Wired https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/rss en-us Amazon, Google, Microsoft: Here's Who Has the Greenest Cloud “Data is the new oil” may have outlasted its usefulness as a metaphor, but one aspect still rings true: Both industries have a serious environmental footprint. According to the Department of Energy, data centers account for about 2 percent of all electricity use in the US. That means... “Data is the new oil” may have outlasted its usefulness as a metaphor, but one aspect still rings true: Both industries have a serious environmental footprint. According to the Department of Energy, data centers account for about 2 percent of all electricity use in the US. That means...

]]> http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6380 Thu, 12 Dec 2019 03:00:00 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6380-amazon-google-microsoft-heres-who-has-the-greenest-cloud Green Data Center The 8-Hour Workday Is a Counterproductive Lie The eight-hour workday started its life as a socialist dream. The Welsh textile mill owner and social reformer Robert Owen is credited as the first person to articulate it, by calling for “eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, and eight hours rest” for workers in the early 19th century. This was much better than... The eight-hour workday started its life as a socialist dream. The Welsh textile mill owner and social reformer Robert Owen is credited as the first person to articulate it, by calling for “eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, and eight hours rest” for workers in the early 19th century. This was much better than...

]]> http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6356 Thu, 21 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6356-the-8-hour-workday-is-a-counterproductive-lie Time Clock John McAfee Fled to Belize, But He Couldn't Escape Himself On November 12, 2012, Belizean police announced that they were seeking John McAfee for questioning in connection with the murder of his neighbor. Six months earlier... On November 12, 2012, Belizean police announced that they were seeking John McAfee for questioning in connection with the murder of his neighbor. Six months earlier...

]]> http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6321 Thu, 07 Nov 2019 03:00:00 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6321-john-mcafee-fled-to-belize-but-he-couldnt-escape-himself John McAfee Feds Say Boeing 737s Need to Be Better Designed for Humans The two 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people and led to what is, so far, a six-month grounding of the jet, stemmed in part from... The two 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people and led to what is, so far, a six-month grounding of the jet, stemmed in part from...

]]> http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6232 Fri, 27 Sep 2019 01:00:00 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6232-feds-say-boeing-737s-need-to-be-better-designed-for-humans Grounded Boeing 737s Luxembourg's Bold Plan to Mine Asteroids for Rare Minerals In 2016 the tiny European country of Luxembourg announced an ambitious initiative to mine asteroids and other near-Earth objects (NEOs) for rare minerals. It wasn’t the country’s first foray into space... In 2016 the tiny European country of Luxembourg announced an ambitious initiative to mine asteroids and other near-Earth objects (NEOs) for rare minerals. It wasn’t the country’s first foray into space...

]]> http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6170 Fri, 30 Aug 2019 02:00:00 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6170-luxembourgs-bold-plan-to-mine-asteroids-for-rare-minerals Radar Dish Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech ON A BRIGHT Monday in January 2017, at 2:30 in the afternoon, about a thousand Google employees—horrified, alarmed, and a little giddy—began pouring out of the company's offices in Mountain View, California. They packed themselves into... ON A BRIGHT Monday in January 2017, at 2:30 in the afternoon, about a thousand Google employees—horrified, alarmed, and a little giddy—began pouring out of the company's offices in Mountain View, California. They packed themselves into...

]]> http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6141 Wed, 14 Aug 2019 03:00:00 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/6141-three-years-of-misery-inside-google-the-happiest-company-in-tech Behind the Scenes at Google San Francisco Could Be First to Ban Facial Recognition Tech If a local tech industry critic has his way, San Francisco could become the first US city to ban its agencies from using facial recognition technology. Aaron Peskin, a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, proposed the ban Tuesday as part of... If a local tech industry critic has his way, San Francisco could become the first US city to ban its agencies from using facial recognition technology.

Aaron Peskin, a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, proposed the ban Tuesday as part of...

