Tag: Google

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Supplier Report: 9/20/2019


Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash

News about massive acquisitions, mergers, and government fines can make it easy to lose track of the true value of a dollar.

WeWork and Uber continue to struggle justifying their value and become cash-flow positive. Google, through all of their own self-inflicted wounds are being treated like a piggy bank for foreign and the US governments.

Meanwhile critics of IT companies keep touting the value of data over the value of hard cash. Interesting times indeed.

Acquisitions/Investments

None this week

Artificial Intelligence

  • How to Build Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust

    For certain A.I. tasks, the dominant data-correlation approach works fine. You can easily train a deep-learning machine to, say, identify pictures of Siamese cats and pictures of Derek Jeter, and to discriminate between the two. This is why such programs are good for automatic photo tagging. But they don’t have the conceptual depth to realize, for instance, that there are lots of different Siamese cats but only one Derek Jeter and that therefore a picture that shows two Siamese cats is unremarkable, whereas a picture that shows two Derek Jeters has been doctored.

    In no small part, this failure of comprehension is why general-purpose robots like the housekeeper Rosie in “The Jetsons” remain a fantasy. If Rosie can’t understand the basics of how the world works, we can’t trust her in our home.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/opinion/ai-explainability.html

Cloud

  • Attorneys General Launch Probe of Google

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, announced the probe in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, joined by about a dozen other attorneys general. In all, 48 states are part of the investigation of the Alphabet Inc. unit, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, officials said.

    Mr. Paxton said the states for now would focus on Google’s practices in online advertising markets. “But the facts will lead where the facts lead,” he said, adding, “We don’t know all the answers.”

    The states sent Google a civil subpoena on Monday seeking information about its ad practices, officials said.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/attorneys-general-launch-probe-of-google-11568055853

  • Google, Amazon and Microsoft in Battle to Store Health Data in the Cloud

    Google will announce Tuesday a 10-year deal with the Mayo Clinic to store the hospital system’s medical, genetic and financial data. Providence St. Joseph Health in July said it reached a data-storage agreement with Microsoft. Later that month, Cerner Corp. CERN -0.24% , one of the largest electronic-health-record companies, unveiled its cloud-storage agreement with Amazon’s cloud-computing unit, Amazon Web Services.

    Some hospital-system and company officials said they expect to jointly develop new software by combining data and expertise of health-care companies with tech giants’ computing power and engineering know-how. “Google can’t do this alone. We can’t do this alone,” said Cris Ross, Mayo’s chief information officer. The terms weren’t disclosed.

    Patient records will be kept private and access will be controlled by Mayo, Mr. Ross said. Data used to develop new software will be stripped of any information that could identify individual patients before it is shared with the tech giant.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-amazon-and-microsoft-in-battle-to-store-health-data-in-the-cloud-11568122202

Security/Privacy

  • Big Tech’s Hands-Off Era Is Over

    Over the years, these growing companies have successfully skirted legal recourse for bad actors on their sites. They have had the law on their side: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 shields internet platforms from liability for what others post.

    Now, as global behemoths, it seems that with greater power comes greater legal responsibility. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit earlier this year held that a customer in Pennsylvania could sue Amazon over a product that was allegedly unsafe. Meanwhile, Facebook was recently fined $5 billion over privacy violations—the largest privacy-related fine in the history of the Federal Trade Commission. Google was also just hit with a $170 million FTC fine over its YouTube operation, for which the company made changes such as disabling comments on children’s videos.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-techs-hands-off-era-is-over-11567762389

  • 51 tech CEOs send open letter to Congress asking for a federal data privacy law

    Many privacy advocates (and even some tech CEOs) believe tech companies aren’t really looking after users’ interests, but their own. There’s a belief that companies are trying to aggregate any privacy lawmaking under one roof, where lobby groups can water-down any meaningful user protections that may impact bottom lines.

    Many companies make money by selling customers’ personal or device-usage data to online advertisers. A privacy framework with too many teeth could prevent companies from selling certain types of data.

    To help speed up the legislative process, the Business Roundtable group released their own consumer privacy framework [more here] that they’d like Congress to analyze and use as a base for any future law. This proposal includes many of the same provisions of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); however, in very broad terms.

