Tag Archives: Technology

Bitcoin Companies Terminate Service in NY due to BitLicense Compliance Costs

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“The world’s largest peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace Local Bitcoins and bitcoin marketplace BitQuick have terminated their services in New York due to the strict restrictions and fees demanded by New York’s BitLicense.  Local Bitcoins is a unique case; as every single seller on Local Bitcoins would be required to pay $5,000 to apply for BitLicense.  New Yorkers who have depended on the services of Local Bitcoins would have to cross the river and sell or purchase bitcoin in New Jersey legally.  The worst part, BitQuick and Shapeshift say, is that the government is trying to get hold of sensitive customer data of all exchanges.”

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/21553/bitquick-local-bitcoins-terminate-service-ny-due-bitlicense-compliance-costs/

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Green Cab v. City of Bowling Green

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“Bowling Green makes it impossible to start a taxi company. Not figuratively impossible—the problem is not that its requirements for insurance or driver qualifications are too onerous. Literally impossible: City law says only 16 taxi permits are allowed in Bowling Green, and it is illegal to issue any more. To make matters worse, the city government owns almost half of them (even though it does not run a taxi service, but only a shuttle service). Bowling Green’s taxicab cap prohibits Green Cab, or any newcomer, from offering taxi services to the public—and, as a direct result, Bowling Green simply lacks the kind of on-demand taxi service that Green Cab so effectively offers in Athens.”

https://www.ij.org/bowling-green-taxis

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Kenyan slums dispense clean drinking water through ATMs

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“The Nairobi City Water and Sewerage company has just opened four ATM-like kiosks that will dispense 20 liters of potable water for just half a Kenya shilling (about half a US penny). That’s 100 times less expensive than what vendors charge for the same amount. Residents simply have to swipe a smart card and put a jug under the spigot, and the access card balances can be refilled either at the kiosk itself or via mobile phone.  The plan is not new — it’s actually been in use in rural Kenya for a while now — but it’s thought to be the first time such a distribution scheme has been tried in an urban city center.”

http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/22/kenyan-slums-dispense-clean-drinking-water-through-atms/

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Kenya, home to Africa’s ‘Silicon Valley’, is set to be the continent’s tech hub

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“Dubbed ‘Silicon Savannah’, this is an area in Kenya that has attracted a range of tech start-ups and venture capital firms. International tech giants such as Google, Intel, Nokia and Microsoft have sites in Nairobi and IBM has recently opened a new tower block, the IBM Innovation Centre, which is the company’s first research lab in Africa.   Furthermore, in Konza, 60 kilometres away from Nairobi, construction of a new techno-city is planned. These investments are clear votes in confidence in Kenya’s status as a globally-recognised hub for technology and innovation.  Kenya’s technology services sector has grown from £11m in 2002 to more than £300 million in 2013.”

http://mgafrica.com/article/2015-02-19-why-kenya-is-africas-tech-hub

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The War on Air Conditioning Heats Up

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“It started with the pope. In his recent encyclical, Laudato Si’, he singled out air conditioning as a particularly good example of wasteful habits and excessive consumption that overcome our better natures.  Now, it seems to be open season on air conditioning. From a raging Facebook debate over an article that claims that air conditioning is an oppressive tool of the patriarchy to an article in the Washington Post that calls the American use of air conditioning an ‘addiction’ and compares it unfavorably to the European willingness to sweat through the heat of summer, air conditioning is under attack. So I want to defend it.”

http://fee.org/freeman/detail/the-war-on-air-conditioning-heats-up

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Jeffrey Tucker: Who Will Lose in the War on Contractors?

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“The haters of the sharing economy are rallying around a plan for destroying the most spectacular ad innovative sector of modern economic life.  The hint came from a speech by Hillary Clinton at the New School in which she suggested that current ‘contractors’ be redefined as ’employees.’ According to her, this means that the workers can then enjoy new human rights, as if by magic. Hillary’s comments amount to a cloud no bigger than a man’s hand. She was speaking for the entire cabal of special interests who dream of crushing innovation.  Hillary poses as a spokesperson for the worker. What it actually means for employment is that many will be out of a job.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/whats-at-stake-in-the-war-on-contractors

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Hackers turn Square reader into card skimmer in under 10 minutes

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“Square created their tiny, portable card reader to revolutionize the credit card processing business. As it turns out, they may have unwittingly revolutionized card skimming, too.  Researchers Alexandrea Mellen  and John Moore were on hand at this year’s Black Hat conference demonstrating that it only takes 10 minutes to turn an ordinary Square reader into a portable skimmer. It simply requires very little work, and a high level of skill isn’t needed to pull it off. All the duo had to do to hack the reader was to solder in a short length of wire to bypass Square’s built-in encryption chip. Once the wire is in place, the reader can then slurp up and spit out credit card swipe data in the clear.”

http://www.geek.com/mobile/hackers-turn-square-reader-into-card-skimmer-in-under-10-minutes-1630512/

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Hacked: yup, even your skateboard isn’t safe

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“Every young person I knew who came out of the theatre after watching ‘Back to the Future’ shared dreams of Marty McFly’s hoverboarding future as they hopped onto their trusty skateboards, wishing away the years until their current mode of transport could be both self-propelled and capable of hovering in the air.  Both of those wishes have just about come true in the form of the Lexus hoverboard. But those of you with more modest means may have settled upon a non-liquid-nitrogen, electric version of the skateboard.  And that, for the time being at least, may have been a mistake.  As Wired reports, massive flaws exist that allow Bluetooth-enabled skateboards to be hacked.”

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/08/05/hacked-yup-even-your-skateboard-isnt-safe/

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Rootkit uses Thunderbolt accessories to infect Mac firmware

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“Dubbed ‘Thunderstrike 2,’ the new proof-of-concept attack still spreads primarily through infected Thunderbolt accessories. But where the original Thunderstrike required a malicious user to have physical access to your computer to work—something sometimes referred to as an ‘evil maid’ attack—the new one can be spread remotely. The malware can be delivered ‘via a phishing e-mail and malicious Web site,’ and once downloaded it can infect connected accessories that use Option ROM (Apple’s Thunderbolt-to-gigabit-Ethernet accessory is a commonly cited example). Once the accessory is infected, the malware can spread to any Mac that you plug the accessory into.”

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/08/thunderstrike-2-rootkit-uses-thunderbolt-accessories-to-infect-mac-firmware/

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Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft

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“Windows 10 uses the Internet a lot to support many of its features. The operating system also sports numerous knobs to twiddle that are supposed to disable most of these features and the potentially privacy-compromising connections that go with them.  Unfortunately for privacy advocates, these controls don’t appear to be sufficient to completely prevent the operating system from going online and communicating with Microsoft’s servers.  We’ve argued recently that operating systems will continue to make privacy-functionality trade-offs.  But the flip side of this is that disabling these services for those who don’t want to use them should really disable them.”

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/

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