Be Like Hong Kong. (VIDEO)

Neutralizing facial recognition towers. 

 

VIDEO (no audio): 

Do same to 5G Towers? Oh, I'd never advocate for destruction of private or gov property. Don't do that stuff. It is wrong. 

AI social-distancing enforcement tool. "You will be TRACKED!"

RT: Coronavirus inspires DYSTOPIAN new AI social-distancing enforcement tool (VIDEO).

An AI start-up company has developed a video surveillance system that can tell if we’re abiding by social distancing rules. It’s the latest example of the pandemic inspiring what some might view as sinister technology.
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Californian software developer Landing AI has created a video tool that can be used to ascertain whether people are following social distancing rules.

“Landing AI has developed an AI-enabled social distancing detection tool that can detect if people are keeping a safe distance from each other by analyzing real-time video streams from the camera,” the company chirps, in a blog post about the new software.

Remove your mask and smile for the camera! Big Brother wants a nice, clear image of your facial recognition for their database.

Facial recognition software mistook 1 in 5 California lawmakers for criminals, says ACLU. So, they're saying it works, then?

MSN: Facial recognition software mistook 1 in 5 California lawmakers for criminals.

California Assemblyman Phil Ting has never been arrested, but he was recently mistaken for a criminal.

Ting (D-San Francisco), who authored a bill to ban facial recognition software from being used on police body cameras, was one of 26 California legislators who was incorrectly matched with a mug shot in a recent test of a common face-scanning program by the American Civil Liberties Union.

About 1 in 5 legislators was erroneously matched to a person who had been arrested when the ACLU used the software to screen their pictures against a database of 25,000 publicly available booking photos. Last year, in a similar experiment done with photos of members of Congress, the software erroneously matched 28 federal legislators with mug shots.

Again, they're saying it works, or it's not identifying enough politicians as criminals?

 One glance and you can tell they all look guilty.

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MSN Archived

Tech News

New Atlas: Your air taxi is waiting.

Alaka'i Technologies' Skai machine has a range of up to four hours/400 mi (640 km) and a five-passenger capacity [...] using a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain that neatly sidesteps the energy density issue that's holding back battery-powered aircraft.

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IEEE: How to Build a Moral Robot. 

So how can we build a robot that can figure out which norms to follow, and when?
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"Our hypothesis is that in any particular context, a subset of norms is activated—a particular set of rules related to that situation. That subset of norms is then available to guide action, to recognize violations, and allow us to make decisions."

It's a very good article. Hit the link.
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Packt>: House Oversight and Reform Committee labels Facial Recognition as racist, biased and abusive to civil rights.

At the hearing, Joy Buolamwini, founder of Algorithmic Justice League highlighted one of [her] studies at MIT, on facial recognition systems, it was found that for the task of guessing a gender of a face, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon had error rates which rose to over 30% for darker skin and women. On evaluating benchmark datasets from organizations like NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology), a striking imbalance was found. The dataset contained 75 percent male and 80 percent lighter skin data, which she addressed as “pale male datasets”. She added that our faces may well be the final frontier of privacy and Congress must act now to uphold American freedom and rights at minimum. 

The Algorithmic Justice League. Aren't they the nemesis of THE Justice League?
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AI News: Amazon patent envisions Alexa listening to everything 24/7.

A patent filed by Amazon envisions a future where Alexa listens to users 24/7 without the need for a wakeword.
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For example, say you were discussing booking a seat at your favourite restaurant next Tuesday. After asking, “Alexa, do I have anything on my schedule next Tuesday?” it could respond: “No, would you like me to book a seat at the restaurant you were discussing and add it to your calendar?”

Today, such a task would require three separate requests.

Three separate requests? WTFITS? We ask so much from ourselves, don't we? When will the heavy-lifting end?
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The Guardian: World's first raspberry-picking robot set to work.

Yeah, it's slow. However, the story states, "[the] machine [is] expected to pick more than 25,000 raspberries a day, outpacing human workers." Kind of  reminds me of the autonomous dry-waller at Bustednuckles.

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Seattle Times: Judge orders Facebook to turn over records on data privacy.

