For more than a decade, journalists and researchers have been writing about the dangers of relying on algorithms to make weighty decisions: who gets locked up, who gets a job, who gets a loan — even who has priority for COVID-19 vaccines. Rather than remove bias, one algorithm after another has codified and perpetuated it, as companies have simultaneously continued to more or less shield their algorithms from public scrutiny....

When it was time to pick a school for my youngest daughter, we visited a few to see which one would be a good fit. The first one was the most prestigious, and it showed. They were well prepared, all the information was readily available, and nothing was left to chance. The second school we visited was utter chaos. The teacher was late, she was sweating, and her face was red because she was dealing with some kind of issue with a bunch of kids in the other classroom....

Confession time, dear reader: I actually liked the Sony PlayStation Classic. Was it a totally cynical attempt by Sony to cash in on the retro console craze amidst the 2018 Christmas shopping season? Absolutely. Was it wildly overpriced when it came out? Yeah. Was the games selection a bit questionable? Yes, unless you consider Cool Boarders 2 an iconic piece of gaming history. But it wasn’t too bad. The hardware worked well....

Over the last few weeks, there have been a few interesting features that I myself recently learned about. Here is a quick look at these features, and a rundown of each. [Read: A look at the best new features in Python 3.9] [Out]: (2, 1) This is simply finding the number of times we can fit 2 into 5 , without splitting the number, which gives us 2, the quotient....

The new rule, first announced in September by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, took effect from Sunday (December 1). Prior to the law, folks in China just had to provide a copy of their ID card to get a new cellular contract. The Chinese government said in the notice that it took the step to “protect the legitimate rights and interest of citizens in cyberspace.” The ministry also added it wanted to curb down identity theft and resale of SIM cards....

Some of these efforts yielded lucrative results — Li Jing, president of the home accessories business Mendale Textile, for instance, achieved $3.5 million worth of sales for his company on a four-hour livestream in March. James Liang, the executive chairman & former CEO of the travel services company Trip.com, had also made $8.4 million selling travel packages, with five sessions of hour-long livestreams. And on May 10, the chairwoman of Gree Electric, Dong Mingzhu, sold more than $43....

In the late 1970s and 1980s, when President Deng Xiaoping started to open up the economy, it didn’t take long to rekindle the innate entrepreneurial spirit that saw China’s traders conquer the old Silk Road. Following the ascendance of tech juggernauts Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, coupled with later market liberalizations, there has been an explosion of both local and western venture capitalists eager to find the next generation of Chinese unicorns....

However, the scope is limited, and the browser won’t protect you from all kinds of form injunctions. It’ll warn you if a form on a page with HTTPS security is not submitted through an HTTPS channel. These are called mixed forms. That means someone can snoop on the data you’re sending to the site. [Read: Apple will soon give buyers a year to decide on AppleCare+, up from 60 days] In earlier versions, Chrome used to mark the mixed form by removing the lock icon from the address bar....

Polleti is referring to the fast-growth Cluno is experiencing. Based in Munich, Cluno was founded in 2017 and offers a car subscription service allowing customers to pay a fixed monthly fee instead of buying, renting, or financing a vehicle. The fee covers all costs except refuelling, of course. Technology has radically transformed the automotive industry, changing how cars are designed, used, and driven. A 2016 McKinsey report noted how the annual growth rate of car sales was expected to drop to around 2% by 2030....

Then the coronavirus arrived. Eurovision was sadly canceled — but the organizers of the AI song contest bravely chose to go ahead. And TNW bagged an exclusive ticket to the show. “We have everything here,” promised host Lieven Scheire. “There is glitter, there is a smoke machine, there will be love, peace, and modulations, and I have prepared some overly scripted jokes that probably will not work in this context....

One February beach clean in Hong Kong found 70 masks along 100 meters of shoreline, with 30 more appearing a week later. In the Mediterranean, masks have reportedly been seen floating like jellyfish. Despite millions of people being told to use face masks, little guidance has been given on how to dispose of or recycle them safely. And as countries begin to lift lockdown restrictions, billions of masks will be needed each month globally....

At a recent Cities Today Institute roundtable, cities across Europe told a consistent story – public transport ridership is down between 60 and 90 percent on pre-coronavirus levels and capacity is reduced due to social distancing, while private car usage is beginning to climb once again. With revenues from media, parking and other taxes also slashed, this is adding up to a perfect storm of looming congestion and decimated budgets....

For starters, here’s a short list: Water, food, shelter – and oxygen. Oxygen is in the air we breathe here on Earth. Plants and some kinds of bacteria provide it for us. But oxygen is not the only gas in the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s not even the most abundant. In fact, only 21% of our air is made up of oxygen. Almost all the rest is nitrogen – about 78%....

With the worldwide spread of the disease increasing again, it seems unlikely that the currently available measures can do more than bring that spread under control – except in countries that can effectively isolate themselves from the outside world. The fact that the vast majority of people are still susceptible to some degree means that there is sufficient fuel for the fire to keep burning for quite some time. This will be the case even if specific locations reach what is known as population (or herd) immunity (and it’s not clear how likely this is to happen)....

Brittany Nicole Green, sentenced to five years, and her father Gregory, who will spend three years behind bars, ran a mail-order drug operation from their home in Billings (Montana). The Greens, who sold a variety of drugs and shipped them through the mail, operated the ring between 2017 and 2018. When authorities raided their home, they discovered carfentanil, meth, and Xanax — “a supermarket of drugs” that would appeal to various buyers, US District Court Judge Susan Watters, said at Gregory’s sentencing....

Here are some folks you should follow for tips on what to cook next to delight your loved ones, or to simply enjoy by yourself — and learn a thing or two along the way. Internet Shaquille One of the new rising stars of the YouTube foodie universe, Internet Shaquille shares practical tips and recipes for stepping up your cooking game, using easily available ingredients. Never thought you could serve up Gambas Al Ajillo?...

But what if, instead of spending trillions hurtling mammals towards distant rocks just to prove it’s possible, we actually did something so technologically innovative it fundamentally changes how we approach science? NASA should put a particle collider on the Moon. Instead of waiting on Musk and Trump to solve space radiation (something we’ll need to do before anyone gets close to Mars) humans could be perfecting quantum computers and inventing warp drives....

Up front: Enterprise-scale IT solutions for hybrid cloud implementation more often than not rely on an open-source backbone these days. Unfortunately, an overwhelming majority of hiring managers report difficulties in finding talent with complementary open-source skills. This is good news for those seeking to enter or re-enter the jobs market with an eye towards the future, so long as they’re willing to learn open source solutions. Hybrid cloud-based technology underpins just about every major business network and, according to the results of the O’Reilly survey, those with open-source skills will eventually be prioritized over those with proprietary dev skills – if they aren’t already....

Netflix seems like an obvious competitor. As the entrenched favorite streaming service with the biggest audience, Netflix sets the standard for Disney+ to meet or beat. And Disney’s evidently not going to do its rival any favors. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Disney is banning Netflix from advertising on any of its TV networks. Insiders claim that this originally stretched to all rival streaming networks, but Disney later reversed that decision for every company except Netflix....

Since the It’s OK appeared on the technosphere’s radar last week, it’s been described as “retro-nonsense,” “dumb,” and something only an insipid East London hipster would buy. The latter point might be true, actually, but I digress. Other arguments emphasize that cassettes were a pretty terrible audio format, offering a low-fidelity audio experience. That’s true, but then again, this gadget isn’t called It’s Good. It’s called It’s OK. So, why would anyone want to buy this?...