Tech

Are We Experiencing a Great Software Stagnation?

Long-time programmer/researcher/former MIT research fellow Jonathan Edwards writes a blog called "Alarming Development: Dispatches from the User Liberation Front." He began the new year by arguing that software "is eating the world. But progress in software technology itself largely stalled around 1996." Slashdot reader tonique summarizes Edwards' argument: In 1996 there were "LISP, Algol, Basic, APL, Unix, C, Oracle, Smalltalk, Windows, C++, LabView, HyperCard, Mathematica, Haskell, WWW, Pyt...
Tags: Microsoft, Tech, Mit, Silicon Valley, Edwards, Google Facebook Apple, Jonathan Edwards

Favorite Media of 2020

For the 11th consecutive time (previously: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019), here’s my massive look-back at all my favorite things that I consumed over the past year. As always, this is limited to things that were released in 2020, and it’s of course HIGHLY subjective — this is not a round-up of the best media of 2020, but rather a look back at stuff I really enjoyed this past year, because I like the exercise of doing it. And that of course means there’s plen...
Tags: Travel, Apple, Top 5, Games, Music, Japan, TV, Podcasts, Film, Youtube, Web, Magazines, James Bond, Tokyo, Anime, PJ Harvey

Among 2020's Most Underreported Stories: Pharmaceutical Profiteering May Accelerate Superbugs

Since 1976 "Project Censored," a U.S.-based nonprofit media watchdog organization, has been identifying "the news that didn't make the news," the most significant stories it believes are being systematically overlooked. Slashdot ran stories about its annual list of the year's most censored news stories in 1999, 2003, 2004, and in 2007, when they'd presciently warned that the media was ignoring the issue of net neutrality. But their latest list of underreported stories includes this disturbing ...
Tags: India, Tech, United States, Cambodia, Abbott, Slashdot, Sun Pharma, Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Bureau of Investigative Journalism BIJ

Adobe Officially Ends Flash Support, Recommends Uninstalling Immediately

Adobe in 2017 announced plans to end support for its Flash browser plug-in at the end of 2020. Now that it's officially 2021, support for the software has ended, and Adobe will begin blocking content from running in Flash Player beginning on January 12. Flash's elimination should not heavily impact users because many popular browsers have already moved away from the format. Additionally, iPhone and iPad users are not affected by the change, as iOS and iPadOS have never supported Flash. Apple...
Tags: Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, Steve Jobs, Adobe Flash Player

Apple reconsiders banning Mac app Amphetamine over its drug-inspired name

Apple has reconsidered plans to kick Amphetamine from the Mac App Store over its drug-inspired name.
Tags: Apple, Mac App Store

Has 'The Mandalorian' on Disney+ Redeemed the Star Wars Universe?

Today a staff writer at Salon argues "The Mandalorian" has redeemed the Star Wars universe: The Disney+ series "The Mandalorian" has been both a critical triumph and commercial success. In my judgment, it's the most compelling live-action story in the "Star Wars" universe since 1983's "Return of The Jedi". To that end, the story in "The Mandalorian's" first two seasons about a mysterious bounty hunter and "the child" (who is actually more than 50 years old) he's entrusted with as they navigat...
Tags: Disney, Tech, Lucasfilm, George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Yoda, Kylo Ren, Werner Herzog, Kathleen Kennedy, Bill Slavicsek

See Boston Dynamics' Robots Bust Freakishly Good Moves On the Dance Floor

MojoKid summarizes an article from Hot Hardware: Boston Dynamics made news recently when 80% of the company was acquired by Hyundai. The company's family of robots is always impressive and now it appears they're having some fun to celebrate the close of 2020. Boston Dynamics' robot dog, Spot and its humanoid-like Atlas bot friend, were joined by their oddball sibling Handle to shake their booties on the dance floor to "Do You Love Me" by The Contours. The video starts off impressive enough wit...
Tags: Tech, Atlas, Hyundai, Boston Dynamics, Patrick Swayze

A Four-Day Work Week Would Be Affordable For Most UK Firms, Says Think Tank

"A carefully designed four-day week could be introduced in the UK immediately and be affordable for most firms with more than 50 workers, a think tank has said," reports the Guardian, citing new research from a not-for-profit think tank: A report by Autonomy – which is campaigning for a shorter working week without loss of pay – said the majority of 50,000 firms studied would be able to cope with the change through higher productivity or by raising prices. The think tank said the government sh...
Tags: UK, Tech, Autonomy

