2020 – Page 52 – Impact Lab

Computer Security, Coronavirus, Employment, Internet, Science & Technology News

30% of remote employees admit to having an online account compromised on a work device

June 14, 2020

A OneLogin survey covered how employees are using work devices for a variety of other things.

The transition to working from home has been rocky for millions of people as they adjust to transitioning workplace policies into the privacy of their own home. According to a new report from cybersecurity firm OneLogin, people are using work devices for much more than work, even after they’ve had accounts or passwords compromised.

The company’s 2020 COVID-19 State of Remote Work Survey Report features a global survey of 5,000 employees who started working remotely since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Of those surveyed, 30% have had a corporate device breached and only 10% changed the password afterwards. Half of organizations globally have not established cybersecurity guidelines regarding remote work according to the survey and US remote employees use work devices to access adult entertainment sites more than any other country.

Half of UK respondents had not changed their home Wi-Fi password in the last two years, compared with 36% overall, and 25% never changed their password while 45% of US workers have given their work passwords to their child or spouse, compared to 13% in the UK and 9% in France.

Continue reading… “30% of remote employees admit to having an online account compromised on a work device”

Coronavirus, Employment, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

How the pandemic has created new demand for older workers

June 14, 2020

Amid the horrifying loss of jobs brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been one countervailing force: an urgent demand for medical and technology professionals to return to work from retirement or a career break.

Returning physicians and nurses, along with technologists proficient in the “ancient” COBOL coding language that many states still use in processing unemployment claims, are helping society — and this has put these “relaunching” professionals in the spotlight. More than ever before, they are being embraced and brought back to work as fast as they can make themselves available.

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Amazon.com, communication, Home Technology, Science & Technology News

Now all your home’s Alexa devices work like an intercom

June 14, 2020

Amazon’s ‘Drop In’ feature now works across the entire house.

Amazon Alexa users can now use the “Drop In” feature to talk with all of their Echo devices at once, Amazon announced on its blog. Previously, Drop In messages could only be sent to one other Alexa-enabled device at a time — a user with an Alexa device in the bedroom could “drop in” on a device in the kitchen and have a two-way conversation.

Now, you can use a device to send a message to all Echo devices in the house at once. This could be helpful with asking group questions like, “Does anyone want anything from the grocery store?” according to the Amazon blog. To start a group Drop In conversation, you can ask Alexa to “Drop In everywhere.”

Continue reading… “Now all your home’s Alexa devices work like an intercom”

Science & Technology News

This artificial window can mimic natural sunlight

June 14, 2020

For those living in major cities, one of the tradeoffs is often a lack of windows. It would have been somewhat bearable, if only a certain pandemic isn’t keeping us from going out to get some much-needed sunlight.

A startup called SunnyFive, which is under Samsung’s C-Labs incubator program, might just have a bright solution. Their product is an artificial window designed to mimic the full spectrum of natural light. Although it doesn’t come with a view, it can, however, change the angle of the light that shines through, as though the actual sun is moving and casting shadows in your home.

Continue reading… “This artificial window can mimic natural sunlight”

Driverless vehicles, Engineering, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Get on board the Sea Train

June 14, 2020

DARPA’s Sea Train concept hopes to enable a convoy of medium-sized unmanned vessels to travel across the ocean without refueling, before splitting up to conduct independent operations. (Courtesy of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

Imagine the following scenario.

Four medium-sized U.S. Navy vessels depart from a port along the United States’ coast. There’s no crew aboard any of them.

About 15 nautical miles off the coast, the four vessels rendezvous, autonomously arranging themselves in a line. Using custom mechanisms, they attach to each other to form a train, except they’re in the water and there’s no railroad to guide them. In this configuration the vessels travel 6,500 nautical miles across the open ocean to Southeast Asia. But as they approach their destination, they disconnect, splitting up as each unmanned ship goes its own way to conduct independent operations, such as collecting data with a variety of onboard sensors.

Once those operations are complete, the four reunite, form a train and make the return journey home.

This is the Sea Train, and it may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is investing in several technologies to make it a reality.

Continue reading… “Get on board the Sea Train”

Coronavirus, Employment, Science & Technology News, women

Work-from-home is the new feminist frontier

June 14, 2020

More moms are working from home than ever before in history. Without child care and school, it’s been a struggle. But many are also realizing that pursuing their careers while being present with their kids has its benefits, too.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was rare: An estimated 7% of employers offered permanent work-from-home options. Today, mid-crisis, that number has exploded to 57%. While the transition was ugly and disruptive, employers are now warming up to the idea, and some are making work-from-home options permanent.

On a large scale, this shift would have dramatic impacts on the economy, the workforce, real estate, the environment, and more. It would also be a game changer for working moms.

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Electric Automobile, Electric Vehicles, Energy, Science & Technology News, Tesla, Transportation

Chargers are the final roadblock to America’s electric car future

June 13, 2020

As long as there aren’t enough fast plugs in enough places, buyers and big automakers will stay away.

Rods and waders were already packed into the electric Jaguar I-Pace as it gorged a few more electrons from the wall of my New Jersey garage. A quick glance at a map of northeastern Pennsylvania revealed charging stations clinging to the Delaware River like so many spots on the brown trout I was hoping to catch.

A few days later, I pulled up to one of those chargers on the picturesque main street of Honesdale, only to realize it was a level 2 unit—one step above a standard outlet. It would take four hours before the car had enough juice to make the 100-mile trip home. Eleven miles down the road, it was the same story. And while that spot had a superfast Tesla charger, it was incompatible with the I-Pace. The nearest level 3 charger that would work was 58 miles away. So I gave up and settled in for a while.

