Submission + - Elon Musk On the Problem With Corporate America: 'Too Many MBAs' (cnbc.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the biggest problem with corporate America today is that too many business school graduates are running the show. “I think that there might be too many MBAs running companies,” Musk said Tuesday at the WSJ CEO Summit. This “MBA-ization of America,” isn’t great, Musk said, especially when it comes to product innovation. Big corporate CEOs often get caught up in the numbers and lose sight of their mission, which is to create “awesome” products or services, according to Musk.
“There should be more focus on the product or service itself, less time on board meetings, less time on financials.” “A company has no value in itself. It only has value to the degree that is [an] effective allocator of resources to create business services that are of a greater value than the costs of the inputs,” Musk said. This thing they call “profit,” Musk added, “should just mean over time that the value of the output is worth more than the inputs.” Musk said the biggest mistake he has made as a leader of both Tesla and SpaceX was spending too much time in meetings looking at PowerPoints and spreadsheets, instead of being out on the factory floor. “When I go spend time on the factory floor or really using the cars or thinking about the rockets...that’s where things have gone better,” Musk said at the WSJ summit.
He finds that if he is engrossed in the details of the issues, it boosts morale and his team is “more energized.” Musk urged CEOs to “get out there on the goddamn front line and show them that you care, and that you’re not just in some plush office somewhere.”
“There should be more focus on the product or service itself, less time on board meetings, less time on financials.” “A company has no value in itself. It only has value to the degree that is [an] effective allocator of resources to create business services that are of a greater value than the costs of the inputs,” Musk said. This thing they call “profit,” Musk added, “should just mean over time that the value of the output is worth more than the inputs.” Musk said the biggest mistake he has made as a leader of both Tesla and SpaceX was spending too much time in meetings looking at PowerPoints and spreadsheets, instead of being out on the factory floor. “When I go spend time on the factory floor or really using the cars or thinking about the rockets...that’s where things have gone better,” Musk said at the WSJ summit.
He finds that if he is engrossed in the details of the issues, it boosts morale and his team is “more energized.” Musk urged CEOs to “get out there on the goddamn front line and show them that you care, and that you’re not just in some plush office somewhere.”
Submission + - asking Microsoft to resign from RIAA over youtube-dl takedown demand (sfconservancy.org)
DuroSoft writes: The folks over at the Software Freedom Conservancy have posted a public letter to Microsoft urging them to cease their membership in the RIAA over the recent spurious DMCA takedown of youtube-dl on GitHub, highlighting the many legitimate uses of youtube-dl as e.g. a tool for journalists and archivists which notably does not include any infringing material in its source code.
For the past few days the takedown story has rocked the open source world, dominating the front pages of Hacker News and Tech Dirt, alongside news of recent massive DMCA takedowns of millions of potentially fair use video clips on Twitch.tv without the ability for streamers to appeal.
Will Microsoft embrace their new role as conservator of GitHub and huge swathes of the open source community, or is their relationship with the RIAA more important than "microsoft 3 devs"?
For the past few days the takedown story has rocked the open source world, dominating the front pages of Hacker News and Tech Dirt, alongside news of recent massive DMCA takedowns of millions of potentially fair use video clips on Twitch.tv without the ability for streamers to appeal.
Will Microsoft embrace their new role as conservator of GitHub and huge swathes of the open source community, or is their relationship with the RIAA more important than "microsoft 3 devs"?
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Submission + - SPAM: Chinese Laptop With 14nm Loongsoon 3A4000 CPU Using MIPS Instructions Appears
Hmmmmmm writes: The biggest feature of this laptop is the CPU, featuring domestically made Longsoon's latest 14nm quad-core 3A4000 CPU. Longsoon claims the CPU is 100% faster than the previous generation 3A3000 and is comparable in performance to AMD's "Excavator" cores used in the A8-7680 Godavari architecture. Of course, this demonstrates how far behind Longsoon is from TSMC and Intel in performance, speed, and efficiency of its latest node.
However, the chairman of Loongsoon Technologies, Hu Weiwu, says, "14nm and 28nm (for its GPU node) is enough for 90% of applications.," so it appears the company isn't too worried about catching up to the performance leaders like Intel and AMD.
According to previous news, Loongson the 3a5000 CPU will be a 12nm CPU that is 50% faster than the 3A4000, and was to be release 1H2020
Link to Original Source
However, the chairman of Loongsoon Technologies, Hu Weiwu, says, "14nm and 28nm (for its GPU node) is enough for 90% of applications.," so it appears the company isn't too worried about catching up to the performance leaders like Intel and AMD.
According to previous news, Loongson the 3a5000 CPU will be a 12nm CPU that is 50% faster than the 3A4000, and was to be release 1H2020
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Apple, Google and a Deal That Controls the Internet
theodp writes: As Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai sipped red wine at a window table in 2017 at an upscale Palo Alto Vietnamese restaurant, the NY Times reports in Apple, Google and a Deal That Controls the Internet, their companies were in tense negotiations to renew one of the most lucrative business deals in history: an agreement to feature Google’s search engine as the preselected choice on Apple's iPhone and other devices. The updated deal was worth billions of dollars to both companies and cemented their status at the top of the tech industry’s pecking order.
