Cloud computing company Salesforce is joining other Silicon Valley tech giants in announcing a substantial shift in how it allows its employees to work. From a report: In a blog post published Tuesday, the company says the “9-to-5 workday is dead” and that it will allow employees to choose one of three categories that dictate how often, if ever, they return…
Tag: Silicon
Ex-Googler Turns Virtual Gifts Into a $61 Billion Business
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: In China’s popular online-streaming industry, virtual gift-giving is big. You can send your favorite live performer anything from a rose for 5 yuan (80 cents) to a space rocket for 500 yuan. The present is just a symbol, but the money is real — and that’s what’s made Kuaishou Technology so successful. […]…
Study Finds The Least-Affordable City for Tech Workers: Silicon Valley’s San Jose
The Bay Area Newsgroup reports:
Despite high salaries and world-class amenities, San Jose is the least affordable place for tech workers to buy a home. [Alternate URL here] A new analysis by the American Enterprise Institute found the typical tech worker and his or her partner — with two incomes totaling $200,000 — can afford just 12 percent of the homes for…
AOC, Ted Cruz Slam Robinhood for Freezing Some Trades Amid GameStop Volatility
With Reddit’s interest in sending some stocks soaring showing no sign of slowing down, the trading app Robinhood started restricting some transactions Thursday morning. Reddit wasn’t happy — and neither are some lawmakers. From a report:The incident apparently struck an unusual bipartisan chord, with Texas Republican Ted Cruz throwing his weight behind progressive Democrats who called out the company. Rep. Rashida…
More Companies Are Joining ‘Tech Exodus’ From California
This week Digital Reality data center services announced it was also relocating its headquarters from the San Francisco Bay Area to Texas, citing factors like a low cost of living and “supportive business climate”. (Though it will still maintain a “significant” presence in the Bay Area.) And Align Technology (makers of the Invisalign orthodontic dental aligners) also announced it had relocated…
Update on the 7 Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby TRAPPIST-1
A new study of the seven Earth-sized exoplanets around TRAPPIST-1 indicate that all 7 planets are extremely similar to each other in makeup, but potentially quite different from Earth. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/7-trappist-1-planets-similar-composition-unlike-earth…
Silicon Valley needs to take responsibility for its political power
Big tech firms have enabled the US’s current mess – the time has come for them to acknowledge that they are key to our political process and repair the things they have broken, writes Annalee Newitz Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933183-200-silicon-valley-needs-to-take-responsibility-for-its-political-power/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Apple Plans First iMac Desktop Redesign In Nearly a Decade
In addition to upgraded MacBook Pros, Bloomberg reports that Apple is also “planning the first redesign of its iMac all-in-one desktop computer since 2012,” as it shifts away from Intel to its own silicon. From the report: The new models will slim down the thick black borders around the screen and do away with the sizable metal chin area in favor…
YouTube and WhatsApp Inch Closer To Half a Billion Users in India
An anonymous reader shares a report: WhatsApp has enjoyed unrivaled reach in India for years. By mid-2019, the Facebook-owned app had amassed over 400 million users in the country. Its closest app rival at the time was YouTube, which, according to the company’s own statement and data from mobile insight firm App Annie, had about 260 million users in India then….
Carbon Engineering’s Tech Will Suck Carbon From the Sky
“It’s not enough to slash greenhouse gas emissions,” warns a new article in IEEE Spectrum (shared by schwit1). “Experts say we need direct-air capture of atmospheric carbon.” West Texas is a hydrocarbon hot spot, with thousands of wells pumping millions of barrels of oil and billions of cubic feet of natural gas from the Permian Basin. When burned, all that oil…