There have been too many stories this week that I prayed – unsuccessfully – were just jokes.
One involved a court opinion that FourthAmendment.com noted. Now FourthAmendment.com generally doesn’t goof around, so I was confident that this was a real case and opinion, but the case was so disturbing/bizarre that I couldn’t quite get myself to post it or link to it. But then along came Tim Cushing who managed to report it on TechDirt in an article appropriately headlined, “Appeals Court: Forcing A Teen To Masturbate So Cops Can Take Pictures Is A Clear Violation Of Rights.” I don’t really need to say more here about that case, do I?
The second is-this-for-real story, on Naked Security, begins:
Microsoft has built a facial recognition pet door that uses a webcam, a passive infrared motion sensor, servo motors, and OpenCV facial recognition on a Minnowboard Max – an open-source, single-board computer – running Windows IoT Core in order to let your cat into the house while barring criminals from the family Rodentia.
I don’t know what to say. Really. This calls for more coffee. A lot more coffee.