Tech News

ArsTechnia - Google isn’t the company that we should have handed the Web over to.

Microsoft adopting Chromium puts the Web in a perilous place.

A must-read. Also: Google evil? You have no idea. - InfoWorld, March 2014

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Peering into 2019 at Beta News - Cyber predictions for 2019:

The end of the password
Increased regulation
IoT risks

And more.
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BGR - Intelligent parrot instructed Alexa to play music and order food from Amazon: 

The African grey parrot, however, is something of an exception to the rule. Interestingly enough, a 2012 study published in The Royal Society found that the grey parrot has cognitive thinking skills in some areas that are on the same level as a three-year old human child.

And then, there's this parrot.
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C|Net: Russian social media actors moved to Instagram after pressure on Facebook and Twitter:

Once the Internet Research Agency got outed on Facebook and Twitter, Instagram became the new haven for Russia's disinformation campaign.

That's the takeaway from two comprehensive reports Monday on Russia's social media manipulation efforts. One is from researchers at New Knowledge, a cybersecurity firm, and the other is from researchers at Oxford University's Computational Propaganda Research Project and Graphika. 

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Brave browser going Chromium - Computer World:

As of last week, however, Brave relies on the Chromium UI. In plainer words, Brave has gone "full-Chromium."

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Tech News World -  Blackberry opens door for offering services to autonomous vehicle sector:

BlackBerry this week introduced its new Security Credential Management System.
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Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry,...undertook development of this technology to provide the critical infrastructure for vehicles and traffic lights to exchange information securely.
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The company likely hopes to gain the trust of automakers, as well as local governments that are involved in the development of smart city infrastructure.

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Fake package covers porch thieves in glitter and fart spray. TechCrunch:

As soon as it’s opened, a custom-built spinning tub flings ridiculously fine glitter in every direction...A few seconds later comes a blast of canned fart spray. Or, I should say, the first blast of canned fart spray[.]

See the video at the link.