Are you intrigued by the possibility of using nuclear reactors to curb emissions, but worried about their water use and long-term safety? There might be an impending solution. LiveSciencereports that China has outlined plans to build the first 'clean' commercial nuclear reactor using liquid thorium and molten salt.The first prototype reactor should be ready in August, with the first tests due in September. A full-scale commercial reactor should be ready by 2030.The technology should not only be kinder to the environment, but mitigate some political controversy. Conventional uranium reactors produce waste that stays extremely radioactive for up to 10,000 years, requiring lead containers and extensive security. The waste also includes plutonium-239, an isotope crucial to nuclear weapons. They also risk spilling dramatic levels of radiation in the event of a leak, as seen in Chernobyl. They also need large volumes of water, ruling out use in arid climates.Thorium reactors, however, dissolve their key element into fluoride salt that mostly outputs uranium-233 you can recycle through other reactions. Other leftovers in the reaction have a half-life of 'just' 500 years — still not spectacular, but much safer. If there is a leak, the molten salt cools enough that it effectively seals in the thorium and prevents significant leaks. The technology doesn't require water, and can't easily be used to produce nuclear weapons. You can build reactors in the desert, far away from most cities, and without raising concerns that it will add to nuclear weapon stockpiles.China is accordingly building the first commercial reactor in Wuwei, a desert city in the country's Gansu province. Officials also see this as a way to foster China's international expansion — it plans up to 30 in countries participating in the company's "Belt and Road" investment initiative. In theory, China can extend its political influence without contributing to nuclear arms proliferation.That might worry the US and other political rivals that are behind on thorium reactors. The US-based Natrium reactor, for instance, is still in development. Even so, it might go a long way toward fighting climate change and meeting China's goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060. The country is still heavily dependent on coal energy, and there's no guarantee renewable sources will keep up with demand by themselves. Thorium reactors could help China wean itself off coal relatively quickly, especially small-scale reactors that could be built over shorter periods and fill gaps where larger plants would be excessive....

Cloud-native RPA architecture is driving key innovations in the public space while Automation Anywhere takes the RPA world by storm....

Summary List PlacementMyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is unhappy with Fox News over what he saw as its disregard for his upcoming rally, so he plans to buy more ad time on the network, Salon reports. Lindell said the news network hadn't yet covered his "cyber symposium" event, scheduled to start August 10 in South Dakota. "Fox [News] does not talk about anything with the election," he told Salon. Fox News did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Lindell said he planned to respond by buying more ads on Fox News. Those ads would promote his website, FrankSpeech.com, and include information about the event in an attempt to "get the word out," he said. "So I'm going to make ads that will talk about — at least advertising for FrankSpeech.com — that we're going to be televising this [cyber symposium] for 72 hours straight," he said. Lindell has said his symposium would reveal new information about voter fraud in the 2020 election. An ally of former President Donald Trump, he has been a leading voice in spreading conspiracies theories about the election being "stolen." In December 2020, Lindell said "the biggest fraud is the Dominion machines," a reference to machines used to cast votes. He said Dominion's technology switched votes for Trump to votes for Joe Biden. Dominion sued Lindell for $1.3 billion, and Lindell countered with a lawsuit for $1.6 billion. Lindell told Salon: "Fox News has refused to cover election fraud, especially the machines." He added: "Shame on Fox News!" Following the 2020 elections, Lindell's relationship with Fox News soured. He said the network was "unwatchable" after it announced Biden's victory. He championed other conservative networks, like Newsmax. Lindell went after the network on Steve Bannon's podcast "War Room: Pandemic" on Real America's Voice. He told Bannon that MSNBC has way "better coverage" than Fox News. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Where you should go to stay safe during an earthquake...

