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83 articles, 2016-04-05 00:01 1 Social media technology, rather than anonymity, is the problem Problems of anti-social behaviour, privacy, and free speech on social media are not (2.00/3) caused by anonymity but instead result from the way technology changes our presence. That's the startling conclusion of a new book by an expert on the information society and developing media. 2016-04-04 20:31 2KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 2 Entrepreneurs must learn to negotiate, or they can lose everything

(2.00/3) Successfully taking an idea to market involves many more negotiations than most entrepreneurs realize. First, they must figure out whether to share credit.. 2016-04-04 20:16 4KB feedproxy.google.com 3 Microsoft announces quarterly dividend

(2.00/3) REDMOND, Wash. — March 15, 2016 — Microsoft Corp... 2016-04-04 19:19 886Bytes news.microsoft.com 4 Android can't make BlackBerry phones attractive again Realizing that it stands no chance of attracting consumers with BlackBerry 10 OS devices, BlackBerry last year released a smartphone that runs Android. Called Priv, it offers an interesting mix of business and consumer-oriented features that make it a powerful (2.00/3) contender in the high-end segment... 2016-04-04 17:22 3KB feeds.betanews.com

5 New Start Menu features on the way in Windows 10 Anniversary Update Windows Insiders will soon be able to try out a new Start Menu when preview builds of (2.00/3) Windows 10 Anniversary Update begin to roll out. We already know some of what to expect from this big update to Windows 10 -- such as badge notifications in the... 2016-04-04 12:34 2KB feeds.betanews.com 6 Microsoft continues to bleed browser share at record rates Microsoft's browsers last month continued to swirl toward the drain of second place. 2016-04-05 00:01 4KB www.computerworld.com.au 7 Tickets to the 2016 The International Dota 2 Championships go on sale this week Valve recently revealed that tickets for this year’s The International Dota 2 Championships will go on sale later this week. Here’s everything you need to know about the year’s largest eSports event. 2016-04-05 00:01 2KB www.techspot.com 8 New methods for more energy-efficient internet services Billions of people use the internet, which requires huge data centres and results in an enormous energy consumption. Researchers have now developed techniques and algorithms to manage and schedule the resources in these large data centers at a lower cost, greater efficiently, more reliability and with a lower environmental impact. 2016-04-04 23:16 2KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 9 At Build, Microsoft tried a different way to mobile developers' hearts At its Build developer conference this week, Microsoft showed how it plans to stay relevant in the mobile computing market without a popular mobile OS. 2016-04-04 23:00 3KB www.computerworld.com.au 10 Computer programming: Are two heads really better than one? Scientists investigated the advantages and perceptions of pair programming from the programmer’s standpoint. 2016-04-04 22:09 9KB feeds.sciencedaily.com

11 3-D map of the brain: Researchers develop software to better understand brain's network of neurons The animal brain is so complex, it would take a supercomputer and vast amounts of data to create a detailed 3-D model of the billions of neurons that power it. But computer scientists and a professor of ophthalmology have developed software that maps out a monkey's... 2016-04-04 22:09 5KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 12 New software provides overview of big data of genome sequencing Since researchers first succeeded in mapping the human genome back in 2003, the technological development has moved at warp speed, and the process which at that time took several years and billions of dollars can now be performed in a few days. Researchers have developed a new... 2016-04-04 21:37 2KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 13 Microsoft's Xbox Kinect breathes new life into respiratory assessment Xbox Kinects could be used in the future to assess the health of patients with conditions such as cystic fibrosis. Normally found in the hands of gamers rather than medics, the Microsoft sensors could be used to assess the respiratory function of patients. 2016-04-04 21:13 4KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 14 Improved robotic testing systems New mathematical models can give us better and cheaper robotic systems. 2016-04-04 20:57 2KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 15 Security Think Tank: Ignoring software patching spells trouble What strategies can companies adopt to help keep up with and deal with the huge volume of software updates they are facing? 2016-04-04 20:53 1KB www.computerweekly.com 16 Xamarin Now Free - Does This Change Everything Or Nothing? Programming book reviews, programming tutorials,programming news, C#, Ruby, Python,C, C++, PHP, Visual Basic, Computer book reviews, computer history, programming history, joomla, theory, spreadsheets and more. 2016-04-04 20:42 4KB www.i-programmer.info 17 The 'halving' sounds like a horror story and may well turn out to be one for Bitcoin Bitcoin relies on the participation of people and organisations to act as the "bankers" of the system. Called Bitcoin miners, they effectively record each transaction on a ledger called the Blockchain and in return, they are awarded with bitcoins. The process of mining is... 2016-04-04 19:31 4KB phys.org 18 Bright idea for lowlight photography Anyone who’s taken a picture of birthday candles being blown out or a selfie during a romantic candlelit dinner knows how disappointing it is when the photo comes out dark and grainy. But now a researcher has developed a new camera color filter that lets in three times more... 2016-04-04 20:31 4KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 19 Economic dynamic between the two leading software delivery models Cloud computing software has brought many changes to the business landscape and currently, the implementation of such a service is common. New research sheds light on the growing competition between two widely used software models – Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and Modified off-the- Shelf (MOTS) software. 2016-04-04 20:31 4KB feeds.sciencedaily.com

20 Engineer models heart valves, wind turbines for better designs, performance Computer modeling technologies are being developed to help engineers design better machines. The models are being applied to wind turbines, artificial hearts and gas turbines. 2016-04-04 20:30 4KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 21 Pupils learn poorly when using most computer programs “Most digital learning tools used in schools are unsatisfactory and only test the knowledge the pupils already have”, says Björn Sjödén, who has reviewed a large number of computer programs in his doctoral thesis “What Makes Good Educational Software?” 2016-04-04 20:29 4KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 22 Nest demonstrates the risks of being an early adopter by shutting down Revolv Remember the Revolv home automation hub? Probably not. The device was released in late 2013, and while fantastic, it largely flew under the radar before.. 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 23 Samir Arora is stepping down as CEO of Mode Media Samir Arora, the longtime CEO of Mode Media, is stepping down, replaced by interim CEO Jack Rotolo. Rotolo has spent more than a decade serving in a number.. 2016-04-04 20:16 1KB feedproxy.google.com 24 Faraday Future: “Tesla Model 3 is fantastic news.” Nick Sampson, head of the startup electric vehicle company Faraday Future, spent a busy day as the title sponsor of the Faraday Future Long Beach ePrix.. 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 25 Stock picking simplified with these apps Investing in the stock market made easy... That's the goal of these apps, which make investing more convenient and help you keep tabs on the market updates... 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 26 The Taliban app’s publication points to holes in Google’s app review process A propaganda application developed by the Islamist fundamentalist group the Taliban was live on the Google Play store for two days before being booted,.. 2016-04-04 20:16 3KB feedproxy.google.com 27 Bezos teases new Kindle hardware for reveal next week E-readers may not be the most exciting space in tech these days, but some of us still find a place for them in our lives — and it is we happy few whom Jeff.. 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 28 Google’s Nexus security update for April fixes 8 critical Android bugs Google is releasing the monthly security update for its Nexus Android devices today and with it, it is also announcing a list of the security vulnerabilities.. 2016-04-04 20:16 1KB feedproxy.google.com 29 WeWork launches WeLive flexible rental apartments in NY and DC WeWork, the co-working real estate startup valued north of $5 billion, is launching WeLive, a residential rental building that offers flexible renting and a.. 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 30 The speech the technology industry won’t hear from any candidate… but should Not one of the 2016 presidential candidates stands out when it comes to ensuring that common sense technology and entrepreneurship policy will prevail. In the.. 2016-04-04 20:16 9KB feedproxy.google.com 31 Target’s savings app Cartwheel now lets you clip real coupons Target's top-rated shopping app Cartwheel is today becoming more useful to those who are looking to save money at checkout. The company says the app has been.. 2016-04-04 20:16 3KB feedproxy.google.com 32 Austrian jobs platform aims to connect refugees and employers Europe's refugee crisis is proving all but impossible for the region's politicians to tackle without being sucked into an inglorious mire of prejudice --.. 2016-04-04 20:16 7KB feedproxy.google.com 33 AOL expands its TV ad-buying tools AOL is expanding its television efforts with the launch of self-serve TV ad-buying as part of its One by AOL platform. AOL (which owns TechCrunch, and in.. 2016-04-04 20:16 1KB feedproxy.google.com 34 Apple’s short film on autism proves that accessibility features matter Apple has released a couple of videos over the weekend starring Dillan Barmache, a 16- year-old kid who is autistic and non-verbal. These two films are.. 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 35 Photo project aims to take cringe factor out of “techies” Techies Project, a photo and interview project that launched today, explores the personal stories and experiences of hundreds of underrepresented people in.. 2016-04-04 20:16 5KB feedproxy.google.com 36 How easy access VC funding has softened the startup world The last decade has seen a period of extremely high venture capital activity, with a record peak of investment reached in 2015. This period of high VC.. 2016-04-04 20:16 7KB feedproxy.google.com 37 Israel prepares for #OpIsrael cyberattack The #OpsIsrael attack has taken place every year on April 7 since 2013, and was first launched on the eve of the Holocaust Remembrance Day with a stated goal.. 2016-04-04 20:16 3KB feedproxy.google.com 38 Amazon takes on PayPal and others with launch of Amazon Payments partner program Amazon announced this morning a plan to spread adoption of its payments service, Amazon Payments, to more third-party websites. With the launch of its Amazon.. 2016-04-04 20:16 3KB feedproxy.google.com 39 Product discovery platform Influenster secures $8M in Series A funding from Ebates Product discovery and reviews platform, Influenster, has raised $8 million in financing from Ebates, a leading online cashback shopping service. Ebates.. 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 40 Apple has made Siri a baseball trivia guru Just in time for the start of baseball season, Apple has beefed up Siri's knowledge of baseball stats, scores, and trivia. Siri can now do things like tell.. 2016-04-04 20:16 1KB feedproxy.google.com

41 Outlook Premium, Microsoft’s subscription email service, starts trials at $3.99 per month Microsoft's experiment with getting customers to pay for additional features in Outlook will be priced at $3.99 per month, according to an updated page on.. 2016-04-04 20:16 4KB feedproxy.google.com 42 Robinhood preps for zero-fee stock trading launch in China Robinhood will bring its free U. S. stock trading app to the world, and just announced one of the first countries will be China. To prepare, today it launched.. 2016-04-04 20:16 3KB feedproxy.google.com 43 Stae wants to prepare cities for the future Meet Stae, a New York-based startup that wants to make cities and tech startups work together. Major cities are getting denser and facing bigger challenges... 2016-04-04 20:16 4KB feedproxy.google.com 44 More calls for privacy safeguards in UK surveillance legislation The official opposition Labour party in the UK has again called on the government to make changes to draft surveillance legislation to improve privacy.. 2016-04-04 20:16 3KB feedproxy.google.com 45 Sweetgreen’s Nicolas Jammet, Maple’s Caleb Merkl and Blue Apron’s Matt Salzberg to cook up a storm at Disrupt NY 2016 It's safe to say that everyone can get down with food. That's probably why the tech industry has seen so many startups — some more successful than others.. 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 46 Bkstg launches to directly connect musicians with their fans There are countless ways to connect with famous musicians, whether it's following them on Instagram and Snapchat or buying tickets to all of their public.. 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 47 Early-bird ticket sales to Disrupt NY end soon Planning on making the trip to the Big Apple for Disrupt NY? You might as well save $1,000 in the process, but to do that you're going to need to act quickly... 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 48 Longtime Tesla Motors CIO Jay Vijayan has formed a stealth startup Jay Vijayan, who spent four years as the Chief Information Officer of Tesla Motors, and who served as its VP of IT and business applications for a year.. 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 49 Medic Mobile locks $1 million grant to help community health workers in the developing world Tech nonprofit Medic Mobile has attained $1 million in unrestricted grant funding from the Peery Foundation for apps that help health workers deliver care to.. 2016-04-04 20:16 3KB feedproxy.google.com 50 The SEC is voicing concern about “eye-popping” startup valuations Management and boards at late stage, or pre-IPO, companies are on notice that the SEC is paying attention to the late stage financing arena, and should look.. 2016-04-04 20:16 4KB feedproxy.google.com

51 DJI, 3DR, Parrot and GoPro form new drone advocacy group DJI, 3DR, Parrot and GoPro are launching their own drone advocacy group to lobby for "policies that promote innovation and safety, and create a practical and.. 2016-04-04 20:16 2KB feedproxy.google.com 52 Saleforce Acquires MetaMind MetaMind, a Palo Alto-based AI startup founded in July 2014, is being acquired for undisclosed terms by Salesforce. According to new post published at the.. 2016-04-04 20:16 1KB feedproxy.google.com 53 Top sports websites unleash foul play in the enterprise The reality is that merely checking a March Madness bracket puts not only the employee at risk, but also the entire enterprise. 2016-04-04 20:16 4KB feedproxy.google.com 54 Microsoft announces cloud services, developer tools and productivity extensions for every developer SAN FRANCISCO — March 31, 2016 — Thursday at Build 2016, Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Cloud and Enterprise Group... 2016-04-04 19:19 6KB news.microsoft.com 55 TypeScript 2.0 Preview Anders Hejlsberg returned to Microsoft's Build conference in 2016 to talk about the current state of TypeScript and preview some amazing features coming in the next few months. 2016-04-04 19:41 3KB www.infoq.com 56 Real environmental data in real time for simulations In computer aided vehicle engineering, you need accurate data on various environmental influences. This is the only way developers can conduct tests that simulate the experience of a real car. A quick and inexpensive new system collects real data at normal driving speeds and processes this data... 2016-04-04 19:29 4KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 57 Think twice about android root: Engineers quantify amount of Android root exploits available in commercial software and show that they can be easily abused In recent years the practice of Android rooting, that is the process of allowing an Android phone or tablet to bypass restrictions set by carriers, operating systems or hardware manufacturers, has become increasingly popular. Many rooting methods essentially operate by launching an exploit (or malicious... 2016-04-04 19:29 4KB feeds.sciencedaily.com 58 Microsoft's Mehdi: Data security is always under attack Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Windows and Devices Group, Yusuf Mehdi, discusses the state of security and privacy in tech as well as the possibility that the company may acquire Yahoo, on the sidelines of Microsoft's Build 2016 conference. 2016-04-04 19:07 854Bytes video.cnbc.com 59 MSI WT72 VR-focused and NVIDIA-powered laptop is Oculus Rift and HTC Vive compatible Virtual reality is definitely a legit thing now. For a while, it felt a bit like a gimmick the tech industry was trying to jam down consumers' throats. While not a new concept, it is finally affordable and offers what should be a satisfying experience... 2016-04-04 18:02 2KB feeds.betanews.com 60 The threat of ransomware is so great, the US and Canada issue joint security alert Malware is far from being a new problem, but the inexorable rise of ransomware has taken many by surprise. There have been a number of very high profile instances of ransomware such as PETYA, and the threat is perceived as being so high that the US and... 2016-04-04 17:30 1KB feeds.betanews.com

61 Windows 10 proves most popular with PC gamers – at least on Steam Microsoft's latest manages a 4% lead on Windows 7 2016-04-04 17:10 2KB www.techradar.com 62 Which is the most complex programming language? JavaScript may be today’s go-to for front-end programming, but in many ways it’s a language that mimics what has come before. Just like COBOL, C, C++, C#, Java and Python, JavaScript is a procedural language. There’s nothing... 2016-04-04 16:46 2KB feeds.betanews.com 63 Black Duck Names Open-Source Rookies of the Year The 2015 Open-Source Rookies class reflects three technologies shaping open-source software's future: Docker containers, open collaboration and AI. 2016-04-04 19:16 1KB www.eweek.com 64 FileHippo News - powered by FeedBurner That’s right, adblocking may be coming to Redmond’s flagship browser in the next scheduled release for its Internet Explorer replacement. If it happens... 2016-04-04 16:13 22KB feeds2.feedburner.com 65 Microsoft and R3 blockchain partnership aims to reduce fraud and costs Microsoft has joined forces with a collective of more than 40 financial institutions to help push the development of blockchain technology. Working with the R3 consortium, Microsoft wants to develop and test new technologies to replace and streamline old systems used in banking and enterprise industries. Microsoft... 2016-04-04 15:58 1KB feeds.betanews.com 66 93% of UK mobile users have their location tracked every day Awareness of the privacy issues involved in using various devices and software has grown dramatically in recent years -- there can be few readers who do not know about the telemetry and privacy concerns surround Windows 10, for instance. But a new campaign by privacy-focused... 2016-04-04 15:39 3KB feeds.betanews.com 67 The monitoring problems of IT pros Recently an IT friend of mine told me that for the past five years he has been longing for a tool which could alert him when non-routable interfaces went down. To be perfectly honestly my heart went out to the guy -- that’s such a basic... 2016-04-04 15:35 7KB feeds.betanews.com 68 Microsoft Envision Puts Spotlight On Digital Transformation Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other execs delivered keynotes to start the company's first-ever Envision conference, which focuses on digital and business transformation for tech leaders. 2016-04-04 15:06 4KB www.informationweek.com 69 New capabilities help drive application release automation Digital transformation strategies are often held back by complex IT systems that have been built over the years and represent significant investment. This may lead to departments seeking their own solutions, placing yet more pressure on back office systems. Digital transformation strategies are often held back by... 2016-04-04 15:00 2KB feeds.betanews.com 70 Android 6 Marshmallow update: when can I get it? The Android 6.0 update is out now 2016-04-04 14:48 4KB www.techradar.com 71 ZenHub Epics gives developers more transparency ZenHub’s new announcement is a rework of task management in GitHub, with the goal to provide communication and transparency for developers. 2016-04-04 13:39 2KB sdtimes.com

72 Office isn't just about documents – it'll help order your morning coffee And all manner of other clever tricks… 2016-04-04 13:30 3KB www.techradar.com 73 Biometric Authentication: Making mobile devices and apps safer According to comScore, from September 2010 to September 2014, smartphone usage increased by 394 percent, while tablet usage rose by an astronomical 1,721 percent in the United States. So it’s certainly no surprise that mobile payments are predicted to skyrocket over the next five years... 2016-04-04 13:29 6KB feeds.betanews.com 74 Work-life balance gains importance as tech worker salary expectations fall What are the trends driving the careers of tech professionals? A new report based on information gathered from the Woo platform, which allows workers to find jobs with companies that offer the things they really want, reveals what has changed in the first quarter of 2016. What are... 2016-04-04 13:24 1KB feeds.betanews.com 75 Get the lowdown on your PCs storage devices with Diskovery Bvckup 2 developer Pipemetrics has released the first beta of Diskovery, a free system information tool which reveals all about your PC’s storage devices. Bvckup 2 developer Pipemetrics has released the first beta of Diskovery, a free system information tool which reveals all about your PC’s storage... 2016-04-04 13:23 1KB feeds.betanews.com 76 Save 63% off a two-year Private Internet Access VPN subscription Today on offer via Neowin Deals you can save a chunk off a two year Private Internet Access VPN subscription. Trust in an industry-leading VPN: Surf the web anonymously and without restriction. 2016-04-04 13:04 2KB feedproxy.google.com 77 How to stay safe using public Wi-Fi hotspots One of the most convenient things about connecting to the Internet through your computer, tablet, or smartphone is being able to tap into public Wi-Fi from pretty much anywhere. These days, there are hotspots available all across the country, so you’re practically never without... 2016-04-04 12:17 7KB feeds.betanews.com 78 The new Visual Studio Installer, DuckDuckGo programming Instant Answers, and A-Frame v0.2.0— news digest: April 4, 2016 Microsoft announces new minimal code editor installer, DuckDuckGo helps programmers, A-Frame version 0.2.0 announced 2016-04-04 12:16 2KB sdtimes.com 79 Updated 4K drone footage shows the progress of Tesla's $5 billion Gigafactory Just three days after it was announced last week, the number of reservations for the Tesla Model 3 reached almost 300,000. This demand is expected to remain high, meaning the company is going to have a produce a lot of… 2016-04-04 11:30 2KB www.techspot.com 80 After putting the iPhone SE through hell, torture test concludes it has some growing up to do Apple’s new iPhone SE recently spent some time with the warranty experts over at SquareTrade for some torture testing. The results? The handset has some growing up to do. 2016-04-04 10:30 1KB www.techspot.com 81 IBM Layoffs Hit Canada, Europe, Australia; US Likely Next IBM layoffs are hitting employees in Canada, Europe, and Australia. Another round of US layoffs is reportedly imminent. 2016-04-04 10:05 4KB www.informationweek.com

82 HTTP compression continues to put encrypted communications at risk Researchers improve the BREACH attack to extract sensitive data from encrypted HTTPS connections faster 2016-04-04 09:12 7KB www.infoworld.com 83 Big Data And RDBMS: Can They Coexist? Can relational database management systems peacefully co-exist alongside the expanding demands of Big Data? Here's what the experts have to say. 2016-04-04 09:06 6KB www.informationweek.com Articles

83 articles, 2016-04-05 00:01

1 Social media technology, rather than anonymity, is the problem (2.00/3) That's the startling conclusion of a new book by Dr Vincent Miller, a sociologist at the University of Kent and an expert on the information society and developing media. In contending that the cause of issues such as online anti-social behaviour is the design/software of social media itself, Dr Miller suggests that social media architecture needs to be managed and planned in the same way as physical architecture. In the book, entitled The Crisis of Presence in Contemporary Culture: Ethics, Privacy and Speech in Mediated Social Life, Dr Miller examines the relationship between the freedom provided by the contemporary online world and the control, surveillance and censorship that operate in this environment. The book questions the origins and sincerity of moral panics about use -- and abuse -- in the contemporary online environment and offers an analysis of ethics, privacy and free speech in this setting. Investigating the ethical challenges that confront our increasingly digital culture, Dr Miller suggests a number of revisions to our ethical, legal and technological regimes to meet these challenges. These including changing what he describes as 'dehumanizing' social media software, expanding the notion of our 'selves' or 'bodies' to include our digital traces, and the re- introduction of 'time' into social media through the creation of 'expiry dates' on social media communications. Dr Miller is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Cultural Studies within the University's School of Social Research, Sociology and Social Policy. The Crisis of Presence in Contemporary Culture: Ethics, Privacy and Speech in Mediated Social Life, is published by Sage. More information can be found at: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-crisis-of-presence-in- contemporary-culture/book244328 2016-04-04 20:31 feeds.sciencedaily

2 Entrepreneurs must learn to negotiate, or they can lose everything (2.00/3) Successfully taking an idea to market involves many more negotiations than most entrepreneurs realize. First, they must figure out whether to share credit with any partners or advisors who helped them along the way. Then, they need to determine who owns what, and who controls what, as they make their way through multiple rounds of investment. Once employees are involved, they must figure out who will have what responsibilities, how production targets can best be met, what the marketing strategy will be and whether employees are entitled to equity shares (and which kind) in the company. There may be leases for office space and relationships with suppliers to work out. Then, at some point, many entrepreneurs will need to reach an agreement with their board of directors or their investors about whether or not to sell or merge the company. Every one of these decisions involves negotiations; if they are not handled properly, even the best ideas are doomed. The four most common mistakes that entrepreneurs make are: While it is true that most inventors know more about their inventions than anyone else, many inventors are much more likely to fall prey to a series of cognitive biases, like reactive devaluation (i.e. unfairly attributing negative motives to a negotiating partner), than someone who is not as emotionally involved. This means that knowing when and how to rely on agents or intermediaries is very important. It is hard to explain something to someone who doesn’t have the same technical background as you. Many entrepreneurial efforts stand or fall on the willingness of investors to believe that a prototype or an underlying concept will work as expected. They may ask experts of their choosing to assess a concept or a prototype. When experts disagree, it can be hard to sort things out. By engaging in joint fact-finding or pilot tests together, inventors and investors can reach grounded understandings that might otherwise elude them. Inventors are often willing to shoulder more risk than investors. At the very least, investors may want a guarantee of greater reward for taking on what they see as substantial risk. This tension over risk and reward often manifests itself in a contest over control of seats on the board of directors or hiring/firing power. Sometimes it comes down to valuation of a company or allocation of equity shares as a hedge against risk. One way out of these battles is to formulate contingent agreements. If two parties disagree on the risks they face moving forward, they can formulate a set of interlocking agreements with elements that are only triggered as milestones are met. Contingent agreements are more complex, and legal advisors may shy away from them, but they often are the best way of coping with complexity in entrepreneurial negotiations. Many inventors are too focused on financial considerations. They just want a deal. To get a deal they often say things that turn out not to be true. When it becomes clear they can’t live up to what they promised, trust is lost. The success of many entrepreneurial efforts hinges on cooperation over time, so a breakdown in trust can be devastating. Knowing when and how to share information, and what to keep secret, is the key to negotiating in a way that leaves relationships intact, or even improves them. There are many stories of entrepreneurs who have negotiated what appeared to be lucrative deals with venture capitalists, only to end up with nothing. It is important for entrepreneurs to be ready to negotiate, and to know how to learn from their own negotiation experience. 2016-04-04 20:16 Lawrence Susskind

3 Microsoft announces quarterly dividend (2.00/3) REDMOND, Wash. — March 15, 2016 — Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.36 per share. The dividend is payable June 9, 2016, to shareholders of record on May 19, 2016. The ex-dividend date will be May 17, 2016. Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. 2016-04-04 19:19 By Microsoft

4 Android can't make BlackBerry phones attractive again (2.00/3) Realizing that it stands no chance of attracting consumers with BlackBerry 10 OS devices, BlackBerry last year released a smartphone that runs Android. Called Priv, it offers an interesting mix of business and consumer-oriented features that make it a powerful contender in the high-end segment. Many folks seem to like it, but just how much of a success is it? Priv has what it takes to be a big seller. It has all the right features that consumers say they want in a BlackBerry smartphone: premium build, physical keyboard, large screen, enterprise-friendly apps and, last but not least, Android. You would think that by giving people what they've asked for the company would be struggling to keep up with demand. And yet, in its last fiscal quarter, BlackBerry only sold a very small number of Priv units. In total, in its Q4 FY2016, which ended February 29, Blackberry sold just 600,000 phones , a number which obviously includes Priv sales. That is not a whole lot of units for a premium vendor, let alone one that also sells more affordable handsets. BlackBerry is not saying exactly how many Priv devices it sold last quarter, but that number is clearly lower than 600,000. Quite possibly, it may be its biggest seller in the lineup, but that would not be saying much anyway. BlackBerry was expected to sell 850,000 units last quarter, but it missed expectations by 150,000 units. It would seem that by embracing Android, BlackBerry hasn't managed to turn things around. CEO John Chen wants the company to sell at least three million units this coming year to break even. The way things are going, it may fail to meet that goal, although Chen does say that the "path to profitability looks reasonable". With a single Android smartphone, BlackBerry cannot realistically expect to impress many consumers. The company is quite possibly looking to expand its Android lineup, and the best way to do that would be to introduce Android on less expensive devices. That said, it might just be best to quit the hardware market altogether. Looking at BlackBerry's traditional market, businesses have come to realize that it is possible to use Android smartphones and iPhones in enterprise environments. And, at least when it comes to Android, there are lots and lots of options to choose from, many of which can be better suited for employees than Priv or possibly other BlackBerry-made Android devices. Perhaps BlackBerry should follow in Microsoft's footsteps and reposition itself as a developer in today's mobile market. It would have much more to gain by doing so than selling phones which, as many vendors have come to realize, is a very tough game to win at. Apple and Samsung are the only makers with lots of sales and huge profits, after all. Not to mention that there is very little room to grow, with smartphone sales expected to increase by less than 10 percent this year. So, why bother? Photo Credit: Minerva Studio / Shutterstock 2016-04-04 17:22 By Mihăiță

5 5 New Start Menu features on the way in Windows 10 Anniversary Update (2.00/3) Windows Insiders will soon be able to try out a new Start Menu when preview builds of Windows 10 Anniversary Update begin to roll out. We already know some of what to expect from this big update to Windows 10 -- such as badge notifications in the taskbar for UWP apps -- and now we can see what the updated Start menu looks like too. The same Microsoft software engineer who shared details of badge notifications -- Jen Gentleman -- has posted an animated GIF to Twitter that shows the Start Menu in action. There are a few notable changes in the updated version, including a nested hamburger menu. As the new Start Menu is only currently being tested internally at Microsoft and is yet to roll out even to Windows Insiders on the Fast ring, it's entirely possible that things will change over the coming weeks. That said, the animation does give an intriguing insight into the ideas that Microsoft is playing with. Ms Gentleman's tweet may only be a few seconds long, but it has generated a good deal of interest: The hamburger menu is used to house the icons that currently appear in both the All Apps and 'Most used' sections. The redesign also helps to provide easy access to system folders such as Music and Documents. There are also changes on the cards for the Start screen as the Feedback Hub reveals: Microsoft is looking for feedback about this change just as it has done with other new features of Windows 10, and you can provide your thoughts via the Feedback Hub and find out more on Sway. 2016-04-04 12:34 By Mark