Now, the partnership is in jeopardy as the Justice Department's landmark lawsuit against Google homes in on the alliance as a prime example of what prosecutors say are the company’s illegal tactics to protect its monopoly and choke off competition in web search. Apple now receives an estimated $8-$12 billion annually — up from $1 billion a year in 2014 — in exchange for building Google’s search engine into its products. It is probably the single biggest payment that Google makes to anyone and accounts for 14%-21% of Apple’s annual profits. That's not money Apple would be eager to walk away from. Nearly half of Google’s search traffic now comes from Apple devices, according to the Justice Department, and the prospect of losing the Apple deal has been described as a "code red" scenario inside the company.
Now, the partnership is in jeopardy as the Justice Department's landmark lawsuit against Google homes in on the alliance as a prime example of what prosecutors say are the company’s illegal tactics to protect its monopoly and choke off competition in web search. Apple now receives an estimated $8-$12 billion annually — up from $1 billion a year in 2014 — in exchange for building Google’s search engine into its products. It is probably the single biggest payment that Google makes to anyone and accounts for 14%-21% of Apple’s annual profits. That's not money Apple would be eager to walk away from. Nearly half of Google’s search traffic now comes from Apple devices, according to the Justice Department, and the prospect of losing the Apple deal has been described as a "code red" scenario inside the company.
Submission + - Fear and Loathing in YAML (chrisshort.net) 1
oaf357 writes: Remember, comparing things relatively to like something (YAML vs. XML or YAML vs. JSON) completely throws out the beginner’s journey. Start from the newb and go forward from there. YAML doesn’t. Git doesn’t. Incrementally, YAML is better than XML but, it sucks compared to something like HTML or Markdown (which I can teach to execs and children alike). Yes, balancing machine and human readability is hard. The compromises suck, but, at some point, there’s enough compute to run a process to take in something 100% human-readable and make it 100% machine-readable. In the same sense that compute has become so readily available that we gzip and encrypt almost all HTTP traffic today, I hope we can do the same with systems configuration languages. Move the complexity from the human to code. Computers are better at remembering things and syntax-semantics than humans could ever hope to be.
Submission + - All of South Australia's power comes from solar panels in world first for major (abc.net.au) 1
Anonymouse Cowtard writes: South Australia's renewable energy boom has achieved a global milestone.
The state once known for not having enough power has become the first major jurisdiction in the world to be powered entirely by solar energy.
For just over an hour on Sunday, October 11, 100 per cent of energy demand was met by solar panels alone.
"This is truly a phenomenon in the global energy landscape," Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) chief executive Audrey Zibelman said.
"Never before has a jurisdiction the size of South Australia been completely run by solar power, with consumers' rooftop solar systems contributing 77 per cent."
Large-scale solar farms, like the ones operating at Tailem Bend and Port Augusta, provided the other 23 per cent.
Any excess power generated by gas and wind farms on that day was stored in batteries or exported to Victoria via the interconnector.
The state once known for not having enough power has become the first major jurisdiction in the world to be powered entirely by solar energy.
For just over an hour on Sunday, October 11, 100 per cent of energy demand was met by solar panels alone.
"This is truly a phenomenon in the global energy landscape," Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) chief executive Audrey Zibelman said.
"Never before has a jurisdiction the size of South Australia been completely run by solar power, with consumers' rooftop solar systems contributing 77 per cent."
Large-scale solar farms, like the ones operating at Tailem Bend and Port Augusta, provided the other 23 per cent.
Any excess power generated by gas and wind farms on that day was stored in batteries or exported to Victoria via the interconnector.
Submission + - YouTube-dl Has Received a DMCA Takedown From The RIAA (ycombinator.com) 2
Jahta writes: The github repository for the popular youtube-dl utility is offline after github received a DMCA takedown notice from the RIAA. The notice claims that "The clear purpose of this source code is to (i) circumvent the technological protection measures used by authorized streaming services such as YouTube, and (ii) reproduce and distribute music videos and sound recordings owned by our member companies without authorization for such use."
Submission + - It's Official: Solar Is the Cheapest Electricity in History (popularmechanics.com)
An anonymous reader writes: In a new report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says solar is now the cheapest form of electricity for utility companies to build. That’s thanks to risk-reducing financial policies around the world, the agency says, and it applies to locations with both the most favorable policies and the easiest access to financing. The report underlines how important these policies are to encouraging development of renewables and other environmentally forward technologies.
Carbon Brief (CB) summarizes the annual report with a lot of key details. The World Energy Outlook 2020 “offers four ‘pathways’ to 2040, all of which see a major rise in renewables,” CB says. “The IEA’s main scenario has 43 [percent] more solar output by 2040 than it expected in 2018, partly due to detailed new analysis showing that solar power is 20 [to] 50 [percent] cheaper than thought.” The calculation depends on financing figures compared with the amount of output for solar projects. That means that at the same time panel technology gets more efficient and prices for basic panels continue to fall, investors are getting better and better financing deals.
