MICROSOFT IS JOINING Google and Amazon in the race for your home. This week, at an event in China, the venerable tech giant trumpeted the arrival of Project Evo, a sweeping plan to build hardware devices that work a lot like Google Home or the Amazon Echo. Source: Wired Magazine Date: December 16th, 2016 Link: https://www.wired.com/2016/12/microsofts-project-evo-way-living-room/ Discussion 1)… Read more »
Posts By: David Firth
The Bittersweet Sweepstakes to Build an AI That Destroys Fake News
A quarter-century after his self-driving car appeared in Byte magazine, Pomerleau is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon, and last month, as so many lamented the role of fake news in the presidential election, he put a call out on Twitter, challenging the AI community to build an algorithm that could identify fake news and… Read more »
U.S. President-elect Trump’s Labor secretary is no stranger to debate over jobs and robots
Donald Trump’s nominee for Labor secretary is well-acquainted with one of the hottest debates about work today: automation. Andrew Puzder, the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, has extolled the benefits of automation, while also criticizing government for pushing businesses to use machines instead of humans. (CKE Restaurants is the parent company of Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s,… Read more »
Changing Minds Where It Mattered
MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO and founder of Facebook is trying hard to convince everyone that Facebook had no nefarious role in the 2016 US Presidential election. But according to President-elect Donald Trump’s digital director Brad Parscale, the social media giant was massively influential—not because it was tipping the scales with fake news, but because it helped generate the… Read more »
Acura’s Concept Cockpit Envisions the Age of Autonomy
The Acura Precision Cockpit fuses a sporty design with a next-gen touchpad-based interface and new Acura operating system. Source: Wired Magazine Date: December 6th, 2016 Link: https://www.wired.com/2016/11/acuras-concept-cockpit-envisions-age-autonomy/#slide-1 Discussion 1) “As much as people like touchscreens in their cars, because of the parallels to tablets and smartphones, it may not be the best strategy for cars,” says Acura product… Read more »
The All-American iPhone
Donald Trump says that if he becomes president, he will “get Apple to start making their computers and their iPhones on our land, not in China.” Bernie Sanders has also called for Apple to manufacture some devices in the U.S. instead of China. Neither could instantly make that happen. As Steve Jobs once told President… Read more »
1st automated vehicles begin tests on Ontario roads
Ontario has achieved an important first by putting automated cars on the road for the first time, but it still has a long way to go to catch up to competitors, according to a Canadian industry association promoting automotive innovation. The first automated vehicles are now operating on Ontario roads in a pilot project involving cars developed… Read more »
Carleton University computers infected with ransomware
Students at Carleton University are being warned that some of its computers have been infected by ransomware — a type of computer virus that uses encryption to effectively hold files hostage in exchange for payment. “Any system accessible from the main network, that is Windows based, may have been compromised,” the school’s computing and communications services department wrote…. Read more »
WalkCar: Hands-on with Japan’s car-in-a-bag
A personal transporter that is light enough to carry in a shopping bag has been developed in Japan. Source: BBC Technology News Date: November 29th, 2016 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38026010 Discussion 1) Many countries have banned this technology. Does this make sense? 2) How might a company like Nike or Amazon use this technology for themselves (that is, not to… Read more »
Hackers hit San Francisco transport systems
San Francisco’s transport agency has been hit by a hack attack that led to customers being able to travel for nothing. The hackers have made a ransom demand of 100 Bitcoin, which amounts to about $70,000 (£56,000 ; €66,000). As a precaution, staff shut off all ticketing machines on the network. Source: BBC Technology News Date: November 29th,… Read more »
Leading Titles
Introduction to Information Systems, 3rd Canadian Binder Ready Version Update Edition
R. Kelly Rainer, Casey G. Cegielski, Ingrid Splettstoesser-Hogeterp, Cristobal Sanchez-Rodriguez
ISBN: 978-1-119-13385-8
August 2015, © 2016
CDN $98.95; CDN $114.95