2024-09-06 16:21:29

Following the lead of cities like London, Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris, another European destination is cracking down on #Airbnb-style rentals.
New regulations proposed by the Czech government could limit the amount of short-term tourist accommodation available in popular cities like Prague. #travel #europe
https://www.euronews.com/travel/2024/08/30/from-airbnb-crackdowns-to-tacky-costume-bans-how-is-czechia-tackling-overtourism

2024-09-05 17:12:13

Impressive architecture that impresses indoors as well.

2024-09-05 07:50:10

#EV charging stations increase revenues of businesses about 500m around of stations - new study claims.
The study found that, in California, opening a charging station boosted annual spending at each nearby business. The spending bump amounts to thousands of extra dollars annually for nearby businesses.
https://news.mit.edu/2024/study-ev-charging-stations-boost-nearby-business-spending-0904

2024-09-04 07:29:21

Another #Facebook feed algorithm change gone sideways - rampant #AI produced spam:
But the spam is more than just an annoyance; it can also be weaponized. Some spam pages appear designed to scam other users. In extreme cases, spam pages that gain a following can eventually be used, for example, by foreign actors seeking to sow discord ahead of elections.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/03/tech/facebook-spam-ai-meta/index.html

2024-09-03 07:53:09

Rawtherapee opened a new world of #photography for me after I took time to learn the basics. In addition to raw images you can edit jpg photos.
#RawTherapee, a powerful cross-platform open-source photo editing software designed for processing raw files and producing high-quality image outputs, has released its latest update, version 5.11, which brings a slew of highly anticipated features. #opensource
https://linuxiac.com/rawtherapee-5-11-launches-with-groundbreaking-features/

2024-09-02 07:26:48

Have you allowed access to #phone #microphone to all apps?
TV and radio news giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims that its so-called "Active Listening" software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to "capture real-time intent data by listening to conversations.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-partner-phones-listening-microphone

2024-09-01 14:58:45

A view from cafe.

2024-09-01 14:00:34

Kind of new display technology between E ink and traditional LCD being developed by a number of businesses:
A growing number of companies are offering products with reflective LCD displays or similar technology that offer some of the paper-like qualities of E Ink, but which are more suitable for animation and video. #eink #lcd
https://liliputing.com/e-ink-faces-growing-competition-in-the-paper-like-display-space/

2024-08-31 18:19:39

Both France and Italy have started a massive construction project that will produce the longest #railway tunnel in the world. The 57.5 km long tunnel is being excavated in the Alps, under Mont Cenis mountain. #train #travel
https://klaava.com/france/the-longest-railway-tunnel-in-the-world-under-construction-in-the-alps/

2024-08-30 07:56:01

Volkswagen is planning an extensive vehicle on demand business:
#VW will retain ownership over the entire life of the vehicles, it will be able to gather even more data about them and the people who drive them:
Another advantage of this strategy is the comprehensive access to data, both about the vehicles and about the customers. Volkswagen currently collects data on around eight million vehicles, and this figure will continue to rise in the future.
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/29/volkswagen-plans-to-shift-from-selling-cars-to-offering-vehicles-on-demand-and-grabbing-even-more-data-about-drivers/

2024-08-29 07:46:48

Apple lays off a number of employees from Books division:
#Digital services like this have been a big part of Apple's financial success in recent quarters. However, #Books has no subscription offering, and #Apple was subject to a US Department of Justice price-fixing lawsuit.
As a result, the Books service isn't capable of producing the kinds of big revenue numbers and growth Apple is looking for.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/apple-lays-off-employees-working-on-books-and-news/

2024-08-28 07:38:10

Frances Haugen: Over the two years I spent on #Facebook, I realized that over and over again, Facebook was facing trade-offs," she said with regard to content moderation. But every time they resolved those, because of the corporate culture, they would end up on the side of profits instead of optimizing for what was good for people," Haugen noted.
To correct our course, she argues for a way to measure, navigate, and understand the world of social media, AI models, and other aspects of the unseen #digital world. --- #opensource to the rescue?
https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/27/facebook_transparency_ai/

2024-08-26 14:34:02

The Dutch data protection watchdog says #Uber collects information such as taxi licenses, location data, photos, identity documents, payment details, and even criminal and medical data. The problem is that Uber transmits the data from Europe to the US without proper protection. --- Uber doesn't approve the fine, but is planning to appeal. #EU #GDPR
https://www.securityweek.com/uber-to-appeal-dutch-e290-million-gdpr-fine/

2024-08-26 07:32:55

AI technology is becoming so advanced that researchers argue in a new paper that there needs to be a better way than #captcha to verify that a person online is human and not an AI bot.
The researchers propose a "personhood credential" (PHC) system for human verification.
https://futurism.com/ai-bot-agent-human-verification

2024-08-24 15:24:46

How does anyone actually measure the #safety of an entire country? Well, we could ask local people (perhaps also expats who live in there) what their impression about local safety is, or we could dig into statistics that many countries publish about crime and dangerous events in the territory. Here we introduce results from a study that extracted data from statistics to identify the safest and least safest countries in the world. #travel #Europe
https://klaava.com/europe/travel-safely-in-europe-here-are-the-safest-countries/

2024-08-23 07:44:16

Niche #AI systems for specific applications:
"There's a lot of pressure on making smaller, more efficient models, smarter via data and algorithms, methods, rather than just scaling up due to market forces," he said. Many gains in the open-source space have also come through improvements in handling data. #opensource
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/heres-smaller-companies-compete-big-203951166.html

2024-08-22 07:25:25

The simplest (and most entertaining) #privacy policy ever. For instance:
Unlike #Google, #XScreenSaver will honor deletion requests if you email us asking to delete all none of your user data that does not exist.
https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/google.html

2024-08-21 08:03:06

Sure, you can listen to #audiobooks when #cycling but now, Peloton stationary cycling system lets you read #Kindle #ebooks on the bicycle screen.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/20/24224501/kindle-peloton-ebooks-fitness

2024-08-19 19:20:42

Let's watch TV on our PCs - way more control over content, including ads, that is delivered to our screens (and stop tracking as well):
Some #TV brands already prioritize data collection and the ability to sell ads, and most are trying to boost their appeal to advertisers. Smart TV OSes have become the cash cow of the TV business.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/tv-industrys-ads-tracking-obsession-is-turning-your-living-room-into-a-store/

2024-08-19 09:55:37