Firefox Send is a free and open source online file-sharing service that allows you to easily and securely share files up to 2.5 GB over Internet.
Source: LXer – How To Securely Share Files Over Internet With Firefox Send
Monthly Archives: February 2020
Is This a Joke?
In the wake of a carpet-bomb of Bloomberg-sponsored memes, The New York Times reported rumblings of nervous activity over at Facebook HQ this week. Several meme accounts, including previous FyreFest shills FuckJerry, had mobilized into an entity called “Meme 2020”; Bloomberg appeared on dozens of feeds with millions…
Source: Gizmodo – Is This a Joke?
Game Developers Conference Has Been 'Postponed' To Summer
Following the exit of several major exhibitors, the organizers of the Game Developers Conference said Friday that the show, originally scheduled to take place from March 16 to 20 in San Francisco, will be postponed until the summer due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus.
Source: Kotaku – Game Developers Conference Has Been ‘Postponed’ To Summer
British Airways is testing autonomous electric wheelchairs at JFK
The next time you fly out of JFK, you may notice a self-driving wheelchair race past you as you make your way to your departure gate. British Airways shared today that it has been testing autonomous electric wheelchairs at the country’s sixth-busiest…
Source: Engadget – British Airways is testing autonomous electric wheelchairs at JFK
Apple Disables Clearview AI's App, Accusing the Face Recognition Firm of Violating Its Rules
Embattled face recognition startup Clearview AI is topping off a week of intense scrutiny over its nebulous law enforcement partnerships with an even bigger dose of bad news: Apple has reportedly disabled the iOS version of Clearview’s app citing violations of its developer program.
Source: Gizmodo – Apple Disables Clearview AI’s App, Accusing the Face Recognition Firm of Violating Its Rules
Day of the Dead Will Live On as a New Television Series
At a time when fears about a potential global pandemic are on the rise, yet another series about people fighting to survive in a world besieged by zombies is on its way to our small screens.
Source: io9 – Day of the Dead Will Live On as a New Television Series
Overwatch Change That Nerfs Teabagging Is A Bug, Blizzard Says
Earlier this week, a small but vocal group of what can only be described as “teabagging enthusiasts” made a discovery straight out of their darkest, knee joint-less nightmares: Overwatch’s Ana, a champion teabagger despite her advanced age, could no longer crouch over unconscious enemies.
Source: Kotaku – Overwatch Change That Nerfs Teabagging Is A Bug, Blizzard Says
Wind River launches dev site with TensorFlow for Linux and a free VxWorks download
A new “Wind River Labs” developer site hosts projects including TensorFlow for Wind River Linux, the first free VxWorks SDK, and VxWorks BSPs for the Raspberry Pi and UP Squared. One would think that when Wind River decided to launch a public-facing developer site, it would showcase the Yocto Project based Wind River Linux, which […]
Source: LXer – Wind River launches dev site with TensorFlow for Linux and a free VxWorks download
Cortana’s not Alexa—skills are going away in Windows 10 version 2004
Enlarge / Pictured: a full set of Office 365 icons on the taskbar. Not pictured, for good reason: “Cortana, play Old Town Road.” (credit: Microsoft)
Today, Microsoft announced a major shift in focus for its personal assistant, Cortana: she’s getting out of the consumer gadget business and focusing on productivity. The new version of Cortana will debut with the next major update to Windows 10, expected to roll out in April.
Microsoft is tightening access to Cortana considerably. First and foremost, no more Cortana use for anyone only using local accounts. Cortana access will only be available to those logged in with school work domain accounts or Microsoft online accounts—Windows 10 users sticking to local accounts only will also be out of luck.
The new Cortana’s focus will be on a productivity-focused chat UI. Users will be able to review or set calendar items and tasks in natural English as well as query or create emails, set alarms and timers, open apps, and find people or files. She’ll also search the Internet for you—using Bing, of course—or offer jokes.
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Source: Ars Technica – Cortana’s not Alexa—skills are going away in Windows 10 version 2004
Top 15 Open Source Games
Games are an important part of the overall software experience for users on any operating system platform
Source: Linux Today – Top 15 Open Source Games
NZXT's New Mini Case Makes A Fine Little Gaming PC
Vertically-aligned boxes are beautiful. That’s the first thing I learned from NZXT’s H1 Mini PC, a new pre-configured gaming PC sporting the elegantly monolithic H1 mini-ITX case on the outside and impressive space economy on the inside.
