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Genealogy company MyHeritage is putting deepfake technology to a creatively unsettling use with a new feature called Deep Nostalgia. The system animates photographs of long-deceased loved ones, turning old still portraits into uncanny blinking and smiling videos. Deepfake technology has been rapidly evolving over the past few years and generally stoking conversations over how close we are to completely losing faith in the veracity of the images we encounter. So far, the technology is still in its infancy but MyHeritage is presenting a novel use of deepfakes, bringing to life still photographs of dead relatives. Called Deep Nostalgia, the technology...

Meanwhile, both IGEA and John Deere believe existing protections under existing consumer law work just fine. "As more products are computerised, and the information and power imbalances between manufacturers and consumers grow, the incentives for premature planned obsolescence that harms consumers is likely to increase. It is important that regulators are equipped with an appropriate legislative framework to investigate new emerging practices that may harm consumers," the ACCC said. In September 2018, the Equipment Dealers Association signed an agreement with John Deere in which the company would begin voluntarily making repair tools, software guides, and diagnostic equipment available for ordinary...

As COVID cases began to rise a year ago, a Chinese company contacted several U.S. states and offered to set up testing labs. As a byproduct, the Chinese firm, Beijing Genomics Institute, would likely gain access to the DNA of those tested. The offer was tempting for states struggling to set up their own testing facilities for a new virus on short notice. But U.S. national security officials urged the states to reject the offer, citing concerns about how China might use personal data collected on Americans. "We certainly reached out to our partners and the community to make sure...

The Federal Reserve’s systems for electronic money transfers between banks suffered a widespread disruption Wednesday. The Fedwire Funds Service, Fedwire Securities Service, and National Settlement Service have resumed processing and are operating normally. The Federal Reserve Banks have taken steps to help ensure the resilience of the Fedwire and NSS applications, including recovery to the point of failure. Nevertheless, it is critical that you reconcile the messages you believe you had sent or received through the services after waiting several minutes for the backlog of messages to finish processing before you submit additional messages to the Fedwire Funds Service and...

A report commissioned in mid-1999 by Rep. Curt Weldon (R) looks into possible Chinese front companies in the US seeking technology for the Chinese military. Dr. Eileen Preisser and Michael Maloof are commissioned to make the report. Dr. Preisser, who runs the Information Dominance Center at the US Army's Land Information Warfare Activity (LIWA) and will later become closely tied to Able Danger, uses LIWA's data mining capabilities to search unclassified information. According to Maloof, their results show Chinese front companies in the US posing as US corporations that acquire technology from US defense contractors. When the study is completed...

In China’s bid to acquire advanced technology from the United States, officials from the north-central city of Baoding tried to meet with Silicon Valley executives and discuss deals for companies to set up offices there, according to internal government documents that The Epoch Times obtained recently. Citing the Chinese regime’s key strategy of “bringing technologies in, exporting our products out,” the Baoding government detailed a successful example: it attracted AXT Inc., a U.S.-based designer and manufacturer of semiconductor substrates, to set up a factory in Dingxing county, Baoding. The semiconductor substrates are components for making electronic chips, which power nearly...

The gist of the Congressional inquiry into the role NSA may have played in manipulating the U.S. civilian government technical standards development and approval process is not the first time the legislative branch of government has smelled a rat when it comes to NSA inserting “Trojan horses” into standards developed for civilian government and commercial use. In the case of Dual_EC_DRBG, NSA’s zeal in providing itself with a hidden back door to spy on targeted computers and networks relying on the NIST standard may have boomeranged. Back doors of any nature in information technology products is a hack waiting to...

UK Microwave Group (UKuG) member Kent Britain WA5VJB talks about 'Care and Feeding of Yagi’ Antennas' - including some interesting ways to doing Yagi’s and myths of Yagi Stacking. - Recorded from the online UKuG talk on Wednesday 10 February 2021

Recent court documents have indicated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possesses a tool allowing them to access encrypted messages on the Signal app. Signal has rapidly gained in popularity as Silicon Valley monopolists have grown more openly hostile to free speech, but the platform may be vulnerable to backdoors that undermine the privacy protections provided through the encrypted messaging service. According to documents filed by the Department of Justice and first obtained by Forbes, Signal’s encrypted messages can be intercepted from iPhone devices when those Apple devices are in a mode called “partial AFU,” which means “after first...

Those of us who are either in-house or independent EMC consultants can benefit greatly by assembling our own EMI troubleshooting kit. I’ve depended on my own kit for several years and it has proven not only valuable, but depicts a sense of professionalism in dealing with your own product development engineers, their managers, or your clients, as the case may be. Mine is designed around a Pelican 1514 roller case (http://www.pelican.com) that includes a padded divider, so it is easy to transport to the area needed. You’ll also want to order the optional lid organizer, model 1519, for carrying extra...

