No word from NASA how the Hooterville Post Office, located within Sam Drucker's General Store, fared in the moon-delivery selection process.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has selected Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, and Orbit Beyond as the first three private companies to deliver science and technology payloads under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) as part of its Artemis program.
...we’ve reached a point where artificial intelligence algorithms can solve very complicated problems, and in many cases with speed and accuracy that is far superior to those of humans. But whether contemporary AI works likes the human mind is up for debate.TechSpot: AI coming soon to a McDonald's drive thru near you.
McDonald’s will put its newfound technology to work in the drive thru. Working in conjunction with the company’s digital menus, Dynamic Yield technology will account for factors like weather, time of day, current restaurant traffic and trending menu items to display items that customers are more likely to purchase.McDonald's predictive menu ordering=here. Change people's lives? They'll get there sooner rather than later.
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McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook said they have a really straightforward business. “People only come to us if they want something to eat, or something to drink. We’re not in the business of using technology to try to change people’s lives.”
Known respectively as the "link tax" and the "upload filter", these two clauses have generated a great deal of interest from internet users and the technology industry alike. In particular, article 13 has proved especially controversial, holding websites responsible for material uploaded without a licence [sic] [.]ZD Net: Social media platforms affected by new EU copyright regulations.
The European Parliament said the directive aims to ensure that copyright law also applies to the internet. It added that YouTube, Facebook and Google News are some of the internet household names that will be "most directly affected" by this legislation.TechDirt: MEP's say mistaken in their vote on Articles 11 and 13. EU replies, "pound sand.".
...the key vote was whether to allow amendments that could have deleted those two articles. That vote failed by just five votes, 317 to 312. Unfortunately, soon after the vote was finalized, a few of the MEPs who voted against the plan for amendments -- Peter Lundgren and Kristina Winberg -- said they voted incorrectly and meant to vote for the amendments in order to get rid of Articles 11 and 13. Apparently, someone changed the vote order which threw them off[.]- - -
A large-scale analysis of global positioning data has discovered widespread Russian spoofing over the past three years of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) used by ships and autonomous vehicle systems to find their positions and safely chart courses, according to a new report.- - -
The report — published by the Center for Advanced Defense (C4ADS), a nonprofit intelligence firm focused on worldwide security issues — found that at least 9,883 instances of spoofing occurred near sensitive areas in Russia and Crimea and during times when high-ranking officials, such as President Vladamir Putin, were present.
...it wasn't malware that was injecting and running code in a user process; it was a Huawei-written driver. Huawei's driver was supposed to act as a kind of watchdog: it monitored a regular user mode service that's part of the PCManager software, and if that service should crash or stop running, the driver would restart it. To perform that restart, the driver injected code into a privileged Windows process and then ran that code using an APC—a technique lifted straight from malware.- - -
Technocrats pushing for a cashless society are seriously conflicted as its flagship experiment in Sweden is coming unravelled. The people in Sweden have spoken, and cash stays. ⁃ TN Editor- - -
Sweden will likely push through a proposal to force banks to keep offering cash to customers who require it as the Nordic nation grapples with how to balance the rapid transformation into a cashless society.
Norwegian metals and energy giant Norsk Hydro, one of the world’s biggest aluminum producers, has been hit by a ransomware attack that has impacted operations, forcing the company to resort to manual processes.- - -
In a press conference on Tuesday, Norsk Hydro representatives revealed that the attack, which they described as extensive, started on Monday at around midnight, Norway time, when the company’s security team noticed some unusual activity on its global network. They said the ransomware is designed to encrypt files, but they have yet to determine exactly which malware family it belongs to.
The hoax, which appears to have begun making the rounds on Monday, promises to make users' feeds more "colourful" if they change the birth year in their profile to 2007. An early tweet on the trick has been retweeted more than 13,000 times[.]
