.
Source: Twitter abuse – ‘50% of misogynistic tweets from women’ – BBC News
And men for the other half.
All European scientific articles to be freely accessible by 2020
Open access means that scientific publications on the results of research supported by public and public-private funds must be freely accessible to everyone. That is not yet the case. The results of publicly funded research are currently not accessible to people outside universities and knowledge institutions. As a result, teachers, doctors and entrepreneurs do not have access to the latest scientific insights that are so relevant to their work, and universities have to take out expensive subscriptions with publishers to gain access to publications.
Source: All European scientific articles to be freely accessible by 2020
Samsung Adds More Ads to Its TVs
The world’s largest maker of TVs by shipments added new tile ads to the main menu bar of its premium TVs in the U.S. in June 2015 and is planning to expand the program to Europe in coming months, people familiar with the matter said. […] according to one of these people, and by using software updates to retroactively activate tile ads on older smart TV models.
Samsung Adds More Ads to Its TVs – WSJ
http://www.wsj.com/articles/samsung-adds-more-ads-to-its-tvs-1464600977
Because really, people are going to buy hardware that forces unwanted ads down your throats! You don’t buy a TV as a service, you buy an item. Stay off it! The excuse that they are not growing in the TV business is farcical: they sell 50 million TVs per year and make $24.8 billion in revenue from that with slim profit margins – 3 to 5%. Poor Samsung, poor shareholders! I’d say they are indeed in deep shit but instead of pissing off their customers they could give me the industry instead. I wouldn’t complain about the paltry income from it.
Lawyers Suggest You Stop Using Your Finger to Unlock Your Phone: You are protected against revealing passwords under the Fifth Amendment’s right against self-incrimination, but your biometrics are not.
A court or police officer could legally compel you to press your finger onto your smartphone to unlock it, but if your phone is locked with a passcode, no one can legally compel you to open it, says William J. Cook, an attorney and partner at law firm Reed Smith in Chicago, who specializes in information technology, privacy, and data security. Cook explains that the difference between a password and a biometric identifier is great under the law–you have a right not to reveal the contents of your mind, which includes things like a password, but your fingerprints are a part of who you are and you expose them to the public every day. This is why when a person gets arrested, he or she must consent to fingerprinted while retaining the right to remain silent. Thoughts are protected, biometric identifiers (fingerprints, face, hair) are not.
Source: Here’s Why Lawyers Suggest You Stop Using Your Finger to Unlock Your Phone
Skimer ATM Malware takes it to a new level
Once the magic card is inserted, the malware is ready to interact with two different types of cards, each with different functions:
1.Card type 1 – request commands through the interface
2.Card type 2 – execute the command hardcoded in the Track2
After the card is ejected, the user will be presented with a form, asking them to insert the session key in less than 60 seconds. Now the user is authenticated, and the malware will accept 21 different codes for setting its activity. These codes should be entered from the pin pad.
Below is a list of the most important features:
1.Show installation details;
2.Dispense money – 40 notes from the specified cassette;
3.Start collecting the details of inserted cards;
4.Print collected card details;
5.Self delete;
6.Debug mode;
7.Update (the updated malware code is embedded on the card).
During its activity, the malware also creates the following files or NTFS streams (depending on the file system type). These files are used by the malware at different stages of its activity, such as storing the configuration, storing skimmed card data and logging its activity:
Oculus Rift DRM circumvented for HTC Vive
Play Oculus exclusive games on the HTC Vive
Github
1.4 bil. yen stolen from 1,400 convenience store ATMs across Japan
TOKYO (Kyodo) — A total of 1.4 billion yen ($12.7 million) in cash has been stolen from some 1,400 automated teller machines in convenience stores across Japan in the space of two hours earlier this month, investigative sources said Sunday.
Police suspect that the cash was withdrawn at ATMs using counterfeit credit cards containing account information leaked from a South African bank.
Japanese police will work with South African authorities through the International Criminal Police Organization to look into the major theft, including how credit card information was leaked, the sources said.
The theft at convenience store ATMs took place in the morning of May 15 in Tokyo and 16 prefectures across the country, and police believe over 100 people might have coordinated in the unlawful withdrawal.
In each of the approximately 14,000 transactions, the maximum amount of 100,000 yen was withdrawn from Seven Bank ATMs using the fake credit cards, according to the sources.
