http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/opinion/campaign-stops/go-ahead-play-the-woman-card.html
"There are always reasons a woman is good, but not as good as a man: In the John/Jennifer employment study, potential employers always had a gender-neutral justification for picking John over Jennifer, it was just that when John had more education and Jennifer more experience, employers wanted more education; when John had more experience and Jennifer more education, they wanted more experience."
"n the Finnish and Estonian babies, the Bacteroides rules the guts and in preventing the activation, it leads to an immunologically very "silent" system, which is not a good thing. The researchers said that this silence probably makes the babies prone to significant inflammation in childhood. They say that the Finnish and Estonian babies' systems have altered from the natural state of microbiota that has developed over the entire course of human evolution. In the meantime, Russian Karelian infants have gut microbiota that more closely resembles the relationship that humans have developed with bacteria in our guts since the dawn of mankind. The researchers say that improved sanitation and improved standards of living have caused the prevalence and dominance of Bacteroides.
They don't know exactly how and why this happened, but they are fairly comfortable saying that there is a connection between the altered microbiome within the guts of children in modern countries and the development of immune-related disease."
http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/04/trumps_misogyny_will_be_his_doom_moran.html
"No wonder Mary Pat Christie, standing behind Trump when he offered up this gem, rolled her eyes. And no wonder Trump's BFF, Gov. Chris Christie, saw his approval rating hit a new low today, at 26 percent.
Trump sees women through the eyes of an insecure 12-year-old boy. He evaluates them as sexual objects, good or bad. He brags about his conquests, in marriage or in adultery. He even assured the nation in a national debate that his penis is sufficiently large.
He suggested Megyn Kelly was tough on him because she was menstruating; he called a woman "disgusting" when she asked for a break to pump breast milk during a legal deposition; he used the same term to describe Clinton's bathroom break during a December debate.
He dismissed Carly Fiorina's candidacy based on her looks, something he would never say about a man. He even praised his daughter's sexual appeal, and said he might date her if she weren't his daughter. Ick.
This is all beyond strange. The man has issues"
http://www.wired.com/2016/04/alex-st-johns-daughter-wrong-women-tech/
"MY NAME IS Amilia St. John and I am the daughter of Alex St. John. Yes, that one. For those not following the horrific toddler meltdown my father has been very publicly broadcasting over the past few days, here is a short summary: My father, a prominent figure in tech because he helped create the Microsoft DirectX technology platform, posted an article recently on Venturebeat claiming that:
"Many modern game developers have embraced a culture of victimology and a bad attitude toward their chosen vocations."
and how
"[he] can't begin to imagine how sheltered the lives of modern technology employees must be to think that any amount of hours they spend pushing a mouse around for a paycheck is really demanding strenuous work."
It's the usual self aggrandizing agenda that older generations like to pedal on days when they need to feed their superiority complexes. My father's article led to a massive outcry from the gaming industry and a subsequent invasion of my father's blog by the (rightfully) angry internet masses.
On the blog, they uncovered extremely distasteful recruiting slides and supplemental blogs with revolting opinions regarding women, minorities and the mentally handicapped in the tech industry. Since these findings, countless others and I have found ourselves at a loss for words how anyone, especially someone in a position of power, can think that it is acceptable to broadcast such offensive material.
As his toxic waste trash fire not only is associated with my last name but also my face, I felt compelled to respond to my father's sexist, ableist, and racist rants.
(Important disclaimer: I have not lived with or near my father for many years and I lead an independent existence. I very strongly disagree with his opinions but have unfortunately ignored them for too many years.)
I am 22, a female, white and currently moonlighting as a "wage slave" (as my dad would call it). I work full-time in technical position (yes, a 9–5 and yes, I am never forced to put in overtime). One could say it is the sort of job that requires me to "move my mouse around a lot." This can be particularly difficult when the "shackles of my gender" become too burdensome to bear.
But as a woman, to enter this privileged position in the first place I had to face a lot of difficult situations. (And no, none of those situations involved a wrestle with my "victim complex".) The experience has left me with more than a few opinions about my father's views on this subject (which are exceptionally vile and wrong).
(The important caveat to this mini age, sex, race debrief is that I cannot speak for the experience of other races, women (and men) in the tech industry. However, the disparity and the need for a change is clear. For an excellent perspective from a black woman in the industry, I highly recommend this article by Erika Joy.)