6 Microsoft continues to bleed browser share at record rates Microsoft's browsers last month continued to swirl toward the drain of second place, new data published last week showed. The several editions of Internet Explorer (IE) and Edge lost a combined 1.4 percentage points of desktop and notebook user share in March, the fourth consecutive monthly decline of more than a point and the 15th straight month of declines of any size. IE and Edge -- analytics company Net Applications dumps the latter's user share into the bucket labeled "IE" -- accounted for 43.4% of all browsers used to reach the Web last month. A year ago, that number was 56.5%. Unless the slide suddenly slows -- and there was only a hint that it would -- Microsoft's browsers will drop into second place in May. There is an outside chance that Microsoft will lose its No. 1 spot in Net Applications' browser rankings this month. It's possible that IE will stem the bleeding: March's losses were the smallest in four months. But the synchronized climb in Google Chrome's user share -- Net Applications' estimate of the percentage of users worldwide who used the browser to go online -- signaled that the decline of IE will not be halted anytime soon. Chrome boosted its user share by 2.5 percentage points last month, absorbing all the losses of both IE and Mozilla's Firefox, and is poised to replace Microsoft's browsers as the world's most- used. Chrome ended March with a user share of 39.1%, 14.1 points higher than 12 months earlier. Firefox also lost ground in March, dropping 1.1 percentage points to 10.5%, its largest one- month decline since December 2014. Firefox is staring at at single-digit user share as early as May. Apple's Safari and Opera Software's Opera were flat last month at 4.9% and 1.7%, respectively. Computerworld has attributed IE's defections to Microsoft's August 2014 announcement that users of older versions had to upgrade , in most cases, to IE11, by Jan. 12, 2016. Since the announcement, IE has lost 15.1 percentage points of user share, representing a 26% decline. About one-third of all IE users ran an unsupported version last month, and so did not receive the usual security updates Microsoft released March 8. By forcing customers to upgrade to a newer version of IE -- or alternately, turn to Windows 10 and its default Edge -- Microsoft demanded that users change browsers. That had a disastrous impact on IE's user share as people rethought their browser choice, and then abandoned Microsoft's browsers for rivals' -- notably Chrome. Firefox's problems have been different: Mozilla's flagship has been in slow decline for more than five years. The browser that once shook up the market -- it was the first to take on IE, and triggered a resumption of browser development by Microsoft -- has gradually slipped toward irrelevance. Apple's Safari, although with less than half the user share of Firefox, seems relatively secure because of its ties to OS X, the operating system that powers Macs. About two-thirds of those running OS X used Safari to reach the web in March, consistent with a long-established trend. IE and Edge, meanwhile, were the preferred browsers of just 48% of Windows users, a record low and the second straight month of sub-50% penetration in that critical arena. The fact that even fewer Windows 10 customers ran Edge -- 30.4% -- boded ill for Microsoft's attempt to hold the overall No. 1 browser spot as more people upgraded to the new OS. Not surprisingly, Microsoft's share of mobile browsers was substantially less than on personal computers. On mobile, Microsoft's March share was just 2.5%, a minuscule fraction compared to Google's 55.7% and Apple's 32.7%. Tags Microsoft More about Apple Google Macs Microsoft Mozilla Opera Software 2016-04-05 00:01 www.computerworld

7 Tickets to the 2016 The International Dota 2 Championships go on sale this week Valve recently revealed that tickets for this year’s The International Dota 2 Championships will go on sale later this week. Here’s everything you need to know about the year’s largest eSports event. The annual competition will once again take place at Seattle’s KeyArena, running from August 8 through August 13. This year, potential attendees can choose between two different ticket options (or one of each if you don't want to miss any of the action). A $75 mid-week ticket will grant admission to the first four days of the event which includes the opening ceremony and the All-Star match. A ticket to the finals, which will set buyers back $100, grants access to the last two days of the event. Valve notes that both ticket options can be purchased in a single order. Those in attendance will have the opportunity to score some unique in-game items. At First Blood in each individual game, 500 “Attendee Treasures” will drop, each containing visually- unique versions of this year’s Secret Shop Immortals. To be eligible for the drop, you’ll need to have a badge linked to a Steam account and be inside the arena when First Blood occurs. Fans that only spring for the mid-week ticket can watch the final two days of the event in an outdoor viewing area free of charge. Last year’s event generated a prize pool of more than $18 million , breaking the previous year’s record as the largest competitive gaming prize pool for a single tournament. Team Evil Geniuses from the US finished in first place, taking home over $6.6 million in prize money. Tickets go on sale April 7 at 10:00 am. 2016-04-05 00:01 Shawn Knight

8 New methods for more energy-efficient internet services Korean pop-video, Gangnam Style, available on YouTube has had 2.5 billion viewers, which results in a power consumption of more than 400 GWh. If, in worst case, the electricity to serve such a demand is generated by diesel, it would mean that more than 250,000 tons of CO2 would be produced, which is equivalent to over 100,000 cars per year. These examples are not uncommon. Millions of people are using different services such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, every day. This increase in internet usage and the information generated by nearly one billion people entails large data centres with row after row of servers, requiring huge amount of space, electricity and cooling. The dissertation introduces methods and techniques to efficiently use the servers in the data centres, so that load can be served with fewer resources. What technology can be used? "It could be optimised scheduling systems packing several software components into a few servers in a way that makes full use of processors, memory, bandwidth, network capacity and other resources. In this way, energy efficiency can be improved reducing the negative environmental impact, and at the same time reducing operational costs," says Mina Sedaghat. The research leading to Sedaghat's dissertation has been conducted in collaboration with multiple people at Google Inc., Departments of Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at Umeå University, and the Department of Communication Network at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden. 2016-04-04 23:16 feeds.sciencedaily

9 At Build, Microsoft tried a different way to mobile developers' hearts At its Build developer conference this week, Microsoft showed how it plans to stay relevant in the mobile computing market without a popular mobile OS. Microsoft's plan isn't so much to rely on developers building applications for Windows 10 Mobile, but rather to create tools to help them build apps on any OS and hope this trickles down to help Microsoft as a whole. One key move in this regard is releasing Xamarin's tools to developers for free. Xamarin , which Microsoft acquired a few weeks ago, lets developers create apps for iOS and Android using C#, a programming language that Microsoft originated. Analyst Patrick Moorhead said in an interview that he thought Microsoft's Xamarin announcement would be huge news for enterprises, which would benefit immensely from the ability to write in one language and deploy across three different platforms. What's not clear is whether Xamarin's tools will take off among consumer app developers, many of whom are already building native apps for iOS and Android written in the home languages of those platforms. It's a departure from Microsoft's past mobile strategy, which was anchored in getting developers to build applications for smartphones running Windows. Instead, Microsoft is trying to position itself as a company that provides tools across platforms, Moorhead said. IDC analyst Al Hilwa sees Microsoft trying to make its tools for developers work the way Office does for knowledge workers. "That is, they want to be the number one tool chain for cross-platform development, mobile, cloud, everything," he said via email. "This is a tall order, but they are in fact executing on it and building a multi-platform ecosystem. Given their history with developers, you have to give them good odds on this. " The new Bot Framework , which helps developers make Web services that can converse with humans and take action on their behalf, works across mobile platforms and integrates with popular chat apps like Telegram, GroupMe, Skype and Slack -- only one of which comes from Microsoft. That may seem like an odd move, but Microsoft's plan is to build tools for developers that will encourage them to consume its cloud services. The Bot Toolkit, part of the framework that includes tools for building bots, includes easy connections to Azure services, including the Language Understanding Intelligent Service, or LUIS, which is designed to help programs understand typed queries. It's part of Microsoft's strategy with Azure overall, which allows developers to build cloud back- end systems for their applications even if those apps don't run on Windows. Meanwhile, Microsoft is also working to make its developer platform more interesting overall by letting developers build universal Windows apps that run on the HoloLens, Surface Hub and Xbox One as well as more traditional hardware. That may turn out to have a trickle-down effect that leads developers to bring their apps to Windows 10 PCs and tablets, and even to beleaguered Windows 10 Mobile devices. Tags Microsoft More about Microsoft Skype Toolkit Xbox 2016-04-04 23:00 www.computerworld

10 Computer programming: Are two heads really better than one? It seems like a simple premise -- two people on one project can do the job faster and easier and generate a better product. So why, in computer programming, is there still a significant resistance to sharing the work or at least having someone on the project who can check the work being done to ensure it is of the highest quality? That was the idea behind the research in a paper recently published by a Texas Tech University professor in the Rawls College of Business. Miguel Aguirre-Urreta, an assistant professor in the Area of Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences (ISQS), along with colleagues from Washburn University in Kansas and Florida International University, researched the area of pair programming and why some programmers like it, some don't, what makes a good programming pair and at what point programmers come on board with the idea. The findings of their paper, "Effectiveness of Pair Programming Perceptions of Software Professionals," has been accepted for publication in an upcoming edition of IEEE Software magazine . "The thought has been that pair programming has a lot of purported advantages in terms of speed, quality and whatnot," Aguirre-Urreta said. "But we haven't seen as much of an uptake as you would expect from something that has those advantages. We wanted to see if we could understand the reasons who or which kind of project pair programming is a good idea and for which project it is wasted on, what are the perceptions people who have done this for a living have on pair programming and when it should be used. " When it comes to programming, or writing code for programs, Aguirre-Urreta's research seems to show two heads could indeed be better than one. But the success of having two programmers, called pair programming, also depends on the complexity of the project and the composition of the programming pair involved. In instances where pair programming is used, Aguirre-Urreta's research shows programmers have a more favorable view of the technique than those who have not participated in pair programming. It also shows once a programmer is involved with pair programming, his view toward the technique is more favorable than before. "Part of the culture and the kind of work environment is it tends to be more competitive in terms of producing quality code," Aguirre-Urreta said. "Working by yourself is part of the culture. The thing we did talk about in the research and found interesting is people who haven't tried pair programming have a very negative view of it and people who have tried it and done it for a few years have a much better perception of its benefits. " Factors of success Aguirre-Urreta said several factors are involved in determining whether or not pair programming is right for a project and what constitutes a good pairing of programmers. Complexity of the project seems to be the first determining factor, Aguirre-Urreta said. If it is a simple project that doesn't require much time to complete, then a single programmer is likely the best solution. However, if it is a longer term project requiring a great deal or different types of code, pair programming seems to work well. "The main advantage to pair programming would be having two people work together on the problem where you get more of a discussion between two people," Aguirre-Urreta said. "You get a better exchange of ideas. It's not a scenario where one person has a certain way of doing things or a certain approach to the problem that they can't break away from because they have someone else working with them. " In a typical pair programming situation, Aguirre-Urreta said the pair works by having one person write the code and the second person checks the quality of the code to see if it could be done better. Eventually, the roles will switch so neither programmer gets burned out doing the same thing for the length of the project. "Presumably, the quality of the product is going to be much better," Aguirre-Urreta said. "The person doing it by himself is going to find the mistakes at some point but usually it's after someone complains to them that it's not going to work. With pair programming, you should have a better quality product, fewer bugs, a better exchange of ideas and also a knowledge sharing and trading aspect. " Pair programming, however, isn't always the best solution. For one, if the project is a small one, it would be difficult to justify having two people, and thus two salaries, working for its solution unless two people can produce quality code at a much quicker rate. Also, pairing two people means one person may have to explain his coding or work methods to the other frequently, which results in a lengthier period to produce the code. Aguirre-Urreta said the question is whether that outweighs the factor of working alone and having no one checking the work being done, or if the lone programmer gets stuck on something and has no one there with whom to brainstorm or troubleshoot. Then there's the factor of the actual makeup of the programming pair. It all depends on the type of project, but Aguirre-Urreta said the research found that for projects in which pair programming is used as a training tool, having one programmer with a good amount of experience and another who is relatively new often produces the best results. Often pairing two senior programmers or two junior programmers doesn't produce the same results or quality code. "If the goal is to produce good, nice working software but also train junior programmers and help develop programmers, pairing them with a senior programmer seems to work well," Aguirre- Urreta said. "Again, it depends on the project. There are some combinations that seem to just work better than others. " Push for pair programming Despite the purported advantages to pair programming, Aguirre- Urreta said it has been difficult to get the idea to take hold fully with the programming community. With every new idea, technique or development, Aguirre-Urreta said there are those who are really willing to try it because they have been beaten down by the previous way of doing things. But once all the enthusiasts are immersed in the new technique, adoption of that new technique slows down, or plateaus. Much the same can be said for pair programming. Those programmers who have embraced the idea and used it have a much more favorable view of pair programming than those who have resisted its use. It could be a matter of viewing pair programming as positive, but the way they achieve success now has worked well and there's no need to change it. Eventually, however, Aguirre-Urreta's research discovered once programmers give pair programming a try and use it over a period of time, they eventually come around to its advantages. "We don't know if it's six months of doing it or a whole year, or it could be three weeks," Aguirre- Urreta said. "We don't know where that click happens and the perception shifts, but we can tell and compare with people who have a fair amount of experience with pair programming to people who haven't done it, there are some marked differences in everything, from benefits to downsizing, cost, all those perceptions. " Once that happens, Aguirre-Urreta said, the change in perception comes quickly. "We think it's actually the act of just doing it, being there and experiencing working with the other person," Aguirre-Urreta said. "They see that, indeed, their fears that it will take forever to get done are not really realized. They see the quality of the code is indeed better and there is a huge time-saver. Fixing code is very expensive compared to producing quality code from the get-go. " Aguirre-Urreta is hopeful this paper and its appearance in the IEEE Magazine will encourage programmers who have been reluctant to use pair programming to give it a second chance, seeing how popular it is with those who were reluctant to it at one time. He also would like to further the research by investigating which pairs work best together. He said he and his colleagues have good models in place but haven't always had the best data until now, so he would like to plug that data into the models to see which pairings produce the best increase in productivity. "The work we're doing now is using those same simulation models, but with the data we have now we feel is more realistic, we'll see what we get out of it," Aguirre-Urreta said. "We have data from different groups and we know how much they agree or disagree, so we can plug that into the models and get results that have some validity based on the data from professionals. "This research should help motivate someone to say, 'if all the people who are like me and do the same work I do think it's a good idea, maybe I should try it and I don't know what I'm missing.'" 2016-04-04 22:09 feeds.sciencedaily

11 3-D map of the brain: Researchers develop software to better understand brain's network of neurons But computer scientists and a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Utah have developed software that maps out a monkey's brain and more easily creates a 3-D model, providing a more complete picture of how the brain is wired. Their process was announced this week at Neuroscience 2015, the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago. "If you understand how things are wired in the normal brain, you can use this as a basis to understand how these connections are disrupted in the abnormal brain," said Alessandra Angelucci, professor of ophthalmology and visual science at the University of Utah. Getting a more accurate view of the brain's network of neurons can help medical researchers understand how the brain's connectivity is disrupted in mental and neurological conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety and autism. For Angelucci, who works at the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center, this also can aid research on such vision-related conditions as amblyopia, a disorder where one or both eyes lack visual acuity, and various forms of retinal degeneration. Angelucci has been using this software on a monkey's brain because it most closely resembles the human brain. In the past, researchers would have to scan thousands of thin layers of a primate's brain through a microscope in order to get a view of its neurons, the brain's cells that transmit nerve impulses. There was no practical way to make a 3-D model of the brain from these layers. For example, a high-resolution scan of a part of the brain the size of a penny would generate about two million images all totaling 30 terabytes (30,000 gigabytes) in files. "It takes a lot of computer power because we now have to reconstruct a three-dimensional image out of this -- thousands and thousands of images of tissue," Angelucci said. "It was simply impossible because there is no computer or software that can handle that. It involves terabytes and terabytes of data. " A team led by Valerio Pascucci, a professor in the University of Utah's School of Computing and director of the university's Center for Extreme Data Management Analysis and Visualization (CEDMAV) at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute (SCI), has developed software that can create a 3-D model of an animal's brain that is much quicker and requires less computer power and system memory. The team took an existing software platform CEDMAV created called VISUS (Visualization Streams for Ultimate Scalability) and adapted it to assemble high-resolution images of different sections of the brain into one 3-D model that can be viewed at different angles. VISUS is used to visualize huge sets of data to create weather or energy simulations or high-resolution images of cities. To create images of a brain, researchers first use a new method known as CLARITY that makes the brain tissue transparent by immersing it in special hydrogels. With the new software, hundreds of 3-D blocks of the brain are then scanned one at a time with a two-photon microscope, and scientists can view the scans immediately as opposed to waiting for them to download. With the help of a researcher, the software then can more easily and quickly assemble the blocks into one complete picture of a region of the brain and create a 3-D model that allows the scientist to view areas and angles that couldn't be seen as easily with 2-D images. In this way, researchers can map out the individual neurons and their long tails, known as axons. "It really unleashes a different level of understanding of the data itself -- being able to look at something fully in 3-D and to rotate and look at in front and in back," Pascucci said. "We have seen over and over in many fields that this makes people understand more quickly and much better the spatial relationship among all the parts. " With the software, researchers also can monitor the scanning of the brain -- which can take weeks -- and make sure that no bad images are created in the process, saving precious time. Thanks to this new tool, medical researchers can now study and better understand how the brain's connectivity is disrupted in abnormal conditions, for example what happens to the brain's neural network resulting from retinal degeneration or conditions such as autism. "We can view it, reconstruct it and understand its connectivity," Angelucci said. "This software speeds up our ability to do that. " 2016-04-04 22:09 feeds.sciencedaily

12 New software provides overview of big data of genome sequencing ChIP sequencing -- an insight into the workflow of human cells The EaSeq software has been developed for analysis of so called ChIP sequencing. DNA sequencing is used for mapping the sequence of the base pairs, which our DNA consists of, and ChIP sequencing is a derived method in which the sequences are used to determine the presence of different cell components in the genome at a given time. Roughly speaking, ChIP sequencing can be compared to a microscope, which enables us to observe the presence of different cell components in the entire genome at a given time. The method is still quite young and holds the potential to be applied within many more scientific fields, which can benefit from understanding how healthy and pathological cells control and uses genes, says Associate Professor Mads Lerdrup Better analytical tools means a broader range of applications While ChIP sequencing has made it possible to produce enormous amounts of data very fast, the analysis of these data has -- until now -- been a tedious process. Most of the analytical software being used requires knowledge of computer programming and researchers have therefore been dependent on specialists in order to decode and analyze their data. EaSeq offers a far more visual and intuitive alternative, which makes it possible for biomedical researchers to study and test hypotheses using their own data. This means that instead of waiting for weeks for others to carry out an analysis, researchers will be able to perform the analyses themselves in a matter of hours. Today, DNA sequencing is gaining ground within the clinical area where it is e.g. being used for diagnosis and targeting of treatment within the cancer area. The developers of EaSeq see similar perspectives for ChIP sequencing in the clinical work, and in that context strong analytical tools will be pivotal. "The DNA sequence itself tells us very little about how cells actual decodes the DNA, and to understand this we need to map out which cell components are present in different parts of the genome at a specific time. It is our hope that we by increasing feasibility can enable researchers to faster uncover such knowledge and apply it clinically," says Associate professor Mads Lerdrup. 2016-04-04 21:37 feeds.sciencedaily

13 Microsoft's Xbox Kinect breathes new life into respiratory assessment Normally found in the hands of gamers rather than medics, the Microsoft sensors could be used to assess the respiratory function of patients. Researchers at the Institute of Digital Healthcare, WMG, University of Warwick and the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham and Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) have developed a method of using the devices. The system consists of four Kinect sensors which are capable of quickly creating a 3D image of a patient's torso. This enables physicians to measure and assess how a chest wall moves. In tests it has proven to be as accurate as a patient breathing into a spirometer -- the current method used -- but providing additional information about the movement of the chest, which could help in identifying numerous respiratory problems. The project lead, Dr Chris Golby at the Institute of Digital Healthcare, said: "We have developed a low-cost prototype which provides a more comprehensive measurement of a patient's breathing then existing methods. " Their work is detailed in their paper "Chest Wall motion Analysis in Healthy Volunteers and Adults with Cystic Fibrosis using a Novel Kinect-based," which is published in Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing. Spirometry is the technique most commonly used treat to lung diseases including chronic bronchitis, emphysema and chronic obstructive airways. It requires a patient to take the deepest breath they can, and then exhale into the sensor as hard as possible, for as long as possible. However it has significant limitations as it doesn't allow doctors to assess how different areas of each lung function. It can result in inaccurate readings of some patients' breathing such as older people and children, and those with facial abnormalities or muscle weakness are often unable to form a tight seal around the mouthpiece. Dr Golby said: "For patients who report to A&E a quick and low-cost method of chest wall motion assessment is required. There are some conditions that doctors can't detect or assess using spirometry such as collapsed lung segments or respiratory muscle weakness. However our prototype allows physicians to make accurate assessments. "It is also potentially very useful in assessing changes in respiratory physiology that occur during exercise. This is in contrast with existing systems which rely on data from one viewpoint. " Babu Naidu, Chief Investigator, Thoracic Surgeon at HEFT and clinical scientist at the University Birmingham said: "'A 'game changer' in screening, diagnostics, monitoring therapy and providing bio feedback the Xbox can be used in any condition affecting breathing. " Respiratory diseases kill one in five people in the UK and cost the NHS more than £6billion a year. However the proposed system consists of software and four Kinect sensors each of which cost just £100. Professor Theo Arvanitis, Head of Research at Institute of Digital Healthcare, WMG, said: "With this and other technologies developed here we hope to innovate in e-healthcare and translate these advances into clinical practice. " The academics trialled their prototype initially using a resuscitation mannequin, then on healthy volunteers and adults with cystic fibrosis. As the Kinect has an infrared beam it allowed them to measure changes in distances across the chest wall. The system uses four sensors which allow measurement of movement from more than one viewpoint. Using off-the-shelf and bespoke software they were able to create a 3D image of a patient's chest wall. The University of Warwick team are now planning to develop their prototype further using Microsoft's new version of the Kinect, working with cystic fibrosis and other respiratory conditions. 2016-04-04 21:13 feeds.sciencedaily

14 Improved robotic testing systems Mossige defended his PhD thesis at the University of Stavanger on 26 August. The thesis focuses on the testing of robotic systems. Good mathematical models for the testing of robot installations are crucial because it is very expensive to correct errors that occur in the field. The objective of the doctorate was to develop methods that provide faster and better testing of robotic systems in the industry. Better software for testing will help robot manufacturers deliver better products to their customers. The PhD thesis demonstrates that the models could reduce development costs and improve the quality of the robotic system, while at the same time providing increased "uptime" for the robots. Design flaws revealed The research in Morten Mossige's PhD was two-fold. The aim of the first part was to develop automatic testing methods for robotic systems. Automatic testing can identify design flaws during the development and modification of control solutions for robots, which might otherwise take a very long time or even be impossible to detect through manual testing. Fully automatic The aim of the second part was to develop models for generating scheduling for a series of tests, which calculate the sequence in which tests should be performed and the computer on which the test should be carried out. It also takes into account the fact that some tests cannot be performed simultaneously, even if they are conducted on different machines. Both models are based on what is known as "Constraint Programming," they are designed to operate fully automatically on a test server (Continuous Integration), and they take into consideration the length of time that will be needed to identify a good solution. Mossige's supervisors were Jan Christian Kerlefsen, LBU Manager at ABB Robotics in Bryne; Dr Arnaud Godtlieb from Simula Research Laboratory and Professor Hein Meling from the University of Stavanger. While working on his PhD, Mossige spent three days a month at the Simula Research Laboratory at Fornebu, a world-leading research centre within the field of software testing. Morten Mossige's Industrial PhD is the first of its kind at ABB in Norway. The Industrial PhD programme is initiated and supported by the Research Council of Norway, with the aim of helping Norway to create more knowledge-based industry. 2016-04-04 20:57 feeds.sciencedaily

15 Security Think Tank: Ignoring software patching spells trouble Regularly servicing your infrastructure with software patches is an integral part of keeping systems safe, reliable, supportable and secure. Any company that ignores this is asking for trouble, just like ignoring those worn brake pads on your car. Sooner or later, something will go wrong in an unpatched environment. While security seems to get the most attention when it comes to patching , do not forget that patching will also keep systems running smoothly. Reliability and uptime are often ignored, plus older software versions quickly go out of support so you might find yourself with the latest and greatest software which is too many patch versions behind to get critical support when you need it. 2016-04-04 20:53 Tim Holman

16 Xamarin Now Free - Does This Change Everything Or Nothing? Xamarin has occupied a strange place in the. NET programmer's world - the fact that it existed was exciting, but not quite a fully part of it. Now that Microsoft has completed the purchase of the company, it is fully part of it and this is slightly bewildering. After so long in a sort of twilight land, Xamarin's software is now fully part of Visual Studio. It is in every edition, including the free Visual Studio Community Edition. What this means is that Xamarin is now free to use for individuals, open source projects, academic research and small teams. What is more important is that, whereas the previous free version had restrictions designed to make sure you bought a licence, there are nw no limits on the product - you can produce any type or size of app you want to and you can target iOS or Android using C# or F#. Xamarin is moving the already open source Mono to the. NET Foundation, under an MIT licence, and open sourcing previously proprietary mobile-specific improvements to the Mono runtime: ?? All this is welcome but not amazing. What is amazing is the promise to open source the rest of the mobile API in the future: "In addition to these important steps, we are announcing today our commitment to open source the Xamarin SDKs for Android, iOS, and Mac under the MIT license in the coming months. This includes native API bindings and the basic command-line tools necessary to develop mobile apps. It also includes our popular cross-platform native UI toolkit,Xamarin. Forms. " It seems that not only will the whole of the Xamarin be free to use to find out how good it is, the whole framework will be open source with a few exceptions related to the tooling. This places Xamarin's technology right into the mainstream. NET world. The technology is no longer an outsider's take on. NET, but an official Microsoft. NET technology. Now when you open up Visual Studio you can write C#, say, and produce Android, iOS or Windows apps. This seems great, but there are some interesting problems and conflicts. If you opt to produce iOS or Android apps then you can use Xamarin Forms for your UI, but Microsoft wants you to use Windows Universal Apps for Windows 10 apps including Windows phone. If you want to target Windows before Windows 10 then you need to use either WPF or Win32 Win Form apps. In addition we now have Mono and. NET core as two open source versions of. NET. Clearly there is going to have to be some house cleaning and unification of all this code. It is illogical, and slightly ironic, that you are able to use Xamarin Forms for Android and iOS but not for Windows Phone. If Xamarin Forms does come to WIndows Phone then it will also work on Windows 10 generally - making it a direct competitor to Windows Universal Apps. It is good that Xamarin's code is now part of the Microsoft. NET world, but it is a very confusing, messy and wasteful world at the moment. Microsoft And Xamarin Collaborate To Bring Native iOS and Android To Visual Studio Is Microsoft Going To Revitalise. NET With Xamarin Acquisition? To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Linkedin. 2016-04-04 20:42 Written by

