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New Apple MacBook Pro drops much-loved startup sound, along with lots of old features

The Independent - Tech

There's not much that hasn't changed in Apple's Macs over the last 20 years. But one thing has stayed: the distinctive chime that plays when you turn them on. But the new MacBook Pro, released last week, will no longer make that sound. And it appears to suggest that the noise – which arrived with the iMac G3 in the late 90s – is on its way out. The new computer doesn't make any sound at all when it's turned on.


All porn sites to be blocked in Israel under new law that requires people to publicly ask for access

The Independent - Tech

Legislators have approved a bill that would block all porn in Israel unless people ask to view it. The Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation unanimously approved the bill, which forces internet companies in the country censor adult websites by default. Backers of the new legislation claim that it is a way of stopping young people getting online. Under the terms of the bill, anyone wanting to access pornography online would have to tell their internet service provider, either by writing to them, ringing them or getting in touch their website. An employee shows a Samsung Electronics' Gear S3 Classic during Korea Electronics Show 2016 in Seoul, South Korea Visitors experience Samsung Electronics' Gear VR during the Korea Electronics Grand Fair at an exhibition hall in Seoul, South Korea Amy Rimmer, Research Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, demonstrates the car manufacturer's Advanced Highway Assist in a Range Rover, which drives the vehicle, overtakes and can detect vehicles in the blind spot, during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire Chris Burbridge, Autonomous Driving Software Engineer for Tata Motors European Technical Centre, demonstrates the car manufacturer's GLOSA V2X functionality, which is connected to the traffic lights and shares information with the driver, during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire In its facilities, JAXA develop satellites and analyse their observation data, train astronauts for utilization in the Japanese Experiment Module'Kibo' of the International Space Station (ISS) and develop launch vehicles The robot developed by Seed Solutions sings and dances to the music during the Japan Robot Week 2016 at Tokyo Big Sight.


Turn On, Tune In, Transcribe: U.N. Develops Radio-Listening Tool

NPR Technology

People listen to the radio as the results of the presidential elections are announced in Kireka, Uganda, in February. Many rural Ugandans don't have Internet access, and the radio is a central source of news -- and platform for citizens' opinions. People listen to the radio as the results of the presidential elections are announced in Kireka, Uganda, in February. Many rural Ugandans don't have Internet access, and the radio is a central source of news -- and platform for citizens' opinions. Its omnipresence can make it easy to forget that making this technology has been really, really hard.


Best white LED smart bulbs

PCWorld

With their rainbow of hues and myriad party tricks, color-tunable LEDs get all the press in the world of smart lighting. It's fun stuff, but the reality is that most of us will rarely find much of a need to turn all the lights in the house blue or red--unless it's time to celebrate our team winning the World Series. Even then, you'll probably want to turn them all back to white after the celebration. White light is also important in its own right, as today there is plenty of science to show how various shades of white--with variations in color temperature--impact our psychological state. Cool light that's closer to blue has an energizing effect, and is best in the morning.


Machine Learning Is No Longer Just for Experts

#artificialintelligence

If you're not using deep learning already, you should be. That was the message from legendary Google engineer Jeff Dean at the end of his keynote earlier this year at a conference on web search and data mining. Dean was referring to the rapid increase in machine learning algorithms' accuracy, driven by recent progress in deep learning, and the still untapped potential of these improved algorithms to change the world we live in and the products we build. But breakthroughs in deep learning aren't the only reason this is a big moment for machine learning. Just as important is that over the last five years, machine learning has become far more accessible to nonexperts, opening up access to a vast group of people. For most software developers, there have historically been many barriers to entry in machine learning, most notably software libraries designed more for academic researchers than for software engineers as well as a lack of sufficient data.


