Links for December 1, 2016

Hackers Hold SFMTA's Computer Network Hostage For $73K Ransom

Muni passengers were treated to free rides for much of the weekend after a cyber attack on Muni’s computer network Friday afternoon left ticketing kiosks inoperable.... The attack, first reported by the Examiner on Saturday, left kiosks across Muni’s downtown stations with a message reading, “You Hacked, ALL Data Encrypted. Contact For Key(cryptom27@yandex.com)ID:681 ,Enter.” Unable to process fares, Muni left turnstiles open for passengers to ride freely.


Self-Driving Cars Can Learn a Lot by Playing Grand Theft Auto

The researchers created a software layer that sits between the game and a computer’s hardware, automatically classifying different objects in the road scenes shown in the game. This provides the labels that can then be fed to a machine-learning algorithm, allowing it to recognize cars, pedestrians, and other objects shown, either in the game or on a real street. According to a paper posted by the team recently, it would be nearly impossible to have people label all of the scenes with similar detail manually. The researchers also say that real training images can be improved with the addition of some synthetic imagery.


Who Will Command The Robot Armies?

The real answer to who will command the robot armies is: Whoever wants it the most. And right now we don’t want it. Because taking command would mean taking responsibility.... Nobody wants the responsibility; everybody wants the control. Instead of accountability, all we can think of is the next wave of technology that will make everything better. Rockets, robots, and self-driving cars. We innovated ourselves into this mess, and we’ll innovate our way out of it.


Microsoft Flight Simulator History Movie (only with original sound of simulators, no music)