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Tux Machines
Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 12, 2023,
updated Apr 12, 2023
> Among the digital giants there has also been an admission of over-hiring during the pandemic, cited as the key reason behind Amazon’s record cull of 27,000 jobs around the world.
> The major technology firms still have room for cuts, they say. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Twitter have collectively chopped around 70,000 staff — but ongoing concerns about profitability and over-hiring means they could slim down more.
> Apple was once the darling of the retail world, but its stance on labor unions is a tough sell.
> One of Virgin Orbit’s outgoing executives has hit out at the firm’s leadership, saying employees “deserved better” after the company declared bankruptcy...
> In a farewell email to employees, Chief Operating Officer Tony Gingiss apologised to workers while criticising the firm’s senior figures for apparently not addressing the workforce at the critical moment.
> The satellite launch company, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, went bust after struggling to secure long-term funding following a failed launch in January.
> It also announced the lay off of roughly 85% of its 750 employees. Among those departing the business was COO Tony Gingiss who, in his goodbye message - acquired by CNBC - told employees they “deserved better than this!"
> The year 2023 began on a heartbreaking note for many techies as a significant number of them lost their jobs due to layoffs by multiple tech giants globally including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft among others. However, it now looks like Google is preparing for another round of layoffs. In one of his latest interviews with the Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Sundar Pichai hinted that more layoffs could follow very soon at the company.
> In his discussion with the Wall Street Journal, Pichai said that the company is 'very, very focused' on their current opportunities and that there is a 'lot of work left'. He also added that the company is now prioritising the most crucial areas and is thereby moving people accordingly. A few months ago, Sundar Pichai said that Google is looking to become more efficient and in his recent interaction, he explained that Google is "literally looking at every aspect". He further added that they are working on re-engineering the cost base in a durable way.
> With a growing number of companies including Facebook, Twitter and McDonald’s announcing recent layoffs – many employees may be curious if their company is next.
> And, a decades-old labor law, called the WARN Act, could give workers a heads-up about impending layoffs.
> "I have companies calling me up asking about WARN, because they’re thinking about laying some people off," Gary Lafayette, an employment and labor attorney with Lafayette & Kumagai, told FOX Television Stations Tuesday. "It’s important for them to know what the rules are."
> Microsoft today released software updates to plug 100 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, including a zero-day vulnerability that is already being used in active attacks. Not to be outdone, Apple has released a set of important updates addressing two zero-day vulnerabilities that are being used to attack iPhones, iPads and Macs.
> Last term, Mitchell input calculus problems his students were solving into the AI bot, then asked the teens to review the answers that emerged.
> "The tool made some great first steps in solving its equations, but after it got a few steps in, it started to do really wild, crazy, wrong things that the students picked up on," he said.
> Though the tool may be good enough to fool people who don't understand calculus, Mitchell said because his students know the subject matter quite well, "it was almost impossible to fool them."
> Do people enjoy the experience? Do they find it useful? Does it cause them physical distress? What are their attitudes to the Metaverse in general? Is this the future?
> The answers were: yes, maybe, not really, mixed to poor, possibly.
> The primary aim was to extract cybersecurity data relating to domain names, create a 3D visualisation of the data, and build a prototype Metaverse environment in which to test an interactive model with real users. A further aim was to solicit participants’ feedback and use this to assess what problems may be faced by organisations moving their workforce into the Metaverse. These aims were successfully met.
> Recorded Future says that Microsoft vulnerabilities were once again the most prominent, accounting for two of the “very critical vulnerabilities” - and 4 of the 5 vulnerabilities identified had risk scores of 99 in the Intelligence Cloud, meaning they had a score of “very critical”.
> American allies may also hesitate before sharing secrets. A vast number of Americans have access to classified information. Around 1.3m of them, including many contractors, like Mr Snowden, have clearance for top secret files. And after the September 11th attacks, which occurred in part because intelligence was not shared quickly and widely enough between agencies, sensitive information was distributed far more widely. The result was a leakier system. Ukrainian generals were already wary of revealing their secrets for this reason. Now they might clam up at a vital moment. “If this kind of thing happened in the UK, or in Israel, or Germany, or Australia,” says Mr Rid, “the US would have stopped sharing [intelligence] completely.”
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