Regina FIFA eSports competitor warms up for $50K international tournament by crushing CBC reporter

Posted by & filed under eSports.

Every year tens of millions of people play FIFA, the world’s biggest soccer video game.

A 17-year-old from Regina is one of the very best.

Alex Gonzalez-Aldana, who goes by the in-game handle ExraaCA, is in Atlanta this weekend to compete in a 64-person tournament with a $50,000 top prize. A win, or even an impressive performance, could catapult him into a career in eSports as a professional FIFA player.

Source: CBC News

Date: February 22nd, 2019

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/in-your-shoes-fifa-ea-sports-sean-trembath-1.5026917

Discusssion

1) Is eSports a sport?

2) What sort of business could you package around the growth in eSports?

Could hackers ‘brainjack’ your memories in future?

Posted by & filed under Cyber Security, Cyberattack.

Infographic showing the prospects for development of brain implants (PLEASE CHECK THE DIGIHUB EMAIL FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO REVERSION IT)

Imagine being able to scroll through your memories like an Instagram feed, reliving with vivid details your favourite life moments and backing up the dearest ones.

Now imagine a dystopian version of the same future in which hackers hijack these memories and threaten to erase them if you don’t pay a ransom.

It might sound far-fetched, but this scenario could be closer than you think.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: February 22nd, 2019

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47277340

Discussion

1) “A hacker could also threaten to erase or overwrite someone’s memories if money is not paid to them” – if we have technology good enough to alter memories, why is it that we won’t have technology good enough to protect that technology from a cyberattack?

2) Should every business student have a more than rudimentary understanding of steps to take around cybersecurity?

The robot that learned how to skate on ice

Posted by & filed under AI/Artificial Intelligence, Robotics.

Robots can walk, climb, and even open doors. But can they iceskate?

Well, it seems now they can.

Stelian Coros, a professor at the Computational Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich, says the only thing his team did was to tell the robot how one skate behaved on the ice, and that it was free to move in the direction of the blade.

Source: BBC Future

Date: February 14th, 2019

Link with video: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190208-the-robot-that-learned-how-to-skate-on-ice

Discussion

1) What does it say about the development of robots that there is now one that has learned to skate but not been taught to skate?

2) Why is this an important step for robotics (or not)?

The speed of technological innovation has seemingly compressed time.

Posted by & filed under SaaS Software as a Service.

The speed of technological innovation has seemingly compressed time. Peter Coffee, VP of Strategic Research at Salesforce.com, has the job of predicting what’s next in technology, what forces we should be afraid of, what issues we are wasting our time on, and how we should prepare for all of it.

Source: A New Angle

Date: February 12th, 2019

Link to podcast: http://anewanglepodcast.com/2019/02/peter-coffee-sees-the-future/

Discussion

1) Salesforce is a SaaS company. What is SaaS?

2) Why are companies using to SaaS?

A story of digital transformation: Accenture assists Carlsberg in cloud transition

Posted by & filed under Cloud Computing.

A story of digital transformation: Accenture assists Carlsberg in cloud transition image

Jakob From, vice president of transformation, operation and CIO, Western Europe, at Carlsberg said: “We had the opportunity to make a major change because the maintenance contracts for our data centre infrastructure were up for renewal.

“The goal of the project was to create a foundation for our entire IT infrastructure. Carlsberg has existed for 171 years, and we must also be here 171 years more.”

Source: Information Age

Date: February 7th, 2019

Link: https://www.information-age.com/accenture-carlsberg-digital-transformation-123478550/

Discussion

1) What might a “digital transformation” involve for a company that makes beer globally?

2) “Carlsberg’s main driver in their transformation was the transition of their technology infrastructure to public cloud, to help them be digitally enabled.”  Why does a beer maker need to be “digitally enabled”?

Homeowner’s Blood ‘Ran Cold’ as Smart Cameras, Thermostat Hacked

Posted by & filed under Cyber Security.

