Month: January 2016

The last known image of whatever Google Glass has become; now, we're pretty confident that it won't bear the name Google Glass.

2015 came and went without any sign of a refreshed version of Google Glass, in spite of a late December FCC filing packed full of photos of a fancier, foldable take on the augmented-eyeglasses device. While we're not entirely sure when to expect a new Google product that will rest comfortably on our faces, we're pretty sure it won't have the "Google Glass" name.

That's because every single official social media channel for the product—the only remaining public faces for the device, since it hasn't been for sale since January 2015—went dark over the weekend. A 9to5Google report pointed to Glass' official statement to the Glass Explorers group on Google Plus, which directed any remaining Glassholes Glass wearers to a new support page with little more than a phone number and a Web contact form. Around the same time, the rest of Google Glass' Facebook and Twitter pages received a full delete, as opposed to the product's Google Plus page, which was left with an image of a sandals-wearing person taking a Glassified photo of an ocean sunset. The fact that the pages received total wipes, as opposed to placeholders, leads us to believe the company is shying away from old associations with the name.

But a Glass by any other name might still be sweet, as signs point to the augmented-eyeglasses device coming back to life. That momentum began nearly a year ago when Nest CEO Tony Fadell took the product line over and said it would receive a redesign "from scratch." News followed in September that Google had swooped up a number of ex-Amazonians, who'd worked on the underperforming Fire Phone, to work on the refreshed Glass, now internally dubbed "Project Aura."

Arnnon Geshuri, appointed to the Wikimedia Foundation board in January 2016. (credit: Myleen Hollero / Wikimedia Foundation)

The newest board member of the Wikimedia Foundation, Arnnon Geshuri, is under fire from hundreds of disgruntled editors who think he should be shown the door. They're upset at his role in a "no poach" hiring arrangement between Google, Apple, and other major tech companies while he was an HR director at Google.

Today, Geshuri addressed the community that's up in arms against him. In a message posted to the Wikimedia-l mailing list, Geshuri began by saying it was "truly inspirational" to witness the "commitment and energy of the community." His note reads, in part:

Although I would have preferred the tone surrounding my appointment to be more positive and supportive, I deeply understand and respect the criticality of free expression, rallying around convictions, and open disagreement.

Regarding the concerns that have been raised, I have listened closely. That said, in my opinion, there are some misconceptions and there are mitigating considerations. As a general matter, I will say that, throughout my career, I have been charged with enforcing company policies as part of my role as a people manager. I have tried to do so thoughtfully and consistently. I have done so realizing company policies and practices evolve over time as circumstances change.

Geshuri said he's spending his time reaching out to current and former Wikimedia board members, as well as community members.

Israel experienced a serious hack attack on its electrical grid that officials are still working to repel, the head of the country's energy minister said Tuesday.

"The virus was already identified and the right software was already prepared to neutralize it," Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told attendees of a computer security conference in Tel Aviv, according to this article published Tuesday by The Times of Israel. "We had to paralyze many of the computers of the Israeli Electricity Authority. We are handling the situation and I hope that soon, this very serious event will be over … but as of now, computer systems are still not working as they should."

The "severe" attack was detected on Monday as temperatures in Jerusalem dipped to below freezing, creating two days of record-breaking electricity consumption, according to The Jerusalem Post. Steinitz said it was one of the biggest computer-based attacks Israel's power infrastructure has experienced, and that it was responded to by members of his ministry and the country's National Cyber Bureau. The energy minister didn't identify any suspects behind the attack or provide details about how it was carried out.

(credit: Jessica Mark Welch, MBL Woods Hole)

Are you ready for a close-up—a really, really close close-up? The microbes in your mouth probably are and, boy, are they looking fabulous.

Using genetic and fluorescent probes, researchers lit up the ornate structures of microbes that glom onto human teeth. The resulting images and analysis, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveal that mouth-dwelling microbes don’t just amass in haphazard globs on the outside of unclean teeth. Instead, the microbes build consistent structures that organize inhabitants into areas where they perform specific functions. The unexpected finding suggests that teeth tenants set up highly ordered and collaborative ecosystems on human choppers.

Those structured ecosystems expose “unanticipated interactions and provides a framework for understanding the organization, metabolism, and systems biology of the microbiome and ultimately, its effect on the health of the human host,” the authors of the study report.

(credit: sdobie)

A former Justice Department lawyer is facing legal ethics charges for exposing the President George W. Bush-era surveillance tactics—a leak that earned The New York Times a Pulitzer and opened the debate about warrantless surveillance that continues today.

The lawyer, Thomas Tamm, now a Maryland state public defender, is accused of breaching Washington ethics rules for going to The New York Times instead of his superiors about his concerns about what was described as "the program."

Tamm was a member of the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review and, among other things, was charged with requesting electronic surveillance warrants from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

A Redflex camera as seen in Modesto, California. (credit: Cyrus Farivar)

On Tuesday, a federal jury in Chicago found a former city transportation official guilty on all 20 counts of mail and wire fraud, bribery, extortion, conspiracy, and tax evasion charges.

John Bills, who was the managing deputy commissioner at the Department of Transportation, helped steer a lucrative city contract to Redflex, the embattled Australian red-light camera vendor. He faces decades in prison but won't be sentenced until May 2016.

After Bills urged his colleagues to approve the deal, the city hired Redflex to provide automated enforcement cameras, known formally as its Digital Automated Red Light Enforcement Program (DARLEP), from October 2003 until February 2013. That contract abruptly ended after Bills was shown to have accepted a hotel room that Redflex paid for—but city officials believe that the corruption ran far deeper. In October 2013, Chicago selected Xerox ACS to replace Redflex as its new red-light camera operator. Since then, Redflex has suffered financially, dubbing North America a "low/no-growth market.”

(credit: VCU CNS @ Flickr)

Uber announced today that it will monitor some of its drivers' behavior for things like excessive speeding or distracted driving. Starting with a trial in Houston, the program will use Uber drivers' own smartphones to provide data to the company.

The company will use a phone's gyroscopes, accelerometers, and GPS to record whether drivers break speed limits or play with their phone while the vehicle is in motion. But in this trial, Uber will only access that data if a customer has a complaint about driving standards.

Always-on monitoring of driving standards may come later, according to Uber Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan. For now, the initiative is about being able to fact-check complaints and keep the company's rating system on the rails.