A patent application (US-20240239352-A1) from the automaker titled "Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations" was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Jul. 18 2024, and was originally filed by Ford Jan. 12, 2023.
In the application, Ford discusses using cars to monitor each other's speeds. If one car detects that a nearby vehicle is being driven above the posted limit, it could use onboard cameras to photograph that vehicle. A report containing both speed data and images of the targeted vehicle could then be sent directly to a police car or roadside monitoring units via an Internet connection, according to Ford.
Using vehicles for speed surveillance would make cops' jobs easier, as they wouldn't have to quickly identify speeding violations and take off in pursuit, Ford notes in the application. It also means some of that work could be delegated to self-driving cars, which could be equipped to detect speeding violations, the automaker adds.
Meanwhile in other news: Ford saw a $1.1 billion loss in its EV business, dragging Q2 profit well below Wall Street forecast.
“I don’t like church.” “I can worship God on my own. Why do I need other people?” We hear statements like these, spoken with conviction, and we wonder if they have any validity. Do we need to be involved with other Christians in a local church in order to effectively serve God? After all, salvation is an individual decision. Why afterwards must we involve other people? What’s wrong with flying solo?
Your network is secure, your computer is up and running, and your printer is jam-free. Why? Because you’ve got an awesome System Administrator keeping your business up and running. So say IT loud; say IT proud …
Happy SysAdmin Day! Wait… what exactly is SysAdmin Day? Oh, it’s only the single greatest 24 hours on the planet… and pretty much the most important holiday of the year. It’s also the perfect opportunity to pay tribute to the heroic men and women who, come rain or shine, prevent disasters, keep IT secure and put out tech fires left and right.
At this point, you may be thinking, "Great. I get it. My sysadmin is a rock star 😂. But now what?" Glad you asked! Nice n' easy, & no cost to you at all: give Donline some feedback (please)...
As a valued Donline client, I would like to invite you to go to this link (Trustpilot) & offer honest feedback on my services. If you have previously submitted feedback - I thank you 💖.
To our listeners,
We know that too many of you have experienced significant problems with our new app which rolled out on May 7, and I want to begin by personally apologizing for disappointing you. There isn’t an employee at Sonos who isn’t pained by having let you down, and I assure you that fixing the app for all of our customers and partners has been, and continues to be, our number one priority.
We developed the new app to create a better experience, with the ability to drive more innovation in the future, and with the knowledge that it would get better over time. However, since launch we have found a number of issues. Fixing these issues has delayed our prior plan to quickly incorporate missing features and functionality.
Since May 7, we have released new software updates approximately every two weeks, each making significant and meaningful improvements, adding features and fixing bugs. Please see the release notes for Sonos software updates for detailed information on what has been released to date.
While these software updates have enabled the majority of our customers to have a robust experience using the Sonos app, there is more work to be done. We have prioritized the following improvements in our next phase of software updates:
We plan to continue releasing new software updates on a bi-weekly cadence. With each release, we will share detailed notes on what we’ve addressed and what we’re working on next in our Community.
We deeply appreciate your patience as we address these issues. We know we have work to do to earn back your trust and are committed to doing it. I am always open to your feedback. You can find me via email at ceo@sonos.com.
Sincerely, Patrick Spence
Update 080824: Addressing blowback from Sonos' wildly unpopular app redesign will cost the company $20 to $30 million "in the short term"
On Tuesday, a source told TechCrunch that they received an email from CrowdStrike offering them the gift card because the company recognizes “the additional work that the July 19 incident has caused.”
“And for that, we send our heartfelt thanks and apologies for the inconvenience,” the email read, according to a screenshot shared by the source. The same email was also posted on X by someone else. “To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!”
Businesses including Waterstones and Gail's have been forced to return to accepting just cash after electronic payments were hit by a web outage.
Shops, cafes, pubs and even Parliament have been impacted by the global systems, forcing customers to use cash to pay for goods and services.
Waitrose told shoppers it was unable to process contactless payments as a global IT outage sparks chaos across the UK.
The middle-class supermarket was understood to only be able to process chip and pin payments or take cash in stores, before confirming its systems were back up and running. Customers reported being told that they would have to get cash out of nearby card machines to pay for shopping.
A raft of global institutions - including major banks, media outlets and airlines - have reported suffering a mass IT outage.
The US state of Alaska has warned its emergency services are affected, while several of the country's airlines have grounded their flights around the globe.
Sky News UK is completely off air as a result of the issues. Australia - which has been particularly hard hit - has seen broadcast networks scrambling on air as systems failed and supermarkets crippled.
The cause of the outage is unclear, but many of those impacted have linked it to Microsoft PC operating systems.
An official Microsoft 365 service update posted to X earlier in the day said " we're investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services".
However, a Microsoft spokesperson told the BBC on Friday that "the majority of services were recovered" hours earlier.
A spokesperson for Australia's Home Affairs Minister said the outage appears to be related to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, and the country's cybersecurity watchdog said there is no information to suggest it an attack.
“Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies," they said in a statement.
Cars have been able to figure out when they're speeding for a while, thanks to GPS as well as traffic sign recognition, and they've also been able to pump the brakes automatically when needed.
Having a computer automatically slow down a car in response to posted speed limits, therefore, was not really a question of technical feasibility for some time - but mandating it has been a question of political will.
