http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-04/01/google-robot-personalities

very similar to our idea of the immortal matt - 2009

Google patents customisable robot personalitiesRobots01 April 15 by Katie Collins

Do you like your robots subservient and complimentary, or glib and a little bit cheeky? A patent that has just been awarded to Google suggests that either could be possible and that we could potentially download different personality types from the cloud.

In fact, if you can't choose what kind of personality you want for your future robo-pal, it's highly possible that it might be able to choose for you. It would do this by accessing your devices and learning about you, before configuring a tailored personality based on that information. In addition it could use speech and facial recognition to personalise its interactions with you.

The original question posed still stands though -- you could potentially always choose a specific personality type for your Google robot that represents the kind of person you enjoy interacting with. This personality could even be triggered by specific cues or circumstances that the robot could detect, says the patent, which was spotted by Quartz.

"The robot personality may also be modifiable within a base personality construct (i.e., a default-persona) to provide states or moods representing transitory conditions of happiness, fear, surprise, perplexion (e.g., the Woody Allen robot), thoughtfulness, derision (e.g., the Rodney Dangerfield robot), and so forth," states the patent.

It also suggests that should a cruel fate befall your robot, that might not spell the end of its days. It's possible that if you uploaded its personality to the cloud you might be able to transfer it to another robot. Unlike Newton and Stephanie from Short Circuit who were devastated when they believed their beloved Johnny Five had been destroyed, you never need get

emotional over or be concerned about the physical destruction of your robot.

A more concerning concept perhaps though is that a robot could be programmed to take on the personality of a real-world person -- the patent suggests a deceased loved one or a celebrity -- so that effectively you could get someone to live on after their death in robot form. And right about that point it all starts getting a bit Black Mirror. 

Meka

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-crashing-drones-are-exposing-secrets-about-us-war-operations/2015/03/24/e89ed940-d197-11e4-8fce-3941fc548f1c_story.html?hpid=z1

How crashing drones are exposing secrets about U.S. war operations

Syrian news agency claims to show intercepted U.S. drone(2:44)The Syrian News Agency SANA and Alikhbaria TV channel reported that a “hostile” drone was intercepted in northern Latakia, a regime-held city. This video is said to show some of the drone wreckage. U.S. officials have confirmed that the Predator drone crashed and believe it may have been shot down, but have not made a final determination. (YouTube/ لألنباء السورية العربية (الوكالة

By Craig Whitlock March 25

Crashing drones are spilling secrets about U.S. military operations.

A surveillance mission was exposed last week when a Predator drone crashed in northwest Syria while spying on the home turf of President Bashar al-Assad. U.S. officials believe the drone was shot down, but they haven’t ruled out mechanical failure. Regardless, the wreckage offered the first hard evidence of a U.S. confrontation with Assad’s forces.

The mishap in Syria follows a string of crashes in Yemen, another country where the U.S. military keeps virtually all details of its drone operations classified.

Yemeni tribesmen have reported three cases in the past 15 months in which U.S. drones have fallen from the sky, pulling back the curtain on likely surveillance targets. Air Force spokesmen said they could not confirm any crashes in Yemen, but Air Force records obtained by The Washington Post show the dates match up with official acknowledgments of accidents that occurred in classified locations.

Since January 2014, the Air Force has reported 14 crashes of Predator and Reaper drones that either destroyed the aircraft or inflicted more than $2 million in damage. Three of the accidents took place in Afghanistan, but six happened elsewhere in classified or undisclosed sites, a sharp increase from prior years.

The far-flung nature of the accidents reinforces how U.S. drone operations have spread well beyond the established war zone in Afghanistan.

In November, a Reaper drone crashed in the Sahara while returning to a new U.S. base in Niger. At the start of last year, a Predator plunged into the Mediterranean Sea after conducting a secret mission over Libya, a rare tangible sign of U.S. surveillance operations there.

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http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/26/technology/security/credit-card-dynamic-cvv/index.html

Credit card of the future could stop fraudBy Jose Pagliery   @Jose_Pagliery

See the changing CVV code? There's a lithium-ion battery inside that card, so careful where you cut it when it expires.

As banks seek to reduce fraud, one credit card maker has a prototype with a constantly-changing code on the back.This week, CNNMoney received an early model from the French company Oberthur Technologies. Expect it in 2017 if it catches on with major banks.

The mini ink screen is powered by a lithium-ion battery (like a phone) the size of a postage stamp that's designed to last three years. A computer chip randomizes the number every 40 or 60 minutes.

Engineers have managed to squeeze it all into a regular, 0.76 millimeter-thick card.

The changing code renders the card useless to anyone who has written down your credit card number, expiration date and the code on the back.

And it would be a more complete solution than the one currently being implemented by the industry.

How to make credit cards more secure

The American credit card system is undergoing a huge, $33 billion upgrade to computer chip-based smart cards that you'll dip into new machines (instead of swipe).

