The Switch: The Switchboard: Google wants to be your next WebMD

Today's technology and tech policy news  •  Tue., Feb. 10, 2015 View in your Web browser

The Switchboard: Google wants to be your next WebMD Published every weekday, the Switchboard is your morning helping of hand-picked stories from the Switch team.Ross Ulbricht didn’t create Silk Road’s Dread Pirate Roberts. This guy did. Wired reports: "To the average Silk Road user, Variety Jones was just a high-volume marijuana seed dealer, who took great pains to please his customers and ship his product the same day as their order. But behind the scenes, Jones may have had some sort of ownership, partnership or investment in the Silk Road.”  Read full article »

Republicans are about to ‘Benghazi all over again’ on net neutrality

A week after the head of the Federal Communications Commission said he wants to apply strong rules on Internet providers, a Republican strategy is emerging to undermine the proposal.The Republicans' new strategy looks much like the old: Argue that the FCC's proposed rules will stifle investment, hurt innovation and raise prices for consumers. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, a Republican, blasted the draft regulations as overly "interventionist" and "a gift to trial lawyers" in a rare news conference Tuesday.  Read full article »

Forbes Web site was compromised by Chinese cyberespionage group, researchers say

Chinese hackers hijacked Forbes.com and used the site as part of an attack on the U.S. defense and financial industry, according to cybersecurity researchers at iSIGHT Partners and Invincea.For three days late last year, the news site's “Thought of the Day” widget, which appears when readers visit the site, was compromised — seamlessly redirecting visitors from certain organizations to another site where their computers could be infected with malware without their knowledge.  Read full article »

Newsweek Twitter account hijacked by ‘Cyber Caliphate’

Newsweek's official Twitter account was hijacked Tuesday morning by a group calling itself "Cyber Caliphate," which claims to be affiliated with the Islamic State. The group changed the page's main image and shared menacing messages, including one about President Obama and his family.  Read full article »

Innovations: How self-driving cars would benefit Americans more than world peace

Hypothetically, let’s say you could go back in time to 1900 and do one thing to save millions of lives. What would you do? Constrained to one wish, you might ask for world peace. It seems like an obvious and easy choice. But during the four deadliest wars the United States fought in the 20th century, 39 percent more Americans were dying in motor vehicles.  Read full article »

Innovations: Peak fender-bender: Technology can prevent car crashes, if consumers will buy in

Imagine for a second a world in which no driver ever gets rear-ended. That may sound impossible, but it shouldn’t. For perspective on the blistering rate of technology’s advancements, remember that a few months ago mankind launched a probe from a satellite and it landed on a comet that was traveling at a whopping 84,000 mph.  Read full article »

What Watson has been up to since “Jeopardy!” Remember Watson, the computer that won "Jeopardy!" in 2011 and made us all worry about the impending obsolescence of the human race? Have you ever wondered what it's been up to since then?Well, like many sudden celebrities, Watson has dabbled in several interests. It visited Capitol Hill. It penned its own celebrity cookbook. And now, in partnership with the Japanese tech firm Softbank, Watson is going to lend its brain power to robots and take on one of the greatest challenges of its development cycle: learning Japanese.  Read full article »

Should you ditch cable? Depends on what you want to watch.

Dish announced Monday that it's opening its SlingTV service to everyone.  As my colleague Cecilia Kang reported,  the newest release of Sling adds AMC to the core pack of channels included in the basic $20 per month fee.  Read full article »

Want to fly your drone and make a quick buck? The FAA has 33 rules for you.

If you were wondering whether you could turn your drone hobby into a paying gig, the good news is that the Federal Aviation Administration is willing to consider it. But there’s a catch — or 33 of them, to be exact.  Read full article »

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