DeBlasio comments on Lack of #Tech #Diversity in NYC. Harlem Tech News asked the question during the NAN 2015 Conference.
Source: Harlem Talkradio
Mayor de Blasio Shares What NYC is Doing to Further Diversity in the Tech World
Game Time: The Top 5 Announcements from E3 2015
Nintendo
This year’s E3 was not very good for the mega gaming company. There were some lukewarm reaction to its releases and to their presentations. However, there was a gem or two that emerged from the filth. Some of the big moments included the announcement of Platinum Games co-developing Star Fox Zero with Shigeru Miyamoto and Metroid Prime: Federation Force. Fans have been awaiting these two games but Metroid Prime: Federation Force for the 3DS has not been received well. The trailer has been destroyed since its release.
Source: Nintendo/Youtube
Gmail’s New ‘Undo Send’ Option Ends Regretful Messages
Email can be a useful tool for work communication and file-sharing, but if users send a “bad” email with regrettable content, it could ruin their career. A new Gmail feature allows the sender to stop the email in its tracks.
“It lets you un-send an email for a short while after sending. Of course, it isn’t reaching out and snatching the email back — it just holds the email for a brief period sufficient for you to evaluate your regrets — but it can still be a life-saver. This feature has actually been available since March of 2009, but it has been hidden away in the Labs section of Gmail’s settings,” reports
Kristofer Wouk for Digital Trends.
In order to activate the feature, Gmail users with the beta version of the unsend option will have to go to general tabs and click on “Enable Undo Send.”
One cool aspect the feature has is the option to choose time intervals of the unsent email. What that means is that in the settings of the unsend feature you can set the wait to send time to 5 seconds, 10, 20 or 30 depending on how safe you want to be.
This feature does not erase a bad email. It just slows it down so that you can edit it and clean it up if need be.
Gogoro Smart Scooter Is Not Only One of the Coolest-Looking Concept Vehicles, but Its Energy Efficiency Is Set to Be Revolutionary
The Gogoro Experience Center was dedicated to showing off the upcoming Gogoro electric scooter at the 2015 edition of Computex
Source: The Verge
If You Value Your Privacy, This New Facebook Feature is Not for You
This month, Facebook released its new product “Moments” during a time when online privacy has come under attack.
“If you’re unfamiliar, ‘Moments’ is one of Facebook’s sister apps for mobile devices. It works by burrowing into all the photos on your camera, and sorting them into discrete temporal events – that party, that bike trip, that office function – to create ‘Moments.’ The app then tags everyone it recognizes by comparing the faces in the photos to existing Facebook friends (your ‘social graph’ in tech parlance), and invites you to share the resulting ‘Moment’ with everyone tagged in the photo,” reports Jeff John Roberts for Fortune.
This feature will change how everything works for online Facebook users. Because of the constant debate over privacy and the lack of strong laws that prevent social media sites and websites from tracking your location and creating ads suited to you, this feature will not be welcomed with open arms.
In fact, Canada and many European nations have banned the tag feature. Those same countries will more than likely reject the “Moments” feature. In Ireland, privacy watchdogs have noticed that the feature has only a default mode, meaning that users can’t decide to turn it on or off.
According to Slash Gear writer Chris Davies, “the social network claims more than 97-percent accuracy at identifying the right people, juggling in excess of 120m parameters as it builds 3D face models using a neural network. Last year, Facebook said it had trained the network using more than 4,000 people and in excess of four million images.”
The debate over the new app/feature is just getting started. “Moments” was released June 15 and it is available in the App Store and Google Play.
The Possibilities of This 3D Printer Could Be a Game Changer for Infrastructure Development
“With our robots that can “draw” steel structures in 3D, we will print a bridge over water in the center of Amsterdam. We research and develop groundbreaking, cost-effective robotic technology with which we can 3D print beautiful, functional objects in almost any form. The ultimate test? Printing an intricate, ornate metal bridge for a special location to show what our robots and software, engineers, craftsmen and designers can do.”
Source: MX3D Bridge
Miami Summit Encourages Tech Growth in Caribbean
On June 25, Eveline Pierre, founder and executive director of the Haitian Heritage Museum in Miami, along with co-founder Serge Rodriguez will host a regional tech summit presented by Miami Caribbean Code (MC2).