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/51-tech-ceos-send-open-letter-to-congress-asking-for-a-federal-data-privacy-law/

  • 1B Mobile Users Vulnerable to Ongoing ‘SimJacker’ Surveillance Attack

    Researchers on Thursday disclosed what they said is a widespread, ongoing exploit of a SIM card-based vulnerability, dubbed “SimJacker.” The glitch has been exploited for the past two years by “a specific private company that works with governments to monitor individuals,” and impacts several mobile operators – with the potential to impact over a billion mobile phone users globally, according to by researchers with AdaptiveMobile Security.

    “Simjacker has been further exploited to perform many other types of attacks against individuals and mobile operators such as fraud, scam calls, information leakage, denial of service and espionage,” said researchers with AdaptiveMobile Security in a post breaking down the attack, released Thursday.

    https://threatpost.com/1b-mobile-users-vulnerable-to-ongoing-simjacker-surveillance-attack/148277/

Infrastructure/Hardware

  • The mainframe business is alive and well, as IBM announces new z15

    IBM announced last month that it was making OpenShift, Red Hat’s Kubernetes-based cloud-native tools, available on the mainframe running Linux. This should enable developers, who have been working on OpenShift on other systems, to move seamlessly to the mainframe without special training.

    IBM sees the mainframe as a bridge for hybrid computing environments, offering a highly secure place for data that when combined with Red Hat’s tools, can enable companies to have a single control plane for applications and data wherever it lives.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/12/the-mainframe-business-is-alive-and-well-as-ibm-announces-new-z15/

Other

  • California Bill Makes App-Based Companies Treat Workers as Employees

    The bill passed in a 29-to-11 vote in the State Senate and will apply to app-based companies, despite their efforts to negotiate an exemption. On Wednesday morning, the Assembly gave its final approval, 56 to 15. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, endorsed the bill this month and is expected to sign it. Under the measure, which would go into effect Jan. 1, workers must be designated as employees instead of contractors if a company exerts control over how they perform their tasks or if their work is part of a company’s regular business.

    The bill may influence other states. A coalition of labor groups is pushing similar legislation in New York, and bills in Washington State and Oregon that were similar to California’s but failed to advance could see renewed momentum. New York City passed a minimum wage for ride-hailing drivers last year but did not try to classify them as employees.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/technology/california-gig-economy-bill.html

  • Mark Hurd, the co-CEO of Oracle, is taking a leave of absence, citing health reasons

    With Hurd’s departure for now, Catz will become the sole CEO of Oracle. Ellison, who remains the company’s CTO, is also expected to take on some of Hurd’s responsibilities, says CNBC.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/11/mark-hurd-the-co-ceo-of-oracle-is-taking-a-leave-of-absence-citing-health-reasons/

    Safra Catz has long been Oracle’s secret weapon, and analysts say that it’s her time to shine as sole CEO: ‘This will test her, but she will prevail’

    Ray Wang of Constellation Research described Catz as “an extraordinary operator” who has not drawn as much attention as Oracle’s other high-profile — and sometimes controversial — top execs.

    “Many folks underestimate her because she doesn’t want to take the limelight, but she has a silent power,” he told Business Insider. “I think she’s not sought the limelight but internal folks will always tell you she’s the one running the company in the background. Her biggest weakness is a strength in today’s climate. She’s not seeking the limelight. She’s focused on getting the job done.”

    https://www.businessinsider.com/safra-catz-profile-oracle-sole-ceo-2019-9

  • Jack Ma officially retires as Alibaba’s chairman

    Ma will continue serving on Alibaba’s board until its annual general shareholders’ meeting next year. He also remains a lifetime partner of Alibaba Partnership, a group drawn from the senior management ranks of Alibaba Group companies and affiliates that has the right to nominate (and in some situations, appoint) up to simple majority of its board.

    Ma said in last year’s announcement that he plans for his departure from Alibaba Group to be very gradual: “The one thing I can promise everyone is this: Alibaba was never about Jack Ma, but Jack Ma will forever belong to Alibaba.”

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/09/jack-ma-officially-retires-as-alibabas-chairman/

  • Google to pay $549 million fine and $510 million in back taxes in France

    This is a settlement, which means that French authorities are dropping charges against Google in France. It covers activities from 2005 to 2018.

    According to previous reports, the company owed around $1.3 billion in taxes. In 2014, Google started putting aside some money for a potential fine.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/12/google-to-pay-549-million-fine-and-510-million-in-back-taxes-in-france/

  • WeWork and Uber are proof valuations are meaningless

    Up top, we dug into WeWork and the latest from the company’s continuing IPO saga. The question regarding the co-working company’s public offering has changed to whether the IPO will happen this year, not just at what price the firm can entice enough investment to actually get public.

