“With the LinkedIn acquisition, Microsoft snares two prizes: the massive amounts of data contained in LinkedIn’s 433 million member profiles that are kept scrupulously up to date by business professionals and to which competitors have no access and the brainy computer algorithms that crunch that data.” the writeup.
Buying the Facebook of professional networks is perhaps the best illustration yet that the cloud wars are heating up.
Excellent acquisition on multiple fronts. However, I will post the question that will most be definitely on the minds of some folks; “what protections around privacy will MSFT employees and others have with their InMails and communications with recruiters and others who they connect with on LinkedIn?” We have not just MSFT employees, Apple, Google, etc. And, many people have used this site to connect for business and joint ventures, to locate their next opportunity, etc. So, if we look at the larger picture this really must be asked.
This is the email I sent to LinkedIn’s global workforce today. I thought it might be interesting to others, too, so I’ve decided to publish it publicly.
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December 15th, 2008, marked the first day of the best job I’ve ever had. My rationale for joining LinkedIn was simple: The opportunity to work with Reid Hoffman, a founder I greatly admired and respected; to join an extremely talented and dedicated team; and to massively scale LinkedIn’s membership and business, both of which had the potential to fundamentally transform the way the world connects to opportunity. Never in my wildest dreams, could I have imagined what would happen in the next 7½ years. Our team has grown from 338 people to over 10,000, our membership from 32M to over 433M and our revenue from $78M to over $3 billion.
Has anyone ever run the numbers on just how many people hours and $ spent on AI since 1950? Think about it for a minute; and how little we have advance v. the enhancement of people since the 1990 with BMI technology, bionics, etc. and it’s cost. My guess is Mr. Elon Musk understands the ROI extremely well between AI/ Robots v. human enhancement technology especially where there is a larger return and repeat business opportunity.
Computing has been getting much smarter since the idea of artificial intelligent was first thought of 60 years ago. But are computers intelligent?
“What does it mean for a business to get things done? How does it channel the energy and activities of all its knowledge workers as they work?”
Exponential Finance celebrates the incredible opportunity at the intersection of technology and finance. Watch live as hundreds of the world’s leading investors, entrepreneurs and innovators gather in New York to define the future of the way we do business.
In Bitcoin’s early years computer scientists and early adopters were running the show. Now, a new community of academics, entrepreneurs, and economists, are working with cryptocurrencies and blockchain to bring the technology to a new set of diverse applications.
From building peer-to-peer networks for secure data computation and storage to decentralized content management systems that give patients access to health-care records across hospital databases, blockchain and digital currencies are starting to rewrite the rules of the 21st century transaction.
“That thread comes from a company called Parley for the Oceans, and it’s special, spun from plastic waste and old fishing nets retrieved from the coast of Africa.”
Fun video and article with some transhumanism now on the main China Public TV (English).
We’ve heard a lot about Augmented and Virtual Reality. But outside of gaming, is it practical in the workplace? That’s a key focus at this year’s Augmented World Expo in Silicon Valley.
At the Augmented World Expo, it’s goggles, goggles and more goggles.
Companies like Vuforia are out to prove augmented reality is not just fun and games. Their software allows a service technician to more quickly repair almost anything.
“If you’ve ever struggled with something that looks like a diagram, something 3-dimensinal maybe an instruction manual, an automotive manual where you are trying to go through different steps. All of those diagrams come off the paper and can be over your eyes and in your hands using AR,” Jay Wright, president of Vuforia, said.
Very promising. I imagine 3D Printers being able to create synthesize diamonds will be a very profitable business to get in to because of the stabilizing benefits that the nanodiamonds bring to Quantum Computing and nanotechnology in general.
Nanomaterials have the potential to improve many next-generation technologies. They promise to speed up computer chips, increase the resolution of medical imaging devices and make electronics more energy efficient. But imbuing nanomaterials with the right properties can be time consuming and costly. A new, quick and inexpensive method for constructing diamond-based hybrid nanomaterials could soon launch the field forward.
University of Maryland researchers developed a method to build diamond-based hybrid nanoparticles in large quantities from the ground up, thereby circumventing many of the problems with current methods. The technique is described in the June 8, 2016 issue of the journal Nature Communications (“Nanostructures for Coupling Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers to Metal Nanoparticles and Semiconductor Quantum Dots”).
This electron microscope image shows a hybrid nanoparticle consisting of a nanodiamond (roughly 50 nanometers wide) covered in smaller silver nanoparticles that enhance the diamond’s optical properties. (Image: Min Ouyang)
“In an obscure corner of the internet, an anonymous person or persons published a math paper — the “Bitcoin white paper” — that solved a problem that had until then stumped computer scientists: how to create digital money without any trusted parties.”