Microsoft, SolarWinds Face New Criticism Over Russian Breach of US Networks

After Russia's massive breach of both government and private networks in the U.S., American intelligence officials "have expressed anger that Microsoft did not detect the attack earlier But new criticisms are also falling on SolarWinds: Some of the compromised SolarWinds software was engineered in Eastern Europe, and American investigators are now examining whether the incursion originated there, where Russian intelligence operatives are deeply rooted.... SolarWinds moved much of its engineer...
Tags: Microsoft, Russia, US, Tech, Ukraine, United States, New York Times, Moscow, Orion, Belarus, Eastern Europe, Solarwinds, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Czech Republic Poland, Ian Thornton Trump, Thornton Trump

Lawsuits Filed Against Lyft Alleging Sexual Assaults By Drivers

Slashdot reader Charlotte Web quotes SiliconValley.com: Bay Area ride-hailing giant Lyft is accused in a series of new lawsuits of failing to protect female passengers from rape by drivers. One plaintiff claims she was 15 when her driver raped her and then forced her to take an anti-pregnancy pill. The December legal actions are part of a "mass tort" lawsuit initiated in August 2019 by 20 women alleging sexual assault by Lyft drivers. Several dozen women joined the case soon after, and lawyers f...
Tags: Lyft, California, San Francisco, Tech, Bay Area

The big question on every startup’s mind for 2021

My big question for 2021, and the one that is on every startup’s mind, is how will a cataclysmic event such as a global pandemic show up in post-pandemic innovation? I think we’re in the early innings of seeing what ‘aha moments’ have materialized into companies. And we won’t know the pandemic’s true impact on our psyches until the dust settles and we have an opportunity to reflect. We do know it will be fascinating to watch. In 2020, innovators and investors were forced to stand still, and wit...
Tags: TC, Europe, Utah, China, India, San Francisco, Tech, Intel, United States, Miami, Jack Ma, Alex, Sap, Clubhouse, Qualtrics, Alex Wilhelm

Bitcoin crosses $30,000 for the first time as it charges into 2021

Bitcoin's value grew over 300% last year. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Bitcoin set a new record Saturday when the price of the digital currency passed $30,000. The blockchain incumbent has been surging in recent weeks, passing the $20,000 price point a little over two weeks ago and edging toward $25,000 on Christmas day. Bitcoin has grown significantly over the last year as it's drawn in more interest from institutional and retail investors, some of whom view digital coins as a safe...
Tags: Trends, Gold, Tech, Markets, Paypal, Bitcoin, Goldman Sachs, Cryptocurrencies, Jpmorgan, Ethereum Litecoin, Dan Whateley, Markets And Equities, REUTERS Dado Ruvic Illustration Bitcoin

Human Capital: The biggest labor stories of 2020

Hellllooooo, 2021! Welcome back to Human Capital, a weekly newsletter that details the latest in the realms of labor, and diversity and inclusion. Not a ton happened this week so I figured I’d use the time to look back on some of the more notable labor stories of 2020 . Sign up below to receive Human Capital in your inbox every Friday at 1 p.m. PT.  Gig workers vs. Uber, Lyft, Instacart et al. California’s Proposition 22, backed by gig companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash, passed t...
Tags: Google, Amazon, New York, Pinterest, Labor, California, Washington Post, Washington, America, San Francisco, Tech, Diversity, Kickstarter, Reddit, Silicon Valley, Alexis Ohanian

Developer Says Apple Wanted Him To Change App’s Branding Because It 'Promoted' Controlled Substances

In Apple’s world, an app can be inappropriate one day, but acceptable the next. That’s what the developer of Amphetamine—an app designed to keep Macs from going to sleep, which is useful in situations such as when a file is downloading or when a specific app is running—learned recently when Apple got in touch with him…Read more...
Tags: Apple, Apps, Science, Developers, App Store, Amphetamine

Lenovo Canada Weekly Sale: Save up to 75% on Select Lenovo ThinkPad Laptops & More!

