Comment Re:Sounds like enshitification (Score 1) 109
No matter how bad something is, it can always be made worse.
True enshitfication is an ongoing process- it's a waypoint, not a destination.
Comment Re:RATGDO User (Score 1) 109
I did something similar with X10 devices back in the day using something called Homebase, an X10 powerline system.
My solution was very kludgy, very 'bespoke' (lol) but it worked, gave me total control in or out of the home, and it reported status and everything.
Comment Re:It's going to be AOL Time Warner all over again (Score 1) 65
It's going to be like the ill-fated AOL Time Warner acquisition all over again.
What do you mean? That acquisition was great -- for AOL stockholders and insiders.
Comment Re:But why a smart garage door opener? (Score 1) 109
Be very, very wary of these things.
I replaced my garage door controller with something very similar to that controller box. The remotes had died and were not readily available, so I thought I'd get something similar to what your link shows- replace the whole thing. Everything worked fine for a day.
The next night about 11pm we heard the garage door going up for no apparent reason. It happened again the next day- it just decided to open on its own. That's a problem, lol. We'd probably go on vacation and 2 minutes later the garage door would go up...
It turns out that many of these remotes have a base station (the actual controller) that's very susceptible to RF interference and stray power line transients. We found that flicking certain lights or appliances on or off could occasionally trigger it, as well as random RF signals from the air, apparently (??).
I yanked it out and got a decent set programmable remote controls (which was all I really needed anyway).
Submission + - Trump stuns auto industry with tiny-car move that promises ultra-cheap wheels (dailymail.co.uk)
sinij writes:
President Donald Trump says he's moving to legalize Japan's beloved kei cars — the tiny, boxy, almost toy-like vans, trucks, and coupes that have a cult following overseas. And he wants US automakers to start building them here.
This makes a lot of sense in urban settings, especially when electrified. Hopefully these are restricted from highway system.
Submission + - The Internet of Shit isn't end-to-end encrypted. (404media.co)
whoever57 writes: Kohler sells a "smart" toilet camera that it claims, combined with a monthly fee, will give insights into health from inspecting human waste in your toilet. It interacts with a mobile app and Kohler makes the claim that it is end-to-end encrypted, but the simple fact that Kohler has access to the data shows that the data is not transmitted in an E2EE fashion.
Submission + - Blackest Fabric Ever Made Absorbs 99.87% of All Light That Hits It (sciencealert.com) 2
alternative_right writes: If you want to stand out at your next metal gig, don't settle for a spot of color in a sea of black – go ultrablack instead.
Engineers at Cornell University have created the blackest fabric on record, finding it absorbs 99.87 percent of all light that dares to illuminate its surface.
To make something ultrablack, you can't just dip it in a dye and call it a day. It requires manipulating the structure of a material on the nanoscopic scale so that it captures as much light as possible.
Engineers at Cornell University have created the blackest fabric on record, finding it absorbs 99.87 percent of all light that dares to illuminate its surface.
To make something ultrablack, you can't just dip it in a dye and call it a day. It requires manipulating the structure of a material on the nanoscopic scale so that it captures as much light as possible.
Submission + - Netflix to buy Warner Bros film and streaming businesses for $72bn (bbc.com)
sinij writes:
Warner Bros owns franchises including Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, and the streaming service HBO Max. The takeover is set to lead to a radical reshaping of the US film and media industry, but analysts have warned that it could face resistance from competition authorities.
Submission + - College Students Flock to a New Major: AI
theodp writes: "At M.I.T., a new program called 'artificial intelligence and decision-making' is now the second-most-popular undergraduate major," reports the New York Times. "Artificial intelligence is the hot new college major. This semester, more than 3,000 students enrolled in a new college of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity at the University of South Florida in Tampa. At the University of California, San Diego, 150 first-year students signed up for a new A.I. major. And the State University of New York at Buffalo created a stand-alone 'department of A.I. and society,' which is offering new interdisciplinary degrees in fields like 'A.I. and policy analysis'."
The fast popularization of products like ChatGPT, along with skyrocketing valuations of tech giants like the chip maker Nvidia, is helping to drive the campus A.I. boom. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have poured billions of dollars into the technology. And this year, Google and Microsoft announced company efforts to train millions of students and adult workers on A.I."