“MC2 is an empowering movement and event series with the goal of fostering a bridge between the fast-moving tech world, the Miami-Caribbean community and the Caribbean region. We recently kicked off MC2 with our inaugural Youth Tech Summit in April for local Miami-Caribbean youth and educators,” according to Arlice Nichole, editor of awomansworthonline.com.
The event will feature entrepreneurs and tech innovators looking to expand their networks and connect with like-minded individuals. This space will be used to discuss the future of technology, and there will also be a variety panels that will cover tech innovations, trends and recent developments in the tech industry.
One of the major features of the event is the Caribbean Tech and Innovation Awards that will highlight the achievements of tech leaders from the Caribbean.
There will be a fundraiser for future events and the Haitian Heritage Museum.
Scheduled speakers include founder and host of devLatino Jason Mazier, president of Belle Fleur Technologies Tia Dubuisson and Oracle principal technical consultant Perside Foster. For the full list of speakers, visit MC2’s website.
The Miami Caribbean Code summit will be held in the Miami Design District. There is still time to register. Go to MC2 for more info.
You Won’t Believe What Google Is Doing That’s Going to Let You Control Objects Without Even Touching Them
Google’s new gesture technology makes touch screen look obsolete.
Source: Vocativ
College Students Use Oculus Rift to Improve Online Learning
Penn State University engineering students in the Design Analysis Technology Advancement Laboratory are using the popular Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset to enhance online learning.
The research was funded by the Center for Online Innovation in Learning Research Initiation Grant.
According to assistant professor of engineering design and industrial engineering Conrad Tucker, “online learning gives us huge opportunities in higher education. You can connect with more diverse people across greater distances. Online courses also limit you in some ways — there’s little immersive or tactile interaction, and sometimes it’s hard for students to engage with the material. IVR (immersive virtual reality) systems are a potential solution to that problem.”
The students, under the guidance of Tucker, created a demo of a virtual classroom with chairs, desks and a chalkboard. In addition to the headset, there is a glove that allows students to pick up, assemble and take apart virtual objects. In the case of the demo, a coffee pot was the subject.
“Moving forward, we’d love to work with students in other countries. Oculus Rift and other similar technologies allow you to sync your devices with others regardless of location and work on the same project. You can always Skype with people around the world, but you don’t get the same experience,” Tucker explains.
There are no limits to virtual reality in the classroom. Tucker is a strong advocate and believer that virtual reality is the future to online learning.
Reddit CEO and 500 Startups Founder Awkwardly Discuss Diversity in Tech
Last Friday, interim Reddit CEO Ellen Pao and 500 Startups founder Dave McClure were featured panelists at the PreMoney conference for venture capitalists to talk about diversity.
The irony is that the room was packed with mostly white males from various tech companies. This is to be expected when there is a need to discuss diversity in the first place.
Pao revealed some alarming figures about her own company. Currently, Reddit is made up of only 14 percent women engineers.
McClure asked Pao, “How many African-American or Black people work at Reddit? [And] How many Hispanic American or Hispanic people work at Reddit?”
Pao answered uncomfortably, saying that the company does not ask people to self-identify.
McClure continues and asks, “How do you know if this is a stat or a KPI (key performance indicator) that I should be considering? Am I more racist for asking people or for not asking people?”
Pao then responds. “I don’t know. When I look around I want to see diversity on the team.”
“I’m pretty sure there are no Black people in Silicon Valley,” McClure adds.
The whole exchange was uncomfortable for the mostly white audience and the two CEOs. This is proof that even if the tech industry wants to incorporate more diversity, how do they, how can they speak about it, and how will they keep track of their attempts at diversifying if they don’t ask people to self-identify?
“We haven’t counted. We have one African-American engineer. We just hired a general counsel, Melissa Tidwell, who is an African-American woman. I think we have three other African-American people working,” Pao said.
Pao and McClure may be part of the problem by making sure they don’t hurt anyone. The two didn’t address the issue in a bold and straightforward way. Pao has dealt with sexism in the industry firsthand, so she knows the reality of the lack of women in tech.
This panel is proof that Silicon Valley has a long way to go.
Source: CNN Money/YouTube