17 The 'halving' sounds like a horror story and may well turn out to be one for Bitcoin For miners, electricity usage is the majority of the cost of producing bitcoins and this is why China, with its relatively low energy costs, has become the country of choice for this type of operation. The economics of Bitcoin mining only make sense if the price of Bitcoin is maintained. Around July 18th however, Bitcoin will go through a process whereby the reward allocated to Bitcoin miners is halved. This happens every 4 years and was added into the design of Bitcoin as a way of slowly reaching the limit of the total number of Bitcoins to 21 million. The design also assumes that as the production of new Bitcoins from the mining process slows down, the incentives for mining will be made up by adding transaction costs to the process. Of course, unless the price of Bitcoin goes up, more pressure will be put on Bitcoin miners to continue operating after their profits have been slashed. Although anything could happen, Bitcoin miners could potentially decide that mining an alternative cryptocurrency like Ethereum might be easier than continuing with Bitcoin. The uncertainty of what will happen after Bitcoin goes through this "halving" process has already had one significant casualty. Bitcoin Group, an Australian Bitcoin mining company was hoping to list on the Australian Stock Exchange this year but last month abandoned its plans for an IPO. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) didn't believe that Bitcoin Group could assure its capital adequacy after the Bitcoin halving process and so clearly ASIC at least didn't think that the price of Bitcoin was going to go up as a result. The truth of the matter is that nobody really knows what will happen. On the one hand, there will be fewer bitcoins being generated each day and some people have argued that this will create a shortage of supply that will drive prices up. This of course assumes that supply of bitcoins is constrained in any way which it is not clear that it is. On the other hand, Bitcoin miners will be making fewer bitcoins and may have to sell more bitcoins to pay their expenses which could drive the price of bitcoins down. Ultimately, if the process of mining bitcoins becomes too unprofitable, they will stop altogether and switch to another cryptocurrency and this would largely spell the end of Bitcoin. Unfortunately, predicting anything about Bitcoin is made more difficult because of a number of factors involved in how the mining process works and ultimately what is actually driving the Bitcoin market. Given that Bitcoin is largely an experiment in creating a novel form of currency, the uncertainty is unsurprising. The designers of Bitcoin possibly expected that the community would be able to respond to knowledge gained as the experiment ran, but that hasn't turned out to be the case. Instead, the Bitcoin community has been fractured with an ongoing argument of how to modify one aspect of the Blockchain, what size the blocks that make it up should be. Given that achieving any sort of compromise on this question proved so difficult, the interest in cryptocurrencies is rapidly shifting away from Bitcoin to the Blockchain and to other currencies like Ethereum. Ethereum is like the version 2 that Bitcoin should have had. It has a range of new features that make the Ethereum Blockchain capable of supporting so-called "smart contracts" but more importantly, it is moving away from the extremely wasteful mining process of Bitcoin to another system that promises to be much more efficient. Given that by 2020, Bitcoin is predicted to be globally using more electricity than the entire country of Denmark currently does, a more efficient system can not come too soon. The halving is another bump in the technological and social experiment that has been the evolution of Bitcoin. Whether it derails the project entirely will only become apparent in the months that follow. Explore further: Bitcoin faces biggest threat yet: a miner takeover 2016-04-04 19:31 phys.org

18 Bright idea for lowlight photography But University of Utah Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Rajesh Menon has developed a new camera color filter that lets in three times more light than conventional filters, resulting in much cleaner, more accurate pictures taken in lowlight. The new filter can be used for any kind of digital camera, but Menon is developing it specifically for smartphone cameras. Menon and doctoral student Peng Wang describe the invention in the journal, Optica. "Overall, camera phones are very good, but they are not very good in lowlight," says Menon. "If you go out on a hike in the evening and take a picture of the sky you will see that it's very grainy. Lowlight photography is not quite there and we are trying to fix that. This is the last frontier of mobile photography. " Traditional digital cameras, whether they are point-and-shoot cameras or the now-ubiquitous smartphone cameras, use an electronic sensor that collects the light to make the picture. Over that sensor is a filter designed to allow in the three primary colors: red, blue and green. But by doing so, natural light hits the filter, and the filter absorbs two thirds of the color spectrum in order to let through each of the three primary colors. "If you think about it, this is a very inefficient way to get color because you're absorbing two thirds of the light coming in," Menon says. "But this is how it's been done since the 1970s. So for the last 40 years, not much has changed in this technology. " Menon's solution is to use a color filter that lets all light pass through to the camera sensor. He does this with a combination of software and hardware. Menon has designed a new color filter that is about a micron thick (100 times thinner than a human hair). It is a wafer of glass that has precisely-designed microscopic ridges etched on one side that bends the light in certain ways as it passes through and creates a series of color patterns or codes. Software then reads the codes to determine what colors they are. Instead of just reading three colors, this new filter produces at least 25 new codes or colors that pass through the filter to reach the camera's sensor, producing photos that are much more accurate and with nearly no digital grain. "You get a lot more color information than a normal color camera. With a normal camera, you only see red, green or blue. We can do 25 or more," Menon says. "It's not only better under lowlight conditions but it's a more accurate representation of color. " Ultimately, the new filter also can be cheaper to implement in the manufacturing process because it is simpler to build as opposed to current filters, which require three steps to produce a filter that reads red, blue and green light, Menon says. This new technology not only will greatly improve consumer smartphone cameras, but it also can be used in industrial applications such as for robots, security cameras and drones. For example, it could be used for self-driving cars to help them better decipher objects on the road at night. Or it could be built into aerial drones for farming to better determine damaged crops. "In the future, you need to think about designing cameras not just for human beings but for software, algorithms and computers," Menon says. "Then the technology we are developing will make a huge impact. " Menon first came up with the idea while trying to create a new kind of spectrometer, a device that reads the wavelength or frequency of light. He realized that converting spectral information to color for a spectrometer could be applied to color imaging. His research was funded by the U. S. Office of Naval Research and NASA and will be used in space to photograph near-Earth objects such as asteroids. Menon has since created a company, Lumos Imaging, to commercialize the new filter for use in smartphones and is now negotiating with several large electronics and camera companies to bring this technology to market. He says the first commercial products that use this filter could be out in three years. 2016-04-04 20:31 feeds.sciencedaily

19 Economic dynamic between the two leading software delivery models "The key factor that drives competitive business strategies in this highly aggressive market is the provider's pricing scheme," says Abraham Seidmann, Xerox Professor of Computers and Information Systems and Operations Management from Simon Business School. SaaS is available online on-demand, which allows businesses to increase production with fewer people. This scalability reduces investment on technology infrastructure, as well as easily maintaining access to important information with little to no upfront spending. SaaS is used in a number of common business areas with organizations, such as Workday which offers cloud- based enterprise-level software solutions for human resources and financial management, QuickBooks offering cloud-based accounting solutions and DialogsCMS delivering enterprise content management. The typical in-house MOTS system provide some API's (application program interface) with access to the source code of the underlying software so it can be customized and better integrated to the business. Cerner Corporation is an example of a health care technology vendor that develops customized Electronic Medical Records (EMR) to create a "custom fit" between the software and the needs of the medical institution. This vendor recognizes the need for customization and enhanced functionality, while a leading competitor, such as EPIC seems to be far more limited in that respect. On the other hand, most SaaS systems provide limited customization options because they are operating in a multitenancy environment. Multiple customers share the same application, running on the same operating system, hardware, and data-storage mechanism. This is how SaaS attains economies of scale, but as a result, users might incur significant lack-of-fit and integration costs. According to Seidmann, "Paying more while not getting your exact business integration needs is called "lack-of-fit" cost. When lack-of-fit costs decrease -- when new industry standards are adopted, for example -- SaaS systems need to reduce prices to gain market share. However, when lack-of-fit costs are expected to increase, MOTS software will be more competitive because it's easier to modify the source code to meet specific functional needs. " In their paper, "Analyzing Software as a Service (SaaS) with Per-Transaction Charges," Seidmann and his co-author Dan Ma, Associate Professor Information Systems from Singapore Management University, built a game theory model to explore competitive pricing strategies of SaaS and MOTS platforms on a per-transaction basis to determine where and how each service modality gives end-users more value for their money. The co-authors identified three different qualities to measure the pricing strategies between competitors: how SaaS providers serve multiple clients; the impact of the software's lifespan; and the users' capacity-management problems. Based on their analysis, the researchers offer three top strategic recommendations: • SaaS providers should adopt a higher value, but a lower price strategy • SaaS users should see economies of scale with steadily reduced SaaS prices • MOTS providers instead should focus on enhancing product value with richer features and full-functionality and integration ease. This will boost its perceived value and hold its market power in certain segments. Now that the cloud computing software trend seems unstoppable in many markets, major players in the competitive on-demand software game need to adapt to the changing times and offer both SaaS and MOTS options. The trend is already evident for companies, such as SAP, Microsoft and Oracle who feel the pressure by newcomers to the cloud space and hence they also offer both versions -- hoping to convert a one-time sale into a perpetual income stream. 2016-04-04 20:31 feeds.sciencedaily

20 Engineer models heart valves, wind turbines for better designs, performance And then Ming-Chen Hsu, an Iowa State University assistant professor of mechanical engineering, searched his computer for another video and clicked play. This time the tip of a wind turbine blade appeared on his monitor, constantly moving, flexing and vibrating as the blade rotated around the rotor hub. Red indicated air moving at a relative speed of 52 meters per second over the top of the blade; blue and green marked the slower air around the blade. These are computer models featuring technologies called computational mechanics, fluid- structure interaction and isogeometric analysis. They show the flow fields and stresses that mechanical systems have to withstand. And they're part of a toolkit Hsu and his research group are developing to improve the design, engineering and operation of all kinds of machines. "If we are able to use computers to model and simulate these engineering designs, we can save a lot of time and money," Hsu said. "We don't have to build and test every prototype anymore. " Hsu said it would be impractical, for example, for the wind energy industry to build and test full- scale prototypes of each and every idea for improving the performance of wind turbines. Instead, the wind energy industry can opt for computational models. Hsu said they're based on complex mathematical equations. They're full of data. And studies show they're accurate. Using the models, "We can predict the real physics of the problems we are looking at," he said. And so those videos showing blood flowing through an artificial heart valve or the vibrations of a wind turbine blade are a lot more than colorful graphics. To engineers, they can be as good as full-scale prototypes for studying durability and performance. Hsu has a background in computational mechanics and started modeling wind turbines during his doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego. He started modeling heart valves as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Texas at Austin. He's been at Iowa State since the fall of 2013 and has built a research group that currently includes doctoral students Austin Herrema, Chenglong Wang, Michael Wu and Fei Xu plus undergraduate student Carolyn Darling. The group is now working on two wind turbine studies and an engine project: • They're modeling the performance of the "Hexcrete" concrete wind turbine towers being developed by Sri Sritharan, Iowa State's Wilson Engineering Professor in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. The goal is to use prefabricated concrete to build taller wind turbine towers that can access the steadier winds at 120 meters and higher. The project is primarily supported by the U. S. Department of Energy. • They're also developing software to help engineers design wind turbine blades. The software will bridge a wide gap between blade design tools and performance simulations. The project is supported by a National Science Foundation grant that established Iowa State's graduate program in wind energy science, engineering and policy. • And Hsu's research group is modeling the performance of the rotors inside gas turbines. The models will help engineers design the next generation of turbine engines. The project is supported by a grant from the U. S. Army Research Office. Hsu, who teaches courses in fluid mechanics, said the modeling can be applied to all sorts of questions about a machine. In wind turbines, for example, the models can provide answers about material stress and fatigue, rotor aerodynamics, blade design, the wake behind turbines and power efficiency. "Ten to 15 years ago, computational fluid-structure interaction was new to everyone," Hsu said. "But with the success of this field, more and more methods are being picked up by industry. Our computational methods are improving engineering designs. " 2016-04-04 20:30 feeds.sciencedaily

21 21 Pupils learn poorly when using most computer programs "In a pilot study, we examined the top 100 apps within math and Swedish, and barely half of them could be considered digital learning tools according to our standards, only 17% of which provided some sort of informative feedback. Some were so bad that we, as researchers, would never even consider to test them in class," says Björn Sjödén. One example is the computer program to teach parts of speech, where illiterate 5 year olds do better than those who can read. A 5 year old who quickly guesses multiple times performs better than someone who tries to read and spell correctly. "Probably more than 90% of the learning tools available online are simply test tools. They provide no explanatory information in addition to the correct answer. The pupils often compete against time, but not towards greater understanding," says cognitive scientist Björn Sjödén. Björn Sjödén has a background in the computer games industry and is part of the interdisciplinary research group ETG (Educational Technology Group) at the universities of Lund and Linköping in Sweden. In his doctoral thesis, Björn Sjödén defines 'digital learning tools' as "subject-specific, interactive computer programs that provide feedback to achieve a specific learning objective. " In the last 15 years, Sweden has invested heavily in iPads and laptops for pupils, and, compared to other European countries, we are far ahead in terms of IT technology in schools. But the latest report from the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) showed that the students who use the internet the most, both in and outside of school, also perform the worst on the PISA tests (standardized testing). "However, digital learning tools can provide great educational benefits, as long as they do not become books on a screen, but use their digital advantages. This involves providing good feedback, showing that there are different ways of thinking to reach a goal, and presenting consequences that that cannot be demonstrated in a book," says Björn Sjödén. For example, when calculating how long it will take you to get to the train station, a miscalculation of 13 minutes will result in the train leaving 13 minutes before you get there, or you having to wait x number of minutes. In chemistry, it is possible to show what happens if you combine different substances -- it may begin to bubble or explode. Björn Sjödén has had two groups of pupils play a math game for eight weeks. Both groups were to help a computer character -- a digital pupil -- throughout the game. Then one group was to take a digital math test where the same character was featured. The other group took the same math test without their digital friend. "The pupils that were helping their digital friend were more engaged. They wanted to solve more and harder math problems to help their digital character. Especially low-performing pupils became more motivated. This knowledge should be utilised in digital learning tools," says Björn Sjödén. The research group ETG collaborates with Stanford University and others, to develop and study three digital learning tools -- two in math and one in history. The software is non-commercially developed, and will be free. "However, researchers cannot be the only ones leading the way in the development of digital learning tools. If none of the large, well-established companies will, I hope that one of the new enterprises will succeed. The developer who makes the first real digital learning tool will have control of that entire market," says Björn Sjödén. 2016-04-04 20:29 feeds.sciencedaily

22 22 Nest demonstrates the risks of being an early adopter by shutting down Revolv Remember the Revolv home automation hub? Probably not. The device was released in late 2013, and while fantastic, it largely flew under the radar before Google’s Nest division bought the company for $300 million, and promptly stopped selling the device. But the device was still available from various retailers and worth the cash for home packed with Internet of Things devices. It works great — and soon it won’t. Google, through Nest, is shutting down the backend of the Revolv device on May 15, 2016. This change was sudden. Until the middle of February of this year, support for the Revolv hub seemed indefinite and then the company’s website was updated to indicated the impending closure. Though sudden, this shouldn’t be a large surprise. The device had not been sold for several years. The iOS app had not been updated since February 2015, per data provided by Sensor Tower, who also notes the app only ever received 96 ratings. When Nest bought Revolv in 2014, the company was clear that they were interested in the team behind the device and not the device itself. Nest co-founder Matt Rogers called the team one of the best for home wireless and home communication. At the time, Rogers indicated that Nest would continue to support Revolv customers. This shows the danger in buying device reliant on backend services. There’s always a chance that the company behind the device will stop paying the server bills and leave users with a paperweight. Things do not last forever. Buyer beware is an old adage that’s still relevant today. 2016-04-04 20:16 Matt Burns

23 Samir Arora is stepping down as CEO of Mode Media Samir Arora, the longtime CEO of Mode Media , is stepping down, replaced by interim CEO Jack Rotolo. Rotolo has spent more than a decade serving in a number of roles at the company, most recently president of global sales and business operations. “Mode Media is poised to redefine social content for brands thanks in large part to Samir Arora’s dedication and vision,” Rotolo said in a statement. “I am very excited about the opportunity to guide Mode Media forward as the leading social content and video platform for brands.” A few years ago, the company was also reported to have secretly filed for an initial public offering , but the IPO never materialized. While Arora is stepping down as CEO, he will continue to serve on Mode’s board of directors. 2016-04-04 20:16 Anthony Ha

24 Faraday Future: “Tesla Model 3 is fantastic news.” Nick Sampson, head of the startup electric vehicle company Faraday Future , spent a busy day as the title sponsor of the Faraday Future Long Beach ePrix April 2. I interviewed him standing up in the shade of a tree on a warm California afternoon before we both had to hurry off to the track where the cars would be lined up on the grid for the standing start of the Formula E race. While he quickly ate a small plate of sausage and potato salad, Sampson fielded a few questions about the Tesla Model 3. “It’s not our competition,” he said. “It’s fantastic news.” Sampson saw Tesla rack up the preorders for the Model 3 and concluded that those numbers validate the pent-up demand for electric vehicles. As of Friday, Tesla had more than 180,000 preorders for its latest, most affordable model, though analysts wonder if the company can fill all these orders. If they can’t, Faraday Future is hoping to swoop in and gather up those potential customers—if, that is, their own first and as- yet-unseen vehicle is ready in time. The interest in Tesla vehicles has done the electric car market a lot of good, according to Sampson. “It opens people’s minds to the possibilities.” It’s the same reason, he said, that Faraday Future jumped on board as a title sponsor for the Formula E race at the last minute. “Formula E is what we’re about,” Sampson said, though the company does not have a team racing in the series. “We’re trying to show that electric cars aren’t dull and boring. We’re both pushing in that same direction.” Faraday Future did bring its FFZero “car of concept,” a technological showcase wrapped in a cool race car shell. It’s built on a performance variant of the company’s core platform, Sampson said. “It’s the same technology—batteries and motors—that will be used for the production cars.” The FFZero didn’t take even a parade lap, but just as at CES where the concept debuted, the booth in the eVillage activity area was filled with fans taking pictures. Sampson saw the value of sponsorship in getting the company’s name out, and for race fans, the FFZero was a fine ambassador, even if it didn’t see any track time. 2016-04-04 20:16 Kristen Hall

25 Stock picking simplified with these apps Investing in the stock market made easy…That’s the goal of these apps, which make investing more convenient and help you keep tabs on the market updates. And you don’t have to be a finance whiz to work them! Robinhood Trade stocks without fees on Robinhood. After a quick registration, use Robinhood to access market data and quotes in real-time, build a personalized watch list and track your portfolio. The startup has been gaining significant traction in the finance app space and is backed by celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Jared Leto and rapper Nas. Robinhood almost makes it too easy to put money on the stock market, so be careful with those impulse purchases! Robinhood is an Apple Design Award winner and a Crunchie’s nominee. The app is free on the iPhone and Android. There is also an Apple Watch app. StockTwits Forget hashtags, on StockTwits, it’s about the cashtag. The social media platform is tailored for people who want to get real-time insight into what others are saying about the stock market. A Twitter for investors, search for chatter about companies by putting a dollar sign before the ticker symbol. Follow your favorite stocks and get notified when they’re trending. Investors mark whether they are bullish or bearish and you can see if there is positive or negative sentiment around a company right now. Share insight and build a following, or simply see what others are saying. But make sure you’re not too easily persuaded by the masses. Remember: buy on the low and sell on the high. StockTwits is free on the iPhone and Android. They also have an Apple Watch app. Put those pennies to work! Acorns is all about investing your spare change. Attach a credit card and the app rounds up to the next dollar on each transaction, investing it into a customized and diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds. In other words, every time you spend $3.75 on a latte, a quarter goes into the stock market. Acorns charges a dollar per month for accounts under $5000 or.25% per year for accounts with more. But while Acorns may be great at motivating you to invest, do your research and make sure their ETF investments fit with your strategy. The venture community is betting big on Acorns and the team has raised $32 million to date from Greycroft and others. The app is free and is available on the iPhone, Apple Watch and Android. 2016-04-04 20:16 Katie Roof

26 The Taliban app’s publication points to holes in Google’s app review process A propaganda application developed by the Islamist fundamentalist group the Taliban was live on the Google Play store for two days before being booted, raising questions about Google’s app review process, which today includes a combination of human editors and algorithms. The app’s content, written in the Pashto language, included statements and videos from the Taliban, which confirmed to Bloomberg it was behind the app’s creation. The app was first spotted by a U. S. organization called Site Intel Group , which monitors jihadist activity online. The group noticed the app had been published on April 1st, explaining that it provided access to the Taliban’s website and content in an app format. According to a Taliban spokesperson speaking with Bloomberg, the app was “part of our advanced technological efforts to make more global audience.” Its creation, the report also noted, signaled how the militant group was expanding its use of technology to reach a wider audience. When the app was initially pulled down roughly two days after it went live, the Taliban spokesperson claimed it was because “technical issues” needed to be fixed. In actuality, Google pulled the app itself, the BBC later reported (and we’ve also confirmed), as it was in violation of Google’s terms. Specifically, Google pulled the app because it was in violation of its policy that bans apps promoting hate speech, violence and illegal activities. In addition, Google suspended the developer account associated with the app as part of the ban. However, the app’s publication is a high-profile example of a failure in Google’s app review process, and one that raises questions about how thorough its human reviewers are with the apps they test. For years, Google took a more lightweight approach to app reviews – allowing the apps to go live almost immediately without any editorial oversight. But that has since changed. The company announced last March that it had actually begun using algorithms along with an internal team of reviewers to analyze apps for policy violations prior to publishing. It said that apps would be reviewed by this team, hands-on, before the apps go live on Google Play. Clearly, the system still needs some tweaking. Though now a year old, Google is still relatively new to the app review process, in comparison with rival Apple. And it still relies heavily on its wider community of users and developers to flag apps for additional review. That means apps like this one are able to fall through the cracks, leaving Google to reactively ban them instead of prohibit their publication in the first place. Google declined to comment publicly on the app’s removal. 2016-04-04 20:16 Sarah Perez

27 Bezos teases new Kindle hardware for reveal next week E-readers may not be the most exciting space in tech these days, but some of us still find a place for them in our lives — and it is we happy few whom Jeff Bezos announced, with enthusiasm palpable, that new Kindle hardware is just around the corner. Notably, this is well off the beaten path as far as timing goes: Kindles have generally been announced in September, though it’s true that the Paperwhite was updated last June. But April? This is a new one for Amazon. So, what could it be? Always well informed on e-reader news, Nate Hoffelder ( after fooling me with the promise of an electrowetting color screen) suggests this one will have a battery case, but details are thin on the ground. My hope is that the company has finally made the breakthrough that will give the screens the same warm look as our familiar paper books. The LED frontlight is a useful feature but its cold cast has always been distracting to me. And a wild new redesign (where art thou, Courier?) is out of the question. More likely, however, is a handful of under-the-hood advances and integration with newer Amazon products like Alexa. No event is scheduled, so expect an update out of the blue sometime next week. Not interested in the latest, hottest e-reader features? The soon-to-be-obsolete Kindles currently cluttering Amazon are on sale. Snatch one of those perfectly good devices up for a discount, or use the discount to justify getting the kind that doesn’t advertise to you all the time. Or you could get a Kobo , like me! 2016-04-04 20:16 Devin Coldewey

28 Google’s Nexus security update for April fixes 8 critical Android bugs Google is releasing the monthly security update for its Nexus Android devices today and with it, it is also announcing a list of the security vulnerabilities it has patched in this release. This month, the update includes patches for eight critical bugs, including one that affects the infamous libstagefright library, which has already seen its fair share of well-publicized vulnerabilities. Google notified its partners about all the issues in this new bulletin two weeks ago and for them (and anybody else who is interested), source code patches will be made available through the Android Open Source Project in the next two days. Google notes that the most severe of this month’s issues would have allowed remote code execution on an affected device “through multiple methods such as email, web browsing, and MMS when processing media files.” The majority of the issues fixed with this update were first reported between late 2015 and February 2016. In total, this month’s update fixes just under 30 known vulnerabilities. Nexus users should see an update for their phones pop up pretty soon. Now that at least a few other manufacturers are following Google’s lead in releasing monthly updates (or are at least promising they’ll do so), chances are they will also soon fix most of these vulnerabilities, too. 2016-04-04 20:16 Frederic Lardinois

29 WeWork launches WeLive flexible rental apartments in NY and DC WeWork , the co-working real estate startup valued north of $5 billion, is launching WeLive, a residential rental building that offers flexible renting and a nicely packaged set of amenities. The new program launches for New York (at 110 Wall Street), the same building where WeWork has its main space in the Financial District, as well as DC, a 2221 S. Clark Street in Arlington. The spaces have studios, 1BR, 2BR, 3BR, and 4BR spaces, serving up to eight people, and the studios can come in single bed apartments or two beds to split up the space between roommates. But what’s more interesting is that folks can rent however they want, with the freedom of a month- to-month agreement. The least expensive deal is a shared Studio Plus apartment, that comes with two beds, and starts at $1375/month. Keep in mind that includes furniture, bedding, and kitchenware. There are currently over 200 units, available to anyone. For an extra $150, users will have access to a full set of amenities, including monthly cleaning, high-speed internet and Verizon cable. WeWork is positioning this as an easy way to move to New York (like as a startup) and get going without all the extra costs of moving, buying furniture and kitchenware, and getting utility bills set up. Plus, the WeLive space will also have community events like a Happy Hour, Karaoke sessions, etc., all of which can be investigated on the WeLive app. Given that, at least the NYC location, the WeLive space is in the same building as WeWork, it’s easy to see how this could be a convenient living option for a NY startup. However, the WeLive space could also be attractive to people just graduating from NYC universities and looking for a job, or people who are losing their lease but haven’t chosen a more permanent settlement yet. And with the long list of amenities included in the deal, it would be easy to see people staying far longer than they expected. You can learn more about WeLive right here . 2016-04-04 20:16 Jordan Crook

