Month: September 2017

Apple is really bad at design | The Outline

The “notch” on the new iPhone X is not just strange, interesting, or even odd — it is bad. It is bad design, and as a result, bad for the user experience. The justification for the notch (the new Face ID tech, which lets you unlock the device just by looking at it) could have easily been accomplished with no visual break in the display. Yet here is this awkward blind spot cradled by two blobs of actual screenspace.

https://theoutline.com/post/2352/apple-is-really-bad-at-design

Moscow Deploys Facial Recognition to Spy on Citizens in Streets – Bloomberg

Moscow is adding facial-recognition technology to its network of 170,000 surveillance cameras across the city in a move to identify criminals and boost security.

Since 2012, CCTV recordings have been held for five days after they’re captured, with about 20 million hours of video stored at any one time.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-28/moscow-deploys-facial-recognition-to-spy-on-citizens-in-streets

Cloudflare CEO: DDoS Attacks Will Now Be ‘Something You Only Read About In The History Books’ – Motherboard

Cloudflare, a major internet security firm, is on a mission to render distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks useless. The company announced Monday that every customer—including those who only use its free services—will receive a new feature called Unmetered Mitigation, which protects against every DDoS attack, regardless of its size.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59dd5q/cloudflare-ceo-ddos-attacks-will-now-be-something-you-only-read-about-in-the-history-books

Moo-ve over connected cows, the internet of bees is here | City A.M.

A new project is aiming to bring bees online by putting them in tiny “backpacks” so that scientists can track the threatened insect’s behaviour and help its survival.

Bees in Manchester initially will be connected to the internet using technology from Cisco to help researchers track their migration, pollination and movement, and eventually, across the UK.

http://www.cityam.com/272476/moo-ve-over-connected-cows-internet-bees

Uber ban London: What it means for Uber and Londoners – Recode

Here’s a new mini-crisis for Uber’s new CEO: Transport for London, the taxi regulating service in London, announced today that it would not be renewing Uber’s license to operate because of concerns over the company’s “lack of corporate responsibility” in relation to public safety issues.

https://www.recode.net/2017/9/22/16349352/uber-london-ban-tfl-threat-driving-appeal