Facebook Cracking Down On Live Streaming For Rule Breakers

By Guy Rosen, VP Integrity

In a blog post, Facebook said that anyone who breaks its rules will be restricted from using its “Live” feature. The consequence will be a 30-day ban for first offenses. Previously, Facebook usually did not bar users until they had repeatedly violated its rules.

Restaurants Purchasing Tech Companies?

Restaurants have started investing in tech companies and even buying them outright. Recently, McDonald’s acquired Israeli company Dynamic Yield and promised to add its personalized menus to its drive-thrus in the U.S. this year. It then invested in a New Zealand mobile app developer called Plexure.

Those moves follow a pair of investments in the space last year by KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut owner Yum Brands—which invested $200 million in Grubhub and then bought online ordering company QuikOrder.

Such deals could become more commonplace as restaurants’ need for technology grows.

 

 

911 Calls & Facetime

The Douglas County Georgia Emergency 911 Center is the latest department using technology that’s like FaceTime for 911 dispatchers, and the company behind it says the lifesaving tool is long overdue.

Seconds count in any emergency and one of the hardest parts of the job for dispatchers is pinpointing a caller’s exact location for first responders.

The technology helps 911 dispatchers immediately locate where an emergency is unfolding, but that’s not all.

More here

The Amazon In New York Survey

. By a 67-21 percent margin, New Yorkers say that Amazon cancelling its planned second headquarters in Queens was bad for New York. By as nearly as large a margin, 61-30 percent, they support the deal in which Amazon would receive up to $3 billion in state and city incentives and create up to 25,000 jobs if Amazon reconsiders, according to a new Siena College poll of New York State registered voters released today.

An overwhelming 79 percent of voters say parents should be required to have their children vaccinated before attending school, regardless of the parents’ religious beliefs. Voters continue to support making the two-percent property tax cap permanent, legalizing recreational use of marijuana, and eliminating monetary bail for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. They are split on congestion pricing, and by a nearly two-to-one margin, they oppose allowing undocumented immigrants to get a New York driver’s license.

About 63 percent of Democrats, Republicans and independents, upstaters and downstaters, men and women, young and old, black and white New Yorkers agree: Amazon pulling out of Queens was bad for New York. Even 56 percent of self-described liberals think it was bad for New York,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “While some may have celebrated Amazon’s announcement to pull the plug, the vast majority of New Yorkers of every stripe thought it was bad for the Empire State.

Who’s The Blame?

 There’s certainly blame enough to go around. More people think that Amazon, Governor Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio, the State Senate, and local Queens activists were villains in this saga than they were heroes. However, voters say the biggest villain was Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Only 12 percent call her hero, while 38 percent label her a villain,” Greenberg said. “Amazon itself was seen as the biggest villain among Democrats, but Republicans and independents had Ocasio-Cortez as far and away the largest villain, followed by the local Queens activists.”

“By a wide margin, New Yorkers would support the deal coming back together if Cuomo and others can convince Amazon to reconsider,” Greenberg said. “The Amazon deal was seen as very contentious, however, there was strong support for it last month, before it got cancelled. There is an overwhelming feeling that its cancellation was bad for the state. And there is strong support – among all demographic groups – for Amazon to reconsider and move forward. The jobs outweigh the cost of government incentives in the minds of most voters.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Making permanent the property tax cap has strong support from every party and every region,” Greenberg said. “Eliminating monetary bail and legalizing recreational marijuana are both strongly supported by Democrats, opposed by Republicans and receive tepid independent support. Congestion pricing, which was strongly supported in January, is now break-even.

 Republicans and independents, upstaters and downstate suburbanites Overwhelmingly oppose allowing undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses. Democrats and New York City voters are closely divided on the issue,” Greenberg said. “White voters strongly oppose; black and Latino voters support it by small margins.”

Cuomo, Legislature, Schumer All See Favorability Bounce Up a Little from Last Month
Cuomo has a negative 46-48 percent favorability rating, up a little from negative 43-50 percent in February. The Assembly has a 44-35 percent favorability rating, up a little from 43-38 percent last month. The Senate is 46-38 percent, up a little from 43-41 percent. Senator Chuck Schumer is 51-41 percent, up from 47-46 percent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Cuomo saw his favorability rating tick up to near break-even, up from the lowest favorability rating he ever had. His job performance rating, negative 38-61 percent, also moved up a little, although it remains significantly below water,” Greenberg said. “Both houses of the Legislature also saw small jumps in their favorability ratings and both are in positive territory by high single digits.

“Schumer’s favorability rating moved back into positive territory after being break-even last month. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s favorability rating is unchanged from last month, and nearly one-quarter of voters do not know enough about her – despite her presidential campaign – to have an opinion,” Greenberg said. “Ocasio-Cortez, with a negative 31-44 percent favorability rating, is as well known to statewide voters after three months in office as Gillibrand is after ten years as senator. While Democrats view Ocasio-Cortez favorably, independents view her unfavorably more than two-to-one and Republicans view her unfavorably, 68-6 percent. She is viewed slightly favorably in New York City but strongly unfavorably upstate and in the downstate suburbs.”

 

Dems in Control: Moving Too Far to the Left; Making it Harder for Businesses; Ignoring Upstate

 

 

 

 

 

 

“While Democrats disagree, a strong majority of independents and an overwhelming majority of Republicans say that Democratic control of the Governor’s mansion and both houses of the Legislature are moving the state too far to the left,” Greenberg said. “Two-thirds of voters – including a majority of Democrats – say that Democratic control of the state makes it harder for businesses to be successful.

“While voters are evenly divided on whether downstate has too much power, by 51-28 percent voters say the interests of upstate are being ignored. Not surprisingly, nearly three-quarters of upstaters believe this, but New York City voters are closely divided,” Greenberg said. “That said, a clear majority, 54-32 percent, disagree with the view that state government worked better when Republicans controlled the State Senate.”

Method

This Siena College Poll was conducted March 10-14, 2019 by telephone calls conducted in English to 700 New York State registered voters. Respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest male in the household. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.2 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. Sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample of landline and cell phone telephone numbers (both from Survey Sampling International) from within New York State. Data was statistically adjusted by age, party by region, and gender to ensure representativeness. The Siena College Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social and cultural research primarily in NYS. SCRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices.

Further info

Huawei and It’s Aggressive PR Campaign

 

 

Huawei has started the year with an aggressive PR campaign the reclusive founder Ren Zhengfei  has suddenly give a series of interviews with foreign media to deny the company was a threat, while executives have dismissed the US warnings as baseless. Huawei has welcomed media to its tightly-guarded facilities in southern Guangdong province, starting with a tour of a smartphone production line in Dongguan.

The United States says Huawei equipment could be manipulated by China’s Communist government to spy on other countries and disrupt critical communications.

