Posts By: David Firth

Should Fortnite credit dances used in the game?

Posted by & filed under Careers, Fortnite, Gaming.

Fortnite attracts millions of fans worldwide, including the likes of Drake, Travis Scott and Joe Jonas. However, some other artists – including rapper 2 Milly – artists have accused Fortnite of stealing their dance moves. Audiences have noticed some of the dances within the game appear to reference dance moves performed by famous hip-hop artists. The developers… Read more »

Waterloo tech brand makes big bet on smart glasses after predecessors’ failures

Posted by & filed under disruptive technology, Innovator's Dilemma, wearable technology.

If you ask Aaron Grant how wearable smart glasses have fared on the consumer market over the last decade, he’ll jump to tell you “there have been no hits.” But that isn’t stopping him from his latest venture: selling wearable smart glasses. Grant and his fellow co-founders of Waterloo-based North, Matthew Bailey and Stephen Lake, have spent the last four… Read more »

N.W.T. man becomes first convicted under Criminal Code for unsafe drone use

Posted by & filed under Drones, IT and the law.

Toufic Chamas, left, leaves court in Yellowknife with his lawyer, Tracy Bock, earlier this month. For illegal drone flying, Chamas was fined $3,000, sentenced to five days in jail, which he has already served, and isn’t allowed to drive for two years. Source: CBC News Date: October 26th, 2018 Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/drone-flyer-convicted-yellowknife-1.4879016 Discussion 1) Are there technological ways to… Read more »

Amazon can sell you stuff. But can it clean your house?

Posted by & filed under Amazon.

“They really didn’t listen to those of us who’ve been in the business for decades,” says Bobbie Moe. Customers would punch in their cleaning needs and the square footage of their house online, but the actual time and manpower required would vary wildly with the cleaning needs of the home.” Source: CNN Technology News Date: October 25th, 2018 Link… Read more »

How WhatsApp is being abused in Brazil’s elections

Posted by & filed under Big Data, Civil Liberties, data analytics, data mining.

Political campaigners in Brazil have used software that scrapes Facebook for citizens’ phone numbers, and then automatically sends them WhatsApp messages and adds them to WhatsApp groups. Almost three weeks ago, 147 million voters in the country went to the polls for legislative elections and the first round of the presidential elections. This Sunday, they… Read more »

Tim Cook blasts ‘weaponisation’ of personal data and praises GDPR

Posted by & filed under Apple, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), Privacy.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has demanded a tough new US data protection law, in an unusual speech in Europe. Referring to the misuse of “deeply personal” data, he said it was being “weaponised against us with military efficiency”. “We shouldn’t sugar-coat the consequences,” he added. “This is surveillance.” The strongly-worded speech presented a striking… Read more »

VC firms of Kevin Durant and Snoop Dogg back Dutchie, a new cannabis delivery service

Posted by & filed under app, App Economy.

A new delivery service has just raised $3 million from Casa Verde Capital, the $45 million venture firm founded by hip hop impresario Snoop Dogg, and Kevin Durant’s Durant Company — among others — to take advantage of the growing demand for marijuana delivery. Source: Tech Crunch Date: October 18th, 2018 Link: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/24/pass-the-dutchie-to-the-left-hand-side/ Discussion 1) “We’re creating a tool that helps the… Read more »

Facebook in fresh video metrics row

Posted by & filed under FaceBook.

Facebook was aware of inaccuracies in the way it measured how many people viewed video on its site for a year longer than it has previously admitted, court documents have claimed. Newly released papers that are part of a US legal action against the social network, claim that it knew about the problems in 2015…. Read more »