Social media routinely proves itself a cesspool of racist, bigoted and toxic opinions — and that's just coming from the adults. But for the younger generations that have never lived in an unconnected world, these seemingly unnavigable platforms have proven to be a uniquely potent tool for organizing and empowering themselves to change the real world around them. In Digital for Good, author Richard Culatta walks parents through many of the common pitfalls their kids may face when venturing into the internet wilds and how to best help them navigate these potential problems.Harvard Business ReviewReprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press. Excerpted from Digital For Good: Raising Kids to Thrive in an Online World by Richard Culatta. Copyright 2021 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.Young Voices MatterThe first step for creating engaged digital citizens is making sure we’re teaching young people that their contributions and opinions matter. I think deep down we all believe this and want it to be true. But there are many elements of our society that are set up to communicate the opposite message. Much of school is designed in a way that tells our kids that they are to apply the skills they are learning some day in their hypothetical future, not now. They are taught to learn math because they will need it to get into college. They are taught to write because it will be an important skill when they get a job. In history, the people they learn about are always adults, not kids. They have little choice or control over the learning experience itself; they are handed a schedule, given assignments (that they didn’t have any input in designing), and told to complete by a date that they didn’t choose. The message that young voices don’t matter is reinforced by the fact that they can’t vote until they are eighteen. One of the most important tenets of democracy is the idea that everyone has a voice. We teach that to our children, yet we offer very few ways to actually use that voice before they’re no longer kids. Fortunately, the digital world gives a wide set of tools that can help change that narrative. These tools allow youth to have a voice and learn how to make a meaningful impact on their community, family, and in some cases, the world as a whole—right now, not decades down the road. Just Some Students from FloridaIn February 2018, Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida, was in the news worldwide when nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered the school with a semiautomatic rifle, killing seventeen people and injuring seventeen others. This horrific event became one of the deadliest school shootings in US history. Yet there was a unique ending to this tragic story that set it apart for another reason. In other school shootings, traditional news media and political leaders quickly shape the national conversation around the event. A narrative emerges around what actually happened, with speculation about the causes, who is to blame, and the political responses to justify action (or lack thereof). But in the case of Parkland, it was the students who shaped the national conversation. Frustrated about viewpoints and conclusions from adults that they did not share or agree with, they used their access to social media to reset and redirect the conversation into what has now become one of the most powerful examples of youth engagement ever seen. Within a week of the shooting, the students had appeared on nearly every major news program and had raised more than $3 million in donations to support their cause. Emma Gonzáles, one of the most recognizable faces of the movement, has over 1.5 million Twitter followers—about twice as many as the National Rifle Association. Not long after the shooting, I met Diane Wolk-Rogers, a history teacher at Stoneman High School. As she explained, nobody could have prepared these students for the horror they faced on that day. But they had been prepared to know how to use technology to make their voices heard. Wolk-Rogers says, “They are armed with incredible communication skills and a sense of citizenship that I find so inspiring.” So when it was time to act, they knew the tools of the trade. Engaged digital citizens know how to use technology to identify and propose solutions and promote action around causes that are important to them and their communities. Micro-activism is a term used to describe small-scale efforts that, when combined, can bring about significant change. While young people might not be able to vote or run for office, they have a whole range of micro-activism opportunities—all made possible by their participation in the digital world. For youth who have access to social media, micro-activism can be as simple as using their digital platforms to call awareness to issues that matter to them—eradicating racism, protecting our planet, or funding their school, and so on. Most states have a function on their website to submit ideas or feedback directly to the office of the governor. Through sites like Change.org anyone, regardless of age, can submit suggestions to political leaders or private sector entities. You can also add your name in support of other petitions that are gaining momentum. There are many compelling stories of youth who have used Change.org to call attention to issues that matter to them. Examples include a ten-year-old who used the platform to convince Jamba Juice to switch from Styrofoam cups to a more environmentally friendly alternative. Or a seventh grader who used Change.org to successfully petition the Motion Picture Association to change the rating on a movie about school bullying so students in her junior high would be allowed to see it.Not all acts of micro-activism will immediately result in a desired change. But regardless of the outcome, learning how to impact community issues using digital tools is an important skill to develop in and of itself. The ability to motivate others to act for good in a virtual space will be a significant (if not the significant) determining factor in the effectiveness of future civic leaders. Young people need to practice using tech to make a difference now, if they are going to be prepared to lead our society when they grow up. ...