Lenovo Canada a great ThinkPad Deals, available now, where you can Save up to 75% on select Lenovo ThinkPad Laptops. Save More Sale: Get Up to an EXTRA 12% Off IdeaPad, Yoga, Legion, ThinkCentre, & Workstation Laptops & PCs! Exclusions Apply Use code SAVEMORE! (1/04-01/10) Get an EXTRA 12% Off IdeaPad Laptops and Desktops Over $1959, 10% Off $1399+, or 7% Off $699+! Use code SAVEMORE (1/04-01/10) Get an EXTRA 12% Off Legion Laptops and Desktops Over $1959, 10% Off $1399+, or 7% Off $699+! Use ...
Tags: Shopping, Intel, Canada, Lenovo, Canadian Deals & Coupons, Canadian Discount Coupons Canada, Canadian Daily Deals, Lenovo Canada, EXTRAFIVE, Lenovo Canada Weekly Sale

EFF Reveals Behind-the-Scenes Account of the Fight to Save .ORG

As part of its "Year in Review" series, the EFF shares their dramatic behind-the-scenes details about 2020's fight over the future of .org domains. It begins when the Internet Society (ISOC) announced plans to sell the Public Interest Registry — which manages the .org top-level domain (TLD) — to private equity firm Ethos Capital. "If you come at the nonprofit sector, you'd best not miss." EFF and other leaders in the NGO community sprung to action, writing a letter to ISOC urging it to stop t...
Tags: Usa, Congress, California, Los Angeles, Tech, Icann, Eff, Nten, World Economic Forum, YMCA, Xavier Becerra, ISOC, Public Interest Registry, Internet Society ISOC, Ethos Capital, Ethos Capital If

Farming Equipment is Beaming Back 'Reams of Data' To its Manufacturers

Farming equipment like combine harvesters "beam back reams of data to its manufacturer," reports Forbes: GPS records the combine's precise path through the field as it moves. Sensors tally the number of crops gathered per acre and the spacing between them. On a sister machine called a planter, algorithms adjust the distribution of seeds based on which parts of the soil have in past years performed best. Another machine, a sprayer, uses algorithms to scan for weeds and zap them with pesticides. M...
Tags: Tech, Georgia, Chicago, AGCO, John Deere, Farming Equipment

Apple will let Amphetamine app stay in the App Store after wrongly telling developer it violated App Store ru…

The developer says changing the name and logo would have damaged brand recognition
Tags: Apple, App Store

Neuroscientists' New Theory: Dreaming Protects the Braincells For Eyesight

Writing in Time magazine, two neuroscientists share a surprising new theory on exactly how dreaming protects our brains: Neuroscience used to think that different parts of the brain were predetermined to perform specific functions. But more recent discoveries have upended the old paradigm. One part of the brain may initially be assigned a specific task; for instance, the back of our brain is called the "visual cortex" because it usually handles sight. But that territory can be reassigned to a d...
Tags: Tech, Time Magazine

I'm a 24-year-old medical student. Here's what my parents did right to help me successfully pursue my education.

Darian Dozier. Darian Dozier Darian Dozier is a writer, creator of the medical school admissions and wellness blog Melanated and Meducated, and current osteopathic medical student based in Houston. From a young age, Dozier knew she wanted to become a doctor, and says her parents' lessons of studying hard, staying focused, and always trying her best helped her stay motivated throughout the journey to med school. Certain practices, like insisting she finished high school homework on Friday i...
Tags: Google, School, Education, Parents, Advice, Careers, Trends, Strategy, Las Vegas, Houston, Nordic, Dozier, Medical School, DARIAN, Medical Students, BI-freelancer

How The Band Phish Played Chess Against Its Fans on New Year's Eve

An anonymous reader writes: So on New Year's Eve, the "jam" rock band Phish re-broadcast their legendary 1995 performance on New Year's Eve -- while playing a game of chess against the audience. (Just as they'd done in 1995 -- although during that tour they'd made two just moves during each show.) In a video promoting this year's event, a chess "historian" remembers "No single band in the '90s was playing better chess against their audience" and shares an alleged conspiracy theory that they wer...
Tags: Tech, Madison Square Garden, Gordon, Phish, McConnell, Garry Kasparov, Jon Fishman, Anastasio, Eve Phish, WaterWheel Foundation

Tesla delivers nearly 500,000 vehicles in 2020

Tesla delivered 499,550 vehicles in 2020, a 36% increase over the previous year and just a few dozen short of hitting an historic and long-awaited milestone that CEO Elon Musk has been aiming for more than five years. Tesla reported Saturday that it produced 509,737 electric vehicles in 2020. Tesla was able to reach the 500,000-vehicle target by ticking up production and sales in the fourth quarter — a final push that has mirrored numerous other end-of-the-quarter efforts by the company. Tesl...
Tags: TC, Elon Musk, China, Tech, Tesla, Automotive, Musk

This Week in Apps: Apple bans party app, China loses 39K iOS games, TikTok births a ‘Ratatousical’

