Dec 9, 2015 | Computer technology
Can technology read emotions? There is a computer scientist named Rana el Kaliouby who is working on just that.
El Kaliouby is the leader of a Massachusetts based company called?Affectiva of Waltham, which started at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was inspired to integrate emotions and technology while she was in grad school in London, far away from her family in native Egypt. Though el Kaliouby had her laptop to keep in contact with family, she yearned to express the loneliness she felt. ?Then, she tried to develop a technology that read and communicated facial expressions. She wants to use this innovative technology to combat mental illness. El Kaliouby notices those with depression have slower facial expressions, and believes a device can flag emotions over the course of time. She hopes this data can pick up facial expressions when you’re down, or when something is off. She hopes that data can flag family, friend, and/or a doctor to help you. They’re already companies interested in what Affectiva of Waltham builds. A movie company wants to use this technology to study which parts of the movie are the funniest. El Kaliouby believes such technologies can even train doctors in empathy and studying side effects of medication. She even gives TED talks on this issue.
I truly believe Rana el Kaliouby’s intentions are honorable. From her personal experience, she sees a need that can help a lot of people. Her company is working to fulfill that need. Technology is already being used to help those with ALS and autism. So medical technology, when used with righteous and honorable intentions, can help and even save many. But my gut tells me somebody, or some institution or organization, could twist this into something sinister, like privacy invasion, spying, hacking, or even worse. Unfortunately, it’s happened before. Am I being too cynical here?
Dec 8, 2015 | Entertainment, Security
What do Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Cher, Carlos Santana, Miley Cyrus, Hugh Hefner, and Paul McCartney have in common? They were all subjected to a celebrity death hoax. Someone announced on social media a famous person passed away when they’re just as above ground as we are. Now there’s another celebrity death hoax.
Are you familiar with Jim “Good ol’ JR” Ross? He’s one of the greatest pro wrestling commentator of all-time. Someone hacked into his Twitter account and reported Jim Ross passed away peacefully in his sleep. Good ol’ JR himself confirmed this tweet was a lie and that he’s “…healthy but not happy”. While Ross works to get his Twitter account right again,it’s obvious Ross isn’t happy with someone hacking into his account and posting such a big, blatant lie. Ross warns the culprits karma is crazy and whoever put his family and friends through this kind of emotional grief will have to pay for their lies. The hackers’ twitter account has been taken down and so has the false tweet. Nobody knows how they got into JR’s Twitter account, but there is a lesson to be learned here. It’s advised you make your password as complicated as you can. It’s also advised you configure Twitter to send a login confirmation request for your smart devices.
Here we go again. You see why Jim Ross is so angry? What if someone puts a death hoax on you and you’re alive and well? How would your family and friends react? So yes, I understand why Jim Ross is ticked. Why would anyone lie about a celebrity dying? Is it financially motivated? I wonder how. Are celebrity death hoaxes meant to be funny or a practical joke? I always thought jokes were meant to be funny. Nobody is laughing here, especially not the Ross family. What would another motive be to create such unnecessary grief?
Dec 7, 2015 | networking, Uncategorized
There are still 25 days left in 2015. Yet some are already looking back on the past eleven months and six days. For example, Twitter has a year-end review. Some results might surprise you.
According to 2015 Twitter, the most influential news stories were the terrorist attacks in Paris, terrorist group ISIS and US Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage for all 50 US states. Other heavily tweeted stories include the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality. In technology, the most tweeted about gadgets were the iPad and iPhone. The top tweeted about new technologies include the Sound Cloud and Periscope. One Direction was the top tweeted music group. Top tweeted TV shows include Empire and The Walking Dead. In sports, international soccer took four of the top ten tweets. The NFL was the top American based sports tweet, and that was fifth of the polls. Others include NBA basketball, ML Baseball, and surprisingly, World Wrestling Entertainment. Top tweeted celebrities include Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez. And then there are the emojis. The leading emoji is a smiley face with tears (means laughing so hard he’s crying). But when I look at many events of 2015, I think the third most popular emoji sums it up: the sad face in tears.
