Notable

“No more significant document of space exploration history is ever likely to be created, because future manned missions will be more fully digitised and not leave a comparable human trace.”

Posted 9th May 2019 @ 15:22

Privacy has been a nice benefit of being in the Apple ecosystem and if I had to pick the strategy that makes me feel the most comfortable, it's Apple's.

For all of Facebook's bad news, they're not really tackling the right issues, are they?

Yes, but: Facebook's approach to privacy barely acknowledges the complaint from users and critics that they're most concerned about how much Facebook itself knows and shares about them — and what they most want is privacy from Facebook.

For Google and Facebook 'we' are the product. If either of them pivoted away from that way of thinking, it would be a big win for our rights but would likely put a dent in their profits. I can't see it happening anytime soon.

Meanwhile, when Pichai argues that "privacy cannot be a luxury good offered only to people who can afford to buy premium products and services," he is looking straight at Apple.

I saw this earlier in the week as part of coverage from Google's 2019 O/I conference and thought it was odd then. Either Google is selling at cost (or a loss), it's now cheaper to produce the Pixel 3a than it was the Pixel 3 or the difference is made up by selling our digital profile for ads.

Posted 9th May 2019 @ 13:59

In 2001, Portugal became the first European nation to decriminalize all drug possession. Since then, the nation has seen the rate of overdose deaths and cases of HIV or AIDS among drug users plummet

This is so important, it's not just that people are taking drugs safely, it's that they are empowered rather than marginalised. As I hear more and more about the benefits of legalizing drugs, it looks like it will become an obvious choice.

Posted 9th May 2019 @ 12:22

Posted 9th May 2019 @ 09:22

Posted 8th May 2019 @ 21:59

Posted 8th May 2019 @ 18:00

Update

The Guardian has now released a full trailer for the Diego Maradona trailer.

Posted 8th May 2019 @ 15:00

Google is speeding up Google Assistant on smartphones, by bringing more of the AI processing to the smartphone. The on-device features the company demonstrated focused mainly on tasks for controlling the phone, such as turning on the flashlight or taking a selfie, though some also drew on information stored in e-mail, calendar or photos and sending that information to other people. The features are coming first to new Pixel phones later this year.

One of the most frustrating things about Siri is the latency. Given Apple have touted their on-device machine learning, it would be great to see them make the same move as Android and move commands to the device first, only phoning back home as a fallback.

Posted 8th May 2019 @ 13:40

What a stunning location for a game of football.

Posted 8th May 2019 @ 12:00

Posted 8th May 2019 @ 09:00