Monthly Archives: July 2023

This headline on an opinion piece in The Hill caught my attention: “Why Texas is the canary in the crypto mine”  The authors say Texas has cheap energy, “receptive regulators,” and is home to one of the largest crypto mining hubs in the world. This combination of traits puts Texas on the cutting edge of crypto […]

Arkansas legislators are calling for a repeal of the recently enacted, HB 1799 (2023 | AR), the “Right to Mine” bill supporting the crypto mining industry. Why the repeal? some say the bill passed too quickly under auspicious circumstances.  Others say, “Number one is the energy usage from these crypto mining facilities—they’re tremendous amounts. Right now, […]

Counties in Arkansas are rushing to pass noise and nuisance regulations for crypto mining before a state law takes effect that limits local regulation of data centers & crypto mining. A state representative had quite a lively experience when he visited a crypto mining facility : “a security guard got out of his car, pulled an AR-15 out […]

California’s lookout cameras will be equipped with AI to give faster alerts of wild fires. This use of AI was sparked by 2021 legislation that created the Office of Wildfire Technology, Research and Development. Santa Rosa Press Democrat via Governing | Cal Fire Equips Artificial Intelligence Wildfire Response System

A Houston Chronicle investigation found that Shot Spotter technology hasn’t made a dent in crime statistics. Since implementation, response times by police officers has spiked. “Does (ShotSpotter) pull patrol officers off of other calls? Absolutely,”  Douglas Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union said. “But it gets our guys there very quickly and helps […]

Dayton, Ohio is saying bye-bye,bye to using shotspotter technology that had been alerting its police force to shots fired. Why did they stop using it? According to the Dayton Police Department, it was difficult to prove the effectiveness of the technology. Researchers say the microphones Shotspotter uses can count fireworks as shots, and can miss shots […]

The world can be a scary place. I just read AI is now imitating voices of your friends, family members, and colleagues to make scam calls to extort money/data/information. There’s a special place for people who do this. Route Fifty | AI scam calls imitating familiar voices are a growing problem—here’s how they work

CALPERS and CALSTARS both reported data breaches this past month. Hackers accessed names, social security numbers, birth dates and other confidential information of roughly 769,000 retirees and beneficiaries. The hackers accessed the information through a vulnerability in a vendor’s cybersecurity system. Governing | The Nation’s Two Biggest Pension Systems Report a Data Breach

At the start of the Ukraine war, hackers tweaked charging stations along the Moscow–Saint Petersburg motorway in Russia to show anti-Putin messages. A charger in Illinois has been hacked with anti-Biden messages. In May of 2022 the Journal of Energies published an article discussing the vulnerabilities of public EV chargers. It is recommended that home chargers not […]

Washington State’s Liquor and Cannabis Board will take up proposed rule changes on biometric identification for liquor purchases. There’s a long line of vendors for the technology. The conversation started because a law firm representing food and beverage businesses that serve alcohol raised the issue. All signs point to the board waiting for the Legislature to act. […]