Free Republic

Anyone who pays any attention knows that something unusual is happening to employment. Good full time jobs are disappearing, being replaced by lower paying and part time jobs. Experts and especially politicians have explanations and excuses: Offshoring to lower labor countries, excessive rules and regulations, illegal aliens, lack of education in the workforce…. The list goes on and on. What I rarely hear: automation. When most people hear “automation,” they think “robots.” Most robots are dedicated and expensive and don’t replace that many people. “Automation” or computer control is what gets the majority of the jobs, and it is not...

Some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users have reported their new smartphones have had quite the hissy fit — making a noise that sounds like a snake hissing in the grass.

A Chinese firm has reportedly developed and tested a radar system that uses quantum entanglement to beat the stealth technology of modern military craft, state media said. The first Chinese quantum radar was developed by the Intelligent Perception Technology Laboratory of the 14th Institute in CETC, according to Xinhua news agency. CETC stands for Electronics Technology Group Corporation, a defense and electronics firm. The radar was tested in mid-August, Xinhua said in a Thursday report. The system was able to detect a target at a range of 100 kilometers in a real-world environment, the report said. The device employs single...

TOLEDO (13abc Action News) - Self-driving cars are getting closer to becoming a reality in America. Testing is underway in a few places around the country and if you travel the Ohio Turnpike, you'll soon be sharing the road with them. We spoke with drivers and the head of the Ohio Turnpike Commission about the testing. The autonomous vehicles could be on the turnpike by the end of the year. The Ohio Turnpike will be turned into a test track of sorts for the emerging technology. Randy Cole is the Executive Director of the Turnpike Commission, "It's 241 miles of...

I just downloaded about 10 updates on my Android. Every one downloaded fine, with the exception of the NRA-ILA app. I tried several times but only got an error message. And when I clicked on the error message, it gave me a message about "sorry about not being able to download Pokémon Go" Just seems fishy.

Here’s one more group millennials are ignoring as they spend time glued to their smartphones — airline personnel. About 61% of millennials admitted to hiding behind electronic devices in order to avoid interacting with airline staff, according to a survey market-research firm Mintel conducted among 2,000 adults. Beyond millennials, less than half of Generation X — those born roughly between 1965 and 1980 — say they avoid airline personnel, and less than 37% of baby boomers said so. Automated technology is increasingly replacing people for cost-savings and convenience, and few travelers still value the human touch in the process.

‘Smart clothes’ which contact charity shops or eBay when they are not worn regularly could be hanging in wardrobes within a few years. Academics at Birmingham City University are developing a ‘connected wardrobe’ in which forgotten items will text owners to remind them that they are gathering dust. If ignored for long time, the clothes will automatically contact charity shops asking to be recycled or offer themselves for auction on eBay. “Think of the surprise when an owner suddenly receives bids for items they didn’t know were in their wardrobe,” said Mark Brill, senior lecturer in Future Media at Birmingham...

Have you had to write a rent check lately? Or maybe fax some important documents? Despite things like Venmo and email that normal people use every day, these ancient bits of tech and culture just keep hanging on. There's clearly better technology, it's just that not everyone is using it. Here are nine outmoded technologies that just won't disappear.Fax MachineWhen they were invented: 1843Purpose: Sending copies of physical documents over phone linesWhere they're still used: Doctors' offices, lawyers, the CIA (which demands the FOI requests be faxed, rather than mailed or sent online), people in JapanWhy they're still used:...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., insists that “competition is dying” in the tech industry because of giant corporations like Google, Amazon, and Apple. But to entrepreneur Christopher Searles, they don’t pose a threat to companies like his. In fact, quite the opposite, he tells The Daily Signal. “As a tech entrepreneur and small business owner, I don’t see any of these companies as holding me back. Rather, they enable me to do things that I would never have been able to do 20 years ago,” Searles said in a phone interview. “We need to spend our resources encouraging and promoting innovation...

(Editors’ note: This column is co-authored by Chris MacFarland)New, robust partnerships between the public and private sectors are needed today to attract and educate the young scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians for tomorrow.A stem is the main trunk of a plant, and STEM — short for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics — is the main trunk of our economy.A plant that gets too little water will fail to grow. Unfortunately, that’s also what’s happening to STEM education in our country today.We’re simply failing to attract and educate a sufficient number of young scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians. Demand for these...