Five technologies for the next ten years

#artificialintelligence

Over the next decade, mobile, the Internet of Things, machine learning, robotics, and blockchain technologies will change a great deal about how the oil and gas industry works. Five technologies will change the oil and gas industry: mobile will speed oilfield transactions, increase efficiency, and improve safety by removing people from harm's way; the Internet of Things (IoT) will reduce the cost of repairs; machine learning will provide ever more optimal solutions to field challenges; robotics will upend the question of who does the work, and blockchain will make contracting faster and smoother than ever before. Adopting these technologies will be a challenge for many in our industry, requiring a change in mind-set. Engineers tend to focus less on investing for the future than on fixing what's broken now, as do companies trying to maximize their return on investment. But investments in these transformative technologies now will mean less to fix in the future, and more time to innovate, operate, and develop resources as fully as possible--which is what we're all trying to do, correct?


Facebook AI director Yann LeCun explains how he hires the smartest minds in the world

#artificialintelligence

US tech giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into artificial intelligence as they look to make their platforms and personal assistants that it smarter. Part of this effort involves finding and hiring the brightest minds in the world. But with so many large companies involved in the so-called "AI race" it's not always easy to recruit the best talent. Yann LeCun, the director of Facebook AI Research and one of the world's most prominent AI academics, told Business Insider last week that he employs certain tactics to get people to come and work for him. "There's various things ... but a lot of it is nurturing relationships with academic laboratories that have a track record of producing interesting students," said LeCun, who is also a professor at New York University.


7 Steps to Understanding Deep Learning

#artificialintelligence

There are many deep learning resources freely available online, but it can be confusing knowing where to begin. Go from vague understanding of deep neural networks to knowledgeable practitioner in 7 steps! Deep learning is a branch of machine learning, employing numerous similar, yet distinct, deep neural network architectures to solve various problems in natural language processing, computer vision, and bioinformatics, among other fields. Deep learning has experienced a tremendous recent research resurgence, and has been shown to deliver state of the art results in numerous applications. In essence, deep learning is the implementation of neural networks with more than a single hidden layer of neurons.


Honda picks Tokyo over Silicon Valley for AI research center

#artificialintelligence

Honda Motor Co. will spearhead its artificial intelligence efforts out of a new lab in Tokyo so that researchers can work closely with its engineers to commercialize the technology. Honda, based in Tokyo, will start the r&d center next year and combine existing AI teams in Silicon Valley, Europe and Japan at the downtown location, according to Yoshiyuki Matsumoto, president of the automaker's largely independent research arm. In choosing Tokyo over Silicon Valley, the carmaker is betting closer interaction between its scientists and developers will lead to AI-enabled products consumers want, he said in an interview. Advances in artificial intelligence are sprouting like "bamboo shoots after rain," so it's time to find commercial uses for the technology by marrying research with Japan's traditional strength in hardware, Matsumoto said. "We won't make much difference if we did the same things as everyone else in Silicon Valley. And not everyone has succeeded there."


GPU's Role in Artificial Intelligence Advances Featured at Conference

#artificialintelligence

GPU's Role in Artificial Intelligence Advances Featured at Conference By Wayne Rash Posted 2016-10-26 Print NEWS ANALYSIS: The confluence of big data, massively powerful computing resources and advanced algorithms is bringing new artificial intelligence capabilities to scientific research. WASHINGTON, D.C.--Massively parallel supercomputing hardware and advanced artificial intelligence algorithms are being harnessed to deliver powerful new research tools in science and medicine, according to Dr. France A. Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation. Córdova spoke Oct. 26 at the GPU Technology Conference organized by Nvidia, a company that got its start making video cards for PCs and gaming systems and now manufactures advanced graphics processors for high-performance servers and supercomputers. Córdova, who is directing long-term research in AI at the NSF, said the research there is being used already in the Cancer Moonshot project currently spearheaded by Vice President Joe Biden, whose son Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46. The Cancer Moonshot is a major effort to focus resources and funding on the fight to cure cancer on a scale similar to the original mission by NASA to land on the moon.