    Alex has written about the company’s cash appetite a few times now, which raise the question of how long the company can survive without some sort of large, external investment. If SoftBank is willing to commit more capital is an open question

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/13/wework-and-uber-are-proof-valuations-are-meaningless/
    WeWork’s Latest Threat: Old-School Landlords Trying to Copy WeWork

    WeWork started off as a great customer of Hines Interests LP and other landlords, leasing unused space and renting it to businesses too tiny to be ordinary tenants, Hines executive Charlie Kuntz said in a presentation after dessert, according to several people present.

    But WeWork didn’t stop there. It began cutting deals with large corporations too, making it a threat to Hines’s core business. WeWork’s move reminded some at the dinner of how Airbnb Inc. stole business from hotels and how taxicab companies saw Uber Inc. eat their lunch.

    “It’s not too late for us,” Gerald Hines, the 94-year-old family patriarch and CEO’s father, told the group.

    This June, the big landlord punched back. It launched its own co-working business, called Hines Squared, as a direct competitor to WeWork.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/weworks-latest-threat-old-school-landlords-trying-to-copy-wework-11568127640

Posted on

News You Can Use: 9/4/2019


Photo by BENCE BOROS on Unsplash

  • Why Google employees are donating to Warren and Sanders — presidential candidates who want to break up Google

    In interviews with Recode, Google employees (mostly engineers who work on everything from Android to virtual reality) who donated to Sanders and Warren said that breaking up Google could help consumers and spur more tech innovation by allowing for more competition from upstarts. Some even said they thought regulation could force Google itself to return to its startup roots, recreating the bootstrapped work culture that they say enabled the company’s initial success. (Google executives don’t exactly agree.)

    Their support for candidates who are critical of Big Tech seems to reflect a broader movement among corporate tech employees who have begun demanding more ethical behavior and policies from their companies. In the past year, many tech employees, particularly at Google, have organized and protested against their own employers over concerns related to sexual harassment policies and controversial defense contracts with the US and foreign governments. In candidates like Warren and Sanders, these employees find an outside voice who similarly views major technology companies’ growing and unprecedented power with a critical lens. And for the first time, companies like Google have become major talking points in the presidential campaign.

    https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/7/30/20694619/google-employees-warren-sanders-presidential-election-donations-break-up-tech

  • Don’t stop creating for yourself – #LevelUp

    I really enjoy Peter and I thought this video is a great cross over between career and creative. I am certainly looking for a creative spark (I don’t want to come off like a talking head).
  • Having trouble delegating? These 3 questions can help

    “You can say something, but it’s not always what the other person hears,” she says. “Asking this question ensures that what you intend for someone to do is what they understand they need to do.”

    Repeating information is standard operating procedure in mission critical jobs. “An air traffic controller gives a pilot instructions, and the pilot has to repeat it back to ensure they got it correctly,” she says. “You can use the same thing in the workplace.”

    To avoid feeling robotic or untrusting, Brownlee suggests putting it this way: “I know I threw a lot at you, and I know this has a lot of moving parts. To ensure I didn’t confuse you, would you mind repeating back what you heard?”

    “If they tell you something that is not quite right, you’ll be so glad you can course correct,” she says.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90386012/having-trouble-delegating-these-3-questions-can-help

  • As tech changes homelessness, libraries roll with the punches

    Libraries were always sources of education, but that has become more pronounced recently as they’ve shifted from being the ones that store information to those that provide free and open access to it. With the combination of how that information is used and who needs these services, this involves a transformation not just of purpose but of architecture: Becoming a place where people come and stay rather than a place people visit.

    That transformation doesn’t come equally easily to all libraries or branches. It may be that a small, underfunded library happens to be near a shelter or bus station and attracts more of the homeless than it can serve, and indeed more than intend to use the library for its “intended” purpose. Though these facilities were designed to provide short-term refuge for any and all, they’re generally not equipped or staffed to handle the volume or types of people who find their way in and stay sometimes from open to close.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/31/as-tech-changes-homelessness-libraries-roll-with-the-punches/

Posted on

Supplier Report: 8/2/2019


Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

Microsoft continues to make strides in the cloud space inching closer to Amazon’s crown (but not that close…yet). The company is also betting on massive AI investments to continue their success in the future.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile and Sprint are finally allowed to merge and Dish will officially become a telecom company.

