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Retail stores in Venezeula are protesting the Petro by refusing to accept it as a payment method, local news reports. Retailers say that no supplier accepts the “cryptocurrency,” which means vendors have to exchange it for fiat. [Read: Maduro’s Petro cryptocurrency will be an official currency in Venezuela — like the Bolivar] Ordinarily this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but because of Venezuela’s wild hyperinflation, it’s putting vendors in a very tight spot....

All that’s left for it to come into law is governor Jay Inslee’s signature, UCS USA reports. With the bill’s passing, it’s expected to give the state’s Department of Ecology the opportunity to begin drafting a ZEV program that would require auto marques to make more electric vehicles available in the state. [Read: UK’s first EV-only service station is coming this summer] Assuming the bill goes ahead, it’s expected that a mandate would require 5% of car sales in the state to be electric vehicles, by 2025 this number would increase to 8%, Eletrek reports....

In this episode of our video series Unwind With Boris, where TNW CEO Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten talks shop with Dutch entrepreneurs and innovators, Philips Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer Jeroen Tas gives us a glimpse of healthcare’s future. In the business world, the word “innovation” is severely overused. Every self-respecting multinational seems to run an innovation hub or tech lab; rooms with colorful post-its on the walls that supposedly spur technological breakthroughs, but, in reality, don’t result in actual change....

There are numerous regulatory bodies, non-governmental organizations, corporate initiatives, and alliances attempting to establish norms, rules, and guidelines for preventing misuse and for integrating these advancing technologies safely into our lives. But it’s not enough. As a species, our record of translating our values into protections for each other and for the world around us has been mixed. We have made some remarkable progress creating social contracts that enshrine our ethics and values, but often have been less successful at enforcing them....

As the coronavirus spread, these initial tweets were joined by millions of others, as people reacted to panic buying, rumoured lockdowns and heart-wrenching stories from across the world. Soon, tweets about masks, the R number and herd immunity were competing with misinformation and conspiracy theories as the country “doomscrolled” through Twitter. Eventually, tweets about loo roll would be replaced by tweets about the rollout of vaccines worldwide – and the long-awaited roadmap back to normality....

US citizens are protected from unreasonable searches by the Fourth Amendment. It says our right to privacy “shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” These rights, by law, should extend to undocumented immigrants too. But that’s not stopping local law enforcement agencies such as the LAPD or federal ones such as CBP and ICE from using an app capable of taking a tiny scrap of information and turning it into a full-blown intimate profile of an individual – all without a warrant or any judicial oversight or regard for actual citizenship status....

This article is going to do something different: look at what it’s actually like to spend a full day walking and working — and share some of my findings along the way. Who knows, it might be useful if you’re thinking of getting something like this for your home and office. Want to see what it was like? Well, I’ll point you towards the livestream of (almost) the whole event, which — if you’re insane — you can watch in full here:...

Because we’re intrepid, caring souls at TNW, we just couldn’t give a drug to our pets. No, we had to try it first. So, we, uh, did. Before we do that though… What the hell is CBD? Good question. To put it simply, it’s the part of the marijuana plant that doesn’t get you high. CBD is a shortened version of cannabidiol. Along with THC (the bit that does get you high), this is one of the main cannabinoids that appear in the weed plant....

There are two answers to that question. The first involves unmanned travel, which I consider cheating. I mean, where is the fun in that? None if you ask me. Robots could beat us there Not to say there won’t be some benefit to mankind, and based on the current pattern, unmanned travel will naturally occur first, perhaps even decades before the manned interstellar travel and likely within the next twenty years....

Erin Simpson, associate director for technology policy at Washington, D.C.–based think tank The Center for American Progress, had a message for Facebook. Last year, she co-wrote a pair of reports advising major social media platforms, like Facebook, on how to better address the twin crises of election delegitimization and health misinformation. But Facebook has also been pushing a message at her. For more than a year, Simpson had been noticing ads pop up with the same phrasing: Facebook “supports updated internet regulations,” the ads always said....

