FlashMobOfOne

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50818812

Aaron Rodgers, then quarterback for the New York Jets, reportedly lived in Cedar Grove, New Jersey when the alleged 2024 donation was made. Drivers passing through Cedar Grove, New Jersey on a routine errand in 2024 may not have noticed the cameras. According to an investigation by FOIAball, every time a car passed certain intersections, a camera was logging its plate, location, and time of arrival into a searchable police database. The person allegedly funding that network was, at roughly the same moment, publicly complaining about surveillance drones over his own property.

At least one Kansas district is projecting $150,000 to $180,000 just to equip secondary students with individual phone lockers, according to the Wichita Eagle. The state provided zero dedicated funding. Every dollar comes from local budgets.

Districts choosing fabric locking pouches — think Yondr, the magnetic-lock system concert venues use to keep audiences present — face an estimated $30 per unit. Statewide, the Kansas Division of the Budget put that figure at roughly $13.4 million if every student received one, according to the Lawrence KS Times. Lockers require a steeper upfront investment. Neither option came with a state check attached.

Legislators passed the policy. The price tag was someone else’s problem.

Researchers in France, led by Stéphane Le Mouélic from Nantes University, who originally did a PhD in astrophysics, have also used computer software to combine more than 440 overlapping 2D photos taken from multiple angles to create a detailed 3D model of the Bayeux Tapestry (J. Cult. Heritage 71 211).

It digitally “irons out” all the sags and wrinkles in the line fabric, recreating the original, “flat” tapestry and allowing the original physical shape of the artwork to be revealed for the first time. The 3D model can be viewed for free at the Bayeux Museum website, allowing historians, researchers and members of the public to study it without having to handle the delicate material.

Physics-based techniques have also allowed us to deal with the fact that parts of the fabric have been repaired over the last 900 plus years. Some of those repairs used non-authentic dyes and colours, while others covered up the original stitching. But using computer vision and image processing, threads that were added later can be subtracted digitally, providing a clearer, corrected view of what the original tapestry looked like.

A software developer made a Chrome and Firefox extension called Knockoff that automatically hides, grays out, or filters products from sketchy brands on Amazon, which highlights just how many shady brands are on the platform and how commonly they show up on searches for basic items.

The lawsuit is small in scale so far, but if the court accepts the plaintiffs' claims and formally approves it as a class action, it could expand. Bathaee Dunne, the antitrust law firm representing the plaintiffs, is aiming for a class action representing all general consumers and businesses that purchased products containing D-RAM. The firm previously won a case alleging collusion in Google's digital advertising. If the plaintiffs ultimately prevail in the class action, the defendant companies would have to pay triple the damages.

The fact that Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have previously been found guilty of collusion in the United States is also a concern. Both companies were found to have engaged in price fixing in the US in the early 2000s, resulting in large fines as well as prison sentences for executives. However, industry players including investment bank Jefferies forecast that the lawsuit will not affect memory prices at least until the end of this year.

Ford has admitted to rehiring hundreds of human workers after its aggressive AI adoption strategy backfired.

The US automaker hired over 350 veteran engineers, referred to internally as “gray beards”, over the past three years in order to address mistakes made by automated systems.

The staff will lead quality reviews after the automation issues cost the company billions of dollars, Bloomberg reported, while some workers will also help improve and train the AI systems.

“We had been relying more and more on automated quality systems and not getting the desired results,” said Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s chief operating officer.

“We brought back technical specialists and they hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor.”

The Federal Communications Commission seems eager to let SpaceX experiment with massive data centers in space. On Wednesday, Chairman Brendan Carr tweeted, "The FCC welcomes and now seeks comment on the SpaceX application for Orbital Data Centers."

SpaceX’s application to launch up to one million satellites has been accepted by the agency, kicking off a public comment period. The announcement is surprising because the company only submitted its proposal on Friday. Usually, the FCC takes weeks or months to respond. In this case, it made a decision in days, even though SpaceX’s proposal appears preliminary and even rushed, according to space experts, some of whom question the constellation’s feasibility.

For perspective, only 14,500 satellites are currently in orbit. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk now wants to dramatically increase that number by about 70 times, raising questions about the environmental toll from the required rocket launches and the potential for space debris.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A proposal to deter states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade was soundly defeated in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, thwarting attempts to insert the measure into President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts.

The Senate voted 99-1 to strike the AI provision from the legislation after weeks of criticism from both Republican and Democratic governors and state officials.