Month: June 2023

People Are Using Forged Court Orders To Disappear Content They Don’t Like using DMCA

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Copyright is still high on the list of censorial weapons. When you live in (or target) a country that protects free speech rights and offers intermediaries immunity via Section 230, you quickly surmise there’s a soft target lying between the First Amendment and the CDA. That soft target is the DMCA. Thanks to plenty of Read more about People Are Using Forged Court Orders To Disappear Content They Don’t Like using DMCA[…]

JP Morgan “accidentally” deletes 47 million comms records related to Chase bank

Posted on by Robin Edgar

JP Morgan has been fined $4 million by America’s securities watchdog, the SEC, for deleting millions of email records dating from 2018 relating to its Chase Bank subsidiary. The financial services giant apparently deleted somewhere in the region of 47 million electronic communications records from about 8,700 electronic mailboxes covering the period January 1 through Read more about JP Morgan “accidentally” deletes 47 million comms records related to Chase bank[…]

Animation Shows What the World Would Look Like If You Could See Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The team at NASA made three animations, all showing the carbon dioxide levels throughout the year 2021. Each one shows four major contributors: fossil fuels, burning biomass, land ecosystems, and the oceans. In the view showing North and South America, we can see the results of plants absorbing the gas via photosynthesis and then releasing Read more about Animation Shows What the World Would Look Like If You Could See Carbon Dioxide Emissions[…]

How Hardware Testing Got Plugged Into A Continuous Integration Framework

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The concept of Continuous Integration (CI) is a powerful tool in software development, and it’s not every day we get a look at how someone integrated automated hardware testing into their system. [Michael Orenstein] brought to our attention the Hardware CI Arena, a framework for doing exactly that across a variety of host OSes and microcontroller Read more about How Hardware Testing Got Plugged Into A Continuous Integration Framework[…]

$6.3b US firm Telesign breached GDPR, reputation-scoring half of the population of the planet with mobiles

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A US-based fraud prevention company is in hot water over allegations it not only collected data from millions of EU citizens and processed it using automated tools without their knowledge, but that it did so in the United States, all in violation of the EU’s data protection rules. The complaint was filed by Austrian privacy Read more about $6.3b US firm Telesign breached GDPR, reputation-scoring half of the population of the planet with mobiles[…]

Watch AI Trump Vs AI Biden In A Deranged Endless Live Debate

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] someone’s gone ahead and locked both President Biden and former president / classified document holder Donald Trump into an infinite battle on Twitch that can only be described as “unhinged.” Maybe that’s because the version of Biden we see on the trumporbiden2024 livestream isn’t Joe Biden per se, but clearly Dark Brandon, who is Read more about Watch AI Trump Vs AI Biden In A Deranged Endless Live Debate[…]

Virgin Galactic set to launch 1st commercial spaceflight on June 27

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Virgin Galactic’s first-ever commercial spaceflight will launch this month, if all goes according to plan. The company, part of billionaire Richard Branson‘s Virgin Group, announced Thursday (June 15) that it has set a launch window of June 27 to June 30 for its debut operational flight, which it calls Galactic 01. “Galactic 01, a scientific Read more about Virgin Galactic set to launch 1st commercial spaceflight on June 27[…]

The Grammys’ New Rules—AI Can’t Win Awards

Posted on by Robin Edgar

AI proved just how talented it can be at ripping off major artists after a computer-generated song based on The Weeknd and Drake went viral in April. Now, the Recording Academy—the body that votes on and manages the annual Grammy Awards—is setting new rules for AI’s role in the coveted accolade. Speaking to Grammy.com, Recording Read more about The Grammys’ New Rules—AI Can’t Win Awards[…]

EU votes on battery reform – including being able to replace them in your mobile

Posted on by Robin Edgar

With 587 votes in favour, nine against and 20 abstentions, MEPs endorsed a deal reached with the Council to overhaul EU rules on batteries and waste batteries. The new law takes into account technological developments and future challenges in the sector and will cover the entire battery life cycle, from design to end-of-life. Key measures Read more about EU votes on battery reform – including being able to replace them in your mobile[…]

Microsoft confirms June Outlook and OneDrive outages were caused by DDoS attacks

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Earlier this month, a group known as Anonymous Sudan took credit for a service outage that disrupted access to Outlook, OneDrive and a handful of other Microsoft online services. After initially sharing little information about the incident, the company confirmed late Friday it had been the target of a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks. In Read more about Microsoft confirms June Outlook and OneDrive outages were caused by DDoS attacks[…]

Gas stoves emit benzene, linked to cancer, a new Stanford study shows

Posted on by Robin Edgar

When the blue flame fires up on a gas stove, there’s more than heat coming off the burner. Researchers at Stanford University found that among the pollutants emitted from stoves is benzene, which is linked to cancer. Levels of benzene can reach higher than those found in secondhand tobacco smoke and the benzene pollution can Read more about Gas stoves emit benzene, linked to cancer, a new Stanford study shows[…]

AIs are being fed with AI output by the people who are supposed to feed AI with original input

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Workers hired via crowdsource services like Amazon Mechanical Turk are using large language models to complete their tasks – which could have negative knock-on effects on AI models in the future. Data is critical to AI. Developers need clean, high-quality datasets to build machine learning systems that are accurate and reliable. Compiling valuable, top-notch data, Read more about AIs are being fed with AI output by the people who are supposed to feed AI with original input[…]