According to The Wall Street Journal, United States Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell told the German government in a letter on Friday that allowing Chinese vendor equipment across 5G networks would reduce US cooperation with intelligence agencies in Germany.More - Security Week: Germany will define their own standards, says Merkel.
Grenell pointed out that Chinese law requires Chinese companies to support China's security agencies[.]
"We will define our standards for ourselves," [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel told reporters at a Berlin press conference with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.- - -
...the FAA is notoriously safety-conscious. Planes in search of an airworthiness certificate must meet stringent standards; the certification process usually takes years. And it gets results: Just one person has died in American airspace on a commercial airplane since 2009. But, it seems, the agency has not yet found reason to ground the new 737.- - -
The car nerds of the internet tend to love them, and because we're a loud bunch, once in a while a manufacturer will take a chance and try to sell one here. Inevitably this lasts a couple of years, few people buy them new, and they go away[.]I'm guessing its uncertain future has to do with the words "station wagon" following "Jaguar".
The lower court did take a couple of shots at Woods during its dismissal of the suit, pointing out he was as uncooperative as possible when the plaintiff, Portia Boulger, tried to serve him.And we would expect no less from Mr. Woods. Congrats!
So far, no evidence has been found of dust-free space, but that's partly because it would be difficult to detect from Earth. No matter how scientists look from Earth, all the dust in between us and the Sun gets in the way, tricking them into thinking perhaps space near the Sun is dustier than it really is.
The Justice Department unsealed two separate indictments of Chinese telecom device maker Huawei on Monday. But only one of them reads like the script of a slapstick caper movie."xDeviceRobot" ??
That would be the one that describes the U.S. government's case alleging that Huawei stole trade secrets from T-Mobile, the wireless service company.
In the indictment, the government says that between June 2012 and September 2014, Huawei repeatedly made efforts to steal information about the design of a T-Mobile robot. The robot's name, adorably, is "Tappy."
We would like to include a photo here of Tappy, but photographing the robot is expressly prohibited by T-Mobile, and Tappy is kept under very tight security in a lab at T-Mobile headquarters in Bellevue, Wash.
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Meanwhile, Huawei China was reportedly trying to build its own device-testing robot — named, less cutely, "xDeviceRobot" — and it was not finding much success. And Huawei's devices weren't faring well on T-Mobile's Tappy tests, failing more often than devices made by competitors.
In May 2012, Huawei USA asked if Huawei China could license the Tappy technology, and T-Mobile said no.
That's when Huawei began attempting to steal the design secrets of Tappy, according to the indictment.
..the tech giant confirmed when a customer uses Google Local Services to call and connect with a business, the number listed is not the business’ contact but rather a dummy Google number that routes callers to the business.You consented to this. This was likely all spelled out in your brief, clear, concise User Agreement, which of course, you read. Right?
Before customers are connected with business, they are informed that all calls are recorded.
China demanded the U.S. drop the [extradition] request and blamed Washington for damaging its relationship with Canada.- - -
The UK, Canada, the Czech Republic, Norway, and Japan are all reportedly reconsidering their relationships with Huawei as well.He added, "if you like your doctor, you can keep him." Nah, just jokin' there.
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"These Huawei problems have been bubbling under the surface for quite a few years," telecom industry analyst Jeff Kagan says. "Now they are at a rapid boil, and there is no hiding from it. And this rapid boil is only going to get worse."
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In a rare press conference Tuesday, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said the company doesn't spy on behalf of the Chinese government. "I support the Communist Party of China, but I will never do anything to harm any other nation," Ren said[.]
An online casino group has leaked information on over 108 million bets, including details about customers' personal information, deposits, and withdrawals[.]Oh-oh-ooooooh...did you hear the "snap" of wedded bliss ("No honey, I told you I quit online gambling long ago."), and the New Hiring announcement for IT at ElasticSearch?
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The data leaked from an ElasticSearch server that was left exposed online without a password[.]