I wasn't always going to enter tech. I only hammered that part down around a year ago, but the journey encompasses my entire life. Like my father, I dropped-out of the traditional education system. But unlike many women before me, I received exceptional mentoring and coaching from other technical women in the field and, as a result, I was able to persist in pursuing tech as a career. This access to mentoring is not an option for the majority of women entering tech, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have received it.
I entered tech for the following reasons:
My interest in the field of software development
'Dat Market / employability / livable wage
Because lots of people said I couldn't
Because not enough women are involved in the tech field
The last reason is the most important and what I intend to discuss for the next several paragraphs. Women make up 29.1 percent of the tech industry, but only 16.6 percent of technical jobs. "Women in technology" is personal to me, and I feel it is my responsibility to share my experiences with other women. In a world where so many women are finally gaining the opportunity for a voice, the tech industry is quiet. And what my father seems to so fundamentally misunderstand is that this is NOT, as he insinuates, a result of women "claiming victimhood."
(I will give credence to you that there MAY be a very small percentage of women who will perpetually victim-complex themselves out of difficult situations, but my only justification for that is the recent evidence brought to my attention that a percentage of men still believe all women are emotionally vulnerable, self-identified victims. If men like that exist, then perhaps less-than-ideal-women may exist, too.)
I will start with the root of the problem beginning in K-12 education. I was gifted at an early age with the amazing advantage of knowing that tech was an option in the first place. Not only did I know it was an option, I had many family members already working in tech, sharing tech and encouraging me to learn from them. Even so, I found it difficult to make the transition for, unsurprisingly, many of the reasons that plague women entering the industry. Sometimes not feeling intelligent enough, I could not find relatable peers to work with in my classes, and even if I did, purely academic relationships would often be misconstrued as 'something more.' Many attempts to solidify my path have resulted in open discouragement from both women and men alike. The worst part is that I have had it extremely easy compared to other women.
Imagine, then, how rare it must be for other young females, without encouragement or prior knowledge, to make the decision to enter the tech field.
The majority of US K-12 schools do not even offer any computer science curriculum in the first place. In fact, only 5 percent of US high schools even offer the computer science AP exam in the first place. As a result, many women enter college without even considering computer science as an option, and may only choose to transition to the major after their freshman year. Even if they do eventually decide to switch majors, it can be difficult or nearly impossible to finish within four years as a late transit. Adding to this adversity, many women and minorities feel intense isolation when confronted with the hard reality that they do not fit in with their overwhelmingly male classmates. Worst of all, many women enter into CS majors only to find that they are already hopelessly behind as they discover that their male counterparts already know the material from tinkering in their childhoods. As a result, many women and minorities end up dropping out of the major altogether.
And I can draw the obvious conclusion of what my father would argue from here, allow me beat him to it. "Isolation is good for you, stop being a victim, tough it out". While I agree that developing a thick skin is important, this isn't an actionable solution to solve the problem shown by the statistics (although promising developments, are bubbling as the number of CS students at Stanford increases).
(Even if a woman does get thick skin, the joke is on them as woman's perceived competency drops by 35 percent as soon as their colleagues start to feel that they are being "aggressive".)
So let's say a woman does successfully complete a CS degree and enter the career pipeline in the first place, and let's pretend that her "self-imposed victim complex" doesn't weed her out early. What happens to her next?
Unfortunately the prognosis remains bleak. After entering the field, women begin to get weeded out of engineering roles in favor of client-facing roles that "perfectly suit" their "stronger social skills." In my father's recruiting slides, he advocates for this exactly, quote:
"Technical women are often quickly promoted for a variety of reasons. Stronger social skills often make them better architects, technical writers, QA, or technical support people."
(Dad, if you use my face in an offensive slideshow again I beg you to please at least throw me a bone and put in a more flattering picture. As a self absorbed millennial I have provided the internet with a profusion of selfies in a rainbow of sepia tones. Please choose any of those.)
Widely held beliefs like these are playing a huge role in hindering women from continuing as engineers. While many of these "more social" roles may be high paying, they remove truly technical women from technical jobs, furthering the imbalance. This directly impacts women later in their careersas it has been shown that technical positions are more likely to lead to senior roles in the industry. My father's suggestion to continue the practice of "promoting" women out of engineering roles will only further reinforce gender norms in the workplace and ultimately harm the supply of senior female technical executives.
