Ng Kang-chung reports:
In what could be one of Hong
Kong’s most significant data breaches ever, the personal information of the
city’s 3.7 million voters was possibly compromised after the Registration and
Electoral Office reported two laptop computers went missing at its backup venue
for the chief executive election.
The devices also stored the names
of the 1,200 electors on the Election Committee who selected Carrie Lam Cheng
Yuet-ngor as Hong Kong’s new chief executive on Sunday.
Read more on South
China Morning Post.
Another warning.
MIT – FBI’s Facial Recognition Program Is Sprawling and
Inaccurate
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on Mar 27, 2017
Around half of all adult Americans are on the agency’s image
database, and its software is incorrect 15 percent of the time, Jamie
Condliffe, March 27, 2017.
“Last year, we learned about the remarkable scale of the FBI’s
facial-recognition technology, with its access to nearly 412 million
photos—many originating from sources unrelated to crime, such as ID documents. The intelligence agency has been trying to
create a system that can accurately identify criminals in, say, CCTV
footage—though it wasn’t then known how well the bureau’s software
worked, nor whether it actually improved investigations. Now, we have at least a little more insight
into the program. The Guardian
reports that a House oversight committee hearing last week revealed some
interesting new details about the proliferation and abilities of the FBI’s
facial-recognition systems…”
The technology is working fine, it’s those dang humans
that are slowing everything down!
Starbucks says that crowd of people waiting for their
Frappuccinos is hurting sales
Mobile pay is speeding Starbucks customers through the checkout line,
but a bottleneck is building for the baristas.
… While these
transactions are a boon for the coffee giant, the increase in volume has hurt
same-store sales. That's because
congestion at the hand-off counter has caused incoming customers to leave without
making a purchase, despite lines at the register being short, said Kevin
Johnson, Starbucks' president and soon-to-be CEO, during an earnings conference
call.
… Starbucks
managers across the U.S. have designed their own solutions to this
bottlenecking by employing additional staff members, redeploying already hired
employees and adding mobile kiosks designed specifically for customers who used
the company's mobile pay and ordering.
Keeping up with the competition. Of course, you would have to pass my test to
graduate. So, not much risk.
Coding Schools Build Tuition-Back Guarantees Into Business
Model
Guarantees may be a scary prospect for four-year colleges,
but they are built into the business model of the new and rapidly growing
for-profit coding boot camps, which depends on students seeing a solid return
on their investment.
Udacity, a Silicon Valley-based online course provider last
year launched a deal on a nano-credential—find a job in six months or get your
tuition back. The program cost is
between $2,000 and $3,000.
This would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, prepares for Cobol, cloud,
mainframes
… The White House
on Monday announced an "Office of American Innovation," which will be
tasked with "modernizing the technology of every federal department,"
said Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, at his daily briefing
Monday.
… The House
approved that funding after the Oversight and Government Reform Committee last
year held a Cobol-bashing hearing.
The committee, in building support for modernizing federal
IT, pointed out that there were at least 3,500 federal IT employees at work to
maintain "legacy" languages, including 1,100 employees dedicated to
Cobol.
AGI (Artificial general intelligence) resources.
Research – Open AI
by on
(Related). Thinking
about AI. Interesting graphic…
Elon Musk’s Billion-Dollar Crusade to Stop the A.I.
Apocalypse
Geeky stuff.
As far as JavaScript web development is concerned, React is one of the
easiest frameworks to learn and one of the most effective for rapid and robust
development.
… most worthwhile
React courses come with a hefty price tag. For example, the highly-acclaimed React for Beginners course
is $89 (starter version) and $127 (master version). Free courses are rarely as comprehensive and
helpful — but we’ve found several that are excellent and will get you started on the right foot.
You have got to really, really want something like this.
Giant Gold Coin Worth $4 Million Stolen in Berlin Museum
Heist
Burglars stole a 100-kilogram
(220-pound), solid-gold coin worth $4 million from a Berlin museum in a heist
out of a Hollywood movie.
… The coin is as big as a car tire.
For my geeks.
The Gearhead Toolbox: Raspberry Pi tools
… The
uses for ALPR, Automatic License Plate Recognition, cover a wide range from
monitoring traffic and locating stolen vehicles, to controlling gates and
parking access. Using a Raspberry Pi for
this is a great opportunity to create a low-cost, easily deployed system and OpenALPR is one of the leading ALPR
packages you can choose.
Ditto. Please, not
in the halls.
It’s not every day that you’re surprised by tech. Usually,
the outlandish ideas fail; but sometimes, they work. So, does the Vidius HD budget FPV/VR Streaming
Drone — which
streams images to a smartphone-powered VR headset — surprise, or disappoint?
The Aerix Vidius HD is available now for $95 with the headset, or $75 without.
Again, ditto.
… What you should
do depends on whether the hard drive is working or dead. But surprisingly, a functional old HDD has
fewer uses than a dead one.
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