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Video of Keynote from Colombia

Here is the keynote I delivered last month in Cali, Colombia (link to original post with slides and more). The topic is trends and the future of technology, with a focus on how that future should concern libraries. This is the first time I’ve done a dual-language presentation…my wonderful wife gave me the assist on the slideshow, and the conference provided real-time English-to-Spanish translation over radio for participants, and Spanish-to-English for me where necessary. It was a fascinating and wonderful experience, although exhausting.

There is a tiny bit of technical difficulty in the middle of the thing…had to do some fast editing just before giving the talk due to my laptop audio getting fried by a bad cable (Protip: don’t plug an electrically live cable into your computer’s minijack). Please excuse a bit of fumbling on my part. Otherwise, I hope this is useful!

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FutureTech Internet of Things Release_Candidate Security

Source Code for IoT Botnet ‘Mirai’ Released

The source code that powers the “Internet of Things” (IoT) botnet responsible for launching the historically large distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against KrebsOnSecurity last month has been publicly released, virtually guaranteeing that the Internet will soon be flooded with attacks from many new botnets powered by insecure routers, IP cameras, digital video recorders and other easily hackable devices.

Source: Source Code for IoT Botnet ‘Mirai’ Released — Krebs on Security

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FutureTech Release_Candidate Space

SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System

I cannot fully express how this video makes me feel. I want this to happen so, so badly.

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FutureTech Open Hardware Release_Candidate

Zombie Moore’s Law shows hardware is eating software

This is a fantastic article that illustrates one reason I’ve been so fascinated by hardware over the last few years.

The cheap and easy gains of the last fifty years of Moore’s Law gave birth to a global technology industry. The next little while – somewhere between twenty and fifty years out – will be dominated by a transition from software into hardware, a confusion of the two so complete it will literally become impossible to know where the boundary between the two lies.

Source: Zombie Moore’s Law shows hardware is eating software • The Register

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FutureTech Internet of Things Release_Candidate

Largest DDoS attack ever delivered by botnet of hijacked IoT devices

 

Get used to this, because here’s the future of computer security….

A giant botnet made up of hijacked internet-connected things like cameras, lightbulbs, and thermostats has launched the largest DDoS attack ever against a top security blogger, an attack so big Akamai had to cancel his account because defending it ate up too many resources.

Source: Largest DDoS attack ever delivered by botnet of hijacked IoT devices | Network World

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Release_Candidate Wearable computing

Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

Prediction: This won’t end well.

What initially appears to be a normal pair of sunglasses turns out to be Spectacles, the first hardware product from Snap Inc., as the firm has been newly christened (Spiegel is refreshing the company name because its offerings now go beyond the Snapchat app). When you slip Spectacles on and tap a button near the hinge, it records up to 10 seconds of video from your first-person vantage. Each new tap records another clip.

Source: Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles – WSJ

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Release_Candidate Uncategorized

Digital-to-Analog Converter in Lightning EarPods and 3.5mm Adapter

Tiny computers in everything…

Vietnamese website Tinhte has shared a teardown of Apple’s new Lightning EarPods and Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter included in the box with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The video confirms that, as expected, each accessory is equipped with a small digital-to-analog converter.

Source: Teardown Confirms Digital-to-Analog Converter in Lightning EarPods and 3.5mm Adapter – Mac Rumors

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Release_Candidate Robots

U.S. Signals Backing for Self-Driving Cars

“We envision in the future, you can take your hands off the wheel, and your commute becomes restful or productive instead of frustrating and exhausting,” said Jeffrey Zients, director of the National Economic Council, adding that highly automated vehicles “will save time, money and lives.”

Source: U.S. Signals Backing for Self-Driving Cars – The New York Times

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Drones Release_Candidate Robots

GoPro announces its own drone

GoPro’s latest product is a move in a new direction: Up.After a year of rumors and teases, the action camera company finally announced its very first drone, the Karma ($800).

Source: GoPro announces its own drone GoPro — cameras sold separately – Sep. 19, 2016

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FutureTech Machine Learning/AI Release_Candidate User Interface

Amazon’s cheaper Echo Dot


If you’ve been looking for a way to test Amazon’s voice assistant/AI/Machine Learning gizmo Alexa, here’s the cheapest way yet to give it a try.

Amazon is unveiling an all-new, second-generation Dot today that’s priced at just $49.99. Just like the previous Dot, you can use the tiny puck-like device to add the Alexa voice assistant to existing speakers. Amazon is releasing the new Echo Dot in both black and white, with a more powerful, completely redesigned voice processor.

Source: Amazon’s cheaper Echo Dot improves voice recognition, available in black and white – The Verge