Personal Tech

• This week in AI: Man arrested after cops say he rode in backseat of Autopilot Tesla

  Plus: Non-profit ML groups snub sponsorship money from Google
  Katyanna Quach Sun 16 May 2021 // 03:17 UTC

  In Brief Highway patrol officers in California arrested a man this week accused of riding in the backseat of his Tesla while it was under Autopilot.

  The super-cruise-control software should have disengaged without him in the driver seat, yet it is claimed 25-year-old Param Sharma managed to bypass that requirement so that the vehicle would drive itself with him in the back. You're also supposed to have your hands on the wheel even while Autopilot is active so that you can take over from the computer system as necessary.

  Following reports of a driverless Tesla Model 3, a highway patrol officer spotted the vehicle travelling east-bound towards the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, and attempted to stop it. It is alleged Sharma climbed back into the driver’s seat before he pulled over for the police.

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• China says its first Mars rover Zhurong has landed on the Red Planet

  'An important step in our country’s interplanetary exploration journey' – state media
  Katyanna Quach Fri 14 May 2021 // 22:37 UTC

  Updated China's Zhurong rover today touched down on Mars from the Tianwen-1 orbiter, the nation's state media says.

  We're told the machine will take carry out self-tests, and try to move itself to explore the Red Planet's surface.

  "On May 15, our country’s first Mars exploration mission, Tianwen-1, landed in a pre-selected landing zone in the southern Utopia Planitia of Mars, leaving a Chinese footprint on Mars for the first time. It marks an important step in our country’s interplanetary exploration journey," Xinhua reported at 0837 in Beijing (1737 PT, 0037 UTC).

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• Google leads Big Tech effort to ensure H-1B spouses can continue working in America

  Coalition of 41 organizations oppose labor rule challenge
  Thomas Claburn in San Francisco Fri 14 May 2021 // 20:27 UTC

  Google is spearheading an effort to save a visa rule that allows the spouses of H-1B visa holders awaiting green cards to work in the US.

  On Friday, Google and 40 other companies and organizations filed an amicus brief supporting the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) H-4 employment authorization document (H-4 EAD) program, which faces a legal challenge by a group called Save Jobs USA.

  Save Jobs USA, an association representing Southern California Edison workers who claim they lost their jobs to H-1B visa holders, is suing DHS in a Washington, DC court to undo the rule.

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• AMD promises to spend $1.6bn on 12nm, 14nm chips from GlobalFoundries

  Also wriggles out of exclusivity deal
  Matthew Hughes Fri 14 May 2021 // 19:22 UTC

  Amid fears the global semiconductor crisis may last until 2023, AMD has opted to extend its purchase agreement with GlobalFoundries, giving it access to a greater proportion of the fabricator's output.

  AMD disclosed the existence of the deal in an 8-K regulatory filing submitted to the SEC earlier this week. The company has committed to buy $1.6bn worth of 12nm and 14nm node silicon wafers between now and December 31, 2024. It did not disclose a breakdown of the costs nor the exact quantity of output it had secured.

  Should AMD fail to meet its purchase obligation, it has committed to pay GlobalFoundries a portion of the difference between its planned and actual spend. AMD has also agreed to pre-pay for an unspecified portion of these wafers in advance.

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• Audacity's new management hits rewind on telemetry plans following community outrage

  Sorry for trying to add it or sorry for cocking up the comms?
  Richard Speed Fri 14 May 2021 // 18:23 UTC

  Amid the smell of burning rubber, the new managers of open-source audio editor Audacity have announced a U-turn on plans to introduce "basic telemetry" into the product.

  Audacity pitched up under the umbrella of Muse Group earlier this month and professed itself to be both "scared and excited."

  Mere days later, an impressive number of users went for the former option and expressed alarm at a GitHub request introducing "basic telemetry."

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• Apple's expert witness grilled by Epic over 'frictionless' spending outside the app

  How easy would it be for customers to depart the walled garden, legal eagles ask economist
  Matthew Hughes Fri 14 May 2021 // 17:18 UTC

  Epic Games' lawyers had a chance to put Apple's expert witness through the wringer in the latest from its California bench trial.

