linkstream2 microblog

The Demon Voice That Can Control Your…phone
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/01/the-demon-voice-that-can-talk-to-your-smartphone/513743 Verbal malware: Yell into a crowd, “Hey #Siri, text mom, I’m pregnant”

QT:{{”

“Here’s a fun experiment: Next time you’re on a crowded bus, loudly announce, “Hey Siri! Text mom, ‘I’m pregnant.’” Chances are you’ll get some horrified looks as your voice awakens iPhones in nearby commuters’ pockets and bags. They’ll dive for their phones to cancel your command.

But what if there was a way to talk to phones with sounds other than words? Unless the phones’ owners were prompted for confirmation—and realized what was going on in time to intervene—they’d have no idea that”
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A Bigger Problem Than ISIS?
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/02/a-bigger-problem-than-isis The #MosulDam is failing. A breach would cause a wave killing >1M. Infrastructure woes

The…Pharma Startup…Silicon Valley Has Totally Missed
http://social.techcrunch.com/2017/01/06/this-millennial-wants-to-build-the-berkshire-hathaway-of-biopharmaceutical-companies-can-he-pull-it-off/ Run by QVT alum; focuses on better incentivizing scientists

America’s Top Spy James Clapper
https://www.wired.com/2016/11/james-clapper-us-intelligence/ He drives around DC in a black, armored SUV w/ its own satellite dish. Wow!

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Clapper’s life is a whirl of video teleconferences and non­descript spaces—subterranean briefing rooms, flatscreen-lined command centers, and eavesdropping-proof chambers called sensitive compartmented informa­tion facilities, or SCIFs (pronounced “skiffs” in spookspeak). His armored, antenna-topped black SUV—more tank than car—even has a satellite dish to keep Clapper in secure contact wherever he’s driving around DC. When he travels, a special team converts a hotel room into a secure communi­cations suite. His digital hearing aids are regularly checked by security to ensure that no foreign adversary is listening, and his counterintelligence team dumbs down the iPads he uses to brief the president in the Oval Office so that they can’t transmit or eavesdrop.
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Can You Tell if These…Are…Rendered?
https://www.Wired.com/2016/12/skrekkogle-still-life/ @Skrekkogle makes the real appear simulated. Implications for photo evidence

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“The Norwegian design studio Skrekkogle played this game with Still File, a series of photos that look like renderings but aren’t. Instead of manipulating pixels on a screen, studio founders Lars Marcus Vedeler and Theo Zamudio-Tveterås created and photographed sets that look like scenes made with 3-D rendering software. “It’s a weirdly elaborate process,” Vedeler says.

In particularly cool photo, they 3-D printed three wildly distorted teapots, gave them a flat finish, and glued them to the background before photographing them as a surrealist scene. In another, they placed a marble, a plastic cone, and a wood-lined cube atop checkered paper lacquered with acrylic. The camera’s flash reflected the checkerboard pattern onto the objects, creating a false sense of depth.”
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How can Facebook…burst the filter bubble? https://www.NewScientist.com/article/2113246-how-can-facebook-and-its-users-burst-the-filter-bubble/ How reporting via social networks leads to bias & how to "flip the feed"

https://themoth.org/stories/data-mining-for-dates

https://blog.google/products/maps/let-your-loved-ones-know-youre-safe-our-new-personal-safety-app/

The new MacBook Pro is…great for hackers
https://medium.com/@ageitgey/the-new-macbook-pro-is-kind-of-great-for-hackers-64c1c577a4d2#.o160nwo05 All open ports (#USBc) w. great potential for tricky charging combos

Light, the Tiny Digital Camera That Outperforms DSLRs
http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gadgets/inside-the-development-of-light-the-tiny-digital-camera-that-outperforms-dslrs A multi-lens future made possible by computational photography [cagegory tech]