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8 Ways Blerds Can Have More of a Presence in Silicon Valley

 

diversity in tech

Companies Acknowledge Biases in the Hiring Process and Do Something About It

Solving the problem could really be as simple as acknowledging that there is a problem and taking the proper steps to move forward. Studies indicate that some employers tend to bypass potential employees who are women or people of color because they assume they will not be competent in the technology field. While making the field more diverse is a goal that some companies are striving for now, years of hiring executives excluding women and people of color have left the tech space struggling to become more inclusive.
diversity in tech

Hiring Staffs Stop Resorting to What’s Familiar

For some hiring executives, there is no blatant attempt to exclude certain races or genders. Instead, there is a subconscious bias that encourages them to connect with and hire people who look familiar or have similar backgrounds. Since the tech industry is already filled with white men, that comfort with familiarity often results in other white men being hired over their Black and female counterparts.

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NASA’s Kepler Discovers 2 New Earth-Like Planets, Marking Major Milestone for the Spacecraft and Its Researchers

NASA has spent years searching for other Earth-like planets, and while several have already been found, the latest discoveries by Kepler could be the most Earth-like new worlds yet.

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has been searching for new planets for years and the new discoveries, deemed Kepler 438 b and Kepler 442 b, appear to be incredibly similar to Earth.

The two planets were among several other planets that were discovered by the spacecraft and brought Kepler’s total discovered planets past the 1,000 mark milestone.

Both of the planets appear to have relatively similar temperatures to Earth and boast environments where liquid water is likely to be in abundance.

The planets are also rocky worlds and are comparable to Earth’s size and orbit.

While the planets are certainly pretty close to Earth in certain ways, the study’s co-author, David Kipping, warned that the planets still might not be habitable for humans.

“We can’t say for sure whether these planets are truly habitable — only that they are promising candidates for habitability,” Kipping, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said, according to Scientific American.

Another major catch is that the planets are extremely far away.

One is 500 light years away while the other is more than 1,000 light years away.

To put that in perspective, a light year is the equivalent to roughly 5.9 trillion miles.

The study’s lead author, Guillermo Torres, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is excited about what the discoveries could mean for the search for extraterrestrial life.

“These planets do exist; we didn’t know that before,” Torres said in a phone interview with Fox News. “What we’re really looking for is signs of life eventually. We’re not there yet. It will take many years, but this is the first step.”

The addition of Kepler 438 b and Kepler 442 b brings the grand total of planets no larger than twice the size of Earth to eight or nine, depending on who you ask.

There are still debates over another recently discovered planet.

Either way, Torres says it’s just proof that the universe is full of Earth-like planets and the only challenge is finding them and reaching them.

Of course, there are some notable differences between Earth and the newly discovered worlds.

Kepler 438 b gets about 40 percent more energy from its sun-like star and makes a much tighter orbit around it.

This means the planet would have years that are no longer than about 35 Earth days and the red dwarf star would give the planet red rays of sunlight as opposed to the yellow sunlight we experience on Earth.

 

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Intel CEO Launches a $300 Million Initiative as He Declares War on Lack of Diversity in Silicon Valley

Intel CEO sets aside $300 Million for diversity efforts

As the entire tech industry faces off with a serious diversity problem, Intel is stepping forward with a $300 million initiative and a plan that it says will make its company diverse from the ground up by 2020.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich made the announcement during his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 on Tuesday night and stated that just talking about diversity isn’t enough anymore.

It wasn’t long ago that tech giants like Facebook, Apple and Google revealed a stunning lack of diversity in their workforces when they published their diversity reports.

The reports revealed that the companies had less than 2 percent of Black employees and barely had any in some sort of leadership position.

The reports sparked a national dialogue about diversity in STEM careers, but many criticized the companies for not doing enough to actually boost diversity within their own company walls.

Intel is hoping to put an end to those accusations.

“It’s not enough to say we value diversity,” Krzanich said. “It’s time for us to step up and do more.”

Krzanich revealed that Intel would be setting aside a whopping $300 million specifically for the purpose of improving diversity, not only at Intel, but in Silicon Valley as a whole.

The Diversity Initiative Fund would be using the money for a variety of different projects and programs that hope to boost the overall interest that Black people and women have in the technology field.

“It’s $300 million from Intel that we’re going to commit and it’s going to go to everything from investing in minority- and women-owned companies that can help promote technology, women and minority gaming developers, universities that are going to drive more women and minorities into technology and lastly, just actually, developing up front more cash to support new initiatives, new companies, new startups that are owned and run by women and minorities,” Krzanich told Mashable after his speech.