Welcome to the Avoided Mandated $15/hour Liberal Technocralypse.“Marty” is a limited-purpose robot but will still replace a number of entry-level jobs that are so important for teenagers just entering the workforce[.]
Security researchers have been warning for years that ALPR devices are exposed and all too often accessible from the internet. The Electronic Frontier Foundation found in 2015 dozens of exposed devices in its own investigation not long after Boston’s entire ALPR network was found exposed, thanks to a server security lapse.The story notes that, no big surprise here, police departments are failing to change the manufacturer's default password that comes with the product. WTF? Change the DEFAULT PASSWORD! What are the paid IT employess who work in law enforcement doing with their time?
But in the three years past, little has changed.
Most consumers are oblivious to the herculean efforts that go into hardware production. Robots and humans must work in perfect harmony to get the job done on time while minimizing mistakes. If you've never seen a production line in action, it's quite fascinating.
Flights at Newark Liberty International Airport were temporarily delayed after a pair of drones were spotted nearby, Federal Aviation Administration sources tell CBS News’ Kris Van Cleave.- - -
The sources say the drones were were seen flying at 3,500 feet over Teterboro Airport, less than 20 miles from Newark Airport.
The karaoke bar is located in the center of the Kabukicho district and is about 500 meters northeast of JR Shinjuku Station. A number of yakuza are based in the area, which has become increasingly popular as the number of foreign tourists in Tokyo has increased.- - -
There are growing fears for the safety of a prominent Chinese-Australian writer who appears to have disappeared in China, with friends and family worried he may have been detained by authorities.- - -
The writer and dissident Yang Hengjun left Sydney for Guangzhou on January 18 despite his friends warning him it was too dangerous for the Australian citizen to travel to China.
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He is incommunicado and has not posted anything on social media including popular Chinese platform wechat since Friday.
Help us make chemical weapons, the Islamic State's emissaries said.
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"Do I regret it? I don't know if I'd use that word," said [Iraqi scientist Suleiman al-] Afari, who was captured by US and Kurdish soldiers in 2016 and is now a prisoner in Irbil, the capital of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region[.]
"They had become the government, and we now worked for them," he said. "We wanted to work so we could get paid."- - -
...[staffers]’ "disappointment turned to fury" when they were made aware HRP had commissioned several elaborate and very expensive cakes from a company called Choccywoccydoodah[.]
- - -China has demanded that the US drops an extradition request for a top Huawei executive, as the tech giant’s chief launched an unprecedented public relations blitz.
Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, 46, was arrested on December 1 in Vancouver, Canada at the request of the US.
...a challenge to New York City's prohibition on carrying a licensed, locked and unloaded handgun outside the city limits.- - -
Former Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that if he could speak to President Donald Trump directly, he would tell him to "resign."
The mayor of the Polish city of Gdansk has died in hospital, a day after being stabbed at a charity event.- - -
Following the complaints, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed that it is moving all 20 sculptures from its current site in the World Trade Center complex.- - -
A week after she was due back in Sydney, Claire Johnson messaged a friend saying she was "so scared" and asked her to contact the consulate.- - -
The Department for Transport (DfT) has warned overseas motorists they need to exchange their UK licences for a European one before March 29.BBC: Theresa May says Brexit opponents not acting in the interests of the people.
On Tuesday British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing a crunch vote to get her Brexit deal through Commons.
She said her "absolute conviction" was that the UK and EU would be able to finalise their future relationship by the end of 2020, meaning the backstop would never be needed.- - -
China on Monday said Canada's criticism on China's detention of two Canadian citizens is groundless, noting one of them has no "diplomatic immunity."- - -
Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed earlier that coercive measures have been taken against two Canadians suspected of jeopardizing China's national security.
Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was originally given a 15-year jail term in 2018 but after an appeal the court said the sentence was too lenient.- - -
Monday's ruling comes weeks after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, a top official at Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, on a request from the US.