30 The speech the technology industry won’t hear from any candidate… but should The issues that impact technology and startup entrepreneurs are issues nearly everyone, nearly every day. Issues like worker classification and national security have captured national attention, but not the eyes of presidential candidates. Not one of the 2016 presidential candidates stands out when it comes to ensuring that common sense technology and entrepreneurship policy will prevail. In the absence of these issues receiving the attention they deserve, what follows is the speech we can only hope one of the candidates will give: If there’s one thing that everyone running for President from either party can agree upon (and there aren’t many) it’s that this has been a topsy turvy election season. And while we’ve had an endless number of debates, there’s been far too little serious discussion on far too many serious issues. When you run for President, it shouldn’t be because you just want to fulfill your childhood ambitions or just get as much attention as possible. It should be because you have a vision for our country’s future and a clear plan on how to get us there. Our nation has so many great qualities and so much to offer, but to me, our greatest resource is our talent. More successful people are born here, come here, work here and want to be here than any country at any time in history. And that always gives us a chance to succeed. Today, so many of the truly smart, talented people — frequently young people — are working in technology. New ideas, new platforms, new approaches are what has always made our economy — and our country — grow. That’s true now more than ever. The way we create millions of good new jobs — and do it without raising taxes and making the government bigger and bigger — is by doing everything we can to help the tech sector grow and succeed. Here’s how. First, when smart, talented, energetic people come to this country to study at our universities, guess what happens? They want to stay — they want to create jobs here, build new technologies here, build new companies here. But we don’t let them. Our current immigration laws force them to leave, no matter what they have to offer. We’re literally training people and then handing them over to go make money for other countries when we could be keeping those jobs right here at home. That’s like putting soldiers through boot camp and then shipping them off to fight for the enemy. It has to stop. No matter what you think of the broader immigration issues at hand, we need more H1B visas and we need to make sure that anyone who’s been educated here as an engineer and wants to stay here can stay here. It’s that simple. Second, we need to stop pretending this is 1957 and that throwing up roadblocks against the sharing economy is a good idea. Candidates with 20 th century mindsets will do everything possible to shut down companies like Uber, Airbnb, Lyft, Instacart and so many others. They want to make sure everyone’s a full-time employee and even more important, they want to make sure everyone’s paying union dues, paycheck after paycheck after paycheck. That world is gone. People don’t want to work like that anymore. They want flexibility. They want to choose when they work and where they work. They want to balance their home life with their work life. College students want to earn extra money to help pay for school. Senior citizens want to supplement their social security checks. And parents want the flexibility to be there for their kids. This outdated vision makes sense for a society where only one parent works and everyone stays in the same job at the same company for 50 years. But that approach is insensitive to working mothers, it’s insensitive to seniors, to hard working students and so many others. It’s offensive. We need to treat our workers with more respect than that. That’s why we’re going to create a new worker classification that allows people to remain independent contractors but still get health care, still get workers comp, still get disability, still receive training. We’re not going to force each state to deal with this on its own. We’re going to solve this problem ourselves. And it’s going to happen in the first year of my administration, working hand in hand with a Republican Congress. Third, we need to stop subjecting new startups to attacks from so many special interests in cities and states all over the country. People who love fantasy football shouldn’t see the games they love disrupted because casinos in each state give campaign donations to their Attorney General to go after fantasy sports. Companies like Tesla and Solar City shouldn’t be prey to collusion amongst auto dealers or electric utilities. Companies like Uber and Lyft shouldn’t be prey to pay to play from taxi medallion owners. We need to use the tools of the federal government — the FTC, DOJ’s anti- trust division — to stop protectionism from killing jobs and stifling innovation. Fourth, we have to anticipate the future. Self driving cars are coming. In fact, they’re almost already here. Rather than waiting until they’re ready to hit the road and then first start figuring out all of the rules and regulations around them, let’s get out ahead of something for once. Let’s do it now – so that we can help the companies working on autonomous vehicles plan and so we can get the benefits of less traffic, fewer accidents, and more productivity as quickly as possible. The same thinking applies to drones. Like them or not, they’re here. Let’s figure out how we regulate them and rather than dealing with 50 different sets of laws, let’s do it at the federal level so there’s a single set of rules that makes sense, everywhere. Fifth, we have to level the playing field. Economies struggle and countries fail when they allow a handful of monopolies to control everything. Access to the internet may be the single most valuable commodity that exists today, and anyone who opposes net neutrality is basically saying “Let’s just give control of all information and all communication to a handful of big companies.” I’m not for that. I don’t know why anyone would be. My FCC will prioritize net neutrality. We’re not going to make the consumer suffer just because a handful of well connected lobbyists throw fundraisers for politicians. Sixth, we need a better trained, better educated workforce. Every politician talks about funding for STEM, but not many can outline a clear plan for how they plan to do it. Of course we need to do a better job teaching kids about science and math. Saying that doesn’t make you innovative. It just means you’re not totally clueless. We need to go a lot further. In New York City, Mayor Mike Bloomberg realized that the one thing the local tech sector was missing was a steady supply of engineers. So he did something about it. He created a new college campus, right in the city, that just trains engineers. That will transform the city’s economy. We need to do the same thing all over the country. That’s why I’m going to provide $25 billion in new funding to create 25 new engineering campuses across the United States. We’ll hold competitions for colleges and universities to receive funding to build engineering schools in cities across the nation and we’ll provide the funding they need for construction, for infrastructure, for labs, for professors, and for scholarships for students. Seventh, we need to stop this war of words between Apple and the FBI and find the right balance between national security and privacy. The idea that it’s a binary choice is just wrong. We make choices and compromises every day that balance security and privacy. We use EZ-Pass because we want to save time, even though we’re transmitting data about our travel. On the other hand, we go through metal detectors at airports because we want our planes to be safe. That’s how life works – you make choices. This notion that everything has to be one way is absurd and we need to stop pretending otherwise. People have a right to digital privacy. It should be respected. And there are situations where privacy has to be balanced with security. If there’s a legitimate issue where we need information to stop a terrorist or catch a terrorist, then we should have access to that information. But if it’s just to help track down a low level offender, then we shouldn’t. We need a President who doesn’t just engage in rhetoric or slogans or say whatever their pollster tells them to say. We need a President who can make smart decisions and smart choices. That’s what I have to offer. And finally, the tech sector succeeds when our country succeeds. If our country is being run responsibly – if the economy is doing well and we’re not enmeshed in wars that don’t make any sense and we’re able to run a government that functions like it should, then everyone has a chance to do well. So if you want a country that will function for all of us – if you want a Washington DC that is not not divided – then work with us. Help us win this election so we can give the people of our country the government they need, the government they deserve. We can do that together.. We can build this country to where it should be, where it can be. Together. Thank you and God Bless America. 2016-04-04 20:16 Bradley Tusk

31 Target’s savings app Cartwheel now lets you clip real coupons Target’s top-rated shopping app Cartwheel is today becoming more useful to those who are looking to save money at checkout. The company says the app has been expanded to support digital coupons from manufacturers – meaning shoppers can save dollars on a wider range of products, as opposed to percentage discounts off select products, as before. Cartwheel, of course, was already a mobile savings app before this change. But, previously, the app was focused on providing customers with discounts on items, including Target’s own product lines like Archer Farms and up & up. In terms of savings, these percentage off deals would often only add up to a couple of dollars at most on a Target run for everyday shoppers. With the new addition, consumer can clip “real” digital coupons – in many cases, the same as those that can be found in the local Sunday newspaper. That means there’s an increased potential for saving real money on items, including groceries, as manufacturer coupons can often offer larger discounts, like $.50 off or even a few dollars, per deal. Meanwhile, a lot of Target’s discounts on everyday items like milk and paper towels only clock in at 5 percent. The company says it’s now testing this new service, which is made possible through a partnership with a third-party provider of digital coupons. That is, the app is integrated with a coupon database as opposed to Target working with manufacturers directly to source deals. At launch, there around 40-some digital coupons of this nature available in the app, but that number will change and vary, we’re told. Target quietly began testing these coupons last month, but has only today made a formal announcement about their availability. Offering shoppers more ways to save is seen as a competitive advantage for brick-and-mortar retailers and grocers, and is something that many do through their own dedicated applications, including rivals like Walmart , Whole Foods, Costco, and many other chains. For Target, too, the move is about catering to a very specific demographic: savers. Its Cartwheel application is today used by millions, the retailer says, who have saved over $475 million since its launch in 2013. While Cartwheel’s main purpose is savings, the app is one of the more innovative products in the mobile commerce space today, thanks to Target’s technology focus. For example, the company previously rolled out in-store beacons which communicate recommendations and specials through the app to shoppers. And it’s been rumored that Target is working on a mobile wallet, too. 2016-04-04 20:16 Sarah Perez

32 Austrian jobs platform aims to connect refugees and employers Europe’s refugee crisis is proving all but impossible for the region’s politicians to tackle without being sucked into an inglorious mire of prejudice — leaving desperate people fleeing conflict-torn countries to be shunted towards the margins or even sent back to the places they were fleeing in the first place. In just one example this week Austria’s defense minister suggested the country will deploy troops at its border with Italy, stepping up border controls to try to prevent more people from entering. But while politicians feel the need to pander to fear of migration, startups have the chance to do something both positive and practical — by using technology tools to overcome some of the challenges faced by outsiders quickly needing to orient to a new life. One such startup is Austria-based online jobs platform Refugees Work , which was founded back in November and soft launched around two weeks ago — taking registrations from employers wanting to hire refugees and refugees wanting to find local work. Founder Dominik Beron says it has registered more than 130 employers so far, and has around 1,000 refugees signed up to create a jobs profile to look for work. The platform is not actively doing any jobs matching yet but he tells TechCrunch it will switching this on in three weeks, using an algorithm to link refugees with potential jobs based on four factors: their background skills, language, place of residence, and the specific legal environment of an individual’s work status. Beron professes some surprise at how quickly employers have signed up at this nascent stage, saying the original target was to on-board 400 employers in 2016. As it turns out they’ve managed more than a quarter of that in just a couple of weeks — with 50 signing up after just one day. They have also initially been focusing on registering refugees but will now be pushing the b2b sales side specifically so are presumably hoping to maintain or even accelerate employer sign-up momentum from here on in. While he says many employers are seeking low qualification workers or hoping to fill positions they find it hard to source staff for locally, such as jobs in gastronomy and hotels, others are looking for more specialized skills, such as in academia, or are aiming to boost the diversity of their own workplace. “We have companies who are looking to create a very special organizational structure such as companies who also have a high value for diversity and values like that, particularly international companies,” says Beron. One big blocker to refugees being hired is the complexity of the local legal environment vis-a-vis their work status, with companies not knowing how or even whether they can employee people. The platform aims to help with this by being a resource for relevant legal information, and by incorporating the work status of each individual into its jobs matching algorithm — so an employer shouldn’t be matched with a person they cannot legally employ. Another area the tech aims to help with is with integrating refugees into an existing workplace by offering resources to help with cultural fit issues or other integration-related concerns that employers may have and which might be preventing them from actively seeking to employee refugees, says Beron. “Technology… can be the perfect link connecting these two words,” he argues. “Primarily the biggest advantage [of using technology tools to help refugees] is scalability. Because they can register, they can use Facebook sign in… we easily match them so we make something possible that would not be possible on an offline basis.” One specific feature he cites as a useful bridging tech is an embedded messaging plus calendar tool that’s being built into the platform — offering an easy channel for refugees and employers to reach each other. “Refugees are communicating on Facebook and WhatsApp and companies are communicating on email. So what we can do about this is we will make a chat with an integrated calendar that helps to create the universal channel for communication on our platform. It also helps us to know when refugees and companies meet so that we can support automated features by, for instance, sending refugees more information on how to behave in interviews,” he adds. How has the startup been getting the word out about its platform to refugees who Beron notes are typically rather hard to reach by traditional media channels or mainstream social media? By partnering with local NGOs, going to refugee camps and by running free workshops for refugees on legal issues. After that awareness has been spreading by word of mouth via refugees’ own social networks. “Refugees are not very well connected to our society but they are very well connected to each other,” adds Beron. Last year in Austria alone some 90,000 refugees arrived; Beron says it’s expected around 70,000 of those will remain in the country. Currently there are around 30,000 refugees with free access to the local labor market by his reckoning, with the rest being restricted to only certain kinds of employment as their asylum applications are processed. While RefugeesWork.at is clearly a social enterprise, it is also a traditional startup in the sense that Beron has ambitions to scale it into a sustainable company in its own right. And while he says he initially wanted to gift the code to an NGO he couldn’t find any willing to take on the project — so decided to build it into a business himself. “The problem is capacity… NGOs do not have either the personnel resources — so people who are experienced in building a platform or something like this — but also time. They were all busy transferring goods and donations in goods and donations in cash to refugees so they had no resources to implement such a project.” The business model involves charging employers a subscription fee for access to the platform, with the amount being charged varying depending on the size of the employer. For larger employers the fee starts at €500 per year. Beron, who is a lawyer by training, had previously founded another social enterprise startup — a not-for-profit platform aiming to connect social enterprises/NGOs with companies to get free services (such as making websites) — and it was while working on that that he came up with the idea for Refugees Work after being approached by a company wanting to employee a refugee but not knowing how to go about doing so. “They were looking for a lawyer who could help,” he says. “That was the first contact with the whole topic of labour market integration of refugees.” The startup has taken in $10,000 via a successful crowdfunding campaign to get its platform this far but Beron says it’s now actively looking for investors and is hoping to close a seed round soon. It is also working on the first co-operation outside Austria, with a plan to scale to other European markets in time. Although Beron notes this need to be done on a social franchise basis because of the need to partner with local NGOs in order to reach the target pool of refugees. 2016-04-04 20:16 Natasha Lomas

33 AOL expands its TV ad-buying tools AOL is expanding its television efforts with the launch of self-serve TV ad-buying as part of its One by AOL platform. AOL (which owns TechCrunch, and in turn is owned by Verizon) first announced its programmatic TV offering in 2014 , allowing marketers to buy TV ads through AOL’s online system. As explained to me by Dan Ackerman, the company’s senior vice president of programmatic TV, AOL could already “crunch data and provide a tailored plan for the client,” but the actual ad buying process remained “largely manual” until now. “When tools go from managed service to self-service, it’s an indication that ad buyers are becoming much more sophisticated and going beyond the testing phase,” Ackerman said. “In the U. S., I would still call it early days for programmatic TV, with greater adoption forthcoming as buyers grow familiar with the benefits.” As for where these programmatic ads will actually be placed, Ackerman said AOL is working with “dozens” of national broadcast and cable TV networks to plug into their ad inventory. He suggested that a number of networks will be announcing programmatic capabilities soon. Ackerman also pointed to a number of advantages that he said AOL can offer TV advertisers, including its data and ad-targeting capabilities, as well as “holistic” measurement, showing when TV ads leads to activity on other devices like smartphones and tablets. Ad agency Omnicom Media Group will be the exclusive launch partner for One by AOL: TV self- service. 2016-04-04 20:16 Anthony Ha

34 Apple’s short film on autism proves that accessibility features matter Apple has released a couple of videos over the weekend starring Dillan Barmache, a 16-year- old kid who is autistic and non-verbal. These two films are powerful and also make a strong point in favor of accessibility features, specialized apps for autistic people and more. Autism affects social and communication behaviors. Autistic people have a hard time communicating with the world. But it doesn’t mean they don’t have things to say. It’s easy to shut yourself away when you have this disorder because you have a hard time talking with people around you, they don’t get that you understand what they’re saying, or, worse, other people are talking for yourself and misrepresenting you. Dillan’s life has changed quite a lot thanks to technology, and in this case an iPad paired with three apps — Proloquo4Text , Assistive Express and Keeble. Now, he can type on his iPad and talk with people around him. It says a lot about the basic iPad user interface and how it’s much easier to use than a laptop. Technology is incredibly powerful and can profoundly alter how we communicate, share information and learn. It brings people, things and services together that couldn’t be brought together before. Many companies choose to focus on problems that can touch hundreds of millions of people with mainstream consumer services. Yet, it’s also important that we don’t forget about the other huge areas of opportunity that can change the lives of people around us. The tech ecosystem has a responsibility. We as a community also need to focus on real world tech. We need to find the next big things for people who could greatly benefit from accessibility features. It’s good to see Apple shedding light on autism during Autism Acceptance Month. The company has also focused a lot on accessibility features in iOS , and allocated resources on other incredibly important challenges. I hope other companies are taking notes. Many entrepreneurs are solving little problems for the masses. But you can also choose to solve life-changing problems. 2016-04-04 20:16 Romain Dillet

35 Photo project aims to take cringe factor out of “techies” Techies Project , a photo and interview project that launched today, explores the personal stories and experiences of hundreds of underrepresented people in tech. You might recognize people like Tristan Walker, founder and CEO of Walker & Company Brands, and John Maeda, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers. You will probably also learn about someone doing amazing work in tech whom you’ve never heard of before. The intent is to show the world what the tech industry actually looks like, tell the stories and hardships of underrepresented people in tech, and give other underrepresented people a chance to see themselves in tech. “There’s an experience that comes from seeing the word ‘techies’ and knowing that it has turned into this kind of derogatory, loaded term that kind of makes people’s skin crawl now,” Helena Price, creator of Techies Project, told me. “Now people hear it and they sort of cringe. Everybody has an image in mind of what that word is. For them, to see that word, expect one thing, and then see a grid of images that don’t look like what they expect is an experience in itself. And if that’s all they see and then they walk away, I feel kind of satisfied.” The project focuses on everyone except for straight white dudes, Price said. Although there are white men in featured in the project, as well as straight men, she didn’t focus on anyone who is both of those things. The project explores the numerous, intersecting identities of people, including race, gender, sexuality, age, disability status, parental status, education level, immigrant status and more. The platform lets you sort by all types of identities so that you can easily read the story of a first- generation, transgender developer in tech. Right now, there’s a misconception that only white, cis men can succeed in tech. With Techies Project, Price hopes that people from underrepresented backgrounds can see people like them who are succeeding in the industry, despite the struggles or microaggressions they may be facing at work. “I’ve always wanted to do this format of project,” Price said. “I’m super into oral histories and like people’s origins stories and I occasionally did work in that vein when I worked in startups. I wanted to explore greater concepts just through people sharing their own life experiences, and this idea of libraries of human experiences is really cool to me. So I always knew this was a format of work I wanted to take on. What the first subject matter was another question.” Price worked in tech for a few years and describes herself as a recovering techie. She says that a lot of the opportunities that have come her way as photographer happened because of her experience in tech. But, she didn’t have the most positive experience in tech and, as a result, has a complicated relationship with it. “So, I wanted to do a project that explored other people’s complicated relationships with tech and that’s where the impetus for this came from,” Price said. Meanwhile, she said, it’s pretty obvious that the tech industry is in a weird place right now, where a lot of things are coming to a head. “From the outside, people kind of hate tech right now. So that’s a thing. For me, that’s obvious to everyone I think. And internally, there’s definitely some clashing that’s happening where people, one side still is very adamant about tech being a meritocracy and ‘We want diversity but where are they?’ There’s that chatter but then there’s people who are starting to be open about their experiences in tech. Mediums helping with that, Twitter’s helping with that.” With all of these things bubbling up, Price wanted to use her photography skills to document the state of tech in 2016. So, she put out a call for submissions in January of this year and received over 500 of them. Although there are no big takeaways from the project, Price said, her goal is to create a scenario in which she proposes new questions to the current situation and conversations around diversity in tech. “I wanted to show the outside world that tech is a little different than what they think it is and there are a lot of people here with good intentions,” Price said. “Internally, I wanted to provide some food for thought for people who really do think it’s a meritocracy. There are people who are incredibly proficient and have gone through unthinkable challenges to get here and that often is not even considered in measuring someones worth or potential as an employee. I’ve been really interested in exploring that idea of, ‘What have you been through to get here?’ and ‘Why is that not considered a factor in your potential?'” Something Victor Roman, a senior software engineer at SolarCity, said really resonated with Price. That analogy “is so fucking strong,” Price said. A couple of things the tech industry lacks are the conversations and appropriate actions around where people came from, and the challenges they’ve had to overcome to get to where they are today. By the end of the year, Price hopes to have double the number of interviews on the site. Moving forward, Price hopes to turn this project into a book — one that serves as a snapshot in time of tech in 2016. 2016-04-04 20:16 Megan Rose

36 How easy access VC funding has softened the startup world The last decade has seen a period of extremely high venture capital activity, with a record peak of investment reached in 2015. This period of high VC investments has led to many amazing new products and companies, but it also has sparked a “Hollywood” era of high spending for early-stage companies. This glitzy big-budget period in Silicon Valley and further afield led influential tech investor Marc Andreessen to predict that unless young companies begin to curb their flamboyant spending, they risk being “vaporized” by a crash or market turn. Seasoned entrepreneurs who grew their companies before the age of open-plan offices and meditation sessions may well say that startup culture has become soft. So how much responsibility for these changes do VC investors hold? And how has startup culture changed as a result? The post-dot-com bubble crash period has seen a massive surge in venture capital investment, which peaked in 2015 with an incredible $59 billion invested — more than twice the amount of total investment witnessed in 2010 — with much of this funding going to early-stage tech startups with amazing ideas and products, but without established customer bases. Whisperings of a tech bubble developing were heard as far back as 2010 , yet VC investment continued to grow to dizzying new heights until the end of 2015. Why? Because of inherent flaws in the whole venture capital system. Unlike with angel investors , VC investors are not motivated by negative motivation. Negative motivation in business is — put simply — the fear of losing something. At current, venture capitalists are gung-ho with their investments as they are not risking any of their own money. VC ’s motivation to invest in startups lies in the fact that they are paid depending on the total value of funds invested, rather than based on the real ROI from these investments. On average, VCs earn roughly 2-3 percent of the total funds they are managing. As a result, there is almost zero risk for VC investors, who can invest freely and still receive extremely high wages at the end of the year, regardless of how many of their startups have crashed and burned. Consequently, the past few years have seen multi-billion dollar evaluations of companies, such as GrabTaxi , Southeast Asia’s answer to Uber, which received a $1.6 billion valuation — and $890 million in equity funding , despite only having 620,000 monthly active users. These ludicrously high valuations have a butterfly effect, as other VC ’s benchmark with each other, basing valuations on the figures set by other companies with similar profiles, rather than realistic predictions of revenue and growth. The result, more high early-stage funding , and more companies added to the vicious circle. Traditionally, the initial growth stages of a company of any shape or size, be it a sandwich shop or Silicon Valley startup, have been characterized by back-breaking hard work, skeleton teams working long hours for low pay and shoe-string budgets, as the company tried to establish itself, build contacts and develop a customer base. However, a walk around Palo Alto today reveals a very different story. The huge investment in early-stage startups has seen a “Hollywood” era of high startup burn rates , with startups “living fast and dying young.” Early-stage companies with bursting bank accounts spend exorbitant amounts on modern offices, high salaries to attract the best staff and new age perks for employees, which one billionaire VC investor scathingly described as “window dressing.” The situation has been further compounded by the emerging tech talent shortage. Demand is outstripping supply for professions such as data scientists, IT workers and programmers, and the amount of professionals going freelance is rising quickly, and offering huge salaries of $200,000 plus has become the norm. Industry experts warn that this is attracting the wrong employees, a new breed of high-paid, in- demand mercenaries who companies are constantly at risk of losing to a better offer. Miriam Diwan, co-founder and CEO of NowMoveMe, states : “The employees looking for Facebook or Google levels of perks are not the best fit. The early years are a complete roller coaster, so it’s essential to have a team that’s in it for more than that.” Huge salaries, grand offices and added perks like massage sessions, gym memberships and free transport don’t exactly fit with the traditional image of hardworking, cash-tight early-stage businesses, and rely 100 percent on the life-source of huge investments from VC firms. This creates a vicious circle, as high wages and fancy offices force competitors to match these to stay competitive, and cause rent prices in startup areas to skyrocket . However, the negative effects on the startup culture run much deeper than opulent offices and free organic coffee. The luxuries offered by the influx of easy capital distract companies from their big wins and cause them to focus on little wins such as snagging the best staff, open-plan offices and office Segways. Put simply, instead of focusing on the superficial “window dressing,” startups should be developing products and selling them to real customers. The future for these companies looks bleak. Research from the Startup Genome finds that 90 percent of early-stage investment startups fail mostly due to “self-destruction rather than competition,” as they try to obtain “the cart before the horse.” The root of the problem lies in premature scaling , when a company skips natural steps in progression due to an influx of capital, and tries to evolve too quickly, spending money they aren’t earning, hiring staff they can’t afford and trying to acquire new customers when they aren’t ready to do so — none of which would be possible without “free cash” from VC investors. According to John Cook , companies that scale properly attract more capital and customers, and eventually hire more employees. Based on the Startup Genome report, none of the startups that scaled prematurely passed the 100,000 user mark. None of the extravagant spending outlined above would be possible without the seemingly free- flow of VC investors biting at the bit to throw money at tech startups. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for this problem. The damage has been done, and changes will not really come around until the inevitable crash occurs. In the aftermath, thousands of startups will crash and burn; hopefully lessons will be learned. As interest rates rise, VC funds will invest less into the market and the valuation of companies will decrease as venture capital investment slows dramatically. As capital becomes more expensive, less money will flow into startups, instead flowing back into banks. As things stand, regardless of the warnings, startup founders will keep on accepting this “free money” for as long as it is offered. The weakening of startup values is all part of a vicious cycle related to VC funding , which simply won’t change unless negative motivation plays a part in enterprise investment. There is no magic wand to fix the problems that are seen throughout the startup ecosystem, but times of economic hardship and tight belts are sure to set companies on more traditional startup values, and more natural paths of growth and progression. 2016-04-04 20:16 Michal Stencl

37 Israel prepares for #OpIsrael cyberattack April has arrived, which means that Israel’s cybersecurity community has its eyes set on the now- annual April 7 cyberattack by Anonymous and a group of anti-Israel hacktivists known as #OpIsrael. While the country is prepared for a variety of scenarios, most Israeli cybersecurity experts are unperturbed by the threat, since previous years have resulted in minimal damage. The attack has taken place every year on April 7 since 2013 and was first launched on the eve of the Holocaust Remembrance Day with a stated goal of erasing Israel from the Internet. “The nightmare scenario could be significant economical, political, social and reputational damage. Stock markets collapse, power goes off, nothing works. Obviously though it is possible, it is more science fiction that a real probable scenario. I expect to see almost no real damage.” said Menny Barzilay , a cyber security strategist and the former CISO of the Israel Defense Forces. Indicating a business-as-usual approach to this year’s attack, the city of Jerusalem is organizing a Cyber Hackathon this evening with 400 eager participants. The event simulates a worst case scenario attack on the city with essential computerized systems hacked, including traffic light failure, airplanes, power plant and other scenarios. “The teams will be given challenges which they will have to resolve in order to get everything back in order. Among the judges will be industry prominent figures and the whole event will be accompanied by mentors from leading cyber companies. The first three winners will be awarded one-on-one meetings with industry-leading mentors,” according to a press release. The ad hoc nature of the enemy, seemingly recruited from chat rooms, message boards, and internet forums may be one reason for the somewhat nonchalant response to the impending threat. Although anti-Israel hackers operate under the guise of the Anonymous brand, it would be misleading to portray the situation as an all out war between Israel and Anonymous. “Since Anonymous is more an idea than a group it is hard to tell who is part of Anonymous and how is not. Different people, with different goals and incentives are assuming the anonymous brand name in order to support their action. This is why you see both pro-Palestinian and pro- Israel groups using the Anonymous brand while fighting each other,” said Barzilay. While the government, banks and other major institutions are prepared, smaller sites with fewer resources might have a tougher time fending off the attackers. “Large organizations will be prepared for the attack. They will scale up their staff and pay closer attention to alerts. They are already working with their security vendors and service providers to make sure that everything is up to date. The real victims will be the small organizations that do not have sophisticated security operations or even lack an understanding of the layers that they need to have in place. They face the risk of defacement of their brands or even breaches,” said Gil Barak, the CTO and Co-Founder of SECDO. “In a nightmare scenario, attackers would affect the day-to-day lives of Israelis and the financial health of Israeli companies–attackers could do that by causing downtime in one of Israel’s few critical dairy or bread factories, for example, “ said Yoni Shohet, CEO and cofounder of SCADAfence . 2016-04-04 20:16 Dennis Mitzner

38 Amazon takes on PayPal and others with launch of Amazon Payments partner program Amazon announced this morning a plan to spread adoption of its payments service, Amazon Payments, to more third-party websites. With the launch of its Amazon Payments Global Partner Program , the retailer will help e-commerce platform providers and other developers integrate with Amazon Payments so their own merchants can offer the option to “Pay with Amazon” at checkout. Already, Amazon Payments can be used by individual merchants who can choose to integrate the company’s tools, like “Login and Pay with Amazon,” in order to offer an easy way for online shoppers to authenticate with their Amazon account information on a third-party website, then pay for their purchases with the credit card information they have on file with Amazon. The idea here is that merchants could tap into Amazon’s already sizable user base, and then eliminate the need for these customers to create a separate username and password on the merchant’s website. And by making checkout quicker, merchants could increase conversions and boost sales. With the new Global Partner program, however, the goal is to offer an expanded set of services to e-commerce platform providers themselves, instead of just individuals merchants. At launch, a number of partners have agreed to integrate with Amazon Payments, and then offer that option to their own merchants and sellers, including PrestaShop, Shopify, and Future Shop, for example. As partners, these businesses will be able to take advantage of a variety of services that include things like white glove integration, account management, planning support, technical resources and training, and more. They’ll also be listed in a Partner directory, and some may also be eligible for co-marketing activities, says Amazon. The specific services and benefits will be determined by the partner’s status, which falls under one of three tiers: Premier Partner, Certified Partner, and Certified Developer. The program is currently in an invite-only status in the U. S., Germany, U. K. and Japan. The news was announced at the Money 2020 event in Copenhagen by way of a release . The move is a clear signal from Amazon that it intends to ramp up its competition with other payment service providers, like PayPal, Visa, Apple Pay, and others, on the wider web. (Apple Pay is rumored to be coming to mobile websites this year.) This expansion also comes at a time when Amazon Payments has seen a surge in growth and adoption. Re-launched in 2013 after years of experiments in the area of online payments, Amazon said this January that transaction volume had grown 150 percent last year over the year prior, and average orders were around $84. Merchants using Pay with Amazon also grew by 200 percent in 2015, but the retailer didn’t provide hard numbers. However, Amazon is able to continue on this same path, it could prove to be a notable threat to its competitors in the months ahead. The company has 285 million account holders, and some 23 million-plus have now used their accounts on non-Amazon websites. 2016-04-04 20:16 Sarah Perez

39 Product discovery platform Influenster secures $8M in Series A funding from Ebates Product discovery and reviews platform, Influenster , has raised $8 million in financing from Ebates, a leading online cashback shopping service. Ebates is a subsidiary of Rakuten — the multi-billion dollar Japanese holding corporation which owns stakes in the entertainment service, Viki, the messaging service, Viber , and was a lead investor in Pinterest . As part of the agreement between both firms, Ken Hirschman, Ebates’ VP of Strategic Alliances, will join the Influenster board of directors, as part of a collaborative alliance but also to assist in serving the interests of the investment moving forward. Ebates has a history of investing in internet shopping companies — while being one themselves. With a growing reviews service like Influenster, Ebates could increase their reach in internet consumer reviews and purchasing, ultimately occupying two fronts of the online shopping experience. The $8 million Series A will allow Influenster to better scale their service to meet the demands of a quickly growing user base, as well as staying on top of the sheer variety of products it catalogs. Over six million unique user-originated product reviews are hosted on the site, on 1.5 million different products, ranging from beauty cosmetics, electronics, food, fashion, retail services, pets and even home products, including appliances. Co-founded in 2010 by Aydin Acar, the company’s chief executive, and Elizabeth Scherle, Influenster’s president, the New York-based service has 40 employees monitoring and curating the 500,000+ reviews that get added to the service every month. Besides being a product discovery and reviews website , Influenster also sports mobile apps for iOS and Android. 2016-04-04 20:16 Stefan Etienne