Of course, some tech lovers were skeptical about how exactly the company planned to bring about change in the tech field.

Even with a staggering amount of money, one user sent a tweet to the company saying it’s impossible to “purchase diversity.”

While that may be true, Krzanich believes he and his team will be able to allocate those funds in a way that would promote and create diversity, especially within Intel.

He explained that the company’s plan is to have full representation in all levels of its workforce by the year 2020 and to regularly measure and report on the progress being made toward this goal.

The exact method that should be used to get to that goal remains unclear, but just having a goal in place is what Krzanich believes will set the company up to be successful in such an important endeavor.

“I’m an engineer and I believe that you only solve problems by setting aggressive goals,” he told Mashable. “So as we sat and thought about it, how are we really going to solve this problem? We decided to set a goal. We don’t know how to get there, but we’ve set a goal, made a commitment and now, as engineers, we have to go solve all the problems.”

 

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South Side Chicago Author Helps Give New Life to Afrofuturism and Caters to Blacks Interested in Sci-Fi, Fantasy Literature

As Afrofuturism continues to grow in popularity, one author from Chicago’s South Side is helping the movement take shape and offering a guide to sci-fi and fantasy newcomers.

For quite some time it seemed like the vast, imaginative worlds of sci-fi and fantasy arts had room for everything except for Black people.

Even today, as more comic book creators and sci-fi filmmakers make conscious efforts to boost diversity in their works, Black actors and characters often receive less than warm welcomes.

That’s where Afrofuturism comes in.

Afrofuturism is a term that describes the harmonious blend of science fiction and fantasy with aspects of Afrocentricity.

Afrofuturistic works not only aim to entertain, but they also hope to provide insightful critiques of racism and re-examine historical events.

While the term was not coined by Mark Dery until he published his essay “Black to the Future” in 1992, Chicago author Ytasha Womack was always living her life as a proud Afrofuturist.

The culture left such a substantial impact on the Chicago native that she began penning the book “Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture” after she graduated from Clark Atlanta University.

She graduated from the HBCU back in 1997, but it wasn’t until 2013 that Womack’s revolutionary book would hit the shelves.

The book was created as a bit of a launch pad for Blacks who were new to the sci-fi, fiction universe but always had an interest in it.

“A lot of my friends from college were really immersed in these ideas,” Womack said, according to DNA Info. “But when they graduated they didn’t know what to do.”

Womack hopes her book will help address that problem for many other Black people interested in sci-fi and fantasy works.

In addition to serving as a launch pad for Afrofuturism newcomers, the book will also aim to be a sort of history book for the sub culture.

Womack said she hopes the book is able to “preserve the movement for future generations,” DNA Info reported.

Since her book’s 2013 release, Womack says college students and professors have been constantly reaching out to her and now the book is being used to help educate students on a variety of topics including feminism and African diaspora.

The Afrofuturism book came after she wrote another book in 2010 titled “Post Black: How a New Generation Is Redefining African American Identity” and just before she released a fictional novel titled “Rayla 2212” in 2014.

The book follows the life of a woman named Rayla who lives on a former earth colony 200 years in the future.

“The idea [of Rayla] became really compelling when I was writing the Afrofuturism book,” Womack said.

Both of the works were contributing factors that helped inspire the Race in Space Conference at Duke University in October of 2013.

The conference combined science fiction with science fact and allowed seasoned researchers to give more insight about the possibilities of more advanced space exploration.

Afrofuturism has also been used to help get more Black students interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers.

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New Popscope Happily Marries Cellphone Tripods and Selfie Sticks for No-Hassle Photos and Video

Cell phone accessories

A new product for smartphones of all shapes and sizes recently hit the market and is sure to be a hit with virtual gym trainers, families who live far apart, fashion bloggers who need to capture their style and anyone who is just craving for an easier way to get the perfect selfie.

The product is called Popscope and it is the happy marriage between the selfie stick and a cellphone tripod that seems to be long overdue.

In the digital age, smartphones have long waged a war against consumer cameras, so it’s only natural that tech-savvy entrepreneurs have been rushing to create accessories for mobile devices that mirror those of camera accessories.

From different lenses to external microphones, anything a consumer videographer or photographer would equip their DSLR camera with, they can now simply attach a similar version to their smartphones.

