Posts

Experts caution the proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles is driving militaries in Ukraine and beyond toward automation, creating a dangerous slippery slope (Morgan Meaker/Wired)

Image
Morgan Meaker / Wired : Experts caution the proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles is driving militaries in Ukraine and beyond toward automation, creating a dangerous slippery slope   —  Drones that can find their own targets already exist, making machine-versus-machine conflict just a software update away. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/JxRrelG

Clarence Thomas was still making student loan payments when he joined the Supreme Court — and a fellow Yale law student suggested he declare bankruptcy to avoid the 'crushing weight' of payments: book

Image
Clarence Thomas in 1991. Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis/Getty Images The Supreme Court will hear two challenges to Biden's student loan debt relief plan on Tuesday.  In 2007, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote about the "crushing weight" of student debt in his own life.  The ruling could impact the economic fate of millions of US student loan borrowers.  Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was still paying off his student loans when he joined the High Court in 1991.  In his 2007 memoir "My Grandfather's Son," Thomas, the court's longest-serving justice, spoke of the "crushing weight" of student debt from his time at Yale Law School. He recalled how his only option to afford his final years at Yale was to sign up for a tuition postponement option where a group of students would pay off their loans together, with the highest income paying the most. "I didn't know what else to do, so I signed on the dotted line, and spent the next tw...

AI’s hype isn’t going to be simply star-studded 

Image
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe  here . First off, hello to all the new Startups Weekly subscribers who joined us after last week’s newsletter. I’m glad we all still resonate with a comeback story. Second, here are some basics on what to expect.  I start off most of these newsletters with a mini-essay on what is top of mind to me, sometimes pointing toward one of my longer-form pieces from the week or just to share some extra thoughts at the end of the news cycle. Then I jump into three themes that stand out from the week, with extra reading for those that want to dig in more. I end with notes to know from around the tech blogosphere, TC events and, if you look closely enough, personal anecdotes that often have to do with coffee and food. Ok, now onto the aforementioned essay!  It all started with a sound. More specifical...

The skirmishes over generative AI show how tech companies have become political lightning rods, as even efforts to steer AI away from politics can appear biased (Nitasha Tiku/Washington Post)

Image
Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post : The skirmishes over generative AI show how tech companies have become political lightning rods, as even efforts to steer AI away from politics can appear biased   —  ChatGPT and Bing are trying to stay out of politics — and failing  —  Christopher Rufo, the conservative activist who led campaigns … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/raDmO0F

How small-business owners can use LinkedIn as free advertising to attract customers

Image
  Catarina Rivera has 14,000 followers on LinkedIn and says it's a major driver of business for her. Courtesy of Catarina Rivera The consultants Catarina Rivera and Tania Bhattacharyya use LinkedIn to market their services. They say you should act as a resource for others on the platform to drive organic traffic. Posting consistently and using "creator mode" can help you turn followers into customers. This article is part of " Marketing for Small Business ," a series exploring the basics of marketing strategy for SBOs to earn new customers and grow their business. LinkedIn is no longer just for those looking to climb the traditional career ladder — plenty of small-business owners have found it valuable for growing a brand and connecting with prospective customers. "All my clients come to me organically, so social media and my newsletter are my marketing channels," Catarina Rivera , a disability public speaker and diversity, equity, and ...

Review: PlayStation VR2 is a huge leap that still can’t escape its niche

Image
The PlayStation VR2 is a simultaneously exciting and disappointing development in the virtual reality space. Well-specced, easy to set up, and reasonably light and comfortable, Sony’s latest still can’t shake the fundamental issues that have prevented VR from going mainstream: a lack of compelling content and despite a brand new 4K OLED display, distracting image fidelity. It’s the best VR has ever been, and I still can’t bring myself to recommend it to anybody who wasn’t already on board. The PSVR was one of the first really consumer-accessible VR headsets, and was simple to set up for its time, but also relied on outdated controls in the instantly obsolete Move controllers and a TV-mounted camera. Still, it demonstrated that VR had a future in gaming, and that Sony was approaching it with an eye to accessibility and ease of use. Last year the PSVR2 was announced , and based on specs alone it generally led the pack, with a few exceptions here and there. With a retail price of $550 ...

Canada's second-largest telecom TELUS is investigating a potential data breach after a hacker put up private GitHub repositories and payroll records for sale (Ax Sharma/BleepingComputer)

Image
Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer : Canada's second-largest telecom TELUS is investigating a potential data breach after a hacker put up private GitHub repositories and payroll records for sale   —  Canada's second-largest telecom, TELUS is investigating a potential data breach after a threat actor shared samples online of what appears to be employee data. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/lSgabRQ