Predictive Analytics: Potential Cure | WIRED

September 24, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

The way we hire and manage employees in America is fundamentally broken. Not only are unemployment rates still high in most cities, but approximately 32 percent of the current unemployed population has been unemployed for seven months or longer. Many people believe these long term unemployed workers no longer fit in today’s workplace, but they are wrong.

To combat this issue the White House just unveiled new legislation for getting America back to work with the recent signing of the Workforce Innovation and Employment Act. Key to this initiative is taking action against the human biases and “skills gap” separating many unemployed workers from the companies that could hire them. As part of the President’s initiative, 300 corporations have pledged to change hiring practices that discriminate against the long term unemployed, enabling qualified individuals to get back to work.

MIT and Marriott – Test A Matchmaking Table | WIRED

September 23, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

“Say you like to jog in the morning and you’re near Central Park, but you don’t want to run alone because you’re in a new city,” says Paul Cahill, SVP of brand management at Marriott Hotels. “How do we curate those experiences and connect people with like interests?”

Cahill’s quandary is a unique one in the hospitality industry. Other popular hotels, like the Ace, or apartments booked through Airbnb, are designed to create organic social connections—the Ace through its leather couch-filled lobbies and the Airbnb through its hosts. But 80 percent of Marriott’s guests are there for business, and don’t have the luxury of fast-friending in the lobby, or pouring over guidebooks to sleuth out the best craft beer bar in the neighborhood.

Cahill took the problem to MIT’s Mobile Experience Lab.

To Avoid Checking Emails On Vacation: Auto-Delete Them | Fast Company

September 23, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

You’re on summer vacation at the beach. What are the chances that you pull out your phone to check your work email? No matter how much we might say we recognize the value of unplugging, most of us aren’t very good at actually doing it. One study found that as many as 83% of employees check email on vacation.

If we can’t stem our email addiction by ourselves, maybe the answer is to make it automatic. At Daimler’s headquarters in Germany, employees have the option to turn on a “Mail on Holiday” function on their email: Every time an email comes in while the employee is away, it’s automatically deleted.

Check It Out.

Move Over, Cookie. Here Comes The Ad ID | adexchanger.com

September 23, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Some of the largest companies on the Internet are working on ad IDs and complex identity-management solutions, both of which aim to serve as alternatives or replacements for the third-party cookie.

This is because the third-party cookie and associated ecosystem are facing major challenges. First, third-party cookies can be deleted by users, are cleared by security software programs on average every seven days and are blocked completely by many browsers and devices.

A Google Site Meant to Protect You Is Helping Hackers Attack You | WIRED

September 2, 2014September 2, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Before companies like Microsoft and Apple release new software, the code is reviewed and tested to ensure it works as planned and to find any bugs.

Hackers and cybercrooks do the same. The last thing you want if you’re a cyberthug is for your banking Trojan to crash a victim’s system and be exposed. More importantly, you don’t want your victim’s antivirus engine to detect the malicious tool.

So how do you maintain your stealth? You submit your code to Google’s VirusTotal site and let it do the testing for you.

It’s long been suspected that hackers and nation-state spies are using Google’s antivirus site to test their tools before unleashing them on victims. Now Brandon Dixon, an independent security researcher, has caught them in the act, tracking several high-profile hacking groups—including, surprisingly, two well-known nation-state teams—as they used VirusTotal to hone their code and develop their tradecraft.

Equipment Finance Advantage | Getting Started with Equipment Leasing and Finance | Washington DC

September 1, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Get Started

Follow these 5 steps to get started using equipment leasing and finance to your strategic advantage. Consult 10 Questions to Ask for more information.

Consider how you will be using the equipment.

Determine how your company will use the equipment you plan to lease or finance, and the length of time you’ll need it. To help decide if leasing or financing is a profitable financing option for you, perform a simple cost/benefit analysis by comparing the anticipated costs to the revenue you expect to generate from using the equipment.

Find an equipment finance partner who understands your business.

It is beneficial to work with an equipment leasing and finance company that understands your particular market. The company’s understanding of market fluctuations and other factors that impact your business can greatly affect the successful outcome and desirability of your lease contract. It is also important for the company to understand your business’s tax and cash flow requirements and be able to set the residual rates the value of leased equipment at the end of the lease term. Your equipment financier can serve as a valued consultant, providing additional benefits through lifecycle asset management solutions. Find a Provider who meets your needs.

Newsflash: Hello Kitty Has Never Been a Cat | The Washington Post

August 29, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ 1 Comment

Despite 40 years of feline imagery, despite the protestation of thousands of anguished fans, despite her very name — Hello Kitty, it turns out, is not a cat.

She is “a friend.”

A “little girl.”

A “perpetual third-grader” living outside of London with her twin sister and parents, eating apple pie and celebrating a Nov. 1 birthday.

But never — never — an actual cat.

Plastic Beats Cash Among Young Adults | Businessweek

August 28, 2014August 28, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

American adults under age 30 hate cash so much that 51 percent of them will use plastic, even for purchases amounting to less than $5. That’s according to a survey released on Wednesday by CreditCards.com.

The older you are, the likelier you are to whip out cash, rather than a debit card or credit card, the study found. Seventy-seven percent of Americans 50 or older prefer cash for purchases of under $5.

Republicans and Democrats are equally likely to use cash for small purchases, and both parties’ followers are more favorably inclined toward cash than political independents. That may have less to do with political inclinations than the fact that independents tend to be younger.

Swedish McDonald’s Promotion Lets Customers Pay for Burgers with Recycled Cans | Adweek

August 28, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

How do you get young people to care about recycling?
Free burgers couldn’t hurt.DDB Stockholm and McDonald’s collaborated on a campaign in Sweden which allows customers to pay for hamburgers, cheeseburgers and even Big Macs with recycled cans. Billboards placed around Stockholm announce the campaign with a roll of plastic bags that can be used to collect cans for recycling. Each bag also explains the custom pricing for the promotion: 10 cans nets you a hamburger or cheeseburger, while 40 will get you a Big Mac. The billboards are mostly centered around parks or summer festival areas, where, as DDB Stockholm puts it, “you’ll find a lot of young people with empty drink cans and empty wallets.”

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