Aug 29, 2015 | General
I’ve written several articles about the lack of diversity in tech based companies across the country. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook has addressed this issue in recent interviews. One social media outlet takes action.
Twitter makes a commitment to be the most diverse online company there is. Twitter set diversity based goals for 2016. These goals include increasing women in tech roles to 16%, increasing women in leadership roles to 25%, increasing underrepresented minority groups (primarily Latino and African-American) tech roles to 9% and increasing underrepresented minority leadership to 6%. They’ve built alliances and partnerships to make this happen. They partner with organizations like Management Leaders of Tomorrow, dedicated to teaching leadership skills to teens from all walks of life. They recruit, and do so often, at HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). They use hiring and recruiting techniques to attract a more diverse work force. They use social media sites to ensure job descriptions, postings, and interviews appeal to candidates from all walks of life. They list postings where underrepresented groups can see them. They sponsor women to attend tech conferences. They team up with schools to teach girls as young as middle school (ages 11-14) how to code. That’s just some of their innovations.
Don’t expect a quick fix to the lack of diversity in the tech world. It took years for lack of diversity to develop. It will take years to improve. Very few want to hear that, but this is a long process. I like what Twitter is doing to reach out to young people, and get them interested in science and technology. ?The youth are the greatest investment the tech world can ever have. This may sound cliche, but they’re our future and as they the youth go, so does our future. Diversity will take years to build, but we must start somewhere. Isn’t this a good start?
Aug 28, 2015 | Uncategorized
Happy birthday Facebook! Okay, it’s not their birthday. But they have reached a milestone very few online companies will ever see. Now that’s worth celebrating!
Earlier this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced back on Monday, August 24, one billion users logged on Facebook in one day. That’s the first time any social media network has accomplished such a feat. Facebook was launched in 2004 at Harvard University. It was exclusive to Harvard as an online directory. But by the end of 2005, Facebook had over 2,800,000 users and available on 800 campuses. That same year, Zuckerberg and his creation got their first piece of national notoriety. The New York Times released an article called “Student Start-Up Draws Attention and $13 Million”. ?Venture capitalist Jim Breyer believed in young Facebook so much he invested $13 million in Zuckerberg‘s dream. It was probably one of the best investments in US history. Around this time, MySpace was launched and became the premier social website. But by the end of the 2000s decade, MySpace was left in the dust and Facebook became social media king. Back in 2012, Facebook had one billion active monthly users. That was a tremendous feat. But now, 1 in 7 people, almost 15%of the world’s population, are now using Facebook on a daily basis.
So far this decade, Mark Zuckerberg was awarded Time’s Person of the Year (2010). Facebook is now worth over $250 billion. It’s been involved in humanitarian efforts like reporting the 3/11/11 tsunami in Japan and raising funds for it’s victims. Though Facebook’s stock market started shaky, they now trade at over $90 a share. What makes this so phenomenal is that 40% of the world’s population still is without Internet service. That mean nearly half of the world’s population can’t even get access to Facebook, yet 15% of the global population are using Facebook on a daily basis. What if the whole world had access to the Internet? How?much?more powerful would Facebook be?
Aug 27, 2015 | scam
You thought the exposure of adulterous website Ashley Madison was over? There’s a new revelation out. Apparently, most Ashley Madison customers had one thing in common.
Most Ashley Madison accounts were owned by men. Of the 36+ million users, 31 million were men and only 5.5 million were women. This would make competition so unbalanced that to normal human beings, it wouldn’t even be worth joining. But wait…there’s more! It turns out many of the profiles were fake. One former Ashley Madison employee claims she was told to make over 1,000 fake profiles. She worked so hard to make so many fake profiles she eventually sued her employer for physical and mental stress. Her case was settled out of court. Researchers study IP addresses. An IP address of 127.0.0.1 is known as a loopback or ‘home’ IP address. So accounts that have the 127.0.0.1 are likely to have the ‘home’ Ashley Madison address, or were made at their headquarters. Up to 82% of women accounts were traced to the ‘home’ IP address. There were other discrepancies. Of the people checking Ashley Madison updates, over 20,200,000 were men and only 1,492 were women. Of people who even using the chat system, over 11,000,000 were men and only 2,409 were women. If fact, it’s believed that of the 5.5 million female Ashley Madison accounts, only 12,000 were real!
