UK intel agencies spy indiscriminately on millions of innocent folks

Docs revealed by court order show only flimsiest safeguards against abuse.

(credit: Wikipedia)

The UK's intelligence agencies (MI5, MI6, and GCHQ) are spying on everything you do, and with only the flimsiest of safeguards in place to prevent abuse, according to more than a thousand pages of documents published today as a result of a lawsuit filed by Privacy International.

The documents reveal the details of so-called "Bulk Personal Datasets," or BPDs, which can contain "hundreds to millions of records" on people who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

These records can be “anything from your private medical records, your correspondence with your doctor or lawyer, even what petitions you have signed, your financial data, and commercial activities,” Privacy International's legal officer Millie Graham Wood said in a statement. "The information revealed by this disclosure shows the staggering extent to which the intelligence agencies hoover up our data."

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Announcing the world’s first autonomous track day

The first event of its kind will take place at Thunderhill Raceway, May 28-29.

Audi has tested a number of autonomous cars at the race track. There was Shelley, a TTS it built with the Revs program at Stanford. And a pair of autonomous RS7s have given demos and passenger rides at Hockenheim in Germany and Sonoma Raceway in the US. (credit: Audi)

Taking a vehicle to the race track to improve it has been a thing almost as long as we've had cars. Henry Ford built his brand's name on his early racing exploits, and so have countless others. So it's natural that some of the people interested in self-driving cars have been thinking about how the track can benefit this new technology. Joshua Schachter is one such person, and he's organizing the first autonomous track day, to be held on May 28th-29th at Thunderhill Raceway in Willow, California.

Self-driving cars and racing are two of my favorite things, so I spoke to Schachter to find out more. The idea is to create a venue where you can "run what you brung," whether it's a fully autonomous car (or kart), a set of sensors, or maybe some control software. "If you squint at it, and it's automotive, come try it on the track," he said.

Interest in autonomous race cars is starting to build. Later this year, a series called Roborace will support Formula E in 2016-2017, for example. But Roborace will provide all the teams with identical cars; the job of the teams will be to write algorithms to make their car the fastest on the track.

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Volkswagen makes it official—it’s buying back 500,000 2.0L diesels

People with leased Volkswagens and Audis can also cancel their leases.

(credit: Spanish Coches)

In San Francisco this morning, US District Judge Charles Breyer said Volkswagen Group would buy back nearly 500,000 2.0L diesel vehicles which were discovered in September to have software that illegally disabled the emissions control system during normal driving conditions.

VW Group is facing some 600 lawsuits that Judge Breyer is overseeing collectively, and the German automaker was compelled by court order to present a plan for fixing the faulty vehicles by today. Specifics of the plan will be hammered out in the coming months.

Volkswagen will also set up a fund for people who bought certain diesel Jettas, Golfs, Passats, Beetles, and Audi A3s after 2009. Breyer said this would offer customers "substantial compensation," on top of the car buyback.

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Datenpanne: Notfallplan des Flughafens Köln/Bonn war abrufbar

Wie auf dem Flughafen Köln/Bonn für Evakuierungsmaßnahmen und andere Notfälle geplant wird, ließ sich in den vergangenen Monaten leicht herausfinden: Das vertrauliche Dokument konnte offenbar jeder online einsehen. (Luftfahrt, Internet)

Wie auf dem Flughafen Köln/Bonn für Evakuierungsmaßnahmen und andere Notfälle geplant wird, ließ sich in den vergangenen Monaten leicht herausfinden: Das vertrauliche Dokument konnte offenbar jeder online einsehen. (Luftfahrt, Internet)

Amazon’s cheapest Fire Tablet now comes in four colors with 8GB or 16GB of storage

Amazon’s cheapest Fire Tablet now comes in four colors with 8GB or 16GB of storage

A few weeks after Amazon started selling a $70 version of its entry-level Fire tablet, the company has officially announced that the Amazon Fire Tablet is now available at two prices:

  • $50 for an 8GB model
  • $70 for a 16GB model

But the company is also now offering additional color options. In addition to black, you can now buy the Fire Tablet in blue, purple, or orange (although Amazon calls the colors black, blue, magenta, and tangerine).

Continue reading Amazon’s cheapest Fire Tablet now comes in four colors with 8GB or 16GB of storage at Liliputing.

Amazon’s cheapest Fire Tablet now comes in four colors with 8GB or 16GB of storage

A few weeks after Amazon started selling a $70 version of its entry-level Fire tablet, the company has officially announced that the Amazon Fire Tablet is now available at two prices:

  • $50 for an 8GB model
  • $70 for a 16GB model

But the company is also now offering additional color options. In addition to black, you can now buy the Fire Tablet in blue, purple, or orange (although Amazon calls the colors black, blue, magenta, and tangerine).

Continue reading Amazon’s cheapest Fire Tablet now comes in four colors with 8GB or 16GB of storage at Liliputing.