Popscope is adding to that ever-growing repertoire of accessories that are helping smartphones gear up for their battle against digital cameras by doubling as a tripod and monopod.

Tripods for smartphones are not a new invention, but Popscope may be the first product that combines the cellphone tripod with the latest trend for selfie lovers — the selfie stick.

The selfie stick is a rod that can safely secure users’ phones at the end of the stick.

The accessory also comes with a wireless remote to activate the phone’s shutter so one can take a good selfie with the phone farther away.

The Popscope not only gives consumers the option to prop up their phones on a tripod, but it also extends out to become a selfie stick of its own.

The inventor and CEO of Popscope, Vincent Smith, was surprised that such a demand had not already been met in the market.

“Trying with no luck to take a full body selfie at arm’s length before going out to send to a friend, I thought if I could set my phone on a small tripod, that would work,” he said in a press release. “I searched but could not find a product that could accomplish that. This led me to think, ‘How can I design something?’ ”

Thus the Popscope, and all 19 inches of its retractable glory, was created.

The swivel head on the Popscope allows for an impressive 90-degree bend and makes it much easier for people to video chat, record themselves for online tutorials or just take pictures.

The fact that it can collapse down to 6.49 inches makes it a breeze to tote around.

“We prize this device on being versatile, compact and incredibly useful,” Smith said. “We’ve nailed this concept as it fits most all phones, and is extremely easy to carry.”

Never again will a social media fashionista have to opt for a mirror selfie if nobody is around to capture her outfit from head-to-toe. Extended conversations on Facetime will no longer end simply because someone’s arm got too tired to keep holding the cellphone at eye level. The days of propping your cellphone up on a pile of books to watch your favorite shows are long gone.

In an age where the quality of a cellphone’s camera is more of a deciding factor of the phone’s worth than its battery life or durability, the Popscope has emerged as quite the hero for the tech-savvy, selfie-obsessed young consumers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w_qJ1QGfDo#t=70

 

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Apple Accused of Misrepresenting iOS 8 Update Space and iPhone Storage in New Class-Action Lawsuit

A new class-action lawsuit filed against Apple is accusing the tech giant of misrepresenting how much storage would be occupied by the iOS 8 update.

On Tuesday, a complaint filed in a California court took aim at Apple after it was revealed that the actual amount of space the iOS 8 update occupied was larger than the capacity represented by the company.

The plaintiffs, Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara, claimed that no “reasonable consumer” would have agreed to have so much space occupied on their device for the update.

11459-4331-Screen-Shot-2014-12-31-at-105401-AM-l

For all Apple devices, the update occupied nearly 20 percent of the devices’ storage capacity.

For the iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air and iPad, the update took up more than 20 percent of the user’s available storage.

The plaintiffs estimated that each gigabyte of capacity removed from the devices is the equivalent of as many as 500 high-resolution pictures.

The lawsuit also claims that Apple is limiting storage capacity for the sole purpose of pressuring consumers to purchase iCloud storage upgrades.

“To compound the harm to consumers, after Defendant [Apple] provides materially less than the advertised capacity on the Devices, Defendant aggressively markets a monthly-fee-based storage system called iCloud,” the lawsuit reads. “Using these sharp business tactics, Defendant gives less storage capacity than advertised, only to offer to sell that capacity in a desperate moment, e.g., when a consumer is trying to record or take photos at a child or grandchild’s recital, basketball game or wedding.”

Both of the plaintiffs own several Apple devices, including new iPhones and iPads.

In addition to allegedly misrepresenting the amount of space the iOS 8 update would occupy, the plaintiffs also found issue with the fact that none of the Apple devices actually came with the amount of promoted usable storage.

For example, the 16-gigabyte iPhone does not actually come with 16 gigabytes of usable storage due to preloaded apps and software.

The lawsuit says Apple is in violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law and the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act.

The plaintiffs are asking for the court to force Apple to “engage in a corrective notice campaign” and actually pay restitution to consumers who were impacted by the alleged misrepresentation.

 

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After Eric Garner Grand Jury Decision, Activist and WITNESS Founder Urges the Nation Not to Give Up On Video Evidence Just Yet

Following the death of Staten Island father Eric Garner and the lack of an indictment against the New York police officer who placed him in a chokehold, there was widespread doubt that video evidence would be effective in the push for justice.

The Black community wasn’t sure if police body cameras would bring about change and families were still worried that one day it would be their own loved one on camera uttering that they couldn’t breathe and their killer would still be a free man.