]]> http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/5644 Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/5644-san-francisco-could-be-first-to-ban-facial-recognition-tech SF Recognition The Terrifying Science Behind California’s Massive Camp Fire At 6:30 Thursday morning, a wildfire of astounding proportions and speed broke out in Northern California. Dubbed the Camp Fire, it covered 11 miles in its first 11 hours of life. A mile an hour might not seem fast in human terms, but... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/5528 Mon, 12 Nov 2018 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/5528-the-terrifying-science-behind-californias-massive-camp-fire Meet The Transhumanists Turning Themselves Into Cyborgs "Transhumanism" is a relatively new word for the very old belief that humans can transcend the limitations of our mortal bodies, perhaps even mortality itself. In its modern form, the term encompasses a wide variety of techno-utopian ideas ranging from... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/5377 Mon, 17 Sep 2018 07:09:03 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/5377-meet-the-transhumanists-turning-themselves-into-cyborgs Will Others Follow Microsoft's Lead On Paid Parental Leave? An objectively good thing happened in big tech Thursday: Microsoft said it will require companies that supply it with subcontractors-think cafeteria and custodial staff-to give those workers 12 weeks of paid parental leave. In doing so, Microsoft is once again taking the lead in ensuring contractors get benefits that other big companies reserve for full-time employees. Back in 2015... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/5339 Fri, 31 Aug 2018 13:26:07 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/5339-will-others-follow-microsoft-s-lead-on-paid-parental-leave Why Tech Worker Dissent Is Going Viral Silicon Valley has a long and secretive history of building hardware and software for the military and law enforcement. In contrast, a recent wave of employee protests against some of those government contracts has been short, fast, and surprisingly public-tearing through... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/5213 Mon, 02 Jul 2018 05:48:03 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/5213-why-tech-worker-dissent-is-going-viral Apple's Faceid Could Be A Powerful Tool For Mass Spying This tuesday apple unveiled a new line of phones to much fanfare, but one feature immediately fell under scrutiny: FaceID, a tool that would use facial recognition to identify individuals and unlock their phones. Unsurprisingly,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4559 Fri, 15 Sep 2017 08:45:09 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4559-apple-s-faceid-could-be-a-powerful-tool-for-mass-spying Tech's Most Dubious Promises, From Bill Gates To Elon Musk Last week, Elon Musk dashed off 125 characters announcing a remarkably ambitious plan to send Amtrak to an early grave. "Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins," he proclaimed in a tweet. Yet... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4410 Tue, 01 Aug 2017 12:45:50 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4410-tech-s-most-dubious-promises-from-bill-gates-to-elon-musk A New Google Project Sets Out To Solve Artificial Stupidity By now most of us have learned first-hand that human-AI relations need some work. Amazon's Alexa personal assistant is plugged into one of the world's largest online stores and can pull information from Wikipedia. But... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4379 Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:18:08 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4379-a-new-google-project-sets-out-to-solve-artificial-stupidity One More Thing: Inside Apple's Insanely Great (Or Just Insane) New Mothership On June 7, 2011, a local businessman addressed a meeting of the Cupertino City Council. He had not been on the agenda, but his presence wasn't a total surprise. Earlier in the year the man had expressed his intention to attend a meeting in order to propose a new series of buildings along the city's northern border, but he hadn't felt up to it at the time. He was, as all of them knew, in dire health. Before the start of the meeting,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4218 Wed, 24 May 2017 07:21:58 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4218-one-more-thing-inside-apple-s-insanely-great-or-just-insane-new-mothership A Sensor That Could Soon Make Homes Scary-Smart If you want to set up a connected home, you've got two options. You can buy a bunch of smart gadgets that may or may not communicate with other smart gadgets. Or you can retrofit all of your appliances with sensor tags, creating a slapdash network. The first is expensive. The second is a hassle. Before long, though,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4174 Fri, 12 May 2017 06:30:12 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4174-a-sensor-that-could-soon-make-homes-scary-smart Google Wants You To Help Fix The Fake-Fact Problem It Created Barak Obama IS the king of the United States. Republicans are Nazis who clearly hate the Constitution. Dinosaurs are being used to indoctrinate both children and adults into believing that the earth is millions of years old. Women can't love men. Fire trucks are red because Russians are red. If you took Google for its word,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4138 Mon, 01 May 2017 10:31:46 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4138-google-wants-you-to-help-fix-the-fake-fact-problem-it-created What Does Congress Care About? Check Their Browsing Histories Buying Congress's browsing history would feel like the perfect payback for its recent votes to betray your internet privacy. Too bad it'll never happen. But at least you can still get a glimpse at what your representatives are looking at online. Today the folks at GovTrack, an online service for monitoring bills before Congress, launched a page listing... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4052 Tue, 04 Apr 2017 12:16:26 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4052-what-does-congress-care-about-check-their-browsing-histories Apple's Making Its Own GPU To Control Its Own Destiny For years, a company called Imagination Technologies gave Apple the tech behind your iPhone's Retina-ready graphics and eye-popping image processing. That relationship ended today. From here on out, according to an Imagination Technologies release, Apple will design its own underlying technology for GPUs. The reason is simple:... