Showing posts with label crowdsourcing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crowdsourcing. Show all posts

25 April 2013

Fighting Terrorism with Crowdsourcing

You want to defeat terrorists? Use crowdsourcing--why wasn't Reddit (and the rest of us) given the Lord & Taylor video?

Reddit and the Marathon Bombers: The Wise Way to Crowdsource a Manhunt : The New Yorker: " . . . the Redditors faced a simple, but insuperable, obstacle when it came to identifying the Tsarnaevs, namely that the two brothers were not, as far as I can tell, in any of the photographs that were widely available before Thursday morning. The footage that convinced investigators that the Tsarnaevs were prime suspects was the footage from the Lord & Taylor surveillance cameras, which hadn’t (and still hasn’t) been released to the public. This is an obvious point, but one that’s been overlooked: Reddit had no real chance of identifying the right suspects because it didn’t have access to the information that mattered. (Had the clip of the Tsarnaevs walking down Boylston Street been publicly available last Tuesday, I don’t think there’s any doubt Redditors would have flagged them as suspicious.) Whatever the value of the wisdom of crowds, it isn’t magic: you can’t ask the crowd to find someone that, in a sense, it’s never seen. . . ."

Afternoon MoJoe: Google’s Eric Schmidt on how technology upgrades the war on terror — MSNBC: "Not only did photographs capture and add surveillance to nearly every inch of the crime scene . . . “In the future, as terrorists have to opt in to using technology, the room for error becomes much greater, and millions of people with smartphones are able to catch them in their tracks and press rewind,” said Jared Cohen, the director of Google Ideas, the company’s internal think-tank, and Schmidt’s co-author on the new book The New Digital Age." 

The Apple Economy Isn't Done Yet : The New Yorker: " . . . the company is trying to keep shareholders happy by dispensing some of its cash mountain on stock buybacks, and by promising to gear up the company a bit by issuing some debt. Together with a raised dividend, this financial engineering may put a floor under the stock for a while. But it will be Apple’s computer engineers, programmers, and designers—rather than its financial engineers—who will determine the company’s fate."

Fed guidelines: Carmakers must step up to stop distracted driving NBCNews.com Hoping to prevent distracted driving – blamed for causing more than 10 percent of all U.S. highway fatalities – the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released voluntary guidelines Tuesday to keep drivers' eyes on the road rather than on ... 

New Chevy Spark claims EV efficiency crown Los Angeles Times Chevrolet says it has earned bragging rights as the car company with the most efficient electric vehicle. The automaker says that the 2014 Spark, which is set to go on sale this summer in California and Oregon, has an EPA estimated range of of 82 miles when ... 

Sony Unveils $2000 Digital Binoculars With Image, Video Capture PC Magazine Sony today unveiled an updated pair of digital binoculars that can capture 3D images and video and is up to 30 percent lighter and smaller than its predecessor. Those bells and whistles won't come cheap, though. The DEV-50V will set you back $2,000 when ... 

MetroPCS Shareholders Approve T-Mobile Merger PC Magazine MetroPCS stockholders on Wednesday gave their stamp of approval to the company's merger with T-Mobile. The move means all the necessary regulatory and procedural hurdles have been dealt with, and the transaction is expected to close by May 1, ... 

Doubts raised about LulzSec 'mastermind' Telegraph.co.uk Mr Flannery, a 24-year-old IT worker, was arrested in Sydney after he was linked to a recent cyber-attack against an Australian government agency. The Australian Federal Police said the man was described as a leader on LulzSec chat sites and made no ...
Telegraph.co.uk 

Egg laid by extinct elephant bird sells for $101G at British auction Fox News LONDON – A massive, partly fossilized egg laid by a now-extinct elephant bird has sold for more than double its estimate at a London auction. Christie's auction house said Wednesday that the foot-long, nearly nine-inches in diameter egg fetched 66,675 ... 

Want the most reliable Windows PC? Buy a Mac (or maybe a Dell) ZDNet Summary: A new report from Soluto uses data from its massive online database of PC crashes, hangs, and performance metrics to identify the 10 most reliable Windows PCs you can buy today. Surprisingly, a MacBook Pro is at the top of the list. Even more ... 

