AI Strikes over Internet of Things’ Accessibility

Teaser medium

Nintendo Switch, Obama on AI, Electronics surveillance, Yahoo Scanning, lighter fonts and pop-ups are not accessible, IoT and DDoS, and much more GeekNews of the week.

Nintendo Switch is the final name of the Nintendo NX - Polygon

Nintendo Switch (previously codenamed Nintendo NX) will be a hybrid home/portable console featuring a custom Nvidia Tegra system-on-a-chip. Coming March 2017.

Barack Obama on Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

It’s hard to think of a single technology that will shape our world more in the next 50 years than artificial intelligence. … President Obama was eager to address these concerns [about AI]. The person he wanted to talk to most about them? Entrepreneur and MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito. So I sat down with them in the White House to sort through the hope, the hype, and the fear around AI. That and maybe just one quick question about Star Trek.

Steven Hawkings also chimes in with his thoughts on Artificial Intelligence saying that AI will be either the best, or the worst thing ever to happen to humanity. We do not yet know which.

U.S. courts: Electronic surveillance up 500 percent in D.C.-area since 2011, almost all sealed cases

Secret law enforcement requests to conduct electronic surveillance in domestic criminal cases have surged in federal courts for Northern Virginia and the District, but only one in a thousand of the applications ever becomes public, newly released data show.

Yahoo Secretly Scanned Customer Emails for U.S. intelligence

Yahoo Inc last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers’ incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Voice Actor Strike Is a Powder Keg for Video Game Industry Labor Issues

“We can’t reward one set of people and not take into account 99 percent of other people who don’t have that kind of that compensation. It’s not fair to the vast majority.”

Kremlin creating GPS dead-zone

Joggers, taxi drivers, players of Pokemon Go and senior Russian officials are seeking an explanation of why mobile phone apps that use GPS are malfunctioning in central Moscow.

A programmer for Russian internet firm Yandex, Grigory Bakunov, said Thursday his research showed a system for blocking GPS was located inside the Kremlin, the heavily guarded official residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Internet is becoming unreadable because of a trend towards lighter, thinner fonts

The internet is becoming unreadable because of a trend towards lighter and thinner fonts, making it difficult for the elderly or visually-impaired to see words clearly, a web expert has found.

Popup Ads Are Terrible, and They're Even Worse for the Blind

Most sites still don’t do popups correctly, because many developers don’t even realize that blind people are using their websites.

Massive cyberattack involved tens of millions of IP addresses

Tens of millions of IP addresses were used to take down popular websites like Twitter and Netflix as part of a massive cyberattack on Friday, October 21, 2016.

Schneier summarizes and posts additional links/info

Who Makes the IoT Things Under Attack?

As KrebsOnSecurity observed over the weekend, the source code that powers the “Internet of Things” (IoT) botnet responsible for launching the historically large distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against KrebsOnSecurity last month has been publicly released. Here’s a look at which devices are being targeted by this malware.

IoT Device Maker Vows Product Recall, Legal Action Against Western Accusers

Cybersecurity Issues for the Next Administration

Bruce Schneier writes an essay for Time.com about his views on the major Cybersecurity Issues for the next White House administration. Much of the focus is on privacy and surveillance, a couple of Schneier’s favorite topics.

Someone Has Hacked 10,000 Home Routers To Make Them More Secure

But there’s a curious kind of malware (if you can call it that) going around that not only cleans the device of other infections but even encourages users to update their passwords, according to research from security giant Symantec.

Hackers Hit U.S. Senate GOP Committee

The national news media has been consumed of late with reports of Russian hackers breaking into networks of the Democratic National Committee. Lest the Republicans feel left out of all the excitement, a report this past week out of The Netherlands suggests Russian hackers have for the past six months been siphoning credit card data from visitors to the Web storefront of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).

Child Development Technology - GeekSpeak Podcast for 2003-12-26

Exploring Mars, IBM 960 chips, Fed Court rules against photographers, DNA collected by law enforcement and then a discussion of child rearing and technology. John and Bruce have different child rearing patterns.

Pediatricians revise thinking on screen time; ditch ban for kids under 2

Most notably, the academy ditched its strict ban on screen time for kids under the age of two, which had been in place since 1999. Now, the AAP acknowledges that not all screen time is equal, and even very young kids can benefit from certain types of media if parents and caregivers are involved.

Apple lawsuit reveals most chargers sold on Amazon are fake

Apple has filed a lawsuit against Mobile Star LLC for manufacturing fake Apple chargers and cables and passing them off on Amazon as authentic goods.


e44 s16