But is video evidence useless in the fight against police brutality or is there just a need for a better way to collect, store and verify the video evidence?

According to Peter Gabriel, an activist and co-founder of the human rights organization WITNESS, video evidence still has a shot at protecting citizens from abusive police officers.

“We live in an age of video,” Gabriel wrote on Wired. “As more and more of our lives are being filmed, we are amassing massive catalogs of potential evidence. Yet so little of this is finding its way into our political, legal or justice system.”

Instead of shedding a spotlight on video evidence, prosecutors are still focusing on unreliable eyewitnesses and conflicting reports.

This is opening the door for “unreliable” and “re-imagined” stories to come in the way of justice.

Gabriel believes that a few changes to the way we deal with video evidence could really make a difference in the court of law.

“Technology already exists that can aid us in proving a piece of video is authentic (hasn’t been tampered with, manipulated or edited in any way) or even prove the unique ‘signature’ of the person who filmed it,” he explained. “If that is possible, why would a prosecutor need to present evidence to a grand jury to ask for an indictment where technology has presented irrefutable, visual evidence of a possible crime?”

Prosecutors have been at the center of the discussion when it comes to the lack of indictments against police officers who have killed unarmed Black men.

Prosecutors often share close relationships with police officers and present cases in a way that will better the officer’s chances of getting off.

By incorporating reliable, verified video evidence in the courtrooms, however, Gabriel argues that prosecutors won’t be necessary in cases where a verified video shows clear police brutality.

The jurors would be shown a “proof mode” video that would allow journalists, investigators and other audiences to make sure the video is “authentic.”

“The proof mode would be accessed through a specific app, an option on a device or a media-sharing platform such as YouTube,” he added. “It would incorporate and preserve important metadata such as the location and time and date of a video file’s creation. This additional information would ensure a file’s integrity.”

In addition to making such videos easier to locate, Gabriel believes it will give more weight to video evidence and help create a “cohesive story of an incident” rather than the often unclear, contradicting stories that many grand juries are presented.

Of course, with cases like Eric Garner, Gabriel understands video evidence still won’t be foolproof.

“People old enough to remember will recall that the video of the Rodney King beating failed to convince a jury of any guilt of the LAPD officers involved in the ensuing criminal case,” he said, but he believes this isn’t a sign that video evidence doesn’t work.

Instead, he said it’s a sign that issues like police brutality are deeper than conflicting eyewitness reports.

“This is not a failure of video, but a reminder that for issues like police brutality, which have deep systemic roots, and touch inbuilt prejudices, the struggle to end it will not come quickly,” he said.

Video evidence certainly won’t bring justice on its own, but, according to Gabriel, it will be able to empower “billions of potential witnesses” and make it impossible for the system to “ignore the foundation of real justice.”

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The Year of AI: 2014 Brings Impressive Advances and a Glimpse Into the Future of Artificial Intelligence

From speakers you can text to sales associate robots making their way through Lowe’s, the last year brought a variety of impressive technological advances that demonstrated the potential of artificial intelligence (AI).

While we are still many generations away from seeing software that will be able to fully mimic human intelligence, we are now in an era where humans can have conversations and other interactions with technology in a way that wasn’t possible in the past.

Technology Review pointed to Microsoft’s Cortana as a standout example of how technology can now recognize, process and respond to human speech. The virtual assistant is essentially taking applications like Apple’s Siri to the next level.

Cortana is built into the mobile version of windows and actually learns about the person using the software over time.

While other voice recognition software from the past allowed users to launch apps or receive quick answers to simple questions about a celebrity’s age or what the weather is like, Cortana actually has the ability to control certain apps, connect reminders to specific people and accurately follow a series of questions and demands.

“After asking for ‘The best Mexican restaurants in Palo Alto,’ he could narrow down the candidates Cortana listed by asking ‘Which ones take reservations?’ and then ‘Call the second one,’ after making a decision,” Technology Review reported about Joe Belfiore, vice president of Microsoft’s operation system group, who presented the new software back in April.

The year also revealed the possibilities of using artificial intelligence to monitor homes through thermostats, security systems and more.

Technologies like the Nest thermostat, which recently entered its second generation of devices, actually learns the users’ preferred temperature, daily routine and energy costs.

After compiling enough information about its new owner, Nest adjusts accordingly without consumers having to think twice about touching the thermostat.

Then there was the introduction of Canary, the smart bot that can defend a consumer’s home from intruders without setting off unnecessary false alarms.

