Tag: China

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News You Can Use: 4/1/2020


Photo by 🇹🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash

  • Two Best Friends and the Global Treasure Hunt for Coronavirus Supplies

    The Department of Health and Human Services estimated earlier this year that the U.S. could need more than 3.5 billion face masks if a pandemic took hold domestically, which it did with a vengeance this month.

    The problem is compounded by the decentralized nature of the U.S. health-care system. Whereas hard-hit nations like Italy and China can buy equipment for their whole country at once, U.S. hospitals less frequently band together.

    Prices for the coveted N95 mask, preferred for its ability to block out viral particles, have shot up this month from around $1 apiece to $5 or more, depending on the supplier, buyers said. A single hospital may burn through tens of thousands a day.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-best-friends-and-the-global-treasure-hunt-for-coronavirus-supplies-11585410259

  • 3M Making More Masks
  • How Decades of Offshoring Led to a Mask Shortage in a Pandemic

    The emergence of Covid-19 in China made the risks of concentrating production of US health workers’ protective gear in one country painfully clear. The initial outbreak in Hubei province caused a surge in demand for masks inside China, and cut supplies when authorities shuttered factories to halt the virus’ spread. Production of masks has now resumed and companies are expanding capacity, but not much of it has shown up outside China.

    One ripple effect has been ringing phones at Monadnock Nonwovens. The company has been swamped with inquiries including from manufacturers in the US, but mostly from elsewhere, such as Asia and South America, who are trying to expand their mask output, and sometimes scrambling to replace materials previously sourced from China.

    Hayward says he’s hired more workers and adapted some equipment to produce face mask material, rather than other products, around the clock. The material is made from fine strands of plastic on a machine about 40 feet long and 20 feet high that operates something like a paper mill, churning out nonwoven fabric with tight pores on giant rolls. So far, supplies of the raw plastic have held up.

    https://www.wired.com/story/decades-offshoring-led-mask-shortage-pandemic/

  • Instructional video for sewing the Olson mask
  • If you’re working from home, chances are you’ll save money

    There may be a clear silver lining to remote work: It often saves workers money by cutting expenses such as commuting costs, say remote workers and experts in the field. But you’ll likely face some tradeoffs, such as paying for more bandwidth to handle videoconferencing and office supplies – the type of “expenses that are normally provided within a traditional office setting,” says Amelia Green-Vamos, a Glassdoor career trends expert. Some employers say they plan to reimburse workers for those extra costs.

    Remote workers typically save about $4,000 a year by working from home, according to a study from FlexJobs, an online job service that specializes in flexible jobs. That comes from saving on commuting costs as well as paring spending on coffee, lunches and a professional wardrobe.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/03/22/working-home-likely-save-you-money/5024967002/

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News You Can Use: 2/12/2020


Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash

  • The Coronavirus Impact on Hardware Startups

    It seems like most people are expecting factories to open on 2/10 as planned. However, the expectation is being set that production will take two weeks to ramp back up to normal. And, there is some concern that larger companies will likely exert pressure to be at the front of the line.

    Another problem at this point is movement into and out of China. The Chinese border with Hong Kong is only open at a few places and many are afraid to enter China right now for fear that they won’t be able to leave.

    Everyone anticipates a big logistics clog once things start shipping, which will introduce delay and cost, although the magnitude of this is unknown.

    Finally, the downstream (or upstream – I never get that right) impact of long lead time items will add another wrinkle once people understand the volume and timing constraints when things settle down.

    https://feld.com/archives/2020/02/the-coronavirus-impact-on-hardware-startups.html

  • Quit Buying Coronavirus Masks You Don’t Need

    So what’s the harm? If supplies were unlimited, there wouldn’t be any. But there are only so many face masks manufactured every year, and a lot of them are actually made in China. As Maryn McKenna writes here, China is choosing not to export as many of their masks and other personal protective equipment, because they need them at home.

