• Researcher uses AI to unravel the mystery of Shakespeare’s co-author

    Researcher uses AI to unravel the mystery of Shakespeare’s co-author
    After all these years, someone might have figured out exactly how much Shakespeare worked on one of his last plays. It’s long been suspected that Shakespeare didn’t write the whole of Henry VIII, but now, thanks to machine learning, we could know just how much he outsourced to a playwright friend. For those of you who aren’t up on your Shakespeare, the notion that Henry VIII may have had more than one formal author is also a very old one, born from the fact that some
  • Twitter delays deleting inactive accounts to decide how to respect dead users

    Twitter delays deleting inactive accounts to decide how to respect dead users
    Yesterday, news broke that Twitter would begin to get rid of accounts that hadn’t been used in over six months, starting on December 11. While it makes some sense to purge Twitter of perfectly good usernames that are going unused, some users wondered what would happen with the accounts of the deceased. At the time, Twitter didn’t have an answer beyond the team is “thinking about ways to do this.” Now the company is clarifying its account removal policy, while also appear
  • Study: Our universe may be part of a giant quantum computer

    Study: Our universe may be part of a giant quantum computer
    A pair of physicists from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (IKBFU) in Russia recently proposed an entirely new view of the cosmos. Their research takes the wacky idea that we’re living in a computer simulation and mashes it up with the mind-boggling “many worlds” theory to say that, essentially, our entire universe is part of an immeasurably large quantum system spanning “uncountable” multiverses. When you think about quantum systems, like IBM and Google&rsq
  • This is why you shouldn’t use Apple’s highlighter tool to censor sensitive info

    This is why you shouldn’t use Apple’s highlighter tool to censor sensitive info
    A recent Reddit post details the danger of using a popular built-in tool in the iOS image editing menu. The tool, commonly referred to as the highlighter (it’s actually a chisel-shaped marker, don’t @ me) is often used to cover sensitive information in screenshots or photographs — such as credit card numbers or the address on a drivers license. The problem is in the default opacity of the tool. It’s meant to be used as a highlighter, not a tool to censor sensitive detail
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  • RIP Steam Controller 2015-2019: Valve is selling off its inventory

    RIP Steam Controller 2015-2019: Valve is selling off its inventory
    Valve won’t be selling its Steam Controller anymore. That’s right, the gamepad for the PC gaming elite is reportedly going the way of the dodo — and the company is selling the last ones at a whopping 90 percent off. Valve confirmed to The Verge that this would be the last batch of Steam Controllers. Originally released in November 2015, the controller was designed to work with Steam Machines, or anything that could run SteamOS. In addition to its big, obvious trackpads, i
  • Bitcoin fans spot Mr Robot easter egg, start sending ‘Elliot’ their cryptocurrency

    Bitcoin fans spot Mr Robot easter egg, start sending ‘Elliot’ their cryptocurrency
    Eagle-eyed cryptocurrency fans spotted a Bitcoin address in USA Network’s Mr Robot and decided to start sending BTC. In the latest episode, vigilante hacker Elliot Alderson codes a program for “cleaning coins” with a “crypto tumbler.” Presumably, he’s looking to steal some Bitcoin, and wants to be able to cash it out without being caught. Elliot’s mixer is likely to make tracking Bitcoin more difficult, much like popular BTC solution Coin
  • Astro’s A50 wireless headset feels and sounds great (but it costs more than it should)

    Astro’s A50 wireless headset feels and sounds great (but it costs more than it should)
    When it comes to gaming, few things infuriate me more than an enemy catching me off-guard. But there’s not much you can do to prevent that from happening if your audio gear sucks — and I’ve had enough. For the past few weeks, I’ve been testing out the fourth iteration of the Astro A50 gaming headset. Before I get into it, let me preface this review with a disclaimer: I’m hardly an audiophile, and have been using average-sounding cans, earbuds, and speakers pretty m
  • An iPhone 11 Pro Max review especially for you, human

    An iPhone 11 Pro Max review especially for you, human
    Reviewing an iPhone is not like covering any other device. People who are already in the Apple ecosystem will probably upgrade when they’re ready, not when you say so. And Android folks? Well, they aren’t going to suddenly jump ship because of a single article. Then you have specs. While companies like Huawei, Samsung, and OnePlus brandish what’s under the hood of their handsets as a marketing tactic, Apple have quietly tried to remove themselves from this arm’s race. I
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  • Hackers mass-scan for Docker vulnerability to mine Monero cryptocurrency

