Archive for the 'Outsourced' Category
AI Interns: Software Already Taking Jobs from Humans
April 1st, 2015Via: New Scientist: Humans used to manually move data between the relevant systems to complete these tasks, copying a phone number from one database to another, for instance. The user still has to call up and speak to a human, but now an AI does the actual work. To train the AI, it watches and […]
Former Blackwater Gets Rich as Afghan Drug Production Hits Record High
April 1st, 2015Via: Guardian: In a war full of failures, the US counternarcotics mission in Afghanistan stands out: opiate production has climbed steadily over recent years to reach record-high levels last year. Yet there is a clear winner in the anti-drug effort – not the Afghan people, but the infamous mercenary company formerly known as Blackwater. Statistics […]
“The messengers do talk… They end up asking each other which apps they work for”
March 25th, 2015It’s not Portlandia. Baylandia? Oh yeah, Silicon Valley. Via: Medium: Angel the concierge stands behind a lobby desk at a luxe apartment building in downtown San Francisco, and describes the residents of this imperial, 37-story tower. “Ubers, Squares, a few Twitters,” she says. “A lot of work-from-homers.” And by late afternoon on a Tuesday, they’re […]
800,000 Microinverters Remotely Retrofitted on Oahu—in One Day
March 11th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand that include Enphase products and services. — Enphase systems are now helping stabilize the grid in Hawaii. Via: IEEE: Utilities are asking more of the rooftop solar systems that increasingly are popping up throughout their distribition grids. As we profile in this month’s Spectrum, leading utilities […]
Komodia’s Founder, “Was Once a Programmer in Israel’s IDF’s Intelligence Core”
February 24th, 2015It’s for the children. Via: Forbes: In a brief email conversation with Barak Weichselbaum, Komodia’s founder who was once a programmer in Israel’s IDF’s Intelligence Core, he said the company was not hiding behind DDoS claims and that the attack was real. … Why is Komodia now getting so much attention anyway? Because its hugely […]
Uber Opening Robotics Research Facility In Pittsburgh To Build Self-Driving Cars
February 3rd, 2015Via: TechCrunch: Driver-on-demand service Uber is building a robotics research lab in Pittsburgh, PA to “kickstart autonomous taxi fleet development,” sources close to the decision have confirmed to TechCrunch. They say the company has hired talent from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, including lead engineering and commercialization experts.
How the CIA Made Google
January 27th, 2015This is a really good one. Via: Medium: Google styles itself as a friendly, funky, user-friendly tech firm that rose to prominence through a combination of skill, luck, and genuine innovation. This is true. But it is a mere fragment of the story. In reality, Google is a smokescreen behind which lurks the US military-industrial […]
Leaked Palantir Doc Reveals Uses, Specific Functions and Key Clients
January 12th, 2015Via: TechCrunch: Palantir’s data analysis solution targets three industries: government, the finance sector and legal research. Each of these industries must wrestle with massive sets of data. To do this, Palantir’s toolsets are aimed at massive data caches, allowing litigators and the police to make connections otherwise invisible. For example, a firm hired by the […]
The Rise of The 1099 Economy: More Americans Are Becoming Their Own Bosses
December 31st, 2014Via: Forbes: While the economy has been miserable for small business, and many larger ones as well, the ranks of the self-employed have been growing. According to research by Economic Modeling Specialists International, the number of people who primarily work on their own has swelled by 1.3 million since 2001 to 10.6 million, a 14% […]
Hardship on Mexico’s Farms, a Bounty for U.S. Tables
December 21st, 2014This Los Angeles Times series looks and reads like distopian sci-fi. High tech green houses stretch across the land to the horizon. Workers exist in abject squalor. Or are they slaves? It depends on the the facility and the arbitrary whims of the crooks in charge. (View the image galleries, if you dare.) And when […]
