• Are Your Kids’ Toys Spying On Your Family?

    New California bill would require privacy, disclosure for internet toys, devices Suzanne Potter California News Service SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A bill to make sure your kids’ toys aren’t spying on them had its first hearing before the state Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, May 9th. The so-called Teddy Bears...
  • SILICON VALLEY COMIC CON 2017 DRAWS 65,000 ATTENDEES OVER THREE-DAY EVENT

    Steve Wozniak’s Second Annual Pop Culture, Science & Technology Expo Added New Venues and Outdoor Festival, Saw Increased Attendance SAN JOSE – Silicon Valley Comic Con (SVCC), Steve Wozniak’s wildly successful pop culture and technology expo, took over downtown San Jose the weekend of April 21-23, welcoming more than...
  • Partner, or Die!

    Worried about robots taking your job? You have a weapon and one last chance: partner, or die! Shelly Palmer Your Job at Risk? If your job is process oriented, for example, calculating make-goods for improperly filled orders, your whole department will be automated soon. Don’t let the pink slip...
  • Can Self-Driving Cars Ever Really Be Safe?

    Shelly Palmer Analysts estimate that by 2030, self-driving cars and trucks (autonomous vehicles) could account for as much as 60 percent of US auto sales. That’s great! But autonomous vehicles are basically computers on wheels, and computers crash all the time. Besides that, computers get hacked every day. So...
  • TV May Actually Die Soon – Stay Tuned

    Shelly Palmer FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google/YouTube) is about to take a huge bite out of traditional network TV (ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox), and the media business will never be the same. To understand how profound the implications of the recently announced NFL on Amazon Prime or YouTube...
  • Internet Privacy 2017 | What You Need to Know

    Shelly Palmer There has never been a reasonable expectation of online privacy, and there never will be. Regardless of what you may have recently heard about joint resolutions or nullifications, nothing has changed. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have always had the right to use your data as they see...
  • Can Alexa Lie?

    Shelly Palmer There was a recent tabloid piece featuring a video of a woman asking Alexa if it was connected to the CIA. At the time, the Echo Dot she was speaking to did not respond to the question. She asked a few times, and each time the Echo...
  • How to Turn Your Microwave into a Camera

    Shelly Palmer You can turn a microwave into a camera and I’ll teach you how in a minute, but before I do, let me share this news item. In a recent interview with a reporter from the Bergen Record, Kellyanne Conway was asked about surveillance. She responded: “There are...
  • Life After the Robot Apocalypse

    Shelly Palmer Two weeks ago, I compiled a list of the 5 jobs robots will take first. Last week, I compiled a list of the 5 jobs robots will take last. Both previous essays are about robots replacing human workers who do cognitive nonrepetitive work (such as middle managers, salespersons,...
January