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Dfinity opens its long-anticipated ‘internet computer’ to third-party developers

Jaime E. Love

Dfinity, the much-hyped and long-anticipated blockchain project whose creators say will be the basis of a decentralized “internet computer,” is now open to third-party developers.

Dominic Williams, Dfinity’s founder and chief scientist, said during a live-streamed launch event that today’s “Tungsten release” is the third of five “public milestones,” the fifth of which will be the culmination of the full internet computer sometime “later this year.”

Dfinity raised $102 million in a 2018 funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. In total, it has raised more than $160 million.

“One of the biggest problems emerging in technology is the monopolization of the internet by Big Tech — companies that have consolidated near-total control over our technologies,” Williams said in a statement. Dfinity uses a blockchain-based protocol to weave together computing capacity from a decentralized network of data centers. The goal is to shift the power back to developers aiming to build

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Britons are being put at risk of cyber crime by ‘outdated’ computer laws that thwart investigators

Jaime E. Love
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TELEMMGLPICT000232688595.jpeg

Britain’s computer users are at greater risk of cyber-attack because “outdated” laws mean investigators are required to ask criminals and rogue states permission to interrogate their systems.

Leaders of Britain’s multi-billion pound tech industry have today (Mon) written to Boris Johnson urging him to rewrite the 30-year-old computer misuse act to provide tech firms with legal cover to help GCHQ and other Government agencies counter cyber attacks.

They say the “outdated” law was designed to protect telephone exchanges when only one in 200 (0.5 per cent) of people and has now been overtaken by highly sophisticated cyber criminals who are running rings round investigators who have “one arm tied behind their backs.”

There are 4.6 million online crime incidents every year mainly related to fraud but also including malware, hacking and sophisticated attacks by organised crime or rogue nations.

They cite Section One of the act which prohibits the

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He was arrested because of a computer error. Now he wants to fix the system.

Jaime E. Love

When the Detroit Police Department called Robert Williams, he thought it was a prank. 

The voice on the other end of the line told Williams to turn himself in at the DPD’s Third Precinct. Why? The cop wouldn’t say.  

“I can’t turn myself in if you can’t tell me,” Williams recalls saying. “I said, ‘If you want me, you can come to my house and bring a warrant.'”

But it was late in his work day, and Williams was disturbed enough to head home, calling his wife, Melissa, as he drove. When she answered, the cops were already there. 

What Williams didn’t know on that day back in January is that he had been misidentified by the Detroit Police Department’s controversial facial recognition technology as a shoplifter who allegedly stole five watches from Midtown’s trendy Shinola store in October 2018, making him the first person known to have been arrested

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Has eGain (EGAN) Outpaced Other Computer and Technology Stocks This Year?

Jaime E. Love

Investors focused on the Computer and Technology space have likely heard of eGain (EGAN), but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? A quick glance at the company’s year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Computer and Technology sector should help us answer this question.

eGain is one of 611 companies in the Computer and Technology group. The Computer and Technology group currently sits at #7 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

The Zacks Rank emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. EGAN

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Wary of big tech’s bottom line, activists greet facial recognition pledges with skepticism

Jaime E. Love

Over the course of four days last week, three of America’s largest technology companies — IBM, Amazon and Microsoft — announced sweeping restrictions on their sale of facial recognition tools and called for federal regulation amid protests across the United States against police violence and racial profiling.

In terms of headlines, it was a symbolic shift for the industry. Researchers and civil liberties groups who have been calling for strict controls or outright bans on the technology for years are celebrating, although cautiously.

They doubt, however, that much has changed. The careful wording of the public pledges leaves plenty of room for oppressive uses of the technology, which exacerbate human biases and infringe on people’s constitutional freedoms, critics say.

“It shows that organizing and socially informed research works,” said Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Institute, which researches the social implications of artificial intelligence. “But do I

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