Monthly Archives: July 2019

Amazon's Ring Reportedly Partners With 200 Law Enforcement Agencies

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: At least 200 law enforcement agencies around the country have entered into partnerships with Amazon’s home surveillance company Ring, according to an email obtained by Motherboard via public record request. Ring has never disclosed the exact number of partnerships that it maintains with law enforcement. However, the company has partnered with at least 200 law enforcement agencies, according to notes taken by a police officer during a Ring webinar, which he emailed to himself in April. It’s possible that the number of partnerships has changed since the day the email was sent. The officer who sent the email told Motherboard that the email was a transcribed version of handwritten notes that he took during a team webinar with a Ring representative on April 9. Additional emails obtained by Motherboard indicate that this webinar trained officers on how to use the “Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal.” This portal allows local police to see a map with the approximate locations of all Ring cameras in a neighborhood, and request footage directly from camera owners. Owners need to consent, but police do not need a warrant to ask for footage. “This doesn’t surprise me at all, and it’s the perfect example of how corporate surveillance and government surveillance are inextricably linked,” Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, told Motherboard. “Amazon is building a for-profit surveillance dragnet and partnering with local law enforcement agencies in ways that avoid any form of oversight or accountability that police departments might normally be required to adhere to.”

“It’s time to come to grips with the fact that the 1984 dystopian future we all fear isn’t something a future authoritarian government might impose,” Greer told Motherboard, “it’s something that’s being built right now, in plain sight, through partnerships between private companies and government agencies.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Amazon’s Ring Reportedly Partners With 200 Law Enforcement Agencies

LG's high-end 4K TVs get AirPlay 2 and HomeKit first in the US

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You don’t have to wonder when LG will roll out AirPlay 2 and HomeKit to its TVs in the US — it’s here. The Apple ecosystem support is now available to higher-end 2019 LG TVs in the country through a firmware update. The features are currently ready…

Source: Engadget – LG’s high-end 4K TVs get AirPlay 2 and HomeKit first in the US

Kiki the social robot is a mechanical animal who wants to be your friend

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Not everyone has the space, money or quite honestly patience to foster a rambunctious Aibo. But that doesn’t mean you’ll have to spend the rest of your days alone. The forthcoming Kiki from Zoetic AI offers an equally rewarding and, with a $1499 pric…

Source: Engadget – Kiki the social robot is a mechanical animal who wants to be your friend

How to Watch the Presidential Democratic Debates Tonight

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Tonight, the second round of Presidential Democratic debates kicks off in Detroit, with top-polling candidates including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren taking the stage. Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden and California Senator Kamala…

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Source: LifeHacker – How to Watch the Presidential Democratic Debates Tonight

Waze makes it easier for Carpool drivers to invite multiple riders

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Waze’s Carpool service is all about adding more passengers to save money on your commute, so wouldn’t it make sense to invite multiple riders in one go? You can now. Waze has updated its Carpool app with an option to easily add multiple passengers…

Source: Engadget – Waze makes it easier for Carpool drivers to invite multiple riders

Amazon's Ring service may already have 200 law enforcement agency partners

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Amazon’s Ring security service is working 200 law enforcement agencies, according to an email obtained by Motherboard. A few days ago, the publication learned that Ring forged partnerships with law enforcement agencies. Some of those partner agencies…

Source: Engadget – Amazon’s Ring service may already have 200 law enforcement agency partners

Raspberry Pi internet kill switch

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Control the internet in your home with this handy Raspberry Pi Zero W internet kill switch.

Internet Kill Switch!

It’s every teenager’s worst nightmare… no WIFI! I built a standalone wireless Internet Kill Switch that lets me turn the Internet off whenever I want. A Raspberry Pi Zero W monitors the switch and sends an alert via SSH over WIFI to my firewall where another script watches for the alert and turns the external interface off or on.

Internet in my home wasn’t really a thing until I was in my late teens, and even then, there wasn’t that much online fun to be had. Not like there is now, with social media and online gaming and the YouTubes.