Summary List PlacementThe Biden administration is canceling two border wall contracts in the Laredo sector of the US-Mexico border that span roughly 31 miles, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Friday. Shortly after taking office in January, President Joe Biden paused border wall construction projects that were initiated by former President Donald Trump, calling for "a review of all resources appropriated or redirected to construct" the barrier. Friday's announcement comes after the Biden administration last month returned to the military more than $2 billion in funding that the Trump administration had diverted for border wall construction. The Biden administration's handling of Trump's border wall projects has unfolded at a slower pace due to funds having been allocated through different government agencies. The contracts for the Laredo projects planned for 31 miles of border wall to be built along the Rio Grande, funded with DHS Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations. However, construction on the projects had not yet started, nor had land acquisition been executed. Read more: Trouble is brewing for a Georgia county's criminal investigation into Donald Trump "DHS continues to review all other paused border barrier projects and is in the process of determining which projects may be necessary to address life, safety, environmental, or other remediation requirements and where to conduct environmental planning," the DHS release said. "The Administration also continues to call on Congress to cancel remaining border wall funding and instead fund smarter border security measures, like border technology and modernization of land ports of entry, that are proven to be more effective at improving safety and security at the border." The Trump administration constructed roughly 450 miles of wall over four years, according to The Associated Press. However, only 52 miles of wall were built in areas where no barrier had previously existed. The border between the US and Mexico stretches across more than 1,900 miles; some sections already had barriers prior to Trump taking office in 2017. DHS is utilizing previously-appropriated funds to assess environmental issues that derived from previous wall construction, as well as reviewing land seizure cases to determine if those acquisitions are still necessary. Biden's 2022 budget proposal allocates $1.2 billion for border infrastructure, including security technology, but does not set aside funding for additional wall construction. GOP Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas last month pledged to continue building a wall at the border, though the legality of the move is being called into question. "Only Congress and the president can fix our broken border," Abbott said at the time. "But in the meantime, Texas is going to do everything possible, including beginning to make arrests, to keep our community safe."Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Sneaky ways stores like H&M, Zara, and Uniqlo get you to spend more money on clothes...

Omega, the official timekeeper of the Games, is now using computer vision and motion sensors for events like swimming, gymnastics, and beach volleyball....

Apple's new MagSafe Battery Pack is now available, and we went hands-on this week for some early impressions of the new accessory to get more battery life out of Apple's iPhone 12 lineup. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. This week also saw a number of rumors about the upcoming redesigned MacBook Pro models, the iPhone 13 lineup, the next-generation iPad mini, a new iPhone SE, and the third-generation AirPods. Read on below and check out our video above for details of these stories and more! Hands-On With Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack Apple recently released a new MagSafe Battery Pack that magnetically attaches to the back of the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max, providing additional hours of battery life on the go. In one of our latest YouTube videos, we went hands on with the MagSafe Battery Pack to see if it's worth its $99 price tag. The MagSafe Battery Pack can be ordered from Apple's online store and is currently estimated for late July delivery, and it is also available for same-day Apple Store pickup at select locations. Redesigned MacBook Pros Expected to Launch Between September and November We've been hearing for a while now that Apple is working on redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with a faster version of the M1 chip, and this week it was reported that the notebooks will be released at some point between September and November. Apple apparently planned to launch the new MacBook Pro models earlier this year, but continued complications with mini-LED display production delayed their launch. iPhone 13 May Feature Apple Watch-Like Always-On Display In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claimed that iPhone 13 models will potentially have an Apple Watch-like always-on display mode where the clock and other status indicators are persistently visible. An always-on display would be the result of iPhone 13 models adopting low-power LTPO display technology, and a higher 120Hz refresh rate is also expected on the Pro models. iPad Mini 6 Rumored to Feature A15 Chip, Smart Connector, and More More details emerged about what we can expect from the next iPad mini this week, including that it will apparently be powered by the same A15 chip as expected for the iPhone 13. The device may also gain a Smart Connector for connecting compatible keyboards. While one recent rumor claimed that the next iPad mini will be equipped with a mini-LED display like on the iPad Pro for higher brightness and improved contrast, display analyst Ross Young says this will not be the case. 2022 iPhone SE Said to Feature A15 Chip, 5G, and 4.7-Inch Display Rumors are ramping up about the next iPhone SE, which is rumored to look similar to the current model but feature some notable improvements, including a faster A15 chip and 5G support. The device is expected to launch during the first half of 2022. The iPhone SE is the cheapest iPhone that Apple sells, starting at $399 with 64GB of storage. AirPods 3 Mass Production Said to Kick Off in August If the latest supply chain indications are accurate, new AirPods could finally be on the horizon, with mass production of the wireless earphones reportedly set to begin in August and a launch potentially coming alongside the iPhone 13 lineup in September. The third-generation ‌AirPods‌ are rumored to adopt a similar design to the current AirPods Pro, with shorter stems and silicone ear tips. However, they would likely lack some of the more advanced AirPods Pro features. MacRumors Newsletter Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view. So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!Tag: Top StoriesThis article, "Top Stories: Hands-On With MagSafe Battery Pack, iPhone 13 Always-On Display?" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums...

