James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Anarchy on the Internet: Can AI be judge and jury for online content?
Artificial intelligence is here to save the day, we are told, tackling or nearly ready to tackle seemingly intractable problems. Microsoft plans to cure cancer using AI. Vehicle congestion and its attendant pollution could soon become a thing of the past once fleets of self-driving cars take to the streets. And now Google, via its ...
Windows 10 hits 400 million users as Microsoft announces enterprise security features
When Microsoft said that it hoped its new operating system, Windows 10, would be running on one billion machines just three years after its release people may have reasoned that this number was fairly ambitious. When Microsoft recently recanted the one billion mark, explaining that such a goal is very likely unattainable, most people probably ...
Sex cam site uses facial recognition to help people find a ‘model’ that looks like someone they know
Imagine this: There’s a friend of yours you’ve had a crush on for some time but kept it a secret, or perhaps even a Facebook acquaintance you fancy. Sex cam site MegaCams wants to make it possible for you both to hook up, in the virtual sense. The Belgian site hasn’t said what facial recognition technology it ...
LinkedIn looking at bots and online schooling as the next frontier
LinkedIn Corp. wants to go to the next phase of networking by introducing bots to help make connections easier for both individuals and enterprises. The company announced yesterday three big updates: a new desktop design, an Interest Feed for relevant news pertaining to a user’s industry and a smart messaging facility. The company has also ...
We just can’t stream enough: How Netflix is killing traditional television
To think Netflix started off as a DVD mail order business, a bright idea catalyzed in co-founder Reed Hastings’ mind after apparently amassing a $40 late fine at the video store from misplacing Apollo 13. As we pointed out here not so long ago, Americans watch a lot of TV, but that’s charted water. It’s ...
Microsoft, Google, Yahoo agree to block sex-selective abortion ads in India
In India aborting a fetus due to its gender has for a long time now been practiced, and while anomalous, it was widespread enough for the Indian government in 1994 to create the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT). The act banned all forms of prenatal sex screening in India and held that anyone ...
Wild ride ahead for autonomous vehicles, says Lyft’s John Zimmer
“We’ve built our communities entirely around cars,” says Lyft Inc. President John Zimmer in a detailed article just released for Medium. He points to the fact that the average car spends 96 percent of its life parked, relating to reports that state our parked cars are deforming our cities and while looking for a place to ...
Ford explains its slow development of autonomous cars: ‘Don’t confuse activity for progress’
The year 2021, Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields announced earlier this year, is when the company will be “mass producing vehicles with full autonomy,” in a ride-hailing or ride-sharing service. Fields expects these cars to hit the consumer market by 2025. At the same time, Ford has come under the spotlight recently in view ...
Adblock Plus is now dictating the business of online advertising
To be or not to be is evidently not a position that Adblock Plus, the internet’s self-proclaimed heroic ad-blocking machine, feels too concerned with. While the German-made content-filtering browser extension may be essentially in the business of blocking ads, it’s also just lately come under the gun in the tech media for announcing it’s getting into the ...
Get rid of data caps, says Netflix, as video streaming surpasses TV viewing
The average American Joe watches more television than any other average Joe on the planet. According to one article in The Economist, Americans held the “couch potato crown” as far back as 2005, out-watching the rest of the world by a long way. And we mean a long way. According to the article, the average American in ...