Tech News
Toyota unveils cars with auto pilot system
Toyota on Friday unveiled the next generation of cars featuring an auto pilot system that will swerve to avoid collisions and also keep to the middle of the road, all without drivers touching the wheel.
The Japanese giant autos using the self-driving technology could be available on the market in just a few years' time.
"These advanced driving support technologies prevent human errors, reduce driving stress and help drivers avert accidents, which has a big potential to reduce the number of traffic deaths," Toyota managing director Moritaka Yoshida said at a presentation in Tokyo.
Leading automakers and technology firms, including Toyota, rival Nissan and Internet giant Google, have been working on self-driving and assisted-driving technology for years.
Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, said that while drivers would still need to be alert and take part in the driving process, it essentially lets them put the vehicle on auto-pilot, leaving most of the work to the computer system.
The Automated Highway Driving Assist (AHDA) system lets vehicles communicate wirelessly to avoid running into each other while keeping the car in the middle of the road lane -- no matter how many twists and turns lie ahead.
"Cars with these technologies recognise the accelerating or slowing speed of those ahead, which also helps avoid traffic jams," said project manager Mitsuhisa Shida. "They can wirelessly exchange data once every 0.1 seconds."
The company plans to install AHDA in its commercial models over the next few years.
Toyota has already introduced the pre-collision braking assist system in its Lexus luxury sedan and plans to install it in other models by 2015, with the other technologies to follow.
Many cars already have systems that gives drivers a panoramic view to keep watch for nearby objects while parking itself.
The latest collision-avoidance system has doubled the detection time of oncoming objects to four seconds from a previous two seconds, Toyota added.
The automaker said such advances would be especially helpful for older people. Japan's society is rapidly ageing with over-65s already making up around a quarter of the 128 million-strong population.
Ford rolls out self-driving vehicle
Ford's new self-driving car can detect obstacles up to 650 feet away--and safely navigate around them.(Ford) Imagine no longer having to deal with bumps against the parking garage walls or dings from opening your car into the next car over (parked 6…
YouTube tells user he can resolve copyright claim by contacting himself
When bots handle copyright enforcement, things are sometimes going to get screwed up. YouTube's various algorithms do a lot of heavy lifting, sorting through the thousands of hours of video being uploaded every minute. Sooner or later, the bots hit…
Brazil will host Internet summit after criticizing NSA spying
Brazil, which has slammed massive US electronic spying on its territory, said Wednesday it would host a global summit on Internet governance in April.
President Dilma Rousseff made the announcement after conferring in Brasilia with Fadi Chehade, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
"We have decided that Brazil will host in April 2014 an international summit of governments, industry, civil society and academia" to discuss Brazil's suggestions for upgrading Internet security, Rousseff said on Twitter.
The summit will take place in Rio de Janeiro.
Chehade heaped praise on Rousseff for using her UN General Assembly speech last month to demand measures to thwart the massive US cyber spying operation revealed by US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
"She spoke for all of us on that day. She expressed the world's interest to actually find out how we are going to all live together in this new digital age," said Chehade.
"The trust in the global Internet has been punctured and now it's time to restore this trust through leadership and institutions that can make that happen."
Based in Los Angeles, ICANN is a non-profit, private organization that oversees certain Internet-related matters.
Rousseff scrapped a US state visit last month after documents leaked by Snowden, a former US National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor, revealed the extent of Washington's spying on its Brazilian ally.
The daily Globo has revealed, based on documents leaked by Snowden, that the NSA snooped on Rousseff's communications with aides, on phone call and email data of millions of Brazilians as well as on state-run energy giant Petrobras.
Canada, a close US ally, also targeted Brazil's Mining and Energy Ministry for "economic and strategic motives," according to Brasilia.
"The United States and its allies must urgently end their spying activities once and for all," Rousseff said Monday.
She has vowed to introduce a measure at the United Nations to establish an "international civilian framework" to protect the privacy of Internet users.
The 30-year-old Snowden, who has sought refuge in Russia, is wanted by the United States after revealing details of the NSA's massive worldwide espionage activities.
