Wednesday
Aug092017

Google engineer who penned ‘anti-diversity memo’ gets fired, files labor complaint

If you’re paying close attention to the recent tech news, one of the biggest things to come out of Silicon Valley, or Google to be more specific, is this “anti-diversity memo,” as it’s being called, written by a now ex-Google engineer. James Damore, who’s written the manifesto, was just fired by the company on Monday for “perpetuating gender stereotypes” and violating Google’s code of conduct. Damore was arguing in the memo that the biological differences between men and women are the cause of the gender gap at Google and in the tech industry in general. And he puts to question Google’s diversity efforts. Google CEO Sundar Pichai spoke up, or rather wrote down his thoughts in a note to employees saying, "To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK."

On the day Damore was fired, he also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in the US saying that Google’s upper management has been “misrepresenting and shaming” him. “I have a legal right to express my concerns about the terms and conditions of my working environment and to bring up potentially illegal behavior, which is what my document does,” Damore told The New York Times. And he seems to have a case on his hands, at least enough to “get through the courtroom door,” as one lawyer points out to Wired that “Damore's lawyer might argue that his memo was protected under California law, because it related to allegedly unequal treatment of employees.”

Source: The Verge

Wednesday
Aug092017

HBO hackers demand ransom after leaking some internal data online, including personal numbers & addresses of ‘Game of Thrones’ stars

Sky Atlantic

HBO’s headache over its recent security breach is far from over. The hackers who got into HBO’s system have supposedly released 3.4GB of the reported 1.5TB of data it obtained from the company. While it was discovered that upcoming Game of Thrones episodes don’t look like they’ve been taken, things like scripts for upcoming GoT episodes, technical documents with HBO’s internal network and administrator passwords, and unreleased episodes of Room 104 and Ballers have landed into the hands of the hackers.

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Wednesday
Aug092017

Microsoft's Outlook.com in now in public beta

Microsoft has released their new Outlook.com web-based email and scheduling cloud app as a public beta. This is the company's opt-in program that lets users get early access to new features on the web. Think of it as a temporary Insider Preview program for Outlook.com.

“Today we’re launching the Outlook.com beta, an opt-in web experience where you can try out our newest product innovations,” Microsoft explains. “Recent advances in programming, design, and artificial intelligence have enabled our engineers and designers to improve the Outlook.com web experience in several areas, and we’re eager to get your feedback.”

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Wednesday
Aug092017

Disney set to leave Netflix, plans to launch own streaming service in 2019

Looks like Disney wants a piece of the streaming service pie. The company plans to end its distribution deal with Netflix to launch its own service, which they plan to unveil two years from now and it’ll come first to the US and then internationally. It seems like a natural move for Disney with its big library of movies and shows to offer, which they’ve kept mostly close to their chest. The Netflix deal, which was secured back in 2012, only took into effect last year, so this is going to be a big blow to the streaming giant.

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