Media Lab’s ‘Data USA’ aims to make government data easy to use
For years, the federal government, states, and some cities have enthusiastically made vast troves of data open to the public. Acres of paper records on demographics, public health, traffic patterns, energy consumption, family incomes and many other topics have been digitized and posted on the Web.
Amid a shift in strategy. IBM reports weak earnings
After IBM reported surprisingly weak quarterly profits and sales Monday morning, Virginia M. Rometty did something most unusual for an IBM chief executive. She joined the conference call with analysts, and forcefully made the case for investing heavily in new fields that promise growth in the future, despite a near-term financial setback.
Report: Transparency in online data collection needed
WASHINGTON — The White House, hoping to move the national conversation on privacy beyond data harvesting by intelligence agencies to the practices of companies like Google and Facebook, released a long-anticipated report on Thursday that recommends requiring private companies to release information they gather from their customers online.
Dennis Ritchie, programming trailblazer, dies at 70
Dennis M. Ritchie, who helped shape the modern digital era by creating software tools that power everything from search engines like Google to smartphones, was found dead Wednesday at his home in Berkeley Heights, N.J. He was 70.
Settlement Between AMD and Intel Will Not End Their Woes
The giant chip maker Intel, facing antitrust challenges around the world, announced Thursday that it would pay $1.25 billion to settle its long-running disputes with its smaller rival, Advanced Micro Devices.
Wall Street’s Math Wizards Are Tweaking Their Formulas
In the aftermath of the great meltdown of 2008, Wall Street’s quants have been cast as the financial engineers of profit-driven innovation run amok. But the real failure, according to finance experts and economists, was in the quants’ mathematical models of risk that suggested the arcane stuff was safe.
Investors See Glimmer of Hope, Send Shares Higher
A few clues that the U.S. economy’s downward spiral might be slowing galvanized Wall Street on Thursday and sent the stock market soaring for the second time this week.
Quiet Layoffs Hit Workers By Thousands
With the economy weakening, chief executives want Wall Street to see them as tough cost-cutters who are not afraid to lay off workers. But plenty of job cuts are not trumpeted in news releases.
Media Companies Donate Space, Time for One Laptop Per Child Ads
After a rocky beginning, the nonprofit group One Laptop Per Child thinks an advertising campaign will give a lift to the organization’s effort to place low-cost laptops in the hands of children in developing nations.
Government’s Taking Stakes In Banks Is Historic Shift
The government’s decision to take ownership stakes in America’s largest banks is a historic step that shifts power in the economy toward Washington and away from Wall Street.
Hello, India? I Need Help in Math
Adrianne Yamaki, a 32-year-old management consultant in New York, travels constantly and logs 80-hour workweeks. So to eke out more time for herself, she routinely farms out the administrative chores of her life — making travel arrangements, hair appointments and restaurant reservations and buying theater tickets — to a personal assistant service, in India.
Microsoft Drops Fight Against Antitrust Regulators in Europe
Microsoft has given up its nine-year fight against antitrust regulators in Europe, saying Monday that it would not challenge a court judgment from last month and would share technical information with rivals on terms the software giant had long resisted.
Antitrust Ruling Against Microsoft May Bode Ill For Other Companies
Europe’s second-highest court delivered a stinging rebuke to Microsoft on Monday, but the impact of the decision upholding an earlier antitrust ruling may extend well beyond the world’s largest software maker to other high-technology companies.