And finally, here we are at this written hemorrhoid from my father's blog:
"Why do young white males tend to be the ones who pick up computers, teach themselves to code, start businesses in their basements with their friends and get rich? It's an obvious opportunity to everybody isn't it? If you are a different race, gender, or religion… what's your excuse? I know of very very few successful bootstrapped tech companies founded by women or blacks."
By posing an open-ended question, I suppose it's easy to allow users to fill in the (rather insulting) gaps. My father's own conclusion being that everyone who is not a white male has a victim complex and is allowing themselves to be held back. It is very convenient to pretend that the reason white males are so successful is because they are the self-starters, geared toward success, etc., while everyone else is simply too lazy, apathetic and whiny to make something of themselves. By pretending this, he shields himself from all of the realities that put white males in a position of power in the first place.
Perhaps rather than pointing out the disparity and using it as an opportunity to belittle and insult ~64 percent of the US population, my father could use this insight as a springboard to reach a more obvious conclusion: Why haven't people like him used their positions of privilege to help solve the problem? Maybe their attitudes are partially (entirely) to blame?
Consider that as many as 50 percent of women working in STEM fields have chosen to leave over the past decade as a result of hostile, unwelcoming work environments. Rather than telling these women to buck up, suffer in silence and keep working, it would be more effective to address the root of the proverbial elephant in the room: The men (and sometimes women) who believe what people like my father are spewing, and regurgitate it at their female counterparts. The real crux of the issue is that by propagating this offensive ideology (even if it could be just my father trying to get his jollies by instigated fights with everyone on the internet), he is feeding the fire for the dull brained Neanderthals in the industry who actually are anti-women to continue propagating these practices.
And it is from here that I beg my father, for the love of his daughters, to stop hindering our progress as women in the industry and start using his influence to promote positive experiences for minorities in tech.
(And to stop promoting abuse and exploitation of people with Aspergers. And also to stop being an obnoxious lunatic.)
Suppose he does not. Given my allegedly inflexible millennial tendencies and gender inherited victim complex, I have no doubt I will eventually give up on tech and be forced to move in to his home (I hope he has space) where I intend to start my dream blog about the college tuition bubble and how baby boomers ruined our economy.
If you are an individual interested in furthering the fight to improve ratios for women and minorities in the industry, there are so many opportunities to get involved! Start a female and minority hackathon, volunteer to mentor young women and minorities in computer science, or even just start by learning more.
Here is a (short) list of other resources to get you started:
Girls Who Code: An excellent nonprofit with a focus on teaching women k-12 how to code. They make it relatively easy to start (or join) a group in your area!
Code 2040: An awesome site with a focus on blacks and latinos in the coding industry
2020 Shift: Focus on minorities in hybrid careers in the tech business. I love this website because it is all about entering the tech world if you ARE NOT in a technical career.
Code Academy: A great start to dive in to the basics of coding.
Scratch from MIT: This is an amazing tool for young children learning how to code. It teaches children to think logically while removing the syntax hurdles.
Some killer tech giants who are making a difference.
Grace Hopper Conference: Grace Hopper is a female and minority focused conference. I have unfortunately never had the opportunity to go but I constantly hear what an amazing experience it is. Students can earn scholarships to finance their trip.
Codepen: This site is a personal favorite tool. It is such a fun playground for front end development. It allows you code while simultaneously working with HTML, CSS and Javascript and it is so flexible. It is all buffed out with preprocessors galore."
"This wasn't posing, or marketing. Prince knew early on that he had an extraordinary musical gift. Music flowed through him at all hours, in an outpouring he could barely control. He created constantly, completing a song a day at his peak. The way he explained his musical gifts to himself, friends say, is to believe that he himself was blessed. That contributed to his Jesus complex, but it also made him certain that his music must have a purpose. That purpose became spreading the word of God. Sure, he deviated from that path when he wanted to, but for him there was no need to separate the things we do on Saturday night from the things we do on Sunday morning."
Read More: http://nyti.ms/214NKfQ
Holds the world record for the 60m dash for women ages 95-99. The most inspiring thing I've read... Well, ever.
"At 100, Still Running for Her Life"
http://nyti.ms/213XwyO
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/03/24/the-question-every-reporter-should-be-asking-ab/209527
"The idea that men will pretend to be transgender to sneak into women's restrooms has been debunked by law enforcement experts, government officials, and women's safety advocates in cities and states across the country.
But media coverage of the debate around transgender bathroom access has been dominated by anti-LGBT talking points about "privacy" and "safety." In Charlotte, local news coverage of the LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance was largely defined by baseless fears about men entering women's restrooms.
