Tech News

Ars Technia: 4Chan, 8Chan and other sites blocked by New Zealand and Australia for mosque shooting video.

[ISP Vodafone] decision to block access to websites was controversial as they acted to censor content without instruction from either the Australian Communications and Media Authority or the eSafety Commissioner, and most smaller service providers have decided to keep access open," The Australian Financial Review wrote.

- - -
C|Net: Facial recognition may ban you in stores you've never been in.

...with facial recognition, getting caught in one store could mean a digital record of your face is shared across the country. Stores are already using the technology for security purposes and can share that data -- meaning that if one store considers you a threat, every business in that network could come to the same conclusion.
[.]
Privacy advocates fear that regulations can't keep up with the technology -- found everywhere from your phone to selfie stations -- leading to devastating consequences.

"Unless we really rein in this technology, there's a risk that what we enjoy every day -- the ability to walk around anonymous, without fearing that you're being tracked and identified -- could be a thing of the past," said Neema Singh Guliani, the American Civil Liberties Union's senior legislative counsel.

- - -
Technocracy: Clean, Cheap, Abundant Fusion Energy Would Wreck Globalization.

Economies are enabled by the energy required to produce activity, and the crucible of globalization seeks to create an artificial shortage of energy in order to control all economic activity.  Fusion reactors would provide cheap and clean energy to the world, effectively trashing globalization. ⁃ TN Editor

- - -

 

PC World: The 10 Most Annoying Computer Cables.

Bare speaker wire

Mini-HDMI

Micro-USB 3.0

And seven others - hit the link.
- - -
C|Net: Sequel to "Bird Box" coming.

Did Sandra Bullock see this coming?
- - -
BrightHub: Why you should free-style rap every morning.

Scientific research demonstrates that freestyle rap might boost your brain’s creative power, too, and when it does, it can free you from boredom and stagnation and offer you a reprieve from the monotony of everyday tasks.

Well, if science says so...

"Fuck why, fish fry, black eye, no cry, bye-bye, oh my super-high. More pie, necktie, oh why-why try, Jai Alai no Lie, drinking Rye in the sky."

Yeah, it works. Add another ritual to the morning routine...
- - -
Fortune: Firefox 66 Is a Gift For Anyone Who Hates Autoplay Videos.

The latest version of Firefox can detect when a video is playing with audio, and automatically mute it. Videos that play on mute will be allowed to continue to run. If someone wants to watch a video, along with listening to the audio, they can click the play button. Firefox also offers the option to add certain websites to a list of exceptions, or to turn blocking off if they really enjoy having videos suddenly play while they’re busy at work.

The new block autoplay feature will be gradually rolling out to users, according to the Firefox 66 release notes.

Killing auto-play videos has to be one of the top three best Tech innovations ever.
- - -
TechCrunch: Morphin lets you drop a selfie into any GIF.

Upload a selfie to Morphin, choose your favorite GIF and your face is grafted in to create a personalized copy you can share anywhere. Become Tony Stark as he suits up like Iron Man. Drop the mic like Obama, dance like Drake or slap your mug on Fortnite characters.

Oh, the fun and mischief to be had!
- - -
TechXplore: Study shows people prefer wind-turbines as neighbors over other energy plants.

...the study showed...approximate[ly] two-thirds who have a preference, the local wind power project was preferred over a commercial-scale solar installation by approximately three to one.

- - -
Popular Science: Unsubscribe from newsletters all in one sweep.

If you find you've signed up for many, many email newsletters too many, don't just accept your fate—here's how to quickly unsubscribe from the emails you no longer want or need, in the most common email clients around.

Tech News Top Story: UN Declares Single Family Housing is "Racist"

Technocracy: Single-family housing is now "racist".

Across the nation, city councils and state legislatures are beginning to remove zoning protections for single-family neighborhoods, claiming they are racist discrimination designed to keep certain minorities out of such neighborhoods. In response to these charges some government officials are calling for the end of single-family homes in favor of multiple family apartments.

