Technology

BU computer-science department devises policy for the use of AI in classwork

By adamg - 4/10/23 - 9:20 am

The Daily Free Press reports the Boston University Center for Computing and Data Science's new policy is that students can use AI "if they properly credit the tool and include an appendix showing where and how AI tools were used." It does quote one lecturer, though, who feels AI is sort of like calculators were back in the day: It's OK for advanced students who already have the basics down, but intro students shouldn't use it to get answers instead of learning those basics first.

MIT works to perfect self-healing robotic flying bugs that can swarm

By adamg - 3/16/23 - 1:24 pm

MIT News reports on work by some researchers at the school to develop little flitty flying automatons that can overcome damage to their artificial wing muscles and wings - sometimes through use of a tiny little laser. Read more.

BJ's to roll out rival to Stop & Shop's Mahty - with eyes that blink

By adamg - 3/14/23 - 3:47 pm

BJ's announced today it's going to install hundreds of giant wheeled stalks to roam aisles making sure all its inventory is where it's supposed to be. Read more.

Cohasset town worker ran a cryptocurrency 'mine' in crawlspace under town high school, police charge

By adamg - 2/25/23 - 10:58 am

WCVB reports on the case against the guy, charged with using at least $18,000 in town electricity to fuel his operation to "mine" cryptocurrency in a crawlspace under Cohasset High.

Area Internet provider files for Chap. 11, says it will keep operating

By adamg - 2/21/23 - 3:03 pm

NBC Boston reports on the Chap. 11 filing by Starry.

Trolley ahoy! Hast seen the Green Line?

By adamg - 2/16/23 - 2:10 pm

Dan Kennedy asked ChatGPT, one of those AI-based online researchy things that are all the rage these days, to write a description of the T that Herman Melville might have written.

It is a system that demands both patience and cunning, for one must be quick of foot and mind to catch the right train, or else suffer the indignity of waiting upon a frigid platform for what seems an eternity.

Pfizer tests mRNA technology to build the next generation of flu shots

By adamg - 1/3/23 - 1:56 pm

GBH interviews a Brigham and Women's doctor involved in a trial of Pfizer's flu vaccine, which like its Covid-19 shots, would involve lab-built RNA designed to stimulate an immune response, a technique that could speed delivery of new vaccines.

Online retailer doesn't have a 'physical' presence in Massachusetts just because some of its cookies and apps are stored in a data center here, court rules

By adamg - 12/22/22 - 12:15 pm

The Supreme Judicial Court concluded today that "electrons" stored at a Cambridge data center and used to assemble Web pages and feed apps for a California auto-parts retailer do not mean the retailer has a "physical presence" in Massachusetts. Read more.

Judge lets metaverse company meta-serve man in lawsuit since they can't find him in person

By adamg - 12/7/22 - 2:44 pm

Dan Kennedy calling himself company CEO in a March interview.

A federal judge today gave a Los Angeles company building an online "metaverse" permission to formally serve a copy of its lawsuit against its former chief marketing officer through the main way it communicated with him in the past, via messaging on the Discord and Telegram networks. Read more.

Pfizer to Moderna: We didn't steal your vaccine work, so shut your revisionist, money-grubbing yap

By adamg - 12/5/22 - 10:44 pm

Pfizer and its German partner today filed a counter claim against Moderna's patent-infringement suit over Covid-19 vaccines, saying that not only didn't they use Moderna's patented technology to develop their own Covid-19 vaccine, they're not a bunch of greedy money-grubbers seeking to re-write the history of mRNA technology - which they say started long before Moderna even existed. Read more.

OG thieves get prison time

By adamg - 10/19/22 - 10:09 pm

A couple of guys from Brockton and Rockport were sentenced to federal prison today for a phone-based hacking scheme to steal people's social-media accounts and then use those to grab some cryptocurrency. Read more.

Lawyers working for tips in suit over shoddy robotic pipettes

By adamg - 10/18/22 - 11:00 am

The tray would be empty if the pipette tips of the previous batch met specs, Ginkgo charges.

A South Boston life-sciences company that relies on robotic systems to squirt small amounts of things into tiny containers is suing a company that sold it $3.3 million worth of pipette tips it says kept making its robots stop working. Read more.

BU biolab researchers on Albany Street create Frankencovid in bid to see why omicron might be causing less severe cases

By adamg - 10/17/22 - 11:24 pm

Stat reports that researchers at BU's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories on Albany Street- designed to study killer microorganisms - grafted the spike of an omicron variant of the virus onto one of the OG strains from Wuhan to see whether something on the spike was changing the virus's virulence. Read more.

Luke wasn't sure about this R2-D3 unit

By adamg - 9/22/22 - 10:06 am

Jared spotted this guy with his new droid heading over to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters, um, walking in Sullivan Square with his Piaggio Gita robot.

Hyundai to pour $400 million into artificial-intelligence foundation in Kendall Square

By adamg - 8/14/22 - 11:59 am

The Boston Dynamics AI Institute, named for the robotics company Hyundai is the majority owner of, has set up shop on Broadway. Read more.

MIT researchers build robot fireflies

By adamg - 6/21/22 - 9:23 am

Robotic lightning bugs

Researchers intrigued by the way fireflies signal each other at night have built robotic analogs the weight of paperclips, MIT News reports.

The tiny artificial muscles that control the robots’ wings emit colored light during flight.

This electroluminescence could enable the robots to communicate with each other. If sent on a search-and-rescue mission into a collapsed building, for instance, a robot that finds survivors could use lights to signal others and call for help.

Helium shortage hits home at Harvard; forces shutdown of some experiments

By adamg - 6/14/22 - 9:44 am

The Harvard Gazette reports a global shortage of helium, caused in large part by sanctions on Russia, which ships much of the world's supply, is beginning to affect research in physics, engineering, chemistry, biology and medical research, all of which use the gas to cool things down to temperatures way, way below freezing. Read more.

After trolley dies, young inebriates run from Government Center to Park Street - on Green Line tracks

By adamg - 5/28/22 - 12:26 am

A Riverside Line trolley had some pantograph performance issues in the tunnel between Haymarket and Government Center shortly before midnight. Not long after, Transit Police reported numerous drunk young men running on the tracks from Government Center to Park after one train was evacuated to Government Center. Before the dead train was emptied, Charles reported:

A bunch of fellas are yelling at each other and I think they’re about to do the Good Will Hunting bar scene.

One day, you could sing the body electric - with power generated by your own body

By adamg - 5/12/22 - 12:20 pm

MIT News reports researchers at MIT and the Technical University of Munich have developed a tiny fuel cell that could convert glucose in a person's body into electricity - just the thing for powering various medical implants. Read more.

Robot preps meals at West Roxbury eatery

By adamg - 4/28/22 - 10:31 pm

MassLive reports a robot named "Alfred" is now working as a sous-chef at Bonapita, a pita place in the Star Market strip mall on Spring Street in West Roxbury. No word if he gets paid in cans of motor oil.

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