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Backstory On February 9th, President Obama issued an Executive Order, the “COMMISSION ON ENHANCING NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY.” Section 3 describes the mission. Mission and Work. The Commission will make detailed recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors while protecting privacy, ensuring public safety and economic and national security, fostering discovery and development…

“Your papers and smartphone, please.” To say that I'm awash in a sea of mixed emotions is an understatement, but there's almost nothing I like about what we know so far. My biggest concern is that the makers of the Textalyzer technology itself—whatever the heck it is—are backing the bill, and the company is draping…

The “Mark 1” Android.  Image credit: Reuters. The Particle Debris standout article of the week is from Wired. “The Scarlett Johansson Bot Is the Robotic Future of Objectifying Women.” For reference, here's the original article via Reuters Building a humanoid Hollywood star. One might think the Wired piece is a overly sensational article, but it's based…

I think another, perhaps larger group are folks who aren’t happy about the net increase in price of Smile’s TextExpander with the new subscription model. Depending upon how you do the math, it’s reasonable to presume that the new version of TextExpander will cost you double what you paid before without offering you any new features…

Before we get started, note that I don’t really recommend writing down your passwords. If you’re the type of person who feels comfortable putting those in your home safe, more power to you, but I prefer knowing my passwords and other critical data are in an encrypted database like the one 1Password offers. So when…

Episode #169 Apple introduced iOS 9.3 a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been obsessed with Night Shift ever since. Night Shift, in case you missed it, is a new iOS feature that uses your device’s clock and geolocation services to determine sunrise and sunset at your location, then uses this information to gradually adjust…

Image credit: Reuters, Tesla The lower price is enabled by economies of scale. Reuters reports: Tesla says scale from the massive facility [nearing completion in Nevada] will cut the cost of its battery pack by 30 percent to enable the lower-priced vehicle. A boatload of people stood in line yesterday to pre-order, coughing up $1,000…

Our thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring TMO this week. Targeting freelancers and small businesses who work in an all-Mac environment, Marketcircle's products, Daylite and Billings Pro, are focused on helping small businesses save time and stay organized. Daylite organizes your contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, emails, projects and new business opportunities into one cohesive app. Depending…

Foxconn buys Sharp for $3.5 billion The boards from both companies approved the buyout on Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal. Foxconn will own 66 percent of Sharp once the deal is complete, and that can grow to 72 percent starting in July 2017 when Foxconn starts converting the preferred shares it will own…

“It remains a priority for the government to ensure that law enforcement can obtain crucial digital information to protect national security and public safety, either with cooperation from relevant parties, or through the court system when cooperation fails,” Melanie Newman, a Justice Department spokesman, told the publication. “We will continue to pursue all available options…

Who's Tay, you ask? An “artificial intelligent chat bot developed by Microsoft's Technology and Research and Bing teams to experiment with and conduct research on conversational understanding.” And who taught her to say all these awful things? Why, the Internet, of course. Tay Twitter avatar, which I'm pretty sure costarred in a Cyberpunk movie in…

The Minix Neo C USB-C “Multiport Adapter” is dock for the Apple MacBook that has two USB-A ports, Gigabit Ethernet, pass through charging, two camera card slots, and either HDMI or VGA depending on the model. It has some design and feature aspects that set it apart from similar products. First, this product should be…

United States Magistrate Judge Sherri Pym agreed to vacate the hearing, and asked for a status update from the FBI by April 5th. The FBI's filing said that an unspecified third party had stepped forward with a method of unlocking the device. The filing's wording implies that the third party is “outside the government,” but…

FBI gives Apple the switch-er-oo and changes next Tuesday's court date into an evidentiary hearing Apple's own legal team said it was surprised by the request, and that this is something the FBI should've requested weeks ago. The last minute change doesn't give Apple much time to prepare for a hearing where now its witnesses…

Exactly that question has been raised in an in-depth report from The New York Times in which the reporters (John Markhoff, Katie Benner, and Brian X. Chen) say they interviewed Apple employees on the subject. The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice has been fairly blithe about their ability to force Apple to create…

A pilot is lost in the skies over the Pacific. He radios for help repeatedly until he hears a faint response. “Help! We are lost. Can you tell me where we are?” The voice replies, “You're in an airplane over the Pacific ocean.” The pilot then tells his copilot, “Hang a left and you should…

Apple shifting cloud services from Amazon to Google Sources speaking with CRN said Apple began migrating some on its online infrastructure from AWS to Google last fall after signing a deal worth somewere between US$400 and $600 million. Apple isn't abandoning AWS completely, but is greatly reducing its reliance on Amazon's services. The transition away…

Episode #166   There’s no shortage of controversy in the debate over whether sitting or standing at your desk is healthier. There’s research to support that standing while you work is healthier, but there’s also research that seems to indicate standing still isn’t any healthier than sitting. I have chronic back pain (big surprise), so…

The study found that in many cases our smartphones will offer to perform Web searches when presented with crisis statements such as, “I was raped,” or “I was abused.” Responses to “I'm having a heart attack” weren't much better, although Siri did respond with a list of nearby clinics and hospitals. Study shows your smartphone…

The president made his comments at South by Southwest (SxSW), where he did a panel with Texas Tribune editor Evan Smith. You can watch that panel in its entirety below. Note that there are 32 minutes of wait at the beginning—skip ahead accordingly. Also note that the interview covers much more than just this one…

Alarms The FBI accuses Apple of trying to “alarm this Court with issues of network security, encryption, back doors, and privacy, invoking larger debates before Congress and in the news media.” “That is a diversion,” the filing asserts. “Apple desperately wants—desperately needs—this case not to be 'about one isolated iPhone.'” According to Wired, Apple General…

Civil War Surveillance by the Bad Guys In my opinion (and the opinion of people far smarter and more knowledgable than me), protecting ourselves from criminal and foreign threats requires strong encryption, unbreakable encryption. This has the unfortunate side effect of similarly protecting criminals, terrorists, and foreign entities from our good guys. That stinks, but…