Today’s Tech Sightings: The Maker movement That Impacts Economy, Education and Culture Technology is about more than just coding, argues writer Dale Daugherty. “Makers” – those who create and craft using electronics, 3-D printing and a mix of physical and digital skills – are already shaping the future. The maker movement is on the rise […]
‘Making’ Tomorrow’s Workforce; Wireless Keyboards’ Bug Found
The Age of Smartphone Fondling; Beware: New, Lying Ransomware
Today’s Tech Sightings: Research Shows We Touch Our Cell Phones 2,617 Times Per Day How many times do you admire and fondle your phone every day? Well, a new study from research firm dscout found that the top 10 percent of extreme cell phone users touch their phones more than 5,400 times daily. The average […]
Google Faces Age-discrimination Case, Mobile Ransomware Spikes
Today’s Tech Sightings: Google Age-discrimination Lawsuit May Become a Monster Two people Google turned down for employment filed a lawsuit in California a year ago, claiming they were rejected because they were both over 40. Now, a San Jose federal court is being asked to determine if others who were also rejected because of their […]
Ransomware Bosses Earn Big Bucks; N. Korea Hacks 140,000 PCs
Today’s Tech Sightings: Ransomware Bosses Make $90K Annually A recent study found that Russian ransomware bosses “earn” US$90,000 a year. That’s 13 times the average income of people who were taught that crime doesn’t pay. The availability of Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) business model is saving hackers a lot of money and accelerating the […]
Musk: We’re Probably Living in a Video Game; the Future With AI
Today’s Tech Sightings: Elon Musk: We’re Probably Living in a Video Game Speaking at California’s Code Conference, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk warned that the lines between the real world and increasingly-sophisticated simulated environments could become so blurred that it will be hard to distinguish reality from simulation. The scenario is not […]
Android’s Location Data Jackpot; Google Search Adds Privacy Controls
Today’s Tech Sightings: Police Filing Warrants for Android’s Vast Store of Location Data If you use Google Maps on your Android device, you should know the software has a feature that builds a comprehensive history of the places you visit. Google’s Location History system collects the information, which is then used in Maps. The resulting […]
Twitter Eases 140-Character Limit; Google Toys With Killing Passwords
Today’s Tech Sightings: Twitter Makes Important Changes to Its 140-character Limit, Ditching ‘@mention’ Twitter is moving forward with changes to its 140-character limit that take links and @replies out of the word count. Pictures and other attachments will no longer count toward the 140-character count. A retweet button will also be added to personal tweets. […]
US Congress Targeted With Ransomware; Facebook Denies Censoring Content
Today’s Tech Sightings: Congress Warned About Cybersecurity After Attempted Ransomware Attack on House The U.S. House of Representatives’ technology staff warned legislators that their third-party email apps were increasingly being targeted by malware attacks. In an internal email obtained by TechCrunch, the staff advised legislators that access to YahooMail and Gmail will be blocked on […]
Cisco: 12 Million PCs Have Backdoors; IoT’s Privacy Dilemma
Today’s Tech Sightings: Cisco Finds Backdoor Installed on 12 Million PCs Researchers working with U.S. technology firm Cisco have discovered software that installed backdoors on 12 million computers around the world. The software, found by Cisco’s Talos security intelligence and research group, was developed by a French online advertising firm called Tuto4PC that has been under […]
IBM’s Watson Joins Cancer War; Google to Train 1 Million Africans
Today’s Tech Sightings: IBM Watson Enlists in War on Cancer IBM’s artificial intelligence system, also known as Watson, is being fed nearly 14,000 pages of all kinds of cancer topics to create a mobile app that can offer personalized advice to cancer patients. The effort is a partnership between IBM and the American Cancer Society. […]