Tech News

Why driving is hard for AI. ArsTechnia:

The Society for Automotive Engineering and the US Department of Transportation specify six degrees of autonomy, running from Level 0 (human drivers in complete control) to Level 5 (a fully self-driving vehicle). The commercially available car currently considered the most autonomous—the Cadillac CT6 with Super Cruise—makes it to Level 2... but only on the 130,000 miles (many of them highways) that its maps know. Tesla's Autopilot mode, the name notwithstanding, is also considered Level 2. Neither of them are anything like set-and-forget systems.

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Duckduckgo discovers Google personalizing searches in incognito mode and when not signed in.
BetaNews:

[The study] found that even when people searched without logging into a Google account -- or when they used private browsing mode --  "most participants saw results unique to them".

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China denounces U.S. as "despicable rogue" over Huawei CFO arrest. BGR:

The Chinese government has demanded [CFO Meng Wanzhou] be released and claimed that her arrest is a potential human rights violation.

The accusations, CBC.ca:

[CFO Meng Wanzhou, 46] is wanted for extradition from Vancouver to the U.S. on allegations of fraud, including using a shell company to skirt international American sanctions over five years, court heard.

The Justice Department affidavit painted a picture of a woman with immense financial resources who had already attempted to evade U.S. arrest warrants for allegedly violating American and European Union sanctions.

It said she possesses "no fewer than seven passports from both China and Hong Kong."

The lesson here is if you're going to have seven passports, mix-up more countries. Use Luxembourg, Lithuania, Liechtenstein and Monaco. No one will question them.
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If you're looking at buying a new TV, a review on Smart display models at C|Net.
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Here's a rare item. MicroSoft surrenders. Computer World: 

After a years-long pummeling, Microsoft this week surrendered in the browser war, saying that it will junk Edge's home-grown rendering engine and replace it with Blink, the engine that powers Google's Chrome.

More...

RIP MS Edge. ZD Net:

Microsoft today confirmed the rumors that have been swirling all week. As part of a sweeping change to one of the flagship components of Windows 10, it will rebuild its Microsoft Edge browser from the ground up, ripping out its proprietary EdgeHTML rendering engine and replacing it with the open-source Chromium code base.

Image: ZD Net

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Are you a member of Quora? Looks like it was hacked. WIRED:

In a blog post on Monday, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo admitted that Quora was breached. The company discovered the problem last Friday, and more than 100 million accounts may have had their data taken.

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Expired certificate causes millions to lose Ericsson network. TechSpot:

Certificates are software keys that enable certain functionality, but they can require occasional updates so that they don’t expire, something Swedish owned telecommunication equipment manufacturer Ericsson didn’t do.

They forgot to use a sticky-note.
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Gizmodo - A free streaming service you didn't know you had. (Not Reddit?)

I want to tell you about a free streaming service that’s in many ways just as good as Filmstruck, offers Criterion films, and has at least one feature that no one else does.

Kanopy is not new, it got its start in Australia a decade ago and has slowly expanded its services around the globe.

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UberGizmo: Teen electrocuted to death wearing charging headphones:

It has been suggested that you not use your headphones while they’re plugged into a phone that’s charging, or to use them if their wires are frayed and exposed.

The above never occurred to me. I'd never heard of anyone dying from this until now. Makes sense. What a way to go, geeez.
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I can't quite make the stretch to classify this under Tech News, but here goes.

From The Independent:  Mom sends five-year old son to school nativity with...(plastic blowup, think adult) ...sheep doll.

Helen Cox said she had no idea what the real purpose of the product when she bought it for her son Alfie.

Yeeeaaahhhhhhhh....click the link and read the story.

 Image: The Independent.

I obscured the kid's face, I just had to. The image at the link is intact.