The world is preparing for the advent of ultra-fast 5G telecommunications, an advancement that Huawei was expected to lead and which will allow wide adoption of next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence.

Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, Ren’s daughter, also faces a court hearing on Wednesday in Vancouver on a US extradition request. Two Canadians have been detained in China in suspected retaliation over her arrest.

The US Justice Department accuses Huawei and Meng of circumventing US sanctions against Iran. Two affiliates also have been charged with stealing trade secrets from telecommunications group T-Mobile.

Sceptics, however, say it is highly unlikely that Ren, a former Chinese army engineer, could have steered his company to such heights in such a strategic sector without the support of Beijing, which has clearly stated its goal of becoming the world’s high-tech leader.

Besides its network dominance, Huawei is the world’s second-largest smartphone supplier after Samsung and Apple.

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou May Fight Extradition From Canada To The U.S.

• Meng Wanzhou – also known as Sabrina Meng and Cathy Meng – may be extradited to the US to face charges of breaching Iran sanctions with a Huawei sub-company
• But citing a ‘cloud of politicisation’ amid the US-China trade war, her lawyer plans to fight attempts to move her. Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Canada and faces possible extradition to the United States, is exploring a defence that claims US charges against her are politically motivated, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Monday.
• Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s executive was arrested in Canada and faces possible extradition to the United States. Currently her lawyers is exploring a defence that claims US charges against her are politically motivated, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Monday.

  Meng, the chief financial officer of Huawei, China’s largest smartphone maker, is the central figure in a high-stakes dispute between the United States and China. Canada arrested Meng in December at the request of the United States, and last month she was charged with wire fraud that violated US sanctions on Iran.

• In December, US President Donald Trump said in a Reuters interview he would intervene in the Justice Department’s case against Meng if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal with China.

  Canada fired John McCallum, its ambassador to China, in January after he said that Meng could make a strong argument against being sent to the United States.

• Meng’s lawyers are also planning to challenge whether her alleged conduct would be deemed criminal under Canadian law, the Globe and Mail said.

 

Netflix Trying To Put An End To Account Sharing

Synamedia, a software company, unveiled some new technology during CES in Las Vegas that allow streaming companies to use artificial intelligence to detect and flag users who are logged on the account in various locations. This means Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu users are at risk for getting kicked off accounts that don’t belong to them. The software can analyze locations based on who is logged in and where. Synamedia almost 26 percent of millennials share their Netflix account with others.

It’s not clear when the new software will be put into place. Therefore, Netflix moochers should enjoy their free access while they can.

African American Soldiers That Brought Jazz To Europe

 

Intelligent Stores Coming Your Way

 

The upcoming year plans to bring exciting technological breakthroughs. The “physical realm” of commerce will continue to dissolve, in 2019 and we’ll enter the age of “Experience-Driven, Unified Commerce”. A new type of retail paradigm where connectivity is ubiquitous, will exists without borders, and payment credentials are stored in the cloud. Consumers will interact with a host of “gateway” devices including smartphones, tablets, voice assistants, smartwatches, appliances, clothing, fashion accessories, automobiles, and more…anytime and everywhere. In order to keep up with the increasing demand for quick resolution and 24/7 accessibility, customer service will become increasingly automated, with AI-enabled live chat and virtual assistants becoming dominant communication channels.

The physical store of the future will be a significantly more digitized version of what exists today, with multiple smart devices working together on a single IoT platform to deliver hyper-personalized, adaptive and context specific experiences. AI will soon be applied across the entire retail product and service cycle, in areas such as product design and manufacturing, demand forecasting, supply chain management, price and assortment optimization, merchandising, promotions, customer experience. personalization, and post-sale customer service.

With AI and deep learning, retailers can use prediction analysis to determine which products might not sell under certain conditions – including market, economic, competitor and weather related factors – and create a combination of targeted discounts, dynamic, pricing, free shipping, enhanced services, product combinations etc., to clear out the inventory that is most likely not to sell after a certain period.

 

 

Gen Z & the Workforce

Gen Z is entering the workforce at a rapid pace, with the eldest of them now 23. A far larger group than their millennial counterparts, youth and young adults born between the mid-1990s and late 2000s have aptly been named Gen Z. Employers should be excited as a flood of talent will be joining the workforce soon — comprising 36 percent of the workforce by 2020 — but be aware, they have short attention spans, even shorter than millennials, and expect a lot from their employers.

According to a Deloitte study, Gen Z values employment that allows them to live a balanced lifestyle even more so than Millennials, with a greater emphasis on physical, mental and social well-being. They want flexibility and control within their schedules. For example, they want to be able to go to an afternoon doctor’s appointment without feeling like it reflects poorly on their work ethic. Employers must investigate providing flexible work hours, the ability to work from home when possible, and progressive benefit plans that include a Wellness Spending Account. Shopify, for example, offers a WSA that includes eligible spending categories such as gym memberships, financial planners and house cleaning.

With this massive influx of new talent, the workplace is once again going to experience significant change.

Growing up with the Internet, teens are used to getting real-time feedback—and lots of it. Their education and co-curricular activities have also made them used to receiving constructive criticism and acting upon it to improve their chances of success.

“The big thing for employers to consider is that Gen Z actually wants to be mentored and managed,” says Tom Turpin, president of employment agency Randstad. “Gen Z places a tremendous amount of value on an employer’s ability to mentor and teach them.”

Gen Z, people born in 1995 and later, are protesters, social-justice marchers, and spendthrifts just like their hippie aunts, uncles, parents and even grandparents.

Demographers may debate the exact dates, but Baby Boomers were typically born between 1946 and 1964. Their parents grew up during the Depression and the nightly news brought into their living rooms images of a war fought in Southeast Asia.

Compare that with Generation Z. Some of the first Gen Zers were teens and adolescents during the Great Recession of 2008. They saw their parents or the parents of their friends struggle with foreclosures and joblessness. Meanwhile, the country was waging a War on Terror against a nationless enemy.

 

Traditional marketing doesn’t work for Gen Z. Marketers need to embrace technology and new ways of storytelling. According to an infographic from Upfront Analytics, Gen Z customers respond to edgy and visual marketing tactics. Videos—especially short ones like those created via the social network Vine—work particularly well with young customers.

The study revealed that 80 percent of Gen Z say finding themselves creatively is important. Over 25 percent post original video on a weekly basis, while 65 percent enjoy creating and sharing content on social media.

 

Google’s AI can Detect Breast Cancer Better Than Humans

Google has delivered further evidence that AI could become a valuable tool in detecting cancer. The company’s researchers have developed a deep learning tool that can spot metastatic (advanced) breast cancer with a greater accuracy than pathologists when looking at slides. The team trained its algorithm (Lymph Node Assistant, aka LYNA) to recognize the characteristics of tumors using two sets of pathological slides, giving it the ability to spot metastasis in a wide variety of conditions. The result was an AI system that could tell the difference between cancer and non-cancer slides 99 percent of the time, even when looking for extremely small metastases that humans might miss.