If these statistics are right, then not only is competition extremely intense to get married women, it’s pretty much nonexistent. They’re selling a fantasy that most men will never have through their website, and the site makers know it! They’re even exploiting their own workers to make sure of it. When I first read hacking group Impact Team’s side of the story, I thought they were crusading against the moral acts of adultery and the family and social ramifications of it. But now it’s their fraudulent practices that are upsetting me, and probably upset Impact Team, which is even worse. Should Ashley Madison be shut down altogether?
Aug 26, 2015 | General
Here is a fascinating article. Amazon wants to get into the alcoholic beverage delivery business. Looking at the stock market and other issues lately, many will probably flock to this service.
Thanks to Amazon‘s Prime Now, you can now get your beer, wine, even hard liquor delivered just within two hours after you order it. For now, this service is available in the Seattle area. Internationally, London has been offering this service since June. The Prime Now service is available in nine US cities, including parts of Seattle, New York City and San Francisco. The service is only available to Amazon Prime Members, in which you have to pay $99 a year for. On top of that, if you want your booze in one hour, you’ll have to pay an additional $7.99. Two hour deliveries are free. One can only take advantage of this through the Amazon Prime Now mobile app. Amazon isn’t the only one delivering same day alcohol. Online startups like Minibar and Drizly offer same day alcohol delivery service. Drizly even offers their services in Seattle. Right off the bat, Amazon Prime Now has competition in Seattle. Speaking of major US cities, Amazon refused to mention which cities could be next to get their alcohol delivery.
I think I can be of assistance. If New York and San Francisco are Amazon’s top delivery services, then you should start there. I’m sure they’re a lot of traders on the NYSE that could use this service right now. I’m happy Seattle has competition to keep them in check. I can only hope other cities do too. Can your city benefit from Amazon alcohol delivery? Or should your city avoid the delivery service?
Disclaimer: We at Geek Choice do not necessarily approve or condemn this service. However, if you do choose to use such services, please do so legally and responsibly. Don’t become a statistic!
Aug 25, 2015 | Computer technology, internet
Have you ever been to a 3D movie? Was it a great experience, wasn’t it? How would you like to make your own 3D movie or your own 3D program?
Thanks to a Microsoft research project, you’ll be able to do so soon. It’s called Mobile Fusion. If Microsoft has it’s way, you’ll be able to crate your own 3D images on your mobile devices. It won’t be difficult. You’ll be able to create 3D images as easy as you take a picture or shoot a smartphone video. In fact, this 3D tool may be better than any other 3D tool available. Yes, it’s more accessible and virtually anybody with a smart device can get it. You don’t even need extra hardware. You don’t even need an Internet connection at all. That means people in the most remote locations, like in the woods or sailing on the seas, can get the same 3D experience as in a downtown major city. “Everything happens on the phone itself,” one research scientist explains it. Allegedly, the scans are so good they can be used for video game creation. Mobile Fusion is expected to be showed off at the ISMAR conference (International Symposium on Mixed and Argumentative Reality). ?This conference will take place in Fukuoka, Japan in October 2015. Let’s see how it goes.
So far, it sounds like a pretty good sale. I can see filmmakers definitely buying into Mobile Fusion. How cool would it be to tell a short story not just through film, but through 3D film? It would put the audience right there. The other good news for filmmakers is they can use Mobile Fusion anywhere. Without Internet connection, you have no restraints. You can shoot a lot of action adventure scenes in woods, fields, beaches, at sea or anywhere. If someone is creative, they could create and patent some video game scenes. Who else could benefit from Mobile Fusion?
Aug 24, 2015 | Computer technology
This morning, on ABC’s Good Morning America, Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed ConnectED. ConnectED is an education initiative to make tech knowledge available for all children and students in America. Tim Cook talked about how his company is making that dream come true.
