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dWeb News

Reinforcement learning competition pushes the boundaries of embodied AI

Posted: 01 May 2021 02:40 PM PDT

The ThreeDWorld Transport Challenge lets embodied AI scientists test a robot’s ability to physically sense and interact with the environment.Read More

Archeologists Found 110 Ancient Egyptian Tombs Spanning 3 Historic Eras

Posted: 01 May 2021 01:39 PM PDT

Egypt has gone archeology-crazy in the last year, uncovering lost cities and parading dozens of pharaohs in the street to encourage tourism. And now, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is publishing a stunning finding from the Koum el-Khulgan archaeological site—110 graves that span 3 eras of ancient Egyptian history.

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This Modder Stuck a Wii Into a GameBoy Advance SP

Posted: 01 May 2021 11:39 AM PDT

Despite the Wii's incredible legacy, there is no legitimate way to play its classic games on modern hardware. There are several ways to work around this hurdle, but some techniques are more ambitious than others. StonedEdge's homemade Wii SPii is, to say the least, extremely ambitious.

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Samsung’s SmartTag+ Bluetooth Tracker Arrives in the U.S.

Posted: 01 May 2021 10:40 AM PDT

Right behind Apple's AirTag trackers, you can now buy Samsung's take on Bluetooth trackers in the United States. That follows B&H taking pre-orders even without a confirmed date, and Samsung announcing global availability. SmartTag+ will set you back $39.99 for a single tag.

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dWeb News Daily Picks by Daniel Webster Internet Cowboy

Posted: 01 May 2021 10:26 AM PDT

dweb daily news picks technology news

How Intel is leveraging AI to drive sales

Posted: 01 May 2021 09:39 AM PDT

Intel is adopting AI internally to bolster its sales and marketing efforts, including through the use of natural language processing.Read More

Data science in a post-COVID world

Posted: 01 May 2021 09:39 AM PDT

We can’t just go back to our pre-COVID data models once the pandemic is over. We’ll need to be continuously monitoring and testing.Read More

Zillow Group responds to lawsuit filed by Real Estate Exchange, denies antitrust claims

Posted: 01 May 2021 09:39 AM PDT

(Bigstock Photo)

The news: Seattle-based Zillow Group responded to an antitrust lawsuit filed by Austin-based real estate startup Real Estate Exchange in March that accused Zillow of anticompetitive behavior related to how certain homes are shown on its platform. In an opposition motion, Zillow alleges that REX's claims are self-serving and that its motion "fails at every level and should be denied."

Background: Founded in 2015, REX aims to disrupt the traditional brokerage model by charging sellers lower commissions. It uses sites such as Zillow to market homes, and recently launched in the Seattle area.

In its lawsuit, REX alleges that Zillow conceals REX agent listings following a recent change to Zillow's search portal. As part of its move to buy and sell homes directly via Zillow Offers, Zillow joined The National Association of Realtors (NAR) — which is also listed as a defendant in the suit, along with Zillow subsidiary Trulia — and began sourcing homes from multiple listing services (MLS) databases.

Due to MLS rules, listings on Zillow are now grouped under two tabs: "agent listings," and "other listings," which lists homes not included in MLS databases. REX describes it as a "recessed, obscured, and deceptive tab that consumers do not see."

REX says the change has hurt its traffic and impacted its reputation.

"If the NAR and its MLS partners, which now include Zillow, are allowed to once again close off transparent access to home inventory by entering into agreements among themselves that disadvantage all but their own membership, consumers and competition will suffer," REX's lawsuit reads.

ZIllow's response: Zillow says the move to a two-tab display for its online platforms was made to comply with MLS rules and to obtain high-quality listings, not to harm REX. It denies antitrust allegations, calling REX a "vertical supplier" in the property listings data aggregation business. The company also says REX cannot prove a violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, and says REX's delay in filing its lawsuit "seriously undercuts REX's claim of irreparable harm."

"The facts and motivation behind this lawsuit are simple: REX is unhappy with Zillow's independent decision to obtain faster, more reliable, and better data for Zillow's consumer," Zillow says in its filing.

Zillow asks that the court deny REX's request for a preliminary injunction.

