Technology Simplified

Where did the Microsoft tech stack disappear? 8 by eadmund | 0 comments on Hacker News.

Verge Genomics – Biotech (YC S15) Is Hiring a Head of Ops in SF 1 by alicexzhang | 0 comments on Hacker News.

Greenwald: Why trust tech CEOs with little accountability? Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald on Twitter shadow-banning conservatives. #Tucker via https://ift.tt/2Ow6llf

Aston Martin's latest is a 715-horsepower bruiser with the kind of looks and performance to make even the most practical of car buyers a little weak in the knees. from CNET Reviews - Most Recent Reviews https://ift.tt/2NZutvn

Facebook uncovers sophisticated efforts to disrupt elections Facebook isn't prepared to blame Russia in part because account holders tried harder to hide their identities than the Russians did in the past. Mike Emanuel has more for 'Special Report.' via https://ift.tt/2voDjvc

Twitter brings in anti-Trump academics to combat intolerance Twitter’s campaign to foster healthier conversations on its platform with the aid of academics is itself facing an allegation of anti-Trump bias. via https://ift.tt/2Kf2qpM

By JACK NICAS from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2LISkms

Jeff Bezos' parents invested $245K, could be mindbogglingly rich Some parents buy extra boxes of Girl Scout cookies to support their kiddos. via https://ift.tt/2LWCO5E

Apple is inching closer and closer to becoming a $1 trillion company today after posting third quarter results that beat out what analysts were expecting and bumping the stock another few percentage points — which, by Apple standards, is tens of billions of dollars. The company’s stock is up around 2.5% this afternoon after the report, which at a prior market close with a market cap of around $935 billion, is adding nearly another $20-plus billion to its market cap. A few quarters ago we were walking about how Apple was in shooting distance of that $1 trillion mark, but now it seems more and more like Apple will  actually hit it. Apple is headed into its most important few quarters as we hit the back half of the year, with its usual new lineup of iPhones and other products and its accompanying critical holiday quarter. Here’s a quick breakdown of the numbers: Revenue:   $53.3 billion, up 17% year-over-year compared to analyst expectations of $52.34 billion. Earning...

By NELLIE BOWLES from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2Athkcf

Facebook detects fake accounts trying to interfere with midterm elections Facebook discovered a new ongoing political campaign reportedly aimed to influence the midterm elections. The company removed dozens of fake accounts and cites Russia could be behind the fraudulent pages. via https://ift.tt/2O0nlPE

The big 7-inch screen, turbo-charged processing with a cooling system and a giant battery sound promising. from CNET Reviews - Most Recent Reviews https://ift.tt/2LMPUT4

HP offers $10K reward for hacking its printers Any connected device is a potential security threat for businesses and individuals alike, and that's definitely the case for printers which are both connected and regularly used to produce potentially sensitive information. via https://ift.tt/2vmlMUf

Facebook finds 'sophisticated' efforts to disrupt US politics, removes 32 accounts Facebook said it has uncovered "sophisticated" efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to influence U.S. politics on its platforms. via https://ift.tt/2LDVibO

It is unclear where the UkuRobot came from and where it will go once it is done with humanity but I fear that it is up to no good. Look at this robot: small, compact, infinitely complex. Its fretting system stares at us, gimlet -eyed, while the plucking system continues its dark work on the strings. The system uses Lego, motors, and what looks like an Arduino to bring evil songs out of that mini-guitar of death, the ukulele. The world will never be the same and, honestly, do we deserve it to be? The UkuRobot can play almost any song. In these videos it plays two songs, The Godfather theme and Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day. In the end the tune this monstrous creation plays does not matter. It will pluck out the end of days, winking stars from the sky as each note cascades out of its sound hole. In the end we will not fear the UkuRobot but we will obey it. In the end, all will be lost. You can also watch it play the Requiem for a Dream theme song here . Pretty cool stuff. ...

Twitter brings in anti-Trump academics to combat bias Twitter’s campaign to foster healthier conversations on its platform with the aid of academics is itself facing an allegation of anti-Trump bias. via https://ift.tt/2NWxEUI

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It's Canon's first PowerShot to get 4K. from CNET Reviews - Most Recent Reviews https://ift.tt/2NYnjYh

Air Force brings AI to B-2, F-35 and F-15 The US Air Force is now accelerating a massive AI push to cyber-harden networks, improve weapons systems and transform functions of large combat air platforms such as the B-2, F-15 and F-35, service officials said. via https://ift.tt/2v5jTMr

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2ApKskx

I worked Circuit City when the PlayStation 2 launched. For weeks, we were sold out, and there was always a crowd around the blue demo unit in the gaming department. It’s easy to see why the PlayStation 2 was a hit looking back. It was powerful, inventive and excelled at local gaming. It was the right system for the time. If Nintendo’s recent success proves anything, building for the time is more important than making for the future. Nintendo is coming off a massive quarter that saw 88% year over year operating profit on the back of the Nintendo Switch. The company has sold nearly 20 million Switch systems since its launch, surpassing the total amount of Wii U systems sold and closing in on Gamecube’s tally of 21.7 million units. The Switch is great. I can’t get over how good it is. Again, like other systems before it, the Switch is the right system for the time. It’s portable, it’s small, and it leans heavily on cloud services. It’s not the most powerful system on the market nor ...