Meta’s Voicebox AI does text-to-speech without huge training data per voice

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Meta has unveiled Voicebox, its generative text-to-speech model that promises to do for the spoken word what ChatGPT and Dall-E, respectfully, did for text and image generation. Essentially, its a text-to-output generator just like GPT or Dall-E — just instead of creating prose or pretty pictures, it spits out audio clips. Meta defines the system Read more about Meta’s Voicebox AI does text-to-speech without huge training data per voice[…]

Ransomware gang lists first victims of MOVEit mass-hacks, including US banks and universities, federal and state govt, huge companies, more more more

Posted on by Robin Edgar

lop, the ransomware gang responsible for exploiting a critical security vulnerability in a popular corporate file transfer tool, has begun listing victims of the mass-hacks, including a number of U.S. banks and universities. The Russia-linked ransomware gang has been exploiting the security flaw in MOVEit Transfer, a tool used by corporations and enterprises to share Read more about Ransomware gang lists first victims of MOVEit mass-hacks, including US banks and universities, federal and state govt, huge companies, more more more[…]

There’s Now an OTC Gel for Erectile Dysfunction

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Futura Medical is a UK-based pharmaceutical. The company’s flagship development is a proprietary gel technology called DermaSys, and its first launch product based on the tech is a treatment for erectile dysfunction. The ED gel has been codenamed MED3000 but it will be sold under the name Eroxon. It’s classified as a medical device and Read more about There’s Now an OTC Gel for Erectile Dysfunction[…]

MEPs ready to negotiate first-ever rules for safe and transparent AI after passing AI act in Parliament

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The rules aim to promote the uptake of human-centric and trustworthy AI and protect the health, safety, fundamental rights and democracy from its harmful effects. On Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted its negotiating position on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act with 499 votes in favour, 28 against and 93 abstentions ahead of talks with EU Read more about MEPs ready to negotiate first-ever rules for safe and transparent AI after passing AI act in Parliament[…]

WhatsApp may finally let you add multiple accounts to one device

Posted on by Robin Edgar

If you regularly use people who regularly use more than one WhatsApp account this new beta update is going to be of interest to you. The messaging app is reportedly working on multi-account support for its Android app, an update that would allow you to switch between profiles on the same device, WABetaInfo reports. The Read more about WhatsApp may finally let you add multiple accounts to one device[…]

Broadcom squeezed Samsung, now South Korea’s squeezing back

Posted on by Robin Edgar

As the Commission explained in a Tuesday adjudicaiton, Broadcom and Samsung were in talks for a long-term supply agreement when the American chipmaker demanded the Korean giant sign or it would suspend shipments and support services. Broadcom share price pops on VMware rumors Broadcom’s share price jumped from $805 to $860 on Tuesday, after Reuters Read more about Broadcom squeezed Samsung, now South Korea’s squeezing back[…]

Google Restores ‘Downloader’ App To Store 20 days after DMCA takedown based on 0 evidence, says it’s normal to be able to take down apps for no reason

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A couple of weeks back, we discussed how Google had delisted the app Downloader from the Play Store after a DMCA notice was issued by a firm representing several Israeli TV networks. The problem with all of this is simple: Downloader doesn’t have anything to do with copyright infringement or piracy. All it does is Read more about Google Restores ‘Downloader’ App To Store 20 days after DMCA takedown based on 0 evidence, says it’s normal to be able to take down apps for no reason[…]

“Clearly predatory”: Western Digital sparks panic, anger for age-shaming HDDs, making it impossible to repair RAID pools

Posted on by Robin Edgar

When should you be concerned about a NAS hard drive failing? Multiple factors are at play, so many might turn to various SMART (self-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology) data. When it comes to how long the drive has been active, there are backup companies like Backblaze using hard drives that are nearly 8 years old. Read more about “Clearly predatory”: Western Digital sparks panic, anger for age-shaming HDDs, making it impossible to repair RAID pools[…]

Space Force doesn’t want HQ in anti-abortion Alabama, so their congressman Targets Air Force Funds

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] President Joe Biden’s administration is reportedly trying to reverse a decision to relocate the Space Command’s headquarters from Colorado to Huntsville, Alabama, largely due to concerns regarding the state’s strict anti-abortion law that was put into effect last summer. In December 2022, the Biden administration directed the U.S. Air Force to conduct a review Read more about Space Force doesn’t want HQ in anti-abortion Alabama, so their congressman Targets Air Force Funds[…]

Fitbit Privacy & security guide – no one told me it would send my data to the US

Posted on by Robin Edgar

As of January 14, 2021, Google officially became the owner of Fitbit. That worried many privacy conscious users. However, Google promised that “Fitbit users’ health and wellness data won’t be used for Google ads and this data will be kept separate from other Google ad data” as part of the deal with global regulators when Read more about Fitbit Privacy & security guide – no one told me it would send my data to the US[…]

How to Have Windows Remember Their Size and Positions With WinSize2

Posted on by Robin Edgar

We have been through multiple versions of Windows. Yet, Microsoft still refuses to give its OS one much-requested feature: the ability to remember each window’s desktop placement and dimensions. Thankfully, the free WinSize2 utility can help with that. So, let’s see how you can use it to keep your desktop organized by “sticking” windows to Read more about How to Have Windows Remember Their Size and Positions With WinSize2[…]

Study finds sleep coaching app can help recover an extra hour of rest without drugs

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The makers of an app called Sleep Reset claim it can help you get more (and better) sleep without the use of drugs — and they have the study to prove it. A group of researchers from the University of Arizona’s Sleep and Health Research Program, some of whom also serve as the company’s medical Read more about Study finds sleep coaching app can help recover an extra hour of rest without drugs[…]