  Counsel for Apple called to the stand Lorin Hitt, an academic from the prestigious Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania.

  Hitt – who had been selected as expert witness for Apple – questioned whether iOS was as effective at locking in users as previously claimed, citing a 26 per cent switch rate. He also debated whether users remained loyal to a platform because of switching costs, or because they simply like it.

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• Facebook Giphy merger stays on ice after failed challenge to UK competition regulator

  Problem was of social network's own making, says unimpressed judge
  Gareth Corfield Fri 14 May 2021 // 16:29 UTC

  Facebook has failed to neutralise an order from Britain's competition regulator freezing its buyout of Giphy after having "sat on its hands" and failed to answer questions, the Court of Appeal has found.

  Judge Sir Geoffrey Vos said "the central problem in this case was entirely of Facebook's own making" as he dismissed its attempt to overturn an Initial Enforcement Order (IEO) made by Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year.

  That IEO blocked the Mark Zuckerberg-owned social network from finishing off its $400m buyout of Giphy, a supplier of web tracking beacons cunningly disguised as funny little animated images used to spice up online chats and comment sections.

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• 10.8 million UK homes now have access to gigabit-capable broadband, with much of the legwork done by Virgin Media

  That's 37% of the country covered, and BT is expected to pick up the pace too
  Matthew Hughes Fri 14 May 2021 // 14:27 UTC

  A new Ofcom report shows the number of UK homes with access to gigabit-capable broadband hit 10.8 million in January, representing 37 per cent of households.

  The figures were part of Ofcom's Interim Connected Nations report [PDF] and covered September 2020 to January 2021.

  Overall, the number of gigabit-capable lines increased by 37 per cent against August's figure [PDF] of 7.9 million.

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• Tor users, beware: 'Scheme flooding' technique may be used to deanonymize you

  By probing for installed apps with custom URL schemes, it's possible to build a 32-bit unique fingerprint
  Thomas Claburn in San Francisco Fri 14 May 2021 // 13:32 UTC

  FingerprintJS, maker of a browser-fingerprinting library for fraud prevention, on Thursday said it has identified a more dubious fingerprinting technique capable of generating a consistent identifier across different desktop browsers, including the Tor Browser.

  That means, for example, if you browse the web using Safari, Firefox, or Chrome for some websites, and use the Tor browser to anonymously view others, there is a possibility someone could link your browser histories across all those sessions using a unique identifier, potentially deanonymize you, and track you around the web.

  Doing this is non-trivial, it can be very inaccurate or unreliable, and so this is more of a heads up than anything else.

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• NASA pops old-school worm logo onto Orion spacecraft

  Will be visible from the launchpad ... when it finally gets there
  Richard Speed Fri 14 May 2021 // 12:39 UTC

  NASA has slapped its worm logo on the side of the Crew Module Adaptor (CMA) for the Orion spacecraft as the first Artemis mission to the Moon inches closer.

  The logo had already been stuck on the underside of the CMA last year, but sticking it on the side will ensure it is visible once the Orion spacecraft and its European-built service module are stacked atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and wheeled out to Kennedy's pad 39B.

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• Hospitals cancel outpatient appointments as Irish health service struck by ransomware

  Russia-based criminals pick soft target in hope of easy gains
  Gareth Corfield Fri 14 May 2021 // 11:45 UTC

  Ireland's nationalised health service has shut down its IT systems following a "human-operated" Conti ransomware attack, causing a Dublin hospital to cancel outpatient appointments.

  The country's Health Service Executive closed its systems down as a precaution, local reports from the Irish public service broadcaster RTÉ said, reporting that Dublin's Rotunda Hospital had cancelled appointments for outpatients – including many for pregnant women.

  "The maternity hospital said all outpatient visits are cancelled - unless expectant mothers are 36 weeks pregnant or later," reported RTÉ, adding: "All gynaecology clinics are also cancelled today."

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