Back in March, Apple held an entire education-focused event to introducenew tools like Schoolwork, which helps educators collaborate and keep track of student assignments through networks of iPads. Google isn’t far behind: Its new Course Kit lets instructors use Google Docs and Drive collect student work, give feedback and share class materials, and it’s available in 44 languages. And, of course, students won’t have to use proprietary tablets to benefit. Course Kit is built with the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard so it can interact with learning management systems (LMS), which educators use to deliver materials and monitor coursework. In essence, this…
Author: Loknath Das
Everyday it seems like new threats rear their heads exposing the vulnerabilities of enterprise organisations. Whether it’s severe weather, unwelcome intruders, or active shooters, disasters can happen at anytime, in almost any environment. Any enterprise relies on its people to be successful, so protecting them should be any organisation’s number one priority. As technology continues to evolve, there are more options than ever for safety tools. Emergency notification software in particular provides versatile options for organisations looking to reach large numbers of people with critical information. With the ability to send alerts for a variety of events, deliver messages in…
In the early years of software development, you would often design it, build it, and only then think about how to secure it. This was arguably fine in the in the days of monolithic applications and closed networks, when good perimeter-based protection and effective identity and access management would get you a long way towards minimising the risk. In today’s highly connected, API-driven application environments, though, any given software component or service can be invoked and potentially abused in so many different ways. Add to this the increasing pace of change through iterative “DevOps-style” delivery and ever-faster release cycles, and…
It has been five days since a dozen boys were rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand, and five days since Elon Musk has been wandering in a Twitter labyrinth of his own making. The Silicon Valley engineer and billionaire was briefly seen in Thailand last week, hauling a miniature submarine to the mouth of the cave just before an international dive team rescued the boys without it. Since then, he has been arguing with people who accuse him of shoehorning himself into the drama and imagining hypotheticals in which rescuers had not deemed his hastily built submarine unnecessary and impractical. This has, inevitably,…
Facebook, in an effort to further its ongoing development of AI-based chips, has hired one of Google’s lead chip developers – Shahriar Rabii. Previously Senior Director of Engineering at Google, Rabii has taken up the role of Vice President and Head of Silicon at Facebook, following the almost seven-year stint at Google. Earlier this year, Facebook was said to be building a team to design its own semiconductors, adding to a trend among technology companies to supply themselves and lower their dependence on chipmakers such as Intel and Qualcomm. The Menlo Park, California-based company is planning to join other technology giants tackling the massive effort to…
The number of women employees at Facebook has increased five percent over the past five years and there has been a modest growth in the proportion of Asian, Black and Hispanic employees across the company, the social media giant revealed on Friday. Releasing its fifth annual diversity report, Facebook said people from all backgrounds rely on Facebook to connect with others, and we will better serve their needs with a more diverse workforce. “The percentage of women globally at Facebook has increased from 31 percent in 2014 to 36 percent today. We have also nearly doubled the number of women graduates we hire…
Twitter has been on a clean-up spree recently, deactivating over 1 million accounts a day in a bid to combat abuse and fake news. The social media app is now rolling out a server-side update for all its Android users, changing how they navigate inside the app. The bar that held buttons like – Home, Search, Notifications, and Messages – has now been moved to the bottom of the screen for better one-hand usage. This is a server side update, so from the user end there is nothing that needs to be done. The update has just begun to roll out, and it should reflect…
Facebook – despite suffering through what could be charitably described as a turbulent year – was ranked as best place to work in 2018, according to Indeed. The career website compiled its annual list of the 50 top-rated workplaces, based on 72 million employer ratings and reviews of Fortune 500 companies. The social media platform was fourth on last year’s list. “Clearly, Facebook’s employees over the last two years believe that there’s been transparency internally, from the top down,” said Paul Wolfe, senior vice president at Indeed. “The company is also focused on perks and benefits, which brings it to the…
A Twitter policy change on Thursday to increase the service’s credibility cost its 100 most popular users about 2 percent of their followers, on average, according to social media data firm Keyhole. Twitter is no longer counting as followers any accounts that have been locked because of suspected fraud, Chief Executive Jack Dorsey posted on Thursday. Locked accounts had already been kept out of Twitter’s daily and monthly active user figures. The accounts are locked if Twitter detects unusual behaviour such as a burst of activity after months of dormancy. The new policy could be substantial for some Twitter users because follower totals serve…
Wearing a red vintage T-shirt, an Eric Church baseball cap and a backpack, Ben Weprin bound down a sidewalk of Roosevelt Island in New York, home of the Cornell Tech campus, a satellite of Cornell University, looking like a college student on the first day of class. Mr. Weprin, 40, had taken the subway there from Manhattan, an experience that he seemed to regard as a kid would a carnival ride. (He stood the entire train ride despite all the empty seats, and excitedly gave a subway mariachi musician 10 bucks.) When he emerged from underground, he didn’t have his bearings. He…