Carbon Brief (CB) summarizes the annual report with a lot of key details. The World Energy Outlook 2020 “offers four ‘pathways’ to 2040, all of which see a major rise in renewables,” CB says. “The IEA’s main scenario has 43 [percent] more solar output by 2040 than it expected in 2018, partly due to detailed new analysis showing that solar power is 20 [to] 50 [percent] cheaper than thought.” The calculation depends on financing figures compared with the amount of output for solar projects. That means that at the same time panel technology gets more efficient and prices for basic panels continue to fall, investors are getting better and better financing deals.
Submission + - Edward Snowden Granted Permanent Residency in Russia (securityweek.com)
wiredmikey writes: Fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted permanent residency in Russia, his lawyer said on Thursday. Snowden, the former US intelligence contractor who revealed in 2013 that the US government was spying on its citizens, has been living in exile in Russia since the revelations. Snowden is wanted in the United States on espionage charges after he leaked information showing that agents from the NSA were collecting telephone records of millions of US citizens.
Submission + - Google AI Tech Will Be Used For Virtual Border Wall, CBP Contract Shows (theintercept.com)
An anonymous reader writes: After years of backlash over controversial government work, Google technology will be used to aid the Trump administration’s efforts to fortify the U.S.-Mexico border, according to documents related to a federal contract. In August, Customs and Border Protection accepted a proposal to use Google Cloud technology to facilitate the use of artificial intelligence deployed by the CBP Innovation Team, known as INVNT. Among other projects, INVNT is working on technologies for a new “virtual” wall along the southern border that combines surveillance towers and drones, blanketing an area with sensors to detect unauthorized entry into the country.
Contracting documents indicate that CBP’s new work with Google is being done through a third-party federal contracting firm, Virginia-based Thundercat Technology. Thundercat is a reseller that bills itself as a premier information technology provider for federal contracts. The contract was obtained through a FOIA request filed by Tech Inquiry, a new research group that explores technology and corporate power founded by Jack Poulson, a former research scientist at Google who left the company over ethical concerns. Not only is Google becoming involved in implementing the Trump administration’s border policy, the contract brings the company into the orbit of one of President Donald Trump’s biggest boosters among tech executives.
Documents show that Google’s technology for CBP will be used in conjunction with work done by Anduril Industries, a controversial defense technology startup founded by Palmer Luckey. The brash 28-year-old executive — also the founder of Oculus VR, acquired by Facebook for over $2 billion in 2014 — is an open supporter of and fundraiser for hard-line conservative politics; he has been one of the most vocal critics of Google’s decision to drop its military contract. Anduril operates sentry towers along the U.S.-Mexico border that are used by CBP for surveillance and apprehension of people entering the country, streamlining the process of putting migrants in DHS custody. CBP’s Autonomous Surveillance Towers program calls for automated surveillance operations “24 hours per day, 365 days per year” to help the agency “identify items of interest, such as people or vehicles.” The program has been touted as a “true force multiplier for CBP, enabling Border Patrol agents to remain focused on their interdiction mission rather than operating surveillance systems.” It’s unclear how exactly CBP plans to use Google Cloud in conjunction with Anduril or for any of the “mission needs” alluded to in the contract document.
Contracting documents indicate that CBP’s new work with Google is being done through a third-party federal contracting firm, Virginia-based Thundercat Technology. Thundercat is a reseller that bills itself as a premier information technology provider for federal contracts. The contract was obtained through a FOIA request filed by Tech Inquiry, a new research group that explores technology and corporate power founded by Jack Poulson, a former research scientist at Google who left the company over ethical concerns. Not only is Google becoming involved in implementing the Trump administration’s border policy, the contract brings the company into the orbit of one of President Donald Trump’s biggest boosters among tech executives.
Documents show that Google’s technology for CBP will be used in conjunction with work done by Anduril Industries, a controversial defense technology startup founded by Palmer Luckey. The brash 28-year-old executive — also the founder of Oculus VR, acquired by Facebook for over $2 billion in 2014 — is an open supporter of and fundraiser for hard-line conservative politics; he has been one of the most vocal critics of Google’s decision to drop its military contract. Anduril operates sentry towers along the U.S.-Mexico border that are used by CBP for surveillance and apprehension of people entering the country, streamlining the process of putting migrants in DHS custody. CBP’s Autonomous Surveillance Towers program calls for automated surveillance operations “24 hours per day, 365 days per year” to help the agency “identify items of interest, such as people or vehicles.” The program has been touted as a “true force multiplier for CBP, enabling Border Patrol agents to remain focused on their interdiction mission rather than operating surveillance systems.” It’s unclear how exactly CBP plans to use Google Cloud in conjunction with Anduril or for any of the “mission needs” alluded to in the contract document.
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