Will Artificial Intelligence Determine How Much You’ll Pay for Goods & Services?

One thousand dollars is the new normal for smart phones in less than a year. Smartphones have replaced dozens, maybe hundreds of other single-function devices, from portable stereos to flashlights to TVs, and even personal computers. The average person has more computing power and more high-tech functionality in his or her pocket than even the wealthiest family had back in the day.

What can AI do for you: AI will also be capable of making energy much less expensive to produce and store. The average consumer already has access to hundreds of products capable of reducing the amount of energy they consume, including “smart” appliances like refrigerators, which can optimize and automate certain functions to keep energy costs low. Moreover, AI algorithms can make clean, renewable energy sources (like wind and solar) more efficient, ultimately reducing the cost of production, and the costs of producing and distributing food products.

AI has the power to greatly reduce the cost of insurance in all areas, including health insurance and auto insurance. Refined algorithms can more specifically calculate an individual’s risk factors, giving them the best possible rate for any policy. Plus, advanced algorithms can lower the risk of needing to file an insurance claim. For example, AI-powered self-driving cars have the potential to greatly reduce the risk of collisions, which in turn would make insurance dramatically cheaper for everyone, and advanced algorithms in the medical field can detect instances of cancer and other complex illnesses sooner, reducing the total costs associated with curing or treating those illnesses.

Soon, AI algorithms will be so sophisticated and tech companies will be so mature that the value of consumer data will be much higher, and the average consumer will provide more data with every digital interaction. At that point, tech companies may be interested in providing consumers with smartphones and other devices for free, with the intention of collecting enough data to counteract the costs of production and distribution.

Health care costs will likely remain high for the foreseeable future, but gradually, AI will gain the power to reduce those costs. Proactive screenings can be automated.

Will Jobs Be Necessary In The future?

South African Manager Calling Employees Monkeys

Sharnay Schwartz Scribante. Picture: Facebook.

A woman working at a recruitment agency in Port Elizabeth has been suspended for using the slur “monkeys” to describe a colleague as well as his union representatives, HeraldLive has reported.

Sharnay Schwartz Scribante, a branch manager at Workforce Staffing, was caught out when her use of the racist description was recorded on a cellphone.

It’s not the first time she used the term to refer to her black colleagues.

“All those monkeys are standing outside with Lerato. One of them apparently says he does not want to go to the meeting,” Scribante is alleged to say in the recording.

Did Workforce Staffing hire Monkeys?

These are Monkeys

More Added Features On Google Maps

After setting up your home and work address, the app will help you know what to expect in the morning and the evening. If you drive to work, Google Maps now tells you how long it’s going to take and if there are any alternative routes.

 

If you take the bus or train to work, Google Maps can help you find out when you should leave. The app takes into account the walk or drive to the station.

Also, you’ll be able to see your bus or train on the map, slowly moving closer to you. The app also tells you how long you have to wait. This feature will be available in 80 regions around the world.

However, you need to activate “web & app activity,” the infamous privacy destroyer.  If you activate that setting, Google will collect your search history, your Chrome browsing history, your location, your credit card purchases and more.

Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music will be available within Google Maps so that you can control your tunes and podcasts right from Google Maps navigation.

Shooter Goes On“devastating” Rampage At Artificial Intelligence Firm’

 

The shooting happened at a block of offices in Middleton, a suburb of Madison, Wisc., around 11:30EST Wednesday, with those struck by bullets rushed to hospital for treatment after. The gunman was shot dead by police. The gunman worked at an IT firm called WTS Paradigm based in the complex. He talked to an unnamed employee who saw one person shot in the shoulder. Four others are said to be receiving hospital treatment for their injuries. No word on why

Teens e-Cigs & Vaping Weed ?

Research from the 2016 National Youth Tobacco Survey of more than 20,000 middle school and high school students reported that More than 5,200 students reported have tried e-cigarettes,according to the journal JAMA Pediatrics. But the researchers were especially interested in what else kids were vaping with the device. About one out of every 11 students surveyed, or 9 percent, answered, “Yes, I have used an e-cigarette device with marijuana, THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] or hash oil, or THC wax.”

The use of marijuana in these products is of particular concern because cannabis use among youth can adversely affect learning and memory and may impair later academic achievement and education. Vaping is generally considered less dangerous than smoking, because burning tobacco or marijuana generates chemicals that are harmful to lungs. But there is little research on e-cigarettes’ long-term effects, including whether they help smokers quit.

 

Schools Educating A Weed Workforce

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The University of Ottawa is offering a Cannabis Law course.  Dubois, a partner at the Ottawa law office of Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall, and colleague Megan Wallace will be the lead instructors of the new cannabis law course at the University of Ottawa. The course, the first of its kind in Canada, will run for about three weeks. Students will learn about the licensing and regulatory frameworks of the cannabis industry as well as how legalizing the drug will affect everything from employment to property law. Diane Labelle, general counsel at Health Canada Legal Services, will teach a similar course at uOttawa in French this fall.

Commercial landlords now face heavy penalties for allowing pot to be sold at their properties, a situation that will have to change in time for private retailers to hit the market next April.

Dubois course will also feature a field trip to the Tweed production facility in Smiths Falls, where students will get a first-hand look at the product they’re learning about.

Southern Ontario’s Niagara College announced it was launching a one-year post-graduate commercial cannabis production program developed in conjunction with more than a dozen licensed producers, including Tweed parent Canopy Growth.

Ryerson University in Toronto, meanwhile, said this summer its Ted Rogers School of Management would be introducing a course ​– appropriately numbered 420 ​– called “the Business of Cannabis,” focusing on topics such as retailing, marketing, quality control and financing. And Montreal’s McGill University plans to enter the field by offering a diploma program in cannabis and cannabis production, starting next fall.

The cannabis industry has an urgent need for workers with highly specialized skills in areas such as genetics, horticulture, cultivation techniques, pest control and biotechnology.

 Skills are some what borrowed from pharmaceutical or food industries, but it is still quite different because the cannabis industry is complex. There are a lot of components to the cannabis industry.

Lawmakers Want Report on Deepfakes From Intelligence

Image: Carnegie Mellon University

Thursday, three lawmakers sent the Director of National Intelligence a warning about the impending dangers of deepfakes—an algorithmically-generated face swapping method used for everything from porn to Star Wars movies.

Three representatives—Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) and Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.)—sent the letter to DNI director Dan Coats as a plea and a warning: That deepfakes could be used against the U.S. by hostile nations.

The lawmakers outline that the report should assess any possible counter-measures and recommendations to Congress, describe any confirmed or suspected uses of deepfakes by foreign governments that have already happened, and outline the technological countermeasures by the U.S. government or the private sector.

