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Submission + - Bill Gates Thinks Thomas Piketty's Attack On Inequality Is Right (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by rvw on Thursday October 16, 2014 @09:26AM

rvw writes: Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates essentially concurs with French economist Thomas Piketty's landmark book on income inequality, according to a review Gates published on his own blog Monday. Those "most important" conclusions? High levels of income inequality are bad, capitalism cannot fix inequality on its own, and government action can help break the vicious cycle in which inequality begets more severe inequality.

It's appropriate that Gates reviewed the book, because he and his philanthropic foundation are actually mentioned to buttress Piketty's argument. After he became a very, very rich man, Gates stopped laboring and focused instead on giving away his money. Yet, more than a decade later, his wealth has actually skyrocketed. In 1998, Gates' net worth was valued at $50 billion. By October 2014, that number had increased nearly 60 percent to $79.3 billion, despite his having given away tens of billions of dollars.

Submission + - In 2001 the tech industry employed 6.5 million, today it's at 6.3 million (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs on Wednesday October 15, 2014 @07:15PM

dcblogs writes: In 2001, the tech industry employed 6.5 million people. That year remains the tech industry's employment peak. Tech industry employment reached 6.3 million in the first half of this year, a gain of 118,800 jobs, up 1.9% compared to the first half of 2013. That's below the 3.7% growth rate overall for private-sector employers, according to new data from TechAmerica Foundation.

Submission + - Journalists Route Around White House Press Office

Submitted by Tailhook on Wednesday October 15, 2014 @01:25PM

Tailhook writes: Pool reports written by White House correspondents are distributed to news organizations via the White House Press Office. Reporters have alleged that the Obama White House exploits its role as distributor to `demand changes in pool reports' and has used this power to `steer coverage in a more favorable direction.' Now a group of 90 print journalists has begun privately distributing their work through Google Groups, independent of the Press Office. Their intent is to `create an independent pool-reporting system for print and online recipients.'

Submission + - Society is hostile to science, tech, says VC Peter Thiel (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs on Wednesday October 08, 2014 @01:32PM

dcblogs writes: Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, billionaire investor and author, says "we live in a financial, capitalistic age, we do not live in a scientific or technological age. We live in a period were people generally dislike science and technology. Our culture dislikes it, our government dislikes it. The easiest way to see "how hostile our society is to technology" is to look at Hollywood. Movies "all show technology that doesn't work, that ... kills people, that it is bad for the world," said Thiel. He argues that corporations and the U.S. government are failing at complex planning.

Submission + - Former Infosys recruiter says he was told not to hire U.S. workers (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs on Tuesday October 07, 2014 @07:47AM

dcblogs writes: A lawsuit by four IT workers alleging that outsourcing firm Infosys favored hiring Indian workers over U.S. workers now includes an account from a former Infosys recruiter about the alleged practice. It includes accounts by Samuel Marrero, who worked in Infosys's talent acquisition unit from 2011 until May 2013, of meetings with executives at the India-based IT services firm. Marrero and other recruiters "frequently complained" to higher-ups at Infosys during these weekly calls that many of the highly qualified American candidates they had presented were being rejected in favor of Indian prospects. In response to one of these complaints, Infosys' global enterprise lead allegedly said, "Americans don't know shit," according to the lawsuit. Infosys has denied allegations that it discriminates.

Submission + - One in three jobs will be taken by software or robots by 2025, says Gartner (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs on Monday October 06, 2014 @05:22PM

dcblogs writes: Gartner predicts one in three jobs will be converted to software, robots and smart machines by 2025," said Peter Sondergaard, Gartner's research director at its big Orlando conference. "New digital businesses require less labor; machines will make sense of data faster than humans can," he said. Smart machines are an emerging "super class" of technologies that perform a wide variety of work, both the physical and the intellectual kind. Machines, for instance, have been grading multiple choice test for years, but now they are grading essays and unstructured text. This cognitive capability in software will extend to other areas, including financial analysis, medical diagnostics and data analytic jobs of all sorts, says Gartner. "Knowledge work will be automated."

Submission + - Patent issued for biometric pressure grip mouse (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs on Saturday October 04, 2014 @09:07AM

dcblogs writes: Defense contractor Raytheon has received a patent for mouse that has a biometric pressure grip. It believes the pressure grip, as a form of authentication, will be particularly hard to defeat because it works from a neurological pattern versus a physical pattern, such as a facial scan. "It's not just how much pressure you exert on the mouse itself, but it's also the x-y coordinates of your position," said Glenn Kaufman said, a cybersecurity engineer, about his invention. The approach was inspired by similar pressure grips used in smart guns.