Summary List PlacementSoftware developers are critically important to the modern world. Whether they're working on projects with huge impact, thinking outside-the-box on how to solve problems, or getting creative with how they build their careers, there's a reason that they're some of the most sought-after employees today. To highlight some of these amazing makers, Insider sought out nominations from coding foundations, nonprofits, and dev-focused firms, while also leaning on our own knowledge of the developer community. The goal was to track down influential people doing impactful work and shaping the tech industry. We then asked nominees to expand on what's captured in their LinkedIn's by sharing projects they're most proud of or advice to developers who are early in their careers. The result is a varied list of 21 developers, some of whom have spent decades in the software field and others who only recently learned to code. The list highlights people with traditionally revered skillsets as well as those forging new paths that haven't yet gained widespread recognition. Here are 21 developers who are shaking up the software industry:Erin Bond is a former elementary school teacher who now designs AI code curriculums. Erin Bond took an unorthodox path to the software engineering field. A former elementary school teacher, Bond learned to code five years ago through a one-year course at the Ada Developers Academy. Now, as an engineer at Code.org, Bond is passing developer know-how along, designing curriculum and writing code for the computer science education nonprofit. After initially joining the nonprofit as an intern, Bond has gone from revamping the header of the company's website to helping build an AI and machine learning module for its students. "The process of learning and synthesizing so much complex, new-to-me information was daunting, but ultimately really interesting and rewarding," Bond told Insider. Ankur Kumar helped state health agencies build Covid-19 tracking tools. As principal solutions engineer at the communications software firm Twilio, Ankur Kumar helped lead the company's partnerships with public health agencies to build Covid-19 tracking tools. He worked with one state to build an SMS system for sending exposure notifications and helped hospitals across the Pacific Northwest set up systems to text, call, and email people about vaccine appointments. He also build a tool in his home state of West Virginia that made it easy for volunteers to sign up to help connect people with supplies and health information during the early months of the pandemic. "In a few weeks, we had over 75 volunteers," Kumar said, adding that the volunteers helped assist over 100,000 people. "I'm so proud of the thousands of hours everyone put in." Kumar's latest project is an app that helps roommates and families coordinate buying groceries and cooking in order to reduce food waste. "It really doesn't matter what you're building as long as you're passionate about it," he said. Emmanuel Bernard is a Java champion known for his contributions to open source projects. Emmanuel Bernard has spent more than 15 years building open source projects that help other developers. As chief architect at the enterprise software firm Red Hat, Bernard oversees its database tools including Hibernate, which he helped found before Red Hat acquired JBoss, the firm that owned it at the time. He also created Quarkus, a Kubernetes framework. Bernard is also a Java champion, an honor bestowed to developers who have made major contributions to the language. He also hosts two podcasts, in French and English, about open source projects. Lauren Lee McCarthy is an LA-based artist and professor who created an open source JavaScript library for creative coding. Lauren Lee McCarthy is best known for her work in creating p5.js, an open source JavaScript library for creative coding that's accessible and inclusive for artists, designers, educators, and beginners. She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with degrees in both computer science and design and also received a fine arts Masters degree from the University of California, Los Angeles where she now teaches as an an associate professor in design media arts. Her advice to other developers is to not get wrapped up in systems and rules, "Design tools for the world you want to live in," Lee McCarthy said. "Consider the communities you are impacting with your work, and the communities you can build around more inclusive visions of a technological future." Michael Bergin is reshaping how people build homes through code. Michael Bergin is the cofounder and director of architecture at Higharc, a web platform for designing 3D digital models of houses so that builders or homebuyers can explore them before they're physically constructed. It's not his first project that aims to automate home design: Before founding Higharc, Bergin was in charge of a team of researchers focused on the architecture and construction industries at the software firm Autodesk. He's also taught courses in