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Congress approves the TRACED Act to fight robocalls
Today, Senate approved the TRACED Act, or Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement Act. The legislation could give the government new powers to prosecute robocallers, The Washington Post says. It would also require carriers that authenticate and block spam callers to share those services with customers for free.
eBay now verifies the authenticity of luxury watch sales
eBay's Authenticate program now covers more than high-style handbags. The online shopping giant now verifies the authenticity of luxury watch sales from more than 30 luxury brands, including Audemars Piguet, Breitling, Patek Philippe and Rolex. Sellers who pass muster will receive an "authenticity verified" badge that makes clear the watches they sell are the real deal. That's rather important when watches like Audemars' Royal Oak or Patek's Nautilus can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Authentic software to digitally authenticate paintings
We all know that keepin' it real fake has become an art form in itself, but for serious art aficionados, only the real deal will truly suffice. Currently, it takes numerous "art experts" hours to inspect every inkling of a painting to ensure the buyer isn't getting duped, but a new piece of software is looking to realize an idea that's been in the works for years. Igor Berezhnoy at Maastricht University in the Netherlands has created a system which carefully analyzes "uses of color, brush strokes, and canvas type" in order to spot fakes before they fetch millions at auction. By dividing "145 digitized paintings into pixels" and comparing their attributes with nearby pixels, Authentic recognizes uniquities that aren't likely to be expressed in faux editions. In testing, the software performed "as well" as 15 (presumably trained) human volunteers in spotting forgeries, and while the current version works specifically with Van Gogh's works, we're sure a more fleshed out version is on the drawing board.[Via Slashdot]
Mac Geekery debunks Dashboard 'phoning home'
JC (yes, the Ungenius guy) at Mac Geekery has used some UNIX tricks to do some digging into the whole 'Dashboard phoning home' topic that's been heating up the Mac web lately. After all is said and done and JC lays out exactly what is happening, he concludes that not only is Mac OS X 10.4.7 not sending any personal data (which we've already been told), but you actually give Apple more data about yourself simply by visiting Apple.com. Here's hoping those worried about Apple trampling their privacy can sleep a little better at night.