Instead of fixating on bogus right-wing "bathroom predator" horror stories, journalists should be asking a basic but tremendously important question about Republicans' efforts to regulate public restrooms: how is the government supposed to figure out a person's biological sex?"
Although two powerful quakes struck on opposite sides of the planet over the weekend, there is no connection between them.
Read More: http://nyti.ms/1qzrHRt
There are on average, 15 quakes a year between 7 and 7.9 on the Richter scale.
How a clunky Swedish computer game is teaching millions of children to master the digital world.
Read More: http://nyti.ms/1Wtm4RB
NBCNews.com: 'Motherhood Penalty' Can Affect Women Who Never Even Have a Child. http://www.nbcnews.com/business/careers/motherhood-penalty-can-affect-women-who-never-even-have-child-n548511
"This higher standard is due to an antiquated notion that women who are pregnant are perpetually pre-occupied with their babies and cannot possibly be productive, said Anne-Marie Slaughter, author and former director of policy planning for the U.S. State Department.
"Pregnant women and mothers are assumed to be less committed to their careers, and every time they leave the office or ask for any flexibility, that commitment is further called into question," Slaughter said."
"Through all of her treatment, and despite the pain she was in, her temperament never changed. Her fighting spirit was plain to see and I was so proud of how quickly she recovered."
The Marine dog was honored with PDSA, which has been previously bestowed upon a few dozen dogs, a few World War II messenger pigeons, as well as three horses and a cat. Lucca is the 67th animal to be honored with the medal, which is reserved for those who show exceptional service in a military conflict."
Wait... A cat?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(cat)
"Simon rapidly gained a reputation for cheekiness, leaving presents of dead rats in sailors' beds, and sleeping in the captain's cap.[1]
During the Yangtze Incident in 1949, the badly wounded cat crawled on deck, and was rushed to the medical bay, where the ship's surviving medical staff cleaned his burns, and removed four pieces of shrapnel, but he was not expected to last the night. He managed to survive.
Following the ship's escape from the Yangtze, Simon became an instant celebrity, lauded in British and world news, and presented with the "Animal Victoria Cross", the Dickin Medal, as well as a Blue Cross medal, the Amethyst campaign medal, and the fanciful rank of "Able Seacat". Thousands of letters were written to him, so much that one Lt Stewart Hett was appointed "cat officer" to deal with Simon's post."
Here's a story from The New York Times I thought you'd find interesting:
Over the course of four months, 97,100 metric tons of methane quietly leaked out of a single well into California's sky. Scientists and residents are still trying to figure out just how much damage was done.
Read More: http://nyti.ms/234i7nU
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/04/02/opinion/trump-truth-and-abortion.html
"There was, however, one moment of shining clarity. It came when he was asked whether the man who created an unwanted pregnancy should be punished, too.
"I would say no," Trump quickly decreed."
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/31/the_scariest_thing_about_donald_trumps_abortion_comments/
"Indeed, a fundamental belief among many anti-choice radicals is that pregnancy and childbirth themselves are penances women must pay for their sexuality. ("No get out jail free card for you, young lady.")"
Salon: Donald Trump's self-destructive campaign: Why Team Trump is compelled to bring pain down on itself. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIw4sv7wSQ
Unbelievable
After reading that over half your mobile data could be going to ads in your browser, I switched to Firefox browser with Ublock Origin ad blocker - it is FAST and almost NO ads.
Try it on Android today! No, this is not a paid advertisement. I just hate how slow mobile Chrome is.
"I don't accept responsibility. I do not condone violence in any shape," Trump said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Trump said one 78-year-old supporter who sucker-punched a young black man being led out of a rally last week "got carried away" and told NBC he had instructed his staff to look into paying the man's legal fees.
Trump has used aggressive language against protesters at his rallies, yelling at them to get out and once saying he would like to punch one of them.
"She said that she and her younger sister had come to peacefully observe the rally and support their parents, immigrants from Mexico whom they feel Mr. Trump is disparaging. But as soon as they entered, the crowd "looked at us wrong and you could feel the energy, that we weren't wanted," she said, adding that they found the scene — which included some of their high school teachers — to be jarring.
"We have never in our whole life, living here in Concord, we have never experienced racism until now," Ms. Segovia said. "I never thought my town, that we contributed to, would treat us like this." "
The video is short and cute, recommended.