Plus: Check if your Flickr photos are in facial recognition engines and and the list of NSFW words for AICanada’s privacy watchdog has found Clearview AI in “clear violation” of the country’s privacy laws, and has told the facial-recognition startup to stop scraping images of Canadians and delete all existing photos it has on those citizens. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada launched an official investigation into the upstart’s practices, and as a result Clearview stopped selling its software to Canadian police. “Clearview's massive collection of millions of images without the consent or knowledge of individuals for the...

Waste fibers from hemp crops out-perform graphene for a thousandth of the cost, according to new researchIs there anything hemp can’t do? A year after hemp became legal to grow in the United States, we’ve seen its power to make better clothing, better buildings and better medicine. Now, there’s something else hemp appears to be better at – making batteries. Most auto batteries today are made from lithium-ion, an expensive, quickly disappearing material. A team of American and Canadian researchers have developed a battery that could be used in cars and power tools using hemp bast fiber – the inner...

For the longest while I have been asking, “Where do environmentalists and Democrats think all these batteries for our oil-free transportation fleet are going to come from?” It seems they think there is a Battery Fairy out there somewhere who will magically supply the ginormous battery capacity, and additional supply of electricity to charge them, in order to deliver us to our blessed fossil-fuel-free future. So kudos to Wired magazine on “The Spiraling Environmental Cost of our Lithium Battery Addiction,” which reminds us that there are, you know, tradeoffs between various kinds of energy systems we might use: Demand for...

Much debate remains on whether the Lockheed Martin SR-72, affectionately known as the “Son of the Blackbird,” is actually real. It reportedly could be making an appearance in the upcoming film Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise. While there is no doubt that the aircraft may be in the production stage, whether it is ready to take to the skies is the other question. Another question is what its actual role could be in the U.S. military, but more on that in a moment.

The blatant, in-your-face assault on free speech by America’s largest tech companies is about more than just stifling political dissent – it’s about advancing the agenda of globalist technocrats with designs on seizing the world economy, says Patrick Wood, founder and director of Citizens for Free Speech. In an interview with Joshua Phillip of the Epoch Times, Wood connected the dots between the Big Tech takeover of society, the “Great Reset” being launched this week in Davos by the World Economic Forum, and the ongoing attempt to crush free speech. It’s all part of a global revolution now in progress....

To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle,’ George Orwell famously observed. He was talking not about everyday life but about politics, where it is ‘quite easy for the part to be greater than the whole or for two objects to be in the same place simultaneously’. For years before the 2020 election, nearly all American conservatives were in favor of standing up to Big Tech — but most were also against changing the laws and regulations enough to make such a stand effective. And yet the threat from Silicon Valley was literally in front...

Twitter unveiled a feature called Birdwatch on Monday meant to bolster its efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation by tapping users in a fashion similar to Wikipedia to flag potentially misleading tweets. Not content with their silencing and censoring the views and opinions of people like Donald Trump, Twitter now turns to the Twitterverse to enlist them to do their dirty work for them. Censorship will become a group effort, where no opinion will be allowed except for the opinion of the group. This is exactly what George Orwell warned would happen one day in America, that day is now...

Hello, I was unsure how to get in touch so I thought this might get a mod's attention. It seems my posts are now being held back. If I have violated a rule I am sorry. If posting less can restore what I consider to be a great website that would be great. I believe in your mission and as a monthly donor put my money where bandwidth is, so to speak. Happy to back off posting a little, it's just your site is a little addictive. Did not mean to upset.

Last year’s Super Bowl, between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, was shown in 4K, for Fox’s broadcast of the game. But this year’s game won’t be, according to a report Thursday. The Verge reported, based on confirmation from CBS Sports Digital, that Super Bowl LV will not be streaming in 4K or HDR. CBS told the site that it “remains committed to offering more live sports in 4K and HDR in the future.” Why not? It appears to be due to a delay in deployment of the technology, caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this month, a pro-Trump mob unlawfully breached the United States Capitol, hoping to “stop the steal” by interfering with the Electoral College vote count. In a positive deviation from the norm, Americans are coming together to denounce political violence, calling for the swift arrests of the perpetrators. What’s troubling, however, is law enforcement’s use of the same invasive technologies that, just a few months ago, caused a wave of backlash and prompted big tech to terminate government contracts. While Americans rally around this national manhunt, they should keep a watchful eye on their Fourth Amendment rights. Sure, the rioters...