James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Wearables can actually predict illnesses, says Stanford study
If there’s one overriding reason people are using wearable devices such as Fitbits and Apple Watches, it’s to track their vital signs during exercise in the hope that they can improve their health. Now there’s evidence that some wearables, at least, have the potential to prevent illness and disease. That’s according to a new Stanford University ...
Apple, Google and Facebook lead, Amazon trails in Greenpeace’s clean energy report
Most major tech companies have been boasting about how green their energy is, hoping to ward off critics that point out how much power their ever-growing network of huge data centers use. But there’s an independent report card, and it shows that not all of them are getting good grades. A report from Greenpeace called “Clicking Clean: Who ...
‘Pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli gets suspended from Twitter
The man who made a name for himself for repelling the vast majority of the world’s media consumers after he significantly raised the price of a HIV drug has been suspended from Twitter. Martin Shkreli, the outwardly smug entrepreneur who raised the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim in 2015 from $13.50 a pill to $750 ...
The man who says he invented email sues owner of tech site that doubted his claim
Indian-born American scientist Shiva Ayyadurai has taken umbrage with the tech media site TechDirt over a series of stories that attempted to debunk Ayyadurai’s claim that he invented email. Ayyadurai is suing TechDirt’s founder, Mike Masnick, for defamation to the tune of $15 million. One of Ayyadurai’s websites, theinventorofemail.com, explains how, at the age of ...
Privacy advocate foils facial recognition technology with patterned clothing
A Berlin-based artist and privacy advocate, Adam Harvey, is fighting back against what he considers intrusive and oppressive facial recognition technology. Harvey, who melds art with his contention that data collection on the individual is at extreme levels, has come up with a novel way of making sure that facial recognition software can’t ascertain who ...
Study reveals women will be hurt most by the rise of automation
Women stand to fare far worse than men in the transition to an automated future, according to a new World Economic Forum report. The report stands in stark contrast to recent proclamations by government and industry that automation will be a net positive for most people. The White House recently issued a report on automation telling us ...
French workers now have the ‘right to disconnect’ outside work hours
France’s labor ministry wants to deal with stress, fatigue and relationship troubles by cutting down on work-related email time, so it has ruled that employees can now disconnect when outside work hours. More important, employers must accept that by law. As of Jan. 1, the French government said, all workers in the country have the “right to disconnect,” ...
Internet ‘super-villain’ Milo Yiannopoulos lands $250,000 book deal
British journalist Milo Yiannopoulos, the self-confessed Internet super-villain and outspoken critic of what he considers social justice warriors, has just landed a book deal reportedly worth $250,000. Yiannopoulos rose to fame – some would say infamy – as a tech journalist, notably for his views on the Gamergate controversy and later airing what some critics have considered ...
Facebook acquires eye-tracking startup The Eye Tribe
Facebook Inc. Wednesday acquired the Copenhagen-based eye-tracking startup The Eye Tribe ApS for its virtual reality headset, Oculus Rift, for an undisclosed amount. The 16-person company, informally started at the IT University of Copenhagen in 2007, was officially launched in 2011 with a view to bringing affordable eye-tracking technology to consumer products. It did so with its latest ...
Predictions 2017: Fake news persists, Silicon Valley gets spiritual as it kills jobs
As if 2016 weren’t volatile enough for the technology industry, the coming year is likely to be even more interesting, thanks to everything from a very unpredictable new U.S. president to a confluence of trends ranging from artificial intelligence to virtual reality to the continued rise of the cloud. This is the latest in a series ...