The new four-bedroom house in Charlotte, N.C., was Crystal Marie and Eskias McDaniels’s personal American dream, the reason they had moved to this Southern town from pricey Los Angeles a few years ago. A lush, long lawn, 2,700 square feet of living space, a neighborhood pool and playground for their son, Nazret. All for $375,000. Prequalifying for the mortgage was a breeze. They said they had saved much more than they would need for the down payment, had very good credit—scores of 805 and 725—and earned roughly six figures each, she in marketing at a utility company and Eskias representing a pharmaceutical company....

There’s an important caveat, which I think no one will disagree with: they should be prohibited for use on pavements, BBC reports. Escooter trials have been operating around England over the past few months, and general sentiments are that they aren’t going all that well. As seems to always be the case when escooter trials begin, people misuse them, they get parked in places they shouldn’t be, and they become the focus of conversation because of rule-breaking riders....

A report from BBC noted that the Department for Transport will allow autonomous driving modes that are limited to a single lane with a speed cap of 60km per hour (37mph). The government said that vehicles with automated lane-keeping systems (ALKS) will have to take a GB-type approval to be classified as self-driving cars. It added that the drivers won’t need to pay attention to the road or keep their hands on the steering wheel, but they should be alert....

One of its most beloved features was the ability to personalize its interface with thousands of custom skins made by devoted artists — and someone has finally given us a chance to relive this experience in all of its glory. Enter the The Winamp Skin Museum — a massive collection of skins for the legendary media player that lets you browse through over 65,000 different versions. “The Winamp Skin Museum is an attempt to build a fast, searchable, and shareable, interface for the collection of Winamp Skins amassed on the Internet Archive,” says Facebook engineer a Jordan Eldredge, who created the project....

Although Microsoft and developers had already optimized some backwards compatible titles, the new FPS Boost works without the need for game updates or changes by the developer. Using “a variety of new methods,” the backwards compatibility team was able to nearly double or quadruple the original framerates on some titles. Unfortunately, the current list of supported titles is rather minuscule, although it does include some popular titles: Far Cry 4, New Super Lucky’s Tale, Sniper Elite 4, UFC 4, and Watch Dogs 2....

Well here it is! The movement and game controls using the DSi’s camera are really natural and realistic looking! Similar to the way many augmented reality apps are controlled, but in this case the view is of the game world not the real world. Rittai Kakushi e Attakoreda is a game where you search for different objects in 3D diorama-type levels. It’s a downloadable DSi Ware game, that comes out March 3rd and thus far will only be available in Japan....

But thanks to this new policy-reading AI, things won’t have to be this way for much longer. Guard is a recurrent neural network-based app that reads and analyzes privacy terms, so you don’t have to. While it can’t yet examine policies on request, the AI has rated the privacy terms of a slew of popular services like Netflix, Instagram, Twitter, and Tinder. What’s particularly nifty about Guard is that it not only gives an overall score, but also breaks down the main threats included in privacy policies....

Cermaq’s ‘blockchainified’ salmon will be sold by French food company Labeyrie. A press release notes consumers will be able to scan special QR codes on Labeyrie labels to receive comprehensive details about the salmon’s journey “from egg to store.” Marketing materials refer to these tidbits as a “CV,” which will feature the salmon’s origin, how it was farmed, its size upon transference into seawater, as well as the farming facility’s location....

The system provides musings on subjects that have plagued humanity since its inception. You can ask it about a topic that’s filling you with existential angst. It then uses OpenAI’s GPT-3 text generator to analyze your text and spit back a life-affirming/soul-destroying response. The system is the brainchild of a Vancouver-based programmer called Murat Ayfer, who describes it as an experiment in “prompt engineering.” Ayfer admits the AI doesn’t have any specific opinions or knowledge of its own....

Let’s get something out of the way quickly here. While there are any number of both fun and educational tinkerer sets to choose from out there, most are fundamentally toys. Oh sure, the lessons they offer and some of the functions they serve are certainly real enough, but at the end of the day, they’re mostly just enjoyable side diversions into the world of basic engineering. But make no mistake....