Electric car-range anxiety revolves around a brutal equation: Remaining miles of battery life (as estimated by the car) minus miles to destination equals hope (or despair). Making matters worse, the answer varies from one minute to the next, depending on terrain and speed. Desperate battery-powered travelers can be easy to spot: They are often sweaty (no air conditioning), driving slowly and—when going uphill—instinctively leaning forward in their seats.

Failing to note the difference between a level 2 charger and a harder-to-find level 3 charger is often the mistake of an electric vehicle rookie. Had I realized the distinction, I would never have considered a car such as the I-Pace (it was a loaner), or any of the dozens of Tesla rivals set to debut in coming years. For the future of electric vehicles in America, that’s a really big problem.

Continue reading… “Chargers are the final roadblock to America’s electric car future”

Agriculture, Engineering, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

Could we be farming rather than mining metals in the future?

June 13, 2020

Surface of Seabed Manganese Nodule from South Korea

There are trillions of potato-sized metal nodules on the floor of the ocean around the world.

Some of these nodules are being explored for economic potential. A major vote by a UN body on the commercial exploitation of these minerals is planned in October 2020 (postponed from July 2020).

However, the formation of these metallic nodules is radically different from the processes used to create such metals on land i.e., they are biological in origin rather the geological.

This has profound implications for what the true value of life around these metallic nodules could be.

Continue reading… “Could we be farming rather than mining metals in the future?”

Augmented Reality, Crazy Stuff, facebook, Google, Inventions, Science & Technology News

Facebook wants to make thought-hearing glasses

June 13, 2020

Plus smart glasses from Google, transforming drones, AR clothing and other patents from Big Tech.

It’s the weekend! Time to switch my digital avatar’s outfit from a suit to lounge pants. I don’t actually live in VR yet (though I did try working in it this week), but a new patent from Amazon might make that a reality sooner rather than later. The company’s also working on drones that could get deliveries to me even quicker than its other drones, and Facebook is working on making immersive videos work on any screen in my house. Who needs to go outside when I can bring the entire world to my couch? Big Tech’s patents this week seem very on board with me staying at home as long as I want to.

And remember: The big tech companies file all kinds of crazy patents for things, and though most never amount to anything, some end up defining the future.

Continue reading… “Facebook wants to make thought-hearing glasses”

Banking, Economy, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

The looming bank collapse

June 12, 2020

The U.S. financial system could be on the cusp of calamity. This time, we might not be able to save it.

After months of living with the coronavirus pandemic, American citizens are well aware of the toll it has taken on the economy: broken supply chains, record unemployment, failing small businesses. All of these factors are serious and could mire the United States in a deep, prolonged recession. But there’s another threat to the economy, too. It lurks on the balance sheets of the big banks, and it could be cataclysmic. Imagine if, in addition to all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, you woke up one morning to find that the financial sector had collapsed.

You may think that such a crisis is unlikely, with memories of the 2008 crash still so fresh. But banks learned few lessons from that calamity, and new laws intended to keep them from taking on too much risk have failed to do so. As a result, we could be on the precipice of another crash, one different from 2008 less in kind than in degree. This one could be worse.

Continue reading… “The looming bank collapse”

Coronavirus, Economy, Employment, Science & Technology News, Trending

San Francisco rents plunge as tech employees abandon high-priced city to work remotely

June 12, 2020

Twitter, Facebook among companies that will allow employees to work remotely moving forward

Coronavirus causes ‘big movement’ out of New York City: Moving company president

Roadway Moving President Ross Sapir says more people are leaving New York City for nearby states or southern states, like Florida and Texas.

Coronavirus-related work-from-home policies at the country’s biggest technology companies appear to have caused an exodus from Silicon Valley, which has sent rent prices in San Francisco plummeting.

Rents for a one-bedroom apartment in the major metro area were down 9.2 percent in June when compared with the same period last year, according to data from rental site Zumper. That is the largest decline since at least 2015 and brings the price point ($3,360) down to where it was three years ago.

In the U.S. overall, one-bedroom rents fell by just 0.2 percent. No other major metro city’s data came close to the decrease in San Francisco.

Continue reading… “San Francisco rents plunge as tech employees abandon high-priced city to work remotely”

Augmented Reality, brain hacking, brain-computer interfaces, Robots, Science & Technology News

Disrupting death: Could we really live forever in digital form?

June 12, 2020

Virtual reality, robots, chatbots and holograms could allow us to exist perpetually. Whether we should choose the option is a different story.

In 2016, Jang Ji-sung’s young daughter Nayeon passed away from a blood-related disease. But in February, the South Korean mother was reunited with her daughter in virtual reality. Experts constructed a version of her child using motion capture technology for a documentary. Wearing a VR headset and haptic gloves, Jang was able to walk, talk and play with this digital version of her daughter.

“Maybe it’s a real paradise,” Jang said of the moment the two met in VR. “I met Nayeon, who called me with a smile, for a very short time, but it’s a very happy time. I think I’ve had the dream I’ve always wanted.”

Once largely the concern of science fiction, more people are now interested in immortality — whether that’s keeping your body or mind alive forever (as explored in the new Amazon Prime comedy Upload), or in creating some kind of living memorial, like an AI-based robot or chatbot version of yourself, or of your loved one. The question is — should we do that? And if we do, what should it look like?

Continue reading… “Disrupting death: Could we really live forever in digital form?”