Mycroft – open source AI / Siri replacement now online
Get it on Github have fun resolving dependencies 🙂
GSM/GPRS Traffic Interception for Penetration Testing Engagements
An excellent howto on gsm gprs listening and setting up your own 4g / 2g base
to intercept traffic
Oculus breaks promise, uses DRM to kill app that let you switch VR systems
As recently as 5 months ago, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey was promising his customers that they could play the software they bought from the Oculus store on “whatever they want,” guaranteeing that the company wouldn’t shut down apps that let customers move their purchased software to non-Oculus hardware.
But now, Oculus has changed its DRM to exclude Revive, a “proof-of-concept compatibility layer between the Oculus SDK [software development kit] and OpenVR,” that let players buy software in the Oculus store and run it on competing hardware.
The company billed the update as an anti-piracy measure, but Revive’s developer, who calls themself “Libre VR,” points out that the DRM only prevents piracy using non-Oculus hardware, and allows for unlimited piracy by Oculus owners.
Source: Oculus breaks promise, uses DRM to kill app that let you switch VR systems
There you go – DRM being thrown in again. It’ll get broken, but still it becomes an annoyance to the users. So another reason (apart from the price) to go to a competitor.
IBM Research Quantum Experience – access a real quantum computer for free!
IBM Quantum Experience represents the birth of quantum cloud computing, offering hands-on access to IBM’s experimental cloud-enabled quantum computing platform, and allowing users to run algorithms and experiments, work with quantum bits (qubits), and explore tutorials and simulations around what might be possible with quantum computing[…]
The IBM Quantum Experience is a virtual lab where you can design and run your own algorithms through the cloud on real quantum processors located in the IBM Quantum Lab at the Thomas J Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY.
Source: IBM Research Quantum Experience
Are we alone in the universe? Not likely, according to math
Adam Frank from the University of Rochester and Woodruff Sullivan from the University of Washington based their new equation on the Drake equation, used for calculating the probability of extraterrestrial civilisation, written by astronomer and astrophysicist Frank Drake in 1961.
Source: Are we alone in the universe? Not likely, according to math
SkinTrack Turns Your Arm Into a Touchpad.
n the project video, a finger swipes and pokes at skin like it’s a touchscreen. As the finger navigates a hairy forearm, a cursor reacts to the movement on the smartwatch screen. There’s no projection and little lag between the finger’s movement and movement on the screen.[…] the researchers developed a ring that sends a high-frequency alternating-current signal into your finger. When your finger touches or hovers above your arm, that signal propagates outward along your skin to a wristband embedded with electrodes. By measuring something called phase difference, which this technology does by comparing the times at which the oscillating signal arrives at two pairs of electrodes, SkinTrack can determine the position of your finger with impressive accuracy.
Source: SkinTrack Turns Your Arm Into a Touchpad. Here’s How It Works
Magnetic memory boffins unveil six-state storage design
Better-than-binary multi-level memory
Source: Magnetic memory boffins unveil six-state storage design
They arrange three magnetic ellipses in a very small space. They are calling it MRAM.
OpenRA – updated and free Red Alert, Command and Conquer
Open Source reimplementation of Westwood Studios’ 2D Command and Conquer games
OpenRA is a project that recreates and modernizes the classic Command & Conquer real time strategy games. We have developed a flexible open source game engine (the OpenRA engine) that provides a common platform for rebuilding and reimagining classic 2D and 2.5D RTS games (the OpenRA mods).
This means that OpenRA is not restricted by the technical limitations of the original closed-source games: it includes native support for modern operating systems and screen resolutions (including Windows 10, Mac OS X, and most Linux distros) without relying on emulation or binary hacks, and features integrated online multiplayer.
While we love the classic RTS gameplay, multiplayer game design has evolved significantly since the early 1990’s. The OpenRA mods include new features and gameplay improvements that bring them into the modern era:
A choice between “right click” and classic “left click” control schemes
Overhauled sidebar interfaces for managing production
Support for game replays and an observer interface designed for streaming games online
The “fog of war” that obscures the battlefield outside your units’ line of sight
Civilian structures that can be captured to provide benefits
Units gain experience as they fight and improve when they earn new ranksOpenRA is 100% free, and comes bundled with three distinct mods. When you run a mod for the first time the game can automatically download the original game assets, or you can use the original game disks.
Source: OpenRA