Fast charging is one of the most useful features in smartphones over the last couple of years. Some companies have developed their own charging standards, and because of that, charging bricks supplied by those manufacturers often become bulky. To solve this problem, accessory makers are using a new material called Gallium Nitride(GaN) instead of silicon. In this piece, we’ll take a look at how this new material will transform our charging solutions, and make our gadgets even more easily portable....

As you progress in your career you’re going to get to a point where you’ll want to jump to the next stage. Each stage comes with its own expectations, skill requirements, and salary. I’m going to try my best to break down each level; entry, junior, senior, and tech lead based on the criteria I just mentioned. Now, this isn’t gospel, but it should hopefully guide you in the right direction and towards the correct growth path....

Back and forth, my brother and I yelled at each other. Finally, my parents stepped in. They gifted both of us CorelDRAW, the latest graphic design program that we quickly installed on Windows 95. There was a large manual that showed all kinds of designs you could make. At the time, in a pre-Photoshop world, it felt like magic. We absolutely fell in love with design. We studied the manual day and night, sharpened our English skills, and decided we wanted to make money from our new passion....

Earlier this week, security researchers Luis Márquez Carpintero and Ernesto Canales Pereña shared their discovery of this flaw through an article in Forbes. Here’s how it works: After installing WhatsApp, the attacker tries to login through your number by requesting authentication codes. WhatsApp blocks sending codes for 12 hours after a certain number of attempts. Meanwhile, the attacker sets up a new email and sends “a lost/stolen phone request” to WhatsApp support to deactivate your account....

For its gargantuan size and scope, almost everyone in the gaming industry really just starts as a kid with a controller in their hand. For most, the magic of fighting battles, solving puzzles and tackling digital opponents of every shape and size is just an idle hour pursuit. But for some, that drive to play turns into a drive to understand, to get inside the game and learn how an entire digital world is created....

You don’t have to look very far to find a military or financial expert who believes China’s AI program will some day surpass the capabilities of its democratic counterparts in Silicon Valley. But, as we’ve written before, the idea that China is in second place behind the US is a bit misleading. Sure, it’s technically correct, but we’re talking about a very distant second place. Currently, it would be a huge stretch to call it a race....

Snowden rose to fame after leaking classified information about government spying. The files exposed a shocking range of high-tech intrusions, from snooping on world leaders to monitoring the porn preferences of Islamists. The revelations sparked parliamentary inquiries, intelligence reviews, diplomatic incidents, and heated public debates about security and privacy. The repercussions continue to reverberate today. They have also condemned Snowden to a life in exile — but he continues to speak out....

Judging by the fact that, as of 2020, gamers are still eagerly awaiting Samus’ next adventure, it turns out the answer is: yes, it would be pretty cool. Yet Samus was virtually on her own in 1986, holding up the banner for women in gaming like a veritable Atlas. Even now, while her cohort of female game protagonists is on the rise, it’s just not very common to put your hand into the metaphorical pool of new games and come away with a game led by a woman (and only a woman)....

Fixed-line broadband, on the other hand, has significantly lower prices per unit. It is often offered on an uncapped or unlimited basis and therefore has higher usage per connection. This enables a wider range of services. Fixed lines are expensive to roll out, but these costs are falling. So a question arises: is mobile enough for developing countries like South Africa? It’s an important question because there is a substantial “digital divide” between countries, as well as within countries like South Africa....

Since Russia invaded in February, 58% of Ukrainian tech firms have processed new orders from clients. Despite brutal assaults, martial law, and general mobilization, 85% have restored their pre-war business activities. That’s according to Lviv IT Cluster, a community of companies, universities, and local authorities. “Ukraine’s tech industry is not only showing the ability to operate fully, but it’s demonstrating growth,” says Stepan Veselovskyi, the group’s CEO. “The export of IT services grew by 9....