"This resulted in a ghostlike appearance, leading to a comment on social media that it should be called Casper, like the friendly cartoon ghost. It is almost certainly an undescribed species and may not belong to any described genus."
NOAA says that the appeance of the animal on the images sent back by Deep Discoverer "confused several of our shore-based scientists."
Indeed, a video released by NOAA (complete with a groovy soundtrack) features one observer exclaiming, "That animal is not in the HURL guide."
Then he (kinda) quotes Taylor Swift: "I have never, like, ever, seen that one.""
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-disney-adopts-demand-pricing-20160226-story.html
"Disneyland and Disney California Adventure have been charging $99 for a one-day ticket. Under the new policy, each day on the calendar will be designated a "value" day, a "regular" day or a "peak" day. The new price will be $95 for a value day, $105 for a regular day and $119 for a peak day.
Over a 12-month period, 30% of the days will be "value" days, 44% will be "regular" days and 26% will be "peak" days, Disney calculates."
"But in hindsight, it may be the case that the Kinect bundle, which still didn't do much other than receive voice commands and play a scarce handful of games, sunk the entire launch of the Xbox One. While the One had many problems at launch with Microsoft talking about an "always on" console and threatening to make discs obsolete, the Kinect, and the $100 it added to the Xbox One's price tag, allowed the PS4 to grab an early lead, and hang onto it to this day.
Microsoft eventually decoupled the Kinect from the Xbox One, dropping the price, and though the peripheral is still sold separately, Microsoft rarely even acknowledges its existence these days. It's hard to blame them, as it very well may have cost them this entire console generation, as now it's unlikely that Xbox One will ever be able to catch the sales total of the PS4.
Knowing all this, it would seem like Microsoft is smart to be gunshy about the HoloLens in its current form. It would be beyond pointless to start selling a $3,000 HoloLens when the Vive headset is $800 and the Oculus Rift is $600. "
I thought that cellular Internet might one day subsume residential Internet but perhaps not:
"Watching movies or TV shows on Netflix uses about 1 GB of data per hour for each stream of standard definition video, and up to 3 GB per hour for each stream of HD video. This can create headaches for Netflix members who have a monthly bandwidth or data cap on their Internet service. Below, you'll find a few ways to reduce the amount of data Netflix uses, without having to resort to drastic measures (like actually watching less Netflix).
Adjusting the data usage settings for your account is the easiest way to reduce the amount of bandwidth used while watching Netflix. There are four data usage settings to choose from. Each estimate below is per stream:
Low (0.3 GB per hour)
Medium (SD: 0.7 GB per hour)
High (Best video quality, up to 3 GB per hour for HD and 7 GB per hour for Ultra HD)"
""There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop," Randall Stephenson, CEO, said in a recent interview at AT&T's Dallas headquarters. People who do not spend five to 10 hours a week in online learning, he added, "will obsolete themselves with the technology.""
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/05/teradata-corporation-compiles-a-strong-quarter.aspx
"Teradata managed cloud revenue is still small, "but growing rapidly and very strategic to us," according to Teradata CEO Mike Koehler."
"The cost of the user is very well measured. We know exactly how much money we are spending to get every single user. Another thing we are doing well is showing marketing how much money they're spending and the results of the spend. The ROI is calculated on a daily basis for every campaign." - Ariel Aguirre, Analytics Director, SGN
Analytics in the cloud allow SGN to scale with the large amounts of data and still deploy complex analytics on big data. Each user experience is an event in a JSON file which goes to the Teradata Cloud - where analysis can be done in real-time.
Critical to SGN's strategy, the Teradata Cloud is an operating expense, keeping capital costs to a minimum.
"We don't have to worry about backups; that's all handled in the Teradata Cloud. If we have a problem with anything regarding performance, we just create a ticket and the support guys take care of it. That makes a lot of difference for us. We don't want to worry about how it's performing. We have to be focused on our business." - Ariel Aguirre, Analytics Director, SGN
"Cloud computing companies are among the most competitive there are about salaries, performance and sign-on bonuses and a myriad of perks and benefits. They are also attracting senior management teams that have strong leadership skills, many of whom are striving to create excellent company cultures."
http://bgr.com/2016/02/01/galaxy-s7-accessories-gear-360/
"Dubbed Gear 360, according to SamMobile, the accessory will seemingly be a virtual reality camera will let anyone record the kind of 360-degree video experiences that can be then enjoyed on a galaxy phone when combined with a Gear VR headset.
