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Silk Road seller 'blew through all that money using drugs and going to strip clubs'

Plus: Killer robots are just 'an unnecessary distraction'

QuoTW This week, we trash-talked the state of BIOS security, poked around a buggy new version of Windows, and then smeared a bunch of Microsoft on some perfectly good Android phones.

Here are a few of the best quotes picked up along the way.

While bigwigs like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk are fretting over a future of genocidal robots, machine learning guru Andrew Ng doesn't lose much sleep over the threat from an evil AI. Speaking at the GTC conference, the Baidu exec said this:

There's a big difference between intelligence and sentience. There could be a race of killer robots in the far future, but I don’t work on not turning AI evil today for the same reason I don't worry about the problem of overpopulation on the planet Mars.

If you're looking for a more immediate threat, over in New York a rogue cop was found hacking NYPD systems as part of an elaborate ruse to con accident victims out of money.

But this wasn't just a case of stealing a password or two. Prosecutors said:

The defendant surreptitiously installed multiple electronic devices in the Traffic Safety Office of the NYPD’s 70th Precinct that allowed him to remotely access restricted NYPD computers and law enforcement databases, including one maintained by the FBI, that he did not have permission to access.

Elsewhere on the court docket, a programmer from Washington State is accused of amassing more than a million dollars by slinging drugs on Silk Road. According to the man's attorney, he can't pay that money back. Why?

He blew through all that money using drugs and going to strip clubs.

A heroin dealer who doesn't practice sound financial management? Shocking.

Over in Apple land, the fanbois are up in arms about some filthy screens. Users have been complaining that their MacBook Pros are experiencing some unsightly display defects. They say that the anti-glare coating on the screens is starting to peel away, leaving the screens with unsightly splotches along the way. As one owner malignantly remarked:

These are very small stains that start to grow. Honestly, it feels like your screen has some kind of bacteria or cancer or something.

Also this week, we learned that the FTC's probe of Google in 2012 was hardly an open-and-shut case. Leaked documents showed that FTC investigators seriously considered filing a complaint against The Chocolate Factory before senior bods in the watchdog nixed the idea. According to the document:

[Google's] conduct has resulted — and will result — in real harm to consumers and to innovation in the online search and advertising markets.

But, as we know, the FTC decided this didn't warrant any disciplinary action. Lovely.

And finally, if at some point this weekend you awaken with a headache and a list of regrets from your wild night out, take heart in the knowledge is wasn't as bad as Ms K's evening on the, er, tiles. The woman filed a complaint with UK comms regulator Ofcom, after a television programme showed CCTV footage of her urinating in a lift while performing oral sex on a male companion. As the complaint explained:

Ms K also said that at the time the CCTV footage was filmed, she had been very drunk and that she had not been "at the best point in her life".

You'd sure hope that were the case. We wouldn't want to meet the person for whom peeing on the floor of a lift while giving head qualifies as a "good day". That said, we do salute Ms K's multitasking abilities. ®

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