    Hackers mass-scan for Docker vulnerability to mine Monero cryptocurrency
    A hacking group is reportedly performing a mass-scan of the internet in search of vulnerable ports on systems using enterprise sandbox software Docker to mine cryptocurrency. According to security researchers at Bad Packets, the scans, which began over the weekend, identify vulnerabilities that allow bad actors to inject malicious code that deploys a cryptocurrency miner on a company’s Docker instances, ZDNet reports. Opportunistic mass scanning activity detected targeting exposed Docker
  • TikTok denies suspending makeup tutorial teen for raising awareness of China’s detention camps

    TikTok denies suspending makeup tutorial teen for raising awareness of China’s detention camps
    A 17-year old Muslim girl on TikTok has been uploading now-viral makeup tutorials, but with a political twist. In a video shared by “@getmefamouspartthree,” Feroza Aziz seemingly gives tips on how to lengthen your lashes by telling users to grab a set of lash curlers, but then directs viewers to use their phones to search for “China’s Muslim concentration camps” — this is in reference to the detention of approximately 1 million Uighur people in Xinjiang, Chin
  • Judge orders Telegram founder Pavel Durov to testify over its crypto ICO

    Judge orders Telegram founder Pavel Durov to testify over its crypto ICO
    Telegram’s founder and CEO Pavel Durov should testify in the US Securities Exchange Commission‘s (SEC) case against the company’s controversial digital token, a US federal judge has ruled. A document signed by District Judge P. Kevin Castel at the New York Southern District Court earlier this week, says Durov will be deposed “on January 7 or 8, 2020, as necessary,” at a location mutually agreed by both parties. Shyam Parekh, a Telegram employee, will be deposed on
  • This YUGE font generator lets you write like Trump

    This YUGE font generator lets you write like Trump
    “I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NOTHING,” US President Donald Trump wrote in a note addressing US Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s impeachment testimony. “I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO.” The note has since been elevated to the kingdom of memes, and thanks to this new font generator — you can keep on meme’ing. The tool practically lets you type anything in Trump’s own handwriting. It’s also stylized after the same Aboard Air Force One notepad Trump uses. O
  • The sixth mass extinction has already claimed its first victims: Humans

    The sixth mass extinction has already claimed its first victims: Humans
    Nine human species walked the Earth 300,000 years ago. Now there is just one. The Neanderthals, Homo neanderthalensis, were stocky hunters adapted to Europe’s cold steppes. The related Denisovans inhabited Asia, while the more primitive Homo erectus lived in Indonesia and Homo rhodesiensis in central Africa. Several short, small-brained species survived alongside them: Homo naledi in South Africa, Homo luzonensis in the Philippines, Homo floresiensis (“hobbits”) in Indonesia,
  • CHEAP: Don’t be a fool. Get Sony’s legendary WH-1000Xm3 cans for just $278

    CHEAP: Don’t be a fool. Get Sony’s legendary WH-1000Xm3 cans for just $278
    Welcome to CHEAP, our series about things that are good, but most of all, cheap. CHEAP! There are times when you see a product and think “I may buy it because it’s good for its price.” Then, there are some products that you just have to get when they’re discounted. Sony’s famous WH-1000Xm3 wireless noise cancellation headphones are one of those products. They’re currently on sale for just $278, down from $349. Believe me, you’re not going to regret anyt
  • How to make your brand’s content people-centric

    How to make your brand’s content people-centric
    Content might be made up of words, pictures, code, and video. But good content is also made up of some kind of human connection, as well — it addresses a concern, taps into an emotion, or bonds through some sort of commonality. Content is created by people and for people (sorry, I think this is starting to sound very Abraham Lincoln-y), so people should always be at the forefront when deciding what to write about and how.  But how can you actually put that into action? Here are my fa
  • Facebook’s only fact-checker for Dutch news quits over political ad controversy