40 Apple has made Siri a baseball trivia guru Just in time for the start of baseball season, Apple has beefed up Siri’s knowledge of baseball stats, scores, and trivia. Siri can now do things like tell you Babe Ruth’s career batting average, the lineup of the 2008 World Series-winning Phillies, or even who won the World Series in 1934. Siri has also learned how to do league-level queries from 29 different baseball leagues, ranging from the Cape Cod League to Nippon Pro Baseball. While Siri won’t support player- specific data from these leagues, she will return scores from all of them. While not necessarily an essential update, these new features are a fun way to get celebrate the return of baseball. Plus, they show off some of Siri’s more advanced natural language processing features. A phrases like “how many home runs did Babe Ruth have during his career” is probably something that would have previously returned Siri’s dreaded “here’s what I found on the web”. But, now the phrase returns an actual (and accurate) result, making Siri more human-like than ever. The features are live now, so grab your iPhone and see if you can stump Siri. 2016-04-04 20:16 Fitz Tepper

41 41 Outlook Premium, Microsoft’s subscription email service, starts trials at $3.99 per month Microsoft’s experiment with getting customers to pay for additional features in Outlook will be priced at $3.99 per month, according to an updated page on Microsoft’s website, uncovered today. Earlier this year, news leaked of a new, paid version of Microsoft’s Outlook.com email service, called “Outlook Premium,” which would allow users to set up custom domain accounts to serve as more professional email addresses (rather than @outlook.com, @live.com or @hotmail.com). However, while Microsoft confirmed the pilot program at the time, it didn’t offer further details on launch, pricing, or full feature set. Now we know more, thanks to a webpage spotted today by Thurrott.com , which details the pricing and features that will come with the subscription version of Outlook. According to Outlook Premium’s landing page, users who choose to sign up for Outlook Premium will get five personalized email addresses, an ad-free inbox, and more, for $3.99 per month. However, the site notes that the entire first year will be free, with the subscription only kicking in afterward. Of course, given that this is a pilot program, that price point could still be in flux. There is still no formal launch date for the service, which today requires that interested users request an invite to try out Outlook Premium, as opposed to being able to immediately sign up from the website. While Microsoft has not yet made a formal announcement about its plans with Outlook Premium, it did earlier confirm that the program was considered an “experiment” in the pilot phases. The company said then it was not “an existing offering.” The comment was made in response to a report from ZDNet , which uncovered the website for the pilot program, thanks to a reader’s tip. ZDNet also pointed out that the move could make sense as Microsoft had wound down support for custom domains in Outlook.com starting back in 2014. While existing users could continue use their personalized email addresses, Microsoft stopped accepting new registrations. It’s possible that Microsoft felt there was enough demand for this feature that it could make sense as a premium add-on to Outlook.com. What’s also interesting about Outlook Premium is that it will, to some extent, compete with Microsoft’s “ Ad-Free Outlook ,” priced at $19.95 per year – a bit less than Outlook Premium. Of course Premium offers more features. (See below). According to an FAQ linked to from Outlook Premium’s website, Microsoft has partnered with domain provider GoDaddy to help Premium customers acquire the domain they want to use with their personalized email address. This domain will also be free for the first year, but then customers will need to renew the name every year with GoDaddy or another provider, if they choose to later transfer it. During sign-up, Outlook Premium walks users through an interface where they can check for available domain names, and it will propose others. After completing this registration process, customers can then set their new personalized email as the default and choose which email they want to send from when composing a new message. Users are also able to share calendars, contacts and documents with the other people who have emails on the same domain. In addition, Microsoft says that Outlook Premium will work with those customers who bought Office 365 Home with a personalized email address. By adding on the Premium service, users can invite up to four other individuals to create personalized emails on this account. In other words, Premium works as both a standalone product and an add-on to Office 365 Home. This also means that Premium could work for both businesses and families who either want or need multiple email addresses that can be managed from the Outlook.com Premium Domain Dashboard. Microsoft has been asked for comment on the status of this service, and we will update when one is provided. (hat-tip: Thurrott.com ) 2016-04-04 20:16 Sarah Perez

42 Robinhood preps for zero-fee stock trading launch in China Robinhood will bring its free U. S. stock trading app to the world, and just announced one of the first countries will be China. To prepare, today it launched a Chinese-language version in the U. S. and began asking users to invite friends and family in China to its waitlist. Robinhood previously launched a waitlist for Australia , but has otherwise only been available in the United States. For now, Robinhood is just trying to let people from other countries buy and sell U. S. stocks. But eventually it wants to open trading on each country’s native exchanges. If it succeeds, it could one day build a 24-hour stock bazaar that spans the siloed markets. While most American apps are banned in China for violating the country’s regulations about the exchange of information, Robinhood’s stock tracking and trading app expects to be able to operate there. However, it’s unclear now whether that will be through official government approval or circumventing regulation somehow. That still might take a while, considering Robinhood put up its Australia waitlist 11 months ago and is still finalizing permission to open trading. But it’s now formally working to secure access and let Chinese citizens trade stocks on U. S. exchanges through the app. Robinhood tells me: Chinese Americans who sign up starting today will get a set of invite codes they can send to people in China so they can join the waitlist . However, Robinhood could be hampered if China implements a significant Tobin Tax on foreign exchange transactions to curb currency speculation against the yuan. Robinhood refused to comment on the matter. Robinhood was founded in 2013 by two Stanford grads after they tried several other financial startup ideas [Disclosure: They’re friends of mine from college]. The app hinges on the surprise that stock trading doesn’t have to cost anything. Companies like E*Trade and Scottrade only charge $7 to $10 per trade because they burn so much money on local branch overhead and marketing. Robinhood replaces that with a slick app and some engineers, and doesn’t have to charge consumers anything. After explosive demand and regulatory approval, Robinhood launched in late 2014. It’s now amassed hundreds of thousands of users. Its international expansion is funded with $66 million in investment from top VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, GV, Slow Ventures, Index, and NEA, plus celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Jared Leto, Nas, and Linkin Park. Because it focuses on efficiency and scalability rather than localized marketing, Robinhood could spread virally across the globe. But to do that, it needs to jump through each country’s financial regulation hoops. Now the question is how nimbly it can navigate that process to bring democratized stock trading to the common citizen around the world. 2016-04-04 20:16 Josh Constine

43 Stae wants to prepare cities for the future Meet Stae , a New York-based startup that wants to make cities and tech startups work together. Major cities are getting denser and facing bigger challenges. And yet, innovation is coming from private companies. These companies are starting to have better insights about how a city works compared to local governments. This is happening for many areas. Public transportation (or at least the last mile) is getting privatized by Uber and Lyft with their offerings getting cheaper. Similarly, Airbnb knows more about the tourist industry than any hotel or local government. And you can even go down to the infrastructure level with water and electricity companies now collecting tons of data. This trend is accelerating as more companies are going to generate data. Soon, self-driving cars are going to replace existing cars for instance. There are potentially millions of data entries about cities, and city officials are missing out. As a city manager, you could know where your citizens are going, where your tourists come from (and where you should advertize), etc. “Cities should be collecting all the data these companies are generating — Airbnb, Uber, drone delivery, Google self-driving cars. You can run analytics and look at the efficiency of the city,” Stae co-founder John Edgar told me. And this is exactly what Stae wants to do. The startup is building a platform so that all the companies can send their data to this platform using an API approach. Edgar realized cities need something like this after reading Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser. And he thinks most people (including people working in tech companies and local governments) are clashing over multiple issues. There’s a way to make everyone work together. Here are two interesting examples. Cities want to collect taxes for each Airbnb stay like they do for hotels. But right now, there’s no tech platform to enforce this rule. Airbnb can’t send checks every now and then — it’s not a scalable solution. In return, Edgar dreams about a city where you can buy a bus ticket and it includes a last mile ride with Uber or Lyft. A platform approach would be a win-win for everyone involved. But we’re not there yet. That’s why Stae is starting with a compliance and payment platform for the sharing economy. Stae wants to create an API that would let Airbnb seamlessly pay (for example) $.75 to the city for a one night stay. The startup would keep a cut of the transaction. This way, Airbnb doesn’t have to negotiate with each major city, and cities will be able to enforce their new pieces of legislation. “We managed to get Boston to commit to this. We've also had so many conversations with so many other cities that are suffering from an inability to understand what to do with technology,” Edgar said. And this is just the first step as you can imagine many more applications once you have built a central platform that connects cities with tech companies. Stae is going through SOSVentures’ Urban-X accelerator. And, as Edgar mentioned, Boston is the first partner city to test the platform. Over the past decades, smart city has been a recurring buzzword among local governments. But creating a smart city by upgrading the infrastructure is a lengthy, expensive and imperfect process. Meanwhile, tech companies are redefining the fabric of our cities without any government’s involvement. And this is where Strae comes along. “A lot of people talk about smart cities, but what we’re building is actually the smart city,” Edgar said. “They just need a way to host everything centrally.” 2016-04-04 20:16 Romain Dillet

44 More calls for privacy safeguards in UK surveillance legislation The official opposition Labour party in the UK has again called on the government to make changes to draft surveillance legislation to improve privacy safeguards. The government is aiming to have the Investigatory Powers Bill (IP Bill), currently before parliament , on the statute books before the end of the year — giving the Labour party a stronger hand to push for amendments than it might if the government was in less of a rush to drive the bill through parliament. Writing a letter to the Home Secretary today, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, Andy Burnham, reiterated calls he made last month for a series of changes to the legislation, saying that in Labour’s view the current draft is “still some way” from achieving what be dubbed an “essential balance” between expanded security service capabilities and safeguards to public data. Among the changes Burnham is calling for are a tighter definition of ‘Internet Connection Records’ (aka the log of websites accessed by users which ISPs will be required to retain for 12 months ), plus greater limits on what ICR data can be used for and the public bodies that can access it; and an independent assessment of the case for bulk powers (aka mass surveillance powers such as mass hacking warrants). On the bulk powers point, Burnham adds: “I would be open to a discussion about the various forms this independent review could take but it is imperative that we get it up and running. I will consider carefully the nature and extent of the bulk powers in this Bill in light of the review.” The Labour party abstained from voting on the IP bill at the second reading in parliament, rather than actively voting against it — thereby enabling it to move to the next stage of legislative scrutiny without any major opposition. But there’s a more explicit threat of disruption to the government’s plans if Labour’s calls for changes are not heeded. “If I determine that our concerns are not satisfactorily dealt with during the passage of the Bill, then we will be unable to support a timetable that puts the Bill on the Statute Book by December this year,” Burnham added. Despite stating concerns for privacy — and calling for the bill to include “a presumption of people’s right to privacy” — Labour is nonetheless apparently quietly accepting of the idea of the systematic state logging of all websites accessed by UK web users for a full year. Aka ICRs. And while Burnham writes of ICRs being a “powerful new capability”, he does not query the proportionality of the capability, nor the security risks posed by requiring ISPs store such a honeypot of data on a rolling yearly basis — merely calling for ICRs to be more tightly defined and access to them controlled. And leaving others outside government to express concerns on this… 2016-04-04 20:16 Natasha Lomas

45 Sweetgreen’s Nicolas Jammet, Maple’s Caleb Merkl and Blue Apron’s Matt Salzberg to cook up a storm at Disrupt NY 2016 It’s safe to say that everyone can get down with food. That’s probably why the tech industry has seen so many startups — some more successful than others — attempting to tap into the food space. Last year, the food tech space really took off, with global funding for food tech startups hitting $5.7 billion, according to CB Insights . At TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2016, we’re going to chat with Maple CEO co-founder and CEO Caleb Merkl, Sweetgreen co-founder and CEO Nicolas Jammet, and Blue Apron founder and CEO Matt Salzberg. The three of them are respectively tackling the main subsets of food-tech: prepared meal delivery, online ordering and meal kit delivery. New York-based Maple, a prepared food delivery startup that has raised over $25 million , owns the entire process — from sourcing the food, to preparing it and then delivering it. Sweetgreen, on the other hand, operates physical salad shops accompanied with mobile ordering for pick-up in its 40 locations throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D. C. and California. Sweetgreen has raised $95 million to date. Last, but certainly not least, there’s Blue Apron, the meal kit delivery startup with $193 million in funding and a valuation of $2 billion. Right now, Maple, Sweetgreen and Blue Apron seem to be doing well while other food startups are in turmoil. In March, SpoonRocket shut down its operations in the U. S. and Munchery recently lost its chief customer experience officer just a few months after joining the company. At Disrupt NY, we’ll talk about how to keep your food startup above water, scaling food businesses, challenges with delivery, environmental impacts of the food tech industry and lots more. Join us for what should be a satiating conversation about food tech at Disrupt in New York, May 9 through May 11. Be sure to snag your ticket soon to take advantage of early bird pricing. Sponsors make TechCrunch events possible. If you want to learn more about sponsorships with TechCrunch, shoot an email to [email protected] . 2016-04-04 20:16 Megan Rose

46 Bkstg launches to directly connect musicians with their fans There are countless ways to connect with famous musicians, whether it’s following them on Instagram and Snapchat or buying tickets to all of their public appearances. But on either side of the spectrum, from the passive follow to the active stalking, the connection between fan and celebrity is minimal. Bkstg is looking to change all that, not only for fans but for artists. Bkstg is its own platform, created by Ran Harnevo, that lets artists own the entire experience of connecting with their fans, from posting videos and photos, selling tickets, and selling merchandise. The idea here is that artists often don’t have information about their fans or followers that can foster their connection. For example, five to ten percent of a fan base will often drive 80 percent of total revenue for a particular artists, according to Bkstg. But given the current tools, like Instagram and Twitter and SeatGeek for tickets, these artists have no way to identify who that top five to ten percent is. Bkstg gives artists a full dashboard to show interaction on the consumer side. They can see who is buying tickets, who is engaging with content, and who is watching exclusive videos and listening to exclusive tracks. Once that top five or ten percent is established, artists can specifically target those customers with exclusive experiences, messages, tickets and merchandise. But Bkstg isn’t just about targeting those top revenue fans, but for creating new ones. For example, an artist on tour can send a geo-fenced message out on Bkstg to offer discounted tickets that haven’t sold yet. Bkstg has been operating mostly in stealth right now, but is about to launch both on iOS and Android with more than sixty artists. Some of these artists include Aerosmith, Becky G, Justin Bieber, Usher, Daughtry, and Maroon 5. The platform is free to use for both artists (which are curated onto the platform) and users, but Bkstg takes a “technology fee” for each transaction that occurs on the Bkstg app, from tickets to merchandise to exclusive live broadcasts. You can learn more about Bkstg here . 2016-04-04 20:16 Jordan Crook

47 Early-bird ticket sales to Disrupt NY end soon Planning on making the trip to the Big Apple for Disrupt NY? You might as well save $1,000 in the process, but to do that you’re going to need to act quickly. Early-bird tickets to the hottest startup show in tech end on Friday, April 8. You can get your early-bird tickets here for the discounted price of just $1,995 apiece. After the 8th, tickets will increase to their full price of $2,995, so if you’re already planning to attend, you ought to consider getting your tickets now. That ticket gets you an all-access pass to TechCrunch Disrupt, where you can check out all the hot startups competing in the Startup Battlefield competition, trying to win the coveted Disrupt Cup, the $50,000 grand prize and, perhaps most importantly, the attention of the tech community at large. Plus, you’ll get to hear from our amazing lineup of entrepreneurs, investors and innovators who will share their wisdom with the community in the fireside chats and interviews we have scheduled. And you can check out the dozens of companies on display each day in Startup and Hardware Alley, chatting with the company founders and the other tech lovers perusing the show floor. With all the parties and afterparties on the Disrupt agenda, you can keep that networking going long into the night. But you can’t do any of it if you don’t have a ticket, and the best way to get a ticket is to do it now before the price jumps by $1,000 next week. You can get your early-bird tickets to Disrupt NY 2016 here. Disrupt takes place May 9-11 at at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in New York City, and we can’t wait to see you all there! Our sponsors help make Disrupt happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team at [email protected] . 2016-04-04 20:16 Matt Burns

48 Longtime Tesla Motors CIO Jay Vijayan has formed a stealth startup Jay Vijayan, who spent four years as the Chief Information Officer of Tesla Motors, and who served as its VP of IT and business applications for a year before that, left the company in January to form his own Bay Area startup. Vijayan isn’t talking yet about that company. (This reporter reached out to him last Monday and he hasn’t responded.) But his departure comes at an interesting time, given the almost unprecedented excitement surrounding the Model 3 car that Tesla unveiled to the public last Thursday night. As you may have already read, the company had booked more than 253,000 orders in the first 36 hours after CEO Elon Musk revealed several prototypes in a showy display reminiscent of Apple product releases. That kind of demand is surely putting to the test a proprietary software system called Warp that Vijayan and his team of engineers at Tesla designed to support its direct sales efforts in the U. S. (In 2014, the WSJ had taken a long look at the platform here .) Vijayan also appears to be doing some angel investing, which may or may not be related to his new startup. Last Monday, numerous India-based outlets reported that FixNix, a Bangalore- based governance, risk management, and compliance platform, had raised $500,000 in seed funding led by Vijayan, along with other, unnamed, Silicon Valley-based angel investors. Certainly, Vijayan looks likely to be creating enterprise software. Before joining Tesla, he spent five years at VMWare and seven years at Oracle. As noted by the outlet Electrek, Vijayan’s departure marks the second C-level change at Tesla within a few months’ time. The company’s longtime CFO Deepak Ahuja left the company late last year, saying he planned to retire. 2016-04-04 20:16 Connie Loizos

49 Medic Mobile locks $1 million grant to help community health workers in the developing world Tech nonprofit Medic Mobile has attained $1 million in unrestricted grant funding from the Peery Foundation for apps that help health workers deliver care to people who lack reasonable access to doctors and hospitals. According to Medic Mobile founder Josh Nesbit, about 10,000 health workers in developing nations use Medic Mobile’s apps today to record data about individuals’ health, and prioritize resources so that those with the most pressing needs get help first. Medic Mobile also gives health workers task lists and diagnostic information to help them accurately assess and do what they are able to on-the-spot for patients with a health problem. The San Francisco-based organization designs apps that are lightweight enough to use in the field on $10 Nokia phones and Android devices, which are commonly distributed by NGOs and government health offices to their workers. But it also designs its apps to be robust enough that they can be used, for free, by any clinic or hospital that needs software to manage their operations, and keep or share accurate, up-to-date patient records. It distributes its apps via one-click downloads, or on parallel sim cards that click into mobile phones. Established as a nonprofit in 2011, MedicMobile has raised about $10 million in philanthropic funding to-date, Nesbit said. Like most nonprofits, Medic Mobile is always fundraising. Typically, the checks it receives are earmarked for specific initiatives that matter to a donor, like bringing technology to workers focused on maternity and neo-natal health issues, or developing analytics that help health workers understand the spread of a vaccine-curable disease like malaria in a particular region. While $1 million may not sound like a handsome sum to tech startups operating as for-profits, the unrestricted grant from the Peery Foundation to Medic Mobile is noteworthy, because it goes to generally support the company, said Shannon Farley, founder and executive director of Fast Forward , an accelerator for tech nonprofits. Medic Mobile graduated from Fast Forward in 2014, receiving $20,000 from the accelerator and additional $20,000 from its partner, Google.org . Nesbit said that Medic Mobile intends to use the new grant money from the Peery Foundation for hiring and product development. “We will heavily pursue analytics as a way to help the manager who needs to decide which village to visit today, or a way to help health workers figure out what exactly is going on, like is a child malnourished or does he or she have malaria,” Nesbit said. He also said the company is developing “toolkits” that will help an individual worker, clinic or health office start using its technology immediately, on a DIY basis, even where they don’t have good web or cellular access. 2016-04-04 20:16 Lora Kolodny

50 The SEC is voicing concern about “eye-popping” startup valuations Consider it an early warning, or maybe a gentle reminder from your friendly securities regulator. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Chair Mary Jo White came to the heart of Silicon Valley to deliver a speech at Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance on March 31, 2016, which touched on a variety of topics but was rather forthright in addressing startup valuations. Management and boards at late stage, or pre-IPO, companies are on notice that the SEC is paying attention to the late stage financing arena, and should look internally to ensure that corporate governance and financial controls are befitting their scale, and should also ensure the accuracy of the disclosures they make when raising funds. Job number one of the SEC is investor protection. Viewed through this lens, it makes sense that the SEC would start paying attention to what’s going on in the world of Unicorns and their “eye- popping”, as White put it, valuations. To be fair, late stage financing occurs in the private markets, where the players are sophisticated and typically understand the risks associated with growth stage investing. However, these financings are still subject to basic securities laws requirements, including the accuracy of information provided to prospective investors in these companies, which White openly questioned. She was concerned that the motivations to achieve a high valuation may lead to impropriety in disclosures. White noted, “In the Unicorn context, there is a worry that the tail may wag the horn, so to speak, on valuation disclosures. The concern is whether the prestige associated with reaching a sky high valuation fast drives companies to try to appear more valuable than they actually are.” It’s well-known in Silicon Valley that valuation itself has become a KPI, whether for noble reasons ( recruiting talent ) or not (valuation as vanity metric ). White wondered aloud “… whether the publicity and pressure to achieve the Unicorn benchmark is analogous to that felt by public companies to meet projections they make to the market with the attendant risk of financial reporting problems.” The SEC has now reminded companies that these motivations and pressures do not excuse bending the rules by inaccurately reflecting company performance. Further, the SEC is keenly aware that the risk of inaccuracy is increased at startups because they tend to have looser internal controls than their public counterparts (Zenefits is the glaring example here). Accordingly, White stressed the importance of financial controls and corporate governance at pre-IPO companies. The trend of companies staying private longer has had an effective multiplier effect on concerns about internal controls. The IPO process itself is a solution to these problems, through the disinfecting nature of transparency and the commitment of companies to strengthen controls and governance. By punting on the IPO, companies are also delaying transparent financial and operational reporting and the building of strong internal governance and financial controls. Private companies that operate at a scale that is on par with listed public companies, but which do not have the same level of internal controls pose a risk to investor and market protection. And when that happens, the SEC will care. Indeed, White warned that fast growing Unicorns may be at risk of not having controls in place to ensure accurate financial statements. Leaders in the startup community should consider whether companies they manage or advise have grown their internal controls and governance structures in proportion to the companies’ operational scale. Leaders at companies ought to examine whether their management teams and boards have proper regulatory, financial, and industry experience to make the right decisions to benefit all stakeholders. 2016-04-04 20:16 Shriram Bhashyam

51 DJI, 3DR, Parrot and GoPro form new drone advocacy group DJI, 3DR, Parrot and GoPro are launching their own drone advocacy group to lobby for “policies that promote innovation and safety, and create a practical and responsible regulatory framework.” The Small UAV Coalition, which launched with participation from DJI, 3DR, Amazon Prime Air and others interested in the drone ecosystem, has been one of the main lobbying groups for drone manufacturers since it launched in 2014. Now, however, the logos of DJI, 3DR, Parrot and GoPro are nowhere to be found on the Small UAV Coalition’s member page (which still includes the likes of Google[x], Amazon Prime Air, AirMap, Intel and others). “There are significant economic and social benefits to drone operations in the U. S., and industry must work with policymakers to ensure a safe environment for flying,” the members of the new alliance said in a statement today. “The Drone Manufacturers Alliance believes a carefully balanced regulatory framework requires input from all stakeholders and must recognize the value and necessity of continued technological innovation. By highlighting innovation and emphasizing education, we intend to work with policymakers to ensure drones continue to be safely integrated into the national airspace.” As the drone market — and the number of companies in it — continued to grow, the Small UAV coalition probably didn’t feel like the right kind of group to represent the interests of these major drone manufacturers anymore. As long as this doesn’t lead to unnecessary turf wars, having two organizations that essentially advocate for the same issues doesn’t have to be a bad thing, especially if the Small UAV coalition now gets to focus on commercial drone usage and the Drone Manufacturer Coalition on consumer issues. 2016-04-04 20:16 Frederic Lardinois

52 Saleforce Acquires MetaMind MetaMind, a Palo Alto-based AI startup founded in July 2014, is being acquired for undisclosed terms by Salesforce. According to new post published at the company’s website by CEO Richard Socher — a Stanford PhD who studied machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing and computer vision –Salesforce plans to use its technology to “further automate and personalize customer support, marketing automation, and many other business processes. We’ll extend Salesforce’s data science capabilities by embedding deep learning within the Salesforce platform.” As a standalone company, MetaMind’s general purpose platform was designed to predict outcomes for language, vision and database tasks. For unpaid web users, Socher says, MetaMind’s products will be discontinued on May 4. For its monthly recurring users, MetaMind’s products will be discontinued on June 4. The company says it will delete any data it has stored for unpaid web users and monthly recurring users after April 11. MetaMind had raised $8 million from investors, shows CrunchBase. Its backers include Khosla Ventures and (notably) Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. 2016-04-04 20:16 Connie Loizos

53 Top sports websites unleash foul play in the enterprise If you are not familiar with March Madness (because I guess you live under a rock — or don’t live in the U. S.), it’s a single-elimination college basketball tournament played each spring, featuring 68 teams competing for one championship title. It’s one of the most anticipated events in college sports and as we head into tonight’s championship game it’s clear that viewership in person, on TV and online only increased. In 2015, March Madness set an all-time record with 80.7 million live video streams and 17.8 million hours of live video consumption, up 17 and 19 percent respectively from the previous year. “Multi-tasking” is nothing new to employees who often pull up a live stream (or two) to watch the games while at work. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. , employers will lose $1.3 billion in decreased productivity during March Madness and this year, IT will not only have to manage bandwidth consumption and decreased productivity, but also increased risk. To determine what the threat landscape on the Web looks like for sports fans watching the games online, we analyzed the top 10 sports websites in the U. S. based on the Alexa ranking . These 10 sites are the most visited during March Madness, with sports fans regularly checking their bracket and streaming games to see if their favorite teams are advancing to the next stage. The tests we ran were designed to determine the amount of code used by the sites and the system versions behind the scenes used to deliver the content. What’s not obvious to the end user is that a visit to one of the top 10 sports websites also results in the browser loading active content from many other sources, called “background initiated requests.” Here are the key points we discovered: There are many legitimate reasons why developers use scripts to enhance the user experience of a website today, but similarly attackers can use scripting capabilities for iframe redirects and malvertising links to compromise browsers. The total number of scripts executed, especially when they are fetched and executed from the risky “background sites” significantly increases the risk of visiting a website. While the “background initiated requests” greatly facilitate tracking from CDNs and ad-networks, this also means that the website owners have little to no control over the security posture of these “background sites.” In a number of recent breaches such as Yahoo!, Forbes or the Plenty of Fish ( pof.com ) online dating site, a background site was breached, meaning that a visit to a top ranked site resulted in a malware drop. For enterprises looking to protect their employees, especially during this time of heightened multitasking at work watching the NCAA tournament, this is a huge challenge. All of these top sports sites are considered “safe” in the eyes of IT because they are seemingly popular and well-known. Web gateways also do not block trusted sites causing employees to continually get infected. While the recent focus has been on March Madness, this is a challenge year round. Breaches cost enterprises millions of dollars each year and that number isn’t decreasing any time soon. Detection of known threats on the Web is proving to be very hard for the industry, let alone unknown threats. The reality is that merely checking a March Madness bracket puts not only the employee at risk, but also the entire enterprise. If you knew that an employee going to a top 10 sports website in the U. S. exposes their browser to more than 513 scripts from domains already marked as malicious, would it make you think twice? 2016-04-04 20:16 Kowsik Guruswamy