That political will has materialized in the European Union, and starting July 7 all new cars sold in the EU will feature intelligent speed assistance (ISA) systems.
The systems themselves have been working their way into newly introduced models of cars starting in 2022, so quite a few new cars on the road already feature them. The July 2024 regulation extends that mandate to all new vehicles being manufactured for sale in the EU.
MikeG & I were very happy to attend Beaulieu Bikers' Day on Saturday 6th July.
I booked my ticket to this event in mid June, barely giving their "early bird ticket" competition a thought. I was bowled over to discover that I'd won a Friends of the National Motor Museum Trust annual pass worth £62.50 and a £250 Dearden Motorcycles voucher. What an amazing pair of prizes!
Mike & I rode up from Denmead. The weather started out with drizzle, and was like that for a chunk of the ride out to the New Forest, but soon perked up. The rest of the day was fine - which was perfect for wandering around Beaulieu & enjoying the day.
We were welcomed by Charlotte who was responsible for organising this event: who with her team had done a grand job! There were masses of visitors, stands from motorcycle dealers, Mental Health Motorbike had a stand, historic bike startups (loud!) great food & drink concessions & access to the excellent museum. What a fantastic day.
Honestly Beaulieu is such a special place: petrol head heaven! Set in a stunningly beautiful village, which in turn is in the heavenly New Forest. Honestly, treat yourself to a wonderful day out. Tell 'em Don sent you!
The expansion of its data centres to support AI developments contributed to the company producing 14.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2023. This represents a 48% increase over the equivalent figure for 2019 and a 13% increase since 2022.
“This result was primarily due to increases in data centre energy consumption and supply chain emissions,” the report’s authors wrote.
“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment.”
The service was introduced under the name Bing Chat, as a built-in feature for Microsoft Bing and Microsoft Edge. Over the course of 2023, Microsoft began to unify the Copilot branding across its various chatbot products, cementing the copilot analogy. At its Build 2023 conference, Microsoft announced its plans to integrate Copilot into Windows 11, allowing users to access it directly through the taskbar. In January 2024, a dedicated Copilot key was announced for Windows keyboards.
On Saturday 6th July Beaulieu will be holding its first Beaulieu Bikers' Day!
Owners of all makes and models of bike are invited to ride into the grounds of the National Motor Museum and catch up with fellow motorcyclists.
A huge variety of bikes will be on display from cutting-edge sports bikes to powerful three-wheelers PLUS don't miss the exciting historic bike start-ups.
Tickets are just £10 per rider, which includes entry to the whole of the Beaulieu attraction. Book an advance ticket by 2pm Friday 21st June 2024 to enter into our prize draw! (NB: COMPETITION ENTRY IS NOW CLOSED).
Anyone booking an advance ticket before 2pm on Friday 21st June 2024 will be entered into the Advance Ticket Prize Draw. Prizes include a complimentary Friends of the National Motor Museum Trust annual pass worth £62.50 and a £250 Dearden Motorcycles voucher to use in store.
So I booked my ticket, barely giving the compo a thought. I was bowled over to discover that I'd won this amazing prize!
Kim, Calli & I took a trip out to the New Forest last week. Stopped off for a fantastic lunch at The Red Lion, Boldre. Then we popped to Dearden Motorcycles. I was made very welcome by Julie & Nigel. Wow: the place is like a Tardis! Fairly nondescript from the outside but huge inside with a great selection of brands, bikes & accessories. The bike that really jumped out at me was the Moto Guzzi V85TT - a truly beautiful bike, I feel a test ride is on the cards! I spent my voucher (with a bit of topping up) on a lovely Spada Lambert leather jacket & pair of Oxford riding jeans. Thanks so much to Beaulieu & Dearden Motorcycles for this fantastic prize!
Really looking forward to the Biker's Day!
Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2 recently received a non-security update with a bunch of new features and small fixes. Sadly, KB5039302 turned out to be a real troublemaker. Microsoft has already confirmed that it causes infinite restarts on certain systems, and now, there is another known bug.
Microsoft published a new message on its official Windows Health Dashboard website to warn users that KB5039302 is breaking the taskbar on specific Windows 11 editions, namely Windows N.
For those unfamiliar, Windows N is a special version of the operating system with a bunch of media features removed, such as the Windows Media Player app. Microsoft also said that the bug affects customers with regular editions who turned off media features in the "Turn Windows features on or off" UI.
According to Microsoft and the official documentation, affected customers cannot interact with the taskbar, while the rest of the UI and File Explorer continue operating as usual:
After installing the June 2024 Windows preview update (KB5039302), released June 25, 2024, you are likely to face issues with the Taskbar. This issue is only expected to occur if you are using a Windows N edition device or if you turn off the ‘Media Features’ via Control Panel->Programs-> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off. N editions of Windows include the same functionality as other editions of Windows, except for media-related technologies, Windows Media Player, and certain preinstalled media apps.
You might not be able to view or interact with the Taskbar after logging in to your device once the update is installed. Other applications like File Explorer, Desktop and Settings will continue to work.
Microsoft is working on a resolution, which will be available in a future update. As a reminder, KB5039302 is no longer available for download - Microsoft pulled it after confirming reports about infinite restarts.
