Devin Coldewey
Writer & Photographer
The Latest from Devin Coldewey
Independent report on Facebook bias catalogues mild complaints from conservatives
An independent investigator has issued a preliminary report on its work determining the existence and/or extent of bias against conservatives on Facebook. It's refreshingly light reading — the compl
This hand-tracking algorithm could lead to sign language recognition
Millions of people communicate using sign language, but so far projects to capture its complex gestures and translate them to verbal speech have had limited success. A new advance in real-time hand tr
Without evidence, Trump accuses Google of manipulating millions of votes
The President this morning lashed out at Google on Twitter, accusing the company of manipulating millions of votes in the 2016 election to sway it towards Hillary Clinton. The authority on which he ba
Flexible stick-on sensors could wirelessly monitor your sweat and pulse
As people strive ever harder to minutely quantify every action they do, the sensors that monitor those actions are growing lighter and less invasive. Two prototype sensors from crosstown rivals Stanfo
Toolkit for digital abuse could help victims protect themselves
Domestic abuse comes in digital forms as well as physical and emotional, but a lack of tools to address this kind of behavior leaves many victims unprotected and desperate for help. This Cornell proje
These robo-shorts are the precursor to a true soft exoskeleton
When someone says "robotic exoskeleton," the power loaders from Aliens are what come to mind for most people (or at least me), but the real things will be much different: softer, smarter, and used for
Look inside Virgin Galactic’s shiny new Spaceport America
For a couple years now Virgin Galactic's Spaceport America was more aspirational than functional, but now it's been built out with the necessaries for commercial spaceflight — mainly coffee. The com
Racial bias observed in hate speech detection algorithm from Google
Understanding what makes something offensive or hurtful is difficult enough that many people can't figure it out, let alone AI systems. And people of color are frequently left out of AI training sets.
Google details AI work behind Project Euphonia’s more inclusive speech recognition
As part of new efforts towards accessibility, Google announced Project Euphonia at I/O in May: An attempt to make speech recognition capable of understanding people with non-standard speaking voices o
Pete Buttigieg echoes Warren with $80B rural broadband plan
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg has unveiled his plan to address the broadband gap in this country: an $80 billion "Internet For All" initiative and set of related reforms. It echoes Se
$600M Cray supercomputer will tower above the rest — to build better nukes
Cray has been commissioned by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to create a supercomputer head and shoulders above all the rest, with the contract valued at some $600 million. Disappointingly, El
Automattic’s bargain-bin Tumblr deal plugs right into the WordPress business model
Tumblr has been a millstone around the neck of its owners, first Yahoo and later Oath and Verizon Media, pretty much since it was acquired in 2013. They never found an answer to the question that new
Navy ditches touchscreens for knobs and dials after fatal crash
A collision at sea that claimed the lives of 10 sailors has led to the Navy deciding to replace an unpopular touchscreen interface in some ships with more traditional mechanical controls. "Just becaus
Vector’s launch business in peril after ‘major change in financing’
Small satellite launch startup Vector has indefinitely shut down operations "in response a major change in financing," the company confirmed. Co-founder and CEO Jim Cantrell has also been pushed out a
Tesla explodes after crash on Russian highway
A Tesla vehicle involved in a collision burst into flames and exploded on a highway near Moscow last night, local media reported. The occupants were slightly injured, but the car is toast.
Car2go hikes hourly rental rates by as much as a third
By-the-minute car rental service Car2go is raising its rates for short trips under the guise of variable pricing, the company announced to its users today. As we've seen with other variably priced ser
This charming little camera prints instantly to receipt paper
I'm a big instant camera fan, but the film is expensive and the digital printers just aren't very good. So I was delighted to see this alternative seeking funds on Kickstarter: the Alulu camera, which
Voxel51 raises $2 million for its video-native identification of people, cars and more
Many companies and municipalities are saddled with hundreds or thousands of hours of video and limited ways to turn it into usable data. Voxel51 offers a machine learning-based option that chews throu
Warren makes $85B federally funded broadband promise
As part of her bid for the presidency, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has made some bold proposals to improve access to broadband in underserved areas, and has made it clear that restoring net neutra
Instagram ad partner secretly sucked up and tracked millions of users’ locations and stories
Hyp3r, an apparently trusted marketing partner of Facebook and Instagram, has been secretly collecting and storing location and other data on millions of users, against the policies of the social netw