If I’d had access to the internet of today in my teens, I’m pretty sure I’d have never been off the thing. And that’s where a button like this would have been a godsend for my mother.

Shared by Nick Donaldson on his YouTube account, the Internet Kill Switch is a Raspberry Pi Zero W–powered emergency button that turns off all internet access in the house — perfect for keeping online activities to a reasonable level. Nick explains:

It’s every teenager’s worst nightmare… no WiFi! I built a standalone wireless Internet Kill Switch that lets me turn the internet off whenever I want. A Raspberry Pi Zero W monitors the switch and sends an alert via SSH over WiFi to my firewall, where another script watches for the alert and turns the external interface off or on. I have challenged the boys to hack it…

The Raspberry Pi Zero W sits snug within the button casing and is powered by a battery. And so that the battery can be continuously recharged, the device sits on a wireless charging pad. Hence, the button is juiced up and ready to go at any time.

I can pick it up, walk around at any time, threaten the teenagers, and shut down the internet whenever I want, hahaha!

While internet service providers are starting to roll out smartphone apps that offer similar functionality, we like the physicality of this button.

Great job, Nick! Please don’t turn off our internet.

The post Raspberry Pi internet kill switch appeared first on Raspberry Pi.



Source: Raspberry Pi – Raspberry Pi internet kill switch

'Concrete Genie' fights childhood bullying with illicit street art

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I like playing games where stuff blows up, be it vehicles, fuel canisters, enemy bunkers, or brainpans. Suffice to say, I was more than a little reticent to try out Concrete Genie, a game about overcoming bullying with street art, from studio Pixelop…

Source: Engadget – ‘Concrete Genie’ fights childhood bullying with illicit street art

Wikipedia Editors Fight Over What to Call America's Concentration Camps

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The U.S. government currently has over 75,000 migrants in custody, according to the latest estimates. But what should Americans call the vast network of camps, cages, and prisons that are being used to hold these people? Many experts say “concentration camp” is accurate, but others insist the term should only be used…

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Source: Gizmodo – Wikipedia Editors Fight Over What to Call America’s Concentration Camps

How to follow-up Pathfinder? Improve the game, don’t radically change its character

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The floor of Gen Con 2018...

Enlarge / The floor of Gen Con 2018… (credit: Aaron Zimmerman)

I’ve been an avid player of Pathfinder The Roleplaying Game since its first edition debuted back in 2008 at Gen Con, the great-grandsire of American tabletop conventions. So as I planned to attend Gen Con 2018 last fall, I had my sights set on one part of the schedule in particular. Pathfinder publisher Paizo, Inc. was launching a playtest for what will eventually become the second edition of their flagship title at Gen Con. I knew I wanted to be involved.

Back then, the schedule gods smiled upon me and I had the good fortune of being able to play in some of those first playtest scenarios at the convention. I ultimately played all three playtest scenarios that Paizo ran at Gen Con 2018, and soon after I played and ran most of “Doomsday Dawn,” the mini-campaign that the company released last August as a companion to the other playtest materials. I’ve been following and participating in Paizo’s massive months-long playtest ever since.

This week, Pathfinder Second Edition finally makes its official debut, as Paizo is set to release the game to the public at Gen Con 2019 (Ars is in attendance so keep your eyes peeled). That means, as players count down these last playtesting days, it’s time to share some observations and impressions from weeks upon weeks of Pathfinder Second Edition exploration.

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Source: Ars Technica – How to follow-up Pathfinder? Improve the game, don’t radically change its character

Tom LEE is back in Istanbul for the “Blockchain Economy 2020”!

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Tom LEE, who met the investors and cryptocurrency community of Turkey for the first time at the first conference in February, will have his certain attendance at the Blockchain Economy 2020. The famous Wall Street analyst Tom LEE will take his place as a keynote speaker at the second of the largest conference of MENA […]

The post Tom LEE is back in Istanbul for the “Blockchain Economy 2020”! appeared first on TGDaily.



Source: TG Daily – Tom LEE is back in Istanbul for the “Blockchain Economy 2020”!