The security system is another artificially intelligent device that learns a family’s schedule and routine and adjusts accordingly.

For example, if the kids are always coming home from school around 3 p.m., the device will know to expect their arrival and won’t sound off immediately when they enter the door.

If the device detects any sort of unusual activity inside the home, it will send push notifications to the buyers’ mobile device alerting them of the new behavior.

Other new technologies from researchers at Facebook allow systems to scan different photos and tell if the same person is present in each photo.

Google also revealed a system that can describe images with short, simple sentences, essentially moving technology closer to having the ability to actually “see” as opposed to just “sense.”

Three main factors contribute to technology being able to function more and more like a human — parallel computation, big data and better algorithms.

The more efficiently technology is able to “think” in a parallel process, collect and store big data and function using better algorithms, the closer it becomes to being more human-like.

These are the reasons 2014 introduced the world to more accurate body trackers that allowed consumers’ motions in person to impact the progress of their video games, cars that were able to drive and park themselves and even Facebook news feeds and search engine results that were so accurate and personalized that many people grew uncomfortable with how smart technology could really be.

Perhaps the greatest AI superstar, however, is still a famous computer by the name of Watson.

Watson famously won a game of Jeopardy in the past, but this year it became incredibly close to breaking barriers in cancer treatment.

IBM announced that a version of its futuristic supercomputer is close to being able to use genomic data to choose personalized treatment plans for cancer patients.

The quickly advancing technology also has some experts predicting that we aren’t too far from seeing some of our wildest sci-fi dreams come to life.

According to Ray Kurzweil, the author of five different books on AI and the founder of futurist organization the Singularity University, we could even start seeing more human-like machine intelligence integrated into our daily lives by 2029.

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10 of the World’s Biggest Recent Hacks and Data Breaches That Deserve Your Attention

Play station hack

Sony PSN

It was a particularly rough year for Sony. Its PlayStation Network was hacked shortly after hackers also released tons of emails from Sony executives, which was allegedly a response by Korean hackers to the new film The Interview. Over the holidays, a group found a way to block thousands of PlayStation and Xbox users from getting online. The worst part for Sony is the fact that this wasn’t the first time hackers messed with the online network. Back in 2011, a group called Lulzsec hacked the gaming giant and forced Sony to shut down its PlayStation Network and Qriocity music service. This impacted roughly 77 million users and left them offline for more than 40 days.

nasdaq-1

Massive American Business Hack

Just last year, hackers pulled off what was one of the most frightening security breaches yet. The hackers took aim at some of the biggest companies and corporations in America, including Nasdaq, 7-Eleven and more. The massive security breach allowed the group of hackers to steal 160 million credit and debit card numbers and impacted a whopping 800,000 bank accounts. Officials said it was certainly one of the largest hacking schemes to ever be prosecuted in the U.S.

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Samsung’s ‘Look at Me’ App to Help Children with Autism Shows Serious Potential in Test Trial

Samsung’s new app is attempting to help children with autism improve their ability to make eye contact and enhance their overall social skills through a series of daily games and tests.

While many new apps have focused on getting users addicted to new versions of Tetris or making it easier to take selfies, Samsung has been paving the way for apps to become useful tools in the medical world.

The Seoul National University Bundang Hospital and Yonsie University’s department of psychology developed Samsung’s Look at Me app, which has already proven to be effective in its first trial run.

Through a series of cleverly devised games and challenges, children with autism can practice making certain facial expressions as well as decoding the expressions of others.

The app recommends a daily usage of at least 15 to 20 minutes.

While Samsung insisted that the effectiveness of the app is not conclusive just yet, parents in the first trial run have found the app to be extremely helpful.

More than half of the 20 children who used the app over the span of eight weeks showed substantial improvement in communicating with others and making more eye contact.

In a promotional video for the app, a mother opens up about the joys of being able to look into her son’s eyes after she had been struggling for years to get him to make consistent eye contact.

She explains that in the past she felt like there was a wall between her and her autistic son. But after spending time with the app, she said she has managed to develop a special bond with her son that she believes may not have been possible without Look at Me.

One organization, Autism Speaks Canada, believes the app shows serious promise and is working with Samsung to get tablets with Look at Me already preloaded on them into the hands of at least 200 more families with autistic children.

The app is also available for free on the Google Play store and has earned an impressive four-star rating out of a possible five stars.

If the app continues to be successful for other families, it could pave the way for more app developers to build on this technology and create more ways to help children with autism enhance their social skills.