So far, Apple has issued many grants supporting technology education all over the US. Those grants have reached 114 schools in 29 states. They made a $100 million mandate to teach kids from all walks of life how to use Macs, iPads, Mac Pros, Apple TV, and other Apple based technology products. Cook hopes this will help the ‘digital school divide’. During an interview with Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts, Cook didn’t reveal any new technical revelations or strategies. He focused on the social benefits of Apple’s role in making technology available to all. The interview took place at Tuskegee Public School in Alabama, one of the greatest benefactors of the ConnectED program. Cook stressed technology is a key part of education today. He said, “Kids today, they’re born in a digital world, but too many kids, when it comes time for the 8 o?clock bell to ring, go to an analog world”.? That needs to be changed. Cook calls for a hands on approach when it comes to kids in technology. ConnectED’s goal is to get high speed internet to 99% of American school students by 2018.
One thing about Tim Cook‘s interview struck me. Today’s kids really are born in a digital world. Today’s college freshmen were born between 1996-97. That means they never knew a time without the Internet. Today’s high school freshman were born between 2000-01. That means they never knew a world without cell phones or laptops. Today’s sixth graders were born between 2003-04. They never knew a world without social media. See where I’m going? Technology is no longer a luxury in education. It’s a necessity. Technology is critical in the success of future generations. I’m glad Apple is taking this step. I long for the day where every American child has access to proper technology, regardless of income, race, neighborhood, or any other social demographic. Don’t our kids deserve the very best?
Aug 23, 2015 | Uncategorized
Friday, I did an article about a venture capital investor warning that the stock market party was all but over. Was he right?
Between Thursday and Friday, August 20-21, 2015, the stock market lost more than 5% of it’s entire net worth. Friday alone, the NYSE lost more than 530 points. Global markets did just as bad. Tech and online companies took a hard hit. Friday, Twitter lost 6% of their stocks. At one point, they went to an all-time low of $26 a share. They’re still at their record low. Apple lost over 8% of it’s market last week. For Apple, that equals $158 billion dollars of hard work and careful planning just vanishing into thin air. All the gains they had so far in the eight months of 2015 were wiped out in less than one week. Computer maker Hewlett Packard was lucky to gain 0.32% Friday. But they’re struggling with revenue as desktops sales dropped 20% just the previous quarter. Google, in the wake of their Alphabet announcement, lost over 5% of their stocks Friday. But perhaps the biggest loser last week was software company Intruit. They develop tax preparations for businesses and individuals. Friday, they lost over 13% of their stocks. Nobody prepared them for that.
I can’t stress this enough: We at Geek Choice are not doom and gloom forecasters. But we can’t ignore reality. Investors are on edge. The global economy is shaky. And tech companies aren’t immune, not even giants like Apple and Google. Some say this is a perfect time to invest, in hopes that company stocks will eventually go up. There’s quite a bit of wisdom in that strategy. But what will next week hold for tech stocks on the NYSE and international markets? What will the next month or so hold? If you talk to a lot of financial experts, it’s nothing too good. Tech stocks fall. Now what?
Aug 22, 2015 | General, scam
In the last several weeks, the Ashley Madison hacking scandal has dominated the headlines. Now, the hackers speak out.
They call themselves the Impact Team and they talked about their incredible hack via email to Motherboardvice.com. So far they dumped 10GB of customer information, 20GB of internal data, and made a third break-in as well. Over 38 million customers of the adulterous website has been affected. The Impact Team start out by insisting they didn’t blackmail anybody. They claim Ashley Madison’s parent company Avid Life Media did the blackmailing. They say the hook up site’s security was so bad that nobody was watching. In the Impact Team’s arsenal are employee documents, user pictures, user messages and chats. They accuse Avid Media Life of making $100 million a year in fraud. The Impact Team says Avid Media goes beyond promoting adultery. They say Avid Life exploit their customers like drug dealers exploit their addicts. We haven’t heard the last of the Impact Team. Their mission is to go after any company or any powerful person who profits from destroying others. They even talked about going after corrupt politicians. They picked a great time to do so. Let me just say, if they do go after corrupt politicians, they’ve got a lot of work to do.