The Gear 360 is a compact spherical camera that can capture 360-degree imagery using two 180-degree fish eye lenses. The camera can connect to a phone via Bluetooth and has a special Gear 360 Connect application. The camera should work with other devices, but the tech site can only confirm Galaxy S7 compatibility for the time being.
Samsung's upcoming Gear 360 has its own battery and packs its own onboard storage, which should come in handy when recording 360 videos. "
If you haven't gotten your hands on Google cardboard, now is a good time to try it. More and more apps are supporting 360deg photos and videos. The New York Times is also publishing these and posted an emotional set that were filmed in Paris after the Paris bombings. They are really a must see. I was also kicking myself for not having taken more of these 360deg pics in Angkor Wat.
http://www.newsweek.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-what-expect-apples-chief-tormentor-feb-21-421612
20pct larger battery, IP67 waterproof, and micro SD slot! And pressure sensitive touch. The phone that the S6 old have been!
http://jezebel.com/in-literature-and-in-life-men-and-women-still-want-dif-1754966944
"Not all, but many men are only comfortable when they can have the last word," Baroness Greenfield wrote.
Still true today
http://gizmodo.com/a-timeline-of-the-tragic-shuttle-launch-that-changed-na-1755746292
Worth reading, although I would like to know more about why NASA did not already have a robust approach to managing risk!
http://m.phys.org/news/2016-01-moon-head-on-collision-earth-planet.html
"The moon was formed by a violent, head-on collision between the early Earth and a "planetary embryo" called Theia approximately 100 million years after the Earth formed, UCLA geochemists and colleagues report."
http://www.nextplatform.com/2015/05/01/microsoft-stacks-azure-up-against-aws/
""I thought I'd just spend a little bit of time talking about how now Azure is even better [than Redshift]," he said, first focusing on the fact that a user can independently adjust the amount of compute and storage that you use with SQL Data Warehouse, as opposed to the fixed ratio required by Redshift. "This allows you to reduce costs and pay only for what you actually need," he noted.
SQL Data Warehouse, he said, will allow you to automatically scale up your data warehouse "in seconds." Not so with Redshift, Guthrie claimed, dissing AWS's service because "typically it takes hours or even days to rescale your data warehouse, and your data warehouse goes into a read-only mode with [performance] degradation.""
http://www.fastcompany.com/3056077/fast-feed/microsofts-bet-on-the-cloud-is-paying-off
"But during the earnings call, Nadella and other Microsoft execs stressed the success of the company's cloud computing platform, Azure, and productivity software, Office 365—both of which showed significant growth. Azure's revenue jumped 140%, while Office 365 expanded by 70% and now boasts 20.6 million consumer subscribers.
Since Microsoft reports its Azure revenue within what it calls the Intelligent Cloud division, it's unclear how much Azure, in particular, raked in; the cloud unit as a whole, however, brought in $6.3 billion, a 5% increase from last year. Same goes for Office 365, which falls under the umbrella productivity category that drew $6.7 billion in revenue (a 2% decrease).
Amazon—which also presented its earnings this afternoon—revealed today that its competing cloud computing product, Amazon Web Services, is seemingly growing at a slower rate than Microsoft's product, despite being the industry leader. The service brought in $2.4 billion in revenue, up 69% from last year."
My comment: If the Intelligent Cloud revenue improvement of $600M is solely due to Cloud, and the rest of that groups performance was flat, then Microsoft's Cloud business is now about $1B, having increased from $428M. Could this be true? It has to be something on that order. If Azure is so big, why not report the revenue # directly?
"Samsung Knox is heavily ingrained within the Android framework and the kernel of Samsung's devices...
In particular, Samsung Knox includes a Root of Trust, which dictates what tasks a device can execute with confidence. Some of the functions of a Root of Trust are detecting rootkits and recognizing unauthorized changes to a smartphone's system or program. This especially speaks to the Verizon and AT&T models of the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ as Verizon and AT&T are especially adverse to customization of their devices."
I think this means that I am never going to be able to recover my 2000 Cambodia pictures from my Galaxy S6. There is no way to inspect the file system and see deleted files without rooting, and Samsung has robustly eliminated the ability to root. Beware all of you who take pictures solely thru your smartphone... One day you will be sorry.
If you lose the file pointers to your pictures before you can get back to your hotel room to sync, you will be screwed. Maybe it's only one days worth but those could be priceless pictures.