    Facebook’s only fact-checker for Dutch news quits over political ad controversy
    Yesterday, the Dutch digital newspaper, NU.nl, which was Facebook’s only partner, cut ties with the social network and published a blog post, written by Gert-Jaap Heokman, NU.nl’s editor-in-chief, questioning: “What is the point of fighting fake news if you are not allowed to tackle politicians?” The tech giant is currently operating without a third-party fact-checking service in the Netherlands over the continued dispute of allowing political ads to contain misinformati
  • Our DNA can now prove how (un)intelligent we are

    Our DNA can now prove how (un)intelligent we are
    It’s well known that some areas of the UK are poorer than others. These include Wales and northern Britain, which used to be coal-mining areas. Now we have discovered that these regional economic inequalities are in line with regional differences in DNA as well – with people becoming increasingly clustered by certain types of genetics. Genetic clustering has existed in all past societies. People have typically been relatively genetically similar to others nearby. But most of this wa
  • Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘Bitcoin ATMs installed at largest US shopping malls in time for Black Friday and Christmas’

    Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘Bitcoin ATMs installed at largest US shopping malls in time for Black Friday and Christmas’
    Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day. Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Hannah Arendt used to say: Your imagination is the only tool in the book! Bitcoin Price We closed the day, November 26 2019, at a price of $7,218. That’s a minor 1.02 percent increase in 24 hours, or $73. It was the highest closing price in two days. We’re still 6
  • Hackers steal $48.7M in Ethereum from South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit

    Hackers steal $48.7M in Ethereum from South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit
    South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit has reported that hackers have ransacked its Ethereum “hot wallet,” stealing 342,000 ETH — a cryptocurrency stash worth $48.7 million. The attack was confirmed in a statement posted to the cryptocurrency exchange’s website by Upbit’s CEO Lee Seok-woo earlier today. “At 1:06 PM on November 27, 2019, 342,000 ETH (approximately 58 billion won) were transferred from the Upbeat Ethereum Hot Wallet to an unknown walle
  • Facebook allegedly blocked personal accounts of WhatsApp spyware maker’s employees

    Facebook allegedly blocked personal accounts of WhatsApp spyware maker’s employees
    On Tuesday, eight employees from the Israel-based security company, NSOGroup, filed a lawsuit against Facebook in the Tel Aviv district court for blocking their accounts. The company said this was an independent action and it doesn’t concern its ongoing tussle with the social media giant regarding Pegasus spyware used to exploit WhatsApp. According to the lawsuit, on October 29, the social network blocked 100 Facebook and Instagram accounts. Many amongst them belonged to current and
  • Microsoft reveals how it caught mutating Monero mining malware with machine learning

    Microsoft reveals how it caught mutating Monero mining malware with machine learning
    Microsoft‘s antivirus and malware division recently opened the bonnet on a malicious mutating cryptocurrency miner. The Washington-based big tech firm revealed how machine learning was crucial in putting a stop to it spreading further. According to the Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection team, a new malware dubbed Dexphot has been infecting computers since last year, but since June 2019 has been burning out thanks to machine learning. Dexphot used a number of techniques such as
  • The secret sauce of collaboration

    The secret sauce of collaboration
    Let’s face it, the world is full of huge problems, and big challenges require matching interwoven ambitious solutions. Cooperation is the cornerstone upon which great achievements are built, and that starts with people who can identify and build bridges between stakeholders, enabling collaboration across disparate organizations. The 5G Open Innovation Lab, for example, is a new technology hub built in partnership with T-Mobile, the University of Washington and the City of Bellevue, W
  • Twitter will delete inactive accounts starting December

    Twitter will delete inactive accounts starting December
    Twitter is going to start getting rid of derelict accounts. The company sent warning emails to users who haven’t been using their accounts; if they want to keep their handle, they’ll have to login by December 11 and follow the on-screen steps – including accepting the company’s latest terms and policies. Twitter told The Verge that it’s proactively reaching out to people who haven’t logged in for over six months, in accordance with its inactive account p
  • Remember the ‘blended orgasms’ sex toy CES banned? It’s available for preorder now

    Remember the ‘blended orgasms’ sex toy CES banned? It’s available for preorder now
    Sextech startup Lora DiCarlo today announced it was accepting preorders for its innovative “Osé” product, a “blended orgasms” device that made headlines earlier this year after a controversial appearance at the Computer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The device won an innovation award in the robotics category at CES this year, but the organization responsible for the event, the Computer Technology Association (CTA), swiftly rescinded the award and banned Lor

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