Last minute geek

1. After Math: Move fast and break laws
(English/engadget)

While the world held its collective breath this week ahead of Special Counsel Mueller's damning report on the current administration's conduct, the tech industry went ahead and let out all the ...

2. AI generates non-stop stream of death metal
(English/engadget)

There's a limit to the volume of death metal humans can reproduce -- their fingers and vocal chords can only handle so much. Thanks to technology, however, you'll never have to go short. CJ ...

3. CIA claims Huawei is funded by Chinese state security
(English/engadget)

The US has rattled its saber more than once trying to deter countries from using Huawei technology, but it hasn't publicly disclosed much of what it's worried about. You might have a better ...

4. Copyright filters are automatically removing copies of the Mueller Report
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... as their copyrights -- that's how NASA came to be blocked from uploading its own Mars lander footage. But it gets worse: the laws and threats that prompt tech companies to institute copyright filters ...

5. Hitting the Books: How calculus is helping unravel DNA's secrets
(English/engadget)

... books on science and technology we can find and... Read all  ...

6. 'MalwareTech' security researcher pleads guilty
(English/engadget)

In 2017, Marcus Hutchins went from being a relatively unknown 23-year-old, to being a worldwide hero, to facing criminal charges all in a span of a few months. After he shut down the rapidly spreading ...

7. Halifax! I'm speaking at Atlseccon on April 24 (then Toronto, Ottawa, Berlin and Houston!)
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... make it! From there, I'm headed to Toronto, where I'm giving a keynote called The Internet Isn’t What We Fight FOR, It’s What We Fight WITH on April 29th at the FITC Technology and Creativity Conference. Then ...

8. Super Mario Bros. released for C64
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... It also detects and supports a handful of turbo functionalities, and has 2 SID support. Home computers of the era typically saw sub-par conversions of console hits, even when there was no real technical ...

9. Facebook AI turns real people into controllable game characters
(English/engadget)

Facebook's AI Research team has created an AI called Vid2Play that can extract playable characters from videos of real people, creating a much higher-tech version of '80s full-motion video (FMV) ...

10. The Antitrust Case Against Facebook: a turning point in the debate over Big Tech and monopoly
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... ever falling afoul of orthodox antitrust law. Now, Dina Srinivasan, a self-described technology entrepreneur and advertising executive who trained Yale Law School has done it again, with a magesterial, ...

11. The sovereign nation of Iceland has finally invalidated the European trademark on "Iceland," formerly held by a British discount grocery chain
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... End Of The Absurdity: Iceland, The Country, Successfully Invalidates The Trademark Of Iceland Foods, The Grocerer [Timothy Geigner/Techdirt] (Image: Adcro, CC-BY-SA) Read the rest Read all  ...

12. Effective July 15, British porn consumers will be required entrust their sexual tastes to private companies' badly secured databases
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... porn viewers and then doling out official pornography-access cards; etc. Not everyone involved with these proposals was a child pornographer; some of them were merely vicious, technologically illiterate ...

13. Male tech execs accused of sexual misconduct now getting second chances
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

* whether they deserve one or not Read all

14. I bought the second installment in Neal Shusterman's Scythe series before I finished the first book
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... The Thunderhead is an AI that has only our best intentions at heart! Amazon Cloud Services Rejoice! Quantum computing or some advancements in cloud technology have allowed for the elimination of human ...

15. America today feels like the last days of the Soviet Union
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... while the US is dominated by a single party (one that cheated its way into control over the presidency, the Senate, the Supreme Court and many state governments), it is technically a two-party system, ...

16. Not just Apple: Microsoft has been quietly lobbying to kill Right to Repair bills
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Apple pioneered the use of dirty tricks and lobbying to kill Right to Repair legislation, but they're not the only tech player who's putting lobbying muscle into ensuring that you can't decide who fixes ...

17. YouTube thinks Notre Dame burning down is footage of 9/11
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... there's a better metaphor for the state of the tech industry right now than an American social platform slapping an algorithmically-generated related article about an American terror attack on to a ...

18. Silicon Valley's techie uprisings reveal growing support for socialism in tech
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... policies than ever before. That's partly because tech companies can be terrible places to work, and party because their leaders keep trying to pad their quarterly numbers by selling some truly evil shit ...

19. FBI-related breach reportedly compromised federal agents' details
(English/engadget)

A group of hackers has exploited the flaws of at least three FBI-affiliated websites and leaked thousands of federal and law enforcement agents' personal details. According to TechCrunch, the group ...

20. Microsoft webmail breach exposed email addresses and subject lines
(English/engadget)

You'll want to keep an eye out for suspicious activity if you use Microsoft's webmail services. The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that "cybercriminals" compromised a "limited ...

21. BrainCorp brings its autonomous robot tech to your local supermarket
(English/engadget)

We often frame new automation technology as a grave and immediate threat to the jobs and livelihoods of the humans whose tasks the machines take over. Tell that to the custodians at Sea-Tac airport who ...

22. Ford CEO: we "overestimated" self-driving cars
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... he believed in the technology's potential. "When we bring this thing to market, it's going to be really powerful," Hackett added. Ford CEO says the company 'overestimated' self-driving cars [Amrita ...

23. Talking Radicalized with John Scalzi in the LA Times
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... You write fiction and you’re also a public advocate for tech, privacy and current cultural issues, and you’ve been adept your entire career in using the former to advance the latter. What is it about fiction ...

24. Illinois almost passed a bill that banned devices that record you without your consent -- and then Big Tech stepped in
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... up to $50,000. But after technology trade associations, led by the Internet Association objected, claimed that the state’s definition of a “digital device” was too broad, and that the Act would lead to ...

25. Come see me at UCLA tonight and then with John Scalzi on Sunday at the LA Times Festival of Books!
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Tonight, I'll be one of the participants at LA Cryptoparty and README's After Disruption event at UCLA from 7-930PM; it's a panel and workshop on "Big Tech, the future of labor, and how systems have successfully ...