technology

Tiny Device Will Detect Domestic Drones

"A Washington, D.C.-based engineer is working on the 'Drone Shield,' a small, Wi-Fi-connected device that uses a microphone to detect a drone's 'acoustic signatures' (sound frequency and spectrum) when it's within range. The company's founder, John Franklin, who has been working in aerospace engineering for seven years, says he hopes to start selling the device sometime this year. He is using the Kickstarter-like IndieGoGo to finance the project. The device will cost $69 and will be about the size of a USB thumb drive. He says he imagines that people will attach the Drone Shield to their fences or roofs to protect their home from surveillance." Continue reading →

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IRS Takes A Bite Out Of Bitcoin

"Bitcoin is virtual currency much in the news these days. It’s peer-to-peer so there’s no central bank or government. But if you think that means the IRS won’t get a piece, think again. The IRS already gets a piece where you swap one product or service for another, as the IRS explains at its Bartering Tax Center. Soon the IRS may have a Bitcoin Center too. The Treasury unit called FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, already has rules about Bitcoin and the IRS is likely to follow. In the meantime, the tax rules seem pretty clear. If you provide services or sell goods for Bitcoin, you have income." Continue reading →

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Living On Bitcoin For A Week: The Journey Begins

"On Tuesday morning, I emptied my wallet of all of the cash and credit cards before I left my house. Many journalists have been writing about the mechanics of buying Bitcoin and the resulting heart palpitations as they watched the dramatic rises and falls in the digital currency’s worth over the last few weeks. But that’s just a story about gambling. My editor issued a different challenge to test the currency’s legitimacy: 'Don’t just buy Bitcoin. Live on it for a week.'" Continue reading →

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Dronebusters: Turning Spy Drones into Barney Fife

"An Oregon company says that it has developed a new technology which will prevent drones from 'completing their mission.' It will not say how this technology does this. It does not say what it will cost. But it claims that commercial units will be affordable for private homes. Whether local governments will place restrictions on its use, the way some states have made using car-based radar speed trap detectors illegal, also is yet to be seen. The important thing is that the company says the technology exists. There will probably be cheap Chinese knock-offs. The creativity of the free market works against the government. So does the basic incompetence of the government." Continue reading →

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Will Bitcoin Be Accepted by PayPal?

"EBay may open its wallet to the virtual currency Bitcoin. The e-commerce heavyweight is exploring ways to integrate bitcoins into its PayPal payments network, Chief Executive John Donahoe said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. 'It’s a new disruptive technology, so, yeah, we’re looking at Bitcoin closely,' Donahoe said. 'There may be ways to enable it inside PayPal.'" Continue reading →

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A Taxing Choice? PAC Checks May Ease the Pain

"Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told the Times he was motivated to support the Internet sales tax in part by the owners of a local bridal shop, who complained to him that many customers browse in the store, then buy online for a better deal. Blunt didn't tell the Times that three other supporters of the Internet sales tax with much deeper pockets than the bridal shop -- PACs run by Home Depot, Walmart and Target -- each gave $5,000 to his leadership PAC, Rely On Your Beliefs, earlier this year. And Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) who told the Times about a local shop in his state that lost customers looking for better deals on rifle scopes, took $5,000 from Home Depot on March 31." Continue reading →

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Collected Quotations Of The Dread Pirate Roberts, Silk Road Founder

"In public, the pseudonymous Internet drug czar known as the Dread Pirate Roberts doesn’t say much. But within the community that the Dread Pirate Roberts has created, Silk Road’s founder is hardly so shy. On the Tor-hidden online forums associated with Silk Road, Roberts posts long manifestos, philosophical and political musings, love letters to Silk Road’s users, and even hosts the Dread Pirate Roberts Book Club, a reading and discussion group devoted to 'agorism, counter-economics, anarcho-capitalism, Austrian economics, political philosophy, freedom issues and related topics.'" Continue reading →

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BitCoin Is Gold 2.0: Venture Capitalist

"The bitcoin boom is just getting started, two venture capitalists said Monday at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. Get ready for a wave of new bitcoin start-ups, said Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Dixon, who said he has a 'fair amount' invested in bitcoins, said that tech entrepreneurs have historically struggled to get into the financial tech space because of its massive size and the rigid regulations related to the finance industry. But the anonymous payment network that bitcoin provides helps avoid these obstacles and that has entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley excited, Dixon said." Continue reading →

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Feats of Bridge-Building Bravura

"Mr. Johnson saw a way to keep traffic flowing for all but 10 days of the three-year project, helping shave $28 million from its estimated cost. As the new bridge is constructed on temporary piers, cars whiz past it a scant 55 feet upstream on the old bridge. When work on the new bridge is finished, traffic will be briefly rerouted onto it, so the old one can be demolished. In the grand finale this July, the new 15,260-ton steel bridge, pulled by powerful strand jacks, will slide slowly upstream on steel beams lubricated with high-grade silicon grease, before finally coming to rest in the footprint of the original bridge." Continue reading →

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Hiring Spreads, but Only 14 Cities Top Prerecession Level

"Employers are hiring more readily across the U.S., though only 14 of the nation's 100 biggest metropolitan areas have more jobs now than they did before the 2008-09 recession. Six of them are in Texas, according to researchers at the Brookings Institution, who recently analyzed local economic conditions through the end of 2012. Austin added more jobs, percentage-wise, than any other metro area, helped by stable employment at the state government and University of Texas as well as high-tech jobs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHiring Spreads, but Only 14 Cities Top Prerecession Level