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"Those changes happened relatively slowly, but it seems to me that employment disruption is accelerating. A large reason for this is that what used to be a room-sized super computer now fits in my pocket. Over the last two decades, I have observed a fundamental change in how we can apply advanced algorithms to sensing and controlling systems-the kinds of technology that enable more sophisticated robotic manufacturing. I can remember discussing various algorithms and believing they were well beyond what we could ever implement. Now these same algorithms are considered elementary. They are just some of the changes that have fueled the revolution in manufacturing."

Good news for wiking on the go...

"Researchers find 8% of cybercrime victims suffered financial losses while those aged over 55 were least likely targets"

"The handheld Zebedee scanner, developed by the CSIRO, uses a powerful laser to sweep an environment and create a 3D map accurate to the centimetre. The scanner had already been used and was saving police "many thousands of hours in investigation", Queensland police commissioner Ian Stewart said at the device's official launch on Friday."

"Shadbolt also forecasts that future changes to the web will mean people will be "connected all the time" to medical diagnostic systems - but also that search companies including Google and China's Baidu may face challenges as web use shifts from the desktop to handheld and mobile devices."

"Government agencies around the world demanded access to the information of over 38,000 Facebook users in the first half of this year, and more than half the orders came from the United States, the company said on Tuesday."

"So instead of switching off the internet, the conversation should be about how to change it. How to clarify what we're giving for what we take. And the responsibility should not be with young people, in their WiFi-reliant worlds - it should be with the massive corporations that profit from them. As with cigarette packets (their photos of messy lungs a stark reminder of the choice you're making), so should the internet be required to advertise its risks, to alert you to where your data is being held. Because this is not just somewhere we play. The internet is where we live."

"In a discussion of how to secure the "critical infrastructure" of the United States he described the phenomenon of compromised computer hardware - namely, chips that have hidden "back doors" inserted into them at the design or manufacturing stage - as "the problem from hell". And, he went on, "frankly, it's not a problem that can be solved"."

"From a computer science perspective, learning the behaviour of a single user is tough. This is the small data problem; unlike big data, where patterns and trends easily emerge, individual human beings can be unpredictable and can change behaviour, which is not helpful for pattern-hunting algorithms."

"Schools in the UK have experimented with fingerprinting pupils then using that data for tasks including library books and lunch payments. However, the European Commission has questioned the practice, including whether schools can make it compulsory and whether parents can challenge it in court."