54 Microsoft announces cloud services, developer tools and productivity extensions for every developer SAN FRANCISCO — March 31, 2016 — Thursday at Build 2016, Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Cloud and Enterprise Group, and Qi Lu, executive vice president of the Applications and Services Group, demonstrated how Microsoft Azure services and the Office platform can empower developers to more easily leverage advanced analytics, machine learning, emerging cloud development models and the Internet of Things (IoT) to build their intelligent apps. Microsoft also announced new free development tools to help every developer more easily scale their apps for every platform and reach the largest possible number of customers. Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of Developer eXperience, delivered the final Build keynote address to showcase how partners are innovating using Azure, Office and Windows. “Microsoft is the only cloud vendor that supports the diverse needs of every organization and developer — from core infrastructure services to platform services and tools to software-as-a- service — for any language, across any platform,” Guthrie said. “With 30 regions worldwide — more than every major cloud provider combined — Azure’s massive scale means developers and businesses alike can focus on creating the next generation of amazing applications, not their underlying cloud infrastructure. This makes our cloud the de facto choice for enterprises of today and tomorrow — and today, more than 85 percent of the Fortune 500 agree.” “In terms of reach, Office is one of the few platforms in the world that provides developers with access to over a billion users across a variety of devices,” Lu said. “The opportunity to build on the Office platform has never been greater. With new extensions and new connections to the Microsoft Graph — an intelligent fabric that applies machine learning to map the connections between people, content and interactions across Office 365 — developers are empowered to build intelligent apps that can transform the landscape of work.” The intelligent cloud to help developers build their next intelligent app Guthrie announced on Thursday that Microsoft is helping developers more easily build native cross-platform mobile applications by including Xamarin’s capabilities in Visual Studio Community and also making Xamarin Studio for OS X free as a community edition. In addition, Visual Studio Enterprise subscribers will now have access to Xamarin’s advanced enterprise capabilities at no additional cost. The company also announced a commitment to open source the Xamarin SDK, including its runtime, libraries and command line tools, as part of the. NET Foundation in the coming months. With these announcements, Microsoft extends its commitment to offering choice and flexibility to every customer across every platform and device — merging the. NET and Xamarin ecosystems together to provide an unmatched mobile development and DevOps experience. Now developers can deliver fully native cross-platform mobile app experiences to all major devices, including iOS, Android and Windows. Guthrie also announced several new Azure services designed to help developers address today’s operational realities and take advantage of tomorrow’s emerging trends, such as the Internet of Things and microservices. These new capabilities are designed to make Azure the best platform to build the next intelligent app — on Linux or Windows using any language: The Office developer opportunity: unprecedented users, data and intelligence Microsoft’s Lu, along with Office partners Starbucks Corp., MDLIVE Inc. and Zendesk Inc., showcased how developers can use the Office platform to create new business opportunity and closer customer connections. Starbucks CTO Gerri Martin-Flickinger showed how Starbucks is developing an Outlook add-in that allows people to send gift cards within Outlook and schedule meetings at nearby Starbucks locations. “We’re always looking for new ways to engage with our customers outside our stores,” said Martin-Flickinger. “Our work with Office is opening up new opportunities for us to connect with our customers and save them time when they want to combine coffee with meetings. Building on the Office platform is reaching our customers right on their desktop or device and extending the Starbucks Experience to them in new and compelling ways.” The Microsoft Graph, made generally available last fall, offers developers unified access to insights about how workers can be more productive. Microsoft previewed six new APIs for the Microsoft Graph that let developers link Office 365 data to third-party solutions. For example, one extension automatically compiles and exposes a list of times a group of people are available to meet, making it easier to work across organizations. Lu also shared how conversational interaction will evolve in the future and how developers can immediately start building apps that engage users in meaningful conversations. The new Skype for Business App SDK and Skype Web SDK announced Thursday allow companies to integrate Skype calls directly within their Web or device offering, greatly enhancing the service and connection they can provide to their customers. The company also showed off new functionality that lets developers build apps and place them directly into Word, Excel and PowerPoint ribbons. Finally, the developer portal for Office 365 Connectors is now available for developers to write and publish their own connectors. Connectors deliver relevant content, such as updates on financial records or helpdesk logs, from popular apps and services directly into Office 365 Groups conversations. The developer portal is launching with connectors such as Asana, Salesforce, Trello, Twitter, UserVoice, Zendesk and many more. Developers and partners innovate on Windows, Azure and Office Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts . 2016-04-04 19:19 By Microsoft

55 TypeScript 2.0 Preview Anders Hejlsberg returned to Microsoft's Build conference in 2016 to talk about the current state of TypeScript and show off some amazing features coming in the next few months. Hejlsberg divided his talk into three main parts, allocating the first 15 minutes to retelling of the high-level story of TypeScript. "TypeScript: JavaScript that scales" is how he described the language and its goal of closing the "JavaScript feature gap". The demos involved basic type checking, statement completion, and how the compiler output compares to the source. After the brief introduction, he showed off what's changed since Build 2015. The team has a 3 to 4 month cadence that has resulted in 4 main releases in the past year. In an Angular 2 demo, Hejlsberg showed how to embed the TypeScript compiler in the browser, eliminating the separate step of recompiling code after a file change. He took the same demo application and repeated it using React, showing off TypeScript's ability to understand JSX, the embedded markup technology favored by React developers. To drive the point home, he refactored the name of a component and showed how TypeScript updated all of the component references throughout the project, including inside the embedded JSX code. Included in the demo was the integration with webpack and the community driven TypeScript loader. What we're moving towards with our tools -- Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code -- is actually using the TypeScript infrastructure as our language service for JavaScript. Visual Studio Code has already switched to using that. This language service is called Salsa and Visual Studio Code switched to it in version 0.10.10. The modified TypeScript compiler can use any jsdoc information provided by the developer. In addition, if there are any TypeScript definition files in a project, Salsa can use them to provide statement completion for plain old JavaScript. TypeScript not required. In the final 15 minutes, the future of TypeScript took center stage. For TypeScript 2.0, the current road map consists of: Version 2.0 is expected to be completed in a "couple of months". Regarding the upcoming non-nullable types, a new compiler flag called strictNullChecks will be available that eliminates the ability for a type to be undefined or null. A number can only be a number, never undefined or null. After demoing the new non-nullable types and control flow based type analysis on his sample code, Hejlsberg was able to declare: "This code has no bugs. " A powerful demo at the end of the presentation showed off the strength of the new TypeScript type checks and how it can easily deal with the sometimes confusing ways of JavaScript. "JavaScript has some quirks, but you can teach a compiler about the quirks and you can have it check all of these things", he said, adding, "This is nuts! " For more detail on where TypeScript is going, Watch the entire Channel 9 video, "What's New in TypeScript". 2016-04-04 19:41 David Iffland

56 Real environmental data in real time for simulations Engineering departments at large automotive companies today use simulation when conducting virtual tests during the development phase of their new vehicle designs. This involves computing the physical properties of the cars in advance, which significantly shortens the often year-long testing loops with real test vehicles. For example, this is already being done in testing passive safety, acoustics, durability and reliability, and for energy efficiency, fuel consumption and carbon emissions. At present, vehicle can be simulated very well using software tools. However, it is difficult to simulate environmental influences that have a significant effect on the automobile while driving, such as street conditions, weather and driving maneuvers. Experts often work with assumptions rather than with actual data because generating the actual data and making it relevant for simulations is complex and expensive. "For years we have been working closely with automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturers; we have recognized this need and made it our mission to develop cost-effective solutions to include road and environment into simulation based vehicle engineering," says Dr. Klaus Dressler of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM in Kaiserslautern. Big Data expertise brings large amounts of data under control At the Hannover Messe 2016, scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute will be presenting a system that consists of a test vehicle, a geo-referenced database and a vehicle simulator (Hall 7, Stand E11). Using two 360-degree laser scanners, the Road & Environmental Data Acquisition Rover (REDAR) captures enormous amounts of environmental data at normal driving speed. "We call it point cloud data. That means for each 3D coordinate we have environmental data," says Dressler. The ITWM researchers have managed to prepare the terabyte-sized dataset so that it can be used in real time in 3D interactive driving simulations. "The volume of data is so large that the data cannot be easily fed into the memory of a computer system. We have therefore developed an out-of-core method to process only the data necessary for the running time in the simulator. " REDAR captures data from the building fronts to the left and right and from the street in front and behind of the vehicle at a distance of 200 meters. It also scans the road's surface with a resolution of less than half a centimeter. An inertial platform eliminates potential movement of the vehicle from the raw data of the laser scanner so that it can be objectively processed by the software. "To build such a complex measurement system and consistently process the data through appropriate algorithms were our biggest challenges," Dressler adds. The test vehicle has been in use since 2015 and has already been collecting data for various customer projects. Merging fine- and coarse-grained data ITWM's own driving simulator RODOS (Robot-based Driving and Operation Simulator) converts the metrics collected by REDAR. The simulator consists of a cabin system in which a steering wheel, gas and brake pedal can be operated. The driver cabin is connected with a 6-axle robot system that realistically simulates accelerations, braking or driving around tight curves. "The test driver moves through a virtual world that feels very realistic after just a few minutes," explains Dressler. The simulations are supported with data from the database system known as Virtual Measurement Campaign (VMC). The database provides the world's road network with its topography, regulations, weather and additional geo-referenced data. "With the data collected from the data acquistion vehicle we merge real fine-coarsed data with the coarse-grained data from the VMC. Merging the two worlds is an important step in developing test scenarios for the engineering of road-bound vehicles," says Dressler. At the joint stand of the Fraunhofer Society at the Hannover Messe, the researchers will show how REDAR's fine-coarsed data is imported into the coarse-grained world of 3D driving simulations. 2016-04-04 19:29 feeds.sciencedaily

57 57 Think twice about android root: Engineers quantify amount of Android root exploits available in commercial software and show that they can be easily abused Many rooting methods essentially operate by launching an exploit (or malicious code) against a vulnerability in the Android system. Due to the fact that Android systems are so diverse and fragmented and that Android systems have a notoriously long update cycle (typically due to the hold time at mobile carriers), the window of vulnerabilities is typically very large. This creates the opportunity for business of offering root as a service by many companies, but at the same also creates opportunities for attackers to compromise the system using the same exploits. Rooting comes with plenty of advantages. With full control of the device, users can do everything from remove unwanted pre-installed software, enjoy additional functionalities offered by specialized apps and run paid apps for free. But, it also comes with potential significant disadvantages, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering has found. In a first-of-its-kind study of the Android root ecosystem, Zhiyun Qian and two student researchers set out to (1) uncover how many types and variations of Android root exploits exist publically and how they differ from ones offered by commercial root providers and (2) find out how difficult it is to abuse the exploits. They found that few of the exploits could be detected by mobile antivirus software and that are systematic weaknesses and flaws in the security protection measures offered by commercial root providers that make them susceptible to being stolen and easily repackaged in malware. "This is a highly unregulated area that we found is ripe for abuse by malware authors looking to gain access to all kinds of personal information," Qian said. "And, unfortunately, there is not much users can do except hope that a security update gets pushed out quickly by Google, vendors and carriers, which they usually aren't. " Qian has outlined the findings in a paper, "Android Root and its Providers: A Double-Edged Sword," which he will present at the 22nd ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Denver from Oct. 12 to 16. The paper is co-authored by two graduate students working with Qian: Hang Zhang and Dongdong She. Rooting is a response to that fact that users or mobile phones and tablets are not given full control over their devices. In the Apple and iOS ecosystem, rooting is known as jailbreaking. In this paper, Qian focuses on Android because the system is more open and has more developers and models, making it a better area for research. Development of root exploits generally fall into two categories. Individual developers or hackers often identify vulnerabilities, develop and make public exploit tools. In addition, there are commercial companies that develop exploits. These take the form of apps, which are typically free, that users voluntarily download and then click on to activate the exploits. "This is a really a phenomena in computer history, in which users are essentially voluntarily launching attacks against their own devices to gain control," Qian said. Unfortunately, he added, as his findings show, attackers can acquire such exploits by impersonating a regular user. To make matters worse, large commercial root providers have a large repository of root exploits, which gives attackers a strong incentive to target such providers. In his research, Qian and the student engineers focused on seven large commercial root providers, one of which they studied more in depth. They found that one company had more than 160 exploits, which they subcategorized into 59 families. That 59 figure is almost double the number of exploits (39) they found publically available from individual developers. "If we were able to do this," Qian said, "hackers can definitely do it too. " 2016-04-04 19:29 feeds.sciencedaily

58 Microsoft's Mehdi: Data security is always under attack Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Windows and Devices Group, Yusuf Mehdi, discusses the state of security and privacy in tech as well as the possibility that the company may acquire Yahoo, on the sidelines of Microsoft's Build 2016 conference. 2016-04-04 19:07 Getty Images

59 MSI WT72 VR-focused and NVIDIA-powered laptop is Oculus Rift and HTC Vive compatible Virtual reality is definitely a legit thing now. For a while, it felt a bit like a gimmick the tech industry was trying to jam down consumers' throats. While not a new concept, it is finally affordable and offers what should be a satisfying experience. Sure, it is not yet perfect, but devices like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are certainly ushering in a new era. All of this awesome new VR technology requires a powerful Windows PC. Sorry folks, that Chromebook or MacBook you covet is useless here. Heck, even most computers running Microsoft's ubiquitous desktop OS can't handle it. Today, MSI unveils a Quadro M5500-powered laptop that can handle both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The unimaginatively named WT72 mobile workstation is VR-focused and can be configured with top specs. It can even be configured with a Xeon processor! Of course, it is also very expensive. "Designed for maximum performance, MSI's WT72 is powered by NVIDIA's Quadro M5500 GPU, Intel's 6th generation Core-i7 and Xeon processors, and up to 64GB of DDR4 memory. The latest in professional graphics design technology, the Quadro M5500 is the world's fastest mobile GPU, delivering up to 35 percent performance increase over previous models, with 2,048 cores for optimum speed and power", says MSI. The company further says, "to enhance the multimedia and user experience, MSI equipped the WT72 with audiophile-grade Dynaudio speakers featuring Nahimic Audio enhancer, True Color Technology screens with Adobe RGB certification for wide viewing angles and the most accurate visuals, and the new SteelSeries backlit keyboard with Silver-Lining Print to eliminate eye strain. The WT72 also comes with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 connectors, and features a dual fan design for efficient heat dissipation". Oh my. This beast is drop dead gorgeous, and chock-full of cutting-edge technology. There is no reason not to buy it, right? Well, not so fast -- the price is likely to stop most consumers in their tracks. The starting price is $5,500 -- no, that is not a typo. As you increase the specs, it tops out at $6,900. Jeez, these cost more than my car is worth! You can see the three configuration options above -- all are available now. While all the models make me want to simultaneously drool and cry tears of joy, none are in my budget, sadly. Are you willing to spend so much to take advantage of virtual reality with a laptop? Tell me in the comments. 2016-04-04 18:02 By Brian

60 The threat of ransomware is so great, the US and Canada issue joint security alert Malware is far from being a new problem, but the inexorable rise of ransomware has taken many by surprise. There have been a number of very high profile instances of ransomware such as PETYA , and the threat is perceived as being so high that the US and Canada have taken the unusual step of issuing a joint security alert. The likes of TeslaCrypt 4 feature 'unbreakable encryption' and use scare-tactics to encourage victims to part with their money. This is what has prompted the joint alert from the US Department of Homeland Security and the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre which warns about "destructive ransomware variants such as Locky and Samas". Interestingly, the advisory actively discourages victims from bowing to ransom demands. The advisory warns that "individuals or organizations are discouraged from paying the ransom, as this does not guarantee files will be released". However, it does recognise that "the authors of ransomware instill fear and panic into their victims, causing them to click on a link or pay a ransom". But this is said to be a bad idea as it could lead to additional malware infection, and could result in the theft of bank details and other data. The focus is on prevention rather than cure, and US-CERT offers a number of tips aimed at both users and administrators: Photo credit: Borislav Bajkic / Shutterstock 2016-04-04 17:30 By Mark

61 Windows 10 proves most popular with PC gamers – at least on Steam During Microsoft's Build 2016 conference, the firm came out with an updated Windows 10 installs figure of 270 million since launch, its fastest operating system (OS) adoption rate ever. But, there's one group of people with which the OS is already on top: PC gamers. Valve, the company behind PC gaming service Steam, released its latest monthly Steam Hardware & Software Survey , revealing that 36.97% of its users are logging in via the 64-bit version of Windows 10. That's nearly a 3% increase since Valve's February Steam Survey. Windows 10 has been chipping at the dominance of Windows 7 in PC gaming circles for months, all of which has been captured in Valve's monthly surveys. The older OS has experienced a gradual decline in its user base in almost direct correlation with the boosts that the new hotness has enjoyed. Despite one of the veritable leaders of PC gamers decrying Windows 10 as Microsoft's trojan horse into a takeover of the scene, folks continue to be drawn toward its light. Well, two lights. For one, Windows 10 is 100% free until July 29 of this year, so that has to be a major driver to upgrade, especially considering it will be supported for free for years to come. In fact, as folks run out of time to upgrade for free over the next few months, I wouldn't be surprised to see this number get bigger – fast. Secondly, Windows 10 – as of this writing – is the only OS that currently supports DirectX 12. Microsoft's new graphics programming interface is said to improve games' speed, reliability and power consumption. While there isn't a ton of DirectX 12-supported games around just yet, that number is bound to only increase, and so it makes sense for gamers to want to get in on the ground level. That's especially with new PC games like Just Cause 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Hitman already out and making use of the new standard. Something tells me that Microsoft doesn't feel all too inspired to bring DirectX 12 to, say, Windows 7 anytime soon. Article continues below 2016-04-04 17:10 Joe Osborne

62 Which is the most complex programming language? JavaScript may be today’s go-to for front-end programming, but in many ways it’s a language that mimics what has come before. Just like COBOL, C, C++, C#, Java and Python, JavaScript is a procedural language. There’s nothing distinctive about JavaScript, with one big exception: JavaScript has a code complexity problem. How could JavaScript, a language based on the same paradigm as many others, have a complexity problem that is so singular? The answer is temporality. JavaScript sits in a unique spot in software development history, rising squarely in the midst of a shift from mostly back- end to mostly front-end development, which was spurred by the mobile revolution. Newly popular front-end developers would need to clean up the messy legacy of overtaxed designers, who had played second fiddle and thus rarely received the resources they needed to finish the job. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time for clean-up, or rather, leadership didn’t make time as they continued to ask for more bells and whistles. This is the conundrum in which JavaScript programmers found themselves in the late 2000s and it’s a story that plays out in the data. Seerene has analyzed more than 400 billion lines of code to identify and visualise the programming languages that create the most headaches for developers. Take a look at the infographic below to see if your language of choice is among the most complex, confusing or inefficient. Oliver Muhr, CEO of Seerene . Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved. Image Credit : alphaspirit / Shutterstock 2016-04-04 16:46 By Oliver

63 Black Duck Names Open-Source Rookies of the Year Black Duck , which provides automated solutions for securing and managing open-source software, has announced its annual Open Source Rookies of the Year awards, recognizing the top new open- source projects initiated in 2015. Patrick Carey, Black Duck's director of product management, who headed the selection process, said the chosen projects show how diverse and ambitious open-source software development has become. "This year's Rookies are impressive examples of how far open source has come, with start-ups like Mattermost and Glucosio as well as big players like Google, Facebook and Red Hat leveraging the open-source community to help drive innovation in everything from DevOps and Docker container solutions to diabetes monitoring and real-time communication," he said. The 2015 Rookies class reflects three hot technologies shaping the future of open-source software: Docker containers, open collaboration and artificial intelligence. In 2014, a number of Docker ecosystem players emerged, and the trend continued into 2015 with several, including projects sponsored by Red Hat and Capital One. This eWEEK slide show looks at the winners and honorable mentions of the 2015 Black Duck Rookie of the Year awards. 2016-04-04 19:16 Darryl K

64 FileHippo News - powered by FeedBurner That’s right, adblocking may be coming to Redmond’s flagship browser in the next scheduled release for its Internet Explorer replacement. If it happens, Microsoft will become another high profile tech firm that allows for adblocking software as standard. This new feature for Edge would mean that web users would no longer need the 3 rd party extension AdBlock or AdBlock Plus, and would further annoy and concern publishers and website owners that rely on the revenue from online ads to survive. Despite the fact that Google and Google’s Chrome browser is the world’s preferred way to surf the web, Microsoft still have a substantial subset proportion of the market, especially among enterprise users. According to Microsoft themselves, there are currently over 200 million devices running Windows 1o worldwide, and that number is growing. And of course, the Edge browser comes as standard with Windows 1o, whether users choose to use Bing or Google to do their surfing. News of feature has spread quickly after Cotton spotted the new extension at a Microsoft Build conference, called “What’s Next for Microsoft’s New Browser,” – in one slide that seemed to show the next version of Edge would include adblocking capability when it is released. While adblocking was for many years primarily only of benefit mainly to the tech heads of the world, in recent times, it has become much more popular among users. The growth in adblocking has risen greatly in the last few years. Toward the end of last year, Apple , brought the concept to most its ‘i’ users by allowing its latest version of its own browser, Safari, to carry third party adblockers. In January of this year, a Mozilla Co-Founder, launched Brave , a web browser that came with adblocking built in and turned on as standard. Apple’s entry to the adblocking world came as no surprise to many, as it still makes the majority of its profits from hardware sales, while Mozilla and its creators have always had a fairly egalitarian approach to the web. Unsurprisingly, Google, who rely on advertising for more than 90% of its revenue, has not released plans for its own built in adblocking software. As Mr. Bott notes at the bottom of his article: “It remains to be seen how the new ad-blocking features will work. But with new features expected to arrive in Windows 10 preview builds in the coming weeks, we probably will know soon.” Time will tell. The post Microsoft To Go To The Edge To Offer Adblocking appeared first on FileHippo News . One of the best innovations in the connected internet revolution has got to be the way that companies can tap into the greatest workforce possible, regardless of geography. Telecommuting is allowing even the smallest startup to reach team members literally anywhere around the planet, giving them a manpower edge that many new companies didn’t have even ten years ago. But whether a company’s team works together in the same office or is scattered across three continents and eight different time zones, there is a fundamental problem with any group effort: real-time, secure communication. That’s where the rise in popularity in collaborative software comes in, and one of the names at the forefront is Asana. Founded by two well-known names in digital engineering–one of them a co-founder of Facebook–Asana was named one of the top twenty collaborative software options by business software group Capterra, and has already grabbed some major name customers like Zappos, Facebook, Groupon, and more. How many more? Around 13,000 different paying subscribers, all connecting on projects ranging from the frivolous to the closely guarded game changer. In a recent blog post , the founders explained why their focus on a streamlined workflow product was so crucial: because there wasn’t anything reliably useful when they needed it in previous jobs: “Asana has been our attempt to solve the pain of work about work, letting organizations easily achieve their goals, or take on bigger ones. We call that solution ‘work tracking,’ software that manages who’s responsible for what by when, and generally serves as the source of truth for everything a team is working on. We—now a team of 186 people—have collectively invested so much love and hard work into this attempt, it’s hard to articulate how gratifying it feels to step back and see that it’s actually…working.” One goal for the new investment series is to work on creating a “bigger is better” version of the current application. While most people think of a narrowly focused team working through software like Asana, the company already has several large-base clients with very broad needs. Zappos uses the software across its entire company, not just within one group, like product development. An article on Asana’s recent Series C investment also cited city governments that are using Asana to replace the old inter-office email system, meaning the entire city workforce is connected through this software. The post Asana Raises $50M In Latest Investment Round appeared first on FileHippo News . From now on, the MIT Media Lab will release its software via FLOSS: (Free Libre Open-Source Software) The move was announced by Media Lab director, Joi Ho, in a blog post last weekend: “I’m proud to announce that we are changing our internal procedures to encourage more free and open-source software.” Ho hopes that by changing the way they they approach software, it will allow students to free up the code they write so there will be no need for approval from either internal or external administrative hurdles. In doing so, Ho argues that this will align MIT more closely with its core altruistic academic values, that in essence asserts that knowledge should be shared, tested, and externally validated by its peers. “Previously, software releases using free and open source licenses were approved by an internal committee. But since we’ve always allowed our developers to open-source their work, we’re eliminating the unnecessary hurdle: from now on any open source request will be viewed as the default and automatically approved….“We respect the autonomy of our community members and will continue to let them choose whether to release their software as proprietary or open. But removing the open source approval step will level the playing field.” MIT Media Lab’s announcement was met with a positive response from the online community, especially from supporters and advocates of free and open-source software in general, such as the free OS, Linux, and its variants. The post MIT Media Lab Goes Open Source, And Doesn’t Forget To FLOSS appeared first on FileHippo News . The move comes after Microsoft found not only are macro based attacks on the rise , but that a massive 98% of all malware attacks against Office, were macro based. Microsoft are quite keen to point out that that 98% figure applies to malware attempts as opposed to actual infections, but well, you get the picture. “The enduring appeal for macro-based malware appears to rely on a victim’s likelihood to enable macros.” The new feature allows IT administrators to easily block and prevent networked users from enabling macros in what they might consider to be ‘high risk’ scenarios. The result now, is that even when an employee attempts to leave Office protected view, they will be prevented from doing so, and then informed about the risks they potentially face. Of course, the term ‘high risk’ is subjective, and can often depend on the personal zeal level of the admin in question, but generally it could include docs downloaded directly from the internet or communal cloud storage lockers, or even documents attached to emails originating from outside a secure network. “For end-users, we always recommend that you don’t enable macros on documents you receive from a source you do not trust or know, and be careful even with macros in attachments from people you do trust – in case they’ve been hacked.” This was good advice before Office received its new macro protection, and its good advice now, as well. The post Microsoft Takes Macro Protection Action appeared first on FileHippo News . If you’re looking for an all-in-one tool for redesigning and sharing your digital photos–while still not requiring a degree in graphic design to work it…looking at you, expensive photo editing software–then look no further than FotoJet. This free tool gives you multiple options for creating collage, email headers, Instagram posts with professional-looking text, and more, while producing results that look like they were rendered in the studio. FotoJet offers more than 500 uniquely creative collage templates and over 80 different classic collage layouts. Of course, if you have a little more know-how and want to design something truly personal, you can build your own design from the ground up using the themed templates provided, like the Collage or Photo Card. There are even tools that are specifically intended for social media needs, like a Facebook cover image generator, a standard Facebook post template, a Twitter header, and a YouTube channel cover image creator. The tool even offers some fun options, like incorporating your images into a magazine cover, for example; your wedding photos can be introduced via a People magazine cover a’ la the latest royal or celebrity wedding spread. One particular favorite is the wide variety of customizeable holiday cards that put some of the expensive services to shame. Finally, the collage template options range from the light-hearted and silly to the studio-quality portrait work, all of which you can easily make your own by “choosing a template, adding your own photos, freely editing and customizing the template with text or clipart images, and then saving or sharing your work.” For those who have a little more expertise when it comes to creating a digital product, the Classic mode lets you choose from a variety of pre-formed drag-and-drop options, much like a newsletter layout. Select the number of boxes you want, fill the boxes with your content, text, or clip art, and create. One of the most attractive things about FotoJet is its fully browser-based workflow. There’s no software to download, no upgrades or updates to keep up with, just an easy to click and intuitive builder that let’s you produce an attractive, professional-looking end result in minutes. To sign up for FotoJet’s free service, check out the site by clicking HERE. The post FotoJet Makes Digital Photo Sharing Easy appeared first on FileHippo News . When hackers first stumbled upon the treasure trove of personal identifiable information that hospitals, medical centers, and doctors’ offices collected on their patients, the entire industry became a target for identity theft. With an afternoon’s worth of hacking, thieves could make off with hundreds of thousands of patients’ records; if the medical center complex was connected by a shared network, the number of affected victims in a single hacking event could even reach the millions. But hackers have a new tool at their disposal, thanks to the punishment that a medical center faces if they become the victims of a data breach (yes, if a hacker infiltrates their network, even in spite of strict security protocols, the hospital can be held responsible for the HIPAA violation associated with exposing patients’ confidential records). With the massive fines and penalties associated with a patient privacy violation, hackers have now learned that there’s serious money to be made from ransomware. In a ransomware attack, not only is the hospital facing punitive monetary damages, but with patient records under lock and key, there’s the very real threat of danger to human life (and then the resulting lawsuits associated with that); several hospitals have been reduced to the Stone Age paper-and-pen records systems just to continue providing care during a ransomware attack, and one California hospital so far this year has already paid the hackers in Bitcoin to unlock its network in order to continue helping its patients. At the same time, the medical industry can be hit hard by a single hacking event, which is why thieves are going after the industry in such a big way. UCLA Health, which had 4.5 million patient records breached in a single event, stated in its notification letter that it blocks “millions” of known hacking attempts every year. The next big thing in IT and software development? Creating an impenetrable medical records network that will allow hospitals to continue meeting the needs of the sick and injured while keeping hackers at bay. If even the FBI couldn’t get into an outdated iPhone, surely there’s a team who can write a code that will prevent this type of crime. The post Taking Hospitals Hostage With Ransomware appeared first on FileHippo News . The scientists found that the majority of participants reacted to the reminders and provided stimulus by suppressing their opinions and true feelings on topics that they considered to be either non-mainstream, or where they thought they would find themselves in the minority. In effect, it highlights the reasons why many governments would rather their citizens didn’t know that were under an umbrella of state surveillance. The study lends itself to the social-studies phenomenon known as the ‘spiral of silence.’ In the US, whistle-blower, Edward Snowden has been credited with helping create a ‘spiral of silence’ there after his revelations revealed to the American public just how ingrained the culture of surveillance had become entrenched in the years after 9/11. The study found subjects who were “primed of government surveillance significantly reduced the likelihood of speaking out in hostile opinion climates. These findings introduce important theoretical and normative consequences. Theoretically, it adds a new layer of chilling effects to the spiral of silence. This is the first study to provide empirical evidence that the government’s online surveillance programs may threaten the disclosure of minority views and contribute to the reinforcement of majority opinion.” The idea behind the ‘spiral,’ is that people avoid stating a true opinion on a subject to fit in with ‘friends’ on social media, and also not to bring attention to themselves from listening government ears. Lead researcher of the study, Elizabeth Stoycheff, said she was concerned about what her team discovered when their experiment had concluded: “It concerns me that surveillance seems to be enabling a culture of self-censorship because it further disenfranchises minority groups. And it is difficult to protect and extend the rights of these vulnerable populations when their voices aren’t part of the discussion. Democracy thrives on a diversity of ideas, and self-censorship starves it…. Shifting this discussion so Americans understand that civil liberties are just as fundamental to the country’s long-term well-being as thwarting very rare terrorist attacks is a necessary move.” So much for democracy and the internet. The post Digital Mass Surveillance Silences Dissenters appeared first on FileHippo News . The apology comes after Tay’s first 24 hours of freedom online last week saw her at turns deny the holocaust and also suggest casual linkages between feminism, and cancer. Despite exhaustive testing and implementing contingency protocols in her design, Microsoft state that they had not anticipated the actions of a subset of Twitter users and had “made a critical oversight for this specific attack. As a result, Tay tweeted wildly inappropriate and reprehensible words and images.” Microsoft also took the opportunity to state that they would only revive Tay if its engineers could essentially prevent or undermine internet trolling from shaping the AI in a negative manner. This is the second apology Microsoft have issued. The first was short and to the point, pointing out as it did, that Tay was an experiment, and a ‘learning machine…[so]…some of its responses are inappropriate and indicative of the types of interactions some people are having with it.” The idea behind Tay was that the chatbot would become smarter with each passing human the AI conversed with. What the designers didn’t factor into her programming was the capacity for the internet to troll. “We are deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay, which do not represent who we are or what we stand for, nor how we designed Tay,” said a spokesman for Microsoft. “ To do AI right, one needs to iterate with many people and often in public forums. We must enter each one with great caution and ultimately learn and improve, step by step, and to do this without offending people in the process. We will remain steadfast in our efforts to learn from this and other experiences as we work toward contributing to an Internet that represents the best, not the worst, of humanity.” In short, this was probably Microsoft’s way of saying: F***** internet trolls. The post Microsoft Formally Apologizes For Tay, It’s Offensive Teenage Chatbot appeared first on FileHippo News . When John F. Kennedy, Jr., announced rather ambitiously that the US would put a man on the moon within only a matter of years, the reactions were part awed, part derisive. Some saw it as the limitless ability of the best minds coming together, others laughed at the ludicrous idea that a human could walk on the moon…and live to tell about it. Now, the concept of space travel–even within the fairly small limits that we’ve actually achieved– has become commonplace to a generation of people who’ve never been alive when the space program wasn’t a reality. That could be why so little attention among popular news has been granted to NASA’s attempts–very, very expensive attempts–at sending humans to Mars. As part of its deep-space exploration project , the concept of human space travel has to be completely redesigned. Yes, Mars is simply that far away, and the orbital patterns that the planets adhere to means the closest proximity between Earth and Mars only happens every two years, and even then only for a narrow window of time. Everything NASA has used to safely send and retrieve astronauts had to be redesigned, down to the software that would make it all happen. That software is proving to be quite problematic, too. Already 77% more than initial cost estimates predicted, the final bill for the software that will launch and control an SLS rocket and Orion capsule is expected to come in at a little over $200 million. Even more upsetting is the timeline: instead of having a finished version this summer, engineers are now saying it will be closer to fall of next year before there’s a working version. Unfortunately, an internal audit of the status of this software once again proved something that has long plagued the organization, and that’s an unwillingness to bend. The audit, conducted by none other than NASA’s inspector general, concluded that the administration is essentially shooting itself in the foot with its own optimism, while commercial software would have been a much better option than writing the software from the ground up by splicing together previous NASA code. The post NASA Mars Software Over Budget, Under Performing appeared first on FileHippo News . Digital photography buffs rejoice! There’s news from the world of photo editing software that has amateurs and pros alike celebrating. To understand the cause for excitement, let’s back up. Google acquired what it dubbed the Nik Collection about four years ago in an effort to get one popular mobile app, Snapseed. This app basically let you apply Instagram-style filters to all of your photographs without having to do it in the upload process. This was a great tool for Google’s mobile tech. But with the Snapseed deal, Google manage to nab several other desktop applications that it then bundled into a photo editing suite called Nik Collection. This suite, while still cheaper than full-fledged versions of Photoshop and other industry standard tools, came with a $149 price tag. That’s a bargain if you do this professionally, but kind of out of reach for someone who just wants to make their personal photos look their best. According to a post from Google, “The Nik Collection is comprised of seven desktop plug-ins that provide a powerful range of photo editing capabilities — from filter applications that improve color correction, to retouching and creative effects, to image sharpening that brings out all the hidden details, to the ability to make adjustments to the color and tonality of images.” But Google has now announced a monumental revelation about Nik: not only is it now available for free, but if you purchased the full-price version this year, you’re eligible for an automatic refund. That may not be good news for users who jumped on board early after Google’s acquisition, but it’s still taking the concept of open-source a step farther than most companies would go. Of course, there are some immediate concerns about the value of this download. Some users have already questioned whether this means there will be no further support or updates for the software, as well as voiced concerns about compatibility with future OS updates and upgrades. Why is Google giving away something that is already well-respected in its field? Their announcement offers a little bit of insight into their focus shift for the Nik side of business. “As we continue to focus our long-term investments in building incredible photo editing tools for mobile, including Google Photos and Snapseed, we’ve decided to make the Nik Collection desktop suite available for free, so that now anyone can use it.” The post Nik Collection Photo Editing Software Now Free appeared first on FileHippo News . 2016-04-04 16:13 feeds2.feedburner

