Each node in the Array of Things was equipped with an Nvidia graphics processing unit (or GPU) to perform computations on images out in the field and sent only processed data along to the network—a form of edge computing. As an added privacy safeguard, the nodes are designed to be installed temporarily. “I would rather […]
Monthly Archives: August 2022
Griffin on Tech: Open sesame on algorithms
Peter Griffin, Editor. 19 August 2022, 2:08 pm China’s Cyberspace Administration last week published general details of algorithms used by 30 of the country’s largest tech companies. The information appeared in Mandarin on a government website and didn’t give any company secrets away. For instance, ByteDance, the owner of the social network TikTok, outlined how […]
Zoom patches critical vulnerability again after prior fix was bypassed
Enlarge / A critical vulnerability in Zoom for MacOS, patched once last weekend, could still be bypassed as of Wednesday. Users should update again. Getty Images reader comments 13 with 13 posters participating Share this story It’s time for Zoom users on Mac to update—again. After Zoom patched a vulnerability in its Mac auto-update utility that […]
Netflix’s ad-supported plan likely to have another drawback: No video downloads
Getty Images | Bloomberg reader comments 34 with 26 posters participating Share this story The presence of advertisements apparently won’t be the only major difference between Netflix’s ad-supported and ad-free plans. Text reportedly found in the code of Netflix’s iPhone app suggests the ad-supported plan won’t let users download movies and shows for offline viewing. […]
Ring patched an Android bug that could have exposed video footage
Enlarge / Ring camera images give you a view of what’s happening and, in one security firm’s experiments, a good base for machine learning surveillance. reader comments 17 with 12 posters participating Share this story Amazon quietly but quickly patched a vulnerability in its Ring app that could have exposed users’ camera recordings and other […]
The Download: transphobic panic, and the US-China chip war
When Jay told his mom he was bisexual at 14, she was supportive. But when he came out as transgender a few years later, she pushed back. YouTube videos and online forums soon convinced her that she was right to feel that way. A trans “contagion” called “rapid-onset gender dysphoria,” spread through social media, had […]
Inside the software that will become the next battle front in US-China chip war
EDA software is a small but mighty part of the semiconductor supply chain, and it’s mostly controlled by three Western companies. That gives the US a powerful point of leverage, similar to the way it wanted to restrict access to lithography machines—another crucial tool for chipmaking—last month. So how has the industry become so American-centric, […]
How the idea of a “transgender contagion” went viral—and caused untold harm
The ROGD paper was not funded by anti-trans zealots. But it arrived at exactly the time people with bad intentions were looking for science to buoy their opinions. The results were in line with what one might expect given those sources: 76.5% of parents surveyed “believed their child was incorrect in their belief of being […]
Australia kills its COVIDSafe app. What went wrong?
By Stan Karanasios and Alemayehu Molla, Contributors. 18 August 2022, 11:31 am On August 9 2022, Australia’s COVIDSafe app was officially decommissioned, and all its features removed. People were encouraged to uninstall the app. Reports of its closure have made international news. On ceasing COVIDSafe, health minister Mark Butler said the “Albanese government acted to […]
Update Chrome now to patch actively exploited zero-day
Enlarge / It’s a good time to restart or update Chrome—if your tabs love you, they’ll come back. Getty Images reader comments 24 with 21 posters participating Share this story Google announced an update on Wednesday to the Stable channel of its Chrome browser that includes a fix for an exploit that exists in the […]