Augmented reality lawsuit provides augmented view of 1st Amendment

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“Texas Rope ‘Em is not entitled to First Amendment protection because it does not convey any messages or ideas. Unlike books, movies, music, plays and video games—mediums of expression that typically enjoy First Amendment protection—Texas Rope ‘Em has no plot, no storylines, no characters, and no dialogue. All it conveys is a random display of cards and a map. Absent the communicative features that invoke the First Amendment, Candy Lab has no First Amendment claim,” the county said. (PDF)

Source: Augmented reality lawsuit provides augmented view of 1st Amendment | Ars Technica

No plot, storylines, characters, and dialog describes the Academy Award winner for best picture last year.

A note about www.digitaltrends.com

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Editorial Note:  This is the first time I had to deal with something like this.  Linking to a site is not against the law nor can anyone demand it be removed.  Here are two emails supposedly from www.digitaltrends.com.  The email lists three urls from bucktownbell.com, this site, but none of them reference the link he complained about.   Thus, this could be a bot email and Rob Wolfe at dtlinkoutreach@gmail.com could be spam or some kind of spear phishing attack on me.

So I took the post that linked to https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/china-floating-solar-power-plant/  down.  No big deal.    After the emails are links to other sites about China’s new solar power plant.  I found the story interesting.  This site is about articles I find interesting.

Now bugger off Rob Wolfe whoever you are!

Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2018 18:55:53 +0000
From: Rob Wolfe <dtlinkoutreach@gmail.com>
To: Mark Anderson <mea@brandylion.com>
Subject: quick question
Parts/Attachments:
   1   OK     25 lines  Text
   2 Shown    26 lines  Text
----------------------------------------

Just a quick question Mark

- did you get my last e-mail?

I really need you to remove the link on

http://bucktownbell.com/
http://bucktownbell.com/?%C2%A0
http://bucktownbell.com/?%C2%A0&paged=2
http://bucktownbell.com/?author
http://bucktownbell.com/?author=2

going to my site at


https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/china-floating-solar-power-plant/

Can you please remove it ASAP?

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know

---
Rob Wolfe

------------- latest email -----------------
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2018 18:26:58 +0000
From: rob Wolfe <dtlinkoutreach2@gmail.com>
To: Mark Anderson <mea@brandylion.com>
Subject: Mark please respond
Parts/Attachments:
   1   OK     29 lines  Text
   2 Shown    33 lines  Text
----------------------------------------

Hey Mark

I really really need you to act on this.

You are linking to my site at


https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/china-floating-solar-power-plant/

from here

http://bucktownbell.com/
http://bucktownbell.com/?%C2%A0
http://bucktownbell.com/?%C2%A0&paged=2
http://bucktownbell.com/?author
http://bucktownbell.com/?author=2

I am very sure that this link is hurting my site in Google!

This means, retaining that link would hurt the reputation of your site as well, if we
need to include it in our link disavow request to Google.

So please remove that link ASAP and I'll make sure to not bother you again!

Thanks in advance!

---
Rob Wolfe
 Here are some better articles on this subject anyway.  Enjoy!

China Turns On the World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm

So why build solar plants on top of lakes and reservoirs? Fiona Harvey at The Guardian explains that building on bodies of water, especially manmade lakes that are not ecologically sensitive, helps protect agricultural land and terrestrial ecosystems from being developed for energy use. The water also cools the electronics in the solar panels, helping them to work more efficiently, reports Alistair Boyle for The Telegraph. For similar reasons Britain built a 23,000-panel floating solar farm on the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir near Heathrow airport in 2016 to help power the Thames Water treatment plant.
Source: China Turns On the World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm | Smart News | Smithsonian
Another blurb from an actual tree hugger site of all places:  World’s largest floating solar farm, now online in China
When I wrote about China and India being years ahead of their climate pledges, some commenters expressed skepticism. But whatever your views on how well we can trust official government statistics, one thing is pretty much undeniable at this point:

Renewable energy and clean tech are very big business in China and India right now.