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4051 Tue, 04 Apr 2017 12:13:55 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/4051-apple-s-making-its-own-gpu-to-control-its-own-destiny America Gets A D Plus For Infrastructure, And A Big Bill To Fix It One of president Donald Trump's first promises after getting elected was to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure-bridges, roads, tunnels, pipes, dams. And whether you've had to evacuate a town in the shadow of a crumbling dam, buy filters for tainted municipal water, or even just bounced over potholes on a highway, you've experienced the... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3970 Fri, 10 Mar 2017 07:24:04 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3970-america-gets-a-d-plus-for-infrastructure-and-a-big-bill-to-fix-it Russians Engineer A Brilliant Slot Machine Cheat-And Casinos Have No Fix In Early June 2014, accountants at the Lumiere Place Casino in St. Louis noticed that several of their slot machines had-just for a couple of days-gone haywire. The government-approved software that powers such machines gives the house a fixed mathematical edge, so that casinos can be certain of... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3876 Tue, 07 Feb 2017 09:11:07 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3876-russians-engineer-a-brilliant-slot-machine-cheat-and-casinos-have-no-fix How Being Bored Out Of Your Mind Makes You More Creative "I'M DYING OF Boredom," complains the young wife, Yelena, in Chekhov's 1897 play Uncle Vanya. "I don't know what to do." Of course, if Yelena were around today, we know how she'd alleviate her boredom: She'd pull out her smartphone and find something diverting, like BuzzFeed or Twitter or Clash of Clans. If you have a planet's worth of... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3831 Thu, 26 Jan 2017 12:19:26 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3831-how-being-bored-out-of-your-mind-makes-you-more-creative Netflix Is Killing It-Big Time-After Pouring Cash Into Original Shows Original content is paying off for Netflix in a big, big way. The company just recorded the biggest quarter in its 19-year history, handily beating Wall Street's expectations while adding a record 7.05 million subscribers. That's almost two million more new viewers than even Netflix expected, with a fair number of them overseas. The earnings results... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3830 Thu, 26 Jan 2017 12:14:17 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3830-netflix-is-killing-it-big-time-after-pouring-cash-into-original-shows 7,500 Faceless Coders Paid In Bitcoin Built A Hedge Fund's Brain Richard Craib is a 29-year-old South African who runs a hedge fund in San Francisco. Or rather, he doesn't run it. He leaves that to an artificially intelligent system built by several thousand data scientists whose names he doesn't know. Under the banner of a startup called Numerai, Craib and his team have built technology that... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3742 Tue, 13 Dec 2016 10:05:50 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3742-7-500-faceless-coders-paid-in-bitcoin-built-a-hedge-fund-s-brain Edward Snowden: The most wanted man in the world The message arrives on my "clean machine," a MacBook Air loaded only with a sophisticated encryption package. "Change in plans," my contact says. "Be in the lobby of the Hotel by 1 pm. Bring a book and wait for ES to find you." ES is Edward Snowden, the most wanted man in the world. For almost nine months,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3371 Wed, 20 Jul 2016 09:19:13 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3371-edward-snowden-the-most-wanted-man-in-the-world Inside the mind of Steven Spielberg, hollywood's big, friendly giant Imagine you are little Steven Spielberg. It's the early 1950s. You are 7, maybe 8. You are very small in an enormous world. You feel things strongly, as all children do, and seemingly all at once. Awe, dread, wonder, joy, vulnerability, sadness-often these come crashing over you together as a single phenomenon. Later,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3340 Wed, 22 Jun 2016 11:40:06 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3340-inside-the-mind-of-steven-spielberg-hollywood-s-big-friendly-giant Yahoo publishes national security letters after FBI drops gag orders The FBI has been issuing national security letters for decades. The controversial subpoenas, which allow the feds to obtain customer records and transaction data from internet service providers and other companies without a court order, come with a perpetual gag order that prevents recipients from disclosing that they've received an NSL. Only a small handful of... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3307 Mon, 06 Jun 2016 11:52:35 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3307-yahoo-publishes-national-security-letters-after-fbi-drops-gag-orders How Craig Wright Privately 'Proved' He Created Bitcoin When Rumors Surfaced early last month that Australian cryptographer Craig Wright would attempt to prove that he created Bitcoin, Gavin Andresen remained skeptical. As the chief scientist of the Bitcoin Foundation, his opinion counts: Andresen is among... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3272 Fri, 06 May 2016 11:12:31 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3272-how-craig-wright-privately-proved-he-created-bitcoin 25 Geniuses Who Are Creating The Future Of Business Soon, software will know how you feel-and will use that data to sell you things. The gig economy will go global (but it's not Uber-take-all). The tech industry will finally be inclusive. AI will achieve something like common sense, and it will be open source too. But that future won't build itself. Actual people (at least for now) have to... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3265 Fri, 29 Apr 2016 10:51:47 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3265-25-geniuses-who-are-creating-the-future-of-business Clever New GitHub Tool Lets Coders Build Software Like Bridges Jesse Toth says that upgrading an Internet service is like building a new bridge across San Francisco Bay. In building the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, engineers didn't tear down the old one and erect the new one in its place. They built the new span alongside the old one, before... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3097 Tue, 09 Feb 2016 10:43:26 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/3097-clever-new-github-tool-lets-coders-build-software-like-bridges