When I posted my tale of woe to Facebook, many replied saying they had experienced the same thing, losing all their pictures. So I know I'm not the only one. Very sad.
Apps to Manage Passwords So They Are Harder to Crack Than 'Password'
Evaluating the merits of Dashlane, 1Password, LastPass and other methods of keeping long lists of increasingly complex passwords safe and accessible.
http://nyti.ms/1V8HQqs
1Password is the recommended app.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/star-wars-terms-among-2015-s-worst-passwords/
"If you read our previous reports, you won't be shocked that "123456" is still the most common dumb password, with "password" still occupying the No. 2 spot. The rest of the top 10 were similarly eye-rolling: "12345678," "qwerty," "12345," "123456789," "football," "1234," "1234567" and "baseball," in that order.
SplashData also drew attention to three relatively new entries: "princess," "solo" and "starwars." "
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/8999470
"f Wal-Mart were to eliminate every store within 10 miles of another Wal-Mart, it would thin out its unit count by at least 25%. "
The Motley Fool: Amazon Is Chasing After (and Winning) a $191 Billion Prize. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwqZTNsSc
TechCrunch: The Hierarchy of IoT "Thing" Needs. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwutWsjiU
PCWorld: IBM launches its data warehouse service into the cloud. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIw8YOAmyM
"In early 2014, Amazon was reportedly in talks with retailers including J.Crew, Abercrombie & Fitch and Neiman Marcus to carry those brand's listings on its site – that deal never materialized.
The next phase of major disruption in retail is here, driven by endless touch points, the convenience of physical stores, social commerce, and a personalized brand experience. Disruption is the natural selection of the business world, causing seemingly unbeatable companies to become beatable. Forbes pointed out that that fifty years ago, the life expectancy of a company on the Fortune 500 was about 75 years. It is less than 15 years today and falling."
http://www.businessinsider.com/grant-study-reveals-what-makes-us-happy-2013-4
"Happiness is Love. Full Stop."
http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/25/us-female-sailor-beats-dubai-rapist-bus-driver-sub
" An off-duty U.S. navy sailor wrestled a Dubai bus driver to the ground and beat him into submission after he tried to rape her at knifepoint on Jan. 19, a courtroom heard Wednesday.
Prosecutors said that she knocked the knife from his hand, broke it in two, bit him in the hand, forced him to the ground and locked him between her thighs, the Daily Mail reports."
How to cook Country and Classic omelets, the French way, with Jacques Pepin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57afEWn-QDg&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Then, there's omelets the Indian way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNQ886KNw10&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Watch them back to back
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vanity-fair/coachella-week-two-how-to_b_3101254.html
" The more your anecdotes sound like an acid dream, the more realistic they will appear. Case in point: shooting paint-covered tennis balls at a pool party where Katy Perry was petting an alligator while wearing a matching Salvador DalÖemblazoned skirt and bikini top and other guests were eating Patron popsicles while getting a complimentary mani/pedi and a guy nicknamed DJ Mom Jeans played music was apparently a very real Coachella option."
As long as Facebook continues serving ads in its feed, which I get 3-4 of every day, I have zero interest in Facebook Home. I spend more time on Reddit than Facebook these days, anyways.
" Today, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-25), the only microbiologist in Congress, reacted to a new study that conclusively identified transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from livestock to humans. Currently, MRSA kills more Americans each year than HIV/AIDS."
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http://blog.ted.com/2007/08/03/100_websites_yo/
In the spring of 2007, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, gave a legendary TED University talk: an ultra-fast-moving ride through the "100 websites you should know and use." Six years later, it remains one of the most viewed TED blog posts ever. Time for an update? We think so. Below, the 2013 edition of the 100 websites to put on your radar and in your browser.
" Thursday: HP says Lane is stepping down as chairman, two weeks after a near ousting by shareholders. Hammergren and Thompson are also leaving. Board member Ralph V. Whitworth becomes interim chairman. Lane will stay on HP's board."
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/17320958-418/roger-ebert-dies-at-70-after-battle-with-cancer.html
"In 2011 his autobiography, "Life Itself," won rave reviews. "This is the best thing Mr. Ebert has ever written," Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times. It is, fittingly enough, being made into a documentary, produced by his longtime friend, Martin Scorsese."
http://m.techcrunch.com/2013/03/24/bees/
"For every person that got referred to a site via Reader, there were undoubtedly thousands more reading quietly on a daily basis that you would simply never see or hear from.