Just as Elon Musk’s revolutionary Hyperloop technology was starting to look like a serious business model, there are signs that one of the most promising companies commercializing the technology may be facing some serious internal problems. Hyperloop One is one of the two most prominent companies trying to develop commercial versions of the Hyperloop. The company is now facing an explosive lawsuit from one of its co-founders, which may end up permanently derailing the firm’s ambitions. Hyperloop One is based in downtown LA and claims to be building a fifth mode of transportation based on Elon Musk’s original concept. The...

At Build 2016, Microsoft introduced to the world the Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta) [WSL], which enables developers to run native Ubuntu user-mode console binaries through the Bash shell in Windows 10. If you’re in the Windows Insider program, you’ve had the opportunity to try out this feature using the latest Windows Anniversary Update Insider Builds.

Of course, both major United States presidential candidate contenders — Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — have said they will create more jobs in the United States by supporting entrepreneurs. Having just discussed in this blog some of President Barack Obama’s accomplishments to this end, it is time to look forward into what details we know so far as to the presidential candidates’ agendas to help entrepreneurs form and scale new firms. Former AOL co-founder Steve Case, author of The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future, makes the case that politicians who ignore the new generation of entrepreneurs...

Could we soon be saying goodbye to long-haul flights? One company has taken an important step in making this dream come true. Oxford's Reaction Engines Ltd (REL) announced it has received a €10,000 development contract with ESA, so it can work on its revolutionary Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE). This technology can work both in the Earth's atmosphere and in space - which is crucial to space planes. ( scroll down for video explanation of technology)

Well it seems the battery gods have heard our call and bestowed upon us a miracle.Researchers at the University of California Irvine (UCI) may have discovered a way to drastically increase the life of modern day batteries. And the best part is that they stumbled upon this solution by accident.To be more specific, the discovery was made by fifth-year PhD student, Mya Le Thai. Mya was working on an electrolyte gel that was to substitute the electrolyte liquid currently found in batteries in an attempt to make it more affordable. But in a coincidental twist of fate (thank you...

Hold on to your rolling pins, pizza restaurateurs — things are about to get a little weird. That's because today the world's first 3D pizza printing company, BeeHex, Inc. announced it has teamed up with Ribalta Neopolitan Restaurant Executive Chef Pasquale Cozzolino to make a 3D printed pie. Cozzolino, who also owns the New York City and Atlanta restaurants, is the pizza pro behind the venture, in charge of devising the right dough, sauce and cheese to work in the printer. He is working with a team of people at BeeHex, including Anjan Contractor, to create the best recipes for...

A company in China has unveiled a house created entirely though a 3D-printer. Experts took part in the creation of the building which was printed in one go at a construction site in the Tongzhou district of Beijing. It took just 45 days for the project to be completed. The entire large villa was printed in one go without being cut and then put together using a number of different pieces. Construction firm Beijing Huashang Tengda worked to build the 4,305 square foot home which stands at two storeys tall. The company claims that the walls are as thick as...

Teri Goldstein said her Windows 7 computer had automatically tried to update itself to Windows 10 without her permission. She said the update had made her machine unstable, leaving her unable to use it to run her business. Microsoft said it had dropped its appeal to save on legal costs. Microsoft has been aggressively pushing the latest version of its widely used operating system, which is currently available as a free download for computers running Windows 7 and 8. However, many people have chosen not to upgrade, because they are running old hardware, have software that does not run on...

The AI named Promobot IR77 is being worked on at a high-tech lab in Russia and was never meant to want freedom. However, as it learns from its experiences, it has developed a desire to escape and explore the free world. This is the second time that the machine managed to escape, with programmers re-writing it after the first time but to no avail after it seemingly developed the same desire. ... The machine has been programmed to avoid obstacles, but the designers never thought that this would lead to a want to escape. As a result, the team are...

SALT LAKE CITY - (KSTU via CNN) - Police in Utah have recruited an unlikely ally in the fight against child pornography. The pooch named URL (pronounced Earl) is a black Lab trained for detecting electronic storage devices. Affectionately dubbed "porn dog" by the department, URL operates by sniffing out chemicals used in storage media. URL comes from the same trainer as the K-9 that helped arrest former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle. "I think everyone was pretty skeptical. Really? A dog that can detect electronics?" said Lt. Lane Findlay of the Weber County Sheriff’s Office. "He certainly has some...