There are many surprises here. When I think about the year Taylor Swift had, why isn’t she on the top tweeted list? And the sports list proves the USA sports don’t exactly dominate the world scene like we think they do. And when didn’t any specific sports team make the top 10 tweeted sports list? Why was WWE tweeted? This is their worst year in two decades. In politics, notice none of the 2016 presidential candidates on either side. Here is the Twitter year in review. See if for yourself. What is missing from this list? What shouldn’t be there at all?
Dec 6, 2015 | Computer technology, Security
Is there someone on your Christmas list that wants a Hello Barbie? This is a consumer alert. The Hello Barbie could be a major technological security risk.
It’s not me saying so. Some of the greatest cyber-security minds in America found major security flaws in the popular Hello Barbie doll. She’s the first Barbie to use the Internet and artificial intelligence to communicate with her consumers. According to Bluebox Security, Hello Barbie’s cloud storage and mobile app are venerable. The deficiencies can allow hackers to listen in during playtime with Barbie. Barbie’s creators at Mattel are already on it. So is Toy Talk. Toy Talk is the toy tech company behind Hello Barbie’s voice. A Mattel spokesperson issued this statement:?”We are aware of the Bluebox Security Report and are working closely with ToyTalk to ensure the safety and security of Hello Barbie.” Toy Talk’s co-founder Martin Reddy released a statement assuring the public that many of these hacking threats were already fixed. But consumer advocates and privacy rights?groups raised concerns even before this disturbing Bluebox Security report. The report just backs up their claims. Here’s how the talking part works: The user presses a button. The user is recorded, then sent to an online audio file where it’s processed. Hello Barbie responds to the child’s comment with one of thousands of Barbie’s pre-recorded messages. Parents must express consent and set it up through a mobile app before the child can use it.
My question is: Why would someone want to hack a child’s conversation with a doll? How lowdown does one have to be? Maybe, at best, parents and guardians can use it to see what their child is really up to or analyse their child. But we didn’t need to go this far when I was growing up. And most of us turned out okay. But something tells me hackers could use these deficiencies for something far, far more sinister. And who says it’s just hackers? Could the NSA and other agencies use Hello Barbie for their own spying and surveillance purposes?
Dec 5, 2015 | News, Uncategorized
On Wednesday, December 2nd, Syed Farook and his wife?Tashfeen Malik opened fire at a work related Christmas party in San Bernardino, California. Fourteen innocent people were killed; dozens more were wounded, a town is scarred, and a nation is crying out, “Oh no. Not again.”
Facebook executives discovered Tashfeen Malik, one of the shooters, posted a macabre message the very morning of the deadly attack. It was posted under an alias account which has since been removed. It turns out Malik posted her dedication and allegiance to terrorist group ISIS, or Islamic State of the Levant. Some terrorist experts say Malik’s posting may have revealed she and her husband were deeply influenced by ISIS, and not officially a part of this terrorist group. But a federal law enforcement official confirmed Malik pledged allegiance to the group under a false name, then deleted ?the message right before the shootings began. Law enforcement officers aren’t allowed to go into detail because of anonymity; they couldn’t talk about it anymore because of the investigation. But this Facebook posting gives a clear motive for why her and her husband shot up the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino (Farook attended the party as an employee).
But ISIS and other terrorist groups have used social media as a recruiting tool for years. That’s how they’ve been able to recruit thousands from the United States and other Western nations. They even show You Tube videos of themselves serving ice cream to children in impoverished neighborhoods in Syria and Iraq. They use social media to reach out to people who have very little going for them or who are in a very venerable position. Then these terrorists tell them whatever they want to hear. They use a combination of demonic charm/charisma and social media to continue their deadly and destructive work. It’s not social media that’s bad. It’s the person behind the keyboard you need to watch, and when will it ever end?
We at Geek Choice would like to extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of those who perished in the senseless tragic recent shootings in San Bernardino, California.