Source: Kotaku – NZXT’s New Mini Case Makes A Fine Little Gaming PC
Hamilton’s Renée Elise Goldsberry Takes Center Stage in Altered Carbon Season 2
Takeshi Kovacs (Anthony Mackie) might be the star of Altered Carbon, but it’s Quellcrist Falconer’s show. Played by Renée Elise Goldsberry, the character undergoes a metamorphosis in season two, blossoming into the emotional and moral core of the series. That’s not an easy feat when everything around you—including…
Source: io9 – Hamilton’s Renée Elise Goldsberry Takes Center Stage in Altered Carbon Season 2
Google's Black Box Algorithm Controls Which Political Emails Land in Your Main Inbox
Adrianne Jeffries, Leon Yin, and Surya Mattu, reporting for The Markup: Pete Buttigieg is leading at 63 percent. Andrew Yang came in second at 46 percent. And Elizabeth Warren looks like she’s in trouble with 0 percent. These aren’t poll numbers for the U.S. 2020 Democratic presidential contest. Instead, they reflect which candidates were able to consistently land in Gmail’s primary inbox in a simple test. The Markup set up a new Gmail account to find out how the company filters political email from candidates, think tanks, advocacy groups, and nonprofits. We found that few of the emails we’d signed up to receive — 11 percent — made it to the primary inbox, the first one a user sees when opening Gmail and the one the company says is “for the mail you really, really want.”
Half of all emails landed in a tab called “promotions,” which Gmail says is for “deals, offers, and other marketing emails.” Gmail sent another 40 percent to spam. For political causes and candidates, who get a significant amount of their donations through email, having their messages diverted into less-visible tabs or spam can have profound effects. “The fact that Gmail has so much control over our democracy and what happens and who raises money is frightening,” said Kenneth Pennington, a consultant who worked on Beto O’Rourke’s digital campaign. “It’s scary that if Gmail changes their algorithms,” he added, “they’d have the power to impact our election.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Google’s Black Box Algorithm Controls Which Political Emails Land in Your Main Inbox
Galaxy S20 Ultra review: Impressive but impractical
The first major phones of the year are here, and Samsung is being its usual ambitious self. The company unleashed a trio of new flagships in its S20 series and for the first time, it introduced a souped-up Ultra variant alongside the regular S2…
Source: Engadget – Galaxy S20 Ultra review: Impressive but impractical
The Best Kirby Game For Non-Kirby Fans
How can anyone not like Kirby? For this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, I got my two cohosts to try out Kirby: Planet Robobot because I won a bet. Kirk has never played a Kirby game before, whereas Jason is just a skeptic. By the time they’ve beaten this game, they’ll both be dedicated Kirby fans, just like me.
Source: Kotaku – The Best Kirby Game For Non-Kirby Fans
Open source 'Panfrost' driver for Mali GPUs gets initial GLES 3.0 support
Do you have a system laying around rocking a Mali GPU (perhaps in a Chromebook)? The good news is Mesa just got experimental support for OpenGL ES (GLES) 3.0 to give them more advanced graphics support.
Source: LXer – Open source ‘Panfrost’ driver for Mali GPUs gets initial GLES 3.0 support
Facebook removes Discover tab in Messenger to simplify chat
Do you spend your days browsing Facebook Messenger’s Discover tab for bands, games and chatbots? No? You’re not alone — and Facebook is doing something about it. The social network has confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s rolling out a Messenger red…
Source: Engadget – Facebook removes Discover tab in Messenger to simplify chat
Android Users Can Now Use Apple Music to Play Songs in Shazam
Android users with active Apple Music subscriptions now appear to have the option to link the app with Shazam, delivering an integration that’s previously been available for Spotify.
Source: Gizmodo – Android Users Can Now Use Apple Music to Play Songs in Shazam
FCC issues wrist-slap fines to carriers that sold your phone-location data
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Nakhorn Yuangkratoke/EyeEm)
The big four mobile carriers face fines of between $12 million and $91 million each for selling their customers’ real-time location data to third-party data brokers without customer consent, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s office announced today.
These are “proposed” fines, meaning the carriers can dispute them and try to get them reduced or eliminated. The proposed fines are $91 million for T-Mobile, $57 million for AT&T, $48 million for Verizon, and $12 million for Sprint. That’s a total of $208 million.
The FCC announcement said the carriers’ punishments are for “apparently selling access to their customers’ location information without taking reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to that information.” The FCC said it also “admonished these carriers for apparently disclosing their customers’ location information, without their authorization, to a third party.”
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Source: Ars Technica – FCC issues wrist-slap fines to carriers that sold your phone-location data
Here's The Paltry Sum Your Phone Company Could Pay for Illegally Sharing Your Location Data
Yesterday, Gizmodo reported that the FCC was planning to seek around $200 million in fines against major phone carriers accused of negligently sharing the real-time locations of its customers with a host of shady third-party firms without even the most basic safeguards in place to protect them. Today, the FCC made the…
Source: Gizmodo – Here’s The Paltry Sum Your Phone Company Could Pay for Illegally Sharing Your Location Data