Eu on US-China Tech wars, security camera hacks

[sman]

EU seeks to supercharge computer chip production

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56334210

The European Commission has set an ambitious target to boost production of cutting-edge computer chips by the end of the decade.

It wants 20% of such chips, in terms of value, to be manufactured within the EU by 2030. It was 10% in 2020.

The pledge comes at a time when supply has failed to meet demand, causing problems for car-makers and others.

Part of the challenge will be that the US and mainland China are also seeking to increase their own output.

Being able to make the most advanced chips is taking on greater geo-political importance.

The US has already taken steps to restrict China's access to chips and other technologies involving American intellectual property on the grounds they could be used by the Chinese military and/or to carry out surveillance of its minority Uighur population.

And a recent report prepared for US President Biden advised him to take steps to ensure China continues to remain at least two chip generations behind.

Hackers Break Into Thousands of Security Cameras, Exposing Tesla, Jails, Hospitals

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/hackers-break-into-thousands-of-security-cameras-exposing-tesla-jails-hospitals-1.1574681

Bloomberg) -- A group of hackers say they breached a massive trove of security-camera data collected by Silicon Valley startup Verkada Inc., gaining access to live feeds of 150,000 surveillance cameras inside hospitals, companies, police departments, prisons and schools.

Companies whose footage was exposed include carmaker Tesla Inc. and software provider Cloudflare Inc. In addition, hackers were able to view video from inside women’s health clinics, psychiatric hospitals and the offices of Verkada itself. Some of the cameras, including in hospitals, use facial-recognition technology to identify and categorize people captured on the footage. The hackers say they also have access to the full video archive of all Verkada customers.

T-Mobile to share customers' web, mobile-app data with advertisers unless they opt out

"https://thehill.com/policy/technology/542303-t-mobile-to-share-customers-web-mobile-app-data-with-advertisers-unless"

T-Mobile will start sharing customers’ web and mobile app data with companies for third-party advertising next month unless users opt-out, it said in a recent privacy policy update. 

T-Mobile’s update will go into place April 26 and it will allow information the provider learns about users from their web and device usage to be used for targeted advertising.

The company’s privacy policy was updated last month, but The Wall Street Journal first reported on the update Tuesday. 

The Future of Group Messaging

"https://thejarren.com/group-messaging/"

Group messaging is the glue that holds modern communication together. From the corporate Slack channels, the casual iMessage groups, and the entertaining Discord servers, we as people are increasingly spending time in group messages.

But there's an Achilles heel to group messaging, a bad thread that runs deep into the fabric of digital communication. From the very beginning our systems have followed one crucial rule:

New content must appear in line, no matter how many people are chatting.

This one rule for our messaging feeds, this guideline for our conversations, remains largely unbroken, and has constrained group messages for far too long. Here, I’ll propose a solution that will set group messaging free.

These two changes: Adding in-line posts to messaging, and adding a new view for posts and comments, would open a whole new world of social network possibilities. This is the social network killer.

Keep your head: the self-decapitating sea slugs that regrow their bodies – hearts and all

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/08/keep-your-head-the-self-decapitating-sea-slugs-that-regrow-their-bodies-hearts-and-all

Scientists in Japan have discovered that this species of sea slug can decapitate itself and then regrow an entirely new body, complete with a beating heart and other vital organs.

The process, from shedding all of itself below the neck to regrowing a new body, took less than a month, in an extreme example of a process known as autotomy

SpaceX plans Starlink broadband for trucks, ships, and planes [Updated]

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/03/spacex-plans-starlink-broadband-for-cars-boats-and-planes/