Submission + - Solar Could Lead In Power Production By 2050 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123 on Friday October 03, 2014 @05:34PM

Lucas123 writes: Solar power could be the leading source of electricity compared with other renewables and conventional sources of power, such as oil and coal, according to a pair of reports from International Energy Agency. PV panels could produce 16% of the world's electricity, while solar thermal electricity (STE) is on track to produce 11%. At the end of 2013, there had been 137GW of solar capacity deployed around the world. Each day, an additional 100MW of power is deployed. One reason solar is so promising are plummeting prices for photovoltaic cells and new technologies that promise greater solar panel efficiency. For example, MIT just published a report on a new a material that could be ideal for converting solar energy into heat by tuning the material's spectrum of absorption. Ohio State University just announced what it's referring to as the world's first solar battery, which integrates PV with storage at a microsopic level. "We've integrated both functions into one device. Any time you can do that, you reduce cost," said iying Wu, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State.

Submission + - Supercomputing upgrade produces high-resolution storm forecasts (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs on Thursday October 02, 2014 @06:11PM

dcblogs writes: A supercomputer upgrade is paying off for the U.S. National Weather Service, with new high-resolution models that will offer better insight into severe weather. This improvement in modeling detail is a result of a supercomputer upgrade in the summer of 2013. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the weather service, put into production two new IBM supercomputers, each 213 teraflops, running Linux on Intel processors. These systems replaced 74-teraflop, four-year old systems. More computing power means systems can run more mathematics, and increase the resolution or detail on the maps from 8 miles to 2 miles.

Submission + - U.S. may be falling behind in cyber-physical system research (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs on Thursday October 02, 2014 @10:37AM

dcblogs writes: The White House has identified cyber-physical system research and development as a “national priority” that could boost U.S. productivity. But federal spending is telling a different story. A major source of research dollars is the National Science Foundation (NSF). It will fund more than $40 million in cyber-physical systems research in the 2014 fiscal year, which ended Tuesday. This amounts to about 0.5% of the approximately $7 billion the U.S. spends on basic research through this agency. It has spent, in total, $200 million in this area since 2009. Separately, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is deeply involved in standards and data formats, is running its cyber-physical program on $4.3 million. A NIST report found that the European Union “is already investing $343 million per year for 10 years to pursue ‘world leadership’ through advanced strategic research and technology development related to CPS" (cyber-physical systems). That includes $199 million in public funds and $144 million in private funds

Submission + - Scotland independence seen as 'cataclysmic' (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs on Wednesday September 17, 2014 @07:27AM

dcblogs writes: Scotland is not a major high-tech employment center, but it has good universities and entrepreneurial energy. About 70,000 people work in tech out of a total workforce of about 2.5 million, or about 3%. By contrast, financial services accounts for about 15% of employment in Scotland. But passions are high. "Honest, I've never been so scared in my life," said Euan Mackenzie about the prospect of separating from the U.K. He runs a 16-employee start-up, 1partCarbon, in Edinburgh, a platform that builds medical systems. "For tech start-ups, funding will be tougher to find and more expensive, there will be no local banks, access to EU markets and the freedom of movement will be curtailed," said Mackenzie. "As someone who enjoys risk and new opportunities, my company will remain in Scotland and make the best of whichever side prevails on Thursday, but the effect of independence on tech start-ups and the whole Scottish economy will be cataclysmic," he said.

Submission + - IBM cutting pay on employees for "training" (computerworld.com)

Submitted by charlieo88 on Tuesday September 16, 2014 @11:42AM

charlieo88 writes: IBM is cutting salaries by 10% to some employees and requiring them to spend one day a week to work on skills in key growth areas.

Submission + - IBM cuts pay by 10% for workers picked for training

Submitted by jonhorvath on Tuesday September 16, 2014 @08:44AM

jonhorvath writes: In order to keep thier workforce skill up to date, IBM initiated a new training program. A few lucky employees at IBM are able to learn the latest technologies one day a week for about 6 months. There is a catch, the choosen employees will receive 90% of thier base salary while participating in the training program.

Submission + - Court: Car Dealers Can't Stop Tesla from Selling in Mass. 1

Submitted by curtwoodward on Monday September 15, 2014 @04:26PM

curtwoodward writes: Many states have laws that prevent car manufacturers from operating their own dealerships, a throwback to the days when Detroit tried to undercut its franchise dealers by opening company-owned shops. But dealers have taken those laws to the extreme as they battle new competition from Tesla, which is selling its cars direct to the public. In some states, dealers have succeeded in limiting Tesla's direct-sales model. But not in Massachusetts: the state's Supreme Court says the dealers don't have any right to sue Tesla for unfair competition, since they're not Tesla dealers. No harm, no foul.

Submission + - IBM cuts pay by 10% for workers picked for training (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 15, 2014 @02:46PM

An anonymous reader writes: IBM has initiated a new training program that will cut the pay of participating employees by 10%. A memo detailing the new program was sent last week to affected IBM employees in its Global Technology Services strategic outsourcing group. It begins by telling the worker that an assessment has revealed "that some managers and employees have not kept pace with acquiring the skills and expertise needed to address changing client needs, technology and market requirements." It then tells the recipient that "you have been identified as one of these employees," and says that from mid-October through the end of March, "you will dedicate up to one day per week," or up to 23 working days total, "to focus on learning and development." But IBM is coupling this training with a six month salary reduction. The key statement in the memo is this: "While you spend part of your workweek on learning and development activities, you will receive 90% of your current base salary."

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