Acquisitions/Investments

  • T-Mobile and Sprint get DOJ approval for $26 billion merger deal

    The U.S. Department of Justice this morning gave the green light to T-Mobile US and Sprint for their proposed $26 billion merger. The deal, which would combine the nation’s third and fourth largest carriers (by subscriber number) has been green lit on the condition that Sprint sell its prepaid assets (including Boost Mobile) to Dish Network.

    As part of the deal, some nine million prepaid subscribers will move over to Dish, which will also have access to T-Mobile/Sprint’s network for a period of seven years.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/26/t-mobile-and-sprint-get-doj-approval-for-26-billion-merger-deal/

    Experts Say the DOJ Justification for T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Approval Is a Joke

    “Today’s settlement will provide Dish with the assets and transitional services required to become a facilities-based mobile network operator that can provide a full range of mobile wireless services nationwide,” DOJ Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said of the deal.

    But experts consulted by Motherboard say the proposal isn’t likely to work, and the end result of the merger will still very likely be higher prices and worse service for all.

    For one thing, Dish has been promising to build a wireless network for the better part of the last decade with little to show for it. The company has routinely been accused of “spectrum squatting,” or buying spectrum it doesn’t use in a bid to turn around and sell it later when it’s more valuable. Even T-Mobile made this complaint when Dish initially criticized the merger.

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjvw55/t-mobile-sprint-merger-is-a-joke

Artificial Intelligence

  • Microsoft to Invest $1 Billion in Artificial-Intelligence Startup

    “This is a big investment for Microsoft, even at their size,” said Stifel analyst Brad Reback. “They’ll do scores of acquisitions annually but most of them tend to be smaller technology tuck-ins.”

    OpenAI was launched in 2015 as a nonprofit with a goal of leading efforts to develop artificial general intelligence. It competes with Alphabet Inc. ’s DeepMind Technologies and others. OpenAI is led by CEO Sam Altman, a former president of startup accelerator Y Combinator.

    The Microsoft investment signals a vote of confidence in OpenAI’s recent transformation into a private company from a nonprofit. In March, OpenAI revamped its legal structure to raise more money and gain scale, which enabled it to accept the investment from Microsoft.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-to-invest-1-billion-in-artificial-intelligence-startup-11563813648

Cloud

  • Google Cloud’s run rate is now over $8B

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who recently installed former Oracle exec Thomas Kurian as the new head of Google Cloud, announced that this business unit now has an $8 billion annual revenue run rate. That’s up from the $4 billion the company reported in early 2018.

    While Google often felt like an also-ran in the cloud wars, it’s clearly starting to make up some ground. “Other cloud providers would have you believe that no one is using Google, which is not true,” Kurian told me when I talked to him earlier this year. Now he can put some numbers behind this claim.

    To put that into perspective, AWS’s run rate topped $30 billion last quarter while Microsoft Azure is somewhere around $11 billion, though concrete numbers are hard to come by.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/25/google-clouds-run-rate-is-now-over-8b/

  • The cloud computing market is closing in on a $100 billion milestone, but half of it is going to either Amazon or Microsoft, according to an analyst report

    The cloud market, which covers web-based services for infrastructure, platform and hosted private clouds, totaled about $23 billion in the second quarter, according to Synergy Research Group. That’s up 39% from the year-ago period and $1.6 billion from the previous quarter.

    Amazon owned 33% of that market, bigger than the combined share of its four closest rivals: Microsoft, which had 16%, Google, 8%, Alibaba and Tencent. The report also mentioned other key players in the cloud market — IBM, Salesforce, Oracle and Rackspace — which posted lower growth rates and “are more niche-oriented.”

    https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-microsoft-cloud-gap-narrowing-2019-7

  • Microsoft, AT&T sign cloud deal worth more than $2 billion

    Under the deal, Microsoft and AT&T will also work together on so-called edge computing, which will see Microsoft technology deployed alongside AT&T’s coming 5G network for applications that need extremely small delays in passing data back and forth, such as air traffic control systems for drones. The multi-year deal is worth more than $2 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.

