Free Republic

Google workers led sit-ins at headquarters from coast-to-coast, protesting the tech giant's contract with the Israeli military and the company's alleged complicity in the Israel-Hamas war. Tech workers at both Amazon and Google have long-protested Project Nimbus, which is Google and Amazon’s $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military. The tech workers, who organized the group "No Tech for Apartheid," said that the Israeli miliary will use Google technology for "genocidal means." "It’s clear that the Israeli military will use any technology available to them for genocidal means," the group said in a recent statement. "Google workers do...

Some Apple Vision Pro users are finding that the virtual-reality headset isn’t so easy on the eyes, after all. Emily Olman got her $3,500 device in February and told MarketWatch that it gave her two black eyes after she wore it for the first time for about an hour. “I wasn’t able to use it very much the first few weeks because the fit was just off,” said Olman, chief media officer at Hopscotch Interactive, who is based in Kensington, Calif. Olman creates videos with the device for commercial and residential real-estate clients. She added that she had “like, superdark...

Researchers report the development of a new concept for a new DC power converter capable of greater efficiency at lower cost and requiring less maintenance than existing electrical systems. Developed by a team at Kobe University in Hyōgo, Japan, the direct current voltage boost converter could revolutionize the development and use of electric power generation in various applications. Boost converters, which are also known as step-up converters, are a variety of switched -mode power supply devices that increase voltage while also reducing current in the conversion of direct current (DC) from the device’s input to its output. Most power converters...

The stock market continued its record-setting rally Thursday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average notably flirting with 40,000 as technology shares made major gains. The Dow closed with a gain of nearly 270 points, or 0.7 percent, putting it within striking distance of the major milestone at 39,781 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite jumped 0.4 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, on the day. The microchip sector led the charge, buoying the Dow despite a slump in Apple stock after the Justice Department sued the smartphone giant, alleging the company has hurt competition and consumers, developers and small businesses.

Today, let’s shine a light on a story that flew under the radar for many Americans in 2023 but holds significant implications for our freedom of speech online. Picture this: a federal district court judge, backed by a unanimous appellate panel, made a ruling that sent shockwaves through the digital world. They found that the Biden administration, along with the FBI, had coerced Big Tech into censoring dissenting voices online – a serious blow to our First Amendment rights.

vid at link.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes AI has advanced to the point at which it's no longer necessary to prioritize computer science and coding education for the world's youth. Apologies to the past decade of CompSci grads, but your college years would have been better spent gaining expertise in areas like science, manufacturing or farming, Huang declared at the recent World Governments Summit in Dubai. "You probably recall over the course of the last 10, 15 years almost everybody who sits on a stage like this would tell you it is vital that children learn computer science," Huang explained during a...

London’s far-left Mayor Sadiq Khan is investing up to £150 million in Great Reset-style technology, which reportedly could be used to charge drivers in the city per mile they travel. According to a series of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests from The Telegraph broadsheet, Transport for London (TfL) — at the direction of Mayor Khan — established a scheme to develop a “more sophisticated… new core technology platform for road-user charging”. The scheme, dubbed “Project Detroit” in an apparent nod to the American automobile hub city hollowed out by decades of leftist governance and mismanagement, currently has 157 staff, some...

Hi everyone, senior tech reporter Kylie Robison here. I don’t want to say the L-word first, but it’s starting to look like some feelings are changing. Layoffs, not love, are in the air again. Google slashed hundreds of jobs today, while Instagram cut several dozen of its own on Wednesday Also this week, Amazon’s Twitch and Prime Video divisions announced hundreds of layoffs each, or a 35% reduction in staff, and AI startup Humane, which raised over $200 million and plans to ship its new wearable in the coming months, just cut 4% of its employees. Adding to the bloodshed,...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now a cattle rancher, and he appears to be — in true billionaire fashion — taking it to the most opulent extreme possible. The tech executive owns $170 million of land on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where he’s building a $100 million humongous, prepper-style compound. On Tuesday, in a Facebook post, Zuckerberg revealed more of his plans for the property: He will raise a herd of cattle on a homegrown, incredibly expensive diet. “My goal is to create some of the highest quality beef in the world,” the Facebook founder wrote. Then, he dropped...

With the new “50-in-5” program, the United Nations, the Gates Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation are attempting to get 50 countries within 5 years to go fully digital on all information. This includes payments, tracking, tracing, recording, and monitoring of every citizen. Censorship, surveillance, and a retaliation mechanism are the three primary components the elites are implementing to trap all who seek freedom in a digital prison. Once a digital ID, CBDC, and a global data-sharing network are added to their arsenal of weapons, all resistance will be easily crushed. Now is the time to prepare and set up parallel...