    At a press briefing today, the World Health Organization’s director-general noted that demand is up 100-fold for masks and related supplies, and prices are now up to 20 times higher than usual. Some of that is to be expected in an epidemic situation, but then he adds: “This situation has been exacerbated by widespread inappropriate use of [personal protective equipment such as masks] outside patient care.”

    https://vitals.lifehacker.com/quit-buying-coronavirus-masks-you-dont-need-1841521105

  • The Coronavirus’ Impact on Global Supply Chain
  • The Lost Art of Ambition: Debunking The 6 Lies Keeping You From Your Full Potential

    We might slow down but life is going to keep trundling relentlessly onwards. The world will keep on changing, and sooner or later that change is going to come back to bite us. Whether it’s in our relationships, in our work, in our knowledge, or even just in our perspectives, we will be made obsolete if we’re just standing still.

    Contentedness- true contentedness- is about making the most of what we do have, not convincing ourselves to be satisfied with the things we don’t. Trying to pretend that a lousy job, worse pay, and a nasty apartment are perfectly acceptable isn’t noble or commendable, it’s delusional. Never feel guilty about demanding more out of life.

    Real danger comes not from wanting too much, but in asking for so little.

    https://www.primermagazine.com/2015/live/the-lost-art-of-ambition-debunking-the-6-lies-keeping-you-from-your-full-potential

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Supplier Report: 9/13/2019


Photo by Luke Michael on Unsplash

The walls are once again closing in on Google.  For weeks I have been tracking rumors that the DoJ is going to hit the internet giant with an anti-trust investigation and rumors are that the Department of Justice is pulling in dozens of state-level attorneys general to kick off the investigation that could start within weeks.

The bad press keeps rolling as over 40 current and former Google employees are protesting former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s keynote at a Stanford University artificial intelligence ethics conference citing Schmidt’s lack of “ethical conduct” in the field (specifically the company’s aborted plans for China).

Meanwhile Thomas Kurian is trying to get more attention, better sales people, and of course customers for Google’s cloud services – but all this bad press can’t be helping the company attract new business.

Acquisitions/Investments

  • Microsoft acquires cloud migration startup Movere to help companies transition to Azure

    Microsoft didn’t have to go far for its latest acquisition. The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant today announced that it acquired Movere, an 11-year-old Seattle-area cloud migration startup. Microsoft will use the deal to help customers move their existing applications and infrastructure to Azure. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

    “Movere’s innovative discovery and assessment capabilities will complement Azure Migrate and our integrated partner solutions, making migration an easier process for our customers. We believe that successful cloud migrations enable business transformation, and this acquisition underscores our investments to make that happen,” Jeremy Winter, partner director for Azure Management, said in a statement.

    https://www.geekwire.com/2019/microsoft-acquires-seattle-cloud-migration-startup-movere-help-companies-transition-azure/

Cloud

  • Google Cloud has a new program to assign its best salespeople to go after the biggest customers — but Google employees say it makes it harder for current salespeople to advance

    This change is similar to how Oracle, where Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian most recently worked, handles its largest customers. However, this isn’t sitting well with current Google employees, sources said: It’s far easier for outsiders to get hired into these account-director roles than for an existing Google salesperson to step up, even if they have the right experience.

    Sources also said that there’s a perception among Google Cloud salespeople that the hiring process is “biased” toward Oracle veterans.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/thomas-kurian-google-cloud-sales-account-director-2019-9

Security/Privacy

  • Monster.com says a third party exposed user data but didn’t tell anyone

    The server contained rĂ©sumĂ©s and CVs for job applicants spanning 2014 and 2017, many of which included private information like phone numbers and home addresses, but also email addresses and a person’s prior work experience.

    Of the documents we reviewed, most users were located in the United States.