architectural design at the University of California, Berkeley. Bergin's work aims to make the homebuilding process easier by training AI to better understand building design, and his research has focused on deep learning algorithms meant for architectural software. "The majority of homes that are built receive no individual design attention from a professional," Bergin told Insider. "Software provides us with a way to improve the quality of each of these homes built by writing in code the procedures that are used by expert designers and engineers." Bryan Liles is an expert in cloud computing and distributed systems. Bryan Liles has been a principal engineer at VMware since the firm acquired Heptio in 2018, where he was a staff engineer. Liles has a background in cloud and distributed systems, and his current focus at VMware is building 5G, cloud, and edge systems. "I want to be everyone's biggest cheerleader and coach," Liles said. "Nothing makes me happier than seeing others succeed." The code project he's proudest of is doctl, DigitalOcean's official command line interface where developers type and execute code, which he worked on during his three year tenure there. These days, Liles is most excited about his project Octant, an open source Kubernetes web app. "I started this a few years back as a side project and now there is an entire team working on it," Liles said. "It feels good when a company backs your open-source ideas with real money." His advice to early-career developers is simple: "Focus on learning and how to learn: There is more value in understanding a particular space than only knowing about the popular tools in an area," Liles said. "Use your knowledge of an area to guide you in learning new tools and technologies." Jeff Lindsay is a self-taught coder with a history of forging new paths. Jeff Lindsay is a self-taught programmer who got his start as a freelance web developer in September 2000. Since then he has worked at NASA and Twilio as a senior software engineer. Today, Lindsay is self-employed at his own technical consulting business, Progrium, where he enjoys tinkering with open source projects. His most popular project is Dokku, an open source platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that allows developers to configure and deploy an application on a single server. More than 21,600 people have "starred" the project's GitHub repository. His advice for developers who are early in their career is to follow their curiosity. "Steve Jobs talked about connecting the dots, but you need to collect the dots first. The more the better. Working at one place or even one kind of place will always limit that," Lindsay said. "Get some experience freelancing/contracting independently because that's the only way to really own your career. Apparently, it gets scarier the older you get, so start now." Liz Moy uses code to promote social justice. Liz Moy is a developer and writer working at the cloud software firm Twilio, but outside of work she also uses her coding skills to advance social causes she cares about. One of Moy's best-known projects is a book bot, which she built last summer: When people send a text message to the bot, it recommends a book by Black authors in different genres and links to a Black-owned bookstore. "The code was very simple but it became popular and some of the bookstore owners contacted me to let me know that it had brought folks to their stores," Moy told Insider. Now, Moy says she's researching communications options available to incarcerated people and exploring code that could make it more affordable for them to contact individuals and families. Moy recently spoke to a group of incarcerated women in California who were learning to code through a program called The Last Mile. "There's a lot of interesting work being done in this area and it's something I think deserves attention," she said. Michelle Nguyen and Natalie Serrino are building tools that developers have always wanted. Michelle Nguyen and Natalie Serrino have teamed up to try to solve longstanding problems for developers. The developer duo were founding engineers at Pixie Labs, a tool that automatically collects data from software users to help developers more easily find and remove bugs. Pixie raised $9.5 million in venture capital before it was acquired by the observability platform New Relic in December for an undisclosed amount. Nguyen and Serrino now co-lead an engineering team at New Relic, where they continue to build out Pixie's product. Nguyen and Serrino met at Trifacta, a firm that helps businesses clean up datasets, and are still driven to build tools "that we have always needed as developers," Nguyen said. "Working in observability, you have the opportunity to help businesses identify and fix bugs in their system," she added. "That improves the lives of people using software today, which is everyone." Michelle Noorali is known for her work in the Kubernetes ecosystem. Michelle Noorali is a senior software engineer at Microsoft and a technical oversight committee member at