Israeli tech firm NSO denies media reports that its software has been sold to authoritarian regimes. The Android and iOS spyware can apparently see photographs and contacts, log everything that is typed, and turn on the camera and microphone.
Source: bbc.com
Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing: Blockchain technology is going to change everything: the shipping industry, the financial system, government … in fact, what won’t it change? But enthusiasm for it mainly stems from a lack of knowledge and understanding. The blockchain is a solution...
Source: thecorrespondent.com
This book is outstanding - brief, proudly retro, humorous, and genius. A great introduction to the last 60 years of AI. To know a subject so well that you can reduce it to a Ladybird-style book readable by all is a gift. We could all learn from this level of presentation.
It is available online...
Source: amazon.co.uk
Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software: The moon landing was one of the most important moments in the history of computing, laying the foundations for everything from fly-by-wire cockpits to the smartphones in our hands.
Source: wsj.com
Everything You Wanted to Know About Lava Flows - The Scholarly Kitchen: Geologist Jerry Magloughlin looks at the different ways that lava flows.
Source: sspnet.org
Why Roman Concrete Endured Thousands of Years of Seawater Pounding, While Ours Can't - ExtremeTech: Roman concrete's durability and strength blows our own out of the water (in this case, literally). And after years of research, we're getting better at understanding why. It seems that the sea water may...
Source: extremetech.com
3 Things That Chatbots Shine at Compared to Websites or Apps: Any over-hyped technology comes with suitably hyperbolic statements of how it will impact and change everything. Chatbots are no different…
Source: chatbotsmagazine.com
The Internet Archive is building up a Trump presidential library — of everything he’s ever said, on video: President-elect Donald J. Trump says a lot of things — and often denies a lot of the things he's said.
The Internet Archive launched Thursday a huge Trump Archive dedicated to housing videos...
Source: niemanlab.org
Expect Deeper and Cheaper Machine Learning: Supercharged hardware will speed up deep learning in everything from tiny devices to massive data centers
Source: ieee.org
Reuters built its own algorithmic prediction tool to help it spot (and verify) breaking news on Twitter: "The world has a lot more witnesses now, and we can't be at everything. Our tool helps shift some of the burden of witnessing and lets journalists do much more of the high value-added work."
Source: niemanlab.org
The Prince by Machiavelli. Been meaning to read this for some time. It seemed more of a recap of history of Italy in the early 16th century and a lengthy job application pamphlet. Basically, "I know what's been going on and how complex everything is so give me a job". It was rewarding though that some...
Source: amazon.co.uk
Good read - The Path. A quick overview of 5 Chinese philosophies making them relevant to how we should think about how we live today. I've not read much about them and assumed they were pretty much ancient and irrelevant, reduced to one-liner aphorisms, but Michael Puett has been teaching a popular...
Source: amazon.co.uk
“Medium’s team did everything”: How 5 publishers transitioned their sites to Medium: What happened when Pacific Standard, The Ringer, The Awl, The Bold Italic, and Femsplain moved their sites over to Medium.
Source: niemanlab.org
Incredibly focused Japanese author describing her tidying technique. Basically get rid of everything that you don't really, really like and then store things where you can see them all. The KonMari technique. I enjoyed the argument she gave about sorting out your stuff. You can do it now, do it at some...
Source: amazon.co.uk
Inspiring read. Naomi Klein. This changes everything. A tirade against the very inconvenient truth that climate change is ultimately due to capitalism. A destructive capitalism that extracts from nature recklessly thinking growth can be without limit on a finite planet. However, the book ends with...
Source: amazon.co.uk
Good read. Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. A powerful book on animal rights written 40 years ago (updated 20 years ago and re-issued recently with an introduction by Yuval Hariri) and having stood the test of time and debate. It is called 'the bible' of the animal rights movement and rightly so ......
Source: amazon.co.uk
Junk DNA - a thorough but accessible account of modern genetics covering discoveries since mapping the human genome and epigenetics. Genomic imprinting, non-coding RNA, telomeres and ageing, etc. Everything discovered (or I forgot about) since I left medical school basically. Everything was explained...
Source: amazon.co.uk