    It’s not known exactly how many files were exposed, but thousands of rĂ©sumĂ©s were found in a single folder dated May 2017. Other files found on the exposed server included immigration documentation for work, which Monster does not collect.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/05/monster-exposed-user-data-years/

Software/SaaS

  • Slack Intensifies a War of Words

    World-wide spending on collaboration software is expected to rise to $16.5 billion this year and eventually reach more than $26.6 billion in 2023, according to research firm International Data Corp.

    Mr. Bracelin said Slack has an advantage over Microsoft in helping businesses get more productivity out of workers by automating and streamlining routine tasks. Slack offers users more than 1,800 third-party applications that work on top of its software, compared with just a few hundred for Teams.

    Slack’s user-engagement numbers are another sign of strength, D.A. Davidson & Co. analyst Rishi Jaluria said. People spend an average of 90 minutes daily using its software, Slack said, far more than the average time spent with some popular consumer applications such as Facebook and the mobile game “Candy Crush Saga.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/slack-intensifies-a-war-of-words-11567726192

Infrastructure/Hardware

  • Antonio Neri and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s cultural revolution

    Neri and HPE may actually have two North Stars. At the center of the company’s current strategy are two sets of platforms. The first is HPE’s Greenlake—an infrastructure management service for both cloud and on-premises that turns even local infrastructure into a “consumption-based” resource that can be scaled up and down (within limits) on demand.

    The second central tenet is HPE’s pair of analytics and machine-learning based automation tools: InfoSight and OneView. Combined, these two sets of technologies will tie into HPE’s new Primera storage platform, Aruba networking hardware, and even supercomputing resources such as Silicon Graphics (and, if the transaction completes, Cray) systems to create an “as-a-service” fabric. With these two tentpoles, Neri’s long-term goal for the company is what he calls “cloudless” computing—a unified “as a service” management of all compute, storage, and network resources transparently across all public and private clouds and “edge” devices.

    https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/antonio-neri-and-hewlett-packard-enterprises-cultural-revolution/

  • In the Race to Dominate 5G, China Sprints Ahead

    President Trump has said 5G is a race that the U.S. must win. But while American wireless carriers are leading in early deployment of the technology, some telecom-industry leaders say Beijing is poised to vault ahead in coming months.

    While U.S. wireless carriers shuffle from city to city to introduce 5G, China plans to blanket urban areas with it by the end of next year and the rest of the country soon after. A local manager at one carrier estimated that even Tongguan, which lacks modern plumbing, could get the superfast networks by 2021.

    “We look forward to 5G,” said Wu Shengmin, Tongguan’s baby-faced village chief. His locale boasts superb service on current 4G systems that would be the envy in much of the U.S., courtesy of a nearby cellular tower nestled in a tree-covered peak.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-the-race-to-dominate-5g-china-has-an-edge-11567828888

Other

  • Google could face far-reaching antitrust investigation as soon as next week

    The investigation is said to involve more than half of the nation’s state attorneys general. The Post says the Department of Justice has met with many of those state attorneys general, but it’s unclear whether it will be involved in the final lawsuit.

    The news follows comments late last month from the DOJ’s antitrust chief Makan Delrahim that suggested the agency would be working closely with state lawmakers and regulatory authorities on future antitrust probes. Regardless, the investigation would mark a further escalation in the US government’s attempts to rein in Big Tech, and it signals that authorities at both the federal and state effort are working concurrently on a number of investigations into Silicon Valley companies.

    https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/3/20847798/google-antitrust-investigation-us-states-attorneys-generals-doj-ftc-regulation

    Google receives demand for documents from Justice Dept., acknowledging federal antitrust scrutiny

    Google said Friday that the Justice Department has requested records related to its prior antitrust investigations, marking the tech giant’s first major acknowledgment that it’s a subject of a federal competition probe.

