Armstrong Zoom Internet is doing like most ISPs and sending out piracy notices to suspected pirates on their network. These notices usually warn the customer to stop the offending activity or face some sort of sanction. Most of the time this is downgraded service or termination of service. However, Armstrong is adding something interesting to their warning letter and telling customers that they may lose access to remotely controlled devices in their home like security monitoring and remote control of thermostats. Once this happens the only way a customer gets full access again is to sign an agreement to stop the activity and paying a fee. Interesting tactic they are using. I wonder if they would be liable for damage if someone had their pipes freeze up and burst because of this? Click the pic to see the letter.



“Please be advised that this may affect other services which you may have connected to your internet service, such as the ability to control your thermostat remotely or video monitoring services.”

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Ignore Piracy Notices and Lose Control of your Thermostat

Apple is releasing their Local Integrated System Architecture (LISA) OS as open source next year. If you recall, the Apple Lisa didn’t sell well at all, as a matter of fact it only sold 10K units. However, it was the first PC to have a GUI and use a mouse. Just think if Apple didn’t sell the thing for many times that of an IBM PC and we might have the Apple OS as the defacto standard now. You can check out the announcement here. If you really want to go down memory lane you can check out this old Apple Lisa commercial below.



Back in 1983, Lisa computer cost $10,000; if you factor in the inflation, it’ll cost $24,000. On the other hand, IBM was already offering computers that were far cheaper. This flopped OS brought some of the advanced features for the first time, including protected memory, sophisticated HDD-based OS, etc.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Apple’s Lisa Operating System Going Open Source

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors are planning on having AI assistants in their new cars starting in 2019. This new technology is going to allow all car systems to be controlled by more natural language and also allow them to utilize Car to Home features. Supposedly this assistant will have a vocabulary of 15K words and be able to carry on a normal conversation. This sounds interesting and I think they should just call the AI ‘Kitt’ and be done with it. (Knight Rider reference for our younger viewers)



Hyundai and Kia Motors partnered up with ‘SoundHound’, which is a company in Silicon Valley, and developed an interactive ‘voice recognition assistant service (Intelligent Personal Agent)’ that utilizes voice recognition AI technologies. This service will be introduced through new 2019 cars. Based on an interactive AI platform called ‘Houndify’, this service is able to send and receive calls and texts, search point of interests and addresses, manage weather information and schedule, control air conditioner system, sunroof, and doors, and provide Car to Home service.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Hyundai and Kia Cars Getting AI Voice Assistants in 2019

Up until now it’s taken breweries up to 24 months to develop a new beer for the market. One of the reasons is it the time it takes for humans to run tests on the liquids to detect flavors and aromas in the new brew. In order to reduce this time (approximately 30% of total time) Carlsberg is teaming up with Microsoft to use AI to streamline the process. So starting in January of next year Carlsberg and Microsoft are going to kick this off and speed the development process. I know I’m a huge fan of beer and I hope this spreads to all kinds of breweries so we can get new stuff to try as soon as possible. Once again we have an excellent use of AI in a vital industry!



It’s all with aim of reducing the time it takes to develop new brews–estimated to be anywhere from eight to 24 months–by about 30%. Per the FT, Carlsberg’s three-month “beer fingerprinting project,” as it’s called, will kick off in January, with Carlsberg hoping to eventually bring a commercial product to market.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Microsoft and Carlsberg Team Up to Develop New Beer Faster