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry is as hot as ever, with  204 billion total downloads and $120 billion in global consumer spend in 2019. Not including Chinese third-party app stores, iOS and Android users in 2020 130 billion apps and spent a record $112 billion. In 2019, people spent three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Due to COVID-...
Tags: Apple, Google, Android, Google Play, Facebook, Apps, New York, Hollywood, Media, Instagram, China, Disney, Samsung, Tech, Ios Apps, Developers

Tesla just missed its goal of delivering half a million vehicles last year

Elon Musk. Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images Tesla had set a goal of 500,000 deliveries for 2020. On Saturday, it announced it missed the target by 450 vehicles. Some analysts had said the ambitious target could be tough to reach because of a slump in auto sales during the coronavirus pandemic. The company reached its production goal for the year, making a total of 509,737 vehicles. It also said production of its mid-size SUV, the Model Y, has begun in Shanghai.  Visit Business Insider's h...
Tags: Transportation, Elon Musk, China, Trends, Tech, Tesla, Electric Vehicles, Shanghai, Transporation, Musk, Victoria Cavaliere, Tech Insider, Getty Images Tesla, Elon Musk Odd Andersen AFP

5 traits that separate B-players from A-players at work, and signs to look out for when hiring

The biggest distinction between A- and B- players is attitude. Vladimir Vladimirov/Getty Images Most companies have two types of employees: A- and B-players, but startup founder Marina Glazman says it's not always clear who's who in the workplace.  She says most B-players stick to showing up and doing what they're told, but fail to rise above and excel at their tasks.  According to experts, they don't show intellectual curiosity, struggle to applaud others' achievements, and resist when fa...
Tags: Google, Trends, Harvard, Merrill Lynch, Deloitte, West Hollywood, Mary, Kearney, Tingley, Mary Fitzgerald, Oppenheim Group, Vladimir Vladimirov Getty, Marina Glazman, Kelsey Ocasio Christian, Ocasio Christian, Erica Tingley

Big predictions for the year ahead on Wall Street

Hello readers, Happy New Year!In case you missed it, check out our rundown of the Wall Street stories that defined 2020. There's plenty to catch up on, but here are just a few of my personal favorites: How Dan Sundheim became the LeBron James of investing and launched one of the hottest hedge funds on earth40 insiders reveal the meteoric rise of Silver Lake's Egon Durban, the tech-focused PE firm's No. 1 dealmakerMeet Ram Sundaram, the leader of a secretive Goldman Sachs desk that's minting bill...
Tags: Washington, Trends, Tech, Joe Biden, Paypal, Chicago, Goldman Sachs, Lebron James, PPP, Fintech, Silver Lake, Bain Capital Ventures, Reuters, SPAC, Patel, Feldman

Ticketmaster To Pay $10 Million Fine For Hacking A Rival Company

Ticketmaster has agreed to pay a $10 million fine after being charged with illegally accessing computer systems of a competitor repeatedly between 2013 and 2015 in an attempt to "cut [the company] off at the knees." A subsidiary of Live Nation, the California-based ticket sales and distribution company used the stolen information to gain an advantage over CrowdSurge — which merged with Songkick [Author: [email protected] (Ravie Lakshmanan)]
Tags: California, Tech, Ticketmaster, Ravie Lakshmanan, Rival Company

Original Content podcast: ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ might be a beautiful mess, or maybe just a mess

“Wonder Woman 1984” was released on HBO Max on Christmas Day, where it quickly divided the hosts of the Original Content podcast. Perhaps it was predictable that Anthony — a fan of clunky-but-ambitious superhero sequels like “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” — enjoyed the film. Darrell, meanwhile, took the side of most critics, who found the movie exasperating and even, at times, mystifyingly bad. The biggest surprise was Jordan, who disliked the first “Wonder Woman” and a...
Tags: Apple, TC, Hbo, Media, Podcasts, Entertainment, Tech, Jordan, Kristen Wiig, Anthony, Darrell, Original Content Podcast, Wonder Woman 1984, HBO Max, Superman II, Steve Trevor the Chris Pine

Best Health and Fitness Apps

Have you tried using health and fitness apps on your smartphone or computer? These are great tools to monitor progress, keep motivated and be a happier healthy you! Best Fitness Apps Welltory is an app that lets your body talk to you directly, telling you how much you can get done today, if you risk ... Read More about Best Health and Fitness Apps The post Best Health and Fitness Apps appeared first on Skip To My Lou.
Tags: Crafts, Household, Tech, Get Fit, Fitness Apps, Fitness Ideas