Tech Nuggets with the Technology

Sunday, May 31, 2020

Ludo helps friends, families separated by borders & quarantine come closer

Ludo has effectively gatecrashed all binge-watching plans for this period. People are playing the game across age-groups and time zones https://ift.tt/2AlZwQO https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Can we save the night sky from satellite streaks?

The solar eclipse and ISS transit back in August of 2017.

As much of the world has slowed down amid COVID-19, the same cannot be said for the burgeoning small satellite broadband industry. In recent weeks, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he hopes to move the company’s Starlink broadband service to public beta in about six months. And that very same day, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved new rules for preventing orbital debris and collisions in space (those rules have been revised so as to not hamper NASA, but they still require more analysis, tracking, and disclosure from satellite companies). It's a small snapshot of what's been an ongoing debate: astronomy advocates say we are running out of time to preserve pristine views in the night sky, companies sending satellite constellations into space say they are mitigating the threat their satellites could pose to skywatchers.

The fleets of low-cost satellites will certainly be beneficial for telecommunications and Earth observation customers, particularly those living in remote areas. Crowds of satellites decrease the "revisit time" between satellite passes and make it easier to stay in touch, or to get frequent images during natural disasters.

Yet astronomers warn that without care, the satellites could ruin science observations and also make it difficult for groups like Native Americans who see the sky as part of their culture. Space organizations in Europe and the United States are already sounding alarm bells in reports and press releases. The European Southern Observatory (which operates the Very Large Telescope in Chile, among others) recently warned their observatories would be "moderately affected" if constellations launch at current rates. The National Science Foundation's Vera C. Rubin Observatory in northern Chile said nearly every image obtained during twilight "would be affected by at least one satellite trail."

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https://arstechnica.com

US is taking a state-by-state approach to COVID-19 contact tracing apps, which could cause security and privacy issues in addition to hindering interoperability (Andy Greenberg/Wired)

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
US is taking a state-by-state approach to COVID-19 contact tracing apps, which could cause security and privacy issues in addition to hindering interoperability — With no nationwide Covid-19 notification software in sight, security and interoperability issues loom large.

Walmart employees are out to show its anti-shoplifting AI doesn’t work

Customers and staff cluster around grocery store self-check lane.

In January, my coworker received a peculiar email. The message, which she forwarded to me, was from a handful of corporate Walmart employees calling themselves the “Concerned Home Office Associates.” (Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, is often referred to as the Home Office.) While it’s not unusual for journalists to receive anonymous tips, they don’t usually come with their own slickly produced videos.

The employees said they were “past their breaking point” with Everseen, a small artificial intelligence firm based in Cork, Ireland, whose technology Walmart began using in 2017. Walmart uses Everseen in thousands of stores to prevent shoplifting at registers and self-checkout kiosks. But the workers claimed it misidentified innocuous behavior as theft and often failed to stop actual instances of stealing.

They told WIRED they were dismayed that their employer—one of the largest retailers in the world—was relying on AI they believed was flawed. One worker said that the technology was sometimes even referred to internally as “NeverSeen” because of its frequent mistakes. WIRED granted the employees anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

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https://arstechnica.com

Experts discuss plans announced by Coinbase, Genesis Trading, and BitGo to become crypto's "prime brokers" and what that reveals about the state of the industry (Ian Allison/CoinDesk)

Ian Allison / CoinDesk:
Experts discuss plans announced by Coinbase, Genesis Trading, and BitGo to become crypto's “prime brokers” and what that reveals about the state of the industry — It's probably no coincidence that three major crypto firms - Coinbase, Genesis Trading and BitGo …

Twitter takes on a new kind of task for fact-checking

Twitter has added fact-checking labels to thousands of other tweets since introducing the alerts earlier this month. These posts are mostly on coronavirus. The company is not partnering with independent fact-checking organisations like Facebook and Google to debunk viral posts. https://ift.tt/3dlzhbD

OnePlus India engineers help to improve OS, camera, 5G

Today, the OnePlus team of over 300 engineers at Hyderabad, led by Ramagopala Reddy, is seen to have more than lived up to Lau’s expectations. https://ift.tt/2XjFxeE

Remote hiring is surging; here’s how to ace it

The remote hiring tech is built on three principles. One, the interview experience of a developer should be as good as the onsite one. Two, the company can trust the solution completely because an offer is made without even seeing the candidate in person. Three, help developers prepare for jobs by providing them resources. https://ift.tt/3exX2NV

Basketball helped Wabtec's Sujatha Narayan up the game in a man’s world

Sujatha Narayan thinks this exposure made her comfortable in a man’s world early on. Today, she is a standout woman leader in the country’s manufacturing industry and the rail sector in particular. https://ift.tt/3dpQb9i

NASA Astronauts Head for ISS on Historic SpaceX Flight

Two veteran NASA astronauts were headed for the International Space Station on Saturday after Elon Musk's SpaceX became the first commercial company to launch a rocket carrying humans into orbit,... https://ift.tt/36Nt464