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Patents

Facebook Filed a Patent To Predict Your Household's Demographics Based On Family Photos (buzzfeednews.com) 98

Posted by BeauHD from the not-creepy-at-all dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: Facebook has submitted a patent application for technology that would predict who your family and other household members are, based on images and captions posted to Facebook, as well as your device information, like shared IP addresses. The application, titled "Predicting household demographics based on image data," was originally filed May 10, 2017, and made public today. The system Facebook proposes in its patent application would use facial recognition and learning models trained to understand text to help Facebook better understand whom you live with and interact with most. The technology described in the patent looks for clues in your profile pictures on Facebook and Instagram, as well as photos of you that you or your friends post.

It would note the people identified in a photo, and how frequently the people are included in your pictures. Then, it would assess information from comments on the photos, captions, or tags (#family, #mom, #kids) -- anything that indicates whether someone is a husband, daughter, cousin, etc. -- to predict what your family/household actually looks like. According to the patent application, Facebook's prediction models would also analyze "messaging history, past tagging history, [and] web browsing history" to see if multiple people share IP addresses (a unique identifier for every internet network). A Facebook spokesperson said in response to the story, "We often seek patents for technology we never implement, and patents should not be taken as an indication of future plans."

Submission + - Trump team considers nationalizing 5G network (axios.com)

Submitted by JoeyRox
JoeyRox writes: "Trump national security officials are considering an unprecedented federal takeover of a portion of the nation’s mobile network to guard against China, according to sensitive documents obtained by Axios." This is based on a PowerPoint presentation Axios has in their possession. Two options are described — a national 5G network funded and built by the Federal government, or a mix of 5G networks build by existing wireless providers. A source suggests the first option is preferred and essential to protect against competition from China and "bad actors". The presentation suggests that a government-built network would then be leased out to carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

Submission + - Facebook, Microsoft Back H-1B Expansion Bill as Trump Considers Slashing Program

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Two U.S. Republican lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday that would more than double the number of temporary work visas that many tech firms rely on to bring in highly skilled foreign workers, reports The Mercury News. "Now more than ever, we need highly qualified workers with the skills employers need to succeed in the information economy," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (UT), who introduced the Immigration Innovation ("I-Squared") Act of 2018 with Sen. Jeff Flake (AZ). According to CNN, the bill would increase the program's base annual allotment of visas from 85,000 to 195,000, exempt STEM master's degree holders from all caps if their employers file for green cards on their behalf (H-1B employees of institutions of higher education and certain "affiliated entities" are already cap-exempt), eliminate per-country limits on employment-based green cards, "recapture" green card numbers that were unused in prior years and make them available for the issuance of additional new green cards to help reduce a backlog for citizens from countries like India and China, and provide work authorization for spouses and children of H-1B visa holders. Execs from Microsoft and Facebook, as well as industry associations, issued statements in support of the bill. The bill has not yet been made available at Congress.gov, but The Hill got their hands on a draft and law firm Fragomen has posted a detailed summary. "This important legislation will modernize the H-1B visa and green card programs while also encouraging increased STEM education in the U.S. to train the next generation of U.S. workers in high-growth fields," said Facebook VP of Public Policy Erin Egan (Facebook is a legally H-1B dependent employer). "Particularly in today’s strong economy, we need to take additional steps to prepare Americans for digital jobs by investing in our domestic STEM training programs," said Microsoft President Brad Smith in a blog post which also argued that "high-skilled immigration programs are critical to meeting our country’s need for skilled talent." He added, "Through the additional fees imposed by I-Squared, close to $1 billion additional dollars could be provided each year to states to support STEM education and build the country’s talent pipeline and support training for U.S. workers to enter STEM fields, including apprenticeships. As we’ve said before, these are fees that Microsoft is more than prepared to pay." Back in 2013, Mother Jones reported that a similar STEM-education-for-H-1B-visas offer Microsoft proposed in return for support of an earlier incarnation of the I-Squared Act left some of its labor and education allies crying bait-and-switch.

Submission + - Flawed Malwarebytes updates causes network connectivity problems (malwarebytes.com)

Submitted by marquis111
marquis111 writes: Malwarebytes pushed out a database update yesterday that caused its web link blocking engine to randomly flag all traffic as malicious, thus causing the computers running it to lose connection to the network, which also precludes those affected computers from receiving an updated database file that fixes the issue.

Comment This isn't a victory for Behring-Breivik. (Score 3, Insightful) 491

by CleverNickName (#51949589) Attached to: Anders Behring Breivik, Norway Murderer, Wins Human Rights Case

Someone once pointed out that hoping a rapist gets raped in prison isn't a victory for his victim(s), because it somehow gives him what he had coming to him, but it's actually a victory for rape and violence. I wish I could remember who said that, because they are right. The score doesn't go Rapist: 1 World: 1. It goes Rape: 2.

What this man did is unspeakable, and he absolutely deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. If he needs to be kept away from other prisoners as a safety issue, there are ways to do that without keeping him in solitary confinement, which has been shown conclusively to be profoundly cruel and harmful.

Putting him in solitary confinement, as a punitive measure, is not a victory for the good people in the world. It's a victory for inhumane treatment of human beings. This ruling is, in my opinion, very good and very strong for human rights, *precisely* because it was brought by such a despicable and horrible person. It affirms that all of us have basic human rights, even the absolute worst of us on this planet.

Submission + - Google Demonstrates 5s cold-boot using Coreboot at IDF (geek.com)

Submitted by
DeathPenguin
DeathPenguin writes: "Google recently demonstrated an upcoming Chromebook at IDF which is getting closer to the ever-elusive promise of instant-on functionality. The video demonstrates amazingly fast ~5s cold boot to login prompt time using Coreboot, a fully open-source x86 firmware implementation, without using suspend or hibernate tricks. The Coreboot portion takes roughly 650ms, the remainder is Linux kernel, system services, and X. Additionally, all stages of boot are verified for integrity to prevent malware and rollback attacks.

This follows the check-in of thousands of lines of Intel Sandy Bridge and and Panther Point support code to the Coreboot code repository."
User Journal

Journal Journal: in which i am a noob all over again 17

Journal by CleverNickName

I haven't posted a journal here in almost three years, because I couldn't find the button to start a new entry. ...yeah, it turns out that it's at the bottom of the page.

So... hi, Slashdot. I used to be really active here, but now I mostly lurk and read. I've missed you.

Comment Re:In other words, we should give up. (Score 1) 2247

by DeathPenguin (#37778622) Attached to: Ron Paul Suggests Axing 5 U.S. Federal Departments (and Budgets)

Actually, Ron Paul is *the* strongest advocate of any candidate D or R for cutting military budget. He is also the strongest proponent of bringing a swift end to middle east occupation and closing many bases in the over countries we have 'em in.

Search for Ron Paul's response on defense spending during the Oct. 18 debate in Las Vegas. Or, check out http://www.ronpaul2012.com/the-issues/national-defense/ :
Today, however, hundreds of thousands of our fighting men and women have been stretched thin all across the globe in over 135 countries – often without a clear mission, any sense of what defines victory, or the knowledge of when they’ll be permanently reunited with their families.

Acting as the world’s policeman and nation-building weakens our country, puts our troops in harm’s way, and sends precious resources to other nations in the midst of an historic economic crisis.

Taxpayers are forced to spend billions of dollars each year to protect the borders of other countries, while Washington refuses to deal with our own border security needs.

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