And here and here and here and here ….

 

Sports and the “Millennial Problem”

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As they continue to move away from traditional sports viewing, a growing number of Millennials are instead flocking to alternatives such as eSports, including live video-gaming competitions such as The International, an annual tournament devoted to DOTA 2. Though such events aren’t organized in the traditional sense, the growing popularity of eSports nonetheless has the potential to further diminish Millennials’ loyalty to traditional sports.

Source: L.E.K. Sports Survey — Digital Engagement Part One: Sports and the “Millennial Problem” – 1912_Sports_Survey_Part_1a.pdf

Patent Troll Battle Update: Doubling Down on Project Jengo

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We’re looking for prior art on 100% of the Blackbird Tech patents. If you are interested in helping, take some time to look into those patents where we don’t have anything yet. We’ll update the chart as we review the submissions with additional information about the number we receive, and their quality, to help focus the search. After the initial review, we’ll start to color code the patents (i.e., red/yellow/green) to demonstrate the number and quality of submissions we’ve received on each patent.

Source: Patent Troll Battle Update: Doubling Down on Project Jengo

Supreme Court Overturns Patent Ruling in Blow Against Trolls

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The justices sided 8-0 with beverage flavoring company TC Heartland in its legal battle with food and beverage company Kraft Heinz, ruling that patent infringement suits can be filed only in courts located in the jurisdiction where the targeted company is incorporated. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in the decision.

Source: Supreme Court Overturns Patent Ruling in Blow Against Trolls | Fortune.com

Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

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New laws will be introduced to implement these rules, forcing internet companies such as Facebook to abide by the rulings of a regulator or face sanctions: “We will introduce a sanctions regime to ensure compliance, giving regulators the ability to fine or prosecute those companies that fail in their legal duties, and to order the removal of content where it clearly breaches UK law.”

Source: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

Electric vehicle battery cost dropped 80% in 6 years down to $227/kWh

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Tesla is among the automakers staying ahead of the trend. While McKinsey projects that battery pack prices will be below $190/kWh by the end of the decade, Tesla claims to be below $190/kWh since early 2016.

That’s how the automaker manages to achieve close to 30% gross margin on its flagship electric sedan, the Model S.

Source: Electric vehicle battery cost dropped 80% in 6 years down to $227/kWh – Tesla claims to be below $190/kWh | Electrek

Edge Security Flaw Allows Theft of Facebook and Twitter Credentials

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To exploit the flaw, Caballero says that an attacker can use server redirect requests combined with data URIs, which would allow him to confuse Edge’s SOP filter and load unauthorized resources on sensitive domains. The expert explains the attack step by step on his blog.

In the end, the attacker will be able to inject a password form on another domain, which the built-in Edge password manager will automatically fill in with the user’s credentials for that domain. Below is a video of the attack.

Source: Edge Security Flaw Allows Theft of Facebook and Twitter Credentials

Here Comes the War for Commercial Drone Dominance

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Into this universe comes Airbus SE, the European aerospace conglomerate. Airbus is starting a new data company, called Airbus Aerial, to provide an array of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) services, a field the company estimates could increase to more than $120 billion annually as the use of these fleets expands, said Dirk Hoke, CEO of Airbus’s defence and space group. Hoke introduced the new company Wednesday at Xponential.

Source: Here Comes the War for Commercial Drone Dominance – Bloomberg

Leaked NSA Malware Is Helping Hijack Computers Around the World

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The U.S. software weapon would have allowed the spy agency’s hackers to break into potentially millions of Windows computers by exploiting a flaw in how certain versions of Windows implemented a network protocol commonly used to share files and to print.

Source: Leaked NSA Malware Is Helping Hijack Computers Around the World

From:  Security Update for Microsoft Windows SMB Server (4013389)

This security update resolves vulnerabilities in Microsoft Edge. The most severe of the vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage using Microsoft Edge. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could take control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.