Swype Ditches Beta Tags, Lands in Google Play PC Magazine After a lengthy beta phase, the Swype virtual keyboard has finally made its way to the Google Play store for Android devices. Swype is currently priced at 99 cents as a limited-time offer, so those looking to get their hands on the app should download it soon...

Java Flaw Targeted By Crimeware Toolkit: Patch Now InformationWeek Don't wait on this update, Java 7 users. Exploit uses bug, patched by Oracle last week, to execute arbitrary code. Java 7 users: Have you updated to the latest ... 

BitTorrent Sync challenges cloud-based file management BBC News Developers of the BitTorrent file-sharing process have opened an experimental data-synchronising tool up to the public. BitTorrent Sync uses peer-to-peer technology to send information between users' PCs. It eliminates the need to upload data to a third ... 

Antimatter results emerge at LHC - but puzzle abides BBC News The quest to understand why our Universe is made of matter rather than antimatter has received a boost at the Large Hadron Collider. The LHCb experiment has for the first time observed decays of particles known as Bs mesons that preferentially end up as ...
BBC News 

Report: Twitter working on two-step authentication - USA Today USA TODAY Twitter is reportedly close to adding two-step authentication to its service following the hack of the official account of the Associated Press. According to Wired, Twitter has been internally testing the feature, and hopes to make it available to users soon. 

FreedomPop introduces nationwide 3G, $40 hotspot CNET The company's new Overdrive Pro supports both 3G and 4G connectivity via Sprint's network, which covers most of the country instead of just select cities. Rick Broida. by Rick Broida. April 24, 2013 7:48 AM PDT Follow @cheapskateblog. The FreedomPop ... 

Microsoft, ZTE Reach Android Patent Deal PC Magazine "Under the agreement, Microsoft grants ZTE a license to Microsoft's worldwide patent portfolio for ZTE phones, tablets, computers and other devices running Android and Chrome OS," Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's deputy general counsel, wrote in a blog post. 

Fish-Eating Dino Hunted Like a House Cat Discovery News An illustration of Microraptor, a 120-million-year-old dinosaur found with a stomach full of fish. Some researchers ... 

Google Buys Wavii For North Of $30 Million TechCrunch Google has finally closed the deal on Wavii, a natural language processing startup, for a price that is more than $30 million, we're hearing from a legitimate source. Both Apple and Google were competing for the Seattle-based startup, and Google eventually ...

Monaco's co-op game play will steal your heart (review) VentureBeat Co-op gaming is often magical. When done right, it enables gamers to team up and have a great time with friends and family that are not as skilled. Monaco, out now for PC and soon for Xbox Live Arcade, does co-op right. Developer Pocketwatch Games ... 

Next Call of Duty to drop 'Modern Warfare' name, called Call of Duty: Ghosts MCV That's according to a retail listing on Tesco Direct. It could be wrong, of course, but the clearly final product cover image it includes more or less proves its authenticity. It lists the release date as December 31st – a placeholder, certainly. The game will almost ...
MCV 

Toyota Outsells GM for Fifth Quarter Amid Yen-Led Recovery Bloomberg Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) outsold all automakers for a fifth straight quarter as the yen's depreciation sharpens the Japanese company's edge over General Motors Co. (GM) and Volkswagen AG. (VOW). Worldwide sales at Toyota, including those of ... 

New 'Fairy' Insect is Mind-Blowingly Small LiveScience.com A new species of tiny fly named after the fairy in "Peter Pan" is mind-blowingly miniscule, with delicate wings trimmed in fringe. Tinkerbella nana is a newly discovered species of fairyfly from Costa Rica. Fairyflies are a type of chalcid wasp, and almost all are ...

Russian cargo ship launched on station resupply flight CBS News A Russian cargo ship loaded with 3.1 tons of needed supplies and equipment blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday and set off after the space station amid troubleshooting to figure out what might be done to free a jammed ... 
CBS News 

The Competition Has AT&T's Number Barron's AT&T reported underwhelming first-quarter results, with disappointing net adds, weak average-revenue-per-user trends, and continued wireline-segment declines. We believe AT&T (ticker: T) management is caught in a bind, having enabled application ... 

