Lifeboat Foundation

Things are moving at lightning speed in AI Land. On Friday, a software developer named Georgi Gerganov created a tool called “llama.cpp” that can run Meta’s new GPT-3-class AI large language model, LLaMA, locally on a Mac laptop. Soon thereafter, people worked out how to run LLaMA on Windows as well. Then someone showed it running on a Pixel 6 phone, and next came a Raspberry Pi (albeit running very slowly).

But let’s back up a minute, because we’re not quite there yet. (At least not today—as in literally today, March 13, 2023.) But what will arrive next week, no one knows.

Researchers at the School of Cyber Security at Korea University, Seoul, have presented a new covert channel attack named CASPER can leak data from air-gapped computers to a nearby smartphone at a rate of 20bits/sec.

The CASPER attack leverages the internal speakers inside the target computer as the data transmission channel to transmit high-frequency audio that the human ear cannot hear and convey binary or Morse code to a microphone up to 1.5m away.

The receiving microphone can be in a smartphone recording sound inside the attacker’s pocket or a laptop in the same room.

Reports say that the Nokia Magic Max will come in three different memory configurations. We will have 8GB, 12GB and 16GB of RAM with 256GB and 512GB storage options. It will launch with Android 13 out of the box with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC under the hood. We may also see a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate on the device. Corning Gorilla Glass 7 protection could be on the display of the upcoming flagship device from Nokia.

The device will feature a triple camera setup on the back with 144MP main sensor, 64MP ultrawide and 48MP Telephoto lens. Rumors have suggested a massive 7950mAh battery which can also charge from 0 to 100 within a few minutes, thanks to the 180W fast charger.

Continue reading “Nokia Magic Max, Nokia is About to Reclaim its Crown with this Ultimate Flagship” »

There’s an old magic trick known as the miser’s dream, where the magician appears to pull coins from thin air. Australian scientists say they can now generate electricity out of thin air with the help of some enzymes. The enzyme reacts to hydrogen in the atmosphere to generate a current.

They learned the trick from bacteria which are known to use hydrogen for fuel in inhospitable environments like Antarctica or in volcanic craters. Scientists knew hydrogen was involved but didn’t know how it worked until now.

The enzyme is very efficient and can even work on trace amounts of hydrogen. The enzyme can survive freezing and temperature up to 80 °C (176 °F). The paper seems more intent on the physical mechanisms involved, but you can tell the current generated is minuscule. We don’t expect to see air-powered cell phones anytime soon. Then again, you have to start somewhere, and who knows where this could lead?

FarmboxRx’s Ashley Tyrner told The New York Post Friday that “all panic broke loose” when she went to login to the company’s SVB account to get a transaction approved when the system crashed and locked her out.

“When I went to log in to approve the wire, the system was completely crashed,” Tyrner told the newspaper. “It would not let anybody in.”

Tyrner called customer service and her SVB personal banker who “wouldn’t answer” the phone. She said he later texted her to apologize and said the bank was attempting to fix the issue.

ChatGPT is “going to be a tool, just like the cell phone in your pocket,” says OpenAI’s co-founder.

Greg Brockman, president and co-founder of OpenAI, has suggested that ChatGPT could help enhance the “interactive” entertainment experience.

“Imagine if you could ask your AI to make a new ending that goes a different way and maybe even put yourself in there as a main character or something,” he said during a panel discussion at the 2023 South by Southwest (SXSW) event on Friday.

Continue reading “‘Upset’ with Game of Thrones? ChatGPT could help, says OpenAI co-founder” »

A research team’s milestone could help realize efficient electrical grids, better battery life for cellphones and improving nuclear fusion.

Stranded with no obvious way out, the man came up with a plan on how to alert rescuers to his situation. He attached his cellphone to a drone he had in his vehicle. He typed out a text on his phone to a friend describing what had happened and his exact location. Then he hit send on the text and launched the drone several hundred feet into the air. That high up, the phone was able to connect to service and send the text.

The man’s friend received the text, reached out to authorities and rescue crews were able to locate the man and rescue him. During the rescue trip, crews also found and rescued another driver who’d been stranded nearby in the snow for multiple days.

The most famous one is the cell phone itself: Captain Kirk’s communicator inspired the folks at Motorola to make the first handheld mobile device in 1973. Star Trek: The Original Series (popularly called TOS) from the 1960s also inspired video conferencing. But things started to amp up when, in 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation (aka TNG) hit the floors, with Sir Patrick Stewart in the lead. It became one of the most syndicated shows on television—which is how I discovered it in mid-90s India on the Star network. It fundamentally impacted my life, inspiring me to become the technology writer I am today.

But more than me, this show heralded more technological concepts that are becoming increasingly real. The LCARS computer on the Galaxy-Class USS Enterprise D is basically the foundation of what Google is today. Google’s former head of search, Amit Singhal, often said that the company is “trying to build the Star Trek computer”.