Mangoslab, a company spun out from Samsung’s innovation division back in June 2016, showed off its first product today. Nemonic is a $120 thermal printer that prints on sticky notes from your phone. That’s right – everyone’s favorite tool for passive-aggressively leaving notes on a colleague’s computer monitor is now weaponized with all the powers of IoT combined. Ladies and gentlemen, the future of office warfare is here.
Category: News and Views
Volvo wants you to never miss a meeting again. Thanks so much, really | Mashable
The best thing about being out of the office is being unavailable for certain meetings.
Evil geniuses Volvo and Microsoft are about to end all that. The two companies have collaborated on an in-car solution to this office absentee problem: integrating Skype for Business in a Volvo car.
Maybe Volvo should take most of the blame… er… credit since it’s the one integrating existing business communication technology in its 90 Series cars.
Ford Cancels Plans for New $1.6 Billion Mexico Plant | Bloomberg
Ford Motor Co. will scrap plans to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico, after coming under criticism by President-elect Donald Trump for shifting small-car production south of the border.
The next-generation Focus compact car will be built at an existing factory in Hermosillo, Mexico, and Ford will cancel plans to build a plant in San Luis Potosi, Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields said Tuesday. The second-largest U.S. automaker will build two products at a factory in Wayne, Michigan, where it assembles the Focus now, protecting about 3,500 jobs.
China is behind the latest bitcoin craze | Business Insider
Bitcoin had a great 2016. The cryptocurrency rallied 120% to $952, threatening to break the $1,000 mark for the first time. While bitcoin has seen a consistent bid throughout the year, its 57% gain (in US dollar terms) over the past three months has been particularly impressive.
So what’s behind the move?
China.
In his latest edition of “Greed & Fear,” CLSA’s Christopher Wood notes, “Daily turnover in Shanghai-based BTC China, the world’s largest bitcoin exchange by volume, has risen from around Rmb1bn in late September to a peak of Rmb27.8bn on 22 December and Rmb16.4bn on Wednesday (see Figure 11) while the Bitcoin price has risen by 70% over the past three months to Rmb6,927.”
Remembering Carrie Fisher, Princess of Hollywod | WIRED
OF ALL THE dramatic introductions in the Star Wars series, few are as mysterious, or as crucial, as the very first scenes of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in 1977’s A New Hope. Standing amid a fog of smoke, she deposits a mysterious object into R2-D2 before retreating back into the dark, only to emerge later to fearlessly blast a stormtrooper—all moments that set the original trilogy into motion, and which helped make the then-21-year-old actress one of the most recognizable faces in the world.
How to Spot Student Loan Forgiveness Scams | The Simple Dollar
After completing college, you may feel overburdened by your student loan costs, but don’t fall victim to student loan forgiveness scams that offer false promises of easy debt relief.
That’s not to say there’s no such thing as student loan forgiveness — federal loans really can be forgiven under certain conditions. But debt relief companies know that millions more people are struggling to repay student loans and, in response, they’ve set up programs that offer to help reduce your debt — for a fee.
Often they offer services that you could perform yourself at no cost. According to the U.S. Department of Education, such companies solicit business through mail, mobile phone ads, social media, and direct phone calls.
UN Will Take on ‘Killer Robots’ in 2017 | Live Science
Good news, fellow humans: The United Nations has decided to take on killer robots.
At the international Convention on Conventional Weapons in Geneva, 123 participating nations voted to initiate official discussions on the danger of lethal autonomous weapons systems. That’s the emerging designation for so-called “killer robots” — weapons controlled by artificial intelligence that can target and strike without human intervention.
The agreement is the latest development in a growing movement calling for an preemptive ban on weaponized A.I. and deadly autonomous weapons. Last year, a coalition of more than 1,000 scientists and industry leaders, including Elon Musk and representatives of Google and Microsoft, signed an official letter to the United Nations demanding action.
This Is the Future of Retail, According to 1 Silicon Valley Engineer | Inc.com
The retail shop might be beleaguered in this era of convenient online shopping and free returns, but it’s not dead yet. Far from it: just look at the storefronts operated by formerly online-only brands such as Bonobos, Warby Parker, and Rent the Runway.
But e-commerce has definitively changed the way people shop–and according to one Silicon Valley engineer, retailers are failing to adapt.
Most bricks-and-mortar shops are never going to be able to beat the Amazons of the world at supply chain efficiencies, says Vibhu Norby, formerly a lead engineer at the smart thermostat company Nest. So, he concludes, “the future of retail has to do with discovery and customer relations.”
Washington, D.C. Passes 8 Week Paid Parental Leave Bill | Forbes
The new legislation will grant all full- and part-time workers in the city eight weeks of leave at up to 90% of their full weekly wages for birth, adoption or fostering. The bill also provides for six weeks of family leave to look after a sick relative and two weeks for a personal medical emergency.
The law will only cover private-sector workers, excluding those on city or federal payroll. To qualify, a worker need only be employed in D.C.; residents of other cities and states with jobs in the capital are eligible. Non-profit workers and the self-employed are also covered.
CodeFights: Play this coding game, score a job in Silicon Valley | Money Cnn
It took less than three months for an online coding game to transform James Johnston’s life.
Johnston, 31, was designing software for orthodontists and living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when he landed a better-paid software engineering job in Silicon Valley at a major tech startup.
The key to this career upgrade and cross-country move? CodeFights, an online game that offers programmers the chance to improve their skills and get noticed by Silicon Valley titans like Uber and Dropbox.
Johnston told CNNMoney he discovered the game through a Facebook ad in June.
“I was kind of intrigued and thought it was a fun little activity,” he said.
