In 2018, the New York Foundling, a charity that offers child welfare, adoption, and mental health services, was stuck in cut-and-paste hell.Clinicians and admin staff were spending hours transferring text between different documents and databases to meet varied legal requirements. Arik Hill, the charity’s chief information officer, blames the data entry drudgery for an annual…
Category: Technology
The Feds Ban a Self-Driving Shuttle Fleet From Carrying People
Late Tuesday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration—the federal agency in charge of road safety in the US—took the unusual step of ordering a fleet of self-driving shuttles to stop carrying passengers. The shuttles, from the French company EasyMile, were transporting or preparing to transport riders in 16 US cities. NHTSA’s order allows the vehicles…
Spit Kits, Sperm Donors, and the End of Family Secrets
Alice Collins Plebuch, or Grandma Nerd, as her grandkids call her, is good at solving puzzles. She was among the first wave of computer programmers—when that term meant punching information on cards to be fed into mainframes. She has an analytical mind and is at ease with technology. Years ago, she began digging into her…
How to Upgrade Your Home Wi-Fi and Get Faster Internet
As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the United States, many people find themselves working or studying from home. Which also means that they are stuck with their home Wi-Fi networks, many of which may not feel up to the task.Some cable companies have increased speeds for low-income customers. Others have suspended broadband data…
A Critical Internet Safeguard Is Running Out of Time
Keeping the internet safe may sometimes feel like a game of Whac-A-Mole, reacting to attacks as they arise, then moving on to the next. In reality, though, it’s an ongoing process that involves not just identifying threats but grabbing and retaining control of the infrastructure behind them. For years a small nonprofit called Shadowserver has…
High-Stakes Security Set-Ups Are Making Remote Work Impossible
It’s a rule of thumb in cybersecurity that the more sensitive your system, the less you want it to touch the internet. But as the US hunkers down to limit the spread of Covid-19, cybersecurity measures present a difficult technical challenge to working remotely for employees at critical infrastructure, intelligence agencies, and anywhere else with…
GIFs Are Glorious, GIFs Are Perverse
It’s a memory fit for the mantelpiece: A pair of newlyweds, fresh from the altar, walk between rows of well-wishers, happily ducking the white flower petals being thrown over them. The sunlight falls just so, glinting on the groom’s new ring and tracing a halo around his man bun. But this isn’t actually a snapshot;…
Giant Report Lays Anvil on US Cyber Policy
Today, the US Cyberspace Solarium Commission published its final report. The 182-page document is the culmination of a year-long, bipartisan process to develop a new cyber strategy for the United States. Established by the 2019 Defense Authorization Act, the commission draws its inspiration from one set up by President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, as…
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Review: Nearly Perfect, but Too Pricey
I dropped a $1,400 phone on my toe. The weight of the thing was slightly heavier than a billiard ball. Needless to say, it hurt.My grip was compromised because I had been trying different hand positions over the past week just to be able to use Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra, a phone with a 6.9-inch…
The Next Generation of Batteries Could Be Built by Viruses
In 2009, MIT bioengineering professor Angela Belcher traveled to the White House to demo a small battery for President Barack Obama, who was just two months into his first term in office. There aren’t many batteries that can get an audience with the leader of the free world, but this wasn’t your everyday power pouch.…