Devin Coldewey
Writer & Photographer
The Latest from Devin Coldewey
Boston Globe will consider people’s requests to have articles about them anonymized
The Boston Globe is starting a new program by which people who feel an article at the newspaper is harmful to their reputation can ask that it be updated or anonymized. It’s reminiscent of the E
Judge denies Parler’s bid to make Amazon restore service
A federal judge has denied an attempt by conservative social network Parler to force Amazon to host it on AWS. As expected by most who read Parler’s ramshackle legal arguments, the court found n
The FCC has a new acting chairwoman in Jessica Rosenworcel
The Biden administration has officially appointed Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel acting FCC chairwoman, and she very well may be the first woman to hold the official position if she is nominated for
Remote workers are greener, but their tech still has a real carbon cost
The massive shift to remote work due to COVID-19 has resulted in a huge reduction in emissions from vehicles and other sources, but it comes with costs of its own. A new study puts tentative carbon co
White House, dark mode: Biden admin refreshes presidency’s website, vows accessibility
WhiteHouse.gov, the official website for all presidential actions and efforts, is among the first things to be changed up under the freshly inaugurated President Biden. A fashionable dark mode appeare
Facebook and Instagram’s AI-generated image captions now offer far more details
Every picture posted to Facebook and Instagram gets evaluated by an image analysis AI in order to create a caption, and that AI just got a lot smarter. The improved system should be a treat for visual
Startups look beyond lidar for autonomous vehicle perception
Last CES was a time of reckoning for lidar companies, many of which were cratering due to a lack of demand from a (still) nonexistent autonomous vehicle industry. The few that excelled did so by speci
Trump circumvents Twitter ban to decry ‘unprecedented assault on free speech’
Following a comprehensive ban from Twitter and a number of other online services following last week’s assault on the Capitol by his followers, President Trump managed to put out a tweet in the
These robo-fish autonomously form schools and work as search parties
Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have created a set of fish-shaped underwater robots that can autonomously navigate and find each other, cooperating
Facial recognition reveals political party in troubling new research
Researchers have created a machine learning system that they claim can determine a person’s political party, with reasonable accuracy, based only on their face. The study, from a group that also
GoPro makes stopping and starting simpler with motion, power, QR triggers
GoPro may have started out at the intersection of capability and affordability in the action cam space, but since then it has increasingly leaned toward use by professionals or deployment by businesse
Parler sues Amazon, leveling far-fetched antitrust allegations
Parler has sued Amazon after the beleaguered conservative social media site was expelled from AWS, filing a fanciful complaint alleging the internet giant took it out for political reasons — and in
Stolen computers are the least of the government’s security worries
Reports that a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office was stolen during the pro-Trump rioters’ sack of the Capitol building has some worried that the mob may have access to import
Google AI concocts ‘breakie’ and ‘cakie’ hybrid baked goods
If, as I suspect many of you have, you have worked your way through baking every type of cookie, bread and cake under the sun over the last year, Google has a surprise for you: a pair of AI-generated
Epic acquires Rad Game Tools, veteran of many gaming generations
Epic today announced the acquisition of Rad Game Tools, maker of game development tools for many years. They’ve stayed largely behind the scenes, but many gamers will recognize the colorful Bink
Social media allowed a shocked nation to watch a coup attempt in real time
Today’s historic and terrifying coup attempt by pro-Trump extremists in Washington, D.C. played out live the same way it was fomented — on social media. Once again Twitter, streaming sites and
Facebook and YouTube remove Trump video calling extremists ‘special’
Facebook and YouTube have removed a video posted by President Trump telling rioters who stormed Congress “we love you.” The same video was left online but blocked from being shared by Twit
OpenAI’s DALL-E creates plausible images of literally anything you ask it to
OpenAI’s latest strange yet fascinating creation is DALL-E, which by way of hasty summary might be called “GPT-3 for images.” It creates illustrations, photos, renders or whatever me
Any San Francisco teacher who needs a second monitor can get one, via Two Screens for Teachers
Any teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District who needs a second monitor can request one free of charge from Two Screens for Teachers, the nonprofit that recently extended a similar privile
Dell monitors embrace video calls with pop-up webcams and Teams buttons built in
Dell’s latest monitors reflect the growing need for simple, solid solutions to video conferencing needs, with a clever pop-up camera and a perhaps too clever by half Teams integration. The new d