 

A Lake Barrington homeowner hasn’t had a restful night’s sleep in 10 days, after he said his Nest home security cameras and thermostats were accessed by malicious hackers.

“I couldn’t believe that these devices that I had put up in my home to watch over it, my family, were now being used against me,” said Arjun Sud.

Sud tells NBC 5 Investigates that shortly after he and his wife put their 7-month-old son to bed on Jan. 20, they heard a strange noise coming from inside the nursery.

“Right as I approached the baby’s room, I heard a deep voice talking to him,” Sud said.

Source: NBC news

Date: February 7th, 2019

Link: https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/My-Blood-Ran-Cold-as-Smart-Cameras-Thermostat-Hacked-Homeowner-Says-505113061.html

Discussion

1) What devices do you have in your home that could be hacked in this way?

2) What SHOULD manufacturers be doing to stop this?

Tracking sanctions-busting ships on the high seas

Posted by & filed under AI/Artificial Intelligence.

Oil tankers at sea

For a long time, being out at sea meant being out of sight and out of reach.

And all kinds of shenanigans went on as a result – countries secretly selling oil and other goods to countries they’re not supposed to under international sanctions rules, for example, not to mention piracy and kidnapping.

The problem is that captains can easily switch off the current way of tracking ships, called the Automatic Identification System (AIS), hiding their location.

But now thousands of surveillance satellites have been launched into space, and artificial intelligence (AI) is being applied to the images they take.

There’s no longer anywhere for such ships to hide.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: February 4th, 2019

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47046979

Discussion

1) How might this technology/system be used to improve the type of food we eat?

2) How might this technology/system be used to improve the clothes we wear?

Meet the data guardians taking on the tech giants

Posted by & filed under App Economy, Privacy.

Julian Ranger

Ever since the world wide web went public in 1993, we have traded our personal data in return for free services from the tech giants. Now a growing number of start-ups think it’s about time we took control of our own data and even started making money from it. But do we care enough to bother?

Source: BBC Business

Date: January 31st, 2019

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47027072

Discussion

1) Why is that almost everyone doesn’t “care enough to bother” about their own, personal data?

2) Are free services ever really free?

Huawei: A simple guide to why the company is in so much trouble

Posted by & filed under Cyber Security, Ethical issues.

Huawei

A lot of people are talking about Huawei – and not just because they make really well reviewed, top-end phones.

The Chinese company is in pretty hot water in various places, because certain people believe they are using their tech to spy on people – something the company totally denies.

There’s a court case against Huawei taking place in the US right now.

And other countries all over the world are losing faith in this tech giant due to security fears.

But although it can be quite hard to care about the ins and outs of a technology company on the other side of the planet – you might be worried about your handset or whether to buy a new Huawei.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: January 31st, 2019

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47041341

Discussion

1) Why is the comment that “it can be quite hard to care about the ins and outs of a technology company on the other side of the planet” not correct for anyone doing business today?

2) How might you test whether or not a Huawei phone is spying on you, or not?

Microsoft search engine Bing was blocked in China

Posted by & filed under Censorship, China, Civil Liberties.

Microsoft confirmed Thursday that Bing was unavailable in China, raising concerns that it could be the latest in a growing list of global internet platforms to be shut out of China’s huge market.
Hours later, however, some users were once again able to access the service.
“We can confirm that Bing was inaccessible in China, but service is now restored,” a Microsoft(MSFT) spokesperson told CNN Business on Thursday.
Bing is the last major foreign search engine operating in China after Google (GOOGL) pulled out in 2010. The service interruption suggested that even tech companies that submit to Beijing’s strict internet censorship regime can still run into trouble in the country.
Source: CNN Technology
Date: January 24th, 2019
Link (includes video): https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/23/tech/bing-microsoft-china/index.html
Discussion
1) Should Microsoft operate in a country that subjects its citizens to censorship of information like this?
2) Is it possible for Western, democratic governments to censor information on the internet?