    The civil-investigative demand — acknowledged in a securities filing and a blog post — comes weeks after Justice Department officials said they would open a broad review of big tech, including search. It also comes days before more than 30 state attorneys general are expected to announce a major antitrust investigation of Google, as The Washington Post first reported.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/06/google-receives-demand-documents-doj-acknowledging-federal-antitrust-scrutiny/

  • We Company (WeWork) reportedly mulls slashing its valuation ahead of its initial public offering

    SoftBank has already balked at putting more cash into The We Company ahead of the public offering, and it’s not clear whether the company will step in as a white knight now.

    What is clear is that We needs money and its long-term viability as a business is contingent on the infusion of massive amounts of cash.

    Indeed, the company has a $6 billion line of credit at stake, which would be pulled if the public offering underperforms.

    If the company fails to hit the $3 billion mark in its public offering, then the credit line promised from the big banks that are underwriting the public offering goes away. That would be a pretty devastating turn of events for a company that’s currently racking up losses in the billions of dollars.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/05/we-company-reportedly-mulls-slashing-its-valuation-ahead-of-its-initial-public-offering/
    We Company adds a director, ditches its $5.9 million naming deal with its CEO, remains a governance nightmare

    As part of the amended filing, The We Company also committed to add a director to the board that will increase the company’s gender and ethnic diversity.

    In the same amendment, the company said that it was unwinding the $5.9 million transaction between itself and a holding company — WE Holdings LLC, which held the trademark for the “We” brand and was owned by We Company’s chief executive, Adam Neumann.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/04/we-company-adds-a-director-ditches-its-5-9-million-naming-deal-with-its-ceo-remains-a-governance-nightmare/

  • AT&T Names Media Boss John Stankey as CEO Heir Apparent

    Mr. Stankey, 56 years old, will serve as president and chief operating officer starting next month. He will continue to serve as the head of WarnerMedia, the unit that houses HBO, the Warner Bros. studio and cable channels like CNN.

    He will report to Mr. Stephenson and is the front-runner to take over the top job, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Stankey joined one of AT&T’s predecessors in 1985 and spent most of his career in the telecommunications business.

    Mr. Stephenson, 59 years old, hasn’t indicated when he plans to retire, though he has been CEO for 12 years and there are discussions for and against his retirement at the board level, the people said.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-t-names-new-president-and-chief-operating-officer-11567525692

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Supplier Report: 8/30/2019


Photo by Priya Berks on Unsplash

August was a hot month for M&A. There is even more purchasing activity by Microsoft, Splunk, and WordPress (reinforcing how inept Yahoo leadership was during their last few years of independence).

Oracle is facing a revolt from their shareholders over the 2016 acquisition of NetSuite (which Oracle founder Larry Ellison had a significant personal stake in). Oracle isn’t making the strides they need to in the cloud space and NetSuite has not yet become the sales driver it was promised to be.

President Trump (and the rest of the US) and China seem destined for a trade war.  Cisco and Apple have cited China as a cause for sales projections to drop.

Acquisitions/Investments

  • Splunk acquires cloud monitoring service SignalFx for $1.05B

    SignalFx, which emerged from stealth in 2015, provides real-time cloud monitoring solutions, predictive analytics and more. Upon close, Splunk argues, this acquisition will allow it to become a leader “in observability and APM for organizations at every stage of their cloud journey, from cloud-native apps to homegrown on-premises applications.”

    Indeed, the acquisition will likely make Splunk a far stronger player in the cloud space as it expands its support for cloud-native applications and the modern infrastructures and architectures those rely on.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/21/splunk-acquires-cloud-monitoring-service-signalfx-for-1-05b/

  • Microsoft acquires jClarity, a Java performance tuning tool

    Microsoft announced this morning that it was acquiring jClarity, a service designed to tune the performance of Java applications. It will be doing that on Azure from now on. In addition, the company has been offering a flavor of Java called AdoptOpenJDK, which they bill as a free alternative to Oracle Java. The companies did not discuss the terms of the deal.

