technology

New Google Glass app will read other people’s emotions

"The Glass app is also being heralded as a step forward in 'machine-human relationships.' With recognition services like Google Now and Siri, when computers and human users talk to each other, the computers will be able to respond not only to the content of the user’s words, but also to his tone, his feelings. This should be a real marvel. As you’ve no doubt already realized, the emotion-recognition tool is all about reduction. It shrinks human feelings to simplistic labels. Therefore, what machines say back to humans will be something to behold." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNew Google Glass app will read other people’s emotions

Latest War is a Defense Bureaucrat’s Wet Dream

"The Pentagon is in a pickle. It has expensive tastes: war, tomorrow’s gadgets, employing nearly half a million people and a first-rate military with all the bells, whistles and toys. It even likes its cost-cutting initiatives to be expensive. But those things cost money, and there’s no more moolah. So it’s forced to prioritize. Ugh. If only there were some newfangled type of warfare. Something cheaper, cleaner, less taboo… but that posed more of a threat than traditional types of warfare. Then the Pentagon could keep its funding… maybe even increase it. Hrmm… huh?… What’s this? 'DCAF Horizon 2015 Working Paper on Cyberwarfare.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLatest War is a Defense Bureaucrat’s Wet Dream

U.S. tech sector feels pain from NSA PRISM revelations

"An industry group, the Cloud Security Alliance said last month that 10 percent of its non-US members have cancelled a contract with a US-based cloud provider, and 56 percent said they were less likely to use an American company. A separate report this month by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, or ITIF, a Washington think tank, said US cloud providers stand to lose $22 billion to $35 billion over the next three years due to revelations about the so-called PRISM program. Daniel Castro, author of the report, says a loss of trust in US tech firms could lead to 'protectionist' measures that hurt the fast-growing cloud sector." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. tech sector feels pain from NSA PRISM revelations

Passing Over Eisenhower

"Almost all of the major Internet industry giants are based in the United States. The tradition of strong entrepreneurship practiced in the US since their inception, mixed with their purchasing power and history of acquiring any sufficiently profitable venture or fascinating technology from abroad, has put the US into a prime position to be the global leader in provision of Internet services. That may just have ended. While US dominance over the roughly $11 trillion/year global Internet services market is still unchallenged, the damage that the revelations made about NSA’s vast global surveillance scheme may stymie their growth and perhaps even turn them into a localized recession." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPassing Over Eisenhower

George Galloway to turn to Kickstarter to fund anti-Tony Blair film

"Galloway is teaming up with documentary-maker Greg Ward to make The Killing of Tony Blair, which, according to Ward, 'will bring together many of the things George has been fighting for during his long political career'. In Ward's words, The Killing of Tony Blair 'details how Blair killed the Labour Party, killed hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq and how he made 'a killing' out of doing both'. Galloway, currently the Respect MP for Bradford West, was expelled from the Labour party in 2003 after clashing with the leadership over the Iraq war. In a 2012 interview with GQ magazine he argued that Blair's assassination would be 'logical and explicable'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGeorge Galloway to turn to Kickstarter to fund anti-Tony Blair film

Is Windows 8 a Trojan Horse for the NSA? The German Government Thinks So

"The German Government is now deeply suspicious that the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) technology built into a growing number of Windows 8 PCs and tablets is creating a gigantic back door for NSA surveillance, leaked documents have suggested. During TCG meetings, German officials appear to have expressed concern about the potential for abuse but were 'rebuffed,' Zeit claims. The documents also refer to the NSA having representation at the meetings and the statement 'the NSA agrees' in the context of leaving the technology in its current (presumably unreformed) state." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIs Windows 8 a Trojan Horse for the NSA? The German Government Thinks So

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Big Data

"In 2012, the Senseable City Lab, part of MIT, conducted an experiment called Trash Track to see just what happens when someone takes out the trash. By attaching transmitters to over 3,000 pieces of rubbish they were able to track where that item went, whether they went to the correct recycling facility or not, and how far they traveled. Now move to the story in the papers last week about the Renew bins in London. It came to light that a dozen of London’s recycling bins fitted with digital screens were tracking each smartphone and device that connected to them with WiFi. It allowed advertisers to deduce whether the same phone — although not necessarily the same person — is passing by" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOne Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Big Data

‘Data is the new oil’: Tech giants may be huge, but nothing matches big data

"'Data is the new oil,' declared Clive Humby, a Sheffield mathematician who with his wife, Edwina Dunn, made £90m helping Tesco with its Clubcard system. Though he said it in 2006, the realisation that there is a lot of money to be made – and lost – through the careful or careless marshalling of 'big data' has only begun to dawn on many business people. About 90% of all the data in the world has been generated in the past two years (a statistic that is holding roughly true even as time passes). There are about 2.7 zettabytes of data in the digital universe, where 1ZB of data is a billion terabytes (a typical computer hard drive these days can hold about 0.5TB, or 500 gigabytes)." Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘Data is the new oil’: Tech giants may be huge, but nothing matches big data

Snapchat market value hits $800 million

"The startup behind a Snapchat application for sharing self-destructing smartphone photos and messages got a dizzying valuation on Monday in a new funding round. Reports that the company launched in late 2011 had raised $60 million from investors hit the Internet along with word that people are sharing more than 200 million ‘snaps’ daily. The startup said that it has been operating on a tight budget and will use the infusion of cash from investors to beef up its engineering team and server capacity. Snapchat has stirred controversy for its potential to be used to share risque pictures that are automatically deleted, like any ‘snaps,’ within ten seconds of receipt." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSnapchat market value hits $800 million

How can you buy illegal drugs online?

"Imagine if there were an Amazon.com for drugs. That, roughly, is what the Silk Road, a mail-order drugs service hidden in the dark parts of the internet, tries to be. Many drug users cannot wait two or three days for delivery of their next hit. But it is all a lot easier than waiting for the man. The police may not agree. Still, there is probably less chance of a drug deal on the Silk Road turning into a murder scene, and customer reviews may be a better guide to quality—and so the risk of overdose and death—than a street-corner salesman’s patter. Buying a line online has never been easier." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow can you buy illegal drugs online?