Another most recent method comes from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, who have figured out a way to automatically transfer the “style” of one person to another.

For example, Barack Obama’s style can be transformed into Donald Trump,” the researchers wrote in the description of a YouTube video highlighting the outcome of this method. The video shows the facial expressions of John Oliver transferred to both Stephen Colbert and an animated frog, from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Obama, and from Obama to Trump.

The example of John Oliver and the cartoon frog, for example, points to a potentially useful tool when it comes to developing realistic, anthropomorphic animations. But there are consequences to the proliferation of increasingly realistic deepfakes—and equipping bad actors with tools that make them cheap and easy to create. In time, they may dangerously mislead the public, and can serve as a heinous tool for political propaganda.

The Letter

Technologies Transforming The Restaurant Industry

Restaurants have started utilizing Bluetooth temperature monitoring systems to ensure their food and equipment are up to par. Using handheld probes and fixed sensors, restaurants can manually or automatically measure the temperatures of their key assets in as little as four seconds. Managers can program customized limits for each food and equipment and be alerted if any temperatures are beyond their acceptable threshold. These Bluetooth sensors can also wirelessly record temperature readings in a HACCP log so that employees do not have to. This prevents staff from falsifying daily reports.

Optimized schedule makers/scheduling software
There is now software to help them get the job done. In just seconds, managers can generate and distribute a digital weekly schedule to all employees.

Virtual reality onboarding
VR and HR come together to create the newest trend for employee management: Virtual reality onboarding. Using a headset and customized software, new hires can engage in a truly unique experience, without the risks and cost of a normal training session. They can take a 360-degree tour of the facility, watch other employees in action, and test their skills in simulation games. With VR onboarding, trainees don’t have to touch the food or even be in the restaurant to learn how to do their job. There is less pressure on them to avoid mistakes and managers have more time for their other responsibilities.

Kiosks/tabletop tablets
Say goodbye to cash registers and hello to kiosks, the newest in point-of-sale technology. At these kiosks, customers are able to browse the menu, create customized orders, and pay for their meal entirely on their own.

Digital table/reservation manager
 This software does everything from booking reservations directly with customers to suggesting optimal seating arrangements based on time and party size. Restaurants can also give customers accurate wait time estimates and notify them via text when a table is ready for a more pleasurable waiting experience.

The State Of Social Media, Facebook & Twitter Testify Before Congress

The Senate Intelligence Committee hosted the morning session, focusing on efforts being made to keep elections safe.

Companies That have Employees With Implanted Chips

A company now has a workforce of at least 80 employees with implanted RFID chips in their hands to help them go about their work routines more efficiently. Three Square Markets, has facilitated the implantation of sensors about the size of a very large grain of rice within employees on a voluntary basis. The purpose is to do things like get into the office, log on to computers, and buy food and drinks in the company cafeteria. Essentially, participating employees can access systems and buy food in the cafeteria simply by waving their hands.

• The microchips Three Square Market employees had injected in their hands are about the size of a big grain of rice.

Three Square Markets, software engineer reportedly uses his chip 10 to 15 times a day. It has become such a part of his routine that swiping his hand over an RFID reader plugged into his computer is no different from typing in his password on a keyboard. Other employees also report becoming accustomed to simply waving their hands to gain access to services throughout their workdays

Google’s 20th Birthday

Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Image: EPA)

 

Google is 20 years old (Image: GETTY)

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin first met when Page, 22, visited Stanford University, 30 miles south of San Francisco, as a prospective attendee and PhD student Brin, 21, was assigned to show

Their site was going to be called “Googol” – the name of the number consisting of a 1 followed by 100 zeros. This term was picked to signify the search engine’s mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web. But a misspelling resulted in Google and it stuck.

Google’s Page Rank algorithm is named after Larry Page but the search engine was devised on Stanford equipment the university owned the patent for it. Google was granted exclusive use of the technology in return for 1.8 million shares. These were sold in 2005 for $336million.

 

Page and Brin were forced to file for incorporation of Google as a company on September 4, 1998, after Sun Micro systems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote them a check for $100,000 made out to Google Inc rather than them personally. Other angel investors included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, now the richest man in the world, who put in $250,000. But since 2006 Google has chosen September 27 as its official birthday and has marked the occasion with an annual celebratory Google doodle.

The founders’ first workplace was the apartment and garage of a friend called Susan Wojcicki in the Californian town of Menlo Park. Wojcicki went on to become Google employee number 16 and is now CEO of YouTube. Brin married Susan Wojcicki’s sister Anne in 2007 and they went on to have a son and a daughter before separating in 2013 after Sergey got romantically involved with the English marketing director of Google Glass Amanda Rosenberg. Meanwhile Larry is still married to research scientist Lucinda Southworth, with whom he has two children. They live in Palo Alto and own a $45million superyacht called Senses

Page and Brin didn’t really want to run their own business and so tried to sell it in the early days for $1million – but arch rivals Yahoo, Altavista and Excite all turned them down. By the time Yahoo was offered the company again in 2002 the price had gone up to $5 billion and its counter-bid of $3billion was rejected. Today the company is worth about $800 billion.

On April 1, 2000, Google joined in the Silicon Valley tradition of dreaming up April Fool stunts by announcing the MentalPlex – its ability to read users’ minds as they visualized the search results they wanted. Later April Fools included the revelation that pigeon-power delivered its search results, the launch of the Googlunaplex – a research facility on the Moon – and a Gmail Paper service, which would print “a physical copy of any message with the click of a button” that would then be sent on via snail mail.

The company went public in 2004 with its shares trading at an opening price of $85, a rate that valued the company at $27 billion, almost as much as General Motors. About 900 of its employees became millionaires overnight.

 

Wearable Chairs

Company called Astride Bionix has launched a relatively low-cost wearable chair. The device, which is like a pair of kickstands for the human body, enables the wearer to squat and take a comfortable seat anywhere. Another company called Ofrees sells a $900 consumer wearable chair on Amazon. Robotics company Cyberdyne makes an assistive back brace that functions similarly to wearable chairs and has been trialed in airports in Japan

 

Is Your Spam Being Sold By

Yahoo is selling data pulled from it without telling you — and staying alive by doing so.

What they do is scan emails, and then group similar users together for targeting. For example, if you have receipts from purchases you’ve made on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime, they will group you and other email users that have similar receipts into a group, and then sell your data to media companies, TV outlets, and the movie industry.

Google did it for thirteen years. That practice has since been halted due to public outcry, but companies with less to lose — like Yahoo — have picked up on the idea and run with it. Using the same scanning, grouping, and human curation described above, Yahoo has found a way to turn junk mail into sellable data.

So even out of data is valuable

 

Researchers Study Open Office Concept: Can You Really Be Creative In A Open Office?