    As Microsoft pointed out in a blog post announcing the acquisition, they are seeing increasing use of large-scale Java installations on Azure, both internally with platforms like Minecraft and externally with large customers, including Daimler and Adobe.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/19/microsoft-acquires-jclarity-an-open-source-java-performance-tuning-tool/

  • Verizon to Sell Tumblr to WordPress.com Owner

    Verizon Communications Inc.  has agreed to sell its blogging website Tumblr to the owner of popular online-publishing tool WordPress.com, unloading for a nominal amount a site that once fetched a purchase price of more than $1 billion.

    Automattic Inc. will buy Tumblr for an undisclosed sum and take on about 200 staffers, the companies said. Tumblr is a free service that hosts millions of blogs where users can upload photos, music and art, but it has been dwarfed by Facebook , Reddit and other services.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/verizon-to-sell-tumblr-to-wordpress-owner-11565640000

    Does anybody want to guess how much Automattic is actually paying? I would say less than $100M. Yahoo was insane to pay $1B for this platform, and Verizon was insane to ban the thing that made people use it.

    Update: Tumbler was reportedly purchased for $3M

  • Oracle is suing Larry Ellison and Safra Catz over the $9 billion

    The subject of the lawsuit is Oracle’s $9.3 billion acquisition of NetSuite in 2016, a deal in which a company that Ellison controls — Oracle — paid a premium price to buy a company that Ellison owned. Ellison was NetSuite’s founder and largest shareholder, with a roughly 40% stake.

    The lead lawyer for Firemen’s Retirement System, Joel Friedlander, also said in a hearing in June “We’re seeking multiple billions of dollars in damages.”

    While tossing a multi-billion figure around a hearing is sometimes just lawyerly bravado, in this case, there’s some meat to that number. The NetSuite deal put about $3.5 billion in cash from Oracle’s coffers into Ellison’s pocket.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-board-members-support-lawsuit-against-larry-ellison-safra-catz-2019-8

  • VMware says it’s looking to acquire Pivotal

    VMware today confirmed that it is in talks to acquire software development platform Pivotal Software, the service best known for commercializing the open-source Cloud Foundry platform. The proposed transaction would see VMware acquire all outstanding Pivotal Class A stock for $15 per share, a significant markup over Pivotal’s current share price (which unsurprisingly shot up right after the announcement).

    Pivotal’s shares have struggled since the company’s IPO in April 2018. The company was originally spun out of EMC Corporation (now DellEMC) and VMware in 2012 to focus on Cloud Foundry, an open-source software development platform that is currently in use by the majority of Fortune 500 companies.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/14/vmware-says-its-looking-to-acquire-pivotal/

Artificial Intelligence

  • Amazon’s AI Can Now Identify Fear

    For those who haven’t heard of the Big Brother-esque Rekognition software, it’s basically a system of neural nets trained on big data (i.e. a ton of photographs and videos) to identify and label objects such as text, activities, “inappropriate behavior,” people, and faces. And if you think Big Brother-esque is a bit of a stretch to describe Rekognition, keep in mind that it’s already being deployed by law enforcement to identify people’s faces. Which isn’t necessarily a bad application in itself, but let your imagination run wild and things could quickly evolve into a Philip K. Dick novel.

    While fear was specifically noted by Amazon as a new emotion that Rekognition can identify, it’s actually only one addition to a number of improvements the AI is making. Along with identifying emotions, Amazon says that Rekognition is now also better at spotting gender and age range. Combined with the aforementioned list of other objects that Rekognition can identify, it’s clear that Amazon wants this software to be able detect and label absolutely any type of image you throw at it.

    https://nerdist.com/article/amazon-rekognition-ai-identify-fear/

  • IBM joins Linux Foundation AI to promote open source trusted AI workflows

    As a Linux Foundation project, the LF AI Foundation provides a vendor-neutral space for the promotion of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) open source projects. It’s backed by major organizations like AT&T, Baidu, Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei.

    IBM has a long history of supporting open source, and Moore explained why it’s the right way to quickly raise the bar when it comes to building trustworthy AI. “To get all of us working together, iterating quickly, can cover a lot more ground than any single company can,” he said.