    Minneapolis, Minnesota: the city council is moving to remove zoning that protects single-family neighborhoods, instead planning to add apartment buildings in the mix. The mayor actually said such zoning was “devised as a legal way to keep black Americans and other minorities from moving into certain neighborhoods”. Racist, social injustice are the charges.

    Chicago, Illinois: So-called “affordable housing” advocates have filed a federal complaint against the longtime tradition of allowing City Aldermen veto power over most development proposals in their wards, charging that it promotes discrimination by keeping low-income minorities from moving into affluent white neighborhoods. Essentially the complaint seeks to remove the Aldermen’s ability to represent their own constituents.

    Baltimore, Maryland: The NAACP filed a suit against the city charging that Section 8 public housing causes ghettos because they are all put into the same areas of town. They won the suit and now the city must spend millions of dollars to move such housing into more affluent neighborhoods. In addition, landlords are no longer permitted to ask potential tenants if they can afford the rent on their properties.

    Oregon: Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives Tina Kotek (D-Portland) is drafting legislation that would end single-family zoning in cities of 10,000 or more. She claims there is a housing shortage crisis and that economic and racial segregation are caused by zoning restrictions.

- - -
Ars Technia: Siri recommends nearby schools for shootings.

[A 13-year-old Indiana boy] who attends nearby Chesterton Middle School, reportedly told Siri “I am going to shoot up a school.” Siri helpfully responded with a list of schools in the Valparaiso area, where the boy was at the time. The boy took a screenshot and posted it to social media.
[.]
The boy said that the post was a joke, and subsequent investigation revealed that he had no access to weapons. There was no sign that the boy had any particular school in mind when he made the comment.

- - -
Extreme Tech: It's COLD on the Dark Side of The Moon.

According to the China National Space Administration (CNSA), Chang’e-4 has found the moon to be more frigid than expected. Hopefully, it packed a blanket.
[.]
[The Yutu-2 rover] reported to ground control the temperatures it experienced on the far side of the moon. Let’s just say the moon isn’t an ideal vacation spot. Chang’e-4 saw temperatures go as low as -310 degrees Fahrenheit (-190 degrees Celsius).

 Yutu-2 rover on the chilly Moon

- - - 

Not in the lines where I'm standing and waiting. WIRED: The World is Running out of people.

That’s the conclusion Canadian journalist John Ibbitson and political scientist Darrell Bricker come to in their newest book, Empty Planet, due out February 5th. After painstakingly breaking down the numbers for themselves, the pair arrived at a drastically different prediction for the future of the human species. “In roughly three decades, the global population will begin to decline,” they write. “Once that decline begins, it will never end.”

- - -
If you haven't had this experience, eventually you will. And you will hate it. ZD Net: The Retail Experience: "I don't know, it's on our web site."

How the internet made retail staff ignorant.
This is the story of one woman, two retailers, and a complete disregard for human-to-human interaction.

- - -
PC World: 2019 review of laptops; premium to bargain.

Good article if you're looking for a second or back-up inexpensive laptop.
- - -
I haven't played PC games in ages. Gamers? TechSpot: Is 6GB VRAM enough for 1440p gaming?

Starting from the top we find our most memory intensive titles. Quake Champions is a surprisingly hungry title though this game would simply appear to allocate all available memory. I estimate usage is actually below 4 GB based on what we’ve seen when testing.

- - -
Geek: Changing a wheel on a Boeing 747.

- - -

ComputerWorld: Firefox has second straight month of growth.

Mozilla's Firefox wrapped up a two-month resurgence this week, clawing back some previously-lost user share to return to a level last seen in the middle of 2018.

The open-source browser remains the only major browser committed to using a rendering engine that is not based on Google's Blink or its predecessor, WebKit.

It is so important to have a browser not based on Google or WebKit. The best thing we can all do, is donate just $5 to the Mozilla organization. Please consider.
- - -
TechCrunch: Aibo hangs with real dogs.

If this were elementary school, Aibo would be the smelly new kid no one wanted to play with.

Image: TechCrunch