The fast popularization of products like ChatGPT, along with skyrocketing valuations of tech giants like the chip maker Nvidia, is helping to drive the campus A.I. boom. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have poured billions of dollars into the technology. And this year, Google and Microsoft announced company efforts to train millions of students and adult workers on A.I."
Submission + - US probes reports Waymo self-driving cars illegally passed school buses 19 times
Submission + - Microsoft faces new complaint for allegedly aiding Israeli war crimes in Gaza (aljazeera.com)
Alain Williams writes: The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has announced it filed a complaint against Microsoft, accusing the global tech giant of unlawfully processing data on behalf of the Israeli military and facilitating the killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
In the complaint, the council asked the Data Protection Commission – the European Union’s lead data regulator for the company – to “urgently investigate” Microsoft Ireland’s processing.
“Microsoft’s technology has put millions of Palestinians in danger. These are not abstract data-protection failures — they are violations that have enabled real-world violence,” Joe O’Brien, ICCL’s executive director, said in a statement.
“When EU infrastructure is used to enable surveillance and targeting, the Irish Data Protection Commission must step in — and it must use its full powers to hold Microsoft to account.”
After months of complaints from rights groups and Microsoft whistleblowers, the company said in September it cancelled some services to the Israeli military over concerns that it was violating Microsoft’s terms of service by using cloud computing software to spy on millions of Palestinians.
In the complaint, the council asked the Data Protection Commission – the European Union’s lead data regulator for the company – to “urgently investigate” Microsoft Ireland’s processing.
“Microsoft’s technology has put millions of Palestinians in danger. These are not abstract data-protection failures — they are violations that have enabled real-world violence,” Joe O’Brien, ICCL’s executive director, said in a statement.
“When EU infrastructure is used to enable surveillance and targeting, the Irish Data Protection Commission must step in — and it must use its full powers to hold Microsoft to account.”
After months of complaints from rights groups and Microsoft whistleblowers, the company said in September it cancelled some services to the Israeli military over concerns that it was violating Microsoft’s terms of service by using cloud computing software to spy on millions of Palestinians.
Comment Liability (Score 5, Interesting) 152
Ages ago I worked for a company that developed car stereos. Car companies were insanely paranoid about driver distraction. There were industry standards on minutiae like how fast song titles scroll on the screen, and a complete ban on flashing or pop-up anything.
Car companies being OK with anything flashing up on the screen that isn't absolutely critical to driving is mind boggling. All it takes is one diver glancing down for a split second to look at an ad, hitting someone walking out from between parked cars, and you have a slam-dunk lawsuit that will evaporate any money made from the advertising. Lawyers salivate at this kind of thing. Standing in front of a jury with a client all bandaged up "This callous car company thought it was more important to make money while distracting this driver by selling ads than to make sure the driver was paying attention to the road..."
Car companies being OK with anything flashing up on the screen that isn't absolutely critical to driving is mind boggling. All it takes is one diver glancing down for a split second to look at an ad, hitting someone walking out from between parked cars, and you have a slam-dunk lawsuit that will evaporate any money made from the advertising. Lawyers salivate at this kind of thing. Standing in front of a jury with a client all bandaged up "This callous car company thought it was more important to make money while distracting this driver by selling ads than to make sure the driver was paying attention to the road..."
Submission + - European Union May Not Ban Combustion Cars After All (caranddriver.com)
sinij writes:
The European Union's plan to ban new combustion cars starting in 2035 may be over before it has a chance to go into effect, if Germany's leader has anything to say about it.
2035 target was simply infeasible with current technology. While some promising new developments, like solid state batteries, are being worked on, they are not yet ready for mass production.
Comment Any Jobs (Score 1) 79
If you want *any* manufacturing jobs brought back to the US, they are going to be in mostly automated plants. Car companies can barely hire enough workers to cover existing shifts. People don't want to work in factories, and companies don't want to spend $100,000 a year paying workers to stick an automatic torque wrench onto a bolt.
Even completely automated factories large-scale need a few thousand employees to maintain and ship stuff.
Even completely automated factories large-scale need a few thousand employees to maintain and ship stuff.
Comment Re:I haven't followed this case too much... (Score 2) 38
There is no practical way to do that. Seriously.
You could use AI to do it.
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