    On top of that, supporting open source projects has the added benefit of expanding the market opportunity for AI vendors like IBM. The goal, Moore said, is to build tools that improve the credibility of AI — and “to do it together, in a way that everybody can inspect and contribute to.”

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-joins-linux-foundation-ai-to-promote-open-source-trusted-ai-workflows/

Cloud

  • IBM updates cloud-native software with Red Hat OpenShift

    Overall, IBM has unveiled more than 100 new and/or updated software products and services across its Red Hat OpenShift-optimized software portfolio. These new solutions will be delivered on IBM’s hybrid multicloud platform, which is built using open source technologies just like Red Hat OpenShift.

    Some of the new services that are optimized for this open source environment include Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud and Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Z and LinuxONE. Additionally, IBM has unveiled new consulting and technology services delivered by Red Hat certified consultants and application services practitioners. These services are designed to help users better move, build, and manage their workloads in various cloud environments, while also providing a consistent and simplified experience across clouds.

    http://techgenix.com/red-hat-openshift/

Security/Privacy

  • Huawei employees reportedly aided African governments in spying

    The report cites unnamed senior surveillance officers. The paper adds that an investigation didn’t confirm a direct tie between the Chinese government or Huawei executives. It did, however, appear to confirm that employees for the tech giant played a part in intercepting communications.

    The list includes encrypted messages, the use of apps like WhatsApp and Skype and tracking opponents using cellular data.

    A representative for Zambia’s ruling party confirmed with the paper that Huawei technicians have helped in the fight against news sites with opposing stances in the country, stating, “Whenever we want to track down perpetrators of fake news, we ask Zicta, which is the lead agency. They work with Huawei to ensure that people don’t use our telecommunications space to spread fake news.”

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/14/huawei-employees-reportedly-aided-african-governments-in-spying/

Infrastructure/Hardware

  • Cisco drops on poor guidance, says China business dropped 25%

    “What we’ve seen is in the state on enterprises … we’re just being — we’re being uninvited to bid,” Robbins said. “We’re not being allowed to even participate anymore.” Sales to carriers declined more forcefully as well, he said.

    The majority of Cisco’s revenue comes from sales of data center networking products, including switches and routers. That business is represented by Cisco’s Infrastructure Platforms segment, which came up with quarterly revenue of $7.88 billion, above the $7.84 billion consensus among analyst polled by FactSet.

    The Applications segment had $1.49 billion in revenue, in line with the $1.49 billion FactSet analyst consensus. Cisco’s Security business contributed $714 million in revenue, less than $739.9 million FactSet consensus estimate.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/14/cisco-falls-on-soft-guidance.html

Other

  • How Facebook Is Changing to Deal With Scrutiny of Its Power

    Late last year, Facebook halted acquisition talks with Houseparty, a video-focused social network in Silicon Valley, for fear of inciting antitrust concerns, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. Acquiring another social network after Facebook was already such a dominant player in that market was too risky, said the people, who spoke on the condition they not be identified because the discussions were confidential.

    Facebook has also begun internal changes that make itself harder to break up. The company has been knitting together the messaging systems of Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp and has reorganized the departments so that Facebook is more clearly in charge, said two people briefed on the matter. Executives have also worked on rebranding Instagram and WhatsApp to more prominently associate them with Facebook.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/technology/facebook-antitrust.html

  • Trump retaliates in trade war by escalating tariffs on Chinese imports and demanding companies cut ties with China

    Trump initially directed his ire at Powell in Friday tweets, painting the Fed’s lack of monetary easing as a greater threat to American workers and businesses. “My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?” he tweeted.

    Moments later, he demanded American companies cut ties with China.