the influential Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). In addition to her day job, Noorali currently sits on the Kubernetes steering committee and is passionate about building "modular and robust solutions, friendly developer experiences, and doughnuts." Kris Nóva is a realist about the tech industry who doesn't pull any punches. Kris Nóva is a senior principal software engineer at Twilio, best known for her work on Linux kernel security, Kubernetes, and the Go programming language. Additionally, she is the founder of a non-profit organization that offers resources for transgender people in STEM called The Privilege Escalation Foundation. Nóva's advice to developers is to use the engineering side of your brain on more than just the computers. In other words: "hack your career." Learning psychology, economics, management, and business turned out to be just as important to Nóva's career as mastering Kubernetes and Linux. "Computer science is the easy part. Making it relevant to humans in a profit-driven society is where sh-- gets real," Nóva said. Anjali Pal is pursuing her passion for education and non-profit work at Code.org. Anjali Pal is a software engineer at Code.org, a nonprofit organization that encourages people to learn computer science. Prior to working at Code.org, Pal was a software engineer at Google. Pal is passionate about increasing access and inclusion in computer science education is currently interested in how the design and structure of programming languages can facilitate learning. Pal's advice to developers who are just getting started: "Try to surround yourself with people who you enjoy learning from and who make you feel empowered to grow." Nikhita Raghunath is helping lead wildly popular open source project Kubernetes. Nikhita Raghunath is a staff software engineer at cloud computing firm VMware and a member of the Kubernetes steering committee, with four years of experience on the project. Raghunath is also a technical lead for Kubernetes' Special Interest Group (SIG) Contributor Experience, which helps scale the project, and runs the Google Summer of Code and Outreachy internship programs for Kubernetes. Raghunath told Insider that the Kubernetes community is "very dear to her heart" and she is grateful for the opportunities she's landed and the people she's met because of it. "It still continues to blow my mind on how the code I write ends up getting used across thousands of companies across the world spanning multiple industries including government, automotive, financial services, manufacturing, retail and telecommunications," Raghunath said. Geoff Schmidt is a prolific founder dedicated to making the developer experience better. Geoff Schmidt has a track record of founding companies that make app development easier. In 2011, he founded Meteor, a free JavaScript-based open source platform for app development that raised $53 million before being acquired by Tiny for an undisclosed amount. He's now CEO and cofounder of Apollo, which builds open source development tools. Schmidt has a nontraditional background: He was born and raised on a Mennonite farm in rural Arkansas, becoming the first in his family to leave the farm to attend MIT. He then dropped out of college to found MixApp, an audio fingerprinting company. In addition to working at Apollo, Schmidt now runs Monument, a live-in incubator in San Francisco geared towards students, artists, and techies. "Doing good and being successful is not zero-sum," Schmidt said. "Try to start by understanding what's important to you and finding your sense of purpose. If you can develop the resilience to follow that personal purpose every day, through good times and bad, you may be surprised at what you can achieve both for yourself and for the world." Jerome Hardaway is helping other veterans build their own engineering careers. Jerome Hardaway joined Microsoft as a senior software engineer earlier this year and also works as the executive director of the nonprofit he founded, Vets Who Code. Hardaway, an Air Force veteran himself, came up with the idea for the organization after he struggled to find a job upon leaving the military in 2009. He taught himself database technologies like SQL, as well as other programming languages, and once he had ultimately built a successful career as a developer he realized he could help other vets do the same. So, he launched Vets Who Code to teach veterans frontend development skills, provides mentorship, and more. His advice to early-career developers in general? "Plan and prioritize before you execute," he said. "So often newbies are focusing on just doing, throwing everything at the wall to see what works and that leads to a lot of frustration. Take the time to figure out what you want to be intentional on, then focus on that." Paul Slaughter is deeply involved with the open source community. Paul Slaughter is a senior front-end engineer at code repository firm GitLab and loves to create things, whether software, music, writing, or art. Slaughter is active in various open