65 Microsoft and R3 blockchain partnership aims to reduce fraud and costs Microsoft has joined forces with a collective of more than 40 financial institutions to help push the development of blockchain technology. Working with the R3 consortium, Microsoft wants to develop and test new technologies to replace and streamline old systems used in banking and enterprise industries. The announcement comes as the company launches the first Microsoft Envision event with the aims of bringing together business leaders to pool ideas for the digital age. Using Microsoft Azure, the company wants its partners to expand the use of Blockchain-as-a-Service and bring about change faster. Despite the involvement of financial institutes, and the association with Bitcoin, blockchain is about much more than just moving money from one place to another. Microsoft is looking to create what it describes as an 'enterprise-grade blockchain eco-system' that can also be used in the healthcare industry, digital media and manufacturing. Announcing the partnership with R3, Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Business Development, Peggy Johnson, says: Check out the video below in which Microsoft explains its vision a little: Photo credit: Olga Donskaya / Shutterstock 2016-04-04 15:58 By Mark

66 93% of UK mobile users have their location tracked every day Awareness of the privacy issues involved in using various devices and software has grown dramatically in recent years -- there can be few readers who do not know about the telemetry and privacy concerns surround Windows 10 , for instance. But a new campaign by privacy-focused advocacy group Krowdthink aims to raise aware of the privacy implication of owning a mobile phone in the UK. The 'Opt me out of Location' campaign aims to highlight the fact that nearly every single mobile phone owner in the UK (93 percent) has unwittingly signed up for a contract that permits their location to be tracked. More than this, the data collected allows providers to build up highly detailed customer profiles which Krowdthink warns leaves millions of users just one serious data breach away from having private data exposed to and abused by criminals. Krowdthink says that "the big location data breach has yet to occur", but there is great concern around the fact that most people are simply unaware that their location is being almost constantly -- and very precisely -- monitored. All the more worrying is the selling on of this data, opening up even more opportunities for data to be hacked, leaked, or breached. The group says that education is important, saying "we need to exercise our rights to opt out and ideally seek an explicit opt-in from those tracking us". Geoff Revill, the founder of Krowdthink, cautions: It's not just mobile phone providers that are cause for concern; Krowdthink says that public Wi-Fi service providers are also concerning sources of location data. Pete Woodward from security company Securious says: "location tracking data would be gold dust for the criminal fraternity and would be very saleable on the black market". Research by Krowdthink says that while most mobile users are suspicious of apps that make use of GPS, few people think about the fact that their location is highly trackable when they connect to cell towers. By gathering data about location and movement, it is possible to build up detailed user profiles that could be valuable to criminals. Burglars, for instance, would be able to quickly determine when particular houses were usually empty, but there is also scope for data that's gathered to be used for blackmail: "… identifying any cases of infidelity -- including when, where and how long for. [Location data also] identifies your sex, probable sexual orientation, your religion and many other personal preference". Similar research has been carried out by the Open Rights Group , with the findings suggesting that consumers are simply not being given enough information to make properly informed decisions about how their data is used. You can find out more about the Opt Me Out Of Location at the campaign website, where you'll also find out how to manually opt out of location tracking with a number of mobile providers. Photo credit: Georgejmclittle / Shutterstock 2016-04-04 15:39 By Mark

67 The monitoring problems of IT pros Recently an IT friend of mine told me that for the past five years he has been longing for a tool which could alert him when non-routable interfaces went down. To be perfectly honestly my heart went out to the guy -- that’s such a basic monitoring request, why hasn’t it been fulfilled I thought. But when I thought about other monitoring requests I’ve heard over the years it made me realize there is a major contradiction when it comes to IT pros and monitoring. On the surface no IT professional will accept sub- optimal performance or functionality for any technology. IT pros overlock their systems, exploit back doors, root phones to get the latest (or un- supported) version, memorize complex key combinations to access god-mode -- we won’t settle for anything but the best and do our upmost to support it. However when it comes to monitoring this is not the case. I’m constantly meeting network engineers and sysadmins who install monitoring functions which completely fail to do the job required. What is more upsetting is how so many IT pro’s accept this as de rigueur -- there is no sense of urgency to demand more sufficient monitoring tools. I’ve therefore decided to tackle this problem myself in this two part series to help identify why IT pros are putting themselves through this. Home-Grown vs Corporate Monitoring Solutions One of the first issues behind monitoring stems from how the tool is implemented in an organization. The two most popular ways are via a home-grown solution or a corporate project. Both of which have benefits, but which also won’t always offer the best results. Home-grown monitoring solutions are often created on the side and on the cheap with a "that will do for now" mind-set. On the plus side, the price is right and the solution will do exactly what the user needs (give or take, depending on their skill). On the down side, these types of solutions won’t grow or improve without a crisis. The person that created it will rarely touch it again unless it’s broken because, well frankly, they have more important things to do than spend their time adapting a so-so monitoring solution. This ethos immediately gets the organization stuck with an average monitoring tool that can more-or-less do the job at hand, but to no exceptional standard. On the flip side there are corporate-sponsored projects to implement an enterprise-wide monitoring solution. These are usually sponsored by executives who, following a fancy presentation from a vendor complete with numbers and buzzwords, believe they have The Solution and any naysaying on the part of staff is just resistance to change. And what I’ve learned over the years is often when a sales guy comes and says "ROI", "efficient" and "speed" multiple times to an executive, it’s hard for them not to fall in love with whatever product they are selling. The knock on effect of this is that the tool then becomes associated as that executive’s metric for success. And so, since these solutions are typically not cheap, there is a huge push to not only get it implemented (come hell or high water) but also get it working everywhere with everything. Because gosh darn it we need to get our money’s worth out of this thing! Subsequently the tool, whatever its strengths may be, gets shoehorned into various situations it was never meant for. In this instance you’re left with a great tool that isn’t being used in the way it was meant for and is being owned by teams who have no vested interest in it. Thus much of the potential this monitoring tool could offer to an organization goes to waste. Do Monitoring Professionals Even Exist? Another challenge in the monitoring "space" is that it’s difficult to get specialists from all of the relevant teams; network, systems, virtualization, storage etc. to agree on a set of metrics for monitoring. As difficult as that is, it’s even trickier to find a monitoring professional who is familiar with all the different areas and has the knowledge to confidently mediate between the different teams to find a solution that works for all. To be quite frank it can be difficult to even find a monitoring professional at all. Most organizations make do with a consultant who is an expert in a particular toolset. With larger solutions even this becomes a challenging proposition as experts sub-specialize in various aspects of the tool. If the expert is keen on code, every problem looks like a scripting solution. Protocol centric pros will leverage SNMP, WMI, or the like. And so on. The net effect is that monitoring options offered to technicians may be feature sparse (if the software is home grown); or undertaking the wrong tasks, or undertake them the wrong way (if it’s a corporate sponsored solution). Thus implementing a monitoring solution that is robust enough to deal with the challenges and demands of multiple teams within a business is, and this is a gross understatement, hard. The Path to the Promised Land Implementing a monitoring system that covers all the bases and provides teams and organizations with the information and responses needed to be valuable requires several things: it requires multiple tools, often from multiple vendors (though few vendors will admit this). It requires technical leadership who can get the right teams into the room, start the right conversations, and help them to answer the right questions. And it requires organizations to commit to the level of expertise both during the implementation phase and the subsequent usage to make any set of solutions truly effective. Clearly it’s harder to do this than people realized as, based on discussions with my colleagues, customers, and coworkers, it looks like many IT pros have given up on it altogether. In the face of this kind of challenge, many just accept the status quo of monitoring because they feel too many variables are out of their hands. However, my view is this is categorically unacceptable for any organization, any budget, any industry and any size. When monitoring is done right it can be a powerful force within an organization, enabling not just the remediation of downtime, but the avoidance of it; it drives performance improvement rather than just tracking degradation; it helps organizations avoid un- necessary spending rather than just being a sunk cost; as well as being a morale boost to engineers who know they can rely on something besides their own eyes and gut to tell them that everything is sufficient, and to quickly and accurately lead them to the root cause of a problem when it’s not. This Promised Land I am describing does exist "out there" and can exist in your company, and I’ll tell you how to get there in my next post. Kent Row, IT admin and superhero, SolarWinds . Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved. Photo Credit: auremar / Shutterstock 2016-04-04 15:35 By Kent

68 Microsoft Envision Puts Spotlight On Digital Transformation Less than a week after Microsoft kicked off its Build 2016 developer's conference in San Francisco, the company hosted a keynote session to start another event: Microsoft Envision , a new event created for enterprise leaders. "This conference is all about business transformation and digital transformation, and the role technology can play in making these changes happen," said CEO Satya Nadella in his introductory keynote. Envision is different from other Microsoft conferences, he explained. The sessions, which include "Leadership's Role in Business Transformation" and "Industry Innovation Disruption and Trends", are for leaders who already think about technology's role in shaping businesses and society. [A Windows 10 Anniversary Update is rolling out this summer.] Over the next couple of days, attendees will learn and discuss how they can use technology to shape organizational growth, improve agility, spark disruption, and adapt to the changing expectations of a new workforce . Create a culture where technology advances truly empower your business. Attend the Leadership Track at Interop Las Vegas, May 2-6. Register now! As they approach digital transformation, Nadella urges companies to ask two key questions: How is digital technology changing their business? How is it changing their core business model? "Each of you has to start thinking and operating like a digital company," he emphasized to the audience, which was comprised of leaders across all industries. Becoming a digital company is more intensive than procuring a single solution, said Nadella. Each business must build "systems of intelligence," or digital feedback loops through which they engage with customers, empower employees, optimize operations, and reinvent products and business models. To illustrate the future of customer engagement, he discussed the idea of "conversations as a platform. " This concept, first introduced at Build , involves teaching computers how to learn and respond to human language to create a means of communication more powerful than mobile apps. At Envision, Microsoft executives took the opportunity to apply this idea to the enterprise. Customers will be able to chat with businesses using Bots, which will interact with their digital assistants to make transactions easier and more efficient. Lillian Rincon, principal group program manager for Skype Consumer, demonstrated how Skype users now have access to Cortana. The assistant interacts with business' Bots on the user's behalf to facilitate tasks like food delivery and hotel bookings. The idea, Nadella explained, is to go beyond mobile apps so companies can be actively present for customers' conversations. He urged the audience to build Bots and extensions to digital assistants, noting the opportunities are not limited to Skype but apply to all places where people communicate. While customer engagement is important, so too is inspiring employees. "Your organization is only as good as its people," said Nadella, "But it's also true that your organization and its ability to empower its people to do their best work can only happen if you have the systems and technology. " He drew attention to the importance of tools like Wunderlist and Yammer but zeroed in on the power of analytics to understand and improve on how employees communicate. Microsoft last year acquired VoloMetrix , which leveraged data analytics to improve organizational effectiveness. It has since integrated those capabilities into Delve, which can be used to analyze data from Office apps to understand company performance; for example, how much money is spent on meetings. Other Microsoft tools are interconnected to give companies greater insight into their operations and enable real-time interaction with customers. Cortana generates alerts in Power BI when it notices unusual data, for example, and the new Power BI Embedded lets businesses share information with clients so they can view and interact with data. 2016-04-04 15:06 Kelly Sheridan

69 New capabilities help drive application release automation Digital transformation strategies are often held back by complex IT systems that have been built over the years and represent significant investment. This may lead to departments seeking their own solutions, placing yet more pressure on back office systems. Business automation specialist Automic is launching new capabilities to its DevOps release automation product, Automic Release Automation, to allow companies to deliver greater agility, scalability, and speed in order to drive competitive advantage. "We are simplifying how our customers execute on their DevOps journey by specifically targeting all of the applications across an enterprise with the goal of driving the digital transformation required by our clients", says Chris Boorman, chief marketing officer at Automic. "Our experience in automation, expertise in production IT environments, and industry recognized technology are key differentiators that position us and our clients for success. The Automic Blueprint for Continuous Delivery provides a practical approach that an enterprise can employ to scale continuous delivery across both back-office applications and the new digital front-office. This blueprint provides a clear and structured approach for all enterprises to use in driving their digital transformation". Features include a new cloud-based sandbox, and visualization of the delivery pipeline of all applications to better understand the impact and time implications of multiple concurrent releases throughout the organization. Automic Release Automation enables enterprises and service providers to serve multiple departments and clients in isolation from each other on a single shared platform, simplifying operations and maintenance, and making scaling easier. It also integrates with the Automic marketplace allowing developers to contribute and utilize new content seamlessly. There's a new online assessment service too that will benchmark an enterprise against key indicators of maturity. By answering a set of simple questions, enterprises can benchmark themselves against the Automic standard, against their peers, their industry or their region. You can find out more about Automic Release Automation , which is available now, on the company's website. Image Credit: Stokkete / Shutterstock 2016-04-04 15:00 By Ian

70 Android 6 Marshmallow update: when can I get it? Android Marshmallow is here (for some). There are battery life improvements, greater app permission controls, standardized support for fingerprint scanners, more granular volume controls, USB-C support and new Google Now features, all part of a mix that makes this an exciting upgrade for users. But is your phone actually going to get it? The release process for Android updates is more complicated than Apple's iOS updates, and just because an update has been launched that doesn't necessarily mean you'll have access to it. In fact, you probably won't. It's down to device manufacturers, and in some countries the carriers too, who spend quite a bit of time with the new software before releasing it to their devices. If you own a Nexus device you're in luck, as not surprisingly Google's new software has landed on those first – and manufacturers like Motorola are generally better at getting updates out quickly. But other manufacturers are a little less predictable. While most phones are still waiting on Marshmallow, we are already seeing the gentle roll out of the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow update, with new emojis and a few little bug fixes bundled in for good measure. To make the latest Android update less of a mystery, here's our constantly updated information on when it's likely to land on your phone. Google has updated its Nexus range of products to Android Marshmallow. It includes the Nexus 5 , Nexus 6 , Nexus 7 (2013) , Nexus 9 , Nexus Player , Pixel C and the whole range of Android One devices. The Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P both launched with Android 6 on board. The developers preview for Android 7 N is already out and you can download it on all the previously mentioned devices - apart from the Nexus 5. Samsung did a pretty good job of getting Android Lollipop on to its phones rapidly, but it has slowed things down considerably for the Marshmallow launch. The Samsung Galaxy S6 , Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy Note 4 are in the process of getting the update, while the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge launched with Marshmallow pre-installed. The latest phone to start getting the update is the Galaxy S5 - the flagship Samsung phone from 2014. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ are the next phones expected to get the update. There's still no word from Samsung whether the Galaxy S4 , Samsung Galaxy Alpha and Galaxy Note 3 will get the update. As for tablets, we expect the Galaxy Tab S2 , Galaxy Tab S and Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 will get the Marshmallow software, but there's no official word yet. The update is in the process of rolling out for those who have the HTC One M9 and HTC One M8 . HTC has confirmed the One A9 , Desire Eye and One E9 will also get the Android Marshmallow update but there's no word on timing yet. HTC also confirmed back in September 2015 that it will be updating the HTC One M9+, HTC One E9, HTC One ME, HTC One E8, HTC One M8 EYE, HTC Butterfly 3, HTC Desire 826, HTC Desire 820 and HTC Desire 816. It has taken a long time so far and HTC hasn't commented on when it'll be coming either. Sony is faring much better, with the Xperia Z5 , Xperia Z5 Compact , Xperia Z5 Premium , Xperia Z4 Tablet and Xperia Z3+ all seeing the Android 6 Marshmallow update rolling out. The full list of updated phones includes the Sony Xperia Z3 , Sony Xperia Z3 Compact , Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact , Xperia Z2 , Xperia Z2 Tablet , Xperia M5, Xperia C5 Ultra, Xperia M4 Aqua and Xperia C4. Both the Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z1 Compact will be missing out this time though. LG hasn't shared any official details for the rollout yet, but the LG G4 is already getting the update and the LG G5 launched with Android 6 software already installed. Other phones that may get the Android 6 Marshmallow upgrade included the LG G3 , LG V10 , LG G Flex 2 and LG G4c - but there's no official word yet. 2016-04-04 14:48 James Peckham

71 ZenHub Epics gives developers more transparency ZenHub, the project management tool that natively integrates into GitHub’s UI, is taking a different approach to collaboration. The company has announced ZenHub Epics, a new tool that aims to put control and flexibility back into the hands of developers. According to the company, with the rise of DevOps, collaboration between development teams and project management has become more important than ever, and ZenHub Epics is designed to ensure developers still have access to the tools they want to use. ZenHub Epics aims to provide a complete rework of task management in GitHub, and it allows product roadmaps to fully live inside GitHub. “ZenHub is a very developer focused project management tool,” said Matt Butler, cofounder of ZenHub. “What we have tried to actually build is a project management tool that developers actually like to use and want to use as opposed to being forced to use tools, which is why we built ZenHub into GitHub.” With ZenHub Epics, the end-to-end product development process can live in GitHub and developers can also plan product backlogs, bringing structure and focus into software development, according to the company. Previously, GitHub user’s either had to jump into a third-party tool or use workarounds in GitHub to plan software releases. “What this is going to mean for developers is that it’s going to be much easier to persuade their project managers to come and join them in ZenHub,” said Butler. “What Epics is going to do is enable you to bring your roadmaps and your vision into ZenHub and GitHub, so it’s going to allow you to create large themed issues, which can then communicate the roadmap to your developers.” Overall, Butler says this new update will help improve communication and transparency. 2016-04-04 13:39 Madison Moore

72 Office isn't just about documents – it'll help order your morning coffee Office isn't just the familiar programs like Outlook and Word, and the services like Exchange Online and Skype for Business. It's also a platform that you can run other apps and services on, like the Starbucks app that lets you send someone a Starbucks gift card right inside Outlook, or find a specific Starbucks and use it as a location in your calendar (you get a map and a link to pre-order coffee but they won't reserve you a table). "Office is about making people more productive," explained Rob Howard, who's the director of the Office 365 ecosystem. "As the nature of productivity has changed, moving into cloud and the mobile world, Office as a set of apps and services has evolved to address that. "It's always been the case that you could come into Excel and write a little code to tailor it to the needs of your business, but we've had to reimagine what Office looks like as a platform to make it available to cloud and mobile developers. " Now developers can use HTML, CSS and JavaScript to write Office add-ins that work with not just the Windows versions of the Office programs, but also the Office Online web apps and Office on iPad – and now on OS X as well. "Support for Office 2016 for Mac is a big step for us," Howard told techradar pro, adding that as well as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, developers will soon be able to create add-ins for OneNote. Add-ins can access a wide range of information and connections from the Microsoft Graph Those add-ins can look like part of Office – they can already create task panes and now, Howard notes, "you can create new ribbons, new buttons for the ribbon and context menus". And as well as working on Mac and in OneNote, add-ins now get access to more features using the Microsoft Graph. The Graph APIs let an add-in get objects from Office such as documents, emails, calendar appointments, tasks, conversations in Groups and even out of office messages, as well as connections like documents that you're working on and the people you're working with. That means when you use the Docusign service to send and sign contracts and other official documents, it can use your Office address book to look up the email address for your contacts – you only need to type in part of the name to get a match, the way you would in Outlook. It can even find names when you make spelling mistakes. Add-ins work in Office on Windows and iPad – and now on the Mac too And if the first person you send a document to for signing has an out of office message, Docusign can show you that straight away so you can send it to someone else, instead of having to go back to the service to resend it once the out of office message shows up in your email. Those APIs now cover the consumer Outlook service as well as Office 365 , and there's a new set of intelligence APIs that suggest things like "the best time for a group of users to meet, the documents that are more relevant to a topic or the people who are most relevant to a given topic," explained Howard. 2016-04-04 13:30 Mary Branscombe