    The agreement is a major win for Microsoft, which will become AT&T’s “preferred” cloud vendor and is fighting to gain market share from Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services, the biggest provider of public cloud services. Cloud service customers run their software applications in data centers managed by the cloud provider.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-at-t-cloud/microsoft-att-sign-cloud-deal-worth-more-than-2-billion-idUSKCN1UC1KK?il=0
    IBM Lands AT&T as Client in Cloud Deal

    The partnership builds on IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of open-source software firm Red Hat, which closed last week. Buying Red Hat strengthened IBM’s standing in the hybrid cloud market. Companies use the hybrid cloud to manage software and other systems across different cloud services and their own data centers.

    IBM said that Red Hat’s open-source software will give AT&T Business the flexibility to move data and applications among various clouds and data centers. AT&T Business until now has worked with multiple cloud vendors.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-lands-at-t-as-client-in-cloud-deal-11563317480

Security/Privacy

  • An Equifax hack settlement promises a $125 payout. The truth is more complicated.

    First, if your information (most importantly, your social security number) was part of the hack, then you should assume it’s out there forever. Even if someone hasn’t stolen your identity yet, it could still happen.

    Second, even if you file for reimbursement, there’s a good chance you won’t actually get the full $125 that Equifax and the FTC are talking about. Things are worded carefully in the agreement, but the bottom line is there’s a limited amount of money in the payout pool, and it won’t cover $125 checks for 147 million people.

    Given all that, the biggest loophole you should be aware of is that if you do nothing, you will automatically waive your right to take legal action against Equifax in the future.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/27/equifax-settlement-guide-how-get-money-what-you-need-know/?utm_term=.ae82df97b9e0

Infrastructure/Hardware

  • Apple’s and Intel’s No-Brainer Deal

    The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the two are in “advanced talks.” A deal would purportedly involve both the intellectual property and staff related to Intel’s effort to design and build the crucial smartphone component that ultimately landed only Apple as a customer. The reported purchase price under discussion is about $1 billion.

    That is less than a week’s worth of free cash flow for Apple. It also is about what Intel has been losing annually on modems. Despite landing the sizable iPhone business, Intel’s modem-chip operation never achieved the necessary scale to compete profitably with market leader Qualcomm . QCOM -0.17% Meanwhile, Apple was effectively locked into the Intel modem during its bruising legal tussle with Qualcomm. The latter’s advancements in 5G technology ultimately spurred a settlement of that dispute, but it is an uneasy peace. Intel now has a modem operation with no customer following this year’s iPhone model, and Apple is back to depending on a supplier with whom it now has a rather tortured history.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/apples-and-intels-no-brainer-deal-11563900798

  • Sony’s wearable AC will arrive too late to save you from this year’s heatwave

    Sony has announced the Reon Pocket, a small cooling device that you can wear like a portable air conditioner. It’s currently live on Sony’s crowdfunding website, where prices start at ¥12,760 (about $117). SlashGear notes that as well as cooling you during hot days, the device, which slots into the back pocket of a specially designed T-shirt, can also warm you up during the winter.

    https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/7/27/8931701/sony-reon-pocket-portable-wearable-air-conditioner-heater-heatwave-t-shirt

    I need this thing now. Right Now.

Other

  • Tesla’s longtime CTO is stepping down

    Longtime Tesla executive JB Straubel is leaving his post as chief technology officer after some 15 years, CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday evening. Straubel will transition to a “senior advisor” role, according to Musk, and is not fully leaving the company. The news comes as Tesla announced a $408 million loss for the second quarter of 2019.

    “I’m not disappearing, and I just wanted to make sure that people understand that this was not some, you know, lack of confidence in the company, or the team, or anything like that,” Straubel said on the call.

    Straubel is the second C-suite executive to announce a change in his role on one of Tesla’s earnings calls in the last six months. Longtime chief financial officer Deepak Ahuja announced he was retiring on a call in January. Tesla also has a well-documented revolving door when it comes to lower-level executives.

    https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/24/20726728/tesla-jb-straubel-cto-is-stepping-down

Posted on

News You Can Use: 7/24/2019


Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

  • Amazon Offers Sellers a Leg Up, With a Catch

    Amazon.com Inc. is offering independent merchants on its platform marketing support, product reviews and prominent display. The catch? Amazon gains the right to purchase a merchant’s brand at any time for a fixed price, often $10,000.

    The program—which allows brand rights to be bought for a fixed price on 60 days’ notice, according to a contract seen by The Wall Street Journal—is part of a push by Amazon to obtain a stable of exclusive brands for the platform. It is the first selling program that allows Amazon to obtain direct control over independent brands that sell on its website, according to merchants familiar with Amazon programs.