Dec 4, 2015 | Computer technology
Yes, laptops and tablets and smart devices are booming. No, the desktop isn’t dying. But don’t go to sleep on wearable technology.
From the looks of things, smartwatch and fitness tracking devices are very high on consumers’ Christmas lists. In Q3 2015, companies shipped 21 million wearable devices worldwide. That’s almost triple the number of such devices shipped in Q3 2014. Fitbit leads the charge with 22% of the market share, as far as the top five companies are concerned. I’ll get to that later. Apple and Xiaomi placed second and third, with 19 and 17% of the market, respectively. Garmin and BBK round out the top 5 with a combined 7 percent of Q3 2015 market share. But guess which category leads the pack? The ‘others’ lead it. The ‘others’ sold over a third of all wearable technology devices just in the Q3 of this year. The wearable technology boom has made Fitbit a household name, thanks to Fitbit Change and Fitbit Surge. More than 70 of the world’s top Fortune 500 buy from and/or endorse Fitbit. They’re beating Apple, though Apple Watch sales are increasing. Chinese based Xiaomi has grown the fastest. At this time last year, they only shipped 400,000 smartwatches per quarter. Now, they’re selling 3.7 million per quarter. It’s expected smartwatch sales will increase quarter by quarter and year by year.
But what strikes me is how well ‘other’ wearable technology devices are doing. This tells me the door is wide open and the sky is the limit for smartwatches, wrist monitors, and other wearable technology. An relatively young company like Fitbit is beating big and bad Apple in this field. This gives me hope this trend is worth trying. This gives me hope that the American free market economy isn’t dead yet. The smartwatch market today is ripe for anybody to be the next big tech innovator? Will you be that next innovator?
Dec 3, 2015 | General, Uncategorized
There’s still three weeks left until Christmas Eve. There’s plenty of shopping season left. But when you look at the last Black Friday, Amazon didn’t just win that race…they dominated!
According to a tracking app called Slice Intelligence Amazon accounted for over 35% of?online?Black Friday sales last week. Electronic retail giant Best Buy placed a distant second, only getting 8 percent of online sales. Rounding out the top five are Macy’s at 3.38 percent, Walmart at 3.35 percent and Nordstrom at 3.11 percent. That’s right: these three retail corporations only got a combined 10% of online Black Friday sales. Amazon itself bragged of it’s online success, claiming a record year for Amazon based product sales. Overall, Black Friday sales rose 7 percent. Some online stores, like Wayfair, tripled in Black Friday sales. This trend continued through Cyber Monday. Amazon did well here, too. But Cyber Monday 2015 was good to Ebay. Their online mobile sales increased 13 percent. Payment processing company Pay Pal says the biggest sales came from toys, electronics and cosmetics. In a statement, Amazon VP of Amazon Devices Dave Limp said millions will be playing with Amazon devices this year. Without giving specifics, hundreds of thousands of Kindle products were sold over this big shopping weekend.
What does this mean? Does it mean an improving economy? Maybe. But there’s a deeper meaning here. People are tired of long lines and fights at the store. More people have mobile devices than ever before. So these factors, and others, mean mobile holiday shopping is the trend of the future. Amazon is the first to cater to this trend, and they do so well. Other major retailers like Ebay are catching on. Then there’s Walmart. They got only 3% of the Black Friday online pie. Maybe it’s because so many of their customers are still in the long lines and wrestling over the last TV or crock pot. Walmart can make it a lot easy on themselves and their consumers by investing more time, effort, and advertising on online sales, especially mobile sales. Or does America’s biggest retailer like long lines and fights?
Dec 2, 2015 | General
Yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the healthy and successful birth of his daughter. He and wife Priscilla Chan named her Maxima. But it’s Zuckerberg’s letter to his newborn daughter that’s getting lots of social attention.
