Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Last year, an explosive investigation by ProPublica revealed that Facebook was allowing advertisers to discriminate in housing ads by enabling landlords to filter out people who might view a given ad by their race. And today ProPublica released a follow-up to that investigation. Did Facebook fix its discrimination-enabling practices? Apparently not. ProPublica purchased a number…
While many cryptocoins seek to transcend conventional currency, the cryptocurrency Tether claims to back each of its issued tokens with an equal amount of redeemable cash held in a private reserve. That keeps its value predictable, but presents a problem if a token is stolen from one of the company’s “treasury” wallets. Today, Token’s development…
The FCC on Tuesday finally rolled out its plan to kill off net neutrality. There’s a strong chance that doing so will screw over millions of American consumers and lead to a rise in online censorship across the US. But on the hand, it will make internet service providers and mobile carriers a shitload of…
If you scroll through your phone, you’ll undoubtedly find a bunch of novelty apps you rarely use. The same fate could eventually befall a simple PC and Mac app called Random Access Character that generates an infinite number of bizarre characters using random shapes and textures—but only if you somehow get tired of watching them…
I’m sitting here, looking at a screen that’s way too tall waiting, seconds turning into minutes, just so I can log into Windows. Thank god I didn’t have to cold boot. Five minutes later, when my laptop finally approaches a functioning state, I reach down to move the mouse cursor over the Slack icon only…
Skype is now absent from several app stores in China, namely Apple’s, making it the latest victim of the nation’s harsh internet censorship efforts known as the Great Firewall. The New York Times reports thats the messaging and calling app was removed from the online stores almost a month ago. “We have been notified by…
If a police officer pulls you over for driving while intoxicated, you could be brought in for a breath alcohol test. If that happens, you’d better hope the test operator doesn’t slather their hands in an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, first. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers make frequent appearances in law enforcement offices—they’re often found next to the…
The Justice Department on Tuesday charged an Iranian national with hacking into HBO, as well as attempting to extort the television network for $6 million worth of bitcoin, according to an indictment filed Tuesday in the US District Court in Manhattan. Behzad Mesri is described as a “self-professed” computer hacking expert who has worked on…
Tech companies like Google and Facebook provide services in exchange for your data. We’ve known this. But they’ve always stood by the reasoning that it’s nothing to worry about because you’re given a choice. Sometimes the choice is agreeing to a terms of service. With location tracking, Google has always made it possible to opt…
Hon Hai Precision Industry, more commonly known as Foxconn, came into the public consciousness earlier this decade when a salvo of exposés described the degrading and often dangerous conditions its poorly-paid workers endured to build expensive trinkets like the iPhone. Today, the Financial Times reports that illegal labor practices persist. Six students, ages 17 to…
Some of humanity’s greatest inventions were created by accident. Corn Flakes were originally meant to be a dough made from boiled wheat, Silly Putty was supposed to be an artificial rubber, and Silly String was designed by a chemist to be an instant spray-on cast, but went on to become a fun way to ambush…
Facts are built into the fabric of the Universe, but science can sometimes be a problematic tool for establishing them. On occasion, even the most exciting discoveries can be overturned with more evidence. “Flowing liquid water in the current Martian climate has always been an extraordinary claim.” Take the flowing water on Mars. Two years…
Your iPhone can charge a lot faster than you thought. When Apple announced the new iPhone 8 and iPhone X, the company glossed over the fact that all three of its new handsets were capable of fast charging—similar to what Android phones have been doing for years. Even now, if you go the spec page…
A few weeks ago, Jordan Belfort—the notorious “Wolf of Wall Street” and convicted financial scam artist—warned the entire internet not to get into sketchy cryptocurrency-backed startups. Specifically, he warned that initial coin offerings, a form of almost completely unregulated investment vehicle where crypto-backed startups offer blockchain-based “tokens” in exchange for things of real value like…
61-year-old DIY enthusiast and stuntman “Mad” Mike Hughes is planning his first manned launch of a homemade, $20,000 steam-powered rocket with “RESEARCH FLAT EARTH” written on the side on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. According to the AP, Hughes says he expects his new rocket to hurl him through the skies above the Mojave Desert…
Amid the unparalleled classified leaks, global acts of cyberwarfare, and colossal data breaches dominating the daily news cycle, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has debuted an entirely new cloud region designed specifically to host classified US government secrets. The newly dubbed “AWS Secret Region” was launched by Amazon on Monday. In a blog post, the company…
For those who feel the merger between AT&T and Time Warner is a dangerous consolidation of media power, today is bittersweet. The Department of Justice has decided to go forward with a lawsuit to block the merger. But if reports that the suit is motivated by the Trump administration’s desire to punish CNN for its…
Oregon Governor Kate Brown, having apparently never used a chatroom in the ‘90s, declared November 20th to be a statewide “Day of Cyber.” While I would infer this to mean she wants everyone to wank to steamy AIM messages, the day is really meant to herald the launch of the Cyber Oregon Cybersecurity Awareness Initiative…
Citing “five sources with knowledge of the conversation,” Buzzfeed News reports that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster called his commander-in-chief an “idiot” and a “dope” during a private dinner with Oracle CEO Safra Catz. Catz has had a notably close relationship with the Trump administration and denied the comments when asked by Buzzfeed. https://gizmodo.com/guy-in-charge-of-all-the-nukes-relax-im-not-gonna-let-1820579526 Catz,…
If you’ve ever seen an outdoor swimming pool between cleanings, then you’re well aware of the death trap that standing water can be for flying insects. Bees, grasshoppers, and flies all easily tumble into the chlorinated sea, only to find themselves drenched and unable to fly away. But one type of fly is both at…