source communities such as Sourcegraph and Codesandbox, as well as various projects related to JavaScript framework Vue. Additionally, he has a YouTube channel called The Open Source Function where he invites guests to work together to help solve issues for open source projects. At work, Slaughter helps out with tasks ranging from simple color changes to overhauling GitLab's two-factor authentication. Slaughter's advice to early-career developers is to do what you love with a positive attitude. In practice for himself, this means viewing legacy code (older code that is no longer supported) as a fun challenge, encouraging and connecting with coworkers when things are tough, and always looking for new things to learn. "Attitude will greatly affect how you do your work and that makes all the difference," Slaughter said. Srilatha Ranganathan is making fintech data tools more transparent. As a senior manager of data engineering at Capital One, Srilatha Ranganathan has helped oversee a gargantuan task at the bank: Making its data science software Rubicon completely open source. When it was first created in 2017, Rubicon was managed internally by Capital One. But Ranganathan and her team soon found that they were spending too much time addressing issues like access control and data storage. So, she made the case to her bosses that the tool should be open source in order to integrate with other tools like Git and so that users could manage their own data. Rubicon has now been overhauled and is fully open source, setting a new standard for more transparent and widely available data science software. "I'm pleased that our team has the opportunity to give back to the community in a small way," Ranganathan told Insider. Akintunde Sultan is giving young engineers across Africa the tools to code. Akintunde Sultan has dedicated years to organizing resources to help emerging coders get their start in the industry. In 2019, Sultan was inspired by the number of young developers in his native Nigeria who wanted to start careers in programming but couldn't afford laptops. He organized Laptops4Developers, a social media campaign that was originally intended as a one-off fundraiser that raised enough funds to connect 22 young developers with a laptop, mentorship, paid coding courses, and a seat at an incubator that provided internet and electricity. The project quickly gained notoriety though and in 2020 Sultan rebranded it as DevCareer, a nonprofit backed by donations from Jack Dorsey, Angie Jones, Nader Dabit, and other tech leaders. Its second cohort sponsored 50 young developers from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Zambia. The same year, Sultan cofounded TalentQL, a developer vetting and matching service for recruiters. "It was born out of the realisation that Africans have been producing fantastic software engineers that have gone out to build amazing products in FAANG and other Fortune 500 companies all over the world, yet 99% of African developers cannot access opportunities outside of their cities," Sultan told Insider. Sultan avoids ever showing his face in photos posted online, a measure he says is to protect his privacy. "Staying masked helps me focus on what really matters and, in the end, be able to go about my daily routine," he said. Brian Vermeer is a developer advocate at Snyk with nearly two decades of software engineering experience. Brian Vermeer is a developer advocate at open source security platform Snyk, a Java "champion" (meaning other users have deemed him an expert), and a Lieutenant for the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Even though he wears many hats, Vermeer is most proud of his open source contributions over the years, the "evergreen" code he wrote at his first development job that's still used today, and the conference talks he's given that have helped developers gain new skills. With nearly two decades of software engineering experience under his belt, Vermeer's advice to others is to keep learning, spend time out of your work bubble, and never be afraid to ask for advice. "There are always subject matter experts that will know more than you. Just ask them for help or advice and you will see that most people will be happy to help," Vermeer said. "Equally, help other people to your best abilities as well." Rita Zhang is a Microsoft engineer making Kubernetes more secure. As a principal software engineer at Microsoft, Rita Zhang builds upstream features for Kubernetes systems. She co-chairs a group tasked with establishing protocols for Kubernetes security alongside engineers from other firms including Google, VMware, and Red Hat. Zhang is currently working on code to allow Kubernetes to store information secretly, which will provide a new level of security. "Many people may not be aware that Kubernetes by default does not encrypt the secret content stored" there, she told Insider. Before joining Microsoft, Zhang was a software architect at GE and founded Brocel, which has produced smart home devices like an internet-connected garage door monitor....