Facebook’s Menlo Park Headquarters. Courtesy of Facebook.

Office at Google. Courtesy of Google.

Office at Google. Courtesy of Google.

 

WeWork Ginza Six. Courtesy of WeWork.

Harvard Business School professor Ethan Bernstein began studying the effects of open office plans.

Bernstein study reveaked that face-to-face interaction actually decreased by roughly 70% in the new office layout, as communications have largely shifted to electronic methods, such as IMs and email.

According to Gallup’s 2017 State of the American Workplace report, 70% of U.S. workplaces employ open office plans.

In 2015, Facebook opened the world’s largest open-office workspace in Menlo Park; Apple and Google have since followed suit, sinking millions of dollars into their own major office redesigns. Even freelancers and small businesses have joined in, with the proliferation of co-working spaces such as WeWork that utilize open layouts.

The Pros-An open office layout can even improve your health, according to new research published this month. Workers in open bench-seating arrangements were up to 20% more physically active than their counterparts in cubicles, and 32% more active than people working in private offices—

The Cons- open offices are often distracting. One study noted that participants exposed to typical open-office background noise give up more easily on a series of unsolvable puzzles. Other research revealed that while a certain volume of white noise encourages high levels of creativity, conversations and face-to-face interactions significantly disrupt the creative process. In today’s typical open office—many with concrete floors and minimal furniture—conversations can easily travel the length of the room. Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Howard Tullman vented in a piece for Inc. that his open office “sounds like a supermarket on Saturday morning or Chuck E. Cheese at Christmas.”

Secondly, a certain amount of privacy actually boosts creativity. Bernstein’s previous research looked at Chinese workers who became more willing to experiment and streamline processes when the factory floor was partitioned off by curtains. He has suggested that when people are on display, they are much less likely to test out creative solutions. Instead, they stick to more familiar tasks, worried about judgement from managers or co-workers.

.“The fact that you can’t close your door as an artist can be challenging,” Ettun explained. Being constantly scrutinized can be both “good and bad, because sometimes you don’t want to get feedback right away, you’re just experimenting with something and you’re not really sure. It takes time until you want to show people, even if it’s your peers, your friends.”

Melissa Marsh, founder and executive director of PLASTARC, a firm for workplace innovation and real-estate strategy, believes that the next generation of offices will have room for both individual and collaborative work. Known as “activity-based workspaces,” these offices feature elements of an open office layout, but also incorporate enclosures for quiet, concentrated work.

Brand New Biometrics Scanner Detects Impostor @ U.S. Airport

A biometric facial scanner has flagged a traveler using a fake passport — less than three days after the airport system was installed. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained a traveler earlier this week after the facial recognition system brought up an ID that didn’t match the man’s passport at the Washington Dulles International Airport.

 

CBP has more

Research Says Shoppers Will Leave Checkout Line If Checkout Is Too Hard

 

• a recent consumer study by Splitit, 87% of online shoppers said they would leave their shopping carts during checkout if the process was too difficult. And on top of that, 55% admitted they would never return to the retailer’s site.
• In addition, 90% of shoppers over 55 would not follow through with a purchase and 7% would never return to the site after a lengthy checkout process. Ads are another checkout annoyance, with 28% of consumers over 45 saying they would leave their cart if they felt there were too many ads.
• Overall, digital cart abandonment is currently as high as 70%. Gil Don, CEO and co-founder of Splitit, noted in the release that, “Online merchants must be sure to include clear and easy ways to enter customer details, choose delivery options and make payments, while ensuring that the process does not become cumbersome for the shopper.”
• No. 1 reason for shopping cart abandonment — cited by 58% of consumers — is high shipping costs. Another 8% cited longer-than-desired delivery times as reasons to abort. In an era of Amazon Prime’s free two-day delivery, other retailers are under pressure to match with free delivery or include other incentives at checkout to continue to compete with the marketplace giant.
• A study by Optimizely, reported in Biz Rate, states that 35% of all shoppers can be turned off of a brand from just a single bad user experience.

 

New York Plans To Cap Uber & Lyfte

 

New York City Council moved to impose a slate of new regulations on ride-hailing services. If Mayor Bill de Blasio signs off on the new legislation, New York would be the first city in the U.S. to cap the number of Uber and Lyft vehicles, as well as establish a minimum wage for drivers. It would also impose a new license requirement with more robust data-sharing requirements for the fiercely proprietary companies.

During the year-long cap on vehicle growth, the city would also conduct an impact study of the services. However, foes say it could lead to higher fares and more limited services. Ride-hailing has devastated the yellow cab industry, which is highly regulated in New York City compared to Uber and Lyft. Taxi medallions, once highly sought, have plummeted in value since TNCs came onto the scene, casting many drivers into financial ruin & death. A 2017 survey by the Independent Drivers Guild, which represents ride-hailing drivers, found that 57 percent of app based drivers bring in less than $50,000 annually, and 22 percent less than $30,000.

MIT REsearcher Are Working On A Chip/Pill To Detect Illness

Researchers at MIT have been working on a chip that could one day be offered to patients with suspected gastrointestinal bleeds instead of an endoscopy. The researchers have created a prototype of the chip that can be swallowed like a pill, sampling a patient’s gastrointestinal environment for signs of bleeding as it travels through their digestive system.

The chip doesn’t just rely on electronic components to do its work, however: it has an army of bacterial sentinels too. The chip has four wells filled with genetically-engineered bacteria that are designed to react to haem, a protein found in red blood cells. If the bacteria in the chip encounter any haem, they express a genetic circuit that causes them to bioluminesce — that is, if they see blood, the bacteria light up.

The researchers predict that it could take between five and 10 years before the pill could be used commercially. One of the key challenges that will need to be addressed is the size of the pill, which is currently around 3cm by 1cm. While it can be swallowed at that size, for people with damaged gastrointestinal tracts, there’s a risk that its dimensions could cause complications, so future work will look to shrink the device to more manageable levels. In future, the pill could also potentially be fuelled by a voltaic cell that generates energy from the acid environment of the stomach — a pH that’s so low it’s not found anywhere else in the body.

Many Organizations Are Beginning To Invest In Nearshoring

 

During the last decade, offshoring IT services has become an accepted solution for large and mid-sized enterprises, with the Asia-based outsourcing model dominating the scene.

Even if offshore providers bring organizations significant cost savings, they also come with challenges ranging from time zone discrepancies to cultural differences and language barriers, to name just a few.

In 2017, the total contract value of the information technology outsourcing (ITO) market amounted to 64.3 billion U.S. dollars (according to statista). a trend thats not going anywhere. So many organizations that investigated alternatives to offshoring started to look for partners closer to home. This strategy is called nearshoring. In its essence, nearshoring means teaming up with providers who are located relatively nearby but can still deliver significant cost efficiencies.

