Author: Robin Edgar

Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft

Sacramento Sheriff is sharing license plate reader data with anti-abortion states, records show

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In 2015, Democratic Elk Grove Assemblyman Jim Cooper voted for Senate Bill 34, which restricted law enforcement from sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with out-of-state authorities. In 2023, now-Sacramento County Sheriff Cooper appears to be doing just that. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) a digital rights group, has sent Cooper a letter requesting Read more about Sacramento Sheriff is sharing license plate reader data with anti-abortion states, records show[…]

Comedian, novelists sue OpenAI for reading books. Maybe we should sue people for reading them as well?

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Award-winning novelists Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad, and, separately comedian Sarah Silverman and novelists Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey, have sued OpenAI and accused the startup of training ChatGPT on their books without consent, violating copyright laws. The lawsuits, both filed in the Northern District Court of San Francisco, say ChatGPT generates accurate summaries of Read more about Comedian, novelists sue OpenAI for reading books. Maybe we should sue people for reading them as well?[…]

GPT detectors are biased against non-native English writers, can be fooled very easily

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GPT detectors frequently misclassify non-native English writing as AI generated, raising concerns about fairness and robustness. Addressing the biases in these detectors is crucial to prevent the marginalization of non-native English speakers in evaluative and educational settings and to create a more equitable digital landscape. […] if AI-generated content can easily evade detection while human Read more about GPT detectors are biased against non-native English writers, can be fooled very easily[…]

Phone cam array – An open-source, modular photogrammetry system made of Android phones

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Photogrammetry is a 3D reconstruction technique using photographs of the target from multiple angles. Taking pictures around a static object with a single camera can yield high-quality models, but if the subject moves between images, 3D reconstruction might fail. One way to mitigate this is to use multiple cameras. This project aimed to develop a Read more about Phone cam array – An open-source, modular photogrammetry system made of Android phones[…]

Elizabeth Holmes’ Prison Sentence Quietly Reduced by Two Years, as is Theranos CEO’s

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Disgraced Theranos co-founder Elizabeth Holmes’ prison sentence has been reduced by two years, according to the Bureau of Prisons records. Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison for defrauding investors by claiming her blood-testing company provided quick and reliable results but she was found to have lied about the reliability of Read more about Elizabeth Holmes’ Prison Sentence Quietly Reduced by Two Years, as is Theranos CEO’s[…]

Amazon claims it isn’t a “Very Large Online Platform” to evade EU rules

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Amazon doesn’t want to comply with Europe’s Digital Services Act, and to avoid the rules the company is arguing that it doesn’t meet the definition of a Very Large Online Platform under EU law. Amazon filed an appeal at the EU General Court to challenge the European Commission decision that Amazon meets the criteria and Read more about Amazon claims it isn’t a “Very Large Online Platform” to evade EU rules[…]

Mom pleads guilty to abortion after Meta gives DMs to cops – 2023 and these are the witch hunts we see in the land of the free, USA

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A Nebraska mother pleaded guilty on Friday to giving her 17-year-old daughter pills for an abortion last year and to helping her dispose of the 29-week-old fetus. Jessica Burgess, 42, in a plea agreement admitted providing an abortion to her daughter Celeste after 20 weeks of pregnancy, false reporting, and tampering with human remains, according Read more about Mom pleads guilty to abortion after Meta gives DMs to cops – 2023 and these are the witch hunts we see in the land of the free, USA[…]

An Alarming 87 Percent Of Retro Games Are Being Lost To Time

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[…] The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) partnered with the Software Preservation Network, an organization intent on advancing software preservation through collective action, to release a report on the disappearance of classic video games. “Classic” in this case has been defined as all games released before 2010, which the VGHF noted is the “year when Read more about An Alarming 87 Percent Of Retro Games Are Being Lost To Time[…]

France Allows Police to Remotely Turn On GPS, Camera, Audio on Phones

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Amidst ongoing protests in France, the country has just passed a new bill that will allow police to remotely access suspects’ cameras, microphones, and GPS on cell phones and other devices. As reported by Le Monde, the bill has been criticized by the French people as a “snoopers” charter that allows police unfettered access to Read more about France Allows Police to Remotely Turn On GPS, Camera, Audio on Phones[…]

Amazon’s iRobot Roomba acquisition under formal EU investigation

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European Union regulators have opened an official investigation into Amazon’s proposed $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot, the company behind the popular Roomba lineup of robot vacuum cleaners. In a press release, the European Commission said it’s concerned that “the transaction would allow Amazon to restrict competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners (‘RVCs’) and Read more about Amazon’s iRobot Roomba acquisition under formal EU investigation[…]

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

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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

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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

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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

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[…] 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

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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

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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

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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[…]