Black-eyed Pies reel from BeagleBoard's $45 Linux micro blow Register Pics Open-source hardware outfit BeagleBoard has formally announced a major revision of its BeagleBone board computer that ups the spec and downs the price. The BeagleBone Black's single-core processor jumps from its predecessor's 720MHz to 1GHz. 

Chatterbox: Wednesday | Technology | guardian.co.uk - The Guardian By Keith Stuart The place to talk about games and other things that matter. Technology: Games blog | guardian.co.uk


Try Glasses Online Thanks To 3D Technology | Ubergizmo By Edwin Kee 3D printing has seen its fair share of successes, and in one case, students from Harvard University have plans to use 3D printing so that the blind... Ubergizmo

HTC found blameless over Nokia microphone technology used in ... By Chris Chavez More details have emerged from yesterday's legal spat between Nokia and HTC, the one that ended with a preliminary injunction against the HTC One in. Android Phone Fans

Denver post names boa technology as one of denver's top workplaces By Evan Buzbee Boa Technology has been ranked 13th on a list of Denver's top workplaces for their corporate health and wellness program. Transworld Business » | Transworld...

BitTorrent Sync: Secure File Sync Between Computers Using P2P ... By Andrew BitTorrent Sync: Secure File Sync Between Computers Using P2P Technology [Public Alpha] ~ Ubuntu / Linux blog. ... BitTorrent Sync: Secure File Sync Between Computers Using P2P Technology [Public Alpha] ... Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog

Coto Technology claims industry's smallest MEMS reed switch Coto Technology, which has been designing and developing small signal switching solutions to the worldwide electronics industry for over 90 years, has announced the availability of its RedRock RS-A-2515 MEMS-based magnetic reed ... DIGITIMES: IT news from Asia

An assistive technology guide for autism | eSchool News By Meris Stansbury In recent years, educators and parents have touted iPads, tablets, and mobile apps as assistive technologies that can help children or students diagnosed with autism communicate and learn basic concepts. But just as there's a spectrum of ... eSchool News

Editorial: Has Technology Taken Over Our Lives? | CAFNR Corner ... By Ashley Craft As you walk across campus, count how many people are zombie-fied on their phone while they walk. You might be amazed if you look up from your own phone to ... CAFNR Corner Post

Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology launches ... Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) has announced the launch of the new strategic project DubaiSat-3, the first satellite that will be completed in the UAE.A core team of 45 UAE experts and engineers will lead ...

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18 April 2013

Google Person Finder, Boston Marathon bombing info, crowdsourcing

Google Person Finder: Boston Marathon Explosions - Google.org
google.org/personfinder/2013-boston-explosions


Boston Bomb Clues Surface: Lethal Devices Believed Built From Pressure Cookers; Hotels, Rentals Canvassed - WSJ.com: Wall Street Journal has best  info/graphics on the Boston Bombing (go to the link)

Data for the Boston Marathon Investigation Will Be Crowdsourced | Danger Room | Wired.com"The investigation of Monday’s deadly twin bombings in Boston will rely to an extraordinary extent on crowdsourced surveillance, provided by Marathon spectators’ cellphone photos, Vine videos, and Instagram feeds. Investigators in Boston, led by FBI special agent in charge Richard DesLauriers, want to see any and all imagery taken by anyone and everyone where the blasts occurred Monday. In an unusual move, the team of local, state and federal authorities investigating the crime openly called for spectators to provide any images or video they might have, all of which could potentially provide leads or evidence in the case. “We’d like to review any type of media,” to include “video [and] photographic evidence” of the attack that killed three and injured more than 150 people, Gene Marquez of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said today."

Microsoft signs Android patent deal with Foxconn
BBC News
Microsoft has secured a patent deal with the world's biggest consumer electronics manufacturer to receive fees for devices powered by Google's Android and Chrome operating systems. Hon Hai - the parent company of Foxconn - said the deal would help ...According to the tech consultancy Asymco, Microsoft is likely to earn several times more money through its Android patents than it does from licences for its own Windows Phone system.

BBC News

Why Microsoft won't make an iPhone rival
CNET
Why Microsoft won't make an iPhone rival. Rather than creating a premium device to rival Apple and Samsung in the developed world, Microsoft plans to rely on partners to mine emerging markets with budget smartphones. Jay Greene ... In February, Windows ...

