EFF Calls for a Day of Action on June 21. Please join us.  The Department of Justice is using an obscure procedure to push through a rule change that will greatly increase law enforcement’s ability to hack into computers located around the world. It’s an update to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. If Congress does nothing, this massive change will automatically go into effect on December 1.

It’s a good time to be technical. Maker communities are thriving around the world, tools and materials to create and adapt are cheaper and more powerful now than ever, and open source hardware, software, and information mean that if you can think it, you can learn how to do it and then make it happen. For one group of technological explorers, this is more than just a golden age of opportunity: it’s providing the means to save one of the oldest traditions in electronic invention and self-education...

The Fed Ex guy is always delivering intriguing parcels to Mini Museum’s headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, but he’s never allowed to see what’s inside. On Wednesday, it was something very cool from Norway, co-founder Jamie Grove explains – though he can’t say any more. But Mini Museum has the fascinating, rare and bizarre delivered every day; it’s a unique startup that collects scientific and historic artefacts from around the universe, meticulously divides them and presents them encased in clear acrylic as a “mini museum”.

Wow,” a man said to me recently on the subway, “I haven’t seen one of those things in years.” He gestured toward the scuffed-yet-still-sleek, aluminum-colored rectangle in my hand — a 160GB sixth generation iPod Classic. I blinked for a moment. We were not talking about, say, a quill pen, a monocle, or a bottle of Crystal Pepsi, but an electronic device I had purchased in 2010.

Canada’s largest cellphone providers are reviewing a Quebec Court of Appeal ruling that authorized a class-action lawsuit against them in the province over roaming fees. Toronto-based Rogers Communications, which operates Fido, along with Bell and Telus face the prospect of a trial that could result in them having to pay millions of dollars to customers allegedly charged excessive international data roaming fees. Rogers and Bell said they are studying the Wednesday ruling and declined to say if they will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Apple is simplifying the branding of its retail chain by completely getting rid of the "Store" part of Apple Store. From now on, the company's stores will simply go by "Apple" followed by the location of that specific store. For example, only a couple days ago, Apple opened the doors to Apple World Trade Center — not Apple Store, World Trade Center — inside the stunning Oculus / Westfield Mall in lower Manhattan. This is the 10th Apple store in New York City alone. One thing that's not changing: the employees still welcome in the first shoppers with thunderous applause and hand them free t-shirts marking the store's opening.

The first international beauty contest judged by “machines” was supposed to use objective factors such as facial symmetry and wrinkles to identify the most attractive contestants. After Beauty.AI launched this year, roughly 6,000 people from more than 100 countries submitted photos in the hopes that artificial intelligence, supported by complex algorithms, would determine that their faces most closely resembled “human beauty”.

Ambient noise is something that we don’t think about much, but by definition is always there. "Collector" is an interactive art object from Dmitriy Morozov as part of his ::vtol:: project, that puts a focus on the sounds that surround us. The piece consists of a rotating stereo microphone and speakers, which swivels toward the loudest sounds near it. When it hears noise, it records samples and puts together an algorithmic composition of the various background noises without any time between them.

Much of the internet appears to be broken. And it's all because of one cyber attack. A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack has taken down systems run by Dyn, Inc, one of the largest providers of internet services in the world. And as a result it seems to be causing problems for a variety of websites – including Reddit, Spotify and Twitter.

It’s been a turbulent couple of days for AT&T, from massive acquisition news to government spying scandals. Last weekend AT&T confirmed that it would acquire Time Warner for $85 billion, pending regulatory approval, creating a new telecom and media behemoth. The deal was immediately lambasted by politicians and consumers alike as a pocket lining deal that would be good for executives and shareholders but ultimately bad for consumers with less choice in the market and potentially higher prices.

A new report has surfaced that Apple is getting rid of its division for wireless routers, signaling that AirPort is on its way out the door for good...

The US Customs and Border Protection has started demanding that foreign travelers hand over Facebook, Twitter, and other social media account information upon entering the country, according to a report from Politico. The new policy follows a proposal laid out back in June and applies only to those travelers who enter the US temporarily without a visa through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, process. The goal, the government says, is to “identify potential threats,” a spokesperson tells Politico.

It is similar to Kickstarter, with the creators posting their project and then soliciting funds from a community. Blockchain Crowdfunding

Your medical data is for sale – all of it. Adam Tanner, a fellow at Harvard’s institute for quantitative social science and author of a new book on the topic, Our Bodies, Our Data, said that patients generally don’t know that their most personal information – what diseases they test positive for, what surgeries they have had – is the stuff of multibillion-dollar business. But although the data is nominally stripped of personally identifying information, data miners and brokers are working...

Samsung SDI presented in Detroit at the 2017 NAIAS several battery innovations for electric cars. The major reveal is the next generation lithium-ion cells with both high energy density for 600 km (373 mi) of range in an all-electric car and high power density for 20-minute recharge (80%). The drawback is that Samsung SDI expects mass production of these cells in 2021. Well… it seems we will have couple years to enjoy 200+ miles BEVs first then before ICE vehicles will finally be crushed by electric cars equipped with these new cells.

As we wrap up 2016, we look back on a year of uncertainty. The question of AR versus VR remained a topic among investors and innovators alike. The challenge of mainstream adoption of either platform seemed unresolved. And, to be honest, it seemed that we just didn’t know to do with immersive technologies. What 2016 did give us, with certainty, is a much clearer perspective on the augmented reality trends that will drive both investment and innovation in 2017.

WhatsApp has a gaping secuirty hole in the middle of its app. But it can be easily fixed. An issue with the way that the app deals with the security keys central to its encryption mean that people can actually spy on messages, one security researcher has found. End-to-end encryption is intended as a way of ensuring that messages can only be read by the sender and their intended recipient, but the encryption keys that power that technology can be a weak link if tehy are wrongly used.

Wikipedia editors have voted to ban the Daily Mail as a source for the website in all but exceptional circumstances after deeming the news group “generally unreliable”. The move is highly unusual for the online encyclopaedia, which rarely puts in place a blanket ban on publications and which still allows links to sources such as Kremlin backed news organisation Russia Today, and Fox News, both of which have raised concern among editors.

By Foreign Affairs Publisher  /  February 18, 2017  /  Comments Off on Comment on DDoS attacks in Q4 2016 by Michael

“No… it’s a magic potty,” my daughter used to lament, age 3 or so, before refusing to use a public restroom stall with an automatic-flush toilet. As a small person, she was accustomed to the infrared sensor detecting erratic motion at the top of her head and violently flushing beneath her. Better, in her mind, just to delay relief than to subject herself to the magic potty’s dark dealings. It’s hardly just a problem for small people. What adult hasn’t suffered the pneumatic public toilet’s whirlwind underneath them?