Around 40 people have been detained and another two killed in the latest crackdown on Chechnya's LGBT community, Russian activists say.- - -
The "new wave of persecution" started at the end of December, the Russian LGBT Network say in a statement on Monday.
Now in its 13th year, [Pwn2Own has been the foremost hacking competition] ... is adding a new category—a Tesla Model 3, with more than $900,000 worth of prizes available for attacks that subvert a variety of its onboard systems.
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The biggest prize will be $250,000 for hacks that execute code on the car’s gateway, autopilot, or VCSEC. A gateway is the central hub that interconnects the car’s powertrain, chassis, and other components and processes the data they send.
Poland has arrested a Chinese employee of Huawei and a Polish [Huawei] cyber business specialist on allegations of spying.- - -
Once data is collected in central storage, analytics on the entire body of data can be run to produce the most inclusive and holistic picture of the business.- - -
Many thought the internet would bring democracy to China. Instead it empowered rampant government oppression, and now the censors are turning their attention to the rest of the world.Or North Korea. Or Russia. Or those godless Tuvaluians.
...the government is going to do other vague things ("necessary economic and technical measures") to hurt Facebook and "ensure a clean and healthy network environment." One "necessary economic measure" is somehow blocking Facebook from collecting money for "hatred advertising," whatever the hell that is.WTH is "hatred advertising"? Anyone wanna take a shot at defining it?
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| Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO/Censor. |
Following an anonymous tip, TechCrunch commissioned a report from online safety startup AntiToxin to investigate. The results were alarming.
US cable providers still do not even support live 4K broadcasts, but CBS Sports is going to try out its 8K cameras at the Super Bowl anyways.
The blame falls on the current US federal government shutdown [...] Consequently, government websites are dropping like flies, with no one being on hand to renew TLS certificates.
Earlier this week, AT&T said it "only permit[s] sharing of location when a customer gives permission for cases like fraud prevention or emergency roadside assistance or when required by law." But the Motherboard investigation showed that the data was being re-sold on the black market, allowing pretty much anyone to get the location of other people's phones.
The 20-qubit IBM Q System One represents the first major leap for quantum computers of 2019[.]
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| Quantum in a Box |
...a new report claims [the deal was killed] due to government prodding. According to sources, officials were concerned about Huawei installing WiFi service in Washington, DC.- - -
Authorities charged Matthew Gatrel, 30, of St. Charles, Ill, and Juan Martinez, 25, of Pasadena, Calif., with conspiring to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act through the operation of their DDoS-for-hire services sites known as Down them and Ampnode.- - -
According to the release, Downthem’s database showed over 2000 customer subscriptions, and had been used to conduct, or attempt to conduct, over 200,000 DDoS attacks which were carried out between October 2014 and November 2018.
Perishable goods, such as vegetables from the Netherlands or fruit from Spain, could be held up at the border, if tough checks are imposed or the EU limits trade, said the report.- - -
...such an abrupt withdrawal is precisely the kind of mistake President Barack Obama made in Iraq — leaving an enormous vacuum for Russia, Iran and extremist groups to fill and abdicating any US influence in the area.- - -
The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act would place a $15 fee on each metric ton of carbon dioxide emitted.The E-I-C-D-A (You know Flake is itching to use that) is the "We Didn't Listen" argument.
The fee would rise by $10 each year, and all of its net revenues would be given back to taxpayers as a monthly dividend.
Surging borrowing costs for companies in the US and Europe threaten a recession within months and resemble events leading up to the global credit "heart attack" in August 2007.- - -
Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana -- who have each held the top job in the impoverished country before -- declared themselves winners in the run-off which analysts warned was likely to draw claims of fraud.Only the Dems would assure us of no election fraud. As long as they win.
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| "Look, in that car! It's Jeff Goldblum!" "Who?" |
- - -There has been a 10 million vehicle increase from 2012 to 2017 at Los Angeles International Airport, much of that starting in 2015 when the city gave services like Uber and Lyft the green light[.]