A Delaware judge is ordering Facebook to turn over internal records regarding data privacy and access to user data.
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The lawsuit followed reports that the data of more than 50 million Facebook users had been misappropriated without their knowledge by British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica in 2015.

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Engadget: Cadillac's hands-free SuperCruise.

Plenty of images of the new Caddy at the link and the engineering seems as solid as autonomous driving can be. Until...something goes wrong.
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Pocket Lint: Lego worked with NASA to release this 1,087-piece Apollo 11 Luna Lander set.

Tech News

Technocracy: UK Pedestrian Fined $115 For Avoiding Facial Recognition Camera.

Police fined a pedestrian £90 for disorderly behaviour after he tried to cover his face when he saw a controversial facial recognition camera on a street in London.

Officers set up the camera on a van in Romford, East London, which then cross-checked photos of faces of passers-by against a database of wanted criminals.

But one man was unimpressed about being filmed and covered his face with his hat and jacket, before being stopped by officers who took his picture anyway.

After being pulled aside, the man told police: ‘If I want to cover me face, I’ll cover me face. Don’t push me over when I’m walking down the street.’

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C|Net: Good reasons not to trust tech companies.

...why wouldn't a company like Facebook go the extra step and just listen in on our conversations through our phones?

"Most Americans can't go through their day without having one of these companies in their lives," said Margaret O'Mara, a history professor at the University of Washington and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.

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TechTalks: Self-driving forklifts are here.

...factories and industrial complexes are closed environments, and are much more predictable. There’s no threat of kids running in the forklift’s path, and the lighting, weather and traffic conditions are usually constant. “The rules for forklifts are easier than self-driving cars because the environment is structured,” [says Saurav Agarwal, CTO and co-founder at Stocked Robotics, an Austin-based AI company focused on automating industrial vehicles].

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Here's a trip down memory lane. TechSpot: The Most Memorable Game Controllers over the past 40 years.

The departure from the arcades has drastically morphed how players control games. Here we will take a look at some of the more memorable gamepads and controllers for consoles and PC over the last four decades.

How many do you remember? Hit the link for more.

 

 PC Gaming Technology circa 4th 5th Millennium BC

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ZD Net: Six ways the new Mac Pro could go terribly wrong.

Once upon a time, Apple understood extreme pro users. From about 2006 to about 2012, Apple sold what is fondly referred to as the "cheese grater" Mac Pro, so named because the holes on the side of the unit were reminiscent of a cheese grater.
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Then, in 2013, Apple introduced what's come to be known as the "trash can" Mac Pro, because it looks like a glossy little trash can. When Phil Schiller introduced it, he was so proud of it that he bragged, "Can't innovate, my ass."

Since then, that machine has been pretty much a failure.
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It's entirely possible the new Mac Pro could go horribly wrong:
#1 Proprietary modules and module interfaces

#2 Limited module selection

#3 Lack of user maintainability and some kind of unexpected lock-in

#4 Lack of, or minimal upgradeability

#5 Form over functional heat management

#6 Pricing that limits purchases to high-end enterprises only

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Extreme Tech: Elon Musk: Tesla Broke in 10 Months Without ‘Hardcore’ Cost Reduction.

Tesla may have just raised $2.7B in additional funding, but the company’s cash burn rate is so high, even that amount won’t keep the lights on for very long. According to CEO Elon Musk, the company is instituting “hardcore” cost-cutting rules and scrutinizing every penny that leaves the firm.["]

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MobileSyrup: Justin Trudeau to launch Digital Charter to combat hate speech and disinformation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his government will be launching a digital charter in order to combat hate speech and online disinformation.
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“We look forward to working alongside internet companies, but indeed, if they do not choose to act, we will be forced to continue to act in ways that protect Canadians and we will have more to say about the kinds of tools we will be using in the coming weeks and months,” Trudeau said.

Learn To Code Launch Digital Charters.
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Technology.Org: Same computer password for the last 10 years? You might need a vibrating cybernudge.

Researchers say changing human behaviour key to foiling cyberattacks.
[.]
People routinely put off, ignore or forget cyber security measures such as changing passwords, updating privacy settings and locking computer screens.

So..."passwordABC1", "Admin123" and "tHatsHitheadBoss88"...I should change those then...?

Tech News

Mashable: Microsoft partners with BMW for "smart factory" systems.