Their confusion often stems from their depth camera systems. These cameras shine infrared light on an object to detect its shape, which works pretty well on opaque items. But put them in front of a transparent object, and the light will go straight through and scatter off reflective surfaces, making it tricky to calculate the item’s shape. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have discovered a pretty simple solution: adding consumer color cameras to the mix....

Following international backlash from cycling and sustainability advocates, nonprofit Shared Mobility Inc., is set to receive thousands of the former ride-share machines and will loan them out — for free! — Buffalo News reports. Many thousands of ebikes from inner city bike-share scheme Jump, that was formerly owned by Uber, were in the process of being scrapped. It was an environmental disaster, steeped in irony. [Read: Korean battery maker drama threatens Ford’s all-electric F150 truck, US jobs] These bicycles, that were supposed to get people out of cars and provide a clean and green form of transport, were just being crushed....

There’s no shortage of research about the psychology of arguing online, from text versus voice to how anyone can become a troll and advice about how to argue well. But there’s another factor that’s often overlooked: the design of social media itself. My colleagues and I investigated how the design of social media affects online disagreements and how to design for constructive arguments. We surveyed and interviewed 257 people about their experiences with online arguments and how design could help....

Motoring press is this morning reporting that Toyota has confirmed it will make 70 electrified vehicles by 2025, including 15 BEVs. Seven of these BEVs will be on the company’s new bZ platform. Most notably, Toyota confirmed that it is going to bring hybrid and battery electric drivetrains to its trucks. It didn’t say what models will be electrified though. There’s the possibility they’ll be entirely new models, or reworkings of existing vehicles — but Toyota, if you’re listening, please bring back the Hilux....

In order to accomplish this, Nunes says the company’s hired the same artificial intelligence moderation firm as OnlyFans. Yes MAGA fans, Trump’s TRUTH will be censored using the same technology as every other social media site. Oh the irony: Hive, the AI firm in question, serves numerous high-profile clients including Reddit, Parler, and the aforementioned OnlyFans. And, according to its own website, it’s very good at censoring posts that break its clients’ terms of service....

In the tweet, Trump was addressing civil unrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and threatened that law enforcement would open fire in response. This comes hours after Trump signed an executive order that holds social media companies liable for content hosted on their platform. The order aims to remove Section 230, which provides a safe harbor to social media companies; it relieves them from the responsibility for the content published by users and hosted on their platforms....

The transport mode, rolling out today for users in Delhi, will only show information regarding schedules, fastest and cheapest routes. You can only book a ride to the origin station. You will have to book a ride again when you reach your destination station. At the moment, this is all too similar to the transport mode in Google Maps, which also shows auto rickshaw prices to and from the station....

The COVID-19 pandemic may have set attitudes to driving versus using public transport back by as much as two decades in the UK, according to research by automotive services group RAC. For the first time since 2002, fewer than half of drivers (43%) say they would reduce car use, even if train and bus services were improved – down from 57% in 2019. In its annual Report on Motoring, the firm also found more than half of UK drivers (57%) say having access to a car is more important now than it was before the coronavirus pandemic....

Earlier this week, Twitter user @peterfinn5252 claimed to have come across new adverts featuring Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis. The adverts claim that a “revolutionary Bitcoin home based opportunity” will change the lives of “thousands of British [sic] forever.” — Peter finn (@peterfinn5252) January 7, 2020 Sadly, though, it won’t. Because the ads are fake. One of the adverts is mocked up to look like British tabloid newspaper site, the Mirror....

Popular video conferencing app Zoom seems to be having a hard time convincing organizations that it’s secure to use. Just after Google banned its employees from using the app, the US Senate has forbidden its members from utilizing Zoom. A report from the Financial Times noted that the Senate’s sergeant at arms has warned people against using the service. Earlier this week, Reuters reported the Department of Homeland Security said in a memo that Zoom is responding to security concerns swiftly....