Apple Named in China Porn App Investigation
Wall Street Journal (blog)
Some analysts compared Apple's run-in with state media last month to Google's difficulties with China Central Television, which accused the company of spreading pornography in 2009. The accusations presaged deeper difficulties in China, including...

Wall Street Journal (blog)

Google Offers Life Support For Old Internet Explorer Versions
InformationWeek
Having worked for years to discourage use of Internet Explorer, Google is now offering businesses a way to keep older versions of Microsoft's browser on life support. As part of its hard-fought campaign to woo business users from the desktop to the ...

Google releases tech specs for Glass
Washington Post
Google, which is stepping up its challenge to Apple Inc. and other smartphone makers, said Glass devices will feature about a day of battery life, a high-resolution display and a five megapixel camera, according to a statement on its website. The ...

Washington Post

Google Emulates Apple in Restricting Apps for Glass
New York Times (blog)
On Monday night, Google released extensive guidelines for software developers who want to build apps for Glass. With those guidelines, it is taking a page from Apple'splaybook, by being much more restrictive about the glasses than it has been with ...

New York Times (blog)

Eric Schmidt denies claims Google plans to block Facebook Home
The Guardian
In response to Terry Myerson, Microsoft's head of Windows Phone, who said he would be "very surprised" if Google wasn't looking for some way to block Facebook Home on Android phones, Schmidt responded: "Why are you listening to Microsoft's ...

The Guardian

Amazon's Android Appstore lands in nearly 200 more countries
ZDNet
Amazon's Kindle Fire device is not on sale in all of the markets that the Appstore has been rolled out to but people will be able to download the Appstore Android app on their smartphone, enablingAmazon to sell apps that aren't in the Google Play Store.

Foxconn Becomes Largest Microsoft Patent Licensee, Pays Royalty ...
By Victoria Ho
Foxconn is an ODM, or “original design manufacturer”, and makes Android devices for clients like Acer and Amazon (it makes the Kindle Fire). It's famous for making iPhones and iPads as well. ...Microsoft going after manufacturers has been referred to as “extortion” by Google. It made this statement in late-2011 after Samsung and Microsoft decided to cross-license their patents. Probably because Samsung was sick of all the lawsuits with Apple. Hon Hai is the world's largest contract ...
TechCrunch


Amazon's Appstore prepares for international availability in 'nearly ...
By Richard Lawler
Peter Sleeman, Director of P2 Games, is quoted in the press release claiming his company saw 4-5x sales of a recent app on Kindle Fire compared to Google Play. That feat is echoed by several others quoted, citing Amazon's in-app ...
Engadget RSS Feed

Here's What's Inside Google Glass' Box - Gizmodo
By Casey Chan
Even though we've seen Google Glass be leaked, be announced, be presented, be demoed, be worn, be used and even be mocked, it's always represented some far off future technology that we never were sure if it would ever be real (in a I ...
Gizmodo

MLB.com's Bob Bowman on Apple, Android, Samsung, BlackBerry ...
By Peter Kafka
The last time we asked MLB.com boss Bob Bowman for his take on mobile platforms, it went something like this: He loved Apple and Apple users, supported Android because he had to, and thought BlackBerry was still a viable market. That was two years ago. What do things look like now? Well, Bowman, who runs Major ... Google's Next Group of Gadgets Will Blow You Away, Says Eric Schmidt. April 16, 2013 at 7:29 am PT. D: Dive Into Mobile. Explore the impact of the “mobile first” ...
AllThingsD

Google Glass specs revealed: One-day battery life, bone-conducting ...
By Rosa Golijan
Ever since Google first showed off Glass, there's been speculation about the futuristic headgear's specifications. Now we've finally got some official details, straight from the tech deities of Mountain View, Calif. — right down to the fact that Glass ...
technolog


Nearly 200 Countries - Amazon Media Room: Press Releases
Amazon Expands Global App Distribution to Nearly 200 Countries ... within a couple of weeks we saw the sales on Kindle Fire overtake Google Play to a factor ...
phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol...

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