And, BMW's riderless bike (it takes a moment for the clip to load):

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Tech Talks: AI can read and text can be weaponized.

“When people see typos right now, they don’t think it’s a security issue. But in the near future, it might be something we will have to contend with,” Stephen Merity, AI researcher and expert on machine learning–based language models, told me in a call last week.

And there’s ample reason to take his warnings seriously. In recent findings, scientists at IBM Research, Amazon and the University of Texas have proven that small modifications to text content can alter the behavior of AI algorithms while remaining unnoticeable to human readers.

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Extreme Tech: Three stickers will make an autonomous Tesla veer into oncoming traffic.

Keen Security researchers reverse-engineered the software Tesla uses to see how easy it would be to fool those sensors. They didn’t need to make any changes to the car’s software — this is not a hack. They simply used three small reflective stickers on the roadway to trick Autopilot into thinking the lane had merged when it hadn’t.

I'd imagine covering exterior sensors on the car with duct tape would also put a big dent into Tesla's "autonomy".
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Ubergizmo: Burger King's Non-Beef Whopper.

[Burger King] is staking its reputation on [a no beef patty], saying that the taste is identical to its beef patty.
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It’s a protein that’s cultivated from soybean roots that can mimic the texture of meat.

It's not a real Whopper, then.

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Ubergizmo: Fake alcohol; get the buzz but never drunk.

[S]cientist David Nutt’s...synthetic alcohol can allow drinkers to experience everything they enjoy about having a drink but not worry about getting a hangover. Nutt told the Guardian that he can design his synthetic alcohol molecule to interact with the body in a way that doesn’t induce any of the negative side effects.

Ars Technia: Study finds there is "something special" about Tennessee whiskey.

Scientists are beginning to unlock the scientific secrets of what makes so-called "Tennessee whiskey" so distinct from other whiskeys, bourbons, and similar spirits[.]

The success of Tennessee Whiskey has to have something to do with this guy, if only for his guile and name.
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Ars Technia: Google's product shut-downs are damaging its brand.

We are 91 days into the year, and so far, Google is racking up an unprecedented body count. If we just take the official shutdown dates that have already occurred in 2019, a Google-branded product, feature, or service has died, on average, about every nine days.

Engadget: After eight years, Google+ is dead.

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Digital Trends: Good bye metal; hello Soft Robotics.

Where previous soft robots have still required components like metal valves, this latest soft robot can function using only rubber and air — with pressurized air replacing the need for electronic innards. In doing so, it integrates memory and decision-making directly into its soft materials, using a kind of digital logic-based soft computer.

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C|Net: The ethical issues of smart home cameras and facial recognition.

You might gain the peace of mind that comes with knowing who's at the door, but it could come at the cost of compromising your loved ones' privacy by sending their biometric data back to manufacturers or even hackers.
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Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is the oldest legislation and the strictest. It regulates how biometric information is collected, stored, used and even destroyed. Texas followed a year later with the Texas Biometric Privacy Law, while Washington signed its own state House Bill 1493 two years ago.
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When a homeowner adds facial recognition technology, multiple relationships come into play.

"There are deep ethical questions," [said Betsy Cooper, director of the Aspen Policy Hub]. "Because while the relationship between the individual and the person crossing their threshold is clear, the relationship between the person crossing the threshold and all those other companies and actors is less clear."

Tech Talks: Law firms, the digital age and the impact of Tech.

Lawyers need technology these days, but technology also needs lawyers.
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Algorithms shape how people interact with news and entertainment media and how they research civic issues on the internet, and there are new questions arising about citizens’ “digital civil rights.”
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What happens when a city decides to ban facial recognition technology?

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Beta News: Linux Fedora 30 Beta is here.

Fedora is the best overall Linux distribution.
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While Fedora maybe isn't the best distro for beginners, it should be the eventual choice for those that "level up" to being an experienced Linux user later.

As someone commented at the above link, it is unfortunate that Beta News didn't include any screenshots of Fedora 30. So, here's some. It's hot!

