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Turning smart glasses into surveillance tools
Life, James Hein, Published on 23/10/2024
» I'm sure most readers are familiar with the Apple Vision Pro, and may have also been witness to someone wearing one out in the real world, because I have. Since then, there has been a new version of the Meta Ray-Bans that look like a pair of nerd glasses from the 1970s. The latter have turned into something from the TV series Person Of Interest by a couple of Harvard undergrads. The pair, AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, are known for their punch-activated flamethrower. This time they built a system that allows the Ray-Bans to scan faces of people in view, pass this to an AI system that scans the internet for identification, and builds a dossier that is passed back to the glasses. It's called I-XRAY and challenges the concept of privacy because, if available, it will even provide details like address and social security number.
Microsoft gets more invasive
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/06/2024
» Microsoft Windows has added a new feature that will record everything you have ever done on your computer. It does this through a new AI feature called Recall for Copilot+ that allows Windows 11 to take screen snapshots every few seconds. Allegedly these are encrypted and saved to your hard drive (filling it up?). No, this is not a new episode of Black Mirror, but a disturbing change in Microsoft's attempt to track everything you do and fill up your hard drives. It may do this for your Zoom calls and meetings (it will record other people on the other end of a call without their permission). This may also include capturing the data you enter into secure forms, including passwords.
Happy birthday, Windows 95
Life, James Hein, Published on 02/09/2020
» Exactly 25 years ago on Monday, Aug 25, Microsoft launched Windows 95. This was a pivotal time in computer history. At that time in the US, only about 20% of households had a computer and most of them were either techies or nerds. The World Wide Web was just starting to grow and the word processor and spreadsheet were also in their early days. Windows 95 changed the landscape from the earlier 16-bit technology to a 32-bit operating system and added a bunch of new features and extensions. It was the first time we saw the start button, long filenames, right-click context menus and the recycle bin along with Plug and Play technology. For those that had a drive, there was a CD for installing programmes and of course the FreeCell game, which I still play today. The marketing campaign, which featured The Rolling Stones, actually had people buying Windows 95 without even owning a computer.