Slashdot readers jimminy_cricket and Thelasko share a report from Popular Mechanics about how San Francisco’s Salesforce Transit Center went from the Grand Central of the West to a $2.2 billion construction debacle. Here’s an excerpt from the report: Built at a cost of $2.2 billion, the Salesforce Transit Center and Park formed the cornerstone of the Bay Area’s ambitious regional transportation…
Tag: bay area
Berkeley City Council Unanimously Votes To Ban Face Recognition
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Berkeley has become the third city in California and the fourth city in the United States to ban the use of face recognition technology by the government. After an outpouring of support from the community, the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance introduced by Councilmember Kate Harrison…
A Prenup Is the Latest Must-Have For Tech Startup Founders In Love
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: In Silicon Valley, where penniless programmers fervently believe their ideas are worth billions, getting rich can take priority over getting married. California law assumes that any wealth created during a marriage is community property, which should be split equally in a divorce. That’s alarming not just for young entrepreneurs but also their investors….
Russia Carried Out a ‘Stunning’ Breach of FBI Communications System, Escalating the Spy Game on US Soil
Zach Dorfman, Jenna McLaughlin, and Sean D. Naylor, reporting for Yahoo News: On Dec. 29, 2016, the Obama administration announced that it was giving nearly three dozen Russian diplomats just 72 hours to leave the United States and was seizing two rural East Coast estates owned by the Russian government. As the Russians burned papers and scrambled to pack their bags,…
Tech Companies Challenge ‘Open Office’ Trend With Pods
Open floor plans create “a minefield of distractions,” writes CNBC. But now they’re being countered by a new trend that one office interior company’s owner says “started with tech companies and the need for privacy.” They’re called “office pods…” They provide a quiet space for employees to conduct important phone calls, focus on their work or take a quick break. “We…
Lyft Pulls Its Electric Bikes From the Bay Area After Four Catch on Fire
“Lyft’s Wednesday move to pull all its black and pink electric bikes from the East Bay, San Francisco and San Jose came after flammable battery packs or vandalism caused at least four bikes to catch fire,” reports the Bay Area Newsgroup: San Jose city officials are encouraged by the fact no one was injured when a bike caught fire there on…
Google Glass May Have an Afterlife As a Device To Teach Autistic Children
While Google stopped selling its augmented-reality glasses to customers due to privacy concerns, Google Glass lived on as something to be used by researchers and businesses. The New York Times reports of a new effort from Stanford researchers to use Google Glass to help autistic children understand emotions and engage in more direct ways with those around them. The glasses could…
Bankrupt Maker Faire Revives, Reduced To Make Community
After being shut down last month with 22 employees losing their jobs, Maker Faire and Maker Media are coming back, but in a weakened capacity. Founder and CEO Dale Dougherty tells TechCrunch that “he’s bought back the brands, domains, and content from creditors and rehired 15 of 22 laid off staffers with his own money.” The report says that he will…
California shakes from 2nd big quake in 2 days
An earthquake scientist said of the recent 2 big California earthquakes, “… the M6.4 was a foreshock. This was a M7.1 on the same fault … part of the same sequence.” She added it will not trigger another large earthquake outside the Ridgecrest, California, area. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/southern-california-earthquakes-july-2019…
YouTuber Simone Giertz Transformed a Tesla Model 3 Into a Pickup Truck
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Simone Giertz was tired of waiting for Elon Musk to unveil his new Tesla pickup truck, so she decided to make one herself. The popular YouTuber and self-described “queen of shitty robots” transformed a Model 3 into an honest-to-god pickup truck, which she dubs “Truckla” — and naturally you can watch all…