[Image via Agence France-Presse]
Court reinstates CIA's contract with Amazon for cloud computing services
A US federal judge has reinstated a CIA cloud computing contract with Amazon, rejecting a challenge from IBM, according to court documents released Tuesday.
Judge Thomas Wheeler of the Federal Court of Claims said in a notice posted by the court that Amazon Web Services' is "restored" and that a "corrective action stay is lifted."
"The Central Intelligence Agency and AWS may immediately resume performance of the (cloud) contract," the judge said, adding that a full opinion would be issued later.
The ruling marked the latest twist in a case pitting the two tech giants for a contract for a secure computing cloud reportedly valued at up to $600 million.
A report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, sided with IBM and recommended that the CIA reopen the bidding.
The GAO concluded that the CIA had failed to evaluate prices in each firm's proposal in a fair, comparable way and that the agency had waived a requirement in the project proposal only for Amazon.
Amazon's estimated price for the cloud computer project was about $54 million higher than that offered by IBM, but the CIA concluded the price difference was offset by a "superior technical solution" from Amazon, according to the GAO report.
The GAO report created a stir in the tech world as it indicated Amazon would be installing cloud services inside CIA data centers, in a break with its standard practice of offering extra computing power over the Internet.
Amazon Web Services executives have previously argued that "private clouds" connected to data centers do not qualify as authentic cloud services, as they are cut off from the public Internet.
NSA chief open to letting an independent agency store phone data
The National Security Agency's director said Tuesday he is open to storing telephone records in a neutral "repository" to alleviate concerns about government snooping.
General Keith Alexander, speaking about the controversy over bulk collection of phone "metadata" said his personal view is that more transparency would help restore public trust in the secret intelligence service.
"I believe it is in our nation's best interest to put all this phone data into a repository where you the American people know what we are doing with it," Alexander told a cybersecurity forum sponsored by the news organization Politico.
"I'm open for greater transparency. I'm open for where we put the data."
But Alexander said the spy agency still should have access to such data to deal with any terrorist threats from overseas.
"If we don't know there is a threat, we can't stop it."
Alexander repeated his contention that only a small number of phone records -- less than 300 last year -- were investigated as part of the agency's efforts to thwart terrorist threats stemming from overseas.
Alexander spoke after a key US senator called for an end to the bulk collection and said the intelligence programs had a "trust deficit."
The agency has come under fire following revelations about vast surveillance efforts which collect data on Americans.
Alexander said much of the reporting on the leaks in the programs has been sensationalized, and repeated that the NSA does not routinely listen to conversations or read emails of Americans.
Obama administration upholds ban on some Samsung devices due to Apple patent
The Obama administration Tuesday upheld a decision to ban some Samsung mobile technology products due to the company's violation of patents owned by rival Apple.
US Trade Representative Michael Froman rejected a Samsung effort to overturn the August ruling by the US International Trade Commission to ban some older model Samsung smartphones and tablets for the patent infringements.
"After carefully weighing policy considerations, including the impact on consumers and competition, advice from agencies and information from interested parties, I have decided to allow the Commission's determination . . . to become final," Froman said in a statement.
The ITC in August ruled that Samsung had infringed two Apple patents -- numbers 949 and 501, dealing with touchscreen actions and headphone jack plug-ins -- but cleared the South Korean company of charges that it had violated four more.
The USTR statement said the ruling will have "minimal" effect on consumers, in part because Samsung "has been able to make changes to its products so that they avoid infringing the two Apple patents at issue in this case."
"The nationality of the companies involved played no role in the review process," the USTR said.
"Both Samsung and Apple are important contributors to the US economy and help advance innovation and technological progress."
A Samsung spokesperson said the company was "disappointed" by the ruling.
"It will serve only to reduce competition and limit choice for the American consumer," the spokesperson said.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In August, the USTR overturned an ITC ruling in a patent suit brought by Samsung against Apple that would have banned the sale of certain iPads and iPhones in the United States.