But the way U.S. banks are upgrading credit cards won't actually stop fraud. It'll just move online, where anyone can use stolen card data for purchases that only require static credit card numbers.

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http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/03/25/software-glitch-causes-f-35-to-incorrectly-detect-targets-in-formation/

Software glitch causes F-35 to incorrectly detect targets in formationBy Kris Osborn

Published March 25, 2015

An F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter takes off on a training sortie at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida in this March 6, 2012 file photo. (REUTERS/U.S. Air Force photo/Randy Gon/Handout)

Engineers are trying to fix the F-35’s software package after it was discovered the sensors for the Joint Strike Fighter malfunction when detecting targets when the aircraft flies in formation.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, Program Executive Officer, F-35, said he didn’t have a date when the correction would be made. However, he said the problem would not delay the declaration of the Marine variant of the aircraft, the F-35B, ready for combat.

“When you have two, three or four F-35s looking at the same threat, they don’t all see it exactly the same because of the angles that they are looking at and what their sensors pick up,” Bogdan told reporters Tuesday. “When there is a slight difference in what those four airplanes might be seeing, the fusion model can’t decide if it’s one threat or more than one threat. If two airplanes are looking at the same thing, they see it slightly differently because of the physics of it.”

For example, if a group of F-35s detect a single ground threat such as anti-aircraft weaponry, the sensors on the planes may have trouble distinguishing whether it was an isolated threat or several objects, Bogdan explained.

As a result, F-35 engineers are working with Navy experts and academics from John’s Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to adjust the sensitivity of the fusion algorithms for the JSF’s 2B software package so that groups of planes can correctly identify or discern threats.

“What we want to have happen is no matter which airplane is picking up the threat – whatever the angles or the sensors – they correctly identify a single threat and then pass that information to all four airplanes so that all four airplanes are looking at the same threat at the same place,” Bogdan said.

The F-35 is engineered to fuse relevant information from a variety of sources into one common operating picture for the pilot to view – such as digital maps, radar information and sensor information all combined into a single set of screens, JSF officials said.

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http://www.myfoxny.com/story/28663965/face-scans-show-how-fast-a-person-is-aging

Face scans show how fast a person is aging 

© Comstock / Thinkstock

By Dennis ThompsonHealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 31, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Every face tells a story, and that story apparently includes hints of how quickly a person is aging, a new study contends.

Facial features have proven even more reliable than blood tests in spotting those for whom time is taking a heavier toll, a Chinese research team reports in the March 31 issue of the journal Cell Research.

A computerized 3-D facial imaging process uncovered a number of "tells" that show if a person is aging more rapidly, including a widening mouth, bulging nose, sagging upper lip, shrinking gums and drooping eye corners, the researchers said.

"This suggests not only that youth is 'skin deep,' but also that health is 'written' on the face," the study authors concluded, suggesting that facial scanning could more accurately assess a person's general health than a routine physical exam.

This sort of facial imaging is part of a cutting-edge technology aimed at estimating life expectancy and assessing health risk factors simply by taking a scan of your face, said Jay Olshansky, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public Health and a board member of the American Federation for Aging Research.

"A lot of your risk factor for disease shows up in your face," Olshansky said. "You can identify the precise places on the face where these risk factors show up."

In fact, Olshansky predicts that insurance companies eventually could turn to such technology to improve underwriting of life insurance, predicting a person's future health with a simple face scan rather than a complex panel of blood tests.

"All of that blood chemistry, all of the money spent on it, is mostly a waste of money and time," he said. "You can get at these risks a much simpler way through a combination of facial analytics and asking the right questions."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/us/politics/us-expands-foreign-cyberattack-retaliation-options.html?ref=technology&_r=0

U.S. Expands Foreign Cyberattack Retaliation OptionsBy PETER BAKERAPRIL 1, 2015

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday signed an executive order designed to retaliate against foreign-based cyberattacks on the United States in the latest demonstration of how the threats to national security are evolving in a world of fast-changing technology.

The order authorizes financial and travel sanctions against anyone involved in cyberattacks originating or directed from outside the country that pose “a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States.”

The move comes just months after Mr. Obama blamed North Korea for the hacking of Sony Pictures just as it was about to release “The Interview,” a movie featuring a mocking portrayal of Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader. Mr. Obama in January used existing authority to impose economic sanctions against North Korean officials and a North Korean intelligence agency but the new order will expand his options in the future.

“Cyber threats pose one of the most serious economic and national security challenges to the United States and my administration is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to confront them,” Mr. Obama said in a statement released Wednesday morning. “As we have seen in recent months, these threats can emanate from a range of sources and target our critical infrastructure, our companies and our citizens.”

Among the actions that would trigger retaliation under the order would be cyberattacks that target critical infrastructure; steal money, trade secrets or personal information; or disrupt computer networks through what are called denial-of-service attacks.

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