Hex is a completely open source nanocopter kit made by a community of makers from around the world. It’s also the world’s first consumer electronic product that uses 3D printing technology to achieve personalization.
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Google Alters Search Algorithm to Handle More Complex Queries
Google on Thursday announced one of the biggest changes ever to its search engine, a rewriting of its algorithm to handle more complex queries that affects 90 percent of all searches.
The change represents a new approach to search for Google and required the biggest changes to the company’s search algorithm since 2000. Now, the world’s most popular search engine will focus more on trying to understand the meanings of things and the relationships among them, as opposed to the company’s original strategy of matching keywords.
The company made the changes, executives said, because Google users are asking increasingly long and complex questions and they are searching Google more often on mobile phones with voice search.
Google’s Gmail Keyword Scanning Might Violate Wiretap Law, Judge Finds
A federal judge today found that Google may have breached federal and California wiretapping laws for machine-scanning Gmail messages as part of its business model to create user profiles and provide targeted advertising.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh was rendered in a proposed class-action alleging Google wiretaps Gmail as part of its business model. Google sought to have the federal case in California dismissed under a section of the Wiretap Act that authorizes email providers to intercept messages if the interception facilitated the message’s delivery or was incidental to the functioning of the service in general.
Google Begs Court to Reconsider Ruling That Wi-Fi Sniffing Is Wiretapping
Google is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider a recent ruling finding Google potentially liable for wiretapping when it secretly intercepted data on open Wi-Fi routers.
The Mountain View-based company said the September 10 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will create “confusion” (.pdf) about which over-the-air signals are protected by the Wiretap Act, including broadcast television.
The case concerns nearly a dozen combined lawsuits seeking damages from Google for eavesdropping on open Wi-Fi networks from its Street View mapping cars. The vehicles, which rolled through neighborhoods around the world, were equipped with Wi-Fi–sniffing hardware to record the names and MAC addresses of routers to improve Google location-specific services. But the cars also gathered snippets of content.
The search giant petitioned the San Francisco-based appeals court to reconsider its decision that allowed the case to proceed at trial — a ruling that upended Google’s defense.
Google claimed it is was legal to intercept data from unencrypted, or non-password-protected Wi-Fi networks. Google said open Wi-Fi networks are “radio communications” like AM/FM radio, citizens’ band and police and fire bands, and are “readily accessible” to the general public and exempt from the Wiretap Act — a position the appeals court rejected.
Seven Principles for Big Data and Resilience Projects
The following is a draft “Code of Conduct” that seeks to provide guidance on best practices for resilience building projects that leverage Big Data and Advanced Computing. These seven core principles serve to guide data projects to ensure they are socially just, encourage local wealth- & skill-creation, require informed consent, and be maintainable over long timeframes. This document is a work in progress, so we very much welcome feedback. Our aim is not to enforce these principles on others but rather to hold ourselves accountable and in the process encourage others to do the same. Initial versions of this draft were written during the 2013 PopTech & Rockefeller Foundation workshop in Bellagio, August 2013.
German Hackers Crack iPhone’s New Fingerprint Scanner
Just a few days after Apple unveiled its new iPhone with a fingerprint ID scanner, German researchers say they’ve cracked the scanner using a fake rubber print.
The researchers, with the Chaos Computer Club, posted a video on their website showing members of the group’s biometric team defeating Apple’s Touch ID with a fabricated fingerprint created from a photo of a print.
They photographed the print from a glass surface, laser-printed the fingerprint image on a transparency sheet, then smeared it with latex. A similar method was used in 2002 by researchers in Japan to demonstrate the security weaknesses of fingerprint scanners using a gel fingerprint.
“We hope that this finally puts to rest the illusions people have about fingerprint biometrics. It is plain stupid to use something that you can’t change and that you leave everywhere every day as a security token,” Frank Rieger, spokesperson for the CCC, said on the group’s website.