Again, while perhaps not directly monetizable, I'd imagine those readers are important in other ways. Maybe they're other bloggers who read everything and choose to link to your site because they read a post of yours in Reader. Or maybe they're one of those aforementioned "bees" that read your content in Reader and chose to then put it on Twitter, or Facebook, or Reddit, or Hacker News, or all of them.
I can't help but get the feeling that the ramifications of Google killing off Reader are going to be far more wide-reaching than they may appear at first glance."
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http://sequoiacapital.tumblr.com/post/41794001551/perspective-on-apple-amid-the-clamour
Why maybe it's not time to sell Apple stock just yet:
"... almost every company in the world suffers from acute Apple envy. Apple has thrown several mainline industries, including music, movies, television, publishing, cameras and 35mm film, into convulsions. The entire Japanese consumer electronics sector, bereft of the software that helps distinguish Apple's products, has been hopelessly outpaced, as have Finland's Nokia and Canada's RIM.
Others – chip suppliers, wireless carriers, specialised glassmakers, outsourced manufacturers and hundreds of thousands of app developers – watch every twitch with hopeless admiration and silent apprehension. Anyone with their wits about them has been galvanised into action by Apple's success."
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http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/whats-inside-americas-banks/309196/
" A disturbing number of former bankers have recently declared that the banking industry is broken (this newfound clarity typically follows their passage from financial titan to rich retiree). Herbert Allison, the ex-president of Merrill Lynch and former head of the Obama administration's Troubled Asset Relief Program, wrote a scathing e-book about the failures of the large banks, stopping just short of labeling them all vampire squids. A parade of former high-ranking executives has called for bank breakups, tighter regulation, or a return to the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law, which separated commercial banking from investment banking. Among them: Philip Purcell (ex-CEO of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter), Sallie Krawcheck (ex-CFO of Citigroup), David Komansky (ex-CEO of Merrill Lynch), and John Reed (former coâ€'CEO of Citigroup). Sandy Weill, another ex-CEO of Citigroup, who built a career on financial megamergers, did a stunning about-face this summer, advising, with breathtaking chutzpah, that the banks should now be broken up."
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http://m.vanityfair.com/business/2013/02/memoirs-teddy-forstmann-billionaire-ghostwriters
In the spirit of E True Hollywood Stories - one of my favorite shows - learning how the rich get rich and how they live.
" One afternoon we drove to Roland Garros for the French Open, the reason Teddy was in Paris. As president of IMG, whose clients included Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, he belonged at the tournament. IMG had a box at center court, four seats five or six rows up from the clay, amid the families of players. Teddy was out there every day, cooking in the sun. People stopped by to chat. Teddy would stand and smile. He'd been at the helm of IMG for several years and loved it. Not only was it the greatest sports agency in the world, it also represented top fashion models. When Teddy acquired the agency, some reporters depicted it as a lark: here's an aging LBO king seeking to spend his golden years immersed in his two great loves, athletes and models.
This infuriated Teddy. They think this is fun! They think this is a party, a walk in the park? Horseshit! This company was underperforming when I acquired it, and I took it over for the same reason I've acquired every company: hidden value! I saw something the others missed. You do not buy a $750 million company because you like pretty girls and want to sit at center court!
Meanwhile, we were at center court, in the wind, the sky a flawless early-summer blue, like the sky in a dream. Colorful pennants waved on the rim of the jewel box.
Between sets, a girl lingered near our seats. She was long and lovely and dark, with hair that went halfway down her back and the sort of heart-shaped French face that the existentialists could never properly explain. Teddy leaned over, whispered in my ear: "Do you see that girl?"
"Yeah, yeah, I see her."
"I mean, a girl like that, in Paris … "
"Yeah, I know."
"What do you think if I went over and just told her, Hey, my name is Forstmann, and I happen to own the biggest modeling agency in the world?"
"I don't know."
"Or if I sent a note. Maybe you. Would you bring a note over, then point me out to her?"
"The note thing, I'm not sure."
"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Stupid idea." "
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If HP wants to get into mobile, they should start here:
" Efforts to get [smart] phones into the hands of people in impoverished rural areas, Clinton said, should be a priority in world humanitarian efforts. For many, the cellphone is the first — and only — point of entry to having a bank account, or to standardize commodity food prices across their particular region."