Benefits

1.Cost Savings-A decade ago, hiring candidates from India, China, and the Philippines was all the rage. Today Americans are choosing Latin America

2.Time zone compatibility-Another significant benefit of nearshoring over offshoring is the geographical proximity.

3.Language and cultural similarities- English is commonly spoken in European or Latin American countries

4.Vast talent pool-availability of talented and well-educated professionals

5.Compliance and trade regulations-nearshoring makes collaboration easier because the chances are high that such partnering countries participate in international agreements and follow global standards such as the WTO Information Technology Agreement.

 

It Seems That Wikipedia Has A Gender & Race Problem

The world’s fifth-most-visited website has a long-running problem with gender bias: Only 18 percent of its biographies are of women. Surveys estimate that between 84 and 90 percent of Wikipedia editors are male. Quicksilver, is a software tool by San Francisco startup Primer designed to help Wikipedia editors fill in blind spots in the crowdsourced encyclopedia. Its under representation of women in science is a particular target. Quicksilver uses machine-learning algorithms to scour news articles and scientific citations to find notable scientists missing from Wikipedia, and then write fully sourced draft entries for them. 

The summaries it generates are intended to provide a starting point for Wikipedia editors, who can clean up errors and check the sources to prevent any algorithmic slip-ups contaminating the site.

Lab Develops Breathalyzer For Pot & Alcohol

California-based Hound Labs developed a breathalyzer kit the company claims can detect and report THC or alcohol in a breath sample in about four minutes.

The Hound kit consists of a handheld device, a laptop-sized analysis unit, and consumable cartridges.Each cartridge has a blowing tube on one end to collect samples.

The breath test takes 4 minutes by sticking a Hound cartridge in the handheld unit and blowing on the tube for 30 seconds. Then removing the cartridge and inserting it into the larger unit called a breath processor. The Hound breathalyzer doesn’t report THC consumption levels, just its presence. Measuring THC is much trickier than alcohol. Alcohol is measured in parts per thousand, but because THC is about a billion times less concentrated than alcohol, the Hound has to measure the psychoactive marijuana component in parts per trillion.

National Highway Transportation Safety Administration(NHTSA)’s Crash Risk Study was inconclusive about whether marijuana impairment “contributes to the occurrence of vehicle crashes.”

Open Office Plans Are Bad

 

A cubicle-free workplace without private offices is supposed to force employees to collaborate however  it does not

Read On

Senators Say “Smart TV’s Are Invading Privacy

Two Democratic US senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate privacy problems related to Internet-connected televisions.

“Many Internet-connected smart TVs are equipped with sophisticated technologies that can track the content users are watching and then use that information to tailor and deliver targeted advertisements to consumers,” Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote in a letter yesterday to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons.

It would be up to Congress to pass new laws for smart TVs. But the FTC can punish companies for unfair and deceptive business practices. Action was taken against smart TV manufacturer Vizio last year.

 

Record Number Of Seniors Over 85 Still Working

 255,000 Americans 85 years old or older were working over the past 12 months. The highest number on record.

They’re doing all sorts of jobs — crossing guards, farmers and ranchers, even truckers, as my colleague Heather Long revealed in a front-page story last week. Indeed, there are between 1,000 and 3,000 U.S. truckers age 85 or older, based on 2016 Census Bureau figures. Their ranks have roughly doubled since the Great Recession.

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It’s Difficult To believe They Don’t Have The Equipment For Cave Problems

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_diving

The DeepFake Video Problem

 

Buzzfeed has created a video that shows a more troubling side of this technology. The video shows former President Barack Obama saying things he never said, and it looks surprisingly believable.

In the video above, Obama is voiced by Jordan Peele, who does a passable impersonation. Having Peele do the voice gets the video more attention, but there are probably voice actors who could do an even better job. Buzzfeed started by pasting Peele’s mouth over top of Obama’s, and then replaced Obama’s jawline to match the mouth movements. Rendering took 56 hours for a minute-long video.

The tool is known as FakeApp, but the videos are usually called “Deepfakes” because that’s the handle used by the original developer on Reddit. You can download the code freely all over the internet, but it’s not easy to set up — you need to configure Nvidia’s CUDA framework to run the FakeApp TensorFlow code, so the app requires a GeForce GPU. The video you want to alter has to be split into individual frames, and you need a large number of high-resolution photos of the face you want to insert. In the case of Obama, there are plenty of photos online that can be used to generate a model.

Currently, new technology on the internet lets anyone make videos of real people appearing to say things they’ve never said. Republicans and Democrats say this deceitful technology  will become the latest weapon in disinformation wars against the United States and other Western democracies. This technology uses facial mapping and artificial intelligence to produce videos that appear so genuine it’s hard to spot the phonies. Lawmakers and intelligence officials worry that the bogus videos — called deepfakes that could be used to threaten national security or interfere in elections.

When an average person can create a realistic fake video of the president saying anything they want, and the reverse is a concern, too. People may dismiss as fake genuine footage, say of a real atrocity, to score political points.

Realizing the implications of the technology, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is already two years into a four-year program to develop technologies that can detect fake images and videos. Right now, it takes extensive analysis to identify phony videos. It’s unclear if new ways to authenticate images or detect fakes will keep pace with deepfake technology.

Deepfakes are so named because they utilize deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence. They are made by feeding a computer an algorithm, or set of instructions, lots of images and audio of a certain person. The computer program learns how to mimic the person’s facial expressions, mannerisms, voice and inflections. If you have enough video and audio of someone, you can combine a fake video of the person with a fake audio and get them to say anything you want.

Deepfake technology still has a few flaws. For instance, people’s blinking in fake videos may appear unnatural. But the technology is improving.

1. Don’t jump to conclusions

2. Consider the source

3. Check where else it is (and isn’t) online

4. Inspect the mouth

5. Slow it down

 

 

 

 

Brooklyn New York High School Class Can’t Take Serial Killer Book Off The Premises

High school students from Brooklyn’s Midwood high school are taking a true crime class where teens read up on real  murderers and mass shooters. Assistant Principal of English Suzane Thomas issued an edict to the school’s librarians last month that bars them from allowing students to take copies of the books home.

“I am requesting that the following list of books be placed on ‘restricted access’ to students,” Thomas said in the May 30 memo. “They have been borrowed by students in the True Crime class.

“In no way am I suggesting that these books be censored, as they are NYSTL [Text Law] approved by the DOE,’’ she wrote. “However, please do not allow students to take them home — they should be read in the library where they are supervised by a teacher or a librarian.’’

City education officials said the edict was given simply so every student could have access to the books.

“The books were available for all students to read and were kept in the library so that they could be accessible to everyone,” said Department of Education spokesman Doug Cohen.‎‎ “Any other interpretation of the guidance that was shared is simply inaccurate.’’