My eighth grade language arts teacher used to say, “Life is the sum of all your choices”. That’s playing out right before our eyes. Some may ask, “How is Ashley Madison profiting from destroying others?” That’s what extramarital affairs do. They destroy the people committing them. They destroy ?spouses. They destroy children. They break up households. They cause emotional wounds that may never heal. I‘ve read stories where adulterous affairs led to murder and/or suicide. And for a company to profit off this kind of pain and suffering is disgraceful. Is the Impact Team justified for hacking Ashley Madison?
Aug 21, 2015 | General
The stock market is taking a beating. Yesterday alone, the NYSE lost 357 points. That’s more than two percent of it’s entire worth. One investor warns tech companies and stockholders this could only be the beginning.
Venture capital investor Bill Gurley went on a tweet campaign warning tech companies worth over a billion dollars to prepare for hard economic times ahead. Yesterday, Gurley tweeted about the nosedive tech stocks have taken in the last several weeks. Some have lost a quarter or even half of what their numbers were just a few months ago. It’s not just American stocks. Gurley warned global stocks are compressing. Look at China, the world’s second biggest economy. Gurley goes on to say we’re nearing the end of the cycle where growth is more important than profitability. And this is at a time when many, like Uber, put growth ahead of profits, even at the expense of profits. Gurley didn’t just start sounding the alarm. Last year, he warned of tech bubbles bursting all over the world. He even predicted 2015 would be the year of ‘dead unicorns’. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before. In 2008, an investment firm called Sequoia released a slideshow called R.I.P. Good Times. Their slideshow foretold a coming crisis. Look at what happened later that year.
We at Geek Choice are not doom and gloom profits by any means. But when you hear predictions like Gurley’s and listen to other well respected financial experts say prepare for the worst, we may want to take such warnings seriously. When we see China’s economy in free fall and Greece President Alexis Tsipris resign over his country’s financial woes, we might want to take heed. Maybe nothing will come of this. Maybe these predictions will turn out wrong. In fact, I hope they do. But isn’t it better to be forewarned before something happens than be caught uninformed and unprepared?
Aug 20, 2015 | Smartphone
There’s a lot I could talk about today. I could talk about the release of Ashley Madison data. I could talk about former Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle’s well deserved fall from grace. But I found one statistic that intrigued me.
That statistic is about how Android and Apple dominate smartphones. Over the last two years, a whopping 96.8% of all smartphones sold have been either Apple or Android backed devices. So far in 2015, Windows phone got 2.5 percent of the market, Blackberry got 0.3 percent and the rest got 0.4 percent. Over 329 million smartphones were sold over the past three months. Over 319 million of those either had an Apple or Android logo. Experts suggests the smartphone market has reached it’s peak maturity phase. China has reportedly reached cell phone capacity. Not to mention China’s economy is teetering on the brink. In fact, economies around the world are slipping. Look at Greece. Look at our own stock market recently. Maybe that explains why smartphone sales are dwindling. Experts suggest concentrating on both ends of economic extremes, luxury buyers and economy class buyers, is the only thing keeping smartphones sells afloat. But wait…both Android and Apple dominate both sectors.
There’s a part of me that’s wants to congratulate Apple and Android for building such mega prosperous smartphone conglomerates. But I‘m also concerned this is leading to smartphone monopoly. When two billion dollar companies own almost 97% of an entire market, that’s not good for competition. Competition is always good for a free market economy. It keeps prices fair and it keeps bigger companies accountable. Remember, when any corporation gets too big to fail, they’re often too big to care. Also, there could be a struggling entrepreneur somewhere who wants to build the next great smartphone. Going up against the two biggest companies in the world could easily discourage this up and coming entrepreneur. What are some other reasons why monopolies are bad for business, and bad for society in general?