73 Biometric Authentication: Making mobile devices and apps safer According to comScore , from September 2010 to September 2014, smartphone usage increased by 394 percent, while tablet usage rose by an astronomical 1,721 percent in the United States. So it’s certainly no surprise that mobile payments are predicted to skyrocket over the next five years. mobilThis shows that the global mobile payment volume in 2015 was 450 billion U. S. dollars, and projects that number to surpass 1 trillion U. S. dollars in 2019. With the growing interest in and use of mobile devices and payments, users are rightfully concerned with cybersecurity threats. To combat these threats, there has been a surge in using biometric technologies for user authentication. What are biometric solutions and how can they increase safe authentication? Biometric solutions measure specific characteristics of a person, including: voice, handwriting, fingerprint(s), face, retina or iris of the eye, gait, vein infrared thermogram, hand geometry and palm print or from a combination of all these identifiers termed multimodal-biometrics -- essentially, "something about you" that is practically impossible to copy, steal or reproduce. Biometric-based authentication provides a robust alternative to using passwords and pins. It validates the identity of a user by measuring unique physiological and behavioral characteristics of an individual. Such a measure maximizes between-person random variations (e.g. someone else putting in your password,) while at the same time minimizes within-person variability. In contrast with passwords and pins, a biometric identifier cannot be lost, forgotten or shared. Mobile payments and biometric verification MasterCard has been working to announce its "selfie" pay , which allows users to approve online purchases by taking a picture of themselves (facial recognition) for verification, users can also opt for authenticating their purchase through a fingerprint. The accuracy of facial recognition systems can vary greatly due to factors like lighting, camera angle, sensitivity and more. Likewise, fingerprint readers are affected by temperature, position and other factors. Yes, it is feasible that biometric authentication can become an actual form of providing credentials (although it should be combined with multi-factor methods). Hardware devices do potentially offer ideal security but often the problem is the need to carry such a device on the person. Hence the move towards making our mobile phones the actual hardware device. One popular hardware approach for authentication is smart cards. Smart card technology provides an excellent medium for storing biometrics. A smart card can provide a strong authentication platform in our pocket. Mobile phones and smart cards can be used for both physical and logical access authentication. Making Biometrics effective Fingerprint scanners have been manufactured in masses for mobile phones due to Apple’s Touch ID system, but have of course been integrated on laptops for years, yet are hardly used. The Touch ID system from Apple is quite impressive from a security perspective, however fingerprint scanners are not the be-all, end-all solution for identity theft and cybersecurity prevention as we leave fingerprints on every surface we touch. There have been many examples of Apple's Touch ID being bypassed through the use of scanners, latex and patience. The most current widespread authentication approach employs solely using passwords. Deployment of proper biometric solutions should significantly reduce identity thefts, with great benefits for the economy by eliminating the use of just passwords from the equation in place of more reliable solutions. The most successful way to use biometrics for security is to incorporate multi-factor authentication which would reduce risk by involving separate types of factors that would require an attacker to use different methods of attack, thus making a breach more difficult. Multi-factor authentication combines at least two of the following methods to strongly authenticate a user. Therefore a PIN plus a password is not actually multi-factor, since both items are something you know. Full three-factor authentication, when combined with a device ID, allows enterprises to easily combine "what we have" and "what we know" with the all-important "who we are". Thereby integrating a core benefit to future security systems, including; Widespread Adoption and Concerns Trust is particularly important for consumers when it comes to using biometrics for financial institutions and merchant purchases, including identify theft, account blocking inconvenience, etc. We can expect the first true full-scale biometrics deployment will involve mobile payments and other financial organizations. It’s estimated that online "direct" fraud is costing the global economy around £60bn a year. The associated indirect costs of identity theft and recovery have not been fully quantified but it’s possibly 10 times the actual direct costs. Large e-commerce merchants believe that fraud is inevitable but understand that their prevention efforts will result in more positive customer relationships and ensuring the proper security measures are in place will help that. In order to make biometric authentication successful, companies need to introduce multi-factor authentication and be sure that users are educated on how and why they are using biometrics. Photo credit: ra2studio / Shutterstock Kevin Curran is IEEE Senior Member and Faculty of Computing and Engineering, University of Ulster. His achievements include winning and managing UK & European Framework projects and Technology Transfer Schemes. Dr Curran has made significant contributions to advancing the knowledge and understanding of computer networking and systems, evidenced by over 700 published research papers. 2016-04-04 13:29 By Kevin

74 Work-life balance gains importance as tech worker salary expectations fall What are the trends driving the careers of tech professionals? A new report based on information gathered from the Woo platform, which allows workers to find jobs with companies that offer the things they really want, reveals what has changed in the first quarter of 2016. The Woondex (Woo Index) shows there has been a 12.6 percent drop in salary expectations compared to the final quarter of last year. However, there's an 8.2 percent increase in the number of workers looking for a better work-life balance over the same period. The San Francisco Bay Area is still the most popular location for tech workers in the US, but its appeal could be waning as there's a 6.9 percent increase in the number of Bay Area workers who say they are willing to relocate. The most popular choice for those who want to move on is New York, followed by Seattle. It seems that size matters too, at least for businesses, with 82.6 percent wanting to work at larger companies compared to only 76.5 percent willing to work at startups. The most in demand technologies are Java (18.2 percent), NodeJS (15.2 percent) and AngularJS (14 percent). When it comes to sectors big data/cloud is still most popular, followed by health and finance. You can find out more about how Woo helps gauge their worth and find fulfilling roles on the company's website . Photo Credit: wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock 2016-04-04 13:24 By Ian

75 75 Get the lowdown on your PCs storage devices with Diskovery Bvckup 2 developer Pipemetrics has released the first beta of Diskovery , a free system information tool which reveals all about your PC’s storage devices. It’s a familiar idea, but Diskovery stands out for its thoroughness, using multiple technologies to discover and talk to drives. Direct ATA queries, ATA pass-through queries, SCSI pass-through queries, Common Storage Management Interface, the Virtual Disk Service and Windows API are all involved, allowing the program to uncover much more data than some similar tools. You can expect details on local drives, external USB disks, RAID setups (hardware and software) and more, even RAM disks and -- maybe -- encrypted volumes. The report includes device product ID, manufacturer, volume/ PNP ID, volume type, partition types, capacity, used space, file system, SMART data, supported features, USB type of a drive enclosure, RAID type/ status/ composition, and more. What you don’t seem to get, unfortunately, is any way to save this information as a report, a problem if you were hoping to analyze it later. Diskovery is still a beta, of course, so this might arrive in a future release. And if you’re interested, we’d say take a look anyway: it’s only a 226KB download, a single executable, no installation or other hassles involved. Diskovery is a freeware tool for Windows Vista and later. 2016-04-04 13:23 By Mike

76 Save 63% off a two-year Private Internet Access VPN subscription Today on offer via our Web Services section of Neowin Deals, you can save 63% off a two year Private Internet Access VPN subscription. Trust in an industry-leading VPN: Surf the web anonymously and without restriction. Connect through a VPN tunnel of your choice and forget about hackers, digital eavesdroppers, and government spies when you’re connected to public Wi-Fi at the airport or thumbing through your favorite social media site while in line for your morning coffee. High-level encryption ensures you’ll put an end to incessant digital advertising, while IP cloaking lets you stream your favorite movies and shows no matter where you are. With Private Internet Access, the only gateways to the outside Internet are the ones you open. Two years of Private Internet Access VPN subscription normally retails at $166 (excluding company-run promotions) , but you can pick it up for just $59,95 for a limited time. In addition, if you refer this deal via social media (below the 'Add to cart' button) which results in a purchase, you'll get $10 credit added to your Neowin Deals store account. Get this deal or learn more about it | View more offers by London Trust Media That's OK. If this offer doesn't interest you, why not check out our giveaways on the Neowin Deals web site? There's also a bunch of freebies you can grab here , as well as other great tech-related deals. You could also try your luck on the The Lenovo & Turtle Beach Headset Gamer Giveaway , all you have to do is sign up here to enter for this $1,279 value giveaway! How can I disable these posts? Click here . Disclosure : This is a StackCommerce deal or giveaway in partnership with Neowin; an account at StackCommerce is required to participate in any deals or giveaways. For a full description of StackCommerce's privacy guidelines, go here. 2016-04-04 13:04 Steven Parker

77 How to stay safe using public Wi-Fi hotspots One of the most convenient things about connecting to the Internet through your computer, tablet, or smartphone is being able to tap into public Wi-Fi from pretty much anywhere. These days, there are hotspots available all across the country, so you’re practically never without Internet access. However, it’s a smart move to be cautious when it comes to connecting to public Wi-Fi. When you’re tapping in to an unfamiliar hotspot, you could potentially be putting your personal data -- and the security of things like your bank accounts, your passwords, and your identity -- at risk. Even if a public WiFi hotspot looks secure, you might still miss the small red flags that signal trouble. Let’s take a look at how public WiFi works to connect you to the Internet, some risks that come with it, and how to ensure you’re keeping your data safe while you’re on a hotspot. The Reward and Risk of Public Wi-Fi It’s hard to imagine being out and about without access to the Internet, and for people looking to connect while outside of the house, utilizing the nearest Wi-Fi is a good solution. Public Wi-Fi works much the same as your own Wi-Fi does at home, except on a larger scale, and it is open to pretty much anybody. Once you’ve opened up the Wi-Fi connectivity options on your laptop or phone’s settings, you can search through which networks are available to use, and the ones that aren’t locked for private use are generally available for access. Those who regulate the servers for public WiFi are generally businesses who charge patrons for access to their hotspots, or community places like libraries, airports, and hotels that may offer their Wi-Fi free of charge. In some cases, entire swathes of cities (like Tel Aviv, Helsinki, and Hong Kong) are equipped with free municipal Wi-Fi that anyone can use -- from places like city parks to even underground subways. While this is definitely convenient -- and, if you’re using your smartphone, it can save you from using your own data plan -- it’s not as secure as using your own home WiFi network, or your smartphone data, where you have control over the security. And unlike when you’re at home, you probably won’t know everybody who’s on the network with you. Although it’s true that people with malicious intent won’t be creeping around on every single network, it’s always better to be safe rather than sorry -- even if that means going the extra mile to make sure that you’re properly protected. "Just because most wireless routers have a firewall to protect you from the Internet doesn’t mean you’re protected from others connected to the same network", says Lifehacker. "It’s remarkably easy to steal someone’s username and password, or see what they’re doing just by being on the same network". You can’t be too careful when it comes to the safety of your data when you’re connecting to public Wi-Fi, particularly when you’re accessing a hotspot that doesn’t require a password. The fact that there’s no password involved allows your data to pass through unencrypted, which makes it easy for anyone in range of the network to see what you’re doing and which websites you’re browsing. According to How-To Geek, using a WiFi hotspot without a password means that "people can see what unencrypted web pages you’re visiting, what you’re typing into unencrypted web forms, and even see which encrypted websites you’re connected to". This means that other users can snoop in on your Internet session and even possibly hack in to your data. Ill-intentioned individuals can use trickery to work their way into your device once you’re connected to an unencrypted hotspot. The Houston Chronicle explains how hackers are able to set up an "evil twin" with the same name as a legitimate hotspot, and when people accidentally use the evil twin, they’ve fallen for the trap. So even if you might think you’re logged on safely, you could inadvertently be providing hackers with data and information that can be used to compromise bank accounts, commit identity theft, and more. How to Connect Safely The good news is that you don’t need to avoid public WiFi altogether -- you just need to make sure you’re using it in a smart and safe way. Here are a few tips for ensuring that your public WiFi experience isn’t putting your personal data at risk: Always Look For HTTPS This means that the website you’re browsing is encrypted and your data can’t be snooped by others. As Lifehacker states: "Many sites -- including Facebook, Gmail, and others -- will [use HTTPS] automatically, but keep an eye on the address bar and make sure the 's' in 'https' is always there when you’re exchanging sensitive information. If it disappears, you should log out immediately. Other sites will default to HTTP connections, but support HTTPS if you manually type it in". One caveat: Even though you’ll find HTTPS on banking websites and other places that deal in financial transactions, try to avoid doing any banking or exchanging financial data over public Wi-Fi. Unless it’s absolutely an emergency, wait until you get home and have secure home WiFi to do anything that involves the input of your financial information -- just to be extra safe. Keep the Wi-Fi Setting on Your Phone Turned Pff When You’re Not Using It This will help prevent your phone from automatically logging in to any networks that you may have previously accessed. If you’re ever not sure about a public hotspot that you’ve connected to, be sure to log out and use your phone commands to forget the network. That way you won’t accidentally end up hopping back on it if you’ve left your WiFi setting turned on. (As McAfee reminds us, "some of your mobile applications such as Skype, Twitter and instant messaging apps may be using local hotspots without you realizing it" -- better to be completely logged out!) Make Sure Your Software Is Up to Date and You Have All Current Security Patches Installed If your software requires an update, don’t put it off, especially if you’re a user of public WiFi -- some updates contain patches to help avoid potential security threats, and can help keep unwanted guests from snooping into your phone or laptop. Another setting to look into is the firewall; be sure that your computer’s firewall settings are enabled for an extra layer of protection from the other users on the network. Use Public Wi-Fi Safely Public WiFi is indeed helpful and convenient when you’re out and about with your phone (or laptop) in hand -- but it’s always good to remember that when you connect to the public network, it’s not just you who could have access to your files, but everyone else on the network as well. Instead, be sure to look for extra security from both your device’s settings and the Internet browser, and be cautious with where you click to. Having safety in mind can make all the difference for the protection of your data. Joey Tominna, president of Rushstar Wireless Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved. Image Credit : Sidarta / Shutterstock 2016-04-04 12:17 By Joey

78 The new Visual Studio Installer, DuckDuckGo programming Instant Answers, and A-Frame v0.2.0— news digest: April 4, 2016 Microsoft wants to make it easier for developers to access the tools they need to build their mobile, cloud or desktop solutions, regardless of the language or framework. The company has announced the minimal code editor experience that gives developers the core elements of Visual Studio in just a couple of hundred megabytes. The code editor includes the shell itself, the code editor, the managed and native debugger engines, and source code control support. According to Tim Sneath, principal lead program manager for the Visual Studio Platform, while the installer only gives a subset of the full product, it provides a good foundation for tailored development experiences. Microsoft is also providing its other tools and SDKs into bundles to help developers get up and running quickly. The first four bundles available to install include:. NET desktop development, Python, C++ and game development with Unity. More information is available here . DuckDuckGo to help developers The search engine DuckDuckGo is improving its Instant Answer service in order to better serve developers. The organization announced increasing the programming Instant Answers to give developers fast access to code examples, syntax help and answers to technical questions. “DuckDuckGo is fortunate to have a great community of developers who write, review and fix code in our open source repositories every day. For several years now we’ve relied on volunteers whatever their level—beginner to expert—but who can they rely on when they get stuck?” Daniel Davis, DuckDuckGo team member, wrote in a post. In addition, DuckDuckGo will be providing a table of programming Instant Answer that aims to make it even easier for developers to find answers. 2016-04-04 12:16 Madison Moore

79 79 Updated 4K drone footage shows the progress of Tesla's $5 billion Gigafactory Just three days after it was announced last week, the number of reservations for the Tesla Model 3 reached almost 300,000. This demand is expected to remain high, meaning the company is going to have a produce a lot of batteries for its upcoming electric car. But Tesla should be prepared for the massive jump in vehicle output, thanks to the Gigafactory. Recently shot 4K drone footage (below) gives you an idea of what the 5.5 million-square-foot facility will look like when it’s complete. Located outside the appropriately named Sparks, Nevada, Tesla says the Gigafactory will “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transportation. " Tesla may have delivered a record 50,000 cars last year, but the company expects that figure to hit 500,000 by 2020, making the factory, which is second in volume only to Boeing's Washington factory, a necessity. Elon Musk’s company will make the batteries at the $5 billion plant using “economies of scale, innovative manufacturing, reduction of waste, and the simple optimization of locating most manufacturing process under one roof.” It’s expected to begin cell production in 2017 – coinciding with the release of the Model 3 – and will reach full capacity by 2020. “In order to produce half a million cars a year, we basically need to absorb the entire world's lithium production. That's the entire reason we're building the Gigafactory. It will produce more lithium-ion batteries than all other factories in the world combined [...] We will also be producing the most advanced cell in the world,” said Musk. Tesla wants the Gigafactory to be powered by renewable energy. They haven’t been installed yet, but solar panels will be placed on the building’s roof, which is painted white to optimize their efficiency. In addition to producing batteries for its electric vehicles, the facility will also help manufacture Tesla's Powerwall home battery. 2016-04-04 11:30 Rob Thubron

80 After putting the iPhone SE through hell, torture test concludes it has some growing up to do Apple’s new iPhone SE recently spent some time with the warranty experts over at SquareTrade for some torture testing. The results? The handset has some growing up to do. After a 30-second stint in SquareTrade’s tumble bot, the SE sustained only minor scuffing on its corners. The iPhone 6s survived without damage while the larger 6s Plus came out with a shattered display. Taking the testing outdoors, the team dropped Apple’s smartphone lineup face-down from a height of six feet. The screens on all three phones shattered on the first drop. When dropped on its side from the same height, the iPhone SE’s screen started cracking and splitting after five drops. By the 10th and final drop, the screen’s right side had completely separated from the chassis. After 10 drops, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus had only cosmetic damage when dropped on their sides. Despite being thicker, the iPhone SE wasn’t very sturdy in the bend test. The new phone bent at 160 pounds of pressure which is 10 pounds less than the 6s and 20 pounds less than the 6s Plus. It reached catastrophic failure at 178 pounds. All things considered, the iPhone SE earned a 5.5 medium risk rating, slotting between the iPhone 6s with a score of four and the iPhone 6s Plus with a score of 6.5 (the higher the score, the riskier the device). 2016-04-04 10:30 Shawn Knight

81 IBM Layoffs Hit Canada, Europe, Australia; US Likely Next It's been just over one month since IBM began cutting jobs in the US in a layoff that one analyst firm calculates will ultimately hit at least 14,000 globally in fiscal 2016. Last week this wave of job cuts hit IBM's Canada locations in Toronto and Ontario, following on cuts that happened in Europe and Australia in recent weeks. About 900 staff members are expected to be cut in Germany. Most cuts are expected to come earlier in the year rather than later, according the report from financial analyst firm Berstein , and many of those jobs will be moving to less expensive offshore labor markets, the firm said. WatchingIBM , a Facebook page that tracks IBM's job cuts, shared the news about these new rounds of cuts, which were reported to the page by affected employees, by unions, and by governments in countries that require corporations to report actual layoff numbers. Group founder and former IBM employee Lee Conrad spoke with InformationWeek about the news. Conrad said that the hardest hit business units are Global Technology Services and Global Business Services, and Software. "There's a big shakeup going on inside of IBM, and they are changing their whole operating model," he told InformationWeek. "Over the last couple years these job cuts have been relentless. It's become such a dismal existence for employees. " Create a culture where technology advances truly empower your business. Attend the Leadership Track at Interop Las Vegas, May 2-6. Register now! Conrad said that sources have told him that more job cuts are imminent in the US, and that an upcoming round of layoffs, or "resource actions," is code-named Project Solitaire. He said employees have told him that job cuts are planned for every quarter of 2016. IBM has declined to comment on number of jobs being cut this year, and initially provided the following statement to InformationWeek: "IBM is aggressively transforming its business to lead in a new era of cognitive and cloud computing. This includes remixing skills to meet client requirements. " After InformationWeek linked to reports saying that a third of IBM's workforce could be affected by this year's job cuts , an IBM spokesperson contacted us to say that reports of such a high number were "completely outlandish and untrue. " IBM declined to provide an actual number of jobs targeted for cuts, but noted that the company hired 70,000 people in 2015 and currently has 25,000 open positions around the world, including ones in the US. IBM ended fiscal 2015 with 377,757 employees , according to the company's 10-K report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, down from 379,592 in 2014. So those 70,000 new hires from 2015 replaced employees who were cut or left the company for other reasons, including voluntary departures. It's unlikely that IBM will ever confirm job cut numbers beyond the markets where it is required by law to report those numbers. Conrad has told InformationWeek that many of the jobs that IBM says are open are actually in offshore locations such as Brazil, China, and India. IBM has told InformationWeek that many of its job openings are in the US, but has not yet confirmed the number of US openings and the number of those US jobs actually filled in the first quarter of 2016. Conrad is a former IBM employee who previously ran the now defunct Alliance@IBM group for unionizing IBM employees. The Facebook page has picked up the communications part of the mission of the former Alliance@IBM group. 2016-04-04 10:05 Jessica Davis

82 HTTP compression continues to put encrypted communications at risk Security researchers have expanded and improved a three-year-old attack that exploits the compression mechanism used to speed up browsing in order to recover sensitive information from encrypted Web traffic. The attack, known as BREACH (Browser Reconnaissance and Exfiltration via Adaptive Compression of Hypertext), takes advantage of the gzip/DEFLATE algorithm used by many Web servers to reduce latency when responding to HTTP requests. This compression mechanism leaks information about encrypted connections and allows man-in-the-middle attackers to recover authentication cookies and other sensitive information. The BREACH attack was first presented at the Black Hat USA security conference in August 2013 by security researchers Angelo Prado, Neal Harris and Yoel Gluck. While it theoretically affects all SSL/TLS ciphers, their version of the attack was most effective against connections encrypted with stream ciphers, such as RC4. Another team of researchers, Dimitris Karakostas from the National Technical University of Athens and Dionysis Zindros from the University of Athens, have since made improvements to BREACH that make it practical for attacking TLS block ciphers, like AES, that are more commonly used today than RC4. Karakostas and Zindros presented their BREACH optimizations at the Black Hat Asia security conference last week and also released an open-source framework called Rupture that can be used to launch such compression-related attacks. Their presentation included two proof-of-concept attacks against Gmail and Facebook Chat to demonstrate that many websites, including some of the most security-conscious ones, are vulnerable. BREACH requires the attacker to be in a network position that allows the interception of a victim's Web traffic. This can be achieved on an wireless network, by compromising a router, or higher up in the Internet infrastructure by ISPs or intelligence agencies like the NSA. The attacker will then have to find a vulnerable part of an application that accepts input through an URL parameter and reflects that input somewhere into the encrypted response. In the case of Gmail, the researchers found that the search function on its mobile site allowed for such input reflection: a search string passed through an URL parameter was included in the response page, for example in a message saying that there were no results for that particular string. Also, if the request was made from an authenticated session, the response also included an authentication token identifying that session. The way gzip compression works in HTTP is that, if there are multiple instances of the same string in a response, the first instance is kept and the rest will be replaced with short references to the first instance's location. This reduces the size of the response. Therefore, in the Gmail case, if the user searches for the exact string that matches the authentication token -- or even a portion of it -- there would be two instances of the same sequence of characters in the response. Because of compression, the response would be smaller in size than other responses for a different search string. With BREACH, the goal of the attacker is to trick the user's browser to send a large number of requests to a vulnerable application -- like the mobile search feature in Gmail -- with the goal of guessing the authentication token. The authentication token would be encrypted in the response, but every time the search string would match a bit of the authentication token, the response observed over the wire would be smaller. This eventually allows the sequential guessing of every character in the authentication token by constantly modifying the search string in new requests to include the already discovered characters. It is essentially a brute-force attack on every character, with variations in HTTP compression serving as success indicators. The Rupture framework allows the attacker to inject rogue code into every unencrypted HTTP connection opened by a user's browser. That code is designed to force the browser to make requests to a vulnerable HTTPS application in the background. Unlike stream ciphers, block ciphers introduce noise into responses because they add dummy bits known as padding to data before encrypting it, so that it can be split into blocks of a specific size. Canceling out this noise and recovering the encrypted data using the BREACH technique requires executing a significantly larger number of requests than would be necessary had the same data been encrypted with a stream cipher. At first glance this would appear to make the attack less practical. However, Karakostas and Zindros have devised a statistical-based method of bypassing the noise by calculating the mean response length of multiple responses sent for the same tested character. They also made other optimizations and introduced browser parallelization that drastically improve the original attack's speed against TLS connections that use block ciphers. Three years later after BREACH was announced, RC4 is considered unsafe and most websites use the AES block cipher, the researchers said in their technical paper. "Some services, such as Facebook, also went on to incorporate mechanisms to prevent BREACH. However, the fundamental aspects of BREACH are still not mitigated and popular websites, including Facebook, continue support for vulnerable end-points. " "Our work demonstrates that BREACH can evolve to attack major web applications, confirming the fact that TLS traffic is still practically vulnerable," the researchers concluded. A proposed Internet standard called first-party or same-site cookies could protect websites against the BREACH attack. If adopted by browsers, this mechanism would prevent cookies from being included in requests sent a website if those requests were initiated by a different website. That is, if code on site A instructs the browser to initiate a request to site B, that request will not include the user's authentication cookie for site B, even if the browser does have an active, authenticated session with site B. This mechanism was primarily intended to protect against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks, but breaks BREACH as well, because the attack relies on a similar method of initiating rogue cross-site requests. Google Chrome will enable support for same-site cookies in version 51, which will reach stable status in May. However, unless the mechanism is implemented in all browsers there will be little incentive for website owners to start using the new "SameSite" flag for their cookies. 2016-04-04 09:12 Lucian Constantin

83 Big Data And RDBMS: Can They Coexist? There is a typical story cycle in IT: Every new technology destroys and replaces an older one. PCs displaced mini-computers. Smartphones unseated cameras and flip phones. Online streaming wipes out video rental and music CDs. So big data technologies should wipe out relational database management systems (RDBMS), right? That's not how the future is shaping up. Peaceful coexistence is turning out to be the norm, as the two technologies prove to be complementary, not exclusive. As much as casual observers would like to see big data technologies win the future, RDBMS (the basis for SQL and database systems such as Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB82, Oracle, and MySQL) is going to stick around for a bit longer. In an interview with InformationWeek, Meta S. Brown, president of A4A Brown and author of " Data Mining for Dummies ," said relational databases and big data technologies "have to coexist indefinitely. Neither one is capable of eclipsing the other. " Learn to integrate the cloud into legacy systems and new initiatives. Attend the Cloud Connect Track at Interop Las Vegas, May 2-6. Register now! As a consulting analyst, Brown is agnostic on which database technology will prevail, and looks instead for the method that provides the solution. For example, if you need to get the data to deliver precise answers, then "you've got to use a relational database," she said. "If you need an approximate answer in a big hurry," then a NoSQL database is the way to go. " "RDBMS isn't going anywhere for transactional systems," said David Teplow, founder and CEO of Integra Technology Consulting, in an interview with InformationWeek. Teplow has been a longtime user of RDBMS, going all the way back to the early 1980s with the release of Oracle 2.0 . In the 1990s, the need to measure and analyze data drove the construction of data warehouses. "[RDBMS] replaced anything else that had ever been used," Teplow said. "It became the de facto standard for data storage. " It was only when the increased volume, velocity, and variety of data became apparent that the need -- and the response -- of big data systems came about. RDBMS is still good on the volume front, but its fundamental nature makes it ill-suited for velocity and variety, Teplow said. Data must conform to some kind of predefined schema. Data coming in too fast and too heterogeneously -- think Facebook likes, GPS coordinates, and Web logs -- cannot be easily classified for RDBMS purposes. "That's where Hadoop and NoSQL take over. " Another way to look at the RDBMS/big data split is to look at centralization versus distributed architecture, said Lyn Robison, vice president and research director for data management strategies at Gartner Group. RDBMS is about centralization. "The server owns and guards the data, ensuring its consistency," Robison said. Updates are serialized and sequenced. Access is also limited. "It is possible you could get too many client requests. A relational database will tell the client requests it cannot handle, 'Sorry. I'm too busy.'" Adding capacity to a relational database means adding more memory, disk space, and computer power, but only for that single gatekeeper/repository, Robison said. In the realm of big data, reliant on NoSQL, you split the data among many servers, each one hosting a smaller slice with every server added via the cloud. Consistency and accuracy are the benefits of the relational database approach. If one provided access to many servers for many clients under the big data approach, different entries would cause data variance between servers, Robison said. "Eventually, it becomes consistent. " In the meantime, the company loses the sequence of the updates. "You kind of have to guess what happened. You can have data highly consistent but not always available, or data be readily available, but not consistent. " Relational databases also have a rich legacy of governance -- tools and apps to regulate access, manipulate data, and analyze everything in–between. It is a legacy big data is rapidly adopting for its own ends. Big data is catching up with RDBMS on governance issues. It is a typical evolution process, Teplow said. "You get the core functionality you need. Nice things, like security and governance, come later. " The newer tools for big data "are not easy to use," said Robison. "It will take years for analytical tools to mature and become accessible to people who are not in data science. " "I am not convinced people will stop worrying about the distinction," Brown said. Relational databases have been on the market for a long time. They have their share of supporters. Big data is the younger technology, with an equally fervid following. Which brings us to users. They may not be conscious of which form of database technology they are using. "Users are not always clear [RDBMS and big data] are different products," Brown said. "The sales reps are steering them to whatever product they want [the users] to buy. " Vendors will want to offer RDBMS and big data products, because they want to be the one-stop shop for the corporate buyer, Brown said. Sales reps may not fully understand the products they are selling, while "shoppers focus on the brand," she added. "It used to be that you could do everything with a relational database," Robison said. The inrush of varied data does not play well with RDBMS, so big data will become a necessity. Companies will embrace the new technology, but they will also be careful to minimize the variety of databases they have to manage. "They will choose some small number of databases to handle as many problems as they can," he said. Companies don't want the headache of managing 14 different databases, he added. Big data is "the shiny new object," Teplow said. In the conventional narrative of IT, the new technology always disrupts the old one. "Disruption is newsworthy," he said. But big data is not completely disruptive. "There is no replacement of the transactional space. " Relational databases are here to stay. 2016-04-04 09:06 William Terdoslavich

Total 83 articles. Created at 2016-04-05 00:01