However, It seems that some Midwood HS staffer begged to differ

The in-school-only restriction “doesn’t make sense,” said retired Midwood librarian Arlene Weber Morales, who was at the school when the crime course was created and admitted she had “mixed feelings” about offering such violent content to teens.

“The librarians order extra copies of books so students can take them home,’’ said Morales, who retired in 2015. “Don’t parents want to know what the kids are reading? I would order more copies of the books.’’

A current Midwood staffer said Thomas “clearly states that this is not book banning. But it is.

“We are waiting to see if the administration cancels this course, because most of the books used in the class are on the[banned] list,’’ the source added, noting it would be a shame if True Crime were killed because it is “a very popular class.’’

Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-Brooklyn/Staten Island) questioned why the class was even in existence.

“Sadly, this is a city in which criminals are sometimes placed on pedestals, and entrepreneurs are vilified,” she said. “How about teaching about civic and business leaders who beat the odds so they too can strive for success?

“I see why the school doesn’t want students to take the books home,’’ she added. “Parents will flip out.”

Thomas declined to comment.

L’Oreal’ UV Sensor

 

The UV Sense is simple to use. Stick it on your nail, swipe it over your iPhone or Android phone, and it will wirelessly transfer UV exposure data to the companion app using near-field communication (NFC). It’s the NFC chip that also charges the device through the data transfer process.

Placing it on your thumbnail exposes the UV Sense to optimal sunlight, and the sensor is activated by UVA and UVB rays. Along with your UV report, you’ll also get some advice on on avoiding the sun, and recommendations on L’Oreal products to purchase.

The data the sensor collects is accurate, or at least that’s what L’Oreal claims.

L’Oreal

It’s important to note the UV Sense itself strictly measures UV exposure. The app is where you can find additional information such as allergens, pollution, and other factors in the environment that can effect your skin

Pilot program and launch

The UV Sense will launch in the U.S. this summer as a pilot program. The company will continue to do testing with dermatologists and consumers, which allows L’Oreal to get even more feedback to improve the experience even better.

 

New Witness Protection Scheme For Whistle Blowers

Whistleblowers are being offered a “witness protection scheme” to  expose “wrongdoing” in the technology industry. An American non-for-profit organization founded by a French entrepreneur and philanthropist has said it will provide individuals working within “big data” financial and legal support if they are able provide information  that shows how the public is being “harm[ed], exploited or misled”.

The Signals Network, was set up last year, and is currently working with a consortium of journalists around the world and aims to provide assistance to potential whistle-blowers to ensure that powerful corporations can be investigated.

Newspapers and websites in America and Europe, including The Telegraph, have issued a “call for information” to people working in “big data” who are able to show how the public are being misled or that the information they have provided is being misused.

Other organizations involved in the project include Mediapart, which was set up by the former editor of Le Monde, Die Viet in Germany, the Intercept and WikiTribune.

The reporters will work together to examine information that is provided and a committee will  decide  whether potential sources have provided sufficiently strong information to warrant support from the organization.

In recent years, concerns have arisen about the role of technology companies and how “big data” may be being misused by firms.

Earlier this year, it emerged that a Cambridge professor used a personality quiz on Facebook to obtain data from 50 million users without their knowledge.

Founder Gilles Raymond Credit: The Signals Network

The academic then allegedly passed the data to a company called Cambridge Analytica, in violation of Facebook’s rules and without the company knowing.

It also emerged that Cambridge Analytica harvested data on 50 million Americans without their permission and failed to ensure the data was deleted – it was allegedly used to develop an algorithm used in the US presidential election to target voters for the Trump campaign. 

The controversy led to more than $36 billion (£26 billion) being wiped off the value of Facebook, as investors reacted to the revelations.  The firm have denied that the data available to Cambridge Analytica constituted a data breach and any wrongdoing.

Earlier this month, experts said that social media and online gaming firms should have a “duty of care” to protect children from mental ill health, abuse and addictive behaviour, amid concerns that social media firms are cynically targeting children using addictive “hooks”.

The Signals was set up by French businessman Giles Raymond and has an operating budget of several hundred of thousands of dollars to provide financial, legal, psychological and public relations assistance to individuals who are able to provide information that exposes wrongdoing.

Mr Raymond found a company News Republic that was bought by Cheetah Mobile in 2016 for $57 million.  In 2017, he founded the Signals Network.

 

Companies Like Mercedes Benz Are Investing More Systematically In People Over 50

Mercedes-Benz is trying to dispel attitudes about older people as Germany grapples with the challenges of an aging society.

People visit an exhibition about demografic change called ‘Ey Alter’ by carmaker Mercedes Benz in Berlin, Germany June 5, 2018. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

The luxury brand owned by Germany’s Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE) is waging a company-wide campaign to combat those mistaken impression about aging. Daimler has developed is an exhibition challenging stereotypes about aging. It has already been visited by 80,000 people, including 2,500 of its factory managers and has now been brought to Berlin and opened to the public.

Visitors are asked to choose between the “young” or “old” door to enter the exhibition. Many retired visitors, who obviously feel young at heart, come in through the “young” door.

Rival carmaker BMW (BMWG.DE) expects workers aged over 50 to make up more than 35 percent of its workforce by 2020, from 25 percent in 2014.

Germany faces a serious skills shortage as the post-war “baby boomer” generation retires. The working-age population is expected to shrink by some 2 million by 2030.

The shortage of workers is costing the economy up to 0.9 percentage points of output a year, the IW German Economic Institute said recently.

The German government has moved to discourage people from retiring early and the pension age is scheduled to rise gradually from 65 to 67 by 2030.

“Companies know it is not so easy attract young workers. They are realizing they can’t do without some of the baby boomers and will try and hang onto them,” said Andre Schleiter, a demographics expert at the Bertelsmann Foundation think tank.

Mercedes Benz has also launched formal joint tool making training for teenage apprentices and employees aged over 50 and is testing ergonomic tools, such as an exoskeleton which reduces muscle strain for workers installing parts overhead.

Other ideas include a system to help workers swap shifts more easily; allowing older staff to work part-time as they approach retirement and hiring retirees for short-term projects.

 

Instagram’s New IGTV Competing With You Tube

 

Video will be available through Instagram or a new app called IGTV. The initiative comes as parent company Facebook struggles to attract teens.  Instagram Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said he hopes IGTV will become as a hub of creativity for relative unknowns who turn into internet sensations with fervent followings among teens and young adults.

YouTube now has 1.8 billion users.Instagram, which Facebook bought for $1 billion six years ago, now has 1 billion users, up from 800 million nine months ago.More importantly, 72% of U.S. children ages 13 to 17 use Instagram, second to YouTube at 85%, according to the Pew Research Center. Only 51% of kids in that group now use Facebook, down from 71% from a similar Pew survey in 2014-15.

