Новости за 11.11.2019

The billionaire creator of Big Brother, John de Mol, has successfully sued Facebook. A Dutch court has ordered the social media giant to remove advertisements that feature his likeness to promote fraudulent Bitcoin investments, Reuters reports. Facebook must take down the fraudulent ads or reportedly face fines of up to €1.1 million ($1.2 million). The social media giant reportedly argued that it’s simply a “neutral funnel for information” and cannot be obligated to act. Reuters noted the court said... Читать дальше...

We’ve been hearing rumors Apple is working on some sort of augmented reality headset for ages, but today a report from The Information provides the strongest evidence yet that Apple is getting ready to enter the AR fray. Specifically, Apple is aiming to release its AR headset in 2022, and a pair of smart glasses will follow in 2023. The Information says its report was sourced from an October presentation among Apple employees.  Though some earlier reports had pegged the headset’s release date for 2020... Читать дальше...

Sarah, “the world’s smartest chimp,” died in July 2019, just before her 60th birthday. For the majority of her life, she served as a research subject, providing scientists with a window into the thoughts of homo sapiens’ nearest living relative. Sarah’s death provides an opportunity to reflect on a foundational question: can we really know what non-human animals are thinking? Drawing on my background as a philosopher, I argue that the answer is no. There are principled limitations to our ability to understand animal thought. Читать дальше...

In a post-apocalyptic future, what might happen to life if humans left the scene? After all, humans are very likely to disappear long before the sun expands into a red giant and exterminates all living things from the Earth. Assuming that we don’t extinguish all other life as we disappear (an unlikely feat in spite of our unique propensity for driving extinction), history tells us to expect some pretty fundamental changes when humans are no longer the planet’s dominant animal species. So if we were... Читать дальше...

C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup doesn’t like that Bitcoin was written in his programming language, at all. In a recent podcast interview, Stroustrup took a moment to explain how he felt about programmers using C++ for such wide variety of applications. Mostly, it was pretty reasonable. He likened releasing C++ to building a tool, in that he can’t control how it’s going to be used. “You try to improve the tool by looking at how it’s being used, and when people cut their fingers off, and try and stop that from happening. Читать дальше...

Machine learning algorithms are used everywhere from a smartphone to a spacecraft. They tell you the weather forecast for tomorrow, translate from one language into another, and suggest what TV series you might like next on Netflix. These algorithms automatically adjust (learn) their internal parameters based on data. However, there is a subset of parameters that is not learned and that have to be configured by an expert. Such parameters are often referred to as “hyperparameters” — and they have... Читать дальше...

These three cloud plans offer giant storage spaces and top-quality security at eye-opening prices as low at $39.99.

Welcome to CHEAP, our series about things that are good, but most of all, cheap. CHEAP! Today, if you didn’t know, is Singles’ Day. While this really isn’t much of a thing in Europe and the US, it’s big business in China. And, because China is big business, plenty of companies are doing their best to spread it worldwide. Which is great news for you. Basically, Singles’ Day is — as the name suggests — a shopping holiday dedicated (I guess) to people who are single. Think of it as a mix between Black Friday and an anti-Valentines. Читать дальше...

The Indian government has played down fears of mass surveillance in response to concerns that its proposed facial recognition system lacks adequate oversight. Replying to a legal notice filed by the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a Delhi-based non-profit that works on digital liberties, the country’s National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) defended the move, stating it doesn’t interfere with privacy of citizens as it “only automates the existing police procedure of comparing suspects’ photos with... Читать дальше...

Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day. Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Marcus Aurelius used to say: Yippee! Bitcoin Price We closed the day, November 10 2019, at a price of $9,055. That’s a respectable 2.75 percent increase in 24 hours, or $243. It was the highest closing price in two days. We’re still 54 percent below Bitcoin‘s all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017). Читать дальше...

Welcome to another Moonday Mornings, Hard Fork’s wrap-up of the weekend’s cryptocurrency and blockchain headlines. Take a look at what went down. 1. Blockchain inspired dapp platform EOS is reportedly congested, according to cryptocurrency exchange desk Coinbase. In a blog article posted over the weekend, Coinbase says it has been seeing “degraded performance for EOS transactions.” That said, Coinbase‘s experience is a result of the fact that it didn’t stake enough CPU resources for its transactions to be processed. Читать дальше...

Every time I see robots marching around in perfect synchronization, Darth Vader’s theme from Star Wars – officially named ‘The Imperial March’ comes to my mind. And that was my instant reaction when I saw the video of MIT‘s new mini cheetah robots. Last weekend, researchers at MIT released a video of nine mini cheetah robots frolicking in the ground, performing backflips, and playing soccer. While the first scene of these robots marching across the screen in a perfect order might be scary, the rest of the video is goofy and fun. Читать дальше...