technology

NY Fed: The Truth About the Job Market for Recent College Graduates

"We show that there are large differences in unemployment rates, underemployment rates, and average wages across majors. In particular, we show that those with degrees in majors that provide technical training, such as 'Engineering' and 'Math & Computers,' or in those that are geared toward growing parts of the economy, such as 'Education' and 'Health,' have tended to do pretty well when compared to the rest of the pack. At the other end of the spectrum, those with a 'Liberal Arts' or 'Leisure & Hospitality' major tend to have lower wages, higher unemployment, and higher underemployment." Continue reading →

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Reddit co-founder: Tech companies can help fight NSA snooping

"'I think we are awakening to a new age of sort of distributed — instead of centralized — hubs for all our data,' he explained. 'So I think this is the free market, we could very likely see alternatives pop up were social networking or whatever the thing might be does not concentrate all of our private data in one particular space.' Ohanian was a vocal opponent of legislation known as the Stop Online Piracy Act. Reddit, along with other tech giants like Wikipedia, successfully killed the bill by staging an Internet 'blackout.' However, Ohanian admitted that drumming up support to fight NSA surveillance was a more difficult task than battling SOPA." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReddit co-founder: Tech companies can help fight NSA snooping

Automatic Record-a-Cop App for Smart Phones

"This is an app that might get me to buy a smart phone. It automatically records an audio file of everything within 'earshot' of the phone’s microphone. Think of this. It will let you record everything, all the time. Then it automatically erases it. If you want to save the recording, you can. It has a 5-minute memory, but that will no doubt get much longer as the technology improves. There will always be situations in which you would like to have had record of what’s said. Now you can. But beware. Soon, everyone will be recording everyone else. It’s like 'Candid Microphone,' before there was 'Candid Camera.'" Continue reading →

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How Bad Is The Surveillance State?

"Even more baffling to me is the reaction of some 'conservatives' who deny the scope of spying activities and, at once, minimizing the civil-liberties threat and justifying the activities as absolutely necessary and vital for the protection of the country. The truth is that the network television show 'Person of Interest' is much closer to reality than most people think – except for the fact that no one is actually using the mining of data to protect the lives of innocent American citizens caught in the crossfire. Let’s look at some of the hard, cold facts of today’s surveillance state." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow Bad Is The Surveillance State?

China now home to the world’s fastest supercomputer

"A Chinese supercomputer is the fastest in the world, according to survey results announced Monday, comfortably overtaking a US machine which now ranks second. Tianhe-2, a supercomputer developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, achieved processing speeds of 33.86 petaflops (1000 trillion calculations) per second on a benchmarking test, earning it the number one spot in the Top 500 survey of supercomputers. The tests show the machine is by far the fastest computer ever constructed. Its main rival, the US-designed Titan, had achieved a performance of 17.59 petaflops per second, the survey’s website said." Continue reading →

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New Zealand becomes home to global tech industry

"The Google foray into New Zealand, dubbed Project Loon, is perhaps the most ambitious high-tech test carried out in the country, aiming to bring Internet to the two-thirds of the global population currently without web access. It involved sending 30 helium-filled balloons to the edge of space above the South Island last Saturday, each carrying transmitters capable of beaming wi-fi Internet access down to antennae on properties below. The first person to access the web under the scheme was dairy farmer Charles Nimmo, who said he appreciated the chance to work with one of the world’s largest companies to push the frontiers of technology." Continue reading →

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Satellites to bring cheap, multi-gigabit Internet speeds to 3 billion people

"The first four of 12 satellites in a new constellation to provide affordable, high-speed Internet to people in nearly 180 'under-connected' countries, were shot into space. The orbiters, part of a project dubbed O3b for the 'other 3 billion' people with restricted Internet access, will be lifted by a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kourou in French Guiana. The project was born from the frustrations of Internet pioneer Greg Wyler with the inadequacy of Rwanda’s telecommunications network, while travelling there in 2007. The system would cover the entire African continent, most of Latin America, the Middle East, southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands." Continue reading →

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Disabled Duck Gets A New Foot Thanks to 3D Printing Technology

"After living one year with a backward foot, disabled duck, Buttercup, will finally get a viable foot due to 3D printing technology. Buttercup was born in a high school biology lab last November and at first appeared like any normal yellow and fluffy duckling. However, Buttercup's deformity quickly revealed itself as the duckling could not walk around properly due to a partially developed foot. Fortunately for this little duck, the Feathered Angels Waterfowl Sanctuary, a Tennessee-based group, came to his rescue." Continue reading →

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Gulf Arab youth get around segregation with smartphone flirting

"In the United Arab Emirates and all across the conservative Gulf countries, dating is unacceptable among nationals while arranged marriages are the norm. By switching on WhosHere, a smartphone application which is popular in the kingdom, a young man sitting at the men’s section of the cafeteria could contact girls sitting in the families’ section. Before such applications, men would throw at the girls pieces of paper with their telephone numbers scribbled on them. But the Saudi telecom authority warned in March that it would ban applications like Skype and WhatsApp if providers failed to allow authorities access to censor content, according to an industry source." Continue reading →

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Lawmakers propose cyber crime reforms inspired by Aaron Swartz

"Critics of the current law, called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), say it is far too vague and led to the overzealous prosecution of Swartz after he accessed an MIT database containing academic research papers, many of which were created with public funding. Aaron’s Law would also cut back on redundant penalties in the current CFAA that can see some offenders punished twice for the same crime. The bill also seeks to address a flaw in the current law that makes 'unauthorized access' of any kind a felony, whereas something as simple as lying about one’s age to Facebook could be considered unauthorized access." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLawmakers propose cyber crime reforms inspired by Aaron Swartz