Tag: Is

David Stockman says coronavirus is sparking a financial crisis, warns ‘Wall Street is toast’

Loknath Das

Main Street may be more resilient than Wall Street during the coronavirus crisis. Former Office of Management and Budget director David Stockman warns the pandemic is exposing risky speculation and shaky market fundamentals. “Wall Street is toast,” he told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Thursday. “It’s going to end as a financial crisis because the illusion that central banks always have your back and the economy would keep expanding and growing forever and ever … was complete nonsense.” Stockman, who served under President Ronald Reagan, has been forecasting an epic market…

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Work from home is the bug fix for technology companies operating in India

Loknath Das

Bengaluru/Mumbai/New Delhi: On Tuesday morning, Intel India issued an extensive email advisory to its employees in Bengaluru mentioning travel restrictions, selective home quarantine, guidance to attend large gatherings and even handling packages. Intel’s pandemic leadership team and emergency operations centre teams are monitoring the situation closely, the tech firm said in the email, adding that it has begun screening visitors, delivery people and new contingent workers arriving at all its sites. “Security personnel will now ask visitors, delivery people and new contingent workers about recent travel to areas impacted by Intel’s…

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China theft of technology is biggest law enforcement threat to US, FBI says

Loknath Das

A lamp post outside the White House is adorned with Chinese and US national flags in Washington. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images The FBI on Thursday identified China as the biggest law enforcement threat to the United States, and its director said Beijing was seeking to steal American technology by “any means necessary”. The FBI director, Christopher Wray, told a conference the bureau currently had about 1,000 investigations open into Chinese technology theft across its 56 regional offices. The agency’s counterintelligence chief, John Brown, said the bureau arrested 24 people in 2019 in…

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Why This Is The Era Of Crossroads For Technology

Loknath Das

When digital became the New Normal, a silo that used to be the safe dwelling place of nerds and geeks all over the world suddenly opened up to the mainstream. When I was studying computer science at the beginning of the nineties, most of my non-engineering friends had no interest whatsoever in technology. Now I see them casually talking about the impressive 12 Megapixel camera on their latest Smartphone or their AI-powered lawn mower robot. Technology is no longer the sole domain of the technologist. It is now the intersection…

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Technology is anthropology

Loknath Das

The interesting thing about the technology business is that, most of the time, it’s not the technology that matters. What matters is how people react to it, and what new social norms they form. This is especially true in today’s era, well past the midpoint of the deployment age of smartphones and the internet. People — smart, thoughtful people, with relevant backgrounds and domain knowledge — thought that Airbnb and Uber were doomed to failure, because obviously no one would want to stay in a stranger’s home or ride in a stranger’s…

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Copilot is a subscription personal finance tracker aiming to kill Mint

Loknath Das

When Intuit acquired Mint more than a decade ago, mobile was in a different place — as were tech-enabled financial services. There hasn’t been much progress for the personal finance tracker app category in the meantime. Mint has stumbled along with integration issues and tiresome data misclassifications. For many, the best alternative has been firing up a spreadsheet. Copilot is a new personal finance-tracking app from a former Googler that seems like it could garner a following based on its slick design and ease of use. The subscription iOS app lets…

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U.S. And China Technology Conflict—Here’s Why 2020 Is So Critical

Loknath Das

As we approach 2020, the heated technology conflict between the U.S. and China shows no signs of a thaw. U.S. President Trump’s campaign against leading Chinese technology firms—including but not only Huawei—may have grabbed the headlines, but there is also China banning most leading U.S. consumer content-based technologies, Russia architecting its sovereign internet, political pressure on western tech players over international research collaboration. As we approach 2020, a decade and more of ever-tightening technology globalisation looks very much at risk. A key part of the divide is the so-called splinternet or balkanisation of the…

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Apple is reportedly developing satellite technology to support its devices

Loknath Das

A new report from Bloomberg claims Apple is working on satellite technology to beam data to users’ devices, and could launch a new initiative using the tech within five years. There are a lot of unknowns and caveats, though. The project is “still early and could be abandoned,” says Bloomberg, and it’s not clear what Apple’s end goal is. It’s also not known if the company wants to develop its own satellites or simply utilize others’ satellite data. With the technology in hand, though, the iPhone maker could do a number of useful things. It could…

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How Technology Is Disrupting The Fitness Industry

Loknath Das

Technology today has disrupted every business. It is strategically integrated into every industry and has helped advance it, be it health, education or automobile. Fitness industry is no exception. New technological innovations are regularly changing the way we exercise, which then over time creates a transformation within the health and fitness industry. People today who work out are not satisfied by only knowing their weight, height, waist line etc. They are interested in knowing more about their day to day progress, food macro and calorie consumption, body-fat percentage, sleep quality,…

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Is It Time For Voice Technology To Kill Touchscreens?

Loknath Das

Humans and objects have had a long love affair. Simple tools, as well as sophisticated software are all extensions of our physical bodies. We can trace human progress and wellbeing to the level of sophistication of the tools we have created, and by doing so, the augmentation of our abilities to travel, build, communicate, and create. Since tools are so critical to our existence and prosperity, the way we interface with these tools is also of great importance. So important is the interface between humans and the machines we operate,…

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