 

Cool Travel Tech Gadgets

 

Smart Luggage

CX-1 is at the top of the class. Introduced by ForwardX, this high-tech suitcase features facial recognition software and a wristband equipped with GPS. Put the two together and the luggage can follow you around through the airport, to the taxi stand, or anywhere else a suitcase can roll.

If someone tries to snatch the bag, the wristband is designed to alert you while helping you track the thief. Not physically having to lug a heavy suitcase through the airport is reason enough to love this new travel technology.

Recording Sunglasses

Spectacles sunglasses feature functional sunglasses with a small video recorder built into the frame. The recorder is designed to record 10-second snaps of your day, which are then sent to your smartphone using the Snapchat app. The snaps are relegated to Snapchat Memories, keeping a database of your most memorable moments.

The Mavic Pro travel drone

This drone features smartphone control, GPS, a 4K camera and video recorder, 11 flight modes, and nearly 30 minutes of flying time.

You can fly the drone up to a distance of 4.3 miles, recording video or snapping photos along the way. It even has tripod and selfie settings, letting you capture miles-wide moments of your travel with minimal effort. This drone elevates travel photography and video to a whole new level, both literally and figuratively.

Hi-Tech Hotel Features

Voice-activated devices are already in place at Acme Hotel in Chicago, letting travelers communicate with staff and glean information using an Amazon Echo device in the room. Instead of calling the front desk or heading to the lobby, all you need to do is ask Alexa about morning coffee hours, weather conditions, or setting a wake-up alarm.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another high-tech option hitting the industry, with an automated form of intelligence expected to replace human interactions in certain areas, like customer service. AI-equipped chatbots would be able to answer general questions and provide basic support faster, more conveniently, and 24 hours a day.

 

 

 

Fortnite Celebrity Tournament

Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and electronic music artist Marshmellow pose for photographs after winning the final round of Epic Games’ Fortnite Pro-Am competition.

Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge

Last week, 50 celebrities and 50 professional video game players gathered near the north end of a soccer stadium in Los Angeles to play Fortnite for $3 million in prize money and drew more than 1.1 million viewers live on Twitch. The line to get in sprawled across every available stretch of sidewalk around the Banc of California arena.

Despite the star-studded lineup, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was far and away the most sought-after celebrity in attendance. Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge

Epic’s next mission is to change Fortnite from a compulsive pastime into a competitive e-sport. The company has pledged $100 million in prize money for the game’s first year of competitive play, and strategically announced its intention to host a Fortnite World Cup in 2019 in the middle of the Pro-Am stream to ensure the news had the maximum impact to its most valuable audience.

Fortnite has enjoyed headlines about obsessed MLB players, basketball pros’ self-described addictions, and its cross-over pop culture appeal. Big names in hip-hop and EDM like Drake and Diplo have participated in record-breaking live streams with Ninja, whose rise to stardom has been more meteoric these past nine months than any other internet celebrity in recent memory.

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NBA player Paul George exchanging phone numbers with Twitch streamer and Fortnite pro Ali “Myth” Kabbani before the tournament started. Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge

Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge

Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge

Statt / The Verge

Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Microsoft Working On Tech To Eliminate Cashiers in Stores Like Walmart

Microsoft is reportedly working on technology that will eliminate cashiers and checkout lines in stores, similar to Amazon’s technology already implemented in its Amazon Go brick-and-mortar store.

According to the report, Microsoft’s technology tracks which items customers put into their carts. While it’s unclear how far along Microsoft is in developing this technology, the company has reportedly shown sample tech to potential partners and has even talked to Walmart about implementing it.

The exact technology used in Microsoft’s service isn’t explained, but it may be linked to the company’s new Kinect for Azure project. Detailed at Microsoft Build last month, this project builds on Kinect’s current abilities and includes integrated computing power and a sensor package with a depth-mapping camera. It can be used to execute spatial mapping and motion tracking, which could come in handy when tracking customers’ hands as they reach for items on shelves.

Microsoft’s store tech is designed to help retailers “keep pace” with Amazon as the online shopping giant dabbles more in brick-and-mortar endeavors. Specifically, retailers who may use Microsoft’s technology could better compete with Amazon Go, the company’s cashier less convenience store.

Microsoft could make a lot of money by providing numerous retailers with the technology needed to make their stores as tech-savvy as Amazon Go.

Though, it’s unclear when Microsoft will roll out a final version of its checkout-free retail technology or if the project will be scrapped completely

Free Mini Library @ New York City’s Subway System

 

NYPD Officer Damieon Frey unveils the new Free Little Library at the 145th Street and St. Nicholas Ave subway station.

Free mini-library was unveiled this week in a New York underground subway station — @ 145th Street & St Nicholas Avenue station right next to NYPD’s Transit District 3 Precincth allows for constant supervision

The little library stands about five-feet tall. Open the door and anyone can take a book. All the organizers ask it that readers leave a book behind, to fill the gap. The non-profit organization started the initiative in the hopes it would get more people reading.

Little Free Library has outlets all over the world. There are over 10 in the city already, but this is the first in an underground station. NYPD Transit plans to place a Little Free Library in each transit precinct eventually.

Little Free Library founder Todd H. Bol said there will be books for all age ranges and many that will appeal to young children.

“We did this partnership with Marvel, and Marvel is going to give an ongoing supply of books… Disney will send two years supply of Marvel books and comics.

Readers aged 13-18 would act as mentors to the younger children, reading with them after school at the Little Free Library outside the precinct, as part of the NYPD Explorers Program.

 

 

 

Self Driving Bikes Coming Soon

Drones As An Emergency Response Tool

On the island of Hawaii, Drone technology is being used right now to move people out of harm’s way as lava continues to pour from Kilauea volcano.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) this week described how live-streamed video from one of its unmanned aerial vehicles helped guide emergency responders to a resident whose home looked to be on the verge of getting swallowed up by the lava flow. Live footage from the flying machine was then assessed by a remote team so that it could direct the rescue group along the safest escape route.

The situation on the ground looks precarious to say the least, and it’s safe to say the resident must have been feeling pretty terrified as the lava flow closed in. The live data from the drone allowed the rescue team to follow a safe path, and if you look carefully you can see their flashlights scanning the scene when they make it to the property. Once they reached the resident, the team was then guided to an available evacuation route, safely removing them from the danger area.

Drone technology is clearly proving a real boon for volcanologists, as well as the emergency management teams that work with them. The remotely controlled flying machines offer a safe way to get up close to active volcanoes, providing geologists with up-to-the-minute data on the direction and extent of lava flows, and valuable information regarding developments on and around the volcano over a longer period of time.

When every second counts, real-time data is everything, and drones are proving to be an indispensable tool in the battle to protect lives on the Big Island as the lava continues to flow.

 

 

 

Public Libraries Are Rocking This Summer