It was the first time the USTR has overruled the commission since 1987.
The South Korean commerce ministry expressed "concern" over the August USTR ruling and said it hoped that US trade decisions would be "made on fair and reasonable grounds."
Apple and Samsung have clashed repeatedly over patents.
The disputes are closely followed because the two companies are the leading players in the smartphone and tablet markets and also because Samsung products are closely aligned with the Android system created by Google, a major Apple rival.
Apple shares were down 1.2 percent to $482.03 in early afternoon trade Tuesday.
Red Cross seeks virtual consequences for gamers who commit virtual war crimes
Should gamers be punished for committing virtual war crimes during gameplay? The Red Cross thinks so.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says it wants to work with video game developers to show the consequences of players’ actions if they commit virtual torture, harm civilians or prisoners, attack medical personnel or violate any of the Geneva Conventions.
The group didn’t outline what those consequences should be, but a spokesman told The Verge games “should not reward players for actions that in real life would be considered war crimes.”
But those consequences should apply only within the context of the game, the group said, and it shouldn’t make the game any less enjoyable or commercially viable.
“Our intention is not to spoil player's enjoyment by for example, interrupting the game with pop-up messages listing legal provisions or lecturing gamers on the law of armed conflict,” the group said in a Sept. 28 statement. “We would like to see the law of armed conflict integrated into the games so that players have a realistic experience and deal first hand with the dilemmas facing real combatants on real battlefields.”
On the other hand, the groups said, gamers should be rewarded for “respecting the law of armed combat.”
The ICRC made clear that it didn’t want potentially criminal actions removed from video games, saying that wouldn’t be a realistic reflection of modern-day warfare, but the group hoped that showing consequences for those violations would teach respect for the law.
“The ICRC is concerned that certain game scenarios could lead to a trivialization of serious violations of the law of armed conflict,” the group said. “The fear is that eventually such illegal acts will be perceived as acceptable behavior. However the ICRC is not involved in the debate about the level of violence in video games.”
A spokesman for the ICRC said video games had become so realistic that “it's very difficult to make the distinction between real footage and the footage you can get from videogames.”
The ICRC said it had already worked with filmmakers to address concerns about following the rules of combat, and the group said these suggested guidelines shouldn’t apply to fantasy or science fiction games.
“With their ever increasing popularity, video games can have a strong influence on what young people, future recruits and societies in general perceive as acceptable or prohibited in situations of armed conflict,” the group said. “That is why the ICRC also follows developments in the industry, particularly with games simulating real-life armed conflict.”
[Image via YouTube]
UN says 2.7 billion people -- 40 percent of the world's population -- will be online by year's end
Around 2.7 billion people -- 40 percent of the world's population -- will be connected to the Internet by the end of 2013, the United Nations said Monday.
Another 250 million people came online in 2012, but 4.4 billion people remain unconnected, said the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Ninety percent of those not online live in developing countries.
The ITU also said there would be 6.8 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions -– almost as many as there are people on the planet -- by the end of the year.
South Korea leads the world in information and communication technology (ICT) development for the third consecutive year, followed closely by Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Norway, the ITU said in its annual report.
The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Hong Kong (China) also rank high, while Britain nudged into the top 10 from 11th position last year, the report said.
The ITU’s annual ICT Development Index ranks 157 countries according to their level of ICT access, use and skills.
The report also noted that "mobile broadband is now more affordable than fixed broadband".
Pirate Party of Russia offers to host NASA's website while U.S. government is on shutdown
The government shutdown leading to various government websites being taken offline has been the subject of much mocking. But, for people who rely on those websites, it can be quite a nuisance. So perhaps it's time to start an "adopt a federal website…
Maryland partners with Facebook to censor content 'without societal value' in new cyberbullying law
We saw Nova Scotia deliver the worst in cyberbullying laws (Canadian edition) earlier this year. Like most bad cyberbullying legislation, this one was prompted by the suicide of a teen. It's too tempting for legislators to rush into action with no real…
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