Xenial Xerus: Ubuntu will weiter mit Alleingängen punkten

Die neuen Snap-Pakete in Ubuntu 16.04 stehen nun auch für Desktop-Anwendungen bereit, nach einigen Experimenten für Embedded-Geräte. Darüber hinaus liefert Canonical ZFS für Server aus und könnte mit PHP 7 Webhoster verärgern. Der neue Desktop Unity8 lässt weiter auf sich warten. (Ubuntu, Gnome)

Die neuen Snap-Pakete in Ubuntu 16.04 stehen nun auch für Desktop-Anwendungen bereit, nach einigen Experimenten für Embedded-Geräte. Darüber hinaus liefert Canonical ZFS für Server aus und könnte mit PHP 7 Webhoster verärgern. Der neue Desktop Unity8 lässt weiter auf sich warten. (Ubuntu, Gnome)

Rückgang der Erwartungen: Sonys Problem mit den wenig nachgefragten Kameramodulen

Sony wird voraussichtlich weniger Smartphone-Kameramodule als erwartet absetzen – das wirkt sich direkt auf das operative Ergebnis für das gerade abgelaufene Geschäftsjahr aus. Immerhin wird es damit dennoch deutlich besser als im Vorjahreszeitraum sein. (Sony, Smartphone)

Sony wird voraussichtlich weniger Smartphone-Kameramodule als erwartet absetzen - das wirkt sich direkt auf das operative Ergebnis für das gerade abgelaufene Geschäftsjahr aus. Immerhin wird es damit dennoch deutlich besser als im Vorjahreszeitraum sein. (Sony, Smartphone)

E Ink introduces 2.9 inch display for smartphone cases

E Ink introduces 2.9 inch display for smartphone cases

There are a handful of smartphone cases that feature E Ink displays, allowing you to view pictures, eBooks, or other items even when your phone’s color display is off.

E Ink would like to see more of those smartphone cases… so the company has unveiled a turnkey solution for smartphone cases featuring a 2.9 inch ePaper display.

This is basically a design that case makers can adopt to create a smartphone accessory that not only protects your phone, but which also connects with it wirelessly so that the second screen can communicate with your device.

Continue reading E Ink introduces 2.9 inch display for smartphone cases at Liliputing.

E Ink introduces 2.9 inch display for smartphone cases

There are a handful of smartphone cases that feature E Ink displays, allowing you to view pictures, eBooks, or other items even when your phone’s color display is off.

E Ink would like to see more of those smartphone cases… so the company has unveiled a turnkey solution for smartphone cases featuring a 2.9 inch ePaper display.

This is basically a design that case makers can adopt to create a smartphone accessory that not only protects your phone, but which also connects with it wirelessly so that the second screen can communicate with your device.

Continue reading E Ink introduces 2.9 inch display for smartphone cases at Liliputing.

China claims a major breakthrough in making space babies

Before we colonize Mars, we’d better figure out how to procreate in space.

The reentry capsule for the SJ-10 research mission is shown after landing in inner Mongolia on Monday. (credit: Xinhua)

Over the next couple of decades, NASA wants to extend the human presence into the Solar System, including onto the surface of Mars. Elon Musk founded SpaceX expressly to colonize the red planet by the 2020s or 2030s. For now, both the government and private sector have focused on “hardware”: the rockets, spacecraft, and technology needed to keep humans alive en route to Mars and on its surface. And these are not simple or inexpensive problems to solve.

One could argue, however, that the “software” problems may prove even more challenging. That is, can an embryo mature in space, be born, and grow into a healthy human being?

After a 12-day experiment in space this month, Chinese scientists claim they have done so. On April 6, the SJ-10 spacecraft launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province carrying about 20 different experiments in a retrievable satellite module. It returned to Earth on Monday, landing in inner Mongolia.

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Unemployment changes support for sharing the wealth

People begin to believe in wealth redistribution while unemployed.

Unemployment obviously has economic effects on people, but it can also have psychological impacts, sometimes triggering depressive episodes. However, until now, there has been no quantitative research evaluating consequences of unemployment on people’s feelings about money. A study published in PNAS finds that unemployment changes how people think about entitlement.

The study defines entitlement as the acknowledgement that someone has a right to keep, consume, or dispose of things that they have earned, including their salary. The idea of entitlement is important for understanding the labor market and workers’ self-interest. Generally, people who earn a higher income tend to be more self-interested, with minimal preference for wealth redistribution, whereas lower-income individuals tend to think that wealthier people should pay more taxes and poorer people should be eligible for social support.

The study examined participants’ attitudes on wealth redistribution and wealth entitlement twice, with a year-long gap between experiments. This setup allowed the researchers to study people who transitioned between various states of employment in the interim. The study was conducted in Spain, which has the third highest unemployment rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The attrition rate was 48 percent between the two experiments, and this paper focuses on 151 participants who were either employed or students for both experiments, or employed/students for the first experiment and unemployed for the second.

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