Technology
NPR
Like many parts of modern life, tractors have gone high-tech, often running on advanced computer systems.
But some manufacturers are tight-lipped about how these electronics work, making it difficult or nearly impossible for farmers and independent repair shops to diagnose and fix problems with the equipment.
An agreement by John Deere may finally give farmers a greater hand in repairing the company's products.
The American Farm Bureau Federation announced Sunday that it had reached a memorandum of understanding with John Deere promising farmers and independent repair shops information they would need to service the company's equipment.
Wiper malware is popping up everywhere – Ars Technica
NPR
A sprawling congressional report accuses several little-known financial technology companies, or fintechs, of reaping "billions in fees from taxpayers while becoming easy targets for those who sought to defraud the PPP," or Paycheck Protection Program.
PPP provided more than 11 million potentially forgivable low-interest loans to small businesses to help them keep employees on the payroll as COVID-19 shutdowns decimated profits. Congress hastily rolled out the program in spring 2020, eventually racking up a price tag of nearly $800 billion.
Fintechs – a nebulous term broadly defined as businesses that use technology to improve or automate financial services – told Congress they could issue PPP loans to struggling small businesses faster than traditional banks – and they did. Fintechs also reached more independent contractors, as well as businesses run by women and people of color, than long-established banks did. They were lauded for those efforts.
But that speed and reach came at an expense, says Samuel Kruger, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin.
Mozilla, Microsoft drop root Certificate Authority • The Register
Updated Mozilla and Microsoft have taken action against a certificate authority accused of having close ties to a US military contractor that allegedly paid software developers to embed data-harvesting malware in mobile apps.
The CA, TrustCor, denies this, but has not responded to direct questions at time of publication.
After a lengthy discussion between staff at Mozilla and Apple, security researchers and the CA itself, Mozilla program manager Kathleen Wilson said the org's concerns were "substantiated" enough to set a distrust date of November 30 for TrustCor's root certificates.?
The back and forth took place on Mozilla's dev-security-policy (MDSP) mailing list, and you can read the full discussion there. Microsoft didn't participate in the conversation; instead, TrustCor executive Rachel McPherson claimed that Microsoft had set a distrust date of November 1 for her company's certs.?
In 1947, the United States voided all of the Nazis patents and put all their non sensitive technology and research into the public domain for all to use without restriction
In 1947, the United States voided all of the Nazis patents and put all their non sensitive technology and research into the public domain for all to use without restriction.
This was actually a very big deal – the Nazis had some of the world’s best scientists – and their development pushed forward computing, electronics and audio recording enormously.