Motorola might soon release a sequel to its flagship Edge phones — albeit without their signature feature. OnLeaks and Pricebaba have shared what they say are CAD-based renders of the standard Edge 20, and Motorola appears to have dropped the highly curved "endless" display in favor of a 6.7-inch flat screen. It would be just another phone on the outside, even if the 120Hz,1080p panel could make it feel extra-responsive.You'd also get a triple rear camera system that reportedly includes a 108MP primary sensor, a 16MB secondary cam and an 8MP tertiary sensor (likely for telephoto and wide-angle shots). This regular Edge 20 model would be an upper mid-tier device on the inside between a Snapdragon 778G chip, up to 8GB of RAM, a peak 256GB of storage and a 4,000mAh battery.There is a chance the rumored Edge 20 Pro would keep the curved screen, and it might offer improved performance from the Snapdragon 870. An Edge 20 Lite is supposedly in the works as well. If Motorola does use this design for the mainstream Edge 20, though, it signals a change of tack. Rather than relying on an eye-catching (if somewhat impractical) design for the entire Edge line, it would focus on delivering value for the money. It's just a question of whether or not the price will be low enough to draw you away from rivals....

The writer’s new essay collection covers 200 years of women and science, from Mary Shelley to AI. She discusses burning books and the ensuing Twitter storm, the end of her marriage, and why a move into politics could be nextThere’s a disconcerting silence outside Jeanette Winterson’s London pied-a-terre. It’s the morning after the night before, when she travelled across London after dinner with her publisher to scenes of football fans setting the city alight with their cup final fervour. “It was uproar,” she says, “We saw cars on fire.” Her flat is in the East End district of Spitalfields in a Georgian house, which she bought 25 years ago, complete with a little shop that she ran for years as an organic grocer and tea room until the rates got too high, and she let it out to an upmarket chocolatier.It’s as if a scene from Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop has been dropped into a satire about prosperity Britain: the quaint old shopfront is still intact, while outside it a lifesize sculpture of a rowing boat full of people sits surreally in the middle of the street, and a little further along, a herd of large bronze elephants frolics. These public artworks only arrived a few weeks ago, Winterson explains, as part of a grand plan to pedestrianise the area, and make it more buzzy, just at the moment that the sort of well-heeled office workers who bought upmarket chocolates are abandoning it owing to the Covid pandemic. Continue reading......

68% of companies report they have a voice technology strategy, an 18% increase from 2019. 60% of those who don't plan to in the next 5 years....

Summary List PlacementAfter Joshua Barbeau's fiancé passed away, he spoke to her for months. Or, rather, he spoke to a chatbot programmed to sound exactly like her. In a story for the San Francisco Chronicle, Barbeau detailed how Project December, a software that uses artificial intelligence technology to create hyper-realistic chatbots, recreated the experience of speaking with his late fiancé. All he had to do was plug in old messages and give some background information, and suddenly the model could emulate his partner with stunning accuracy. It may sound like a miracle (or a Black Mirror episode), but the AI creators warn that the same technology could be used to fuel mass misinformation campaigns. Project December is powered by GPT-3, an AI model designed by the Elon Musk-backed research group OpenAI. By consuming massive datasets of human-created text (Reddit threads were particularly helpful), GPT-3 can imitate human writing, producing everything from academic papers to letters from former lovers. It's some of the most sophisticated — and dangerous — language-based AI programming to date. When OpenAI released GPT-2, the predecessor to GPT-3, the group wrote that it can potentially be used in "malicious ways." The organization anticipated bad actors using the technology could automate "abusive or faked content on social media," "generate misleading news articles," or "impersonate others online." GPT-2 could be used to "unlock new as-yet-unanticipated capabilities for these actors," the group wrote. OpenAI staggered the release of GPT-2, and still restricts access to the superior GPT-3, in order to "give people time" to learn the "societal implications" of such technology. Misinformation is already rampant on social media, even with GPT-3 not widely available. A new study found that YouTube's algorithm still pushes misinformation, and the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate recently identified 12 people responsible for sharing 65 percent of COVID-19 conspiracy theories on social media. Dubbed the "Disinformation Dozen," they have millions of followers. As AI continues to develop, Oren Etzioni, CEO of the non-profit, bioscience research group, Allen Institute, previously told Insider it will only become harder to tell what's real. "The question 'Is this text or image or video or email authentic?' is going to become increasingly difficult to answer just based on the content alone," he said.Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Why some Coca-Cola bottles have a yellow cap...