    Also:

    The contract sets the price at $10,000, but says designs, patents and trade secrets will remain with the seller after the sale. Sellers in the program may sell the same product elsewhere under a different brand name and keep rights to brands they haven’t entered in the Accelerator program.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-offers-sellers-a-leg-up-with-a-catch-11563452450

  • Most of the Google Walkout Organizers Have Left the Company

    The employee resignations highlight growing hostility between Google and its most outspoken employees, who have grown increasingly organized and strident in their demands for significant changes to Google’s approach to issues including sexual harassment claims, military contracts, censored search in China, and equitable treatment of contract workers, who now outnumber full-time employees. That tension presents a challenge to Google’s open company culture, which encouraged employees to debate and dissent on internal forums, but established strong social norms around secrecy. Google evangelized this culture, elements of which have been adopted by other Silicon Valley firms, and the company’s response to employee activism is being closely watched.

    https://www.wired.com/story/most-google-walkout-organizers-left-company/

  • The biggest threat to America? Americans.
  • ‘The climate has changed’: Agencies are finding more young employees report burnout

    Burnout among millennials has been a major talking point this year. At the same time, agency sources say there has been a cultural shift in the way the industry approaches mental health and burnout. Agencies have employed new policies, like no answering emails after 7 p.m. or no Slack on weekends, to combat the burnout. It makes sense to do so, as 32% of agency employees are worried about their mental health, per Digiday+ research.

    “Fifteen years ago, [agencies] dismissed the idea of burnout,” said Jean Freeman, president and CEO of independent shop Zambezi. “The climate has changed, which is for the better, and now we’re paying attention to physical and mental health. If you pay attention to your staff, you can see it.”

    https://digiday.com/marketing/burnout-is-contagious-why-agencies-need-to-listen-when-younger-employees-self-diagnose/

  • The 5G Health Hazard That Isn’t

    According to experts on the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation, radio waves become safer at higher frequencies, not more dangerous. (Extremely high-frequency energies, such as X-rays, behave differently and do pose a health risk.)

    In his research, Dr. Curry looked at studies on how radio waves affect tissues isolated in the lab, and misinterpreted the results as applying to cells deep inside the human body. His analysis failed to recognize the protective effect of human skin. At higher radio frequencies, the skin acts as a barrier, shielding the internal organs, including the brain, from exposure. Human skin blocks the even higher frequencies of sunlight.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/science/5g-cellphones-wireless-cancer.html

Posted on

Supplier Report: 6/28/2019


Photo by Craig Sybert on Unsplash

Automation and artificial intelligence will likely change the world, for both good and bad.

The dark side of automation is making itself known through robocalls. We all get them, including hospitals. Many help lines are getting clogged with robocalls which are preventing people with urgent care needs from getting through.

Meanwhile, Oracle is on a roller-coaster ride this month. Their financials are up, but people are calling out financial engineering due to $36B in stock buy back.

Acquisitions/Investments

  • Blue Prism acquires UK’s Thoughtonomy for up to $100M to expand its RPA platform with more AI

    Blue Prism, which helped coin the term RPA when it was founded back in 2001, has announced that it is buying Thoughtonomy, which has built a cloud-based AI engine that delivers RPA-based solutions on a SaaS framework. Blue Prism is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange — where its market cap is around £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion), and in a statement to the market alongside its half-year earnings, it said it would be paying up to £80 million ($100 million) for the firm.

    The deal is coming in a combination of cash and stock: £12.5 million payable on completion of the deal, £23 million in shares payable on completion of the deal, up to £20 million payable a year after the deal closes, up to £4.5 million in cash after 18 months, and a final £20 million on the second anniversary of the deal closing, in shares. Thoughtonomy had never raised outside funding, although that was not for lack of interest.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/18/blue-prism-acquires-uks-thoughtonomy-for-up-to-100m-to-expand-its-rpa-platform-with-more-ai/

Artificial Intelligence

  • Microsoft PowerPoint gets an AI presentation coach

    Microsoft’s AI can’t tell you if your jokes will land, of course, but the new coaching feature gives you real-time feedback on your pacing, for example, tells you whether you are using inclusive language and how many filler words you use. It also makes sure that you don’t commit the greatest sin of presenting: just reading the slides.

