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Google's Release of TensorFlow Could be a Game-changer in the Future of AI

By David Tuffley | November 13, 2015

The development of smarter and more pervasive artificial intelligence (AI) is about to shift into overdrive with the announcement by Google this week that TensorFlow, its second-generation machine-learning system, will be made available free to anyone who wants to use it. Machine learning emulates the way the human brain learns about the world, recognising patterns and relationships, understanding language and coping with ambiguity. This is the technology that already provides the smarts for Google’s image and speech recognition, foreign language translation and various other applications. This is valuable technology, and it is now open source; the source code is freely available and can be modified, developed in new directions and redistributed in the same way that the Linux operating system is open.

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Google, Facebook, Amazon Warn FCC Rules Pose 'Grave Threat To The Internet'

Brendan Sasso | Nextgov.com | May 8, 2014

The world's largest technology companies are coming out in force against the Federal Communications Commission's proposed regulations of Internet access.  In a letter to the FCC Wednesday, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo, Netflix, and dozens of other companies warned that the FCC's plan to allow Internet service providers to charge websites for faster service in some cases "represents a grave threat to the Internet."

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Guest Blog: Don’t Confuse Open Source With Open Standards

Amy-jo Crowley | CBR | August 28, 2013

The European Commission has recently published guidelines which will make it easier for public authorities to switch to Open Standards. This move should be commended, but with a caveat. Open Standards do not equate to Open Source, and vendor lock-in is still a probability... Read More »

Hackers Are Coming for Your Healthcare Records -- Here’s Why

Lucas Mearian | Computer World | June 30, 2016

Data stolen from a bank quickly becomes useless once the breach is discovered and passcodes are changed. But data from the healthcare industry, which includes both personal identities and medical histories, can live a lifetime. Cyberattacks will cost hospitals more than $305 billion over the next five years and one in 13 patients will have their data compromised by a hack, according to industry consultancy Accenture. And a study by the Brookings Institution predicts that one in four data breaches this year will hit the healthcare industry...

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Hackers May Leak Microsoft Spying Docs, Grant Bill Gates's Wish For 'Intense Debates'

Ms. Smith | NetworkWorld | March 17, 2014

It seemed surprising that no one asked Bill Gates about NSA surveillance when he last did a Reddit Ask Me Anything session last month; but Rolling Stone didn't pass up the opportunity when interviewing Bill Gates.

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Health Care Is Better as a Game

By Kim Bellard | May 3, 2016

So many counter-intuitive findings recently.  For example, a new study claims 7 of the 10 most profitable hospitals in the country are "non-profit."  Let me say that again, most profitable hospitals in the country are usually nonprofit.  Or, despite the drive to improve surgical quality by limiting surgeries at low volume hospitals, it appears that the relationship between volume and patient outcomes is not as clear as had been thought, once "more advanced statistical modeling" is used to analyze the data.  Wait, what? Either one of these would be a good topic to write about, and many others have done so already (e.g., KHN and Modern Healthcare, respectively)...

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Health Orgs Dooming Their "Innovation" To Failure

Dave Chase | Forbes | June 15, 2013

Healthcare organizations are rapidly trying to reinvent themselves in light of the new rules of the game. One could argue it officially started October 1, 2012 with Medicare’s readmission penalties. People are calling this the “no outcome, no income” era. [...] Read More »

Healthcare CIOs Juggle More Mobile Challenges

Neil Versel | Information Week | November 22, 2011

As mobile devices multiply in numbers and grow more sophisticated, healthcare CIOs are facing all kinds of new challenges in distributing information and keeping networks secure. Read More »

Heartbleed-Weary Tech Firms Show OpenSSL A Little Love

Erika Morphy | Linux Insider | May 30, 2014

A new attack vector has been identified, causing renewed distress over the difficulty of coming up with a Heartbleed cure. Coincidentally, the latest threat information comes just as a group of tech companies announced a new effort to shore up OpenSSL security...

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Here's Everything Microsoft Is Letting the Government See

Philip Bump and Rebecca Greenfield | The Atlantic Wire | July 11, 2013

For the first time, The Guardian is detailing how a tech company works with the National Security Agency to share user information under the NSA's PRISM program. Unfortunately, that tech company happens to be Microsoft, the one that makes the operating system used on 92 percent of computers in the world. Read More »

Hillary Clinton Helps Silicon Valley On Her Way Out the Door

Elizabeth Dwoskin | Bloomberg BusinessWeek | February 4, 2013

Taking the podium in the U.S. Department of State’s Ben Franklin Room one last time before stepping down on Feb. 1, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thanked a lot of people, offered reminiscences, and announced a flurry of last-minute programs.[...] One of those new programs, the Alliance for an Affordable Internet, barely got a mention in Clinton’s speech. But it merits attention. Read More »

Homeland Security Open Sources Software to Power Humanitarian Projects

Press Release | U.S. Department of Homeland Security | March 9, 2017

Software originally developed at the at the U. S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) to sequence DNA for biodefense is now being used by Microsoft to sequence mosquito DNA in the fight against disease. Developed by the NBACC’s National Bioforensic Analysis Center Genomics Team for bioforensics applications, Krona is a unique visualization tool that enables users to quickly analyze massive quantities of data – such as more than 100 million sequences of DNA in a single mosquito sample, according to Microsoft...

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How Andy Rubin Kept Android Open-Source at Its Heart

Tom Cheshire | Wired Magazine | November 4, 2011

A year ago at Google HQ in Mountain View, Andy Rubin built a mechanical robot arm. "I put a hammer in its hand and connected it to a big Chinese gong. Whenever Android sells 10,000 units, the gong sounds and you can hear it through the whole building. When I designed it, it sounded three times a day: now it does it every three minutes. I really have to reprogram it..." Read More »

How Big Business Buys The Right To Dodge US Taxes

Jason DeCrow | Quartz | August 26, 2014

...[F]irms like Apple, Google, or General Electric find ways avoid taxes on billions of dollars of global income. It may be bad for US taxpayers but, hey, blame lawmakers for doing such a crappy job; the companies are just following the rules that have been created for them...

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How Bot That!

By Kim Bellard | April 12, 2016

About a year and a half ago I wrote I Hate Apps, expressing my concerns that apps had outlived their usefulness due to how they are cluttering up our devices, and found I wasn't alone in this attitude.  Now Facebook is doing something about it, with their vision that they can use "bots" within their Messenger app to eliminate the need for many standalone apps. Indeed, as David Marcus, the head of messaging at Facebook, told Wired: "Everyone wanted websites when the web was launched. And then everyone wanted apps.  This is the start of a new era"...

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