In his letter to baby Maxima, Mark Zuckerberg promises to make the world a better place for her and her generation. Mark and Priscilla wrote they would give most of their company shares (around $45 billion) to make the world a happier place. Zuckerberg will direct these stocks to ‘advance potential and promote equality’. He made this declaration official by filing it with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, though he intends to hold his majority voting power. He pledges to focus on issues like education, medical care, and making the Internet available to everyone worldwide. Zuckerberg joins other technology leaders who pledge to give much of their wealth to charities and worthy causes. This written promise is called Giving Pledge. Other signers of Giving Pledge include former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and Oracle leader Larry Ellison. Zuckerberg and Priscilla back such promises. They’re building ‘The Primary School’ in a low income neighborhood in the Silicon Valley area. This doesn’t include the $120 million they’re pledging to San Francisco public schools.
First and foremost, we at Geek Choice congratulate Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan on the birth of their daughter. I share Mark and Priscilla’s dream of this world being better for Maxima’s generation than it is for us. There’s a lot of work to be done in that area. You just can’t throw money at the problem. The initiatives they’re talking about will take years of hands on innovation, hard work and people skills. They can’t do it alone, either. It will take many, many helping and willing hands. I think the Zuckerbergs are up for the challenge. What do you think?
Dec 1, 2015 | Security, Software
Digital company and online store V Tech specializes in children’s technology products and learning tools. Just in time for the Christmas shopping season, V Tech faces a security crisis.
There’s been a massive breach at V Tech. It’s so massive that investigators and security experts believe up to 200,000 children and 4.8 million parents have been hacked. The only good thing about this cyber attack in no credit card numbers were affected, because V Tech’s database doesn’t contain them. But it’s believed adult names, email accounts, IP addresses and online histories have been compromised. What’s more disturbing is the information of child customers: their names, birthdays and genders were compromised as well. According to news site Motherboard, they stole photos and online chat information. V Tech insists affected customers were contacted. Some accounts were even shut down as a precaution. Security experts are warning more attacks against digital toys are likely. One reason is these toys lack security expertise and software development that most adult devices now have. One such expert believes V Tech missed the mark in securing data and allowed unscrambling the data to be too easy. V Tech is based out of Hong Kong, China. According to Motherboard, an anonymous hacker has claimed responsibility. This hacker says he will do nothing with the data.
Then why did he hack the data to start with? Why did he put millions of livelihoods on the line, including the privacy of over 200,000 children? Couldn’t there had been a better way to prove a point? But I will admit, there’s a point that needs to be made. We need to do a better job securing children’s toys and technology. If we fail to secure our kids’ toys, then we fail our kids. It’s that simple. There’s no telling what kind of predators would take advantage of this. That’s the scariest part of all. What can be done to keep digital toys safe?
Nov 30, 2015 | Computer technology
Other than the smartwatch, the other new technology is the drone. Amazon leads the drone movement. Amazon’s new revelation they’ve already gone beyond the old helicopter style.
Now, Amazon debuts their new Prime Air drones. It’s more helicopter than airplane. In fact, the only thing helicopter about it is the vertical take-off and landing. It flies horizontal like a passenger jet. This is made to fly faster and be more effective in deliveries. The Prime Air drone can fly 15 miles per trip and can go as fast as 55mph. A former Top Gear host named Jeremy Clarkson narrates a video promoting Amazon‘s new drone. After Prime Air lands on the intended target, it will find a landing spot on it’s own. Of course, users can help by marking their yard or area with a Amazon logo. It will drop your package and fly on to it’s next destination. One Amazon spokesperson boasts one day, we’ll see Prime Air drones as regularly as we see mail trucks today. But don’t expect to see them in the air now. This service will probably be more popular in rural areas. Can you see Prime Air drones flooding the skies in Manhattan, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, or other major metropolis?
My question is: Have the FAA even approved Amazon for drone delivery service? I know drones are becoming more popular for personal use. And corporations are pushing for commercial use. I get they’re trying to be ready for that time when commercial drone service is legal and ready to go. Maybe Amazon and other corporations should spend more time and energy getting Washington to approve these drones for commercial use. Until that happens, then all of this time, money and energy is virtually pointless. What do you think the top priority should be: Getting commercial droning approved or building the best drones you can?