    After your rehearsal session, PowerPoint will show you a dashboard with a summary of your performance and what to focus on to improve your skills.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/18/microsofts-powerpoint-will-use-ai-to-make-you-a-better-public-speaker/

Security/Privacy

  • Robocalls are overwhelming hospitals and patients, threatening a new kind of health crisis

    “These calls to health-care institutions and patients are extremely dangerous to the public health and patient privacy,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (N.J.), the Democratic chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who has put forward legislation to try to clamp down on robocalls. “The FCC and Justice Department need to go after these criminals with the seriousness and urgency this issue deserves.”

    The absence of immediate relief spells particular trouble for medical professionals. Scammers often adopt a technique known as spoofing to cover their tracks, a practice that results in people receiving calls from numbers that look similar to their own. For a hospital, that often can mean calls appear to come from local area codes, tricking health care workers into thinking it’s a nearby patient in need of care.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/17/robocalls-are-overwhelming-hospitals-patients-threatening-new-kind-health-crisis/?utm_term=.3184fc47f8f7

  • Your used Nest camera could be spying on you

    A member of the Facebook Wink Users Group discovered that after selling his Nest cam, he was still able to access images from his old camera—except it wasn’t a feed of his property. Instead, he was tapping into the feed of the new owner, via his Wink account. As the original owner, he had connected the Nest Cam to his Wink smart-home hub, and somehow, even after he reset it, the connection continued.

    We decided to test this ourselves and found that, as it happened for the person on Facebook, images from our decommissioned Nest Cam Indoor were still viewable via a previously linked Wink hub account—although instead of a video stream, it was a series of still images snapped every several seconds.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90366910/your-used-nest-camera-could-be-spying-on-you

Software/SaaS

  • Oracle shares rise on bullish earnings report

    Good numbers: Oracle Corp. shares rose 7.5% to $56.63 Thursday after the business software maker reported a bigger-than-expected 14% rise in quarterly profit driven by growth in its cloud services and license-support business. The shares closed Friday at $56.12.

    http://www.startribune.com/market-recap-oracle-shares-rise-on-bullish-earnings-report/511662182/
    Oracle investors breathe a sigh of relief on rising sales

    “We are focused on our star products and our star products are now driving the top line higher,” Ellison said on the call. “We have these other businesses that are melting away and we just don’t care.”

    Cloud licence and on-premise licence sales increased 12 per cent to US$2.52 billion, suggesting that Oracle is doing a good job of signing on new customers. The company said that revenue from NetSuite grew 32 per cent, and Fusion HR and financial suites gained by the same amount.

    https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/technology/oracle-investors-breathe-a-sigh-of-relief-on-rising-sales
    Oracle spent $36 billion in one year buying its own stock back, and it raises some uncomfortable questions about how it’s spending its cash

    For example, in contrast to the $36 billion spent on stock buybacks, Oracle spent $1.66 billion on capital expenditures in 2019, down from the $1.73 billion it spent in 2018.

    Remember, Oracle is trying to build itself into a cloud computing giant to take on the likes of mighty Amazon Web Services and, more importantly, keep itself relevant in an age where its customers want the cloud.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-stock-buybacks-growth-cloud-investors-2019-6
    The New Oracle Looks Like the Old IBM

    Oracle is an aging tech company that lacks real growth engines and repeatedly props up its earnings with buybacks. It’s stuck in the same downward spiral as IBM used to be, and it lacks the motivation of IBM under Ginni Rometty to break the cycle. Therefore, I’d avoid Oracle and stick with stronger tech companies — like Amazon or Microsoft — even though they trade at higher valuations.

    https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/06/20/the-new-oracle-looks-like-the-old-ibm.aspx

Other

  • IBM CIO Focuses on User Experience to Keep Staff Happy

    New employees expect that the IT services they use at work will be as good as or better than the technology they use at home, he said. To be competitive and attract talent, “we have to create an environment where talented engineers want to work,” he added.

    To that end, Mr. Previn and the design team have created new ways for employees to get and set up new devices. Device provisioning, or the act of assigning employees laptops, desktops and mobile phones with the appropriate encryption, email and productivity software, can be costly and time-consuming for IT departments.

    Mr. Previn’s user-research team oversaw a monthslong project in which they observed how much friction was involved for employees setting up their laptops. Many of the steps are now automated and cloud-based, similar to the way a consumer would be able to set up a device out of the box. “That’s materially different from an experience standpoint,” Mr. Previn said.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-cio-focuses-on-user-experience-to-keep-staff-happy-11560984488