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More New Laws to Hedge in Tech Giants

More New Laws to Hedge in Tech Giants

Last week, the Australian government tabled world-first laws to force tech giants like Google and Facebook to start paying for news content scraped from media outlets and to meet minimum standards, including giving notice of changes to their algorithms. The government says that its mandatory news media bargaining code

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black iphone 7 on brown wooden table

Facebook, Google to Be Forced to Pay for News Content

Australia is set to pass world-first laws to force tech giants to pay for the content they’ve so far been scraping for free from media companies, as well as sharing their data-collection methods. Is this the last gasp of a dying legacy media – or the first push-

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Britain Seeks a Place for the Sun

Britain Seeks a Place for the Sun

Commercial fusion generation has been “just around the corner” for almost as long as I can remember. As far back as the late 70s, fusion was a mere 20 years away…and there it’s stayed, always just out of reach. No matter how many “breakthroughs” are announced. So, you’

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BFD’s Believe It or Not

BFD’s Believe It or Not

Cybathlon 2020 was a recent cyborg Olympics in which people with physical disabilities competed using exoskeletons, bionic limbs, and other technology. In one race, competitors with quadriplegia wore scalp sensors that detected their brain waves and allowed them to steer vehicles on the screen. From IEEE Spectrum: Pilots controlled the

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Tech Talk: LibreOffice Writer

Tech Talk: LibreOffice Writer

This series is designed to help people to understand modern technology, and become more confident in using computing devices. It is not designed to educate experts. The author is involved in tutoring older students at SeniorNet, a New Zealand wide organisation. SeniorNet hopes that students will feel more confident in

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The Claw From Outer Space!

The Claw From Outer Space!

It sounds like something from a ’50s b-grade science-fiction movie: The Claw from Outer Space! But, in fact, a very real giant claw in orbit around the Earth is being proposed by the European Space Agency. Why not? It’s 2020, after all. Unlike some rampaging alien monster

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Mad Sheep Crossing

Mad Sheep Crossing

It goes without saying that Twitter is a sewer of deranged leftist hate. Something about the site seems to foster the vilest bullying and insanely vicious witch-hunting, mostly, it seems from the very people who at the same time loudly trumpet their own virtue and “inclusiveness”. Like the inquisitors

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Tech Talk: A Quick Course in Keeping Yourself Safe Online

Tech Talk: A Quick Course in Keeping Yourself Safe Online

This series is designed to help people to understand modern technology, and become more confident in using computing devices. It is not designed to educate experts. The author is involved in tutoring older students at SeniorNet, a New Zealand wide organisation. SeniorNet hopes that students will feel more confident in

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Electronic Skin Patches Could Restore Lost Sensation & Detect Disease

Electronic Skin Patches Could Restore Lost Sensation & Detect Disease

horizon-magazine.eu Picture this: You’ve experienced no physical sensation beyond your wrists for years, then a doctor drapes a thin, flexible membrane over your hand and, like magic, you can feel the trickle of water through your fingers again. This may sound like an outlandish scenario, but it’

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A Call for Help from the BFD Community

A Call for Help from the BFD Community

I have recently been diagnosed with a nasty cancer which, because of my dicky ticker, is probably untreatable. I’m not seeking your pity, but rather help to enable me to wrap up some of my affairs. I’ve had a good life, a long and successful marriage and don’

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Seeing Through the Wood for the Glass

Seeing Through the Wood for the Glass

I’ve never been much of a Star Trek fan. I thoroughly disliked didactism in entertainment from the moment Sesame Street tried to force me to learn the alphabet in an American accent. Bugger that, bring me the afternoon cartoons and the adult amorality of Bugs Bunny and crew. So,

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