Hundreds of OpenAI staffers are calling for the resignation of the ChatGPT company’s board, and threatening to quit themselves, after a tumultuous weekend that began with the surprise ouster of CEO Sam Altman and ended with Altman being hired by Microsoft. In a letter obtained by CNN, the more than 500 employees accused the OpenAI board of mishandling Altman’s firing, failing to provide sufficient evidence for claims that Altman had not been candid with the board, and “negotiating in bad faith” with the company’s executive leadership.

Tech workers at the New York Times plan to walk out Monday afternoon to protest the company's return-to-office policy.Why it matters: The Times' Tech Guild, which represents more than 600 staffers, is trying to negotiate its first contract with management after voting to unionize in March 2022.Catch up quick: The guild has argued that new remote-work policies violate the terms and conditions set when their union was ratified in 2022.A Times spokesperson told Axios in August that the company's return-to-office policies were introduced before the Tech Guild was recognized.The New York Times Guild, which represents the majority of the Times'...

Huawei is moving ahead into the 5.5G era, a marked advance over current 5G networks and a practical halfway house on the road to 6G. Also known as 5G-Advanced, 5.5G promises big improvements in factory automation, autonomous driving and various other applications. At the company’s 14th Global Mobile Broadband Forum held on October 10-11 in Dubai, Huawei’s President of Wireless Solution Cao Ming announced “the industry’s first full-series solutions for 5.5G,” which he said “will help operators deliver full-scenario tenfold capabilities and enable ultra-high energy efficiency, spectrum utilization, and O&M [operations & maintenance] efficiency.” Huawei has been working on 5.5G...

Tech companies have recently cut 400K+ jobs.. https://twitter.com/WIRED/status/1712574372798718387?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/1712557456055042082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1712507815947022720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/dailyjobcuts/status/1712557491941478806?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1709901273254797487?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/jamesvgingerich/status/1711902935964164161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw US Tech Layoffs Soar 716% in 2023: Report The technology sector is leading the US job market in layoffs, but the cuts are slowing down, a new report shows. At a Glance US total job losses spiked in 2023, with the tech sector leading the cuts. Layoffs due to AI have not increased since first reported earlier this year. Pace of cuts is slowing down, but so is the pace of hiring. A report released Tuesday shows US technology layoffs reached 151,989 in 2023, a 716% increase...

Brave Software, the maker of Brave Browser and Search, confirmed that it has laid off 9% of its staff across departments. The company didn’t specify how many people were affected, but it corroborated the development and said the decision was driven by the tough economic climate. “Brave eliminated some positions as part of our cost management in this challenging economic environment. Several departments were affected, amounting to 9% of our staff,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement. The company has been taking steps to bolster its revenue sources this year. In April, Brave Search ditched Bing Index to...

The Grace Hopper Celebration, which bills itself as a the world’s largest conference for women in computing, was recently swamped by men. The influential career fair for women opened itself to disaster by welcoming “non-binary” attendees to be inclusive of the LGBT community — an invitation men accepted in large numbers. Event organizers became frustrated by the sea of men, accusing male attendees of “lying” about their gender identities, with the event’s chief impact officer complaining, “Unfortunately — some of you are taking interview slots right now, from women who need them. Some of you are standing in line, talking...

A tech conference for women and non-binary workers in the field last week was overrun by men, where an organizer said some unwelcome guests falsely claimed to be "non-binary" to make it in. And some onlookers watched the ensuing outcry unfold with amusement and a lack of sympathy. "You have to admit it's pretty funny watching a dude yelling about dudes being dudes," said "Outnumbered" guest Ben Ferguson on Wednesday. Indeed, Cullen White, Chief Impact Officer of the group that organized the seminar, AnitaB, chastised attendees for having "lied" about their gender.

When you create a stupid system, don’t be surprised when people exploit it. And that’s exactly what happened over the weekend when a conference for women in tech was swamped by men who registered under the guise of “non-binary.” The Grace Hopper Celebration is an annual conference and career fair designed to “bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront.” But this year, droves of men descended on the Orlando event with résumés in hand. And some reportedly even cut lines and shoved women out of the way to submit those résumés to potential employers....

... The DoD may need a decade to build a reliable domestic supply chain, according to Mike Burns, managing partner of tech investment firm Murray Hill Group. The issue is how fast U.S.-based Intel can catch up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which makes Altera and Xilinx field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and other chips that the DoD uses in weapons systems like the F-35 fighter jet, missiles and command-and-control gear, he said. “Maybe that’s a three-year effort,” he told EE Times. “I’m just saying that it’s many years.” To be sure, TSMC more than tripled its overall investment...