The Verge: OLPC’s $100 Laptop Was Going To Change The World — Then It All Went Wrong. “In late 2005, tech visionary and MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte pulled the cloth cover off a small green computer with a bright yellow crank. The device was the first working prototype for Negroponte’s new nonprofit One Laptop Per Child, dubbed ‘the green machine’ or simply ‘the $100 laptop.’ And it was like nothing that Negroponte’s audience — at either his panel at a UN-sponsored tech summit in Tunis, or around the globe — had ever seen.” Remember these? This is a deep dive into what happened.
hardware
CNET: Google includes a Raspberry Pi in a DIY smart speaker kit
CNET: Google includes a Raspberry Pi in a DIY smart speaker kit. “Google wants to make it easier than ever to build your own smart home gadgets. The search giant’s latest kits hit Target stores this month and include everything you need to make either a smart speaker similar to a Google Home or a smart home camera that can recognize faces and expressions.”
Engadget: FTC makes clear ‘warranty void if removed’ stickers are illegal
Engadget: FTC makes clear ‘warranty void if removed’ stickers are illegal. “Those stickers on gadgets that say you’ll void your warranty if they’re removed? You’ve probably come to expect them whenever you purchase a new device. The FTC has just made clear, however, that those warranty notices are illegal when it fired off warning letters to six companies that market and sell automobiles, mobile devices and video game consoles in the US. It didn’t mention which automakers and tech corporations they are, but since the list includes companies that make video game consoles, Sony and Microsoft could be two of them.”
Variety: New Version of Snap’s Spectacles Pops Up in FCC Filing
Variety: New Version of Snap’s Spectacles Pops Up in FCC Filing . “Snapchat’s corporate parent Snap Inc. may be getting ready to release a new version of its Spectacles wearable device soon: On late Tuesday, the FCC published a new filing made by the company for a ‘wearable video camera.’ Snap didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.”
TechCrunch: Conserve the Sound is an archive of noises from old tape players, projectors and other dying tech
New-to-me, from TechCrunch: Conserve the Sound is an archive of noises from old tape players, projectors and other dying tech. “All of us grew up around tech different from what we have today, and many of us look back on those devices with fondness. But can you recall the exact sound your first Casio keyboard made, or the cadence of a rotary phone’s clicks? Conserve the Sound aims to, well, conserve the sound of gadgets like these so that future generations will know what it sounded like to put a cartridge in the NES.”
Engadget: Global cyberattack targets 200,000 network switches (updated)
Engadget: Global cyberattack targets 200,000 network switches (updated) . “The past few days haven’t been great for the internet’s broader security. Iran’s Communication and Information Technology Ministry has reported that it was a victim in a global cyberattack that compromised about 200,000 Cisco switches that hadn’t yet received patches for exploits in the company’s legacy Smart Install protocol. The attackers displayed a US flag on at least some screens, complete with a “don’t mess with our elections” warning, but the attack wasn’t focused on Iran — only 3,500 switches fell to the exploit in the country. About 55,000 of the victim devices were in the US, IT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said, while 14,000 were in China. Other victims were located in Europe and India.”
Terry White: My Live Streaming Studio Setup – 2018
Terry White: My Live Streaming Studio Setup – 2018. “Being a photographer I’ve setup a few photography studios and no matter how you equip your studio you can always find more gear that you want and ways to improve it. I’ve been building out this live streaming studio since May 2016. I have everything I ‘need’ to do my streams, but I’m always looking out for ways to improve upon what I have.”