Zillow's official statement: "Per our filing, we believe REX's claims are without merit. As MLS participants, we are required to abide by the MLS rules and regulations. We are always advocating for rules that benefit consumers, the entire industry and drive innovation for all." — Zillow spokesperson

We've reached out to REX for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

Here's Zillow's full opposition filing:

How to Set up Do Not Disturb on Google Pixel Phones

Posted: 01 May 2021 08:39 AM PDT

Android notifications can be annoying at times, but they don't have to be. Enabling "Do Not Disturb" mode is one way to mute pesky notifications at times when you don't need them. Here's how to set it up on your Google Pixel.

Read This Article on How-To Geek ›

How commercial space stations could become the final frontier for data and cybersecurity

Posted: 01 May 2021 08:39 AM PDT

An artist's conception shows Axiom Space's proposed space station. (Axiom Space Illustration)

What will commercial space stations be good for? The application that typically comes up would be their use as space hotels, or maybe zero-gravity research labs and factories.

But space industry pioneer Rob Meyerson has a different idea in mind — and in his role as operating partner at C5 Capital USA, he's able to put some money behind it.

"Looking for new markets is something we're highly motivated to do," Meyerson told GeekWire. "Data storage and compute is one market. Cybersecurity is another."

The possibilities for providing data and security services on the final frontier played a big role in C5 Capital's decision to lead a $130 million funding round for Texas-based Axiom Space, which is due to send citizen astronauts to the International Space Station next year and could start laying the groundwork for its own space station in 2024.

"We have a lot of data that's created in space, but how valuable would it be to actually do compute and storage in space?" Meyerson asked. "We've been talking with Axiom about that and helping them to form partnerships. How do we use the C5 portfolio in cybersecurity and threat protection to assist Axiom with their supply chain and their partners, to bring the most advanced technologies to that critically important area?"

In connection with the funding deal, Meyerson has joined Axiom Space's board of directors. It's the latest big move for Meyerson, who lives in Tacoma, Wash., and served as the president of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture from 2003 to 2017.

Blue Origin's Rob Meyerson speaks at the 2016 International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in New Mexico. (ISPCS via YouTube)

Meyerson's experience in the space industry goes even further back than Blue Origin, taking in a six-year stint as senior program manager for Kistler Aerospace's K-1 reusable launch vehicle (which never got off the ground) and 12 years as an aerospace engineer at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

But it's only been in the past few years that people have been talking seriously about creating privately owned outposts in Earth orbit. Space tourism and in-space manufacturing no longer seem as far out as they once did, and Meyerson believes Axiom Space is well-placed to capitalize on the possibilities.

"This is the kind of opportunity that we wouldn't have been betting on to come if we had done this in 2019," he said. "But in 2020, it was perfectly aligned, and we said, 'OK, well, here are all these services, and let's invest in the destination.' There's only one company out there that has this exclusive contract with NASA to access the node on the ISS, and that's Axiom Space."

That doesn't mean Axiom Space will have the space station market all to itself. Lots of space companies — including Sierra Nevada, Bigelow Aerospace, Nanoracks and Meyerson's old teammates at Blue Origin — also have plans on the drawing boards.

At the same time, heavyweights ranging from Amazon and Microsoft to Lockheed Martin are looking into ways to extend cloud computing to the space frontier. Satellite constellations such as SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's yet-to-be-launched Project Kuiper could play a big role in those efforts.

What's so attractive about moving data processing off the planet?

"Most importantly, there is a lot of data that is generated in space," Meyerson explained. "We can envision a number of use cases where that data is generated in space, transmitted back to Earth in one part of the world, and there are compute operations done on that data to process it and turn it into actionable data, and then it is transmitted to another part of the world to have action taken on it."

Space-based processing could dramatically streamline that data flow.

"We believe that doing those computer operations in space is going to reduce the decision timeline by fractions of a second, if not seconds," Meyerson said.

So does that mean Axiom Space will be going up against Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure? Not at all, Meyerson said.

"They can definitely draw upon Axiom Space," he said. "We have great relationships with those companies, and all of the cloud providers and service providers that work on top of the cloud. I think they're very obvious choices for partners."

Speaking of partners, the perils of the past year have only confirmed Meyerson's view that space ventures mesh well with the rest of C5 Capital's investment portfolio, which is heavy with companies that focus on big data and cybersecurity.

"The digital transformation of everything we do has been so accelerated during the pandemic," he noted. "And it's making us more and more vulnerable. So the combination of two things — becoming more reliant on space for critical infrastructure, and the digital transformation leading to more vulnerability — just makes our investments in cybersecurity more important. And we think the natural application is in space."

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