A devastating report from the New York Times suggests that Facebook has been playing fast and loose with its users' privacy, giving special access to more than 150 high-profile companies, including Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.The BBC: Facebook's data sharing secrets exposed.
"Time and again Facebook has been unable to clearly and in plain language explain to people how the company is collecting, storing, sharing, and retaining people's data," a spokeswoman for Privacy International told the BBC.- - -
Jeremy Corbyn was forced to deny calling Theresa May a "stupid woman" as the final prime minister's questions of the year sparked a heated row over misogyny.Lincolnshire Live - Lipreader says maybe Corbyn did call her that, or didn't.
However, a lip reader from Lincoln Joanne Hunter has given her verdict on what she thinks he said.The Irish Examiner: 99 Days Til Brexit.
She said: "I have looked at his lipreading and there are two words. I think he said...(Argh! The Suspense. You'll have to read the story).
China has arrested a third Canadian national, Ottawa said Wednesday -- a move that comes amid an already tense diplomatic spat with Beijing over the arrest of a Chinese telecom executive.- - -
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau however emphasized that the arrest did not seem to be linked to a former diplomat and an entrepreneur held for allegedly endangering China's national security.
"We are looking into the details (but) this most recent one doesn't seem to fit the pattern set by the previous two," Trudeau told a press conference.
Claas Relotius, 33, a staff writer known for vivid investigative stories. The magazine said Relotius resigned on Monday after admitting some of his articles included made-up material from interviews that never happened.Claas...Coming Soon on CNN!
A police helicopter was called in after two unmanned drones were reportedly sighted near a runway, forcing the airport to halt all flights and warn of possible knock-on disruption on Thursday.Fox News - Mom and daughter arrested; attempted to send contraband to prison using drone:
A mother and daughter who police said were "hoping to spread some holiday cheer" were arrested and accused of flying a drone packed with...tobacco and cellphones to [wait for it]...[the husband/father of the wife/daughter].Give 'em a break. It's Christmas.
A suspected extremist is on the run after a shooting which left four people dead near a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg.France 24 - Live coverage
French authorities have launched a terror investigation into the shooting, which left several others injured, some seriously.
The 29-year-old alleged gunman has a criminal record and, according to the prefect of the Strasbourg region, was known by the security services as a suspected extremist.
The European Parliament in Strasbourg was under lockdown late Tuesday after a deadly shooting near a Christmas market rocked the eastern French city, shocking and stranding hundreds of MEPs, staff and officials.ISIS celebrates Strasbourg shooting. The Express:
No terrorist group has officially claimed responsibility yet, but ISIS supporters have boasted the attack happened just “days after our threats.”- - -
A Canadian judge granted bail Tuesday [Meng Wanzhou,] a top Huawei executive after her arrest on a US warrant, in a case that has frayed relations between the North American allies and China.Hong Kong Free Press: China detains Canadian, believed to be former diplomat:
[She] is is wanted by US authorities for violating Iran sanctions but Beijing has expressed outrage over her detention and is holding a former Canadian diplomat in China, intensifying the row.
“We are aware of the situation of a Canadian detained in China. We have been in direct contact with the Chinese,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters, adding that Ottawa was taking his arrest “very seriously.”- - -
ITV: May fights, critics circle.May toured European capitals like a child presenting a parent with a new toy broken on Christmas morning. She gained plenty of sympathy but also stern reminder that there would be no renegotiation or quick fixes.
Police were told the truck, carrying bricks, was travelling south on Botany Road when it veered into northbound lanes before hitting a power pole, a bus stop, a building and pedestrians.- - -
...a tonne of chocolate flowed out of a factory and solidified.
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After hitting the chilly pavement, the milk chocolate quickly hardened.
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.- - -
[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".- - -
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 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.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."
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...
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.
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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.- - -
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.
- - -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.
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.
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.