Tech News

From BGR, just in time for Oktoberfest, Adidas markets beer and puke resistant sneakers. Really!
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MARK OF THE BEAST, ANYONE? This is not a conspiracy. This is real, this is happening. It must be stopped. From Technocracy-  Global Elites' Scheme for crypto-currency:

...crypto-hysteria is distracting you from a scary truth no one is talking about. There is every indication that governments, regulators, tax authorities, and the global elite are moving in for the crypto-kill. The future of Bitcoin may be a dystopia in which Big Brother controls what’s called “the blockchain” and decides when and how you can buy or sell anything and everything.

Furthermore, cryptocurrency technology could be the very mechanism used by global elites to replace the dollar based financial system.

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Security Week: Bashware; vulnerable Win10 feature for Windows Subsystem for Linux may transfer malware. Don't worry, Windows will release another patch.

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This is the stuff that makes Tech-files drool. BetaNews: 12 Terabyte HD, 7200 RPM disk speed. But it's pricey.
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We've all heard the term Big Data. What is it? InfoWorld tells us all we need to know.
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As long as we're talking about Big Data, attention business owners: Your analytics are all wrong. Information Week:

"Analytics are viewed as how many tools or dashboards you have, or how many reports you generate, " said Isher Kaila, CEO of management consulting firm Sapphire Nine Consulting.  "No one is anchoring that to the amount of insights you are delivering, and by extension, what those insights translate to in terms of business outcomes.

Exactly. But try and tell that to your boss.
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ZD Net: The inadequate tech protection is why Equifax was hacked.
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Here comes the MARK OF THE BEAST AGAIN. This time, it's in the form of ... the iPhone X. Geek:

The biggest reason I’m immediately turned off by the iPhone X is [the]  FaceID facial recognition technology.
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But no, Apple, the iPhone X can’t have my face.

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Speaking of Facial ID recognition, NextGov asks what will become of your facial scan, who can access it, and some very other pertinent legal questions.
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TechCrunch: "Animoji are dumb and I detest them." I could not agree more.
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NewAtlas: Change the view from your house...your revolving house.
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Gizmodo: Slash-In-A-Box.
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The designs on the arm are not a Swastika.

It is not a swastika - it's not even close - but because some say it kind of looks like one, people are all upset. ArsTechnia:

"It's come to our attention that a gauntlet [an armor item] in Destiny 2 shares elements with a hate symbol," Bungie wrote on its official Twitter channel. "We are removing it. Our deepest apologies. We renounce [sic] hate in all forms."

The item in question, which was still live on the game's official site as of press time, is a piece of arm-and-shoulder armor named "Road Complex AA1." Its lime-green color and iconography, with solid lines offset by opposite-facing letter K shapes, look quite similar to elements on a flag for a fictitious nation dubbed "Kekistan." The full flag design, which has flown at recent neo-Nazi rallies across the United States, looks very similar to a German Nazi flag. Differences include the color swap to lime green and a mix of Ks and lines instead of a swastika. (The flag also commonly includes 4chan's heart-shaped logo.)

The "flag" of a fictitious nation. "Similar" to(??), but NOT a swastika.

No one who is affiliated with a true hate group is going to incorporate into their logo or hate symbol the four 4Chan hearts. No offense to 4Chan (they are an informative site) - it's just not a design that a hate group is going to drop into their logo.

Should I, as a Christian, be offended by the above flag because of the "cross" symbol which is similar to a crucifix?

What about the military-style short buzz haircut that so many guys sport? Are they sporting a "neo-Nazi" haircut? Should we ban short, buzz-cut haircuts? The Swastika predates Nazism by thousands of years and was used as a spiritual and religious symbol.

The word ‘swastika’ is a Sanskrit word (‘svasktika’) meaning ‘It is’, ‘Well Being’, ‘Good Existence, and ‘Good Luck’.
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It is ironic, and unfortunate, that a symbol of life and eternity that was considered sacred for thousands of years has become a symbol of hatred.

The flag has four letter "K's" back to back; the "K" for Kekistan. Kekistan does not exist. It is not a real country. We, as a society, need to clearly establish and define true symbols of hate from those that kind of look like, but are not, a hate symbol. The lines have been blurred so much by the Politically Correct Police that soon, a single, solid, bold "line" drawn on a piece of cloth will be misinterpreted as a hate symbol or said to "resemble or have elements similar" to an actual hate symbol.