    “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA,” Trump tweeted.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/23/china-hits-us-with-tariffs-billion-worth-goods-reinstates-auto-levies-state-media-report/

  • HP CEO steps down, citing ‘family health matter’

    HP Inc. announced this afternoon that Dion Weisler is stepping down as president and CEO. The executive cited a “family health matter” in his decision, noting that he will be returning home to Australia.

    The company already has a successor lined up, as its president of Imaging, Printing and Solutions, Enrique Lores, got unanimous approval from its board of directors. Lores will be assuming the top spot on November 1.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/22/hp-ceo-steps-down-citing-family-health-matter/

Posted on

News You Can Use: 7/17/2019


Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash

  • How U.S. Tech Giants Are Helping to Build China’s Surveillance State

    The OpenPower Foundation — a nonprofit led by Google and IBM executives with the aim of trying to “drive innovation” — has set up a collaboration between IBM, Chinese company Semptian, and U.S. chip manufacturer Xilinx. Together, they have worked to advance a breed of microprocessors that enable computers to analyze vast amounts of data more efficiently.

    Shenzhen-based Semptian is using the devices to enhance the capabilities of internet surveillance and censorship technology it provides to human rights-abusing security agencies in China, according to sources and documents. A company employee said that its technology is being used to covertly monitor the internet activity of 200 million people.

    https://theintercept.com/2019/07/11/china-surveillance-google-ibm-semptian/

  • These Tech Companies Are Giving Millions To Politicians Who Vote Against LGBTQ People

    The group, Zero for Zeros, analyzed the contribution data between 2010 and 2019 of the top-scoring companies on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. It found 49 corporate PACs that gave a combined $5,837,331 to members of Congress who had received ratings of zero on the HRC’s legislative scorecard. These elected officials include Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who introduced legislation in 2018 that would make it legal for businesses and nonprofits to discriminate against same-sex couples, unmarried couples, and single parents.

    Companies like Google, through their corporate PACs, gave a combined $178,500 to politicians who scored zeros on the HRC legislative scorecard. Google, which has faced scrutiny for refusing to crack down on anti-LGBTQ speech, donated $10,000 to Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee. In 2014, Lee said that the progressive agenda “rejects the enviable right to life according to one’s religious convictions, and is utterly blind to the moral and economic consequences of our nation’s growing marriage crisis.”

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/leticiamiranda/these-tech-companies-are-giving-millions-to-politicians-who

  • Why aren’t Millennials buying homes?
  • The 3 Essential Negotiation Tactics According to Researchers

    The guilt and petty politics of socials debt can be a nightmare. But when it comes to negotiations, reciprocity can be used to give yourself some serious leverage, especially if you’re smart about it. Marketing and persuasion expert Robert Cialidini found that waiters offering their patrons an after dinner mint increased tips by 3%. For wait staff who added, “for you nice people, here’s an extra mint,” tips jumped by a whopping 23%.

    This isn’t just for beguiling the other side, but for guilting them as well. Katherine Shonk, editor of Harvard Business School’s Negotiation blog, asserts that you should be specific about the things you’re giving up. Why? Well, in spite of people’s instinct to be even, you can’t always count the opposing side recognizing when you’re making a compromise or how important of a point you’re folding on. Getting a fair deal means making people understand exactly what you’re exchanging. As strong as reciprocity is, to really make it work for you, you need to make the exchange felt for it to have any effect.

    https://www.primermagazine.com/2019/earn/negotiation-tactics

  • Workers waste half their time as they struggle with data

    Organizations are suffering from inefficiencies and ineffectiveness as they turn to data as the lifeblood of their digital transformation — and the workforce is struggling.

    About 54M data workers around the world face challenges associated with the complexity, diversity and scale of their company’s data. These data workers represent a quarter of knowledge workers around the world.

    Four out of five (80%) of organizations take advantage of data across multiple organizational processes, but despite increases in innovation, workers waste 44% of their time each week due to unsuccessful activities because of lack of collaboration, existence of knowledge gaps and resistance to change.

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/workers-waste-half-their-time-as-they-struggle-with-data/