Matrix Powerwatch X runs off body heat. That's the best thing about it. from CNET Reviews - Most Recent Reviews https://ift.tt/2LS5Ao2

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New evidence in disappearance of Mollie Tibbets Former Westchester County Police Sergeant Steve Kardian on using a digital footprint to track down a missing person. via https://ift.tt/2LLL1ts

How do we secure midterms against cyber threats? Cybersecurity expert Leeza Garber weighs in on 'Fox & Friends First.' via https://ift.tt/2mX4mtJ

The humble Leaf returns with more range and tech to defend its place as the best-selling, truly affordable electric car. from CNET Reviews - Most Recent Reviews https://ift.tt/2AqulU5

A Georgian Techno Producer Making Music from Prison 7 by mbaytas | 3 comments on Hacker News.

A Dixons Carphone  data breach that was disclosed earlier this summer  was worse than initially reported. The company is now saying that personal data of 10 million customers could also have been accessed when its systems were hacked. The European electronics and telecoms retailer believes its systems were accessed by unknown and unauthorized person/s in 2017, although it only disclosed the breach in June , after discovering it during a review of its security systems. Last month it said 5.9M payment cards and 1.2M customer records had been accessed. But with its investigation into the breach “nearing completion”, it now says approximately 10M records containing personal data (but no financial information) may have been accessed last year — in addition to the 5.9M compromised payment cards it disclosed last month. “While there is now evidence that some of this data may have left our systems, these records do not contain payment card or bank account details and there is ...

A Dixons Carphone  data breach that was disclosed earlier this summer  was worse than initially reported. The company is now saying that personal data of 10 million customers could also have been accessed when its systems were hacked. The European electronics and telecoms retailer believes its systems were accessed by unknown and unauthorized person/s in 2017, although it only disclosed the breach in June , after discovering it during a review of its security systems. Last month it said 5.9M payment cards and 1.2M customer records had been accessed. But with its investigation into the breach “nearing completion”, it now says approximately 10M records containing personal data (but no financial information) may have been accessed last year — in addition to the 5.9M compromised payment cards it disclosed last month. “While there is now evidence that some of this data may have left our systems, these records do not contain payment card or bank account details and there is ...

Idaho inmates exploit tablet software flaw to steal $225G Tablet computers and a software vulnerability were enough to help 364 prison inmates in Idaho collectively steal $225,000. via https://ift.tt/2mVITkJ

Hot on the heels of the effective legalization of 3D models used to print firearm components , 21 states have filed a joint lawsuit against the federal government, alleging not only that decision is dangerous but also that it’s also illegal for a number of reasons. But the lawsuit may backfire via the so-called Streisand Effect, further entrenching the controversial technology. Earlier this month brought the news that U.S. government dropped its case against Cody Wilson and his companies dedicated to the proliferation of 3D models of firearm parts. There are still restrictions on how guns can be made and sold, but the files containing 3D data and allowing people to print components seem to have been determined not to fall under those rules. This was unwelcome news for those in favor of stricter gun control laws, a group apparently including the attorney generals of 21 states. Bob Ferguson, AG for Washington, announced that his team would be leading a lawsuit intended to block the fed...

The introduction of capsule coffee machines has made it simple for any java lover to wake up to a morning brew with next-to-no effort. But while the espresso element of the coffee making experience has been made foolproof, perfecting milky froth and other more complex coffee recipes has still required a degree of expertise. The Nespresso Barista looks to change that. Taking the same simplified approach to multi-ingredient coffee recipes as Nespresso did with capsule brewers like the Nespresso Vertuo Plus , it will help you make all manner of great artisan coffees at home without having to employ your own personal human barista, warming milk, frothing cappuccinos and whisking up iced nitros in mere moments. Price and availability Available now, the Nespresso Barista costs £179 (around $235 / AU$320). Design The Nespresso Barista is an attractive yet unassuming item to have perched on your kitchen worktop. A curved-barrel shape, it looks not unlike a Google Home speaker – were a...

Tech's diversity crisis: 40% of VCs went to Harvard or Stanford 15 by ralmidani | 0 comments on Hacker News.

Gripping something with your hand is one of the first things you learn to do as an infant, but it’s far from a simple task, and only gets more complex and variable as you grow up. This complexity makes it difficult for machines to teach themselves to do, but researchers at Elon Musk and Sam Altman-backed OpenAI have created a system that not only holds and manipulates objects much like a human does, but developed these behaviors all on its own. Many robots and robotic hands are already proficient at certain grips or movements — a robot in a factory can wield a bolt gun even more dexterously than a person. But the software that lets that robot do that task so well is likely to be hand-written and extremely specific to the application. You couldn’t for example, give it a pencil and ask it to write. Even something on the same production line, like welding, would require a whole new system. OpenAI’s ‘Dota 2’ neural nets are defeating human opponents Yet for a human, picking up an ...

Social media helps solve decades-old death A look at how social media helped solve the mystery of skier who disappeared in the Alps in 1954 via https://ift.tt/2LA2C8D

A dark theme option for YouTube users on Android is in the early stages of rolling out to end users, Google confirmed to TechCrunch, following a number of reports and sightings of the dark mode showing up for users in the app’s settings. The feature has taken a bit longer to launch than expected – YouTube first announced a dark mode for its mobile app back in March, when it launched on iOS. At the time, the company said the dark theme for Android was coming “soon.” Five months later, well, here it is. Similar to its iOS counterpart, the dark theme is toggled on or off in the Android app’s Settings. When enabled, YouTube’s usual white background switches to black throughout the YouTube app experience as your browse, search and watch videos. The dark theme has a variety of benefits for end users. It gives watching videos